Invisible String - Jake Kiszka

If I Can Learn To Do It

Not so much that I would be completely heartbroken if he got a girlfriend, but I would be rather disappointed.

I wrapped my backpack straps on my chair, and James smiled at me as I sat down. "Hi." I whispered as the teacher began talking to the class.

He leaned over to my ear. "Hey." He whispered back, his breath tickling my neck.

"Annie!" The teacher started taking attendance. "Do you have a pencil?" James whispered still looking forward. "You forgot one again?"

"James!" We heard from the front. "Here!" He shouted back then leaned over to my ear again. "No, I just like asking you for pencils every day." I could hear the smirk in his voice.

I rolled my eyes and turned around to unzip my bag. After digging around for a few seconds I finally found one. Granted it was pretty dull, but that's what he gets for not bringing his own.

"Here." I handed him the pencil. "Thanks." He nodded. We both watched the teacher walk back and forth with his clipboard, calling out name after name, either marking them present or absent.

"I have a question for you, Gigi." He spoke softly. I turned to look at him and was taken aback by his flushed appearance. He twirled the pencil nervously in his fingers, not bothering to look me in the eye.

"Yeah..?" I asked in return, unsure of why he hadn't asked yet if he actually had a question.

"You know how the spring formal is coming up soon?" He swallowed harshly, fiddling with the pencil between his fingers.

I only nodded, partially dreading the question that was inevitably going to follow. "Would it be weird if we, ya know, went... together?" He asked softly, meeting my eyes.

I shouldn't have been surprised at his asking, but I was nonetheless. I had my suspicions about his feelings towards me, but pushed them out of my mind as I didn't want it to get to my head.

I wasn't keen on the giggly, feet-kicking, face blushing feeling. It made me feel weird and I found it all embarrassing. I've been there before, only to be left nauseated after the feeling left, mortified I'd ever let myself feel that way.

"Go together as... dates?" I asked slowly.

"I mean..." He laughed and scratched the back of his head. "We can go as just friends if you'd like that better. But... yeah. As dates."

I looked away from him and sat forward with my hands on the desk, fingers weaved together. James's eyes burned into the side of my face as I made a decision. There were a lot of pros and cons in going with him.

I already knew I wasn't going to enjoy it as much as al the other formals I'd been to because I'd only ever gone with Josh. Mostly because he was too scared to ask the girl he's had a crush on since 6th grade.

I'd never been on a real date before either. Which was fine with me, I wasn't too concerned about it. But I'd be going with James. As his date. And him as mine. We were friends, so it's not like it would be awkward. Right? And worse case it is awkward and he just decides to ditch me, and I can just go hang out with Ronnie and Alyssa.

"Greta, if you don't say 'here' I will mark you as absent!" I zoned back in, not realizing I had zoned out in the first place, to see my teacher standing over me with his clip board, glaring downward.

"W- what?" I stuttered. "I called your name four times. I know you heard me."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Davis." I looked down at my hands nervously. "So what do you say then, Ms. Van Fleet?"

"Here." I muttered, not bothering to look up at him. I heard him mark next to my name and the rest of the class snicker. "Good." He started to walk towards the from once again. "Just because you're sad your boyfriend isn't in this class with you anymore, doesn't give you an excuse to have an attitude in my class." He remarked causing the whole room to erupt in stifled giggles.