The Two Middles

Chapter 1: Ready for him?

I leaned back against the seat of my car, sighing. I had never been one for punctuality, and yet here I was - half an hour early to school. I hadn't been able to contain my excitement. God, the things that boy did to me. I checked my phone for the time - 7:40. Mel wasn't gonna be here for another twenty minutes and I had nothing better to do than think about him.

Ian Bowen was my high school crush. I'd met him when I was in the fifth grade. We'd been in the same class and he would sit behind me everyday. Not because he liked me, but because the teacher had assigned us seats, making sure to separate us from our friends. My friends and I were seated far away from each other and so were his friends and he. We had no one to talk to except each other. So we did. He'd asked me my name and we sort of took off from there. Our seats hadn't changed for the rest of the year and we would talk everyday. He was sort of a pretty boy, with green eyes a little lighter than my own and blonde hair. But it wasn't his looks I had fallen for. It was his playful yet beautiful attitude. He'd always been nice to me. Always. For that one year that we were acquaunted with each other, We teased, harrased, laughed at each other and it was amazing.

As fifth grade came to an end, I realized I'd fallen for the beautiful boy who used to sit behind me. After that, we lost any kind of touch and went back to being strangers. I hadn't directly tried talking to him but whenever we brushed against each other in the hallways or made any kind of eye contact, he'd never smiled or made any sort of gesture towards me. To top it all off, we didn't have any classes together until freshman year. But I'd always loved him. Ever since the fifth grade. I'd been acquainted with him for no more than a year, but that was enough for me to fall in deep for him. It was clear he didn't return my feelings, but that had stopped being my biggest priority. As long as I didn't see him with another girl, I was cool with just admiring him from afar.

By freshman year, people had stopped caring about assigned seats so students just sat wherever they wanted to, i.e. with their friends. Ian and I weren't exactly friends, so we never sat together. We had one class together and sat far apart from each other. our interaction was almost nil, and our only way of communication was glances. From time to time I'd catch him turning his head swiftly to look at me and then quickly look away. I'd do the same. We never looked at each other at the same time. We hadn't even smiled at each other.

Freshman year skipped along with just those glances. Those mere looks would make my day.

We hadn't had any classes together in sophomore year either, and that got us back to being strangers.

Ian had grown up to be a very attractive person, with the light green eyes and blonde hair and the muscles. He was a popular guy. His love life went on and off. I didn't know much about the girls he dated, and preffered not to. It hurt too much.

We were complete opposites, Ian and I. He was Mr. Popular who sat with the other Mr. Populars and Ms. Populars at lunch. He rocked the football team of our school and everybody knew of his existence. Whereas I was a good student who had a small group of friends and sat with them at lunch. I sucked at sports, and loved to read. My eyes were green too, but darker than Ian's. I had light brown hair that reached up to the middle of my back. i wasn't a classified nerd, I wasn't invisible, but I wasn't popular either.

I belonged to the group of few who were just in the middle. Let's take it like this - high school was a tree with flowers and thorns. I wasn't a flower, but I wasn't a thorn either. I was like, somewhere in the middle. like a leaf. Yes, like a leaf. Preferably a yellowed autumn leaf, because I like autumn leaves. And I had no problem with that. I loved where I stood, because i had amazing friends who stood with me. We'd found each other and had stuck together. We trusted each other more than anyone else and loved one another too much. Well, we were leaves, weren't we? yellowed autumn leaves.

I sighed as I checked my phone again - 7:40. Mel opened the passenger door and climbed inside.

Melody was my best friend. I picked her up everyday for school, except first days. We'd both agreed that on the first days of school, we'd come on our own and meet directly in school. Why? Because Melody tended to get a litte nervous on first days. She was the best at giving crazy pep talks and preffered to give herself one on her way to school. She was determined that these pep talks needed to be given to herself in privacy, so she could say anything she wanted to without thinking twice. Weird, I know. But this was the kind of weird I didn't mind. I loved Melody too much to mind her eccentricities.

"Ready for school?" I asked, smiling.

"Yep! Ready for him?" she returned.

I bit my lip and smiled. "Completely." I said.