"Coffee, please." I was in the cafeteria, placing my order, when someone gently tapped my shoulder. I casually turned back, and once I realised who it was, I couldn't help but look genuinely confused.
"Uh," he was holding my black and white checkered handkerchief and thrust it to me, as he slid his other restless hand in his pocket, "You dropped this, outside homeroom class."
"Oh, thanks Peter." I turned around to take my coffee and then my handkerchief from his hand and I smiled at him greatfully for his kind gesture.
"Okay." He returned the smile and stood for a few seconds before realising that the conversation was over. He gave me a two- finger salute and went towards his group of friends, playing catch in the middle table.
"What was that about?" Beth looked curiously in Peters direction as I made my way to the table of five placed in the left corner of the hall. It wasn't only me and Beth, but Jessica, Paris and Sarah.
We became friends around two years back, when we were assigned for a project together. Over the course of the time, I even found out that they were really close to Jason, which was surprising, honestly. Jessica said they were all family friends, and Jason was like a protective brother always looking for them. He sometimes even stopped by our table to tease them but never sat with us, as Paris explained, that he tends to be shy and reserved towards people he didn't know. Given that them not sitting on Jason's table was unconvincing, Sarah told that they never liked Rebecca who always hovered over Jason like a fly. Something bad seemed to go down between them but they never said what it was.
"Nothing, he was just kind enough to give me this back." I swayed the handkerchief in front of her face, and she slapped my hand for doing it.
"If you haven't noticed, Peter has been clocking you since this morning." She smirked.
"Who is clocking who?" Sarah's green eyes lit up and darted from me and Beth, who gave her an awkward smile.
"Don't change the topic, and tell us about George!" Jessica said making my ears perk up.
This time it was my blue and Beth's brown eyes lighting up with the statement.
"George?" Beth asked teasingly and wiggled her eyebrows.
"Oh, yes." Paris butted in and nudged Sarah with her elbow, "They both were caught sinning in the deserted corridors."
She giggled while me and Beth were staring wide-eyed in Sarah's direction whose cheeks were flaming up.
"Oh shut up, guys." Sarah rolled her eyes and diverted their attention to me by saying, "By the way," she smirked, "Jason was asking about Eleanor, the other day, right girls?"
"W-what?" My cheeks had taken the turn to heat up in flames, while all of them stared at me in amusement.
"Yeah, El. No kidding." Jessica said which looked like mock seriousness, "He asked if you could lend him your notes on History."
And they started laughing.
Oh.
And here I thought he asked something about ME.
"You know what El," Paris suggested something which I didn't want to hear again, "You should actually tell him, about your feelings."
"Yeah, get it off your chest." Jessica agreed.
"Uh, no." I said and fidgeted with my now warm coffee. I took a sip and made a face about the way it tasted and set it aside.
"I just told her the same thing yesterday." Beth sighed in relief that she wasn't the only one who thought about that.
Jessica had stumbled across my rough book, after a year of knowing each other. They had always been suspicious about my love interest and it turned out true for them, when they saw the treasures hidden in my book.
But they swore to secrecy to not break the girl code by rushing to Jason with the proof in hand, because all I imagined was him shrugging in response and avoiding me more than ever.
They all seemed to stare at each other, like passing silent messages as I saw them all nodding to each other.
"Uh guys? Whatever it is, I'm not doing anything." I said firmly, pushing a lock of brown hair from my face.
"No, you're not." Paris said as they all stood up, "We are."
Everything happened so suddenly, and the next thing I knew I was being dragged towards the table where Jason and his friends were supposedly talking about sports.
Oh, no.
"I can't do this, please guys!" I told them pleadingly and they stopped a few feet away from the table.
"Yes you have to!" Paris said it firmly, "To hell with him if he says no, get this off your chest, and you'll stop hurting yourself every time you see him with that fly there."
Bad idea.
"Go ahead." They gently pushed me and my heart stopped when Jason's gaze was fixed on me.
I slowly breathed, in and out and realised that it's either today or never to tell him about how I feel. Sure, it's the guy who always comes around and proposes, but to hell with that now. Even girls can, whenever they feel like it.
I kept waiting for 7 years for Jason to make a move, while I just kept staring at him, the love expanding every second, every minute of my life. I kept stalking him on social media, keeping tabs about what he liked and disliked, his favorite colours or dishes, you name it, I knew it.
I know it's not creepy at all.
So I pushed my hair on one side and walked a bit confidently towards him, even when my heart betrayed me and pounded so fast that I could have a heart attack.
"Hey." I breathed and smiled at everyone on the table, staring at me, and looked at Jason who now seemed busy fidgeting with his phone.
"Jason?" I said and he looked up with a blank face and a raised eyebrow, waiting for me to go on. "Can I talk to you for a second?"
Before he could say something, his spokesperson flipped her black hair and said, "Whatever you want to say to Jason," she said as she propped her elbows on the table and actioned her palms facing upwards into a semi- circle, "You can in front of us, right Jayjay?"
"Yeah, sure." He crossed his arms and shrugged and I was left speechless and my throat dried up when I had to say it in front of everyone.
Now or never, Eleanor.
"Okay." I nodded and dug my nails in my palms to divert my flushed state. I managed to tuck my brown hair behind my ear with my shaking hand and licked my lips as I started.
"I don't really know, how it started but I first saw you in fourth grade, when you were new to the school. Maybe it was a first sight thing, but it kept growing slowly over the years, enhancing it every time. And for that, only seeing you would do the magic." I saw Jason, and I slightly raised my eyebrows when I saw his own flushed state, but he never broke his gaze but just stared at me to continue, "I didn't realise what it was when in 7th grade you were punished to sit in front of the teachers desk and caught me staring every time you'd look a----"
"Cut the crap, darling." Rebecca interrupted which broke us both from the trance we were in, and I swear I saw a glint of positivity in Jason's eyes before it was vanished like nothing happened. "Jason," Rebecca rolled her eyes and said the sentence which was supposed to come from me, "The brunette is in love with you."
To my surprise, Jason rolled his eyes and shaked his head.
He looked at me with so much coldness held in his light brown eyes, that I almost shivered. And the next words he told, literally broke my heart.
"Please forgive me, for doing something wrong, for you to come here and humiliate me like this." He looked around and that's when I copied his action and noticed that the whole cafeteria was looking at us.
Some of them were hooting and whistling while others were howling like dogs.
"Just take those feelings with you and get lost Eleanor." He said it curtly but loud enough for everyone to hear.
And I just stood there stunned to process what happened.