𝐒𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐋𝐖𝐀𝐘𝐒 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐃 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐄

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐈𝐈

Weeks slipped by, swift as the wind that sweeps the hills, so silent in their passage that Jaime barely had time to notice them. One day, he was a young man who barely stood out in the crowd, an indistinct shadow among his peers. The next week, he found himself among the friends of many, though not all-some regarded him with critical eyes, judging him as arrogant. And, to be fair, Jaime was indeed marked by a certain arrogance. He had always been that way. He had the perverse habit of prolonging class discussions, not out of zeal for learning, but simply for the pleasure of provoking and irritating. Other times, he could be responsible for ending the lesson earlier than expected, making it flow in such a way that it seemed to evaporate. A common young man, one might say, except for one particular trait that set him apart from the others.

That trait was his obsession

Jaime knew well the bitterness that sprouts from a deep desire, the kind of feeling that, once rooted, spreads like a weed. When something sparked his interest, he threw himself into it with a feverish intensity that bordered on desperation. And, at that moment, the object of his obsessive devotion was Shauna Shipman. There was something in her eyes, wide and dark like those of a deer at the edge of a forest, that captivated him. Her hair, always in place, framed her face as if crafted by a careful artist. Her figure, slender and gracefully contoured, was impossible to ignore. And there was also the peculiar taste she displayed in small things, a detail he noticed with the diligence of a scholar studying a rare manuscript.

Jaime watched Shauna with an almost insane focus, as if each of her gestures was a revelation he needed to decipher. He fixated on every subtle movement, every curve of her lips as they formed a smile, every laugh that burst from her throat and made his chest burn with an unnameable heat. He was especially attentive when she spoke of Jackie, the informal leader of the group of girls, and how frustrating it was to have to give in to her whims. Every word of Shauna's, every nuance of her tone, was a piece of a puzzle that Jaime was dedicated to assembling. He wanted to understand her completely, to absorb every facet of her personality until there was no mystery left between them.

However, Jaime's obsession was not a warm and welcoming flame; it was an insidious blaze, burning silently and consuming him from the inside out. He knew, in some remote corner of his mind, that what he felt for Shauna was more dangerous than any innocent passion. But this knowledge only deepened his fascination, like a man who, aware of the precipice before him, still takes another step toward it.

Fortunately for him, Jaime found in Misty a counterbalance to his obsession with Shauna. That initial feeling of repulsion, expressed with the phrase "I don't want to be friends with her," turned out to be a blatant lie. Over time, Jaime developed an unexpected affection for the clumsy nerd, whose exotic tastes only made her company more intriguing. Together, they attended some classes, such as advanced chemistry and physics. Although Jaime enjoyed physics, even he admitted that the classes were monotonous, almost torturous, if not for Misty's presence. There was a sort of charm in laughing at her blunders, her unintentional gaffes, in a way that she would never sense the malice and, therefore, wouldn't hate him for it.

At that moment, however, Jaime was not beside Misty or Shauna. His firm footsteps echoed through the empty hallway as he headed to Coach Martinez's office. The tension weighed on his shoulders, and he felt the need to adjust his uniform collar repeatedly, as if this could somehow prepare his spirit for what was to come. Standing before the wooden door worn by time, Jaime took a deep breath, trying to dispel the hesitation that sprouted in his chest. With a resigned sigh, he knocked on the door twice before entering the room.

- I apologize for showing up unannounced, Coach, but there's something I'd like to discuss.

The coach raised an eyebrow with a mix of curiosity and disdain, typical of those who've seen it all in the youngsters they train.