Chemistry :: ONE-SHOT

Eden Karem

I'd noticed him in late June of 2013, the summer before our sophomore year of high school in our summer chemistry course.

He was laughing silently, grinning to himself as he shook his head along with the class's explosion of laughter while I'd just stared at the boy sitting right next to me.

"Why have I not noticed him before?" I wondered. And that very question lingered in my head throughout the rest of class, scratch that, the rest of that week.

His name was Abraham Adams, about a head taller than me with short bright blond hair with red-blushed tan skin, courtesy from him being on the school's water polo & varsity swim team. He was one of the quietest people in our grade. But one of the smartest people in our grade, of course a honors student, like me, except he was worthy of being called a honors student. Always dedicated to studies that I don't remember seeing him hang out with anybody in our whole high school, nor even seeing him out on the crowded quad. Abraham was in my English Honors class of my freshmen year, I'd sat next to him of the second half of the year & made some small-talk with him to account him as a good acquaintance. I even knew what classes he was taking next year (AP Calculus, AP Chemistry, AP World History, + more AP classes)!! Pretty good amount of information coming out from his mouth, considering all he did was just respond to class discussions and whoever talked to him. He was a man of few words you could say, for example if you ask him a yes-no question, he'll just reply with a nod or a shake.

So why did I just finally notice him now?

I guess something just clicked, sparked, bonded, in that moment of my flickering eyes scanning the laughing classroom, I'd gained interest in a guy just like that.

For the rest of the day, I'd pondered on my bed of thoughts painted with traces and of Abraham. Recalling all the little gestures he did and all the words he said when he spoke. The more I thought about it, I really unappreciated him. He held & opened doors for me, gave me paper & pens whenever I'd needed anything, putting up with all my side complaints of our teacher and drabbles about life.

Throughout the next week, all I could do was put aside my cheery-self and just observe the blond boy. Many of my friends would question my blank-state expression during our breaks as I was unfocused on them and focused on Abraham, sitting alone and reading. Some observations I'd made from quick glances varied to his sense his style all to the way he'd wrote. He'd liked to wear shorts, not just some khaki shorts, but plaid-neat shorts with a regular t-shirt that varied to our school, some surf company, or a solid color. He wrote in cursive with those runny-ink black pens that would smudge everywhere even if you'd barely touched it, except he would have everything neatly stroked onto his paper. He took shifts helping out one of his lab partners with a learning disability with the other. Preferred to work alone, I think, since he wouldn't join up with anybody in our class, or my group at all.

But one thing that caught me the most were his eyes.

They were a gem-deep blue, eyes replicating the blue of the peaceful ocean of a beautiful, foreign beach. His blond lashes fluttered over the gem-eyes, creating even more of a hidden light to him. Abraham's eyes were beyond compare, all the other sets of blue eyes would seem to be knockoff jewels to me.

As our chemistry course was drawing near a close, I wasn't closer to Abraham in any way, shape, or form. We haven't talked at all, not even given a slight smile or wave to the other and it drove me wild.

My curiosity for him increased drastically.

I'd never seen him with anyone in our high school, questions like "where would he disappear during our school breaks?" or "does he have any friends?" clouded up my mind. Since that moment, I was in a constant mind set to just make contact with him, but I never gotten the time to do so. I was always politely listening to friends, chatting with friends, or doing my work. We didn't even sit next to each other anymore since our teacher changed seats, so I can't even ask him for a pencil or an eraser just to talk to him.