Cassandra
The rest of the day seemed to drag on forever until it was finally time to go home.
I practically skipped out of the school doors ready to pick up Eva from her school.
Taking my phone out of my pocket to play my usual playlist when I walked home, I heard someone calling after me.
"Cassandra, Wait up!" A familiar voice yelled, getting louder as it got closer.
Looking back I saw it was Andrew.
I smiled and waved at him "Hi Andrew!"
He caught up to me panting and out of breath.
"Hey... I've been calling you for about a minute now and you didn't respond, what happened?" He asked inquisitively.
I blushed in embarrassment and broke eye contact while pushing up my glasses."Oh um, I was just distracted... what are you doing here?"
Now it was his turn to blush " Well I was wondering if you would uh... walk with me to pick up my brother because I assumed you were going to pick your sister and since they go to the same school it would make sense if..."
I put my hand on his arm.
"It's ok you don't have to explain to me," I said calmly trying to sound understanding and reassuring.
But all he did was look at my hand on his arm then look at me and back at my hand wide-eyed.
I realized what was wrong in an instant.
I, a girl he barely even knew, was touching him, and he had a girlfriend.
I jerked my hand away like his body was on fire and held it close to my chest.
"I'm so sorry I didn't mean to, I...I'm sorry," I stumbled over my words, extremely embarrassed.
"It's ok don't sweat it" he replied, trying to sound casual like it was nothing but I still felt like I was slowly dying inside with embarrassment.
After a while, an awkward silence settled in between us and I realized 2 things.
Realization #1: Me and Andrew were walking side by side; alone together
And Realization #2: This situation can only go 1 way, either good or very very bad.
After a couple more minutes of this deafening silence, I couldn't take it any longer and blurted out randomly "hey," just when coincidentally he said "hey" at the same time.
"Jinx!" We yelled in union, soon after, laughing at ourselves and each other at our circumstances.
After we calmed down a little he said: "you can go first if you want, cause you're a girl and all, ladies first."
I smiled at him and his kind gesture "well that's sweet of you but you can go first, I don't mind."
He cocked his head at me "you sure?"
I waved my hand at him to show that it was ok "yeah it's fine, go."
"Sooo..." he started "maybe you could tell me a bit about yourself, now that we're friends?" Andrew asked. I sucked in a breath in surprise and a soft smile sprang onto my lips. Andrew thought of me as a friend.
"You... think we're friends?" I asked back hopefully. His face fell and he laughed nervously.
"Well... yeah." He said, twisting his fingers and looking away. The most adorable thing ever. "But only if you're okay with it. I mean, if you're not, that's totally fine..." he hurried to add, his voice trailing off. I shook my head vigorously at him.
"No! I like that. Friends." He smiled that amazing smile at me and my heart just melted.
"Me too. Uh, first question. What music do you listen to?" He asked. I thought about it for a moment.
"Mostly pop." I decided on.
"Why pop?" He inquired curiously. I thought again.
"Probably because most of the pop songs I know tell stories and it's really relatable. They all have emotion and I think that's really interesting." I said thoughtfully. He nodded at me, looking impressed.
"That's deep." He concluded. I grinned.
"What's your favourite genre?" I asked. He had no hesitation.
"Definitely rap." He replied.
"And why do you like rap?" I asked, following the same questioning structure that he was using. He looked confused.
"I don't know... because... it sounds cool...?" he said, seeming unsure of his answer. I laughed out loud.
"I don't think that counts." I protested jokingly. He laughed.
"It totally does!" He insisted. I rolled my eyes playfully and smiled again at him.
"Sure, let's go with that then. Next question: favourite movie?" I asked (mainly so I could go home and watch it over and over again).
"Probably the blind side. Ever heard of it?" He asked. I shook my head.
"No, but it sounds good. What's it about?"
