First Love

<7> Outburst

3rd Person's POV

Alex and Toni were together, walking to their next class.

"So, you really have no plans on telling the guys?" Alex suddenly asked as they were walking together. Toni just sighed and shook her head making Alex just take a deep breath as well.

"But, what if the day came when he'd confront you?" Alex quietly asked once again but was loud enough for Toni to hear. Toni didn't say anything but shrugged.

'I honestly don't know...' Toni thought, answering her best friend's question in her head.

'You're making it hard on yourself too...'  Alex thought as she looked at her best friend. 

~~~~

"Aaaah... I don't know what to do anymore" Vince groaned as they were chilling at the bench by their school. "Nothing seems to be working nor improving" Josh added, sighing. "Thanks, guys but, I think you've done enough" Steven muttered as his face was buried in his arms.

"Dude, I just can't stand not being able to see you as your usual self" Josh stated. Vince looked at him as he raised his eyebrow. "Yeah, right. You probably just miss Alex being with us" Vince teased and nudged Josh's shoulder. "Bro, I'm serious. But,... I guess you can say that's another one of my reasons..." Josh shrugged and looked away as he was feeling his face heat up.

Steven just chuckled a bit but then sighed and closed his eyes.

He'd been like this for days and he still couldn't figure out the reason.

He hasn't been able to sleep well on those days too.

Though he might have said that he gave up, there was still a part of him that wanted to ask Toni her reasons.

'Should I just.. go ask her one last time...?' he thought to himself.

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After days of thinking about whether he would confront Toni.

Of course, he was scared. He kept on overthinking about possible things that may happen if he confronted Toni.

He was scared of how Toni might react. He was scared of seeing her looking at him as if she was so terrified to even see him. Loads of what-ifs came into his mind which kept him up every night.

~~~~

Steven took a deep breath, gathering all of his courage left in him as soon as he saw Toni by the school's garden, reading a book. 

As soon as he was to approach her, someone suddenly called her making him stop his tracks. He stopped and decided to turn back.

'Maybe next time...' Steven thought. 

~~~~~

"Okay, class, get a partner before starting this assignment" the teacher announced. Steven stood up and looked at Toni, thinking that this might be his chance. 

He slowly approached her and tapped her shoulder. "Hey Toni, can we-" he was cut off even before he could ask. "Sorry Steven but, I'll be pairing up with Toni this time. maybe next time" Stacy, one of the students stated and winked at Steven as she grabbed onto Toni's arm. 

This made Toni sigh in relief. 

Vince and Josh saw this and approached Steven. 'Yeah..maybe next time'  Steven thought and sighed. 

~~~~~

In the library, Steven saw Toni there reading and taking notes. 

He slowly approached her and tapped her shoulder. Toni looked at the person who tapped her shoulder and to her surprise, it was Steven. Her gaze then shifted away, trying to avoid eye contact. "H-hey, Steven..." she greeted, turning her attention back to her things, starting to fix it. "Can I talk to you for a while? It wouldn't take long" Steven asked softly as he watched her fix her things, putting them back in her bag.  "Sorry, uhm- I forgot that I had some other stuff to do." Toni quickly replied and stood up as she passed by Steven and left.