July 20th
Again she is sitting next to her crush. It happens too often lately, too casually. She's got a strange anticipation about this.
Last month he missed the first day of classes so he was assigned a seat on the second day, the seat next to her. He still sits there even though he is free to move to another place now.
Last week the seat next to her was the only free one on the whole bus. The situation hasn't changed since that day and even though there are always a lot of people standing, he stays.
Today all year 9 students have to attend a meeting to inform them about their near future in school and after school. She is the first to arrive so she sits down in the middle of the room waiting patiently for her fellow students. Only twenty minutes too early is a new record for the bus. Her crush comes in next and - all chairs are empty! - sits next to her.
"Hi" she greets shyly because he seemingly isn't going to start a conversation by himself. "Yo" he says nodding his head.
Silence.
"How come you're so early?" she wonders aloud "usually you arrive just in time..." "...If not too late" he adds. They both have to laugh a bit. Then he answers: "Actually I wanted to talk to you" Her eyes grow wide in surprise. "Okay...? Tell me, what about?"
"Umm...uh..." He stammers obviously not having found the right words yet. "What are you going to do next year?" he asks then and she can see from the look in his eyes that this wasn't what he wanted to tell her. "Well" she starts anyway going along with it "I'll stay in school and see if I pass the exams for science or mathematics. If I don't I'll drop out of school and start working at my uncle's place"
"Good plan" he notes "I have no idea what to do with my future"
"Oh, then you better pay close attention today!" she advises. Still fifteen minutes left but there will be others coming in no time and she definitely wants to know what he really wanted to tell her. She stares as obviously as possible at her watch making him check the clock on the wall and swallow hard. He also noticed that they had not much time left alone together.
"I've been meaning to tell you quite some time" he finally explains "since the start of this semester actually."
"You had a lot of chances" she states.
"True but it's not that easy to tell" he defends himself.
"Yeah? I always thought you were some tough guy so just saying something shouldn't be a problem, should it?" She demands mockingly leaning closer to him.
"You don't know a thing" he replies also leaning closer until their noses are only inches apart. "I bet" she admits ironically "now tell me"
He stays silent for a moment making the tension almost unbearable for her. Then he lifts his hand to stroke a strand of her hair behind her ears and his fingers linger softly on her cheek.
"I like you" he whispers.
She chuckles and for a moment he looks hurt until she exclaims: "I like you, too!"




















