The Walls Between Us

Chapter 2

THEO BARNES

I get on the bus and trade remarks with Andrew, the bus driver. Making my way to the back of the bus, I get a quick glance at my crush and can't help but smile even bigger. The perfect curl of their coffee-colored hair paired flawlessly with their big, chestnut eyes basically begs you to get butterflies. The only problem is that I've never actually talked to them. They're always by themselves in class and at lunch, so I would think I can easily get some form of a conversation in with them. Yet people are always surrounding me and I don't want to overwhelm my crush so I just let them be. And considering I've had this crush since freshman year and it's now senior year, approaching them would end up being awkward.

Slightly defeated by the whole one-sided crush thing, I say hello to everyone and take my seat next to Natalie, my friend from middle school.

She immediately starts talking to me about some drama with her grades while twirling her brown locks, but I'm only half paying attention, my mind somewhere far away.

"Did you hear me?" Natalie all but shouts in my ear.

I flinch. "Jesus Christ Natalie, no need to shout."

"Well I was just thinking with the bus being so loud tha-"

"Yes, I heard what you said," I interrupt. "Something about how your grades are going down because the professor definitely hates you and wants you to fail."

While I wasn't actually paying attention, I've known Natalie long enough to know the kind of things she would say. She looks slightly taken back, but brushes it off and dives right back into her story. Thankfully we get to school pretty fast, but right when the doors open, my crush disappears. I think about going after them, but I don't want to accidentally knock someone over in my attempt. Sighing, I accept my fate. An unrequited love that will never come to light solely because I'm never given the chance to try.

I look over to see Natalie staring at me with her big blue eyes, but before I'm able to say anything she blurts,"What's wrong? You've been staring off a lot these days. You have a crush or something?" Even though I know she's just joking, I take too long to say anything at all and her eyes get wider than I feel they should be able to. "Do you actually? Who are they? This is literally the biggest thing that has happened to you like ever."

I don't really feel like telling her, and considering I've hidden it since freshman year, I'm more surprised she's only noticing now. Instead of answering, I just shrug my shoulders and follow the person in front of me off the bus.

"Thanks," I say to Andrew as I leave. He nods in response.

I can see the frown deepen on Natalie's face and know she's deep in thought. This will come back to haunt me, I think. Natalie might not be the smartest, but when she wants to know something, she will do anything to figure it out.

Thankfully she doesn't say anything else to me on our short walk from the bus to school. Waving goodbye, I head to my locker decorated with random stickers and phone numbers, and then to my first class. Once I get there I look around and spot my crush in the back, staring outside the window. I hype myself up before making my way to sit in the seat next to them, only to be ushered to the other side of the room by the same girls who probably defiled my locker. They start talking to me in a weird, high pitched voice that kind of freaks me out. While they invade my personal space and giggle at anything I say, I believe it's better to not say anything at all to them. Instead, I put my mind elsewhere and imagine in vivid detail my crush sitting in the back, staring out the window with headphones on, the breeze brushing back their bangs to reveal their eyes.

The bell rings and I almost jump. All the girls who were talking to me scurry to their seats, sandwiching me between two of them. I switch my mind into school mode and look up to the front where the lesson has begun.

Today's the day, I think, the day I will finally talk to him.