The Boy Who Was Way Too Quiet

It happened in Bio.

There was a sub that day.

So kids were messing around. Checking phones under their desk. Someone had a thing of Skittles.

And the seat next to Leah was empty.

Leah.

She caught him looking at her. A moment of oh-shit panic. He said the word Sorry! in his head. But she smiled at him.

That smile.

Perfect. Like a toothpaste commercial. 

He couldn't help it. He smiled back big. Too big.

The seat next to her was empty.

He thought: Man up. This is it. Sit next to her.

H-Hey, Leah.

There was that smile again. And then they were talking.

She told him that her little sister's goldfish had just died. And their dad was just going to flush the poor little guy, but her sister had a fit. Like she made Mr. McSplashy -- that was the fish -- a shoebox coffin and everything. 

The boy laughed. Was it okay to laugh about a dead golfish? He felt another flash panic. But she laughed, too.

It was easy to sit next to her. Just like it used to be. Why had it been so long since they'd talked? Back in fourth and fifth grade, when they would lay their towels next to each other at Brookside Pool. Share nachos and jokes and easy silences. Why did they stop texting in middle school? Here it was, the last week of tenth grade, and they hadn't spoken in what -- five years? What happened that said you had to stop being friends with a girl?

The boy knew the answer to that.

He always had trouble summoning the right words. But especially with a girl he had a massive crush on. Leah.

She was still going on about Mr. McSplashy's coffin. Her little sister put a sock in the shoebox, like a cushion and -- RRRRRING!

Everybody started packing up their bags. Leah bit her lip and looked at him. She seemed disappointed. 

The boy stammered out: Hey if you're around this weekend, do you want to meet up at Brookside like we used to?

Her face lit up. She was nodding her blonde head before she even said yes.

Yes?

Nope.

It didn't happen like that.

Leah smiled at him. But that was all. He didn't sit next to her. They didn't talk that day.

It was a day like every other one.

Plus the seat next to Leah wasn't empty. It never was. She was always sitting next to Brandon Tate.