I Sell T-Shirts to my Crush

Chapter 7: Be Cool Bro

Tyler's POV:
"Dude chill out, she'll totally recognize your that guy who works at the t-shirt shop. How can she not?" Jax asks, slipping on his backpack.

I grab my binder and follow him. "One way is not looking at me. Another she'll just plain out not recognize me. Oh and-"

"Bro you gotta chill. You sound so stressed." He says, in his own calm attitude.

He slows behind me and starts massaging my shoulders. I don't know why, but this is just making me more stressed. "Ok stop! It isn't helping." I say, shrugging until his hands fall off. He comes back next to me, running his hand through his curls.

Not again.

I turn my head forward and there's a few girls giggling, staring at us. Or just Jax.

I just watch as he uses his flirtatious charm to make the girls giggle and smile. When we're passing by them, Jax says, "Nice skirt hermosa, it looks cute."

"Thanks!" Says the girl wearing the red skirt.

"No, he was talking to me." Argues the girl wearing a pokadot skirt.

"Nu-uh, me." Speaks the third girl, wearing a violet skirt.

After we pass, I can hear them fighting over who got complemented. "Your such a flirt. I wish I could flirt." I say, letting my shoulders drop. "It's easy man, just use your eyes." He informs me, wiggling his eyebrows.

I didn't know he could do that. "Umm ... yeah I can't do that." I tell him honestly.

We walk into the lunchroom, and instantly I spot her. Katie's at her table with her friends, and it looks like she was crying. Her eyes are reddish and her face is all gloomy.

"She looks very dejected." I say, watching her friends comfort her. "Maybe this isn't the time to help her with her homework, not if she's sad about something." I talk to Jax.

"This is the perfect time to talk to her! She'll listen to what you have to say if you converse to her! Go, go! Ask to help her!" Jax starts pushing me over to their table. "No Jax- Wait!" I pushing my back against him, but he continues to push me towards Katie.

Like a minute later she's right in front of me, and Jaxon just ran away to get lunch.

What kind of friend just shoves you behind your crush, then runs away to get food? I would hope mine wouldn't be one of those people.

I try taping her shoulder, and the guy to the left of Katie says, "There's some guy trying to get your number."

"What?! No I just-" Katie raises her hand in the air, shushing everyone at the whole table, and sighs with annoyed tone. Well she's not in a good mood, as if I couldn't tell before. She stands up, turning to face me. Instantly Katie's attitude went from annoyed to relieved, from seeing me. I don't know if that's good or bad, but lets go with it's a good thing.

"Oh you came to help me with my homework, right?" Katie asks, tying her hair into a ponytail. "Yeah I-"

"Ok guys I gotta go, see y'all next period." She tells all her friends, grabbing her lunch and backpack. Everyone at the table says goodbye to Katie.

Katie then starts walking to the door of the cafeteria. When she's at the door, she throws away her lunch. She also turns on her heels to face me. "Are you coming?" She inquires.

Not responding, I follow her footsteps to the door out of the cafeteria. She smiles and continues walking, with me trailing behind her. Wow, I'm actually studying with Katie, or, help her with her homework.

How many people can say that?

"Uh Katie, where are we going?" I ask, wondering why we couldn't work in the cafeteria.

"The library. It's quiet, filled with books, and there's nobody in there to distract us." She explains, strolling down the hallway. We walk into the library, and like dogs, the five people in there look straight at us. Actually, when I follow their eyes, they're looking at Katie.

Katie's unphased by the eyes, and continues to a table in the back of the library.

I follow her awkwardly, feeling like a shadow. When we walked in, nobody looked at me; they were literally all staring at Katie. Creeps.

Katie goes to the far side of the round table; then, she drops all her things on the table. "Ok ... let's get to work." She says, sitting down.

I place my things down on the table and sit opposite from her.

I don't know why, but I feel like she's doing this not because she wants to practice, but because of ... something. And she didn't seem happy about something when sitting with her friends; maybe it's that.

I would ask, but she seems, occupied. She's already gotten the work from algebra out and is staring blankly at the paper again.

"Do you need assistance?" I cut into her stare.

She blinks back into reality, looking at me. "Oh I almost forgot you were here. Yeah, how do I do number 2?" She presses, sliding the problem over to me. Just looking at the page, I know this is easy. "Absolute value is easy, weren't you paying attention yesterday?" I ask her while writing the problem out.

She shakes her head no. "I'm not good at math. Also ... I kinda-sorta didn't pay attention."

"Don't worry, that's why I'm here." And I continue in showing her how to solve for x in the equation.

After the talk, Katie smiles, "This is easier than I thought." She moves on to number 3, solving it correctly. "That's right! Good job!" I congratulate her.

Katie starts partying in her seat, singing, "I did it. I did it." She looks at my face, smiling. I smile back, but when I do, she looks confused. "Are you Ok?" I ask confused.

She leans in closer, a few inches away from my face. What is happening?! Is she trying to kiss me?

"I've seen you before, I just can't ... remember where." She says aloud, sitting back down. Oh good, I'm not ready for a kiss. I was so nervous, my hands were sweating up a storm. "Yeah I- oh I almost forgot-" I reach into the side of my bag and pull out her lipstick.

I hand it out to her, and she snatches it. "Did you steal it?!" She asks me heated.

"You technically gave it to me. Please don't be mad!" I beg, putting my hands in the air. She scrunches her eyebrows. "I never gave anyone this you'd have to ... wait." She reaches into her backpack, pulling out her purse. She puts her lipstick back in her purse, then her purse back in her bag.

Why did she just stop talking? I just noticed she jumps from one thing to another. Focused one second, angry another, then calm again.

"Hey, aren't you the guy who sells T-shirts by the Academy?" Katie asks me.

Oh my god she knows.

"Yeah ... I thought you'd never know." I say. She's never noticed me before! Inside, I'm jumping crazily. She finally knows who I am!

Writing down the answer the 4th question she asks, "What's your name again?"

Never mind, she doesn't.