I Wish That You Knew My Name {mxm} | Love is Love

6; Stop & Stare

I would love to say that the rest of the week went by smoothly or that I was able to get my shit together. But I would be lying if I did. The week had been filled with awkward greetings and goodbyes, getting caught stealing glances, some shy crooked smiles, a crippling amount of stuttering, and a crap ton of blushing. Mostly on my part, which was fantastic knowing I needed to work with Nick for the entire semester on this stupid project. Try not to make it too awkward, I told myself, though I couldn't help but think it was too late for that.

At this point, I was sure he was only talking to me to be nice and to make this project as painless as possible. If that's the case, I don't think it was going very well. Nevertheless, one or two days a week, we would - with his initiative - set reading goals and arrange plans to meet after school as we had no real time to do the project in class. At the rate I was going (from my awkward self to giggly and blushing school girl in 0.5 seconds,) I was honestly surprised that Nick hadn't already gone to Mr. Josiah and made an excuse to do the project on his own. Unless he, by some off chance, hadn't noticed anything. But judging by his constant blushing, nervous laughter, and darting eyes, he didn't exactly seem comfortable around me. Like, at all. Yet I reminded myself that he hadn't switched out of the group, so maybe I was overreacting. Maybe.

My phone, which had been set face down by the edge of the table, buzzed against the wood surface. With a start, I was pulled from my thoughts and back to Tera as she continued her rant. She was going on about some poor girl in her Anthropology class whose face she wanted to bash in with a chair, unaware of the fact that she had lost my attention over 10 minutes ago. Or maybe she did notice and just didn't care. It could be hard to tell with her.

I didn't want to check my phone while she was talking because, according to social protocol, that was impolite. But then again, I guess zoning out was too.

Then, Tera suddenly went quiet. Her gazed flickered between myself and my phone, only inches away from my hand. "Are you not going to get that?"

I looked at her, surprised for a second. "But – isn't that rude?"

"Dude," she raised an eyebrow, amused, "do you really think I care? For all I know, it could be your mom telling you it's a family emergency. And besides, I'm done talking."

I nodded before grabbing my phone to who texted me. Much to my surprise, it was Nick. I couldn't control the heat that rose to my face, so I kept my head down. Despite my efforts, Tera spoke up:

"What's wrong, Alex?" She asked teasingly, not even bothering to hide her smirk. She didn't know about much of my personal life, let alone my so-called 'love life' (which happened to be non-existent), but she'd take any opportunity to tease me. "You're about as red as your shirt!"

"I just think i-it's hot in here," I said weakly, knowing it was no use.

"Yeah, yeah whatever. As long as I don't see your sexting, I'm good." She rolled her eyes.

Before she could torment me further, I opened the message and did my best to ignore her presence. 'Are you still God to walk to the library after school to start the project?'

Just as I had begun typing my response, I got another message from Nick. '*good'

It took me a moment to realize what he was talking about, but when I did I couldn't help but smile. I hadn't noticed his mistake at first, but even if I had I would have still understood what he had meant. Still, I thought the fact that he felt the need to correct himself three minutes after he sent the text was cute.

'It's alright, I got what you mean hah but yeah, I'm still good for that. You?'

'Yup! So I'll see you later?'