I don’t know why I started following him; it was not something I planned on.
One day I was walking home, when the boy in tattered jeans with brown hair a little to long to be acceptable caught my eye. I watched him in the music shop as he scanned guitars and pianos, chatted with the girl behind the counter. The girl that was like him, who knew so much about music and instruments, easily laughed with him.
You can learn a lot about a person from watching them, you know. For instance, I knew he played guitar, and his favorite color was red. I knew he ordered a small coffee at the bookstore in the afternoons while he sat and read. He always read something people much more intelligent than I read. I liked love stories and pop music. This was the complete opposite of him. I knew he liked flannel and combat boots. I didn’t own a pair of combat boots.
Well, I used to not own a pair of combat boots.
It wasn’t as if I went way out of my way to follow him. He went home from school the same way I did. If I happened to stop at the same places, that could be a coincidence.
Too bad it was definitely not.
I started following him in September. Three months later and my mom still thinks I hang out with my friends everyday after school. You’d think she’d figure it out after a while.
She’s not the most observant woman in the world.
The day I first saw him I was wearing my favorite floral skirt and pink shirt. Today I am wearing torn jeans with a flannel and combat boots.
So I’m changing, no big deal.
I’ve seen him at school a few times, I think he’s a junior. We have a few mutual friends actually. He knows some football players who date girls I used to be in cheerleading with.
I quit after I overheard him telling music store girl cheerleaders were fake girls who used makeup as a mask to disguise their self hate as pep.
I started reading A tale of two cities, that ridiculously long book that he read last week. I bought a cd of his favorite band.
They scream a lot, but I still listen to it everyday.
He’s never once spoken to me. I’ve never gone up to him, tried to get him to notice me. I just casually follow him around, forcing myself to be interested in things he likes.
I’m drinking coffee black like he likes it and listening to one of the very angry bands he loves so much, when I see him get out of his seat from the corner of my eye. I wait until he has thrown away his trash and has walked out the door before doing the same. When I get outside, I see him a little ways down the road.
He doesn’t usually go this direction after coffee.
He walks into the music store and I stall at a newspaper stand for a few moments. When I am about to go inside, he walks out, Music Store Girl’s hand entwined with his.
I watch them for a minute as she giggles and he whispers. He opens the passenger side door of a car I assume belongs to music store girl for her and he hops in the driver seat. She leans over to kiss his cheek as they drive off.
I pull out the headphones that are screaming into my ears, because my head is suddenly pounding.
Well it’s not like he was yours.
