Pita, continued

Chap.2, Truth or Dare

One day after spring break, I'd come home from school and get a frantic text from Alexa. 

"CALL ME!!" 

"OKAY!!"

I had no idea what I was in for, and all of the trouble that would come afterward. 

"You know how Haris is on my bus, right?" 

"Right."

"Well, he and his friend Tarik were sitting in the seat behind me talking, and his friend asked, 'Hey, what's the name of that one girl who likes Haris? With the blonde hair? Avery, right?' while Haris was right there! Of course, I said I wasn't telling them but it's pretty obvious he knows you like him." 

Oh....Ohhh no....

Welp.

That was not how I imagined that going.

Unfortunately, it was Friday when I found out, so I had to wait two whole days to find out his reaction. And what was his reaction? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. He just ignored me! I didn't even care if he noticed me staring at him anymore! I was just so shocked at how he could ignore the whole situation. I felt so embarrassed. I'd never spoken to him, not once! And now he was finding out I liked him!? It was all just too sudden. I didn't lose hope though. Me feelings hadn't been accepted, but they hadn't been shut down either. Who knew, maybe he was just figuring himself out? So, I gave him time. A lot of time. I waited until April to make my next move after a month of silence. 

It started with a game of truth or dare, as it often does. 

"I dare you...to email one of your crushes!" I dared Alexa. 

"Fine, but only if you email yours!" she dared me back. 

This was risky, embarrassing ourselves was nothing new for us, and I was always looking for opportunities to embarrass my best friend. I weighed the risks for a moment, then agreed.

"Deal" 

The message: "Do you have a staring problem or something? Because if you want to say something, just say it." would soon find its way into Haris's inbox. I sent Alexa a picture of the message as conformation, and it was done. It probably wasn't the smartest idea, but hey. I was young and bored. Plus, it was truth or dare! How could I refuse? I waited for a response for days. I was beginning to think there were no consequences to my actions. But oh, how ridiculous that idea was. My heart stopped when I saw the reply. I was almost too scared to open it. It was simply put, one word...

(drumroll)

"Stop." 

...

Excuse me? Sir? Stop!?

It was definitely not what I was expecting. I couldn't tell you what I was, but it wasn't that. It was so vague! Stop what? Stop emailing you? Stop not emailing you? Stop liking you? Stop eating? Stop breathing? Stop existing?! The possibilities were endless. I should have emailed him back, asking him to specify, but I told the truth. I emailed back, "Sorry, my friend made me ask." It wasn't really a lie per se, just not the whole truth. I never got a reply. Which I wasn't too mad about, but Alexa was. She took it upon herself to email him personally about the situation. Which yes, I may have approved, but that's not the point. The point was his response. Here's how it went down:

TO: HARIS PUTES

FROM: ALEXA PETERSON

So you know Avery likes you, and you don't care, and yet you still stare at her in class. I'm just saying that's kind weird. You're sending her mixed signals. So just figure yourself out, and then respond to me. And don't respond with a one or two word answer either. Like actually put thought into it, if you can.

FROM: HARIS PUTES

Bro lmao wait till math

FROM: ALEXA PETERSON

But like she be telling me you be staring at her in woodworking and metals. I'm just saying that's kinda weird.

FROM: HARIS PUTES

Bro imma be 100% I'm tryna be rude but her makeup was just ugly that day. Like was just those things were I couldn't look away. And stop emailing me it's annoying and cringy. 

I was offended when I heard this of course, though I didn't read the actual email until later. All Alexa told me was he emailed her, and called me ugly and creepy in math. There were so many things I wanted to say to him. Like how he couldn't be talking, calling me ugly and creepy because he was both of those things. But I never said any of that. I hated the fact I still liked him. Everyone always told me "Get over him!" and I tried. I tried every day. It never worked. I started trying to ignore him after that, but I guess he just thought it was opposite day or something. 

Ever since that I'd felt like I was being watched. Like he was trying to get closer to me or something. His friends would randomly talk to me, and I would see him staring out of the corner of my eye. And my friends and I would continue to make inside jokes about him. He was in fitness class, which was right next to PE, and we had those classes at same time after 7th hour. Sometimes the fitness class would join my PE class, which was a whole other situation. On day I learned my friend Josh was also in fitness. So I said, 

"Imagine being in fitness" while Haris was standing close to me.

He looked very offended, which I thought was hilarious. Another time, maybe later in April, our whole 7th-hour class went outside to launch the rockets that we had been working on. Everything went okay, but then it was time to go inside. Our school has four doors as the main entrance. I was waiting by the furthest right door, and he was waiting by the furthest left door. He walked all the way to the door that was closest to me. 

I took a step away; he took a step closer.

I took another step away; he took another step closer.

Finally, I gave him a look that said, "get away from me." and he walked back to the other door. 

When we got our yearbooks towards the end of the year, our advisory teachers let us go into the hallway to sign them. Every seventh grade in the school was crammed into one hallway. The hallway was square-shaped, and most of the kids were in one hallway of the square where most of the classes were. I walked around the hallway with my friends signing yearbooks. We were looking for my friend Leila in her advisory class. I forgot that Leila and Haris had the same advisory. So, I walked in, saw him, then ran out. She wasn't there so my friends and I went to the other end of the hallway. Then we saw her at the opposite end of the hallway where we had just come from. My friends (Alexa and Mary) began dragging me through the tightest packed crowd I'd ever seen. 

"Avery, come on!" They yelled over the voices.

It was too late, the crowd had already separated us and now there were about 40 people between me and my friends. I decided to just wait for them to come back. But while I was waiting, Haris's friends saw me. They started pushing him towards me! He walked in my direction like he was going to say something. I panicked and walked around the whole square of the hallway. I eventually found my friends again, but I was shaken about what happened the whole day.