to fall in love

One, two, three. His heart was thumping in his chest, racing, and Eddie had to count in hopes that the mental countdown would help calm him. He was nervous and the longer he was met with silence the more he started to think he had messed up. That he had done something completely wrong– How could he not? Eddie was always doing the wrong thing, saying the wrong thing, everything about him was wrong. It was when she spoke that he let out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding and felt himself relax, only slightly.  “Yeah– No, absolutely. We can do that. I mean.. we can go on a few dates first. That makes sense.” Except Eddie had never been on a date before and the thought terrified him, what if he messed up? He was certain that whatever this was… He was going to ruin it just by being himself. 

“I know but... It’s fine.”

Eddie couldn’t help but smile, so widely that his face hurt. He hadn’t been expecting anything to come from his feelings and now that he had the knowledge that she had felt the same way left him both perplexed and overjoyed. “Oh,” He breathed out a little relieved to hear that he wasn’t the only one that had no idea how to go about this. “Neither have I. So… I can’t really help. I think this is where I ask you if you want to be my girlfriend… but is that too soon? Or?” Eddie questioned, his cheeks growing warm with embarrassment from his inability to not act like a total idiot.

“It’s not your fault, Adam.”

Pamina raised an eyebrow as she came across the girl. She never got why people cried in public. Mina tapped the girl on the shoulder. “Let’s get you to the bathroom.”

“No, I’m just... I’m... Things are... I don’t know.”

“What are you doing?” Her tone was serious. She knew that the other girl was one of the more sensitive girls on the cheer squad, but she didn’t think that she’d be the type to cry in public. 

She looked up at the other girl, both hands rushing to her eyes in attempts to stop the water flow. “I’m sorry, I’m just... Already having a bad day and...”

“Yes, please.”

“Wha- Yeah?”

It was a difficult feat for the boy to rationalize the fact that this was real and not his overactive imagination conjuring up something good happening to him. He wondered if this is what an out of body experience felt like, like he was present but still detached from the situation at hand. “Yeah.” Eddie nodded and he felt his cheeks flush once he realized that he had spoken the words aloud and now she knew how he felt. “I um… I never though that, uh, you’d…. I wasn’t going to say anything because…. Well, I didn’t want to ruin a chance to be friends with you because I didn’t think we could be… um, anything else you know? Unless you just wanna be friends which, you know, is fine too.” 

“Oh.” She whispered again, biting her lip in instead of responding with a level of substance. Darby didn’t have nearly a well thought out response to why she didn’t tell him right away other than the fact that she was too shy to say anything... That and she didn’t want to be rejected. She had no doubt in her mind that she’d be able to continue on being his friend even if she had liked him but now with the confirmation, she knew that sh would be the one making moves towards a more relationship type relationship. “Yeah. But... I don’t... I don’t really want to be... Just friends?” How was Darby to say this without being awkward about it. She flashed a smile, looking around for an answer to her question. “I... Yeah. No. I like you and I’ve never been in a relationship before so I... I don’t really know how this works?”

All sense of reality had suddenly left him as he heard the word ‘you’ and he wondered if he was hearing things or perhaps this was a very realistic dream he’d wake up from. Eddie had half a mind to pinch himself just to test the theory but if it was a dream it was one he didn’t want to wake up from. “I—” Eddie had started but he had no idea what to say and had left the one syllable hang in the air as he tried to figure out what he was going to say. Maybe now was a good time for blunt honesty, “I,uh, like you too.” 

As Darby flipped the page for him he looked down and watched as a new page filled with words she had written stared up at him. Eddie read each line and with each word it was almost as if the entire world flipped on it’s axis, leaving him bewildered and lost. It couldn’t be true, he thought to himself, willing his heart to stop racing. “I-Is this….” He trailed off suddenly unsure if asking so bluntly was the way to go. “—Do you, uh, mind if I ask who this is about?” 

As Eddie read the poem a smile grew on his face. Once he was done he turned his head to look over at her. “This is beautiful, Darby.” He admitted genuinely, hoping she knew he wasn’t just saying that to be polite but because he really meant it. “Can I read more?”