Maybe This Is Love, |✔️

Chapter 2

And all of a sudden he was everywhere.

In the hallways.

In the school foyer.

In the common room.

Everywhere.                                                                  

Like a carefree ghost. I find myself wishing to be like him, yet I barely know him. He was everything I wasn't. He was everything I wanted to be.

I don't understand how I hadn't noticed him before. I must be more self-absorbed than I thought.

My eyes pretend to look at the book lying in front of me as I secretly watch him talking to Janet Horsley, the captain of the school's debate team. She always had her sandy brown hair in a tight headache-worthy bun and she was constantly wearing some form of a suit as if to prepare herself for law school. I could see the crinkles of her thin lips leaning upwards every time he made a comment. That's the effect he had on people, I noticed. Making them smile with nothing more than his presence.

But before she'd even know it, he's off again, chatting to another member of our shared mixed year group form class. Her face left staring at the space he had just vacated.
I wouldn't classify him as popular. No, I wouldn't use that word. He was more well-respected. He seems to become friends with everyone he meets. So maybe I wasn't so special.

You can't tie him down to one clique. He fits in with everyone. He'll just keep bouncing from one to another like a grasshopper.

I realise that he's in year 13 not 12 like me so that meant he'll be sitting his A levels in the summer. I'm still baffled as to why I'd never acknowledged him before now.
I watch his eyes scan the whole room like he's searching for someone or something probably Kimberly Siu or Sander Eke, everyone seems to look for them.

Finally, I sense his eyes coming to a rest on me, and it stays there. His eyes are like a storm daring me to come closer. They gleam brightly while his mouth only turns up a fraction of an inch.

Odd. It's almost as if he intends to find me. I'm not sure why but I find that so hard to believe.

He begins to mouth something but before I can make it out, I swiftly turn my head back to the Shakespeare text Mrs Evergreen is making our class study for homework. I'm silently praying that he doesn't come over.

I absolutely can not deal with this right now. Not in class, not in front of everyone.

But, to my dismay, I hear his tentative footsteps approach my desk.

I quickly comb my hair through my fingers as to no avail, my tight coils stay exactly the same.
I knew I shouldn't have taken out my braids yesterday.
I adjust my sitting stature then I pause not knowing why I all of a sudden care about the way I look.

"Harley-Blair Thompson, right?" My heart flutters a little bit. He remembers my name. I suppose it was only last week but still... He remembers. Out of all the people in the schools' names, he remembers mine.
His voice is soft and inviting but I know better.

Just him standing there talking to me in front of everyone made me insanely nervous. The room is getting smaller and smaller and I can feel my voice running away from my throat, leaving it dry and scratchy. This can't be happening.

Please go away, not forever just not now or here, please not here. I plead in my head. I can't help but wish that he actually does have superpowers and would use them to disappear.

He bites his lip and nervously runs his hand through his dark tamed hair. He's clearly waiting for my response and is probably wondering whether I'm just being rude or really shy.