PEICE NUMERO UNO

She was standing in the hallway, laughing with her friend who was taking books out of her locker, when an unfamiliar voice was heard. “Hey, can I talk to you for a second?” he said shyly as his face became red. She turned around and saw that it was him: Bobby. He was the new kid in school. His hair swooped across his forehead, a piece falling into his eyes. She didn’t know anything about him other than the one time her math teacher called on him and his voice cracked.
“Hey, yeah,” she said. “What’s up?” Her friends left her.
“I know you don’t know me, at all actually, but I think you’re really pretty, and I wrote you a poem.” Her eyes darted to the ground, and her wide smile grew weaker.
“Oh,” She whispered at a loss for words.
“Yeah, um, I thought that if you weren’t doing anything tonight, or this weekend, that we could hang out, and maybe go see a movie or something.”
“Uh, yeah, um” She tried to smile kindly to hold back her laughter as she saw her friends hysterical laughing from across the hallway.
“I wrote my number on there, so you can text me.” He said, still staring right into her eyes.
“Okay, sounds good,” She said. The girl stood still after Bobby walked away.
She couldn’t believe what just happened, and tried to regain her balance as she heard some snickers throughout the hallway. Shuffling along to class, thoughts were rushing through her mind. The girl stalked into her next class and instantly the whispers started once more. She plopped down in her seat, and pulled out a pen and a sheet of paper, but didn’t even write anything. Her mind was focused not on the forming of ionic bonds that her teacher was droning on about, but about Bobby. I kind of like him, I mean he’s pretty cute…she thought. As she was contemplating about this dilemma, she remembered the poem is quickly stuffed into her pocket in the hallway earlier. She slipped it out, and began to read it.
“Captor of my eye, beholder of my thoughts…” She put the crumpled paper face down on the desk, and tried to hold in the bit of laughter that was struggling to break free. Then again, he is a little creepy… and I’m not sure he has many friends... She slumped in her seat, as her mind wandered into the future of a plethora of “What ifs?”
The bell rang and the students rose, but the confused and anxious girl was the last. She knew she would have to face him sometime. Thoughts whipped around her head as she obliviously walked through the hallways. She thought about what others would think, because she couldn’t bear any more humiliation.
Throughout the rest of her day, she took the routes that she knew would allow her to avoid Bobby. She analyzed every little aspect of him. She realized that at first, he was a cute, nice guy that was a little shy. Now, he was a lonely, desperate guy who wrote creepy poems. After careful thought, and about a thousand opinions from her friends, she decided that she would just nicely turn him down.
Collapsing on the couch after a long, dreadful day, she pulled out her phone, and began to type. “Hey Bobby, u seem relee kewl, but we should just b friends. Thnx 4 the poem, it was rele sweet :D” That should work. It’s a little straight forward, but I don’t want to lead him on.
Whenever they passed in the hallways after that moment, there was an obvious awkwardness between the two, and their eyes would drift to the floor and their smiles fade. They never talked again, all throughout high school, and well into their adult lives.
10 years later, at their high school reunion, the once confused and indecisive girl stood by the door as a successful, confident woman. A moment later, a tall, muscular man walked through the door, and shook hands with someone off to the left, flashing a beaming smile at the crowd before him. Wow, she thought, who is that? She looked around, and walked closer to the man. Something inside her told her to just go over to him and say hello. As she came closer, he turned and smiled once more. Before catching his eyes, she caught his name tag which read, “Bobby.”
Immediately her memories of high school came rushing back, and she glared unbelievingly into his eyes, and thought, “What if?”