As They Come

the boy in the yellow shirt

he gave me a strange stare as i came into his view. as if he felt it too.

i tried not to stare, because i didn't want him to continue looking at me. i wasn't one of those things that got prettier the longer you looked at them. no, i was the opposite.

i made my way past him, and we ended up sitting behind him. from where i sat, we were in the same lane.

pity all i could see was the back of his head though.

i noticed the shirt. a strange shade of yellow. my favourite shade of yellow. my favourite colour in the whole, wide world. and he looked damn good in it.

i saw him turn. 90 degrees. to have made eye contact with me, he would have had to turn another 90. but from the corner of his eye, i saw him look at me. his mother persisted talking to him, and i didn't have to see his face to know he wasn't listening.

he tried it again a few times. turning but not completely. and of course, he was in my line of sight so i caught every attempt of his to glance.

when his family stood up to leave i let out a small sigh. this would be it.

he stood up, and turned. his eyes ran over me, but then scanned the rest of the crowd. he'd seen me, but was acting like he didn't.

his hair was straight, and he was frankly the only boy i'd seen with straight hair that i liked. he was skinny, and tall. his nose was a tad too big for his face, and so was his lower lip.

he was beautiful.

he turned again then, followed his family.

just as he's about to disappear, he turned again. i'd never seen a face like his who'd gone the extra mile to look at a face like mine.

or perhaps he really was scanning the crowd. maybe he hadn't noticed me at all.

but we did lock eyes. and i knew he felt it too. the drop in his stomach. i saw it in his eyes.