Just Getting There

There's Something About Brian

I sighed as I sat on the comfy, red couch in my living room with my bowl of popcorn, my laptop and my phone. It was a lazy Sunday afternoon and I was alternating between texting my friends, writing one of my short stories on wattpad, facebook, and watching a movie. The lighting in the room was dimmed, the only light coming from the television screen and my laptop.

The remainder of my date went swell. I finally asked Aaron about the girl he was with, which he informed me was one of his friends, Janay. I also asked him about his absence on Friday, which he replied that he had a doctors appointment. We made plans for next week Saturday, and I couldn't be any happier. We were currently texting each other, flirting. Soon I was interrupted by the red "1" on the messages icon on facebook. It was Brian, and for some strange reason my heart felt like it sank into my stomach. Hmm, maybe it was all the damn popcorn I was eating. The message read:

Hey cutie ;D dont 4get bout that story u promised me!

I smiled at the "cutie" part, and replied:

Dnt wrry, i got u, lol ive never been called a cutie b4.

Lml, then u need 2 chill w/ me more often.

Was Brian asking me out? I started feeling guilty about the whole situation since I was with Aaron. I was confused, so I decided to change the subject.

Hmm...mayb. Hey wat do u think we'll do in drama class 2mrw?

umm, idk mayb Ms. Darling gnna do one of her damn monologues agen lol

lmfao true, hey ill c u 2mrw, im kinda busy. I replied starting to feel a bit uncomfortable talking to him.

yea sure thng, c ya.

I sighed. I didn't know what to think, but there was definitely something about Brian McKnight.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

"Alright class, settle down, settle down." said Ms. Darling, in a high sing songy voice. Practically everything this woman spoke was in a sing songy voice, Maybe it was because of her young age and eagerness for life that made her the perfect drama instructor. She wore wacky clothes though, stuff like Mrs. Darbus from High School Musical, would wear. I liked her though, she seemed to be one of those teachers who didn't view her students as students but as friends.

When the class finally settled into their seats, she continued. "As you all know, this is a drama class, and we will all be acting! You have a project!"

The class moaned, including me.

"I want everyone in groups of two. So, quickly, find your partner, and when you do, come see me about the roles you will be portraying. You will have about a week to put together a scene and present it in front of the class!" she exclaimed. Everyone quickly found their partner. Since I didn't know anyone besides Brian, I chose him as my partner, but I was a bit hesitant. As I approached him, he winked at me, which started to make me feel a little light-headed, and motioned with his head so that we may see Ms. Darling about our assignment.

"Ahh, and ya'll are?" she asked us as we approached her.

"Brian McKnight and Jade Lawrence." Brian replied for both of us.

Ms. Darling scribbled our names down abd handed us a piece of paper with our assignment. We walked back to Brian's seat as we read our assignment.

We had to portray a married couple in which the wife who was expecting a child, just found out she was having a boy. The husband and wife soon get into an arguement over what the child's name should be.

"Wow." Brian said as he cleared his throat. "This might be...fun."

"I don't think 'fun' is the word though." I said annoyed.

"Aww, the thought of being married to me doesn't appeal to you?" Brian asked, smirking, showing off his dimples. All I could do was grin back. Brian had a way of getting everyone to laugh and smile along with him.

"Oh and about your story, I really can't wait to read it. The title seems interesting." he said, refering to the story I printed out and gave him during biology. It was entitled "Boy plus Girl equals Sex".

I laughed. "Of course you would find that interesting!"

He laughed then. I never actually paid attention to the way Brian laughed but it was too cute. It sounded like a baby or a small child's laughter, but a more masculine sound to it. And dimples seemed to bore more into his cheeks as he laughed.

His laughter was abruptly stopped by the sing songy voice of Ms. Darling. "Now class, this skit will be about twenty-five percent of your class average. Therefore make it good, and memorable. Use as much props as you can. Just then, the bell rang. Brian and I grabbed our things and rushed out the door. We had lunch next. I started thinking about seeing Aaron again. He ignored me in English, still sticking to the plan. I wondered if he would ignore me if he saw me with Brian.

My thoughts were suddenly interrupted when Brian pulled me towards a colorful poster with cheerleaders all over it. It was a tryout poster. Tryouts were tomorrow afterschool.

I raised an eyebrow at Brian. "So you wanna tryout for the squad?" I asked jokingly.

"Haha, funny. But I was thinking maybe you could tryout." he said, with a serious expression.

"Uhh...cheerleading isn't really my thing."

"What you mean by that?" he asked as we continued to manuever ourselves to the cafeteria.

"Well, for starters, I don't think I have the bodily features to fill out a cheerleading outfit. And I'm not a great dancer."

Brian took a long glance over my body from head to toe. Suddenly, he grinned.

"What?" I asked, laughing.

"I don't know what you're talking about. Damn! I mean look at your legs and excuse me for saying this but you got a nice ass! I mean I would go on but--" he said trying to hold back a horny grin, his gaze lingering at my butt.

I couldn't stop laughing. I slapped his arm a bit and he started laughing too. "I can't believe you said that, you perv!!"

"Hey, I'm just tellin it how it is, Jay."

We walked into the cafeteria to where we usually sat with Taj and Sharina. As I passed Aaron's table, I gave myself the liberty of stealing a glance at him. His eyes met mine, but only for a split second. He was with his other sophomore friends. Aaron was sitting next to that girl, Janay, again.

As we arrived at our regular table, we spotted Sharina and Taj staring at us. I looked down at what they were looking at. Brian's hands and mine were locked together. How the fuck did I miss that? Without a second thought, I quickly jerked my hand from his. I looked up at him a bit bewildered. His eyes showed some disappointment, but maybe it was all in my head.There was an awkward silence between the four of us. A series of questions ran through my head.

What the hell just happened? It was cool and all when he was joking about how good my body was. Was he joking? Why would he hold my hand? In front of Aaron? Wait, he doesn't know about Aaron. Why don't I tell him? No, why should I? Brian was a nice guy. I couldn't hurt him like that. Why did I lead him on? I'll admit I like all the attention, and plus if I tell him about Aaron it'll be awkward when we have to work on the project together.

What am I gonna do with Brian McKnight?