Roses POV
I never meant to fall in love with him. That’s the funny thing about love. It’s an uncontrollable force of nature, like a hurricane or a tornado. There is always destruction left behind, something is always different afterwards. Though it’s a terrifying concept, a hurricane, it is also very beautiful, just as love is. In the eye of the storm, it is almost deadly calm. This is the place where it seems that maybe the storm is over, that everything will be alright. Then the storm moves on, but you stay rooted to the ground until it is torn up around you. Like I said, love and storms walk hand in hand.
I sat and stared at meaningless numbers on the board. Mr. Siggman just kept talking and talking in his droning voice about some type of math. My eyelids slowly started to slip. A hand shook my shoulder. A shock ran through me, and I sat bolt right up, expecting Mr. Siggman. “Wake up Rose, you were falling asleep.” Zoe Yin whispered. Zoe’s my best friend. “Thanks.” I whispered. She shrugged, keeping me awake in class was like her part time job.
All of the rest of my classes up until lunch felt like pure hell. Every time I looked at the clock, it seemed like it was frozen. Finally, at noon, it was time for lunch. I bought a slice of pizza and a bottle of water and met my group of friends at our table. Zoe was there of course, and so were Bailey Rollins and her boyfriend, Lucas Adams. They’d been dating since freshman year and now we were juniors so I guess it had been almost three years. Corbin Lew perched on the edge of the table holding a bag of potato chips. He was the goofball of the group, always joking around. He went to the formal homecoming ball this year wearing a chicken costume. It certainly made a statement.
“Hey there Sleeping Beauty!” He joked as I took my usual place next to Zoe, “How many times did Zoe have to kiss you this morning to keep you awake?” I punched his arm. “You think you could've done any better?” I laughed. Her rubbed his arm and rolled his eyes.“I don’t think it’d be that interesting, you’ve only kissed like two guys in your lifetime. Probably not experienced enough.” Corbin said. I threw a slice of pepperoni at his curly mop of a head.“Three guys, nosy. Since when do you keep count?” My face, I’m sure, was beet red.
Everyone always teased me about the fact that I almost never dated. This wasn’t because people didn’t want to date me, I was probably asked out more than anyone at this table. It made me sick to my stomach. There was something about my long blonde hair and dark blue eyes that made guys start drooling. Even Lucas and Corbin had done that the first time I met them in third grade. They got over pretty fast once we became friends. Then Lucas and Bailey met in seventh grade and it was an instant love at first sight kind of thing. A yelp pulled me out of my reverie. Zoe was sitting on the floor with her legs still in their place under the table.
“Knock it off guys!” She said, but the feverish light in her eyes told me that she didn’t want anybody to stop messing with her. If there weren’t any crazy stuff going on around her, life would just be too boring. Her light green eyes flickered to the door of the cafeteria, which was opening. I couldn’t see clearly but I did see a new kid. I saw that one of the stereotypical teenage girls at our high school, Littleton High, had been assigned to give him a tour of the place. I could also see that he wasn’t really paying attention to her.
They started walking our way. Everyone looked down. I stood with my empty water bottle, hoping to throw it out and return before they got to us. Wham! I collided with someone and my empty bottle fell.
“Sorry!” I apologized as I reached down to retrieve the trash, “I didn’t see…” my words trailed off as I spun around to see who I had run into. That second, the entire world stopped spinning and I was floating. Time slowed down as my eyes met up with a pair of intent, and plain beautiful, chocolate brown ones fringed with light brown eyelashes.
“No problem.” He said and held out his hand, “I’m Ryan.” I shook it. His hand was really warm, and really soft. I smiled.“Rose.” Amy rolled her eyes.“As you have witnessed, this is the loser table.” She drawled. Ryan still didn’t move his eyes from mine. “That’s debatable…” Corbin joked. She narrowed her icy blue eyes to slits. “Ryan, we should go to the table where mature people sit.” Amy commanded. I turned my head to her.“You have no power here, now be gone before someone drops a house on you.” I quoted the good witch from the wizard of oz. Corbin flicked a French fry like a wand in her direction. She licked her lips.“Come on, Ryan.” She said and grabbed his arm. He shot me an apologetic look before he followed her to their table.
“So sad, first new junior of the year and he’s sacrificed to them.” Bailey clicked her tongue. I stared after him as he walked away, a smile toying with the corners of my lips. “Earth to Rose.” Zoe snapped her fingers in front of my face. I blinked.“Sorry, I just… I dunno.” I mumbled as I sat down again. Bailey’s eyes widened.“Oooohhhh, I think little Rosy Posy’s got a crush.” She sang. I blushed.“Oh please, I just met him.” I wasn’t so sure. The way he’d looked at me… I felt like fainting. “Ah, love at first sight, how precious!” Zoe squeaked. I rolled my eyes.“Shut up, Yin.”
As the day continued, I found myself craning my neck just hoping for a glimpse of Ryan, praying he was in my next class or that his locker was near mine. It was humiliating yet I couldn’t bring myself to stop. By the time the bell rang, I’d basically given up looking. I gathered my stuff, and marched out the front door without searching once (not without effort I must admit). I had just started towards the path I take to get home when someone tapped on my shoulder. I turned around to see those same brown eyes again.
“Ryan, hi.” I said trying not to sound too desperate. He smiled and I noticed a dimple on his cheek. My heart stopped. “Hey Rose,” I loved how it sounded when he said my name, “Listen I was thinking that… maybe you might…I don’t know if you would want to…” he stuttered and talked really slowly. I gave him an encouraging smile as I took out a piece of notebook paper and a pen.“Here’s my number. I’m free Friday night.” I said. He grinned.“Cool, that’d be great. I’ll call you.”
It felt like I was floating as I walked home. There was no way I was getting that face out of my head. The sandy blonde hair, the super light freckles across his nose, and his eyes... wow. I was the fish and his eyes were the little minnow on the end of a fishing line, pulling me in.
