I watched Caio from across the cafeteria. He had just gotten a haircut and his charcoal colored fauxhawk was forever falling into his eyes. He pushed it away with a swipe of his hand and I quickly turned away so that no one could tell I was looking at him. Oh how I wanted to go see him, to feel his hand creep into mine, his warm tan skin melting together with my pale flesh. I hadn’t even kissed him yet and I was already thinking about him like this, wanting to be with him more and more. I glanced at him again and this time he caught my eye. I could feel myself beginning to blush so I turned away and tried to listen to what my friends Cami and Ben were saying.
I couldn’t really get into their conversation. It was something about Ben wanting Cami to got out with some weird guy named Roberto. Talking about relationships just made me think of Caio. And every time they mentioned the word “love” it seemed like my chest was throbbing. I could feel his chocolate eyes burrowing into me. I swished my golden bangs out of my face and pushed my glasses off the tip of my nose and back into my vision. Whenever he looked at me I got suddenly self conscious. I hoped he liked what he saw because I didn’t know how to make myself look any better. Not that I think I looked good, but I hoped I did.
“Zane!” Cami practically screamed at me.
“Huh?” I replied a little dazed.
“You okay man?”
“Yeah, I’m all good. What is it?”
“The bell rang dumbass,” Ben replied ‘just teasing.’ “Come on, we got go to science.”
As me and Ben walked to Mr. Robertson’s science class Every now and again I would look over to see If I could see Caio walk off to his next class, but I had no such luck. We hadn’t talked for a few days and I was beginning to get worried. Those few moments when I could spy on him during lunch ended all too quickly, but the rest of the school day seemed to drag on in slow motion. I could only see him at lunch and second period in gym but even then we never really talked. By the time I had gotten off of the bus and into my house the only thing I could think about was if he would call me. God, I probably sound like such the girl.
My mom and dad weren’t home so I crawled upstairs to my bedroom and dropped my backpack on the floor. I laid down on my bed and checked my phone.
Nothing.
Why couldn’t I stop thinking about him? It’s not like we were together, we were official or anything, and even if we were it’s not like anyone would know. Caio didn’t want anyone to know and neither did I. He had a reputation to protect, he cared a lot about how people saw him. I didn’t blame him. He was popular, practically a celebrity at our school, everyone knew him and expected so much of him. Which included being “A ladies man.” I just didn’t like having too much attention drawn to myself. If anyone knew that I had a thing going with Caio of all people then that definitely cause a whole bunch of that. We’d only gone on a few secret dates here and there, it started out as just hanging out but then he told me that he liked me. And I can’t help it, but I really like him too.
Five minutes later I checked my phone again.
Still nothing.
At all.
I needed something to get my mind off of him. I sat back and turned on my X-box so I could listen to music. Remembering Sunday by All Time Low came on, of course. I skipped to the next song, Stupid Kid by Alkaline Trio. I had a feeling that this might drag on for a while so I just turned off my X-box and check my phone again.
