BMC One Shots and Shorts

Heart Eyes and Miscommunication

Boyf Riends
Jeremy's POV

I walk into the cafeteria and spot my two best friends Christine and Brooke sitting at our usual table. I greet them as I sit down and grab my bagged lunch out of my backpack.

"Okay, Jeremy, we need you to settle this debate," Brooke says to me. "Who do you think would make a better president: Bon Jovi or The Rock?"

"That's easy. Obviously The Rock."

"What!?" Christines exclaims. "Why The Rock?"

"He's got nice arms, good build." I shrug.

"Ha! I told you!" Brooke points at Christine in an accusing yet triumphant way.

"Have a hot bod is not a good reason to be president."

As Christine and Brooke continue their debate, I zone out and look around the cafeteria. Suddenly, my eyes land on a very attractive guy sitting about two tables away from us. I, in a totally non-creepy way, watch as he bites into an apple while watching something on his phone.

He has these big, clunking headphones over his ears which I'm assuming he's using to listen to whatever it is he's watching. He's wearing a bright red hoodie covered in patches, black jeans, and white Air Force ones. His hair is dark brown and slightly curled to near perfection. My eyes finally land on his face and

Oh my god. He's beautiful.

His skin is a nice golden tone and, from what I can tell, he has a couple moles scattered on his face. As for his eyes, I think they're brown, but I can't really tell because he's wearing glasses and the glare from the light is obstructing my view.

"Helloooo! Earth to Jeremy." Brooke waves her hand in front of my face, breaking me out of my trance.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Who were you checking out?" Christine asks. I'm about to deny checking anyone out, but Christine stops me before I can. "Don't even try to deny it, Heere. We saw the hearts in your eyes. Now, who was it?" Without saying a word I point in the beautiful boy's direction.

"Do you know who he is?" I ask.

"Yeah. He's the new foreign exchange student. His name is Michael." Brooke explains. "He's from the Philippines."

"Do you know if he speaks any English?"

"If he does I haven't heard it." I drop my head down in disappointment.

"I finally see the love of my life and I can't even communicate with him," I grumble. Brooke rubs her hand in small circles on my back.

"I'm sorry, JerBear." We all fall into a small silence until Christine breaks or a few moments later.

"Y'know," she starts, "you could try to learn Filipino? Download Doulingo or something and learn." I ponder that thought for a moment before deciding, yeah, I could do that.

"Christine, you are a genius and I love you."

"Do you love me enough to say Bon Jovi would be a better president?"

~three weeks later~

I have spent the last few weeks studying my ass off trying to learn this language, and, let me tell you, it hasn't been easy. But, I'm doing it for love. Isn't that what got Elle Woods into Harvard?

I really need to stop watching musical bootlegs with Christine.

I am currently walking down the hallway, my eyes glued to my phone screen as I start a new Duolingo lesson. Out of nowhere, my body collides with someone and we both fall to the ground. My phone falls out of my hand and lands face down on the ground. I am so focused on the state of my phone screen, I don't even bother looking at who I crashed into. That is, until I hear them say something.

"Patawad!" The voice says urgently. "Ah, um, s-sorry?" The questioning tone in his voice makes me look up at him. Ah! It's him! It's Michael! He stands up before me and extends his arm to help me up. I accept his help immediately and hoist myself up from the ground. Michael points are my phone with a raised eyebrow. I flip my phone over and sigh in relief when I see that it's not broken.

I show Michael the intact screen and say, "It's all good." I even give a thumbs up just in case he doesn't know what I'm saying. He nods his head and waves at me before walking away.

He is so beautiful.

~two weeks later~

By now I think I'm almost ready to talk to Michael. Like, having a conversation with him. Since we crashed into each other about two weeks ago, we wave to each other every time we pass in the hallway. And every time that happens, my crush on him grows stronger.

Thanks to Duolingo and various online videos, I am pretty sure I've figured out how to ask him on a date. Now, how to plan it out. I take out my phone and open up my text messages with Brooke.

To: brookAH

hey i wanna ask out this Michael dude got any tips on how?

She's answers me back within minutes.

From: brookAH

come to my locker after school his is right by mine

I text her back with a thank you and a smiley face. All I have to do now is get through the rest of the day. It's only... 9:30am. It's gonna be a long day.

{time skip to the end of the day}

As soon as the dismissal bell rings, I run out of the classroom and down the hallway until I get to Brooke's locker. Somehow, she's gets there before me and is already putting books in her locker.

"Hey, Jeremy." She smiles at me. "Are your sure that you're ready to ask him out?"

"Brooke, I have practiced this so many times, I could practically recite it in my sleep."

"Well I hope that's true," Brooke says at she looks past my shoulder. "Because he's walking over here now."

"Oh shit. How do I look?"

"You look great. Now go get your mans." She pats my shoulder and walks away.

Alright, you can do this, I assure myself. I take the few steps over to Michael who is looking into his backpack, probably figuring out what books he needs for homework. I tap on his shoulder to get his attention. He turns to me with a surprised expression which quickly turns into a happy one once he realizes that it was me who tapped him.

I point to his headphones trying to ask him to take them off so I can talk to him. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out the cord, showing me that it's actually not plugged into anything. We laugh at this as he repositions his headphone so that they are resting around his neck.

Oh my god, he's so hot.

"Uh, pawiin si Jeremy." I start to introduce myself. "Nais kong bumagsak sa isang lupain ng labanan, mainit na tsokolate na may pinya?" Michael stares at me for about ten seconds for bursting out into hysterical laughter.

"I'm- I'm sorry," he says as he calms down. "Sorry if my English is not easy to understand. You say 'quench Jeremy. I would like to waterfall down a combat land, hot chocolate with pineapple'."

Good job, Jeremy. You royally fucked up this time.

"What was meant to be said?" He asks me.

"I meant to say 'Hi my name is Jeremy. I think you're really cute and was wondering if you would like to go on a date with me?' But I totally understand if you don't want to. I'll just go." I start to turn away, but Michael grabs my hand to stop me. I look down at our touching hands and look back up at him with a smile.

"I would like to date you. You are also cute. Maybe you can teach English to me and I can teach Filipino to you." I nod my head at him, grinning widely.

"That sounds good." Michael pulls a notepad and a pen out of god knows where and writes something down in it. He rips out the piece of paper and hands it to me.

"Send me message. I must leave now." He brings my hand up to his lips and presses a soft kiss to my knuckles. "Bye, Jeremy." And with that he walks away, leaving me with a light blush and deeply in love.