As she got out of school, her eyes searched for him, in desperation. Her friend's voice was muted out and she kept looking for him, until she knew where exactly he was; near the crossover, opposite to the pani-puri stall. Her heart ached until she saw him. She didn't know why, maybe it was because she lived a little bit of attention, something she didn't receive so often.

She saw him right there, laughing with his friends. Her friend talked to her and she nodded, and kept talking to her friend. She wanted him to notice her. It was a strange, perhaps even selfish craving, but she knew she didn't have time.

That day was different. It was almost near the farewell of the 10th graders - his grade. She dumped her bag in the van and saw her other friend having pani puri without her and they gasped. Her friend was kind enough to give them both a pani puri and she ate it. While slurping the spiced water, she realized that he hadn't gone with his friends a while ago. He was standing near a van, talking to his friend and she saw him glancing at her occasionally. She smiled to herself as she thought - was this how far he went? What did he even see in her? That was a mystery she couldn't solve.

She quickly went back to her van and took a seat. The van roared to life and it moved across the dust filled streets and there he was, as she'd expected, looking straight at her. She stared back at him, knowing their contact never will last more than a few seconds. It never will. There isn't enough time.

The clock was ticking fast, melting away days as the sun arrived, burnt and left. She kept wondering about the web she was caught up in. was she just imagining his affection or was it real? She sighed in distress. In a month, she won't even see him again. This month was all they had left. In a month, everything would be over, before it even started.

In the van, sometimes, he talked to this other girl in his grade and she wondered why would he even like her. How could it even be possible?

But she knew, somewhere deep in her heart that it was. It just was. She tried not to think about him, but she couldn't. But she forced herself to. Because if she did, she would only be caught up in a tangle of feelings, and that was the very last thing she needed.

She couldn't help but laugh at his jokes in the van. But all they had between them, all the desperation, all the probable infatuation, all the butterflies, everything, was compacted between a few seconds only. A few seconds.

That's all they got.

She couldn't go any deeper than the mess she was already in. he would be leaving school in less than a month, unless he continued for college, which was highly unlikely. But that more or less the same damn thing. It just wouldn't work. And as they passed by the crossover, their eyes met. The van seemed to have sped up and everything around them tore right between them and there was nothing they could do but hope.

But hope for what? A little more time? Not possible. Time screws everyone; waits for none. A few more moments? Only if he could get the guts to talk to her, or hell, even tell her how he feels about her. A few more stares? Oh, that they'll be getting plenty.