I walked into first hour the next morning and sat down next to my best friend Savannah.
"You feeling better?" she said jokingly.
She had no doubt I wasn't sick. I went along with the joke.
"Yep. Feelin' greater than great." When I sat down I did a quick look around for him. When I saw him, I smiled to myself. He was doing his usual stare-out-the-window thing. I didn't know how such a simple thing could be so hot.
He sat behind me, a bothersome fact because it made it harder to admire him. Even though he was just one row and a couple seats away, it was still hard. I turned away from him and faced the teacher, who was starting class.
"We'll be doing things differently today. I'm not going to lead the class, I have papers I need to grade. You can treat today's English class as a study hall. Do your work first and then you may whisper quietly," she instructed the class.
There were a couple of approved nods. Savannah put a peace sign up and laid her head down, going to sleep. Half of the class actually started to work and the other half just started talking. I on the other hand took out my sketch pad and started to draw.
I didn't know what I was drawing really. My hand just did whatever, my hand did. It began to look like an eye, so I continued it like an eye.
A sudden urge to look at him hit me. And when I did I was surprised to find that he was looking at me. I held his gaze for a second before looking away.
Him watching me first was a new thing. I opened my eyes wide when the realization hit.
Did he know somehow, that it was me who was in his house? That would be awful, embarrassing, and quite impossible. I made sure he didn't see me.
I peeked at him again and he was still looking at me. Usually when he caught me staring at him, he would just flit his eyes away and continue staring outside. This time, he gave me a hard questioning glare that made me highly uncomfortable, so I looked away from him and focused on my drawing.
Starting with the pupil, I shaded the eye. With each stroke of the pencil, I tried to distract myself from the fact that I could still feel him staring at me.
**
I needed to follow him home again that day, find out mire information. After 4th hour, I waited for him to get up and walk out of the class. This time the teacher stopped him.
"Wait, Zyler. Um, I would like you to address me when you leave," she said. Ha. The teacher even had a hard time talking to him.
But ahh. Zyler, that's his name. Everyone looked up. "I'm leaving," Zyler said without looking at her, and left.
I had to find a different excuse then last time. I went to the teacher and gave her a pleading look.
"Um I-," I started to say but she cut me off.
"You're sick? Go on home. This is your second pass. The third one is all," she said without looking up.
"Ok," I said simply. I wasn't going to argue with that.
I went out in the hall. He was going slower this time so I hung out around my locker until I saw him go out the door.
I was just walking out when the bell rang. I swear that he just walked out of the door but he was already half way towards the corner. This time I walked. No need to show off my 'fancy' bike.
He turned the corner when I was half way there. I started to walk faster in order to catch up. He was at the front of his door. I was at my driveway.
If he turned around, he would see me. Luckily though, he turned and went to his back door. I quickly followed him around but didn't find him outside. He was fast.
This time when I twisted the doorknob, I did it slowly. I got scared when I didn't hear any noise so I let the knob go. I had an odd feeling that he hadn't left from the door yet.
I had a feeling that he was right behind the door. I pressed my ear against the door slowly and kept it there. After a couple of seconds I heard him.
"Why are you following me?" his voice came through the door.
I could not move, I felt frozen to my spot. I wanted to move, but actually didn't want to. I needed to move, but what would happen if I didn't? With all my mental strength, I pulled back.
I began to lift my foot, when I heard his voice again. "Don't try to leave, Amber," he said.
How does he know who I am? I thought. I put my foot down behind me and moved back still.
He swung the door open and stared at me. My eyes were wide and I couldn't move. I forced myself to smile. But trust me, it was a weak one.
"Hi," I said quietly. His expression didn't change.
"What do you want?" he said. And for some reason him saying that made me upset. I felt some sass coming on.
"Can't you at least say hi back? That's pretty rude," I said.
"I wouldn't be worried about manners. I'm not the one who's stalking people. But hello," he said with the same look on his face.
I blushed. "I wasn't stalking you. I just wanted to..." I thought for a quick second. "See what your house looked like." That actually sounded pretty stalkerish, but he probably didn't believe me.
"Then come in," he said. He stared at me for one more second before moving out of the way. I hesitated, but went in.