Forbidden

Him

    I sat there hiding my phone from the teacher, while the other students finished their tests. Fifth period feels like the longest period of the day. Our teacher, Ms. Weston teaches in such an odd way that she's hard to keep up with, but I do. I always have my grades at an A-  or above. Although there is one class that I struggle to keep there. Algebra. Algebra is my worst subject, yet it's my favorite class. Full of variables, numbers, and un-legible scribbles marked on every paper I own. But that's not the reason I love it, I love it because of him. He's a tall, dark eyed, brown haired, being of extraordinary personality. No one understands what I feel when I look at him. How could they? If they knew, they would call me crazy. I sat in class, thinking of him until the lunch bell rang and rushed down to the cafeteria as soon as it did. "Eleanor! Come here!" My friend Abby called for me from down the hallway. It was time for lunch, and we always sat together. 

"I'm coming, chill!" I yelled to her, frantically pushing through the crowded hallways. 

    "Hey girl, how's your day been?" she asked enthusiastically. We sat down at the lunch table at the far end of the cafeteria, sitting away from everyone but our friends Neveah, Simon, Samantha, Vincent, and Spencer.

    "It's been okay, I guess." I was looking off in the other direction. "I uh.."

    I stopped in the middle of my sentence, my eyes drifted over to the doors of the cafeteria, watching him walk through the door. 

    "Ellie? Are you ok? What are you looking at?" she followed my eyes to the direction I was looking, across the cafeteria. "Mr. Reynolds, huh? Can't imagine why you're looking at him." I didn’t know what to say in return, I mean I wasn't just going to tell everyone else at my table that I had the hots for Mr. Reynolds, only three people knew.  I wondered what they would all think of me if I did tell them what I thought of him. After a short second of admiring Mr. Reynolds, I snapped out of my dream world, and turned back to Abby, "No. Yeah. Um.. uh, Mr. Reynolds has changed his shirt since fourth hour.” I said. “And his new shirt looks ratchet." Everyone at the table started giggling, I faked a small laugh too. Abby and Nevaeh gave me the look, knowing that wasn't why I was actually looking at him. I particularly liked his shirts. He was nerdy. He wore a lot of flannels, and when he didn't wear those, it was school staff t-shirts, or random sweat shirts with small decals on them.

    "For real," Nevaeh laughed, still giving me the knowing look. "Mr. Reynolds looks like a college kid with that outfit on!" 

    "Yeah! I mean who would… uh.. who," Vincent stopped in the middle of his sentence, he never had been able to finish a good come-back. Vincent was that friend in the group who wasn't too bright, always acting out, and getting in trouble for stupid reasons. 

    "He uh.. um." his face turned a bright red. 

    "That's what I thought Vince, are you ever going to come up with a good come-back?" Simon found it funny that Vince could never finish his come-backs. Him and Vince had known eachother since kindergarten. Us three and Abby started our friend group in 4th  grade when we had to do a science project together in Mrs. Benson's class. The other girls and Spencer joined shortly after in 6th grade. 

    "Like I said, Vince, It's funny looking." giggled Nevaeh. 

    Nevaeh's the beauty guru of the group, with light brown, smooth skin and the curliest black hair. Everyone wanted to be like Nevaeh and follow her trends all the time. She tended to have a nice smokey eye, or a pale blue cut crease shadowed on her eyes, with winged eyeliner and false lashes. 

    "I think his shirt looks nice," Samantha replied to her. "It's a pretty color at least." 

    "Sam, you're too nice! Try being mean sometimes, get out of your safe zone!" Simon half shouted and laughed at her.