Seventeen in December ➵ m.e

Preface

"I know right." I said, louder than I had meant to. The boy smiled and looked up at me. "Oh, I'm Elizabeth by the way." He laughed, "I know I'm in your after school religion class." I gasped, "Oh yeah! Sorry." He smiled and looked down, plying with his feet. "I was Joseph in the nativity. You were Mary. Remember?" I smiled, "Yes! I remember, it's just, you look so different with glasses on." He slipped his glasses off, "Better?" I laughed, "Yeah. Here, can we start over?" He threw his hand on the air, "Sure. Hello, my names Matthew." I shook his hand, "Hi, my names Elizabeth." He shook his head, "That's too long, I'm gonna call you Emma." I tilted my head, "Emma?" He laughed, "Yeah. I like it." I bit my lip, "Well than hi Matthew, I'm Emma."

"Okay Class-" Miss Nisana began our third grade math lesson. I really hate math. "-I'm gonna put you in pairs and your going to start on the project I explained yesterday. You'll only have till Wednesday to work on it, so don't play around!" She began to read off names in pairs, I didn't really pay attention, I just waited for my name to be called. "Elizabeth and-" I waited as Miss Nisana slid her finger down the class list, "-Stephanie." I forced a smile on my face as Stephanie skipped over to the chair next to me. I hated her, always talking and laughing. Ugh. I looked back up at the front of the classroom, "And Matthew, uh. You can join any group you want!" Matthew smiled and headed over towards Stephanie and I, "Can I join?" Stephanie nodded, "Of course Matthew." He walked to his desk to get a pencil, and Stephanie leaned in close to me, "He's so cute! Isn't he?" I widened my eyes, "Um, I guess?" But truthfully, I think he's really cute! His hair was a perfect shade of brown, mixed with a few blonde streaks here and there. Plus, he loved reading. But even though he's easy to talk to, I always feel like I'm gonna say the wrong thing. And I don't wanna mess up our friendship. That would be bad. Matthew sat next to me and across from Stephanie. She frowned, but quickly started talking about how she wanted to do the project. Matthew smiled and winked in my direction. I blushed, and turned back towards the desk. Stephanie clearly saw Matthew look at me, and she wasn't happy about it. "Matthew, why don't you sit here? I wanna show you something." He shook his head, "Why don't you just show me from here?" I tried my best not to laugh at her failed attempt towards him. Through gritted teeth, she whispered, "Fine!" He smiled and slid me a piece of paper under the table. Then he focused his gaze back on the project. I slowly unfolded the paper, it read 'your cute Em -Matthew' I blushed and wrote along the side, 'you too -Em' I slid it back to him and he laughed as he read it. "So Emma, we, uh, thought of an idea-"
But he didn't realize that the best idea I could ever have, was him.
Matthew Espinosa <3