I was around fifteen when we first met, he was playing basketball in the gym where we waited till the first bell rang for us to go to first period. Everyone in our class knew him, and I had just started going to this school and I was new to the small town in Shaker. I asked about him to the girls beside me one day after being too curious and too shy to ever go up to him. One girl told me that he was the rapper at the school, that he was gonna be famous one day. I smiled at that, and she said "his name is Michael, but he does have a girlfriend, so good luck in trying to ever get his attention." She laughed at me for even looking in his direction because he would never give me the time of day apparently. I mean obviously I thought the same so I kept my distance. I had one class with him though, and it was math. I am terrible at math. I try to play it off but I know that I ain't ever gonna be able to pass in math if it wasn't for none other than this kid I had my eye on.
One day during class I was called upon to do a problem on the board and obviously since math and I just aren't particular a good couple, I seem to be struggling up there and I can't do it alone. Mr. Honey my math teacher tries to help me along but then asks the class to try to help me, but I can't turn to look at the class afraid of the stares and my social anxiety grows faster as I'm up there. Then suddenly I hear Mr. Honey say "Yes Michael, you can go up there and do it. Heather you can take a seat." I quickly leave the board only to be faced with Michael smiling at me as he walks up to the board and he solves the math problem. I am stunned as he explains how he solved it and I begin to understand and it clicks. I laugh at myself for thinking it was hard in the first place, but as the bell rings for me to go to my next class, I get stopped. Michael stops me, this boy who has never talked to me, stops me and he asks me if I need help in math. He seems shy because he goes "Hey, I saw you struggling up there, if you like need some help in this class, I can like tutor you.. But like only if you want.. I mean I'm not trying to say you're dumb or I mean I didn't mean to say that.." and he pauses and his cheeks start to blush because he's tripping over his words and he continues "I'm Michael by the way, but you already knew that, uH but yeah, here's my number you know if you ever need help in math." Handing me a piece of paper in scribbled hand writing of his number with his name Michael written on it, and before I can say anything he quickly walks away. Inside I'm internally screaming but I laugh out loud because I must be really dumb in math for him to offer to tutor me. I smile though placing the number in my back pocket.
I forgot about the number for a couple days, I had it put on my dresser. I never thought of actually calling it or texting him because it felt wrong texting someone who probably only wanted to help me because he felt pity for me. But, surprisingly I didn't have to text him because he called me.
I usually don't answer phone numbers I don't know but I saw that the number was familiar and so I picked it up.
"Hello" I say
"Is this Heather?" The familiar voice asks.
"Yeah it is, who is this?" I ask curiously.
"It's Michael" He answers.
"I don't know a Michael" I joke.
I hear him laugh and he goes, "I know you're probably wondering how I got your number well, my friend had it and I just wanted to make sure that you didn't like lose my number or something because you never texted me if you needed help with math."
"You must really think I'm bad at math" I laugh and he goes "honestly, I think you're really bad at it" and I laugh.
"Thanks for the honesty, I mean I guess I may need a tutor, why do you want to tutor me so badly? You didn't even know I existed." I said and he gets quiet on the phone.
"I.." he pauses and then he coughs and goes "I just thought if I could help you get better at math then maybe we could be friends."
I smiled and I replied "Well then you got a student, tutor me to become good at math, we can start tomorrow at lunch." And he answered "Yes of course, I'll see you tomorrow Heather."
And tomorrow was just the beginning.
[hey i am amanda, thanks for reading, i love michael conor go follow me on twitter @ RAPVIOLINIST]
