Airel - Aaron Patterson [7]
I cringed when I pulled into the parking lot. Kim had told me that Michael Alexander drove a sweet, white Chevy truck, and there it sat gleaming, even in the rain. My heart stopped for a split second like everybody’s always does when they’re in love. Or when they think they are. Or when they are, but aren’t ready to be. My stomach did a flip and I sucked it in and found a parking space. Isn’t that great! Here I am... I haven’t even hardly met the guy and I’ve already had an entire relationship with him in my imagination. Just go in and get this over with. He’s just a dumb boy like all the others. Get a grip, Airel!
I made it to my first class with no sign of the mysterious new boy. I was a little glad about that because I didn’t want to face him and risk the chance of a repeat of yesterday’s disaster. I felt off my game. My body was fighting this illness—no doubt brought on by my idiotic and uncontrollable feelings—and even the thought of him made me panicky, or worse, made me want to cry.
I knew I would have to see him in the hall. We would probably have more classes together, too. I ran ideas through my mind about how to avoid him. That seemed to work for most of the morning.
Kim found me in the hall on my way to lunch and wanted to know if I was feeling better. “Are you going to live?” She had that familiar smile on her face.
“Yeah, I think I might make it today. You may want to stay away from me though. I could be contagious.” I coughed in my hand and felt my forehead as if I had a fever.
“Ha! Only if you can catch the love bug.” Kim’s eyes sparkled and she had yet another dumb grin on her face.
“Funny. He’s way out of my league. Besides, he doesn’t even know I exist.”
Kim was silent—which should have been my first clue. She was looking past me with a blank stare on her face. Like an idiot, I turned around to see what she was looking at.
There, standing two feet from me, was Michael Alexander. My heart jumped and—I swear—it stopped. Now he was right in front of me, with a slight smile on his face. He had the most gorgeous crystal blue eyes I had ever seen in my life. I didn’t know how I kept from fainting.
Kim stepped into the middle of all of us, cutting in between us. Some other jock guy I hadn’t noticed was standing next to Michael. “Hi, I’m Kim…you new to town? How do you like it here?” I groaned, hiding my face behind my locker door, secretly peeking out, wondering what I did to deserve this. Kim and her big fat mouth.
Michael looked at her, then around her, in my direction, and smiled. “Hey, I’m Michael Alexander.” Clearly, he was answering her politely, but not talking to her at all. I looked at him from behind my locker door and flushed.
“Michael…” Kim said as if pondering his name for the first time. “Good to meet you! This is my friend Airel.” She pointed to me and I could see the wicked smirk on her face. I was going to kill her. Murder, kill—and then for sport—unfriend her on Facebook.
“Hi…” I trailed off. Yep. I said, "hi," and probably sounded like I had some disease—which I wasn’t ruling out just yet. Nothing cool. Nothing memorable. Just, "hi." I tried to say my name but Kim had already spilled those beans, and besides, I couldn’t for the life of me remember what my name was. I flashed back to the coffee shop, blushing even more, which made Kim giggle. From the smirk on his face I could tell Michael was enjoying my discomfort. Boys are just evil.
“You’re Airel? I heard you got sick yesterday.” The smirk took on just the slightest hint of compassion, which nearly killed me. “You okay today?” Great, he knew I was a sicko… that meant the whole school knew. Perfect.
“Yeah, she’s doing better today. Her name is Airel, and she’s glad to meet you.” Kim jumped in to save me, which made me even more embarrassed. Say something. Get that mouth