Wylan's Laws of Emotion

Chapter Twenty Two- Wylan

Senior year. It was a daze... Economics made sure it didn't pass too quickly though. Great memories came with our last year of high school, but my favorite would have to be of homecoming week.

Nobody had ever asked me to homecoming, and frankly, it would've only been my second football game ever. I was harassed into attending the first, and the only reason Waylin and Wesley allowed me to attend was that my little cousin was playing with the band, and I had offered to spare his mother the burden of going to pick him up.

People were proposing every other day, and it was adorable. Farah's low-key lover, Nate, asked her to the dance, Merriam and Rhett were having a competition to see who could get a date first, and I was content with my AP Macroeconomics homework. Things of that nature didn't occupy my mind for very long.

I was walking down the hallway on my way to the library so I could do a bit of editing for the school yearbook. I was over the template design, though I wasn't in the class because somehow my schedule never included the class of my dreams, journalism. As I went through organizing things, I noticed someone take the seat beside me, pushing my book bag off the chair in the process.

The kid slipped me a folded card. I opened it only to find that it was hangman...hangman. Apparently, someone had solved it for me. "I have a problem and only you can solve it."

I was a bit confused as I looked back trying to see where the person had gone. He was nowhere in sight, so I went to the front desk. There was a girl talking fervently on the phone, so I just inspected the front desk for clues. There was a math textbook sitting on the counter top with one sheet of paper sticking out and an "Admit 1" ticket taped to the front.

I opened the Calculus textbook and there was a worksheet with a series of problems. "Work it out and tell me what you get," I read at the top of the page. I sat there working the problems out figuring it was worth it, and when I finished it read, "You're the -e^ (i*pi), so let's go to homecoming, I think it'd be fun."

I stared at the paper with a look of confusion. The girl was looking at me weirdly and I realized I was crying. "I promise I'm not a weirdo—" I began to explain.

"Hey that's what I got!" I heard a familiar voice say loudly, making me jump.

I turned to him, walking into a hug from my close friend. "Did you do this? Okari, I told you that I was fine with not going."

He was laughing as he wiped away my tears. "So, we got the same answer right?"

He said, showing me the paper. I looked blankly at him, snatching the paper, and checking the answers we got. "Oh, you forgot to solve that. Now, Wylan, I know you're great at math, but the solution is one."

"I'm aware, weirdo stalker boy," I glared at him, and he just continued to laugh. "But yes, I will go to homecoming with you."

He winked. "I knew you liked to have real fun." I rolled my eyes. I was holding the paper and thinking about how cute the whole ordeal was.

I didn't blush, I didn't smile, I didn't scream, but I did have this weird pang in the bottom of my stomach as he stood there smiling at me. "Well the bell is about to-" I began as the bell shrieked loudly.

"Can I walk you to class?" he asked me, nudging my shoulder.

"I don't care either way."

I shrugged and started walking. I had gotten to the commons area when I realize I'd left my phone and my backpack in the library. I took off running towards the library again figuring he'd carry on to class. We only had four minutes to get there anyways, and we'd spent two of those avoiding others.

I got to my computer, shut down my browser and picked up my things when I realized my phone wasn't there anymore.

"I suspect this is yours." Someone said behind me as I spun around.

I was about to protest thinking Kwame had come back, insistent on walking me to class. "Okari, go to—"

It was not whom I expected at all. He was grinning as he held his hand out, and I didn't want to believe it was actually him—Bryson O'Neal.

"Hey stranger, long time no see."

I reluctantly took the cell phone just as the bell rang. "You're so right, and I'm so late!" I shouted as I took off, running straight into a desk.

"Seems you never got better about running into things either, huh?" he asked, looping our arms, and walking me out of the library. I could take a tardy, and my trigonometry teacher didn't really care much. She was fine with whatever as long as I wasn't gone for thirty of the fifty-five minutes she had to teach.

"No, I never did. What are you doing here? Are you just visiting or something?" I asked him. Bryson had been my crush for years, and he moved away to stay with his mother about nine hours away when his parents divorced.

"No, I'm staying with Dad this year, so I can get a few courses under my belt at the college. Plus, I missed my girl," he grinned, wrapping an arm around my shoulder. He walked me to class, and gave me his number, saying that we needed to catch up.

It's probably bad that I didn't even remember what not being a junior felt like. I remembered getting my braces taken off and taking senior pictures, but it didn't really hit me until—until that split second before they call your name at graduation and you get ready to walk across the stage. That moment when your whole life greets you, and wonders what you'd been waiting on.

It was a subtle moment that came and went as quickly as gusts of wind in the fall. When the wind blows, and it's strong enough to rivet your insides. When you don't remember the chill for very long because by the time you can fathom it, winter has come and frozen your whole world.

It's come to let you know that you have bigger problems now.