Swish

CHAPTER 4

Monday; the most dreaded day of the week. It has been 2 days since Valerie and Miguel last interacted. Things have been awkward ever since what happened at McDonald's and she never replied or even read his texts.

Lying on his bed, Miguel can't stop thinking about last Saturday when Valerie suddenly kissed him. He places his finger on his lips, remembering the very moment when their lips touched.

His thoughts get interrupted when he gets a text from Sam. 

Sam: Good morning!

Miguel: Morning

Sam: Are you heading to school?

Miguel: Not yet, still gonna get ready

Sam: Oh okay, I'm almost there actually. See ya!

Miguel double taps the message, reacting to it with a heart. He sighs, looking at his unread messages to Valerie. 

TIMESKIP >>>

Miguel arrives at school and he sees Sam standing by the gate. She immediately waves at him as soon as he gets spotted.

"Wanna hang out before class starts?" Sam suggests. "Sure," Miguel plainly replies. 

For the next 20 minutes, he walks around the campus with her. To the typical outsider looking in, it would seem like they're having a pleasant conversation but in reality, Miguel wasn't quite present.

Sam is basically carrying the conversation and he just usually responds by agreeing with her or with the occasional 'mhm.' His mind was really elsewhere, focused on what happened with Val and how she hasn't been responding.

RING

The bell rings, indicating it was time for class. Sam and Miguel wave at each other before heading to their respective homerooms.

A few rooms away sits Valerie, totally spaced out and not paying attention to the lesson being taught. 

Flashback

At the park

Sam had asked to talk to Valerie privately and picked her up from her place in her black BMW car. 

Once they get to the park, Sam immediately opens up to her. "I like Miguel," she says bluntly. 

Valerie chuckles, "Yeah it's kinda obvious." Sam pouts, "But I don't think it is to him! He seems like the dense type." 

Valerie just laughs, "Yeah he is." She starts recalling back to the time when they were still dating but she immediately snaps out of it when Sam utters, "Can you please stay away from him?" 

Valerie's brows furrow, "What?" Sam purses her lips before speaking, "I don't know. Are you guys like a thing or whatever?" 

Valerie laughs loudly, finding that remark hilarious. "No, no. You have nothing to worry about. He and I are just friends." 

Sam sighs in relief, "Okay that's great. Now that I got that out of the way, James seems to be interested in you," she points out and teases the girl beside her.

Valerie forces a smile. Hearing a familiar voice, she turns back and sees Miguel by the basketball court. "Miguel?" Sam calls out.

End of flashback

Valerie brings out her phone, which had been off for 2 days and finds a ton of messages from her best friend. "Oh, shit. I forgot to check my phone." She thinks to herself.

"Has he been messaging me for two days straight?" Valerie looks at the messages and her suspicions have been confirmed.

RING

As soon as the bell rings, she immediately heads to Miguel's room to get a chance to talk but she sees him with Sam. 

Remembering their conversation at the park, Valerie decides to head to her locker and get the stuff she needs for the next subject.

Miguel notices Valerie in the hallway but he gets distracted when Sam approaches him. He looks back at where Val was, she was no longer there.

"Wanna grab lunch together later?" Sam asks. "I'll be eating with Val later I guess," he replies, unsure. 

Sam purses her lips, trying not to roll her eyes, "Well can I come with you guys?" Miguel gives her a small smile, "Maybe next time, Sam." 

TIMESKIP >>>

It's lunch time and Miguel starts calling Valerie's phone. She answers immediately, "Hello?" 

Miguel's mood lightens up, "Let's meet up at our usual spot, okay," Valerie nonchalantly replies, "Okay."

The two head over to their usual spot where there aren't many people around. 

Miguel sits on the ground under the tree behind the school before Valerie sits next to him by a few inches.

"So ugh, did you bring lunch?" Miguel asks her while he pulls out his lunch box from his gym bag. 

Valerie gives him a small, almost apologetic smile and holds his hand, "I'm sorry for not answering your messages. My phone was off the whole weekend."

Miguel smiles softly and pats her head with his other hand and chuckles."Don’t worry, I already forgave you for that." He jokingly says to lighten up the mood.

She chuckles, feeling a lot better from his response. She felt her heart skip a beat when she realizes their hands are still clasped together. 

As if time had slowed down and they were the only people there, she could hear her breathing as she looked into his eyes then down at his lips. She gulps, trying not to give in to temptation.

Miguel, still fixated on her eyes slowly moving down to her lips, He felt the urge to kiss her like before but he's holding back, but couldn’t and slowly his face moved closer towards hers inch by inch until it was just almost touching. 

With the distance closing between them, Valerie found herself giving in and slowly closing her eyes, slowly moving closer to Miguel's lips as if there was a mage.

But on cue, Miguel's stomach growling from being hungry and the two stopped and was at a distance again.

Valerie laughs, "You really should eat bruh." 

Miguel laughs also but in his mind, he is cursing his stomach for that unexpected timing."Yeah, I didn't eat breakfast so maybe that's why I'm hungry."

Valerie shakes her head while laughing at the boy beside her, "Then eat, you dumb ass."

"I was before I got distracted by your beautiful eyes so I didn't get to eat my lunch." Miguel chuckles and winks at her.

She rolls her eyes and playfully hits his arm, "Just eat already. No need to act cute."

Miguel nods and opens his lunch box. "I'll eat it if we share it. How about that?"

Valerie peeks at the food in the lunch box and sees some egg rolls and chicken wrap with bacon on the outside. "I'm good, I wanted to eat something else but we got rudely interrupted," she jokingly says.

As Miguel starts eating his food, Valerie's expression turns serious, "You have something on your mouth." He puts his food down and points somewhere near his mouth, "Here?"

"No, just let me." Valerie leans closer and gets the piece of bacon from the side of his mouth then eats it. 

Miguel just stares at her before chuckling nervously. Valerie smirks at him then proceeds to lick her lips while maintaining eye contact, "Mmm, that was delicious."

Miguel gulps at the sudden teasing Valerie has been showing, not knowing what to do. He just simply stares, while he turns red slowly.

The short-haired girl stands up and dusts herself off. "I'll head to class early. Gotta review for an assessment." She pats his head, feeling his soft fluffy hair before leaving.

The tan skin boy, still shocked and processing it inside his mind didn't move an inch for a few minutes before continuing to eat by himself, while being bright red.