I'm In Love With The Football Player

2. Friend Zoned (Well kind of)

"Stop calling me that." I say hitting Andrew with my P.E. shirt.

"Loverboy. Loverboy. Zac is a loverboy." Andrew sings in an annoying tone.

I was about to punch him when the dismissal bell rang. "Saved by the bell."
. . .
The second-hour dismissal bell rang. Everyone ran out the locker room and I stayed at the end with Andrew talking about who he would ask to the dance.

"I'm thinking of asking Angela Murphy." He says.

I think for a second. "Hmm. Not a bad decision."

"Right." He says. "She's the perfect girl because she loves to play video games; just like me."

Angela Murphy. She was not a popular girl, but she was well-known. She is known for being a gamer girl and for being the nicest person in school. Andrew isn't the nicest boy, but he isn't mean either. Who knows? Maybe they end up together. You know what they say: Opposites attract.

"How do you know if Bree doesn't have a date yet?" Andrew asks.

"I don't," I answer. "I'm just hoping she doesn't."

Andrew thinks for a second. "What will you do if she already has a date?" 

"Are you trying to tell me something?" I ask.

"No, no." He says. "I'm just trying to think of the worst-case scenario."

"See. You're too much up here." I say pointing to my head. "This is what anxiety makes you do." 

"Don't blame me for having it." He snaps. " I'm just thankful it isn't extreme anxiety."

"Yeah," I agree. "I would hate to worry about every single detail."

We walk out of the locker room and go up two floors to Algebra III. I always see Bree entering her classroom. Her class is right next to mine, but they are totally different classes. I take Algebra and she takes French. 

I was talking to Andrew on the way to the classroom when I feel a hard pain in my chest and collapse. Some books scatter across the floor.

"Hey, watch where you're-" I look up and am at a loss for words. It's Bree. 

I bumped into Bree Canister.

"Oh my-" I quickly get up and help her up.

"I am so sorry. I-I-I didn't see where I was walking." I explain.

"No, no. It was my fault." She says. "I shouldn't have been texting while walking."

We both kneel down to get our stuff. I look up to see how she looks when she's startled. She still looks as beautiful as always.

I grab one of her books and see the title. 

"The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet" I read aloud.

She looks up and carefully takes the book away from me.

"I'm sorry for reading your stuff," I say.

"It's fine... I guess." She says.

"Can I make it up to you?" I ask seizing the moment.

"It's not that big of a deal." She gets up slowly and I follow. "Don't worry about it."

"Well, let me ask something random, then." I had no idea where all this courage was coming from. "You want to go to the dance together?"

I mentally slapped myself as I figured that I was too 'straight to the point'. I was dumping all of this suddenly on her. I could see her being overwhelmed by the look on her face. She stays silent thinking of what to say.