Him

 I looked up from reading my book in my English class and tried to pick him out in the mass of mingling students. I took a sharp breath in when I saw him.

Him. Definitely my favorite person to watch from afar. Everything from his lightly tousled brown hair, his warm, dark brown eyes, and just overall beautiful face captured my attention. The way he made everything he did seem so important to him made my heart swell. If he even glanced in my direction, a smile would tug at his lips as he gave me a wink. I would always shoot my eyes to the ground, but it still made my heart flutter.

"Hey." A tap on my head. "Wake up, ya idiot!" I shifted my gaze to rest on my best friend.

"Oh. Nice to see you," I said, backhandedly.

She put her hands on her hips, "Nice? It's nice to see me?"

"What else did you want me to say?"

"I don't know, but I saw you staring off into space and was wondering if your will to keep your inner craziness down finally broke."

I rolled my eyes, "Very specific, thanks." I looked back down at my book, until a tan hand slammed it closed. I groaned, "Dude! Why?"

She covered a laugh, "I wanted your attention."

"Whatever." I discreetly stole another glance at him and heard her make a strange noise of celebration. "What was that?" I questioned.

"I knew it! I knew you were watching someone!"

I scoffed, "Yeah? Like who?"

"I don't know! You were the one doing the watching!" She exclaimed exasperatedly. "You know what? I'm going to sit back down and read like you are... were." She then left me to my own mind.

Finally bored with my book, I set my sights on him again. He was sitting at a desk on the other side of the room talking with two of his other friends. Even though, I had all of my classes with him, I never had much time to talk to him. Most of that was because if I even attempted to talk to him I would pass out and also because we were in two completely different friend groups.

Most of my friends were the sporty, lives outside, and yet makes it to the top of the class; his friends played video games all day and, even though they all got A's, went under the radar completely. My friends and I wouldn't exactly be considered popular, but we were as close to it as possible. It was probably because we scared them.

As I centered back in on him, his eyes would glance over at mine occasionally, as if he knew I was watching him. I could read his lips very easily, thanks to a lot of practice, so I knew he was talking about the math test he took last class period.

He said a joke about how he flunked it when everyone knows how smart he is, and I covered a laugh with my hand. As I stifled a snort, he looked over at me and smiled. I immediately choked on air and started coughing. I glimpsed a worried look cross his face and he started over to me.

I focused on my book again, still sputtering, and shot a wide-eyed glance at Alisse. I pretended nothing had happened and, when I had gotten back into my book, I felt a hand fall onto my shoulder. I jumped and looked up to see him staring at me, a confused look covering his face.

"You okay?" I heard him ask, but my brain was not responding to anything. I gulped. "Um. Yes. Why do you ask?" He laughed. "Because I watched you choke on air while staring at me," I scoffed. "Why would I be staring at you?" He shrugged and looked at me closer, "Because you like me?" I rolled my eyes, "You wish." He shrugged again, "Maybe I do," he smirked, "but I guess you'll never know..." I looked away to hide my blushing.

"And if you did...?" I asked hesitantly, mentally smacking my forehead. He down to my ear and whispered, "Then you'd have to go out with me." I immediately took my chance and said, out loud, "Okay!"

He jolted back. "Well, that was easy." Then he smiled and extended his hand to me, "Okay, then. Meet me after school in front of the gym?" I gulped and nodded; he clapped his hands together, "Sweet. We have a date."

As I watched him walk back to his table, I realized that he was mine. After years and years of following, watching, and hoping, he was all mine. And this time, he gave his consent.