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Once Meg has scampered off with her boyfriend and Lola is nowhere to be found because she’s doing God knows what, I’m usually left to mingle with the guys and since none of them usually approach me I just stand there awkwardly waiting for someone to talk to me which is usually one of my Mu Gamma sisters. Typically Erica, one of the sisters that I pledged with, hangs out with me because she’s pretty awkward when it comes to the mixers too.
My eyes track Brad as he makes his way into the classroom. As he gets closer, I’m pleasantly surprised when he sits in the seatnext to mine. While Brad and I haven’t seen each other outside of class, we have continued to message back and forth on AOL and recently we moved over to Facebook messaging. He friend requested me one night after he talked about how boring it was on there and that everyone kept trying to post on his wall and sending him pokes. I was shocked when I logged in one night and saw the request but that didn’t stop me from accepting it and then combing through his profile. Now we talk a lot on there.
Over winter break, we would check in with each other seeing how things were going and what we were doing. Basically we shared our entire days; hell we spent a whole day off and on sending messages to each other about literally everything we could think of. No topic was really off limits but neither of us ever mentioned or questioned the other’s dating life. Honestly, I didn’t want to think of him being with anyone, so I shied away from that topic. One thing I’ve started to realize is that I have feelings for him. Unrequited feelings but feelings nonetheless.
Brad slides into the seat beside me and rests his backpack by his feet. The room is only partially full as people continue to stream in, but he chose to sit by me. This is the first time that we’ve seen each other and I’m reminded of how handsome he is when I look over at him. He looks at me and smiles and I instantly return it.
“Good seeing you Malone.”
“Yeah. It’s been awhile.” I attempt to be coy and don’t mention that we just talked online an hour ago.Are we going to pretend that we haven’t talked a ton online?I think about our conversations and quickly realize we never talked about our classes this semester or asked what each other was taking. He could be in more of my classes and I don’t even know it yet.
“Are you excited to be back on campus?”
We talked about how bored we were over break. He’s froma small town, smaller than our college town and being back with his family reminds him there’s nothing to do. For me when everyone leaves the town feels empty. “For the social aspect yes, for the actual studying and being in class, no.”
He chuckles. “You and me both.”
He toes my bookbag with his foot. “I see you’re keeping that tradition alive.”
I grin from ear to ear. He noticed my backpack, the same one he mentioned online to me to prove that it really was him instant messaging me. “Yeah. It’s my favorite.”
“I would never have guessed.”
Now he’s just teasing me.Is this flirting?I’m so bad at this. It’s at times like this that I wish I would have dated more but instead I wasted over a year of my life and all my freshman year with a douchebag and gave him my virginity. I gag in my mouth just thinking about it.
“You okay there Malone?”
I school my face and shake away the memory of Jared. “Yeah. Sorry, I was lost in my own thoughts.”
His smile is natural and easy going. “Happens to the best of us.”
A few more people start filing into the room and as the seats begin to fill up, I realize our conversation has stopped and he’s texting on his phone. For a brief moment, I wonder who he’s texting. A pang of jealousy courses through me at the thought of him texting a girl he may be interested in. I start to wring my hands in my lap into the hem of my sweater. I hate the fact that we’ve never talked about relationships or even brought up dating.
I start to break the tension. I can’t handle the silence either. “Texting your girlfriend?”
He looks up from his phone and gives me an odd look. Justas he starts to open his mouth to answer the professor has already entered the room and starts his lecture. Brad closes his mouth and shoves his phone back into his pants pocket.
I sit there, unable to focus on what the professor is saying, berating myself for such an asinine way of asking if he has a girlfriend squirreled away somewhere no one knows about. If he does have a girlfriend, I wonder how she would feel knowing we talked so much over these last few weeks. I would be a jealous, raging bitch if it was me.
I go through the motions of the syllabus being passed out, the initial roll call and even the information about the textbooks we need for the class. Halfway through the class Brad slowly passes a single sheet of paper onto my desk. He’s so stealthy that I barely notice I look down and take in his neat handwriting.
No girlfriend. My mom was wishing me a good first day back.
I grin, unable to keep a neutral look on my face as I think of all the reasons he would want to tell me this. He wanted me to know it was just his mother—but he also wanted me to know he doesn’t have a girlfriend. Maybe he is interested in me after all. From what I can tell, he does seem shy when it comes to certain things. Now that Meg is back at the apartment, I’ll have to confess to her I’ve been talking to him and then pick her brain about the situation.
I click my pen on the desk and write him back.
That’s nice. My mom cried when I left on Sunday and she’s only a few miles away.
I don’t really expect him to write any other notes because of his history of being so interactive in previous classes but he does. And what he writes down makes my heart skip a beat.
740-555-5700
His phone number. Brad Matthews just gave me his number. Itry to keep the excitement contained as I write mine back. When I pass him the paper he pulls out his phone and quickly types something in it. A second later, I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket. Discreetly as possible, I pull it out and hide it in my book to read.
Unknown
Want to walk to the student center after with me?