"It's about this teenage boy who's homeless. He goes through a bunch of different schools and none of them want him. He gets taken in by this family and they show him his potential to be a football star and eventually, he does become one." Andrew finished.
"That sounds like a really good movie," I told him, genuinely intrigued. He nodded.
"It is. Your turn." I was silent for a minute, debating between two movies and finally decided that I couldn't just pick one.
"Can I pick two?" I asked hopefully. He shrugged.
"The more the merrier." He reassured. I nodded.
"So the first movie is called 'Before I Fall' and the second is called 'To All The Boys I've Loved Before.'" I said. He frowned.
"The second movie sounds like a romance." He complained. I put my hands on my hips and teasingly accused:
"What, you have a problem with romance?" He stammered nervously.
"N-no! I meant they're not my favourite. They're good and all, but-" I laughed, cutting him off and he scratched his head in confusion.
"Andrew, it was a joke!" I giggled. He blushed.
"I knew that!" He pouted. "I was just testing you." I chortled at him.
Once I had calmed down, I continued. "Suuure. Anyways, the first movie is about a girl who has the perfect life. She has lots of friends and a perfect boyfriend." I explained with a glance at Andrew. He wasn't looking at me so he didn't notice my starring, but I could tell from his eyes that he was concentrating on the plot. "She tragically dies in a car crash, and when she wakes up, she keeps reliving that day over and over again and she has to figure out why." He was quiet for a minute.
"That's also deep." He laughed I nodded in agreement. "What's the romance one?"
"'To All The Boys I've Loved Before' is about a girl who has a crush on her sisters boyfriend, writes love letters to all her past loves but never sent any of them but at some point they get sent and she really didn't want the other guy she liked to know that she liked him because how embarrassing, right, so she kissed the popular guy who is the guy she had liked before she liked her sisters boyfriend and the popular dude became her fake boyfriend who became her real boyfriend and... it's complicated." I rambled and was out of breath at the end. He chuckled.
"I can tell. Oh, we're almost at the elementary school, what is it that you wanted to ask me again?" He asked me.
I felt my heart sink at his comment. 1 because we were almost there meaning no more talking to each other and 2 after such a great time we were having with each other I knew my question would only ruin our vibe.
"Uhh... its nothing." I dismissed and waved it off like it didn't mean anything.
Andrew smirked at me "It's definitely something and I wanna know."
Finally realizing he wouldn't let it go that easily I stalled for an excuse. "...I ...I ...I forgot! Yeah, I forgot soo... sorry, heh."
Then something unexpected happened.
He stepped super close to me, looked so deep into my eyes I was sure he could probably see the murky depths of my tiny soul, held both my shoulders lightly and said softly in a deep voice "please?"
I was so shocked by the sudden act I could only nod silently.
When he saw that, he smiled, backed up and patiently waited for an answer.
I sighed and asked in a small voice "Won't Victoria be upset when she finds out that we're... hanging out." I picked my last two words carefully.
He scrunched up his nose like he smelt something bad and said "Victoria? Victoria as in my girlfriend Victoria?"
"Uh, yeah." I mumbled. Even the mention of her name scared me.
"Why would she be upset?" He asked inquisitively.
"Cause she doesn't like me very much..." I sounded like a five-year-old while I said that.
He used his finger to lift my chin up so we could be face to face.
"Hey, don't worry about that right now, ok?" He said, noticing my nervous state and trying to be comforting.
I looked at him, my eyes searching his, and nodded slowly but not so sure about his answer.
We eventually got to our sibling's school, picked them up and parted our ways.
Eva was rambling on and on about her day like usual but I wasn't paying attention because I was too busy replaying me and Andrews conversation over and over again in my head.
Then an interesting idea struck me.
What if Andrew asked me all of those questions because he wanted to know what I liked because he was my secret admirer???
I beamed at the thought and let my mind wander off to all the different ways that Andrew could tell me that he's my admirer, where we would have our own sweet little happily ever after. Just like in the movies.