Maybe So

Chapter 3

I had never missed Benny Cheasey as much as I did right now. I could've bet any one a million bucks that Mr. Nickle would make this Shakesfere dude sit by me. I was fidgeting with my hands again, so much that the skin on my fingers was turning red and raw, and I could feel sweat start to trickle down the back of my neck. Why was I acting like this? What was so different about this guy? Time seemed to slow down, and I see Mr. Nickle's hand lazily sway in my direction. Jennifer's looking at me with the most giddy smile on her face as she looks from me to this new stranger, but why do I feel like I've known him before? My eyes are suddenly averted to my right as he sits down, right next to me! My pulse quickens, and all I can think of to do is look forward and pretend that I'm listening to what Mr. Nickle is saying when really I'm freaking out for some unknown strange reason.

"Hey." I almost jump all the way to the ceiling when he says that, "Oh, sorry, didn't mean to scare you," He says guiltily. Great, Meleny, smooth move, I think to myself. I try to give him a smile and say, "Hey, you're from the café, right?"

"Sorry, don't know what you're talking about," He says puzzled.

"But I saw you!" I stammer in disbelief, "How can you not remember?" Now I must truly be going crazy.

I look at him, and I swear I see some look of recognition in his face, but then he covers it up and says, "Sorry, it must have been someone else, and you are...?" Wow I didn't even introduce myself yet.

"I'm Meleny," I say, still annoyed that he didn't recognize me, because this was obviously the same person. But I also got the idea that he was deliberately trying to hide something from me.

"Nice to meet you Meleny," I like the way he says my name in his accent that's almost British, but mixed with something else, and I almost blush. "I'm Shakesfere."

"Like the writer?" I ask. Kind of a weird name, I think, but maybe it's a British thing.

"Why does everyone always ask that?" Shakesfere says almost like a laugh, "Its sounds like it, but it's spelled S-h-a-k-e-s-f-e-r-e. And please, call me Shay, everyone usually does."

"OK. Shay," I say with a half smile on my face, he was surprisingly easy to talk to. I look into his green eyes which were framed by two thick, dark eye brows barely visible from under his hair that sweeps across his forehead. I catch myself staring and awkwardly look away, though he doesn't seem to notice.

"So where are you from?" I ask, filling in the silence.

"England, my family and I moved here for my dad's job." That explained the accent.

"Do you miss it? I mean, I've never been to England, but it must be pretty sweet compared to here." I must sound so stupid, I kick myself for being so, I don't know...corny.

"Yeah," he says, and then he just stares forward for a couple of seconds as if he's reminiscing all of his memories from his mysterious past life. Then he continues, "We had a house in England, but we didn't spend much time there. My father loved to travel, especially since his job required him to go to all these exotic places like the Galapagos Islands, and somewhere in northern Russia. We would always go to different places in Europe in our caravan, live there for a couple months and then move on."

"Sounds magical," I say dreamily. I was even a little jealous, I had always wanted to go to Europe.

"Not really," Shay denies, "It was just my daily life."

"Oh." I say, not knowing what else to reply and thinking that that was a little unfair. Shay turns his head to the front of the room as if he knows exactly what Mr. Nickle is talking about. I stare at him for just a bit too long and he tilts his head slowly to give me a weird look. I instantly feel my face get six shades darker, and I refrain to staring at my feet. Why was I acting like this? What was different about this guy? On the outside he just seemed like anyone else, maybe a little annoying, which might not be totally fair, since I take a lot of people as annoying, but still.