Every love has a story. How you first met. Who said the first word.
Even mine does.
Seven o'clock is not the time anyone will think of falling in love. But as our worlds collided, we did just that. In a moment...
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CHAPTER 2
"There you are! What took you so long?" Ariel exclaimed when she saw me. She was sitting on her desk in the middle row. The window behind her was open, and the wind was blowing her dark, shoulder-length hair all over her face. That annoyed her. She reacted by standing up and slamming the window shut, much to the dismay of the two guys who were teasing some girls at the field.
"I got caught up with something." Rubbing my left arm, which took part in my earlier banging to the wall, I walked to my seat beside hers.
"Did something happen to you?" Ariel asked, her eyes lingering on my arm. Since our white blouse had short sleeves, it was hard to cover it all up.
"It's nothing. I just bumped into someone," I replied.
"Must be painful. It's all red," she noted. "Did you go to the clinic?"
"It's not as bad as it looks. Do you have the—" I was about to ask her about the book I'd lent her before summer break, when someone cut me off.
"Hey! Wait up!" he called out, but I didn't look back. Even though I had thoroughly avoided him using my fine ability to shun people out of my life, he still caught up with me.
Ariel incredulously stared at me, and then she shifted her gaze to the boy, who was persistently calling my attention. And then, out of nowhere, she blurted, "Stephen!"
"Ariel!" The recognition was mutual. Did they know each other?
"Wait, were you talking to Ela earlier?" Ariel asked him.
"You know her?" Stephen, whose name I'd just found out, asked with the same intensity of astonishment that I had. Then to me, who had my back turned against him, he asked, "Is your name Ela?"
"Micaela," I corrected.
"Micaela," Ariel repeated. I glanced up and saw her shrug. "He didn't hear. You were talking to yourself."
"I wasn't."
"You were," she stated before looking up at the one called Stephen. Ariel told him, "She's the best friend I want you to meet."
"Oh," Stephen said, and then he started laughing a bit. "What a coincidence!"
"How did you meet? I mean, what happened?" Ariel carried on.
"I bumped into her in the hall. And that's why I'm here. Ela, are you alright?" Stephen was asking the same thing he had been asking me for about a million times now.
"It's Micaela," I repeated, feeling helpless that I had to keep on repeating the same thing to him. I thought about turning around and facing Stephen, but I refrained from doing so. Instead, I continued looking at Ariel. "I'm fine?"
Stephen went over to Ariel's side, worriedly looking at me from head to toe. I blushed, pretending to look for something in my pocket. But as he stood beside Ariel, something seemed to click with the sight of them. I just couldn't point it out.
