Lutteoficweek

A stranger's game

  Lutteoficweek Day 3: „My friend bet me 20 bucks that I wouldn't walk up to a random underclassman and ask them to senior prom and I'm about to be 20 dollars richer and no, that doesn't invalidate the question, you're actually really cute."  

"Gastón, no, how many more times do I have to say it?", Matteo inquired with no intention of hiding how annoyed he was, his mood clearly reflected in his voice. "I won't ask Ámbar, I'd rather be locked in my room for the rest of the school year."

"Come on, just look at you", Gastón argued, "It can't be that hard to find you a date."

Matteo stopped. Outright froze on his spot, not caring about the other students in the hallway that now had to avoid running into him. "I don't want a date. I want to go with you and the guys and just enjoy the evening!", he stated.

His best friend turned to him, wearing a smirk he couldn't quite understand. Not that he paid it much attention though, after all Gastón behaved a bit weird since he started crushing on a girl he met on the internet. "Well, I bet...", Gastón started out and suddenly Matteo regretted dismissing that evil grin so easily, "That you won't walk up to a random girl right here, right now and ask her to prom or else I'll owe you 20 bucks."

Surprised, Matteo raised an eyebrow at his best friend. Had he lost his mind? "You really want to bet on this?" Gastón nodded. "Okay, watch and learn, buddy."

He strolled through the hallway for several minutes already, but honestly Matteo felt clueless as to who he wanted to ask. Well, a little brunette crossed his mind, but neither did he know her name nor was she around to be seen. So, he kept checking the other girls out. (None of them managed to spark some interest in him.)

Just when he considered giving up, someone bumped into him out of nowhere.

Before he knew it, a girl appeared in his vision and they were both tripping towards the floor. He regained his balance in a blink and found her secured in his arms. A few moments passed until he took a closer look.

Green big eyes. Brown curls falling into her face. Matteo recognized her, remembered her face in an instant. That's when he knew he had found the perfect girl for his quest.

"Oh my... I am so sorry", she stammered while she untangled herself from him. "Don't be", he smiled at her. His lips curled up without him even trying to and he wondered if it seemed weird. Probably not as weird as what left his mouth next, though: "I've actually been looking for you. Kind of."

"What? You?", her eyes flew over him, "Looking for me?"

He had no intention of scaring her away with a teasing comment or a cocky smile – the grin Gastón called 'worthy of the king of the Blake and the way into any girl's heart' – nonetheless holding it back turned out to get incredibly hard when a hint of pink spread out on her cheeks. Damn, she was adorable.

"You seem nervous, if I mess with you like this and swept you off your feet just with that uniform, wait until you see me in a tuxedo." (There went his resolution of not saying something stupid...)

"What?"

A quick glance in Gastón's direction told Matteo that his friend followed his every move. So, he decided to straight up go for it. "Do you want to go to prom with me?"

The girl stared at him, eyes wide open. Well, he hadn't expected an outburst of joy and excitement (okay, maybe), but this wasn't what he had in mind either.

"I don't think so, sorry", she finally replied. Hesitation tinted her voice, yet she took a step back and shook her head.

A knot settled in Matteo's throat, bothering him to no end. There wasn't a single good reason for him to feel disappointed. Tons of girls visited this school. All he had to do was to search for another one, one who gladly jumped at the opportunity. But his heart couldn't be argued with, he simply didn't want to ask anyone else.