Andrew

I was humming as I walked to chemistry class that morning.

Ever since I switched to morning chemistry instead of morning Spanish, I've been happier than ever.

I think it was because of Cassandra.

We started talking a lot more after I first ran into her in the hallway and if I had known before, I would've befriended her way earlier.

She's just such a great person! She's kind, smart, sweet and even though she doesn't realize it, Cassandra Kivetsky is absolutely gorgeous. Every single second of the day. And even though I used to try and push my feelings for her away, eventually, I realized it was inevitable so I accepted them for what they were and just let it happen. It was easier that way.

Oh, and my grades had gotten much better with her around.

As for Victoria, over the past few weeks, I've just started to lose interest in her.

She is such a tryhard when it comes to attention and is really mean to everyone.

Don't get me wrong, she's hot, but that's it. I don't know what I saw in her in the first place.

I got to the class and the room was empty.

'cool, I'm the first one here!' I smiled to myself.

Sitting down in my usual spot, I waited for everyone else to show up.

In the meantime, I took out a pencil and piece of paper and started to doodle on it.

Over the last couple of weeks, I've figured out the following:

#1: When I saw the Cassandra + A thing after I ran into Cassandra in the hallway that fateful day, the A was actually me (I think)! I know its crazy!

#2: It's possible that Cass likes me! All the signs are pointing to me. She's always looking at me and she gets really flustered whenever I do something weird and flirty.

#3: ...I think I might like her back! I plan to ask her out on a date today when she shows up and break up with Victoria the next time I see her which will probably be at lunch. I thought about breaking up with her over text but that would just be mean and I'm not mean.

Even though I was super nervous about doing it, I was also crazy excited!

I would be honoured to be Cassandra's boyfriend if I got the chance.

As more people began trickling into class, I looked down at my paper and to my surprise, I saw that I had accidentally drawn a bunch of circles that, when put together, looked like one giant heart!

At the same time, I heard some go "Andrew?" From the door.

Just my luck; it's Cass.

I knew at that moment that I would just die if she saw what I had drawn.

Forcing a grin at her, I tried my hardest not to let my nervousness show and exclaimed, "hi!" As I slowly crumpled up the paper, not wanting to draw any attention to it.

I guess I did a pretty bad job because when she sat down next to me, she glanced at my fistful of paper, then back at me and asked, "Whatcha got there?"

My cheeks burned.

"Umm... n-nothing!" I mumbled while fiddling with the balled up paper in my hands.

She looked up at me from behind her glasses, clearly not buying my dumb excuse but she decided to let it go and responded with a simple: "ok."

With my nerves finally, at ease, I got to get a good look at her.

She was wearing light brown boots with blue skinny jeans and a blue and white checked shirt.

It was an outfit not everyone could pull off but she did it with style.

Her hair was straightened to perfection, she always had a natural blush on her face and perfect, clear skin so she never needed to use makeup on her face and her glasses just finished the look on her.

After I had finished examining her clothes and face, my eyes, somehow, travelled down to her lips.

They had a natural pink hue and they looked oh so soft.

Some days I would catch myself staring at them and on others, I would just feel like kissing her right then and there. Not caring what would happen afterwards or what people would say.

But every time I that, feelings of doubt would trail close behind. Almost right after, I would start second guessing myself with thoughts bouncing around in my head like:

And every time that happened I'd always convince myself not to do it.

It was really annoying.

Anyways I wanted to tell her she looked beautiful but I knew that would just make her freak out on the inside and make things awkward so I went with the next best thing.

I looked at her and said "You look cute." in a very nonchalant tone with a smile playing at my lips.

I expected her to blush or say thanks. Heck, I would've just accepted a smile back!

But instead her face went pale and she looked down.

"Um... could we talk for a second? I have something to tell you."

I knew she was trying to hide it but there was a faint quiver in her voice like she was going to cry.

'What's wrong?' I wanted to ask. 'Are you ok?'

But I had a better idea in mind.

"Sure" I chirped back, dismissing her forlorn tone. "I actually have something to ask you too!"

she looked up at me curiously.

"Really? Well, what is it?" She wondered out loud, adjusting her glasses.

I wanted to get my question over with but I decided to be patient.

"It can wait," I responded, all of her possible responses floating around in my mind. "You first."

"Uh... ok"Cass mumbled as she squirmed uncomfortably in her seat and avoided my gaze.

Just as she opened her mouth to say something, the chemistry teacher slammed the door shut and said grimly "Class has begun so all of you, shut your pie holes!"

I glared at the teacher. I was never really fond of him anyway. He had a terrible attitude and he wasn't very nice to his students in the first place.

I could tell Cass didn't like him either because she rolled her eyes, ignoring his statement and continued.

"Anyway, what I wanted to say was..."

but she was interrupted yet again when a loud voice boomed, "Ms. Kivetsky and Mr. Miller!"

The room fell silent as we both turned our heads to see our chemistry teacher who was looking at us sternly.

