Secret obsession

‘I miss you.’ It was the message on my phone screen. I do not know what time it is, but I’m pretty sure it's late. I wake up a little bit just to see who sent me the text. It was surprising to find out that it was from Henry. What does he want now? It’s been two weeks since we talked. Actually, it was more of a discussion than a regular talk. I thought I made myself clear when I told him that I didn’t want to see him anymore. I even remember him laughing mockingly after agreeing with that. I cried so much for him, I changed too much too, and I even lost a lot of friends for him… I know it was my fault for letting him change me in such little time that I spent with him. I just started to feel myself after two weeks of pain, I cannot let my brain start to think about him again. It’s 2:30 in the morning for God’s sake! I shake my head thinking I cannot put myself through another round, so I repeat in my mind like a little mantra “I will take a deep breath and fall asleep again.” ... A FEW WEEKS AGO I am in the classroom getting ready to help with the school festival. Normally, I don’t like those kinds of things but this year it looks like it's going to be fun. The school has prepared so many new activities that I’m sure I will enjoy once we set everything up. Since we are in school hours, Mrs. Pertle (the art teacher) is telling us that she offered some students from my class to help with the little museum the school was preparing for the festival, so basically, I was chosen to hang up some local artist’s paintings in the audiovisual room. I know it will be a little bit boring, but I will be working with some of my friends from other classes and some other students I don’t know. In the helper’s group for the so-called museum there are 5 other students and me. Three of them are my friends already, Tyler, Janice, and Erika, with whom I start chatting right away about classes and laughing at Tyler’s jokes, and another two students that I never noticed at school before, so I try not to make eye contact because I don’t know them. I’m a very friendly person and I know a lot of people at school, but that does not mean I’m the one that starts friendly conversations, nor mean I’m the popular one. Normally, I am shy when I’m around new people, but once they get to know me, they become my friends. I wouldn’t say I’m fun to hang out with, but I’m pretty sure I’m nice and polite with everyone. We all start hanging paintings, cleaning a little bit and laughing at Tyler’s comedy. Also, I got to know Wendy, one of the two other students I didn’t know. She is very nice and funny, just like Tyler, she acts so outgoing that it's not hard to be comfortable with her. We finished hanging the paintings, and now we are waiting for further instructions. Since I’m the petite among the helpers group, the teacher in charge of the “museum,” Mr. Garcia, told me to put some decorations around the ceiling using the twin ladder that was on the floor at the end of the room. “You can take Henry with you to help you” Mr. Garcia says, pointing to the guy standing at the door just looking at all of us working. He is just staring at each one of us with a pretentious look. He is the other student I don’t know. “Henry!” Mr. Garcia shouts to take him out of his trance. “Come here and help Erin with the ladder”, he says, while he walks out of the room arguing with himself because school hours will end soon. Henry looks at me for a moment and his lips draw a half smile to later expel a tired sigh to start walking towards me. Is not so hard to notice that he is not enjoying this activity, but a lot of teachers promise us some extra credit if we help. It is so obvious that he is here just for the extra credit. He is not that far from me, but as he walks towards me, I notice that he is very good-looking with a hint of cool-guy that tries to give the idea to everyone that he doesn’t care about anything. He is now in front of me, too close, actually. That makes me feel like he’s invading my personal space. I look up at him and take one step back to try to understand what’s he doing. He tilts his head a little bit, smiling at my reaction. “Just hold the ladder firmly” I say rolling my eyes while going up. He keeps staring at me as if he is hypnotized. I just decide to concentrate on hanging these decorations and finish with my task like everyone else is doing… without noticing, I forget about him until he starts shaking the ladder legs, making me scream and hold myself to the top of the ladder. “Stop it!” I scream… once he stops, I go down carefully ready to yell at him “Are you crazy! What if I fell?” I’m yelling at him very angrily, moving my arms dramatically when he interrupts me. “Don’t worry, I got you” he says with a big smile and then brushes his thumb against my chin. I got speechless with his reaction, with his smile, he has a beautiful smile, kind of captivating. I exhale almost laughing because I understand now that he is playing, but he scared me a lot. “Stop playing and help me finish” I say rolling my eyes and going up again. “We are the only two left, everybody is done already”, I say reprimanding him a little bit. “Ok, ok” he replies mocking me and smiling again. We hung the rest of the decorations quietly, and now I’m trying to pick up some pieces of paper while he puts the ladder away. The idea that everybody left without cleaning their area makes me angry because that means I have to clean it before leaving, so Mr. Garcia would not get madder at us on Monday. I am fighting with a piece of serpentine that someone left on the floor when I hear a camera sound. I turn around and see Henry looking at his cellphone, smiling at it. “Good picture” he says, nodding at me. “You look pretty when you concentrate”, he starts walking towards me, crossing the entire room without breaking eye contact. I froze without words; he is so handsome that even his walk is sexy. I am looking at him so confused about my thoughts and what he just said that I’m pretty sure I have a big question mark on my face. “Let me help you with that, my love”, Henry says, graving the serpentine and my hands too. “What are you doing?” I finally say looking at him trying to understand what is going on. “I’m trying to help you with this thing babe” he replies, winking at me, touching my hands more than necessary to make a ball of serpentine that he throws to the trashcan like a basketball player. He smiles at me like a good kid after doing something big, he acts so relaxed that it is contagious and makes me smile at him too. “Let’s go to eat something!” he shouts taking me by surprise, grabbing my shoulders and pushing me out of the audiovisual room, “my treat.” We went to the McDonald’s that was close to school. He ordered a flurry and I ordered a Smoothie, I