Stare

She was standing outside his class, and clearly in sight of him. She was fixing her ponytail with her back turned on him. Finished, she twirled around and saw that he was staring at her. It seemed as if he was staring at her longingly, and as if there was a hint of regret in his eyes, for letting her escape his grasp. She smiled at him, but he didn't release his gaze. After the first few seconds, she began to feel a little awkward and uncomfortable, so she looked to her side and pretended not to notice the long stare too much.


He was with his group of friends. One of his friends turned to look at her and put up a hand in greeting to her, as usual. She returned the greeting with a wave of her hand. As she approached them, his friend took the sketchbook she held in her arms and flipped it open, eager to see more of her new drawings. The others came to take a peek, too. They were all engaged in a short conversation over the drawings for a while, until only the two of them were left. Him and her. He slowly took the sketchbook from her again and looked at her drawings. He stopped at a particular drawing and seemed to ponder about it in his mind. It was a sketch of herself with three of her other male friends. Was he jealous? Was he thinking about being jealous? She couldn't have known for sure. Anyway, he soon returned the sketchbook back to her, said a quick goodbye and left for his next class. She went to hers and gave no further thoughts of him.


Her teacher was not in class. She was doodling in her sketchbook, and when she looked up from the paper, she saw that he was already in her class, talking to some of her classmates. Her classmate had a rather large book in his hands. His friends, including him, were reading it together, grinning at something in particular. She got up to see what it was all about. Apparently, they were grinning at how the writer explained his theories in a very confusing way. They were all chuckling at the irony. In all the laughter, he took the chance and came to stand next to her, still grinning from the words in the book. They talked for a bit. She found out that the thick book was his. All this time, she never knew that he read those kinds of books, or if he ever read at all! She was amazed. She had wanted to talk to him more about it, but he had to leave for Chemistry class, so he bade her another goodbye and walked out of her class. She still found the new fact about him unbelievable, and it was only until then did she start to think.