Meeting You..

Chapter Three: The Stare Down.

Thursday morning. I wake up and immediately want to go back to bed. Today Tom will ask Katie to the fall festival. Then in gym she’ll pull me aside and will gossip her ass off about it. And I’ll just smile and pretend I’m happy for her. All I really wanna do is kick the shit out of her right now. But I know it’s not her fault that she’s pretty. This always happens. I should get use to it.

            I walk into the school and there are signs everywhere about the fall festival. Kill me now. I get to my locker and do the combo and open it. There’s a note sitting on the top of my books. My heart stutters as I pick it up. I open it.

            You’re better than her.

            I stare at it for a moment and look around. No one is noticing. I stare at it a little while longer wondering who it is. Then suddenly, “What’s that?” Katie.

            “Oh nothing.”, I say as I shove it into my back pocket. She winks at me.

            “It’s your mystery man isn’t it.”, I roll my eyes at her then glance down the hall. Tom is walking toward us. Oh god. I don’t want to be there when he asks her. He’s looking right at us and looks like he’s about to have a breakdown or something.

            He finally reaches us. Katie is complaining about her calculus class like usual. I bend down to get a book and pretend I’m busy organizing or something. Sadly though, I hear the whole damn conversation.

            “Hey Tom!”

            “Hey Katie…I need to ask you something.”

            “The English test is next Tuesday.”

            “No. Not that. I was wondering if you’d…”

            I stand up and slam my locker shut and walk away as fast as I can. I can feel their eyes bearing into my back but I don’t care. I know they’re my friends but I just can’t handle this right now. Katie gets every guy I ever lay eyes on.

            I’m storming my way to my first class when I see the kid. He’s leaning against the drinking fountain and staring at me. I glance at him at first but then do a double take to see if he’s really staring. He is. I stare back. The halls start to empty. The bell is going to ring. But I just can’t look away from those eyes. They’re so strange. His freckles are perfectly laid across his face. His eyes sparkle. His hair is hazelnut brown and hangs in his eyes a little bit but not too much. He has this innocent look to himself.

            The hall empties totally and it’s just the two of us. I look down the hall and sigh, then I start to walk away.

            “Jonah.”, he says. I turn around and he’s right there. Right in front of me. He’s sticking his hand out in a greeting gesture. I just smirk at him and turn around. I’m halfway down the hall when he says, “See you later, Melody.”