Be My Date? [A NEWTINA STORY]

one

"You're staring again."

Newt jolted at the sound of his best friend's voice. He tore his gaze away from the brunette sitting a few tables away from him to look at the other brunette that sat beside him. He blinked at her, brows furrowed.

"What?" he blurted.

Leta raised a brow, her face screaming 'Really?'. She sighed, leaning back in her seat, arms crossed. She stared at him for a few seconds, then jerked her head with a quick glance towards the brunette Newt was staring at.

Newt only cocked his head.

"Newt," Leta sighed. "You're practically drooling." She pointed to the left corner of her mouth.

Blushing, Newt quickly wiped the "drool" from his mouth (turns out he was, but not that much!). "No, I'm not," he denied, glaring. "Shut up, you're insane!" he added in a whisper.

"Yeah, you're right," Leta snickered, poking him with the eraser of her pencil. She stretched and returned to the sketch she was doing for her art class. As she drew a few more lines, she added, "What would you ever see in Tina Goldstein?"

"What?!" Newt gasped, feeling offended.

Leta paused her work to glare at him, hissing, "Shh! You're too loud! Do you want Miss Pince to kick us out?" Newt blushed and shrunk back into his chair.

"Sorry..." he murmured. Then, he continued (softly, this time), "Tina's amazing! She's funny, beautiful, smart—" wait a minute.

In front of him, Leta sniggered into her sketchbook.

Newt gaped at her, eye wide in disbelief. How dare she? He thought, burying his face into his hands. "I can't believe I fell for that," he mumbled.

"You sure did!" laughed Leta feebly. She drew a couple more details into her sketch before continuing. "But seriously," she began, "why can't you just ask her out?"

Newt's eye widened and he hastily shook his head. "Leta, you know I can't do that!" he spluttered. He looked at the brunette—Tina—across the library again. She was reading a thick book which Newt could only guess was that enormously thick history book that no one dared to read (or even pull out from its shelf, for that matter).

A small smile formed on his lips, unbeknownst to him.

Tina Goldstein was Newt's crush from the start of high school. For him, she was the most beautiful girl he had ever met. He first met her after running into her in one of the hallways of the school, when was running late for his history class. Newt could vividly remember feeling suddenly speechless when his eyes met hers.

"They looked like salamander eyes, Leta!" Newt had gushed that day, as he and Leta walked to their next class together. "They...they looked amazing!"

Newt had a few run-ins with her after that, but they didn't so much as utter one single word to each other. Sure, they shared a few classes, but Newt always sat at the back of the class while she sat somewhere across the room in the first three rows, so it was virtually impossible to talk to her (not to mention that most of their teachers were pretty strict when it comes to talking in class).

Newt longed all year to talk to her, to get to know her.

But, of course, when the opportunity arrives, he would revert to his introverted self and follow the flight response from his fight-or-flight instinct, fearing that he might make a fool of himself.

He actually got his wish, though, during their sophomore year, when they were paired up for a biology project.

It was so awkward at first. Newt didn't know what to say to her when she moved to sit beside him to discuss their plans for the project. It was Tina who spoke first, relieving him. But, deep inside, he felt really embarrassed.