Unconditionally Conditioned Love

March 17th

I had just broken up with my last boyfriend a few weeks prior to meeting him. I was spending the weekened in the small town that my best friend was moving to. She was trying to make me feel better. With my newly single life, I had become a little disoriented. A somewhat cute guy  I was talking to stopped suddenly and I didn't quite realize that he owed me nothing. She was very popular, knew a lot of people. On the evening of March 17th I had gotten his Snapchat. This was from the help of not just my best friend, but also my "hermano" that means brother in Spanish. They both knew that I wanted to talk to people. That I didn't want to be "tied down". My hermano gave me his snap and we started texting. I didn't think much of it at first, I was texting a few other people as was he. When Rosa saw his name pop up she couldn't stop laughing.

  "Tyler? That's who's snap he gave you!" She exclaimed, giggling.

  "What's wrong with this one?" I jokingly rolled my eyes.

  "That's the one who was trying to fuck with me when he had a girlfriend." 

  "Oh my god! Are you talking about that hot Hispanic boy?"

  "For the third time he's light skin not Hispanic." Rosa rolled her eyes but we still couldn't stop laughing. I remember now. A few months back Rosa had been telling me about this boy who was "weird" and that he had a girlfriend but flirted with everyone. I asked her to show me a picture and I'm not going to lie... he was gorgeous. Like this guy was amazing. I had point blank told her that it didn't matter if he had a girlfriend. I was joking, I had always had the type of relationship with her that we could joke about anything. She didn't really care that I was texting him. I asked her, multiple times. I always told her and myself that it didn't matter anyway. This was just a casual thing. I was never going to get attached. I kept texting him and a couple of other people. I enjoyed the rest of my weekend with Rosa. I got back home and I facetimed one of my close friends, Winston. I was telling him about my weekend when Tyler texted me asking if we could call. I was giddy and let Winston know. He understood and was excited for me. I saw his number illuminate my dark room. I immediately picked up and already couldn't stop smiling. At first it was kind of awkward. I couldn't get over how deep his voice was and I even mentioned that it sounded deep.  He would start to say something but would then stop himself. He'd say "I probably shouldn't flirt with you" I would roll my eyes and smirk. Oh I was going to flirt. This is all I wanted, just another guy to flirt with. We kept talking about small things most of which I can't remember now. Eventually he did start allowing himself to flirt. He'd ask me something and I would say "I can't remember, goldfish memory" that was the running joke of the night. I told him about my love of flannels and how I owned at least eight. He wasn't a huge fan of them but he also hadn't seen me in one, I reminded him. I learned about his family as he learned about mine. I didn't realize we had been on the phone for long until I saw the time. 2:36. We argued about staying up longer but we both knew we needed to sleep.  I never spoke on the phone with him as long as I did that night. Four hours and seventeen minutes. I went to sleep that night content. The next day we were figuring out when we could meet up. It was after first period. I remember my heart beating fast, as I'd scan the crowd of people. I finally saw him. He was tall, had warm eyes, and a beautiful smile. I felt like I was the only girl he had ever smiled like that at. We were face to face. I couldn't stop smiling. He started making conversation, asking where my next class was, what I'd be doing after school. As we walked down the hall I felt multiple sets of eyes on me. I was used to this when I was with Rosa. She was after all a somewhat popular person. But this felt different. We eventually got to my class and said goodbye. In my last class of the day I told Nicole all about him.

  "You seem to be talking about this Tyler a whole lot. Are you sure he's just a hoe?" She questioned me, with a raised brow. I laughed her off. 

  "Of course. He's nothing more and won't be anything more." This is after all what a wanted. No relationship. No commitment. After a while the bell rang and it was time for me to go home. I saw Tyler as I was walking out. I stopped and told Rosa I'd meet her on the bus. I walked up to him. We flirted lightly and I ran my hand down his collarbone to the cross he was wearing. I wasn't very religious. After everything that's happened I'm still not. But it was rather beautiful. I played with the silver piece of metal, and it had a ring around it that I had found intriguing. His breathing hitched and voice became husky.  We talked a bit about our upcoming exam for Algebra, as well as mindless flirting. I checked my phone for the time,  I knew I had to go. I walked away from him with a smile on my face. I got on the bus and sat with Rosa like always. She started discussing some type of drama. I leaned back and watched as we drove away from school and Tyler.