Stealing Glances (bullying to love)

Shock

It's been a week since that shit. I keep getting stares from Aladdin's friend group.

I hate it. I hate attention.

Aleema wasn't at school today so I had no one to hang out with. Lunch bell rang and I was just walking in the halls until I saw Aladdin and all of his friend group coming towards me.

My heart dropped. I'm so scared of them.

Without thinking anything, I turned around and sped walked the opposite way.

Suddenly Josiah called out my name "HALA, wait"

I was shaking and turned around.

Josiah came up to me smiling. From behind him I could see Aladdin staring at me and the rest of their friends elbowing each other and smiling.

"Y-yea?" I said while trying to catch my breath.

"I just wanted to say, I think you're really pretty and I just wanted to get to know you better." He said while looking down not meeting my gaze.

I stared at him blankly.

Is this a joke, are they trying to humiliate me??

"Listen, I don't want to get made fun of.. if this is one of your guy's pranks. P-please just stop" I took a breath.

"I've had enough of it in the past" I said while I felt tears stinging my eyes.

He suddenly looked up and said "I swear to God this isn't a prank Hala, I genuinely find you pretty and I want to get to know you better"

I was kind of shocked, me and pretty?

"I-if that's the case, I'm sorry I don't want a relationship and I don't see you that way" I said while looking down.

He looked at me and just said "oh, I understand"

"I-I'm sorry" I said while I felt a tear go down.

"Hey, no why are you saying sorry and why are you crying?! It's alright I told you"

I was shocked that one of them was being nice to ME? I wiped my tear and looked at him. He looked very calm and understandable.

I turned around to walk away and he said "sorry if I made you uncomfortable"

I was still in shock "n-no of course you didn't" as I gave him a smile.

From the corner of my eye I saw a shock looked on all of their friend group and suddenly Aladdin started laughing.

Seeing him laugh, every single one of them started laughing?..

Josiah rubbed his neck and turned around to walk towards them.. I felt bad rejecting him but I just don't see him in that way, and I quite literally liked his best friend for a year..

I stood there trying to take in what just happened. Aladdin was laughing the hardest at Josiah. While Josiah was standing with them just rubbing his neck.

I heard Aladdin say "how the fuck did you get rejected by that little thing". And I felt something hurt in my heart because that was the guy I had a crush on for a whole year.

All of them started making fun of Josiah for getting rejected by me. Which really hurt me a lot because I would never talk shit about anyone or even hurt anyone so why am I always getting made fun of.

I called Aleema and told her everything while crying.

"Girl Aladdin is not worth your tears, he is such a dick to you for no reason, Josiah called me and told me what happened and he's hoping that you and him can stay good friends" she said.

"Yea of course we can, he's a great guy" I said.

I ended the call since the bell rang for home time. I was speed walking in the rushed halls because I had to get home fast to start cleaning. In all of these thoughts I didn't see the caution sign for wet floor.

As I was running, I slipped and bumped into someone and fell right on top of them.

My head was about to hit the floor but the person put their hand underneath. My elbow still hit the floor and it was vibrating.

I lifted my head and my hair was covering the persons face. I touched their face and moved my hair from their face and my heart dropped.

Aladdin.

He was staring at me, analyzing my face. It felt like I was laying on him forever. I was so lost in his dark eyes. Suddenly I felt a girl yank me off of him.

Carina.

Carina was school's most popular and most beautiful girl. If being that pretty wasn't enough, she was the Volleyball captain as well as the cheer team captain. She had dark brown curly hair, very long and healthy hair with sun kissed tanned skin. She was really perfect.

She yanked me off of Aladdin and pushed me away. "BABY are you okay oh my god, please tell me you're okay" she said while running her hands on his face.

"Stop overreacting Carina, I'm fine" he said while rolling his eyes.

He got up and looked at me, expecting me to say something. And Carina stood there crossing her arms and giving me the dirtiest look ever.

"S-sorry" I muttered as I held my elbow tight from the vibrating pain.

"I didn't hear you" he said lying.

"I'm sorry" I said while looking at the floor.

I looked up and saw Carina wrapping her arms around his arm. I wasn't jealous or anything but something was bothering me.

"That's right, oh and I have something coming in soon for you, it will be a huge surprise since your bitch ass always finds a way to do something that pisses me off" he said while smirking and held Carina by her waist and walked away.

My heart shook.. what did he mean by that..?