was very hungry, and I wanted a double whopper, but I get shy when people I don’t know watch me eat. So, we take our order and walk away to go to the park that was nearby. I thought we were going to sit on one of the benches, but he keeps walking, and I keep following him until we are in the middle of the park where there is nowhere to sit, just green grass. He sits on the grass and claps on the space next to him to let me know I should sit there. It is so weird that I keep spending time with him, but all my friends have already left, since it is Friday, everybody runs out of school. I have nothing to do at home, so it doesn’t bother me to stay out a little bit more, although I don’t know what I am doing with him. I said I'm friendly but I didn’t know him until this afternoon and, even so, I sit where he told me to. “So, Erin, what kind of music do you like?” he asks looking at me so intensely, like if he is trying to c***k some kind of code. “I don’t have a favored genre... I like to dance, so any kind of music that makes me dance is good enough”. I look at him licking the spoon of his flurry, “what about you?” “I don’t like to dance, but I like rock music… actually, you should listen to rock music too, you might like it” he shrugs innocently. I always thought I was good at reading people, but he is too weird for me. I don’t understand what he is trying to do. Is he trying to get to know me better? Is he trying to be friends with me? Or is he just trying to spend some time because he is bored?... He is just looking at the people playing basketball like he doesn’t care about me now, licking his mouth from time to time, which, by the way, makes me notice what a pretty mouth he has. “I will try to listen to rock someday”, I say, giving up what was in his mind and getting up as well, “I should go home, it was nice meeting you Henry”. “I’ll walk you home” he stands up immediately, taking me by surprise again. I cannot understand who this guy is. What does he want? He is trying so hard to be my friend that it makes me feel like he might want something else. “Oh OK” I say probably with a question mark on my face again. He stares at me with his half smile. “You are cute” he adds to his gesture of petting my head before he starts walking away carrying both our bags, one on each shoulder. I chuckle softly giving up, but I also decide to accept the idea of me and him becoming friends, maybe this is his way to make friends and I will roll with it. I walk on the sidewalk of the streets while he is playing around me. It is like he has a lot of energy and wants to show it to me, but he also does something that takes me out of place, because he looks so comfortable with his body, and sometimes he turns around, starts walking backwards to smile and wink at me, it makes me feel nervous and shy instantly, and I don’t even know why? Plus, he knows it and keeps doing it laughing and biting his lower lip a little bit. He looks so handsome and sexy doing that, that I hate myself for reacting this way. I just met him today! While I keep looking at him laughing because he is walking backwards again, I forget to see where we are going until he stops and waits for me to be closer. “Here we are” he announces proudly. I look around, and I notice that we are on my street. What the…? How did we get here? How does he know I live here? “How did you know I live here?” the question mark is on my face even bigger now. “My house is not so far from here, so I saw you before walking out of your house and going in sometimes” he replies in an apologetic way, showing me the way to my house with his hands and giving me my backpack. I don’t think I should get mad about some people using the same street to walk to places, so I nod at his answer, thinking that it makes sense, plus it's not like I’m the kind of person that panics at everything just because it is not usual. “Well, thank you! And I’ll see you on Monday”, I say taking my stuff, shaking my hand goodbye and start walking to my house. “Wait!” he grabs me by my wrist to stop me, “Can I have your number, so I can text you later?” he asks, looking at me with a lot of interest, giving me his cellphone. “Am… sure” I say, taking his phone to dial my number and call me to record his number as well. While I wait to hear my ringtone, I look at his expression and he has an intense look staring just at my lips making me nervous again. My phone starts ringing, and he looks me in the eyes, noting my blushed face, he tilts his head a little bit, raising both eyebrows and smiles, biting his lower lip again. “Here… bye!” I give him his cellphone back, feeling nervous that he noticed my reaction. I walk to my house faster than I should, trying to look natural and failing at the same time when I heard a camera sound. I stop for a moment and turn around to see him nodding at his cellphone with a prankish smile. “Good picture”, he shakes his hand goodbye and turns to walk away, leaving me speechless thinking again, Who the hell is this guy? I took the time to take my cellphone out of my pocket and start to record his number in it. When I see on the screen, the space to write a name, I chuckle writing the name that better describes him as ‘Weird Guy’. I finish walking home, and I enter saying hello to my older sister Lisa and both my parents. My sister was by the window that overlooks the front door when I came in. “Who is the guy that walked you home today” she asks. “It's just a new friend, a new guy I met at school” I reply without giving too much interest to why she was asking. “You should bring a boyfriend instead of a friend” “I have no interest in love right now sis, I’m not like you!” I reply knowing that she switched her last boyfriend for a new one the same day they broke up. She looks a little bit mad but starts laughing at the end, showing that she doesn’t really care. I laugh too and we both get ready to have dinner. As a tradition in my family, we decided to have early dinners on Fridays to enjoy the rest of the day watching movies all together in the living room. “I’ll be back in a minute; I will just leave my stuff in my room!” I announce to my parents in the kitchen. Before going up to my bedroom, my phone rings announcing a text. I see my phone that is still in my hand and I read ‘It was nice meeting you Erin, I already miss you – Weird Guy’. While I was reading the text I didn’t notice my sister was reading it too above my shoulder. “Interesting!” she says, making me jump and run to the kitchen, so I cannot hit her. Yes, it is interesting, his text makes me smile and makes my heart run fast even when I know that this is his way to make friends, but at the same time, I have a different feeling that makes me happy. I smile and decide to ignore the text. After all, he is a weird guy.