Dainty and Dauntless

Girl and the boy:

Young Mars, strong and confident, adorned by ego. Pure Venus, eloquent and smart, graced by beauty.
Locking eyes only to whisk away their necks on command of vulnerability. But Cupid asks, scratching his neat brow, "why are their hearts still staring at each other?"

                                               💝⚡️💙

Natalie was on fire, burning and dazed by an inkling that troubled her mind. Sera had said she thought she and Ethan would make a good couple. Couple? What a word to use!
She had wanted to find the humor in that statement and laugh out loud in her face at how absurd it sounded but failed, it left her shocked and in silence.

"Too overboard," she said recalling the statement.
Well maybe she did find Ethan Valer a bit attractive, but she thought other boys were attractive too. She emphasized with her finger, almost caving the gap between the tips of the thumb and pointing finger. That was how much she thought of him in such a way.  He wasn't special in that way, at least not to her, he wasn't.

Drew has better hair, dimples too and_ and, Chase has better physique.
Natalie thought Ethan Valer wasn't exciting since all she ever saw him do was read books, pass assignments, excel in tests and read more books. He was some nerd, but despite it all she still felt intrigued by him for some reason.
After lunch period, students headed back for their classes. Natalie too made her way to class and took her seat as more still made their way in. Riley and Sera made their way past her and Riley winked at her, holding back giggles. Natalie's eyes darted across the room, quickly registering each boy present. As she glanced at the last tables, she overheard one boy address another with the name Illai.
Illai?

Oh, Illai Watts!

She recalled Sera mentioning the name Illai yesterday. The boy looked at the front and Natalie hadn't looked away in time, she stared back and looked away at once.
Yup, I'm definitely not looking around anymore.

She plopped a book down and was getting ready to open it when a laugh stirred her attention away. All things weird happened, she could hear her heart beat hard and fast all the way up to her ear drums. She burned, the heat spreading miles all over her skin. Ethan Valer was at the front, cracking his ribs almost to death.

Do nerds laugh out loud?

His laugh sounded surreal and his eyes crinkled up beautifully each time he cracked up.
How had she never noticed him like this? She felt like she had made a great discovery about the enigma, she marveled at the actor and his ways.
Amidst the laughter, Ethan brushed his nose with the back of his pointing finger and leaned against the wall. His eyes locked with hers for a second and he had to double take to actually stare at her for another quick second. When he turned back to his colleague, he shifted his weight and crossed the right leg over the left. Suddenly, Natalie felt a character change in his acting. She was getting more and more revelations at the moment that the enigma seemed to have exposed itself as the town's most wanted man. Slick hair, dazzling smirk, charming look, forbidden presence and daunting aura. He looked the part, maybe a little too well. He pocketed and chuckled, turned back to Natalie and smiled. Her windpipe became tight and she struggled to breathe, in her mind she was screaming out in the most anti-calm way. Her palms crushed into each other and squeezed tighter each second he kept standing there, smiling and staring at her... daring her. With a leap, Ethan straightened and Natalie watched the former nerd walk on and find his seat at the front of the other column, still smiling even as he took his seat. Then he searched for what to do next, nervously. It was like all things interesting had come to an end and he had a task to find something to occupy him in the meantime. Looking at him from where she was, he looked desperate and the glory he had earned a while ago was now crumbling. Ethan searched through his bag then through the books and finally decided on one to fetch out, fumbled with getting it out of the bag, closing the bag then setting it down. His composure was all over the place so he spread the book, placed both arms on top and raised his chest, inhaled then let out a sigh with the drop of his shoulders as a way to gain back control over the situation. He stretched his arms then threw his head back, slowly cracking his neck and Natalie's breath quickened, she was mildly panicking as she found the view in front of her oddly mesmerizing. She hoped no one could see her taking gulps as her brain switched to playing classic sensual music, silent enough not to be heard by anyone else. Her eyes traced out his side profile, slowly, up the tip of his nose, trailing down to his pink lips, to a chin and all the way to his neck. The same eyes went over his small Adam's apple that swayed under his skin, gently piercing it, and she held back a squeal and took a deep breath before she moved to his bare arms, his long smooth arms.

Pretty hands.

Natalie awed at them for a moment, his hands looked gentle and fragile while his palm appeared soft.
When Ethan was done, he stared at the book for some time, reading not even one sentence and she wondered what he was up to. He looked up from the book to the front, his eyes not focusing on anything in particular, just nowhere. Then he rested his head on his arms, on top of the table, still staring, perhaps thinking. Natalie found herself curious about what he was thinking of.

"What is he doing?" She whispered to herself while looking from him to see if anyone else was watching this scene. He went on and turned his head to the right, the direction she was gawking from. She didn't flinch, too drawn in and he stayed still, staring at nowhere in particular. In this position she studied his peach-colored lips. They were full lips and pouty a bit and found herself biting her lips the longer she stared at them. Suddenly, his eyes moved and dragged on until they got to her. He looked at her and their eyes locked again... in the silence and the intensity of the stare, she could hear her heart beat drumming in her ears.

"Oh, my goodness-ah!" She screamed inwardly between clenched teeth, the panic building up.
Her body tensed and froze, her brain crashed and she stared on, holding her gaze a little longer than she had hoped for. It was involuntary, she was glued there, by the pair of eyes that stared back longer than she was praying for. The boy, after a while, cocky much, then smirked, rolled his eyes and looked back at his book, more concentrated than before. She had broken free finally but felt exposed. She had been caught staring, gawking for Lord's sake! He had stared back and that was screwing her up. There was no need for him to capture her ridiculous expression, let alone roll his eyes!
She gasped at the memory and laughed at the embarrassment because seated three paces diagonally from her was a boy that now thought her a creep and yet despite the overwhelming shame, she longed to watch the scene more, just a while more.
•••

💝⚡️💙