Scared of Falling in Love

Lovely, Unexpected Company

"Giselle? Hello? Earth to Giselle. Are you even listening to me", asks Allison, waving a hand in my face. I finally snap out of my moment of shock. "What? Oh. Sorry, Allison", I say, fixing my eyes on the rose in her hand. "Let me get this straight", I continue. "Tom Hernandez. The same Tom that we've known since kindergarten, the one that always tripped me in the hallways up until the 7th grade, gave you a rose", I ask loud enough that people at the tables next to us whip their heads towards me. Allison nods while taking a bite out of her tuna sandwich. "Yep. Oh yeah", she says, reaching into her backpack. "He also wrote me this note and slipped it inside of my locker", she says, holding the note out to me, excitedly stomping her feet on the floor.

I raise my eyebrows at the note and quickly take it, eager to know what Tom could have possibly wrote that made Allison so happy and giddy. I open the note and am really surprised- not at what the note said, but at the fact that this is what got Allison dancing around all day. All the note does is compare Allison to the sun, and not in the whole romantic way that Shakespeare would've done it. It just say that she is hot like the sun, and he spelled Allison wrong. As a girl who is not a big fan of guys calling girls hot, I don't even try to hide the disgust on my face.

Allison notices and snatches the note out of my hand, gives it a quick kiss ad places it back into her backpack. "Don't be jealous", Allison snarls. "Jealous", I ask chuckling, then continue. "Jealous of which part. The hot part or the incorrect spelling of your name", I ask. "The incorrect spelling of my name was a simple mistake. And just for your information, I wasn't talking about either of those", she says crossing her arms over a chest, giving me a dirty look. "Oh yeah", I ask, smiling. "Then what is it about this situation could I possibly be jealous of", I ask crossing my arms over my chest, matching her dirty look- only mine is playful, whereas hers is dead serious. Is she actually serious?  "That you don't have anyone. Period. Giselle, you don't have a boyfriend. And with Lily and Mason together, Derek and Susan together, and now me and Tom. Face it Giselle. You're sort of an outsider now", she says coldheartedly.

I quickly unfold my arms and look down trying to hide the tears that are soon going to be pouring out. I can't let her see me cry. I'll look even more pathetic than she already thinks I am. Before I know it, Jaden is helping me out of my seat and is walking me towards the exit of the cafeteria. He's looking at me and saying something, but I'm not listening. I can't listen. I'm still trying to piece together what is happening. Allison, the person I trusted with pretty much anything, just completely shut me down, and Jaden saw the whole thing. How embarrassing.

He walks me over to the nearest wall and helps me sit down on the floor against the wall. My vision is foggy and blurry from all of the tears forming in my eyes. Luckily they haven't come gushing out yet. "Giselle. Giselle look at me. Look at me Giselle", I look up from the floor, searching for his eyes. I finally meet his eyes, and he's looking at me with such concern that I feel even more embarrassed. He feels sorry for me. Luckily, everyone's in the cafeteria, so there's no one else staring at the overly sensitive girl against the wall on the verge of crying. I didn't realize it before, but he's holding my face with both of his hands, brushing my cheeks with his thumbs, attempting to calm me down. A single tear finally comes running down, but Jaden quickly wipes it with his thumb. I take a deep breath and apparently, he takes that as a sign that I have calmed down because he switches from his low squat position in front of me to sitting down in front of me.

"I- I don't know what to say, Giselle. Allison is the last person I expected to say something so hurtful to you", he says. " Yah- um yah. That's what I thought too.", I say, so quietly that's its pretty much a whisper, as I bring my knees up to my chest, placing my chin on my knees, and hugging my shins. I continue in a whisper "She just makes it seem as if being single is a bad thing, even though she is well informed on the past", I say. I let out a sigh, positioning myself into a crisscross applesauce. "I'm sorry Jaden. I'm wasting your lunch time. I shouldn't even be crying over something that happened in the past. I'm just being too sensitive", I say. "No, no, it's okay. The past- it can be really painful to think about, and I know it may seem pathetic to cry over something that's over, but really is okay to shed a few tears from time to time", he says, matching my whisper tone. I was focused too much on what he was saying that I didn't even realize that he's moved his face so close to mine that if either of us moved forward, we would practically kiss.

I could feel myself blushing when he pulls away and scratches the back of his neck, which along with his cheeks, have turned red. "Sorry. Didn't mean to pop your space bubble there", he says nervously smiling. He clears his throat, checks the time on his watch, and looks back at me. "Lunch doesn't end for another twenty minutes. Um- what do you want to do in the mean time", he asks. I smile at him and say "This-this right here is fine", I say patting the cold concrete floor next to me, inviting him to come sit next to me. He gives me one of his contagious smiles, which causes my smile to grow. Lovely unexpected company.