Invisible String (w|w high school romance)

Monday

Riley:

I don't think I could possibly hate school any more than I do right now. It's 6:30am on a Monday and I didn't get home until around one last night because of Josh's party. Not only is today the first day back after summer vacation, its also a Monday. Who plans that? Seriously just kill me now.

I rolled over and blindly smacked my arm around my night stand until I found my phone and angrily shut my alarm off. Not having any energy to get up, I wrapped myself in my blanket and rolled off the bed and crashed onto the floor. After standing up, I mindlessly shuffled around my room getting together my outfit for the day. It was still relatively warm out, so I decided on a black pair of jean shorts which I paired with a white crop top. I placed a maroon button up over the crop top and left it unbuttoned. I picked out a pair of my signature nike athletic socks before exiting my room.

I came downstairs to find my dad awake, frying bacon and eggs on the griddle. I thanked him and kissed him cheek before sitting down to munch on my breakfast. As I ate, I scrolled through Instagram, looking at everyone's posts from the party the night before. I chuckled slightly as video after video of me back flipping into the lake or dancing around while I sang at karaoke popped up on my feed. I stopped scrolling when I came to a post from Harper. It was a video of me singing right at her with a smile beaming on my face and eyes shining with joy. I liked the post and followed her account before stuffing my phone in my pocket and scraping the rest of my breakfast off my plate. I said goodbye to my dad before jogging out the door to my car. My sour mood from earlier, replaced with excitement for the day.

When I got to school, the hallways were a mess of freshmen trying to find their first period classes. I was getting ready to scoot past them all and head to my first period when I saw Harper standing there. She was looking down at her schedule and then looking around trying to figure out which direction her class was in. Without a second thought I looped my thumbs into the straps of my backpack and walked over to her.

"Need some help?" I said with a smile. Harper looked up from her schedule and relief washed over her. "Yeah I could use some." she replied, returning my smile. She handed me her schedule and I quickly glanced over it, silently celebrating when I noticed we had 3/5 classes together. "Okay this is perfect. We bother have calc together first period so I can walk with you." I said excitedly as Harper groaned. "Great. I suck at math." she replied.

"I love math. I can help you out." I said as we heading in the direction of the calc room. She turned to me with a shocked expression. "You're crazy. Who can say they love math?" she replied, faking disgust. I laughed. "Well I want to major in aerospace engineering so I kinda have to like math." I responded.

Her eyes grew impossibly wider. "Damn so your like, smart smart." she said and I laughed. "Your smart, really good at soccer, and pretty. You're the whole package." she said with a laugh. I turned away as I blushed slightly. Sure people have called me pretty before but it didn't feel the same as it did when she was the one saying it.

The day went by much quicker than I thought it would, probably because I spent most of the day with Harper. Not only did we have calc together, but also physics and English. During lunch Harper sat at our table, which consisted of a mix of the boys and girls soccer teams. She ended up fitting right in. She caught up with people she used to know before she moved away and started to become friends with some new people as well. For me, it felt like she never left. Except now I actually knew her instead of just knowing of her.

As I sat in last period waiting for the bell to ring thats all I could think about. Why did me and Harper never talk when we were younger? It's not like anything bad ever happened between us, but I couldn't help but wonder what had stopped us from becoming friends. When the bell finally did ring I realized that I had completely spaced out for the whole period. Good thing it was just english.

Harper had decided to sit next to me in most of our classes, and I wasn't complaining. As people packed up their stuff to leave she gently shook my shoulder with a smile on her face. "Are you ready for practice?" she said excitedly. Her smile was contagious and I soon found myself with a matching smile of my own. "You know I am." I said confidently before grabbing the rest of my stuff and leading her to the locker rooms.

Harper POV:

As Riley lead me to the locker rooms I couldn't stop staring at her. Her abs were slightly showing in the space between her crop top and shorts. Her hair was again in a messy bun with her two small curls pulled out. She wore a silver chain necklace with a small silver cross on the end.

She truly was beautiful. A worried feeling slowly made it's presence in my heart. She was probably embarrassed earlier when I complimented her because she swiftly turned away from me. I didn't mean to make it seem like I was hitting on her, I don't even think she's gay because of all the rumors about her and Josh. Remembering the rumors only made my heart sink more. I don't know why but ever since our childhood I have always felt this pull towards Riley. Before I realized I was gay, I always thought it was because Riley was popular and I wanted to be friends with her.

But now that I'm getting to know her, I'm starting to think that I want something more than friends with her. As we approached the locker room I shook those thoughts out of my head. She likes Josh, I mentally scolded myself. She's also my teammate now and I don't want to cause any problems on the team.

Riley talked, pointing out my locker and all the different things in the locker room but I wasn't really paying attention to what she was saying. The pit in my stomach was growing more and more. After she finished talking I thanked her and went over to my locker to prepare for practice. I didn't even hear a word she said. As I slipped on my soccer socks and cleats only one thing was going through my mind.

I can't let myself catch feelings for her.