With his arms crossed, what he said next mortified me.

"Stop flirting with each other in my classroom please!!" As a smirk formed on his face.

'Flirting? Me? With Cassandra??'

I instantly whipped my head around to look at her just as she turned to look at me.

She had turned a pretty shade of pink and I could feel my own cheeks starting to heat up too.

After a couple of seconds, she broke eye contact, looked down at the table below her and pointed out in a small voice, still blushing "We weren't flirting."

The teacher shook his head as if the conversation was finally boring him and responded dully "I don't care what you were doing but if it wasn't about chemistry I don't want to hear it." he warned in his best do-as-you're-told teacher voice.

Even though my ego was terribly bruised for getting called out, I held my ground and said: "Yes sir."

He examined me for a while and looked at me, searching for something (I don't know what) in my expression before he finally concluded with a slow "good" and went back to teaching.

I and Cass didn't talk for the rest of the class.

♡♡♡

The bell rang, signalling class was over so I slung my backpack onto my back and prepared to walk out of the class when a small hand tapped my shoulder.

I turned around to see Cass behind me.

As soon as she realized she had gotten my attention she instantly pulled her hand away and I felt a jab of regret.

The last time she touched my shoulder it was awkward because of how weird I was about it.

I felt bad now.

"Hey," I said to her with a kind smile. "Sorry 'bout what happened with the teacher" as I rolled my eyes.

She pursed her lips, deep in thought, thinking about what to say next.

When she finally spoke she told me "It's fine." Then asked, "Can we talk now?" As she shifted from foot to foot, uncomfortably.

I glanced the teacher's way.

"Outside." I decided out loud. "Come on." As I motioned for her to follow me.

We stepped out of the class and we waited for everyone to exit.

Just when everyone left I said, "so what's on your mind?"

And for the first time today she looked up at me.

She looked so sad and guilty like she had done something wrong.

I started to worry a little.

"Um... so what I wanted to say was..." She started as I held my breath. "I... I kinda have a boyfriend now"

I felt my comforting smile falter for just a second and my heart sank with disappointment.

"Cass that's awesome!! I'm so happy for you!" I lied.

I could tell my response surprised her because her eyebrows shot up and questioned me, clearly confused, "Really?"

"Of course I am! Why wouldn't I be?" I was interested to see what the answer was.

She started to blush.

"Oh! Uh... I just thought..." as she trailed off.

"Thought what?" I stepped closer to her so our bodies were just inches away from each other.

She looked down again and squirmed. I was loving every minute of it. "Nothing." She mumbled then looked at me again curiously. "You had wanted to ask me something right? What was it?"

Now it was my turn to blush.

"Um... well uh..." I had to think up an excuse fast. I couldn't just ask her out after what she had told me!

"I wanted to say that I... I thought your hair looked really pretty today! Yeah, that's what it was." Technically it wasn't a lie because it did look really nice all the time.

I knew that I did a lousy job covering it up but it was the best I could do on such short notice.

She wasn't stupid though, so I knew she didn't believe me.

Cass pushed up her glasses. "You said you had to ask me something. That's not a question."

I scoffed to myself, embarrassed how she caught me in my own lie, staying silent and not wanting to meet her eyes.

She took my shy state to her advantage and stepped even closer than we already were while seductively with her hand on her hip: "What's wrong Mr. Miller? Cat got your tongue?

I had an I-really-want-to-kiss-you-right-now moment but was able to control myself.

"Why of course not Ms. Kivetsky, how could you even think that?" As I crossed my arms playfully.

After a couple of seconds of the 2 of us staring each other down intensely, we broke into a fit of giggles.

After we both managed to calm down a little I said in between deep breaths "I'm so glad I met you."

She instantly stopped laughing.

"What?" She said wide-eyed.

I started to wish I had never said anything.

I shrugged "I said I'm glad that I met you. Is there something wrong with that?"

"No it's ok, I like it." She smiled up at me.

I smiled back. "Cool. I like it too."

We just stood there smiling at each other for what seemed like forever until her phone buzzed and she broke eye contact.

She took it out of her pocket and glanced over the message before saying, "well we'll probably be late if we don't go to class now." As she started to back away.

I felt like slapping my forehead. I had totally forgotten that I still had to go to class!

"Oh yeah! Sure. See you later then?" I asked her.

"Yup." She responded, already halfway down the hall.

"Bye!" I somewhat accidentally blurted out to her.

But I guess she couldn't hear me because she didn't answer back and she quickly disappeared behind the corner.

Just as I was sure she was gone, the smile on my face faded away and I ran my hand through my curly hair.

'How could I be so stupid!' I thought to myself.

'She has a boyfriend and I was about to ask her out? That's so shallow!'

I felt like kicking myself, I was so disappointed!

I just let the girl of my dreams slip out of my fingers.

And now I was stuck with Victoria.

I guess what she told me...

Hurt.