Seeing Double

Ghosted - Part 2

Paulina Sanchez was definitely pretty. Her hair was long and thick. It had a slight wave to it. Her skin was lovely and tan and, well, her jeans hugged her in all the great places. Her shirt too.

He hadn't noticed her before because they didn't share any classes. She was just another pretty face in the crowd. But now Danny found himself looking for her in the hallways.

She was a cheerleader. Maybe that's another reason he hadn't noticed her. All her friends were the kind of people he hated. That is to say, they were Dash's crowd.

He couldn't stand anything that reminded him of that dumb jock.

Paulina was someone better left alone, he thought. Yet when he accidentally made eye contact with her, he couldn't help smiling. It was an automatic reaction.

And isn't it just common courtesy to smile? What was he supposed to do?

Her locker was way too close to his.

The school day was over, he was just grabbing the last of his things and he really didn't want to be thinking about her anymore. He shouldn't have looked her way. He shouldn't have smiled.

Paulina seemed to consider it an invitation. She walked over to him and smiled sweetly. She tucked some hair behind her ear.

"That was hilarious at lunch," she said. "Your little slime prank."

"Thanks, I'll be here all week," Danny said. "Actually, I'll be trapped until graduation."

Paulina tilted her head and politely laughed a dainty little confused kind of laugh. "Oh?"

"Nevermind," Danny said. He just wanted to go home. "Have a good weekend."

"It's Thursday," Paulina said. She tucked another strand of hair behind her other ear.

"Really? That's too bad." He started walking backwards towards the door. "Have a great weekend and a great Friday, then."

She giggled, trailing after him. "I'm going in the same direction, dork."

He smacked his forehead and stopped walking. "Yes, of course." He held his arm out towards the exit. "Ladies first. I'll just loiter here for five minutes."

"Or we could walk together?" Paulina said. She was blinking a little quickly now. Was this how girls flirted?

"Nah, I wouldn't want to soil your reputation or anything."

"Puh-lease," Paulina said. She brushed a bit of hair over her shoulder just so she could then flip that hair behind her again. "My reputation will always be flawless."

At a loss, Danny shrugged. "Alright."

So they walked out of the building, shoulder to shoulder. Danny kept an eye out for Dash, but the guy never made an appearance.

He ended up walking Paulina all the way to the parking lot, somehow.

"Hey Danny," she said. "You have a date to the dance yet?"

This could not be happening. "Uh, no."

"Yeah? Me neither!" Paulina clapped her hands and did this weird -but cute- little hop.

"What a remarkable coincidence," Danny said. He tugged at the hairs on the back of his neck. "Actually, I find that very hard to believe. So hard to believe that I, in fact, don't believe it."

"Well okay," Paulina giggled. "A few people did ask me."

"Oh really?"

"And I might have said yes to someone," she said. She nibbled on her bottom lip. Not the way he often did, chomping down and drawing blood.