the girl in the back

~ Chapter 3 ~

I was minding my own business in the school cafeteria, sitting with my friends and chatting. Alissa was telling us about the new choir she's in and we listened carefully.

She was just in the middle of her sentence when suddenly there was a loud crashing sound surrounding the walls of the cafeteria. We quickly turned around to see what caused the loud thud.

It was her. She tripped on someone's leg. Suddenly, almost everyone in the cafeteria started laughing at her. I think the only ones that weren't laughing were me and my friends.

I ran over to help her up with no hesitation at all. This must have been an embarrassing moment for her, someone has to give her moral support about it.

I asked her if she was okay and she was fast to reply with " I'm fine ". I lended her my hand and she picked it. I helped her get up and softly let her hand go after doing so. She looked around the cafeteria to see the students staring at her. She looked back at me and said:
" Thank you. "

I replied with a soft smile and turned around to walk back to my seat. As I was slowly walking, I felt someone grabbing my wrist.

I quickly turned around to see her again.

I looked over at her with a confused look on my face. I softly whispered:
" What's up? "

She wandered her eyes around the cafeteria once again, then looked behind her back as she turned her face back to me and said:
" Can I ask you something? "

I was quite surprised, yet excited. I nodded my head as a reply.
She hesitantly and slowly asked me:
" Do you.. maybe, wanna be friends? "

I quickly replied with, " Of course! I mean, why not? ". I gazed at her in awe while giving her a small smile in hope for another smile.

She smiled and awkwardly said
" Thanks. ". Though, I wasn't in need for any more awkwardness between us. I excitedly asked her if she wants to sit with us.

She hesitated at first. She looked.. afraid to sit with lots of people at the same time. Somehow, I convinced her that it's alright and there's no need to be afraid. She sat with us through the whole break, and I could see in her eyes that she had fun. She was actually giggling at our jokes. That made me feel so relieved.

As we jumped from class to class, she would sometimes tap me on my shoulder and ask me things during class. When she didn't understand a question, she would ask me and I would do my best to explain it to her. Or sometimes she would write me some small notes during class, venting about the book she's reading. Apparently, there are really frustrating parts of her book where the main character does really foolish and unexpected stuff. From what I've seen, she seemed to put herself in the shoes of the main character of the book. So she gets frustrated when something bad happens and feels more comfortable talking to me about it. Of course, I am trying to do my best to comfort her.

Though everything between me and her is going great at the moment, there's something bothering me. A boy in our class. Now that the girl is interacting more with me and my friends now, there's a boy in our class that apparently likes her and always tries to compliment her.

He just randomly comes over to us while we're speaking and says random stuff to her. He makes me so annoyed. It seems that she isn't fond of this too. And she is making it quite obvious that she doesn't want to speak to him. Though whatever we do, he won't stop disturbing her.

I don't know what to do. I mean.. I don't know if I totally like her, but I know that she makes me feel better. She makes me feel like I'm home. She makes me feel.. special. Though I don't know how to explain. A lot of my friends make me feel special too, but her.. She just affects me differently.

Like special, special.

And I know that I need to get rid of that foolish boy. I need to protect her from him. I can't risk losing her friendship.

I still don't know what I'm gonna do yet, but I'm gonna try something.

- i'm sorry if this chapter is a bit too short, but that's all i had for now. i wanted to build some excitement :)