Chapter 2- Silence please

Leo

I take a deep breath and stretch my arms over my head. My eyes feel heavy and all the sleep I have been avoiding is coming over me. I haven’t slept in three days; I had to work three nights in a row. And now I have test week.

The toll of three back to back 10 hour shifts after a full day of school and then another 8 hours taking care of my siblings is all taking a toll on me.

 I yawn out loud and the people in the library look at me weird. I whisper sorry and go back to looking through my notes. I shake my head trying to wake myself up. I really need to get some rest.

I look up and Golden is standing in front of me. She looks at me and then at the people behind us. My heart starts racing, I take a deep breath and quickly look back at my notes. I hate that she has that effect on me, but come to think of it she has that effect on every guy in this whole school. She’s beautiful and popular. So she’s way out of my league but my heart doesn’t know that does it?

She places her bag on the table and pulls the chair out slowly. Or is it my sense of time that has slowed down?

I look back at her and she’s staring at me. I look away again.

“Hi” she whispers when she sits down.

“Hi” I whisper back and go back to going through my notes. All the tiredness I felt a minute ago gone. Now I am aware of everything. I can smell her sweet scent, I can feel her breath. And if I sneak a quick glance I see her cute concentration face.

How her brows drag together when she’s trying to figure out something, how her mouth opens slightly when she finally understands something. Especially when it’s a math problem.

I shake my head to get all these thoughts out. I shouldn’t be thinking about Golden the “it” girl who is dating the school “it” guy. I just need to concentrate on my studies and making sure that my siblings don’t starve to death.

Liking popular girls is out of the question.

We sit opposite each other in silence for what feels like forever.

“Shit” I hear her whisper and look up at her. She has a pencil in one hand and a broken pencil sharpener in the other.

I reach into my bag and take out a sharpener and hand it to her. She looks at me and smiles sweetly. My heart beats faster. She has an amazing smile, I’ve always seen her smile at other people never at me so it feels weird to have her direct it at me. I smile too, unable to resist. She has an infectious smile.

When she smiles her whole face lights up. Her eyes sparkle.

She stops smiling and cocks her head to the side as if she’s confused. I stop smiling confused too. I look back at my notes, I feel so conscious. Why am I smiling at Golden or am I overthinking all of this?

She sharpens her pencil and gives me the sharpener back. I can feel her eyes on me the whole time. I take a deep breath to calm my heart down but it doesn’t calm down. I feel her eyes on me, I look up and our eyes collide. I look away quickly. Why is she staring at me like that?

I need to get out of here, why am I feeling anxious all of a sudden? She looks away and sighs so deeply that the students sitting on the table behind her look back at her.

I slowly start packing my stuff and get out of the Library. When I get to the hallway, I’m thankful it’s empty, I take a moment to calm down.

Why am I freaking out from just sitting across her. Sure I think she’s beautiful and honestly, I might have a little crush on her but that was so dramatic.

I shake my head to clear it. I head to my next class. I need to get a grip.

“Hey Leo, you good?” My friend Zach says when I walk into my physics class. “ You look like you just saw a ghost man, you good?” he adds. He’s the only one in class, I should have come here after my math test, instead of the Library.

I sit on the desk next to his and nod yes to show him that I’m good.

“I’m just tired man” I say as an explanation so he doesn’t get worried about me. Zach knows all my secrets and that means he worries about me a little too much.

He knows what the situation is like at home with my mom, siblings, and everything.

I don’t want him to freak out over nothing. It’s just girl problems.

“You know you can tell me anything Bro, right?” he says tapping me on my back to let me know he’s here for me. I smile and tap him back to assure him I’m good. Although I doubt he’ll believe me.

“ I know Bro.” I tell him and he nods, deciding not to press the issue any further.

The class suddenly gets loud as all the other students walk in, in a loud raw of laughter. And of course, Cole is in the middle of the commotion. He always has to say something.

“Okay class please settle down, so we can begin with your test” Mr Ken says over everyone else. He’s a very short man but he’s loud.

The class gets quiet instantly, Mr Ken makes a gymnasium full of kids silent in one second.

Golden walks in as everyone takes a seat and Cole starts whistling. And the whole class starts applauding. She stops in her tracks surprised at what is happening.

“Isn’t my girl just gorgeous?” Cole says and stands up to pull a chair for her next to him.

“Okay, okay. Settle down” Mr Ken says and the class goes quiet again.

“You need to stop doing that,” Golden says to Cole when she finally sits down.

“But it’s true”  Cole says and he has a huge smile on his face.

“Cole, I’m serious” she says softly.

She turns away from him and looks towards where I am. Our eyes collide again and we lock.

I give myself a small moment to really look at her. We look at each other for over a minute.

“Okay let’s get started” Mr Ken says and Golden looks away. I feel my heart get going again but this time it doesn’t feel like I am suffocating.