Jacob Anderson didn't have quite the knack for love, or anything remotely romantic for that matter. It wasn't that he was ugly, no, he was fairly average-looking. Brown hair, brown eyes, pale skin. He didn't have girls falling for him left to right...
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YOUR SEAT WAS never empty. Not one day went by without it being filled.
Although there were days where you didn't show up at all to class. I'd kept note though, I didn't realize it. I found myself glancing to my left every Tuesday and Friday, hoping I'd find your small figure sitting right beside me, working away on whatever the teacher had assigned us that day.
You never spoke to anyone in the class which confused me greatly. Surely someone like you would have loads of friends, chatting and laughing away during class. You rarely smiled, Mabel.
Why didn't you? Your eyebrows were always bunched up, never relaxing the slightest. You were always at work, writing furiously in some type of notebook when you had the chance to. I had tried peeking over several times, yet you always moved away, your lips turning down into an uncomfortable frown.
I was nosy, I couldn't help it. My eyes were constantly trained on you. Your hands, your eyes, your hair - anything. I couldn't focus. Oh... maybe that was why my grades took a fall. Yet I didn't care, surprisingly.
Okay, yes, maybe I did.
The day we received our report cards, the day I'd gotten grounded, I'd looked over at the folded paper between your hands. You hadn't opened yours yet, you just simply stared at it while everyone else conversed about how well they did this semester.
I wanted to tell you how I did. I wanted to tell you how bad my test scores were that week and laugh it off, quickly backing it up with a promise that I wasn't usually so bad at math. I wondered if you'd laugh with me. Considering where we were then, you probably wouldn't have. I knew that very well.
So, I stared at you. I wasn't trying to be creepy, I swear, but I couldn't hold back the grin that tugged on my lips as yours turned up into a small smile. It wasn't a full smile, the ones where the skin around your eyes crinkled and your eyes shut with delight, but it was something. Something that made my heart race.
You'd ran your hand through your short hair, folding and tucking the paper away into your black binder for no one else to see. Then you'd went back to your classwork, laying your head down onto the wooden desk as you tapped your mechanical pencil against your nose, blocking out the entire classroom once more.
