The Walls Have Ears

Look at me. I dared her with my eyes, as she briskly pushed past me. Her flowing cascade of light brown hair blew behind her as she zipped down the hallway. The disappointment was overwhelming, as it was everyday that she ignored me. If once, just once, those emerald green eyes looked my way, I’d never ask for anything else.

Students all around me talked loudly to their friends, buzzing right past me, not concerned with the dejected boy standing in their path. My face turned pink from the embarrassment of longing after a girl who didn’t know of my existence. Everyone knows. They’re all looking at you. They’re staring. Do you hear them whisper? The rumors are beginning. You’ll never live this down. The voices in my head were all shouting at me; my eyes darted from side to side, searching for laughing eyes, mumbling hurtful words about me in hushed tones.

But there were none. There was nobody; the hallways were abandoned. The deafening chatter had come to a halt, and I hadn’t even noticed, so absorbed in my own misery I had been.

“Jackson Lewis?” A stern voice called from behind me. I heard the clicking of a teacher’s heels walking towards me. I slowly turned my body to face her. “Why aren’t you in class?”

“I’m sorry, Miss Wheeler. I was trying to remember my next class.” I lied with a sheepish grin, the words flowing off my tongue before I even processed them.

She considered me for a moment, “Well, get to class.” She mumbled flatly, stomping away.

I stood in the hallway for a second more, the image of the sparkling-eyed girl flickering in my mind. I love you, Rylee Sampson… forever. I will never give up.