Love Balm - Matt Sturniolo

3rd Floor

Ella
The first time I saw him, I did a double take. Not an obvious one, but my eyes stuttered. He was sitting in the university library, he and his boys, by a large bay window on the 3rd floor, the sun streaming in, casting him in a glow that drew your eyes right to him. Lounging in sofa chairs, legs slung over armrests, backpacks strewn at their feet, he and 3 other boys joked and laughed, a few on their phones. He was one of them, wearing a black hoodie, baggy jeans and white sneakers. Effortlessly hot. He laughed at something one of the guys said, his phone in one hand, and with the other, he pushed back a mop of brown hair. It immediately fell back down into his eyes, but he hardly seemed to notice. Something about his careless hair push drew me in. I immediately felt electricity zip down my spine and I knew then I was fucked.
My second take was for two of the guys he was sitting with, nearly identical to him. One was speaking with animation, all this life in his words and spark in his voice. The other was laughing and joining in, and for a moment I wondered who was the best looking. They all seemed similar in height, faces were clearly alike, but with enough differences to tell them apart. Again, I looked at the one listening. As he pushed his hair back again on a chuckle, the sunlight shone in his eyes, and all I could see as he laughed with a wide smile was a swash of light blue, and I felt stunned. Definitely the best looking one.
Normally I'd never approach a guy I thought was beautiful, and this was no exception. Unfortunately, the 4th member of their group was my partner for a French assignment, who I hadn't seen in weeks. I didn't have his number or anything, and we had an assignment due in 4 days. We'd had class that morning and he was missing again, so after a split second's deliberation, I decided I had no choice but to go over there.
As I approached them, the animated guy noticed me first and his face flattened as I distracted him from his story, while I pointedly ignored the prettiest one. My partner sat on the chair closest to the window, while the one jacking my heart rate up sat closest to me.
"Hey Mark," I opened with, looking at my partner. "Hey guys," I greeted the others, finally glancing down at the one I was drawn to. He looked up from his phone, not having noticed me approach, and our eyes met. He had a slight beard, and it shaped his face into sharp angles. He looked at me for only a moment, but it was like he looked right through me, and then turned back to his phone. I tried to ignore the slight sting of rejection. They all said hi back, in varying degrees of enthusiasm.
"Oh hey Ella," Mark said warmly. It had literally been a fucking age since I laid eyes on this kid, I forgot he had such a nice personality. After passing a few polite greetings back and forth, I finally got to my point.
"I haven't seen you in class in so long and we have that assignment due on Friday, we really need to do that," I urged. His face fell as he realized.
"Ohhh shit, I totally forgot about that," he replied. I went to put my heavy bag down, but I didn't realize how close I was to the guy who'd drawn my attention, and my bag hit his knee on the way down.
"Oh I'm sorry," I said quickly. Barely looking up from his phone, he mumbled something like, "it's cool" and immediately started collecting his stuff. I was about to resume my conversation when he stood abruptly, and I was momentarily stunned. He completely towered over me. Still ignoring me, he smiled at his friends. "Alright guys, I got class," he said by way of exit, slinging his bag over his shoulder. "You still down to meet later, Nick?" he asked the more animated brother.
"Uhh, Chris you're still going to hockey tonight right?" Nick asked the third brother. Chris nodded and said, "yup" while distractedly looking at his phone.
"We'll start without him," Nick replied, "just come home when class is done, Matt, and we'll get some work done." As I awkwardly waited for their exchange to end, I glanced back up one more time. Matt's eyes still never met mine, and I looked away in embarrassment. Unfortunately, my gaze landed on Chris next, who seemed to have just looked up from his phone and was studying the moment I'd just had, fawning over his brother. When our eyes met, it felt like he knew what I was thinking. He looked curious, then as if he'd noticed nothing, he looked back to his brother. "Later Matt, love youu," he said with a wide smile, to which Matt said it back, walking out of the library, and my heart skipped a beat. Hmm, nice name, Matt.