The Art of Smittening (Volume 1)

Chapter 1

Every second, minute, and hour, my mind would go back to her. It's becoming painfully clear that I'm an idiot. I've hardly ever spoken to her, and yet, I still manage to admit to myself that I like her. The most we've ever spoken was when she asked to sit by me on the bus a few days back. I'm not even sure why I'm falling for her; is that weird? As I stood here, lost in my thoughts, the bright lights of the bus brought me back to reality. I boarded the bus, taking a seat by myself. And as the bus took off, I knew it was only a matter of time until she got on.

I had my left earbud in and decided to play some music. Skipping a few songs, I landed on one that didn't sound bad within the first few seconds, Mona Lisa by Dominic Fike. As the rhythm of the song rang in my ears, the bus stopped, she was gonna get on. Maybe she's not here, which would be a blessing in disguise. I looked up, and there she was. Her height was what stood out the most, second of course being her beauty. There were two dudes in front of her, and I both hoped and didn't hope that they sat by me. The latter happened, and they both sat ahead. I looked down, too nervous to look at her face. I felt a small but weighted push against my shoulder. I glanced up ever so slightly to see her sitting right next to me. My mind went blank. The song lyrics added some pressure to me.

"I know you like your space and distance

Yeah, you don't take admissions

They told you not to date musicians

Yeah, but can't make you listen." I took my earbud out, not wanting it to be an interruption if I confessed to her now. Nothing was holding me back. She was the last stop until we got to school. And we had a few more minutes left until we got there. The bus was quiet except for a few conversations in the back. This was my chance, my moment. I turned to the right, she was looking down at her phone. I sat straight up looking forward to the seat ahead of me. I turned to her. Before I can get a single word out, a random girl swoops in, delving into a full conversation. I turned my head the opposite way, looking out the window. There goes my first chance of confessing to her. The bus arrived at our school, and the moment I got off, I could hear my friend calling my name.

"Thomas!" I walked over to him.

"What do you want?" I asked in a slightly off tone.

"Are you gonna do baseball? Tryouts start tomorrow?"

"Ethan, you know I said I was done with baseball after I tore my UCL, right?" Ethan sighed, clearly annoyed with my answer.

"You're the best pitcher we had last year in middle school. We need you to help this high school win the state championship and possibly nationals."

"I'm not fully recovered yet. Maybe next year I will."

"Whatever you say. And how have things been with that girl?" Of course, he had to bring her up at this time. Maybe I should play stupid, and see if he stops talking about her.

"What girl?"

"You know, the one from Europe. Liv or whatever her name is." He sounded so happy when he said her name. Something about that kind of made me wanna have him stop talking about her.

"We're fine. We're just friends, I guess.." He shrugged his shoulders at me.

"That's not how it looks to me. But it doesn't matter. We should probably head to class now."

I looked around, there were only like 6 people outside. I went inside, not bothering to talk with any of my other friends. Just walked right into my classroom.

I sat in the back, thankfully. Five minutes went by, and no teacher had walked in. I could overhear a kid saying,

"You know if the teacher doesn't show up within the first 15 minutes of class you can leave." I wasn't even sure if that was true, but I wouldn't mind leaving this class. A teacher did walk in, it wasn't our usual teacher, but a substitute. I would consider myself pretty smart when it comes to Statistics, so, I kept my head on my desk, and closed my eyes, sliding my bag on the floor in a quick motion. Everything was fading so slowly and peacefully. The quietness only lasted what felt like 2 minutes until I felt a tap on my shoulder. Whoever tapped me, mumbled a few words.