Jess
The only thing I could hear during the reading was the dweebs in the corner whispering. But they weren’t really whispering. But they thought they were. Dumb.
“So, then we can take them to a restaurant.” Kyle’s voice.
“Okay.” Jake’s voice.
“Okay, Dre?” Kyle.
“Okay.” I could feel him looking at me. This class was going to be torture until summer saved me. Please, let summer come quickly, I prayed. I glance over quickly and caught Dre. He flipped his head to the left. I swear I saw him blush. That never happened. So I looked back at “Romeo and Juliet” and kept reading:
"Tis torture, and not mercy. Heaven is here
Where Juliet lives, and every cat and dog
And little mouse, every unworthy thing,
Live here in heaven and may look on her,
But Romeo may not."
I glanced over again. Our eyes met. It was so AWKWARD for a second, but I was frozen. He was mesmerizing. Then, his lips parted into a smile. So not fake. This time, I blushed. A ton. Like, I'm pretty sure I looked like a tomato. Or a beet. Ugh. Why did that always happened to me? Finally I broke and pulled my eyes back to the page. The urge to look over was overwhelming. The words of Shakespeare kept dragging slower and slower. Every word, unlike before, was becoming monotonous. I wanted to look over so badly it almost killed me. Okay, not really, but I couldn’t let him know I liked him. I’d be rejected. Finally, I pried my eyes away from the play and peeked out of the corner of my eye. Dre, Kyle, and Jake were loquaciously planning Prom. He was looking at in at me, again!! What was up? I snapped back and tried to read, but the rest of class was slow. Like a gimpy turtle. I couldn’t focus: All I heard was Dre’s voice planning prom, and Jake and Kyle laughing. But Dre was mostly quiet.
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Dre
I probably should’ve just stood up to Kyle and taken a chance of rejection and asked Jess to prom. I am so thick sometimes. She was sitting across the room from me, and I kept glancing over at her. She was beautiful. What was I thinking?
My gut twisted as I thought of her cute quirks, then panged with guilt. She was so beautiful, perfect. But I wasn’t supposed to know so much about her. As they say, curiosity killed the cat. I shouldn’t have gone to the barn. When I tell her about the fact that I saw everything about her life (and especially without permission) she would probably hate me eternally. Ouch. But I knew I had to tell her.
“Dude, is that okay?” Kyle always interrupted my thoughts.
“Yeah, sure.” My heart wasn’t really into planning this date. Whatever they said would be fine.
YOU ARE READING
JESS
Teen FictionWhen pretty, shy latina, artist Jess doesn't get asked to senior prom by her crush, the sweet, charming, Dre, she is devastated. But what she doesn't know is that meddling friends have gotten in his way. Will she ever be brave enough to tell him how...
