The Shadow

A welcome distraction

I smile to myself as I remember the dopey smile my brother had when he came home from the dance. Begrudgingly he had accepted that I had done something right, bringing them together. I was glad that he found someone.

Thinking about Leo and Dakota, I walked the halls in my school barely paying attention to where I was walking. Soon I was faced with the repurcussions of being inattentive as I bumped face-first into a hard chest. 

"Owwwww" I cried, rubbing my nose to ease the pain.

With narrowed eyes, I looked at the person I'd bumped into and my eyes widened in mortification. It was Sebastian Woods. The handsome and mysterious loner of our school and my one and only crush. 

"S...sorry" I stammered out like an idiot.

He didn't speak. Instead he gently pried my hand off of my nose. He assessed my nose that had probably turned red by now. 

"Still hurts?" he asked in his deep yet gentle voice.

"N...not as much..." I murmured.

I tried not to hyperventilate at his proximity and at the fact that he was still holding my hand. Sadly the first period bell rang, breaking our little moment. 

He moved away saying, "You have to be careful... you're tiny... "

I pouted when his words registered.

"I'm not tiny!" I said, highly offended.

He patted my head, as if to prove a point and just said, "Tiny" and walked away to his class. I realised we had the same class and followed him.

I was slightly late to class, causing me to blush under the teacher's stern gaze. 

"Sorry Mrs. Patterson..." I said. 

Thankfully she let it slide. 

I looked for an empty seat and realised the only one was beside Sebastian. Just my luck. Note the sarcasm.

Begrudgingly I walked over and plopped down beside him, avoiding eye contact.

Throughout the class I was hyper-aware of his presence. I guess he was a welcome distraction as my thoughts had finally shifted from the paintings and our haunted house.

Discreetly, I tried to steal a glance at him, to find his face adorably scrunched up in concentration. I smiled to myself as I replayed my encounter with him. He was incredibly cute in his interactions. I always wondered why he kept to himself all the time. It was no secret how many girls eyed him up when he walked by. 

I was no social butterfly either, but a small group had taken me under their wing, when I'd first come to this school. A nice girl named Karen had been assigned to show me around the school. She had apparently taken a liking to me, after talking for a while. At lunch she introduced me to her group of friends. They were nice people. There was Ashley the blonde bombshell who loved to dance, Dixon who was on the football team and Caleb who was the lead guitarist of the school band. Karen herself was the smartest kid in school and ranked first in every subject pretty much every year. I liked listening to them talk and sometimes I contributed too. But I wasn't a big talker most of the time. 

Few days into school, I saw Sebastian for the first time and I pretty much froze. He was sitting alone at the library, reading a book. From the way I was gawking, Ashley had easily realised that I was crushing on him. After that I never heard the end of it as Ashley and Karen kept making fun of my crush on him. 

One of the days they had also told me that it was pretty much useless to go after him. They told me how he'd never had a girlfriend and had rejected many girls already. I was bummed after that revelation.

I looked at him again and found him looking out the window. I knew there was no way in hell that he'd ever give me a second glance. Maybe I'd have to be sated, crushing from afar.

Our teacher started talking about a partner project which suddenly got my attention. Apparently we had to prepare a scene from the play we were being taught and act it out in front of the class. 

"Tiny..." Sebastian's voice made me jerk up in my seat.

I looked back at him and asked, "yeah?"

"Be my partner?" he asked, making me stop breathing entirely.

After I overcame the shock, I said, "Sure..."

"Meet me by the entrance, after school..." he announced, turning his attention back to the teacher.

Meanwhile in my head I was squealing and jumping for joy. 

Finally I was having a good day, after a long time.