Yes, I Am

Chapter Two.

My butterflies were a tubelight. That was the  only explanation I was able to form after another night of deep thinking. They were supposed to go all fluttery when I met Betty, instead they woke up a little late (okay, very late) and went into a Prozac-induced frenzy when I saw Caleb. They were just sluggish, that was all.

Granted the evening I spent with him was more fun than I had ever had in my life, even though all we did was sit and talk whilst ignoring the five-six-something friends of his. They were supposedly in his soccer team or something, not that I understood a lot of the words that came out of his mouth when he smiled in the insanely attractive way of his. All I could see was Caleb and his handsome face and his dimples and the slightly upturned collar of his shirt that he didn't notice. At one point, my hands inadvertently stretched forward to smooth down the collar and I could swear his eyes heated up.

But I still had my rationalizations. So when Betty sat down beside me again the next day in class and started to tease me, I wasn't very happy about it because it was a direct attack on my carefully made up stories.

"How was your date with that guy last night?" she asked slyly.

"My date with you was quite fun, thank you," I said pointedly.

"Don't be a spoilsport." She bumped her shoulder painfully with mine. "What's his name?"

A sassy response was ready at the tip of my tongue but I discarded it. "Caleb."

"What does he do?"

"He's in the Criminal Justice Institute of Valencia College. He transferred from Australia on a sports scholarship a couple of months ago," I said.

"Criminal justice and a jock. That sounds really sexy," she said.

"Enough with the smirking already," I groaned. "It wasn't a date. His friends were there."

"And exactly how much attention did both of you pay to his friends?" she said smugly. God, she and Austin would be perfect for each other.

"A lot," I said lamely. "I don't like him. Shut up." Yep, that did not make me look like the guilty deer in the headlights at all. Or like a middle schooler.

"Tell me what happened yesterday. I'll be the judge of whether you do or not," she said.

I could have bitch slapped her stupid smug face but the truth was that I was dying to talk to someone about him. And I wouldn't talk about him like he was a superstar and I was a crazy fan until it was forced out of me, which was precisely what Betty was doing. So I blurted everything out, missing out on what the professor was saying for the first time in life. I told her about the party where I first met him and how we talked way into the night. I told her about the day before and how exhilarating it was to see him again. She was smirking again when I told her she was right about us not paying any attention to his friends. It was like we were in our own private bubble and anything happening even two feet away from us was inconsequential.

"Are you dumb? You like him. And he obviously likes you too," she said when she had inquired me enough about him.

"I don't- Wait, why do you think he likes me?" Nope, still not acting like the deer in the headlights. The headlights were far away from me. And my antlers were actually a halo.

She muffled her laughter by pressing her lips together. The class ended but I still needed to know why she thought Caleb liked me. The damn butterflies were being a bitch again. So we went to Starbucks, taking the same booth that we did on our unfortunate date (which I had no idea would soon become our regular booth) and she told me, "You're already at the point of hugging. For god's sake, how many other guys do you hug on a regular basis?"