My Mediocre Love Life Chronicles: The Crush

The Friendzone

"I hate him," Maya muttered as she buried her head in her crossed arms.

"No you don't," Trisha said as she continuously poked her friend's arm. "Now stop moping and help me with this worksheet."

"I know, I know. I'm just disappointed that it wasn't me."

"You are too good for him anyway," Trisha replied. "You could do a lot better and besides, there's a lot of fish in the sea."

"Can you not be so cliche?" Maya asked as she laughed at how corny it sounded.  She picked her head up from the desk. Maya wasn't sure why she should feel so sad about it. They were just friends after all. They weren't gonna get married, have kids and spend the rest of their lives together or anything. 

Still, the thought of Ashton with another girl wrapped around his arms left a bitter taste in her mouth and she felt herself frown just thinking about it. 

Oh well, she thought, it'll go away with time, I guess. 

*******

Ashton was not in a good mood. He looked around his second block, which was culinary arts. He wasn't sure why he thought taking this class was a good idea. Sure, he needed a class to fill in a spot in his schedule but he regretted not taking something else like biology. The class was boring and since it was the introductory class, not much cooking was done. 

Even though the class was tedious and boring, that was not the reason why Ashton wanted to barely get out of bed that morning. He couldn't believe that Maya had a crush on some guy named Roy. Who even named their kid Roy? What kind of name is that? Sounded like a douchebag name to him. The guy was probably some jerk that didn't know how to treat a girl well, Ashton was sure of it. 

Okay, he was assuming too much. Ashton had to admit to himself that his disappointment was only speaking for him. Ever since the first day of school, he'd had a crush on Maya. He had been new to the area. His family had moved from San Francisco, California, to Medford, Oregon. Ashton had been less than eager to start over on making friends. That first day, he had so far made zero friends. It wasn't that Ashton was antisocial or anything. He just never tended to make the first move on talking to people. It just wasn't his thing. 

He had been the first to enter and sit alone in American History class. Lunch was that block as well and Ashton had resigned himself to being alone there too. He was writing the warm up in his notebook when he had suddenly heard someone say hi. He turned around and in front of him was Maya, the girl that had changed all that. 

It wasn't like he was head over heels for her in that instant or anything. He was just happy that someone had actually talked to him. It was more of a gradual process type of thing. A few weeks after getting acquainted with each other and eating lunch together at their usual table, she had laughed at one of his stupid jokes and Ashton realized that he liked her laugh. A lot. For the rest of the class period that they had, he tried really hard to make her laugh just to hear it again. It confused him at first. It seemed strange to care so much about someone's laugh and after careful thought that day when he got home, he concluded that he liked Maya as more than a friend. He didn't get crushes that often, but this one hit him hard as soon as he realized it. 

And now he couldn't even do anything about it because she was already thinking of someone else. He'd never get the chance with her. There really wasn't much to do but accept it and move on. It was easier said than done though. How did you get over someone you see everyday? 

Ashton sighed, I guess that means I better figure it out then.