Him and Her?

Untitled Part 2

Alex was holding my hand. We were at the party, he had just asked me to dance and my head was resting on his shoulder. He was tall, taller then me at least. It was a nice change, I was tall and there weren't many boys that were taller then me. Suddenly he looks up, cupping my face in his hand to meet my eyes.

"Jan@@" he said. My name rolled off his tounge so smoothly, his voice was like silk.

"Jan" he said again. His eyes were so nice. A startling blue contrast to his dark hair.

"Jan" he said once more. The moment was perfect.

"Jan!" I shot up, waking with a start as Mr.Fineman, my eleventh grade math teacher called my name. Around the room people were snickering at me bhind cupped hands. I silently scolded myself, this was the third time that I had fallen asleep in class this quarter. "I'm sorry," he said sarcastically, "am I boring you with my teaching?"

"No!" I shouted, more snickers across the room. "No sir" I said regaining my composure. I looked around the room for a lifeine in my peers. I looked over to Sarah, my best friend sitting on the other side of the romm. She caught my eye momentarily and elbowed the nearest person to her that was laughing. He yelped and doubled over. At the front of the room, Oh crap. FRome the front of the room Alex was staring at me curiously.

"So then you were paying attention to the lesson?" he asked. I wasn't.

"Of course" I said, looking back over to Sarah.

"Really?" he drew out the wor suspiciously. I nodded. A new round of snickers throughout the room. Alexwas laughing too. Fabulous. "If you were paying sooo much attention," he drawls, I prepare myself for what comes next, "then would you care to tell the class the answer to the question on the bord?" I take a quick glance at the equation on the bord and give him the answer without doing any work. The smug smile vanishes from his face as he realizes that I'm right. Hey, it's not like I couldn't afford to fall asleep in math. I could, literally it seems, do the work in my sleep. Sarah laughs and even Alex's lips quirk into a small smirk.

Twenty minutes later the bell rings and I bolt out of the classroom before anyone has the chance to shove me or call me out on falling asleep in class. Sarah stays in the room to ask a question about the homework but I don't bother waiting for her as I run out of the room. I'm not fast enough though and people get there before me and I trip over somebody's foot in the hallway. My books and paper go scattering on the floor and I watch as people already begin stepping on them.

I frantically try to get up and collect my things. Somebody drops to the floor to help me, grabbing half of the papers and handing them to me. "Thanks" I mutter.

"No problem!" the person helping me says cheerfully. I recognize the voice, and highly disagree. My head snaps up only to see Alex in all of his perfection, smirking at me. He stands up and offers me his hand to help me get up. For a second I can't process anything but then recover only to realize that I've been staring. Embarassed, I shove the rest of my papers into my binder not caring if they get winkled anymore.

I take his hand ad let him pull me up. A blush is spreading on my face and I look down so he doesn't notice.

"Your name's Jan right? I saw what happened in there" he motions to the math room, "it's pretty cool that you don't even have to pay attention to know the answer. I wish I could be like that." he says still smiling. He had a great smile. Real, not faked in any way. It takes me a minute to find my voice.

"Um, yeah" I say, "well, actually it's Dani. But um yeah, everyone just calls me, Jan" I stutter out the simple words and when they're finally out I scold myself on how stupid I sound. "And thanks. I guess, I've just always been good at math." It occurs to me that for all of the times I've thought about hm, I've never actually spoken to him. I can feel the heat rushing into my face and I look down at my shoes. Thankfully he doesn't call me out on it like most boys would.

"That's cool.And both names are nice" he says easily, "Which do you like to be called?" I look at him. He's smiling, not obnoxiously or to make fun of me, but, almost, shyly. No, I tell myself. Alex Keithing is captain of the football team. Alex Keithing is the most popular boy in our school. Alex Keithing does not get nervous around loosers like me.

"Whichever" I say. That's not true, if I didn't despise my first name then I wouldn't be asked to go by my last. "Whichever you want to call me." I said nervously. I was flirting. He picked up on it. He picked up on me flirting with him. Now's the part where he makes anexcuse to leave..

"Actually," here it comes, "Dani is a really nice name. If you want to, maybe, we could hang out sometime." he looks down at the ground and smiles, looks back up at me, "Dani?" Did he just ask me out? No. No, most certainly not, Alex Keithing the golden boy of West High would NOT be interested in me. Not people like me. It's just to hang out. He wouldn't be interested in me THAT way. Of course not.

"Uh, sure" I blurt out like an idiot.

"Cool. So, um, i'll call you." he says, and writes his number for me on a sip of paper to give to me, I do the same for him. The crowd in the hallway has almost entirely cleared out by now. He takes the paper and I take his.

"Alright," he says, "well it was nice meeting you. Daniel," he smiles shyly at me,"I'll call you later."

"Okay" I say. He's smiling right now, a goofy smile that goes all the way to his eyes as he turns to slip into a classroom. Not looking where he was going he bangs into the garbage can in the room, almost knocking it down. I laugh as I stand watching him from the hallway, still in front of the math room. The bell rings but I don't care. He WAS asking me out. I can't stop smiling.

Just then Sarah walks out of the classroom with a green late pass to our next class. When she sees me smiling she becomes suspicious. "What are you smiling about?" she teases. I look into the clasroom that Alex just ran into and this only makes me smile wider.

I turn to her "Oh, nothing" I say. And with that, we make our way to our next class.