Hidden

How is this possible? That is what I keep thinking to myself as I quickly hustle to the bathroom. I burst into the empty fortress of toilets and let out a hoarse, whisper of a scream. I shake my self and jump until I’m dizzy. I ball my fist and pound the side of it into the wall. A slight pain shoots up my arm and the sound reverberates off the linoleum flooring and out through the open doorway. That was enough to bring my to my senses. Though not all of my pent up energy was released, I managed to calm myself enough to stop acting like a monkey on drugs.

That boy, the cute one from my math class, is James. My James. I absolutely can’t believe it. No, that’s a lie. I have to believe it, there’s too much evidence pointing to that conclusion. I wonder if he knows that I’m his girlfriend? I wonder what he would think if he knew? Would he think I’m ugly, would he break up with me? What if he thinks I’m too weird or too shy or.. Anything!?

I sit criss-cross applesauce and lean my head against the wall behind me. I feel a slight wetness growing on the back of my jeans and realize that I sat in a small puddle of water. Great. I move myself over slightly and sigh. My thoughts are speeding from one end of the crazy-coincidence train of thought to the other. Soon enough, it comes to my attention that I must return to class at some point, though I’d like to do nothing more than just hide away in one of these stalls until the bell rings and we can go home. Well, maybe not one of the stalls. I’d probably just sit here and then hustle out to find Rina before the bathroom crowds with girls.

Hesitantly, I take two deep breaths and use the round, silver sink to help myself up off of the floor. I checked my reflection for watermarks—there were none, luckily—and I began my slow-paced journey back to the classroom. In an attempt to stall my walk, I looked around at the slightly decorated walls. Most of them were bare, but a few had makeshift bulletin boards with announcements for things like clubs or upcoming musical auditions. There were also a few well-done paintings of our mascot, the tiger.

Way too soon, I saw the open door of my Algebra II class. I slowed my pace even more and tried to compose myself before entering the chattering room. I glanced at the clock and saw that my adventure to the bathroom had taken all of about seven minutes. Awesome. Rina was sitting in my seat, talking to James when I walked in and I carefully made my way over.

“There you are,” she said as I approached them. “Where did you go?”

“To the bathroom,” I replied in a quiet voice. I tried to signal with my eyes that I needed to talk to her, in private, pronto. I’m not quite sure that she understood. She is absolutely hopeless when it comes to non-verbal communication, and verbal communication. She always manages to hear the most random things. For example, I would say something like: “I’m so tired,” and she respond: “You jumped off a building, what?” None of us understand.

Slyly, I dropped the note I wrote her in the bathroom on to the floor and moved so it looked like I stepped on it. I put a questioning look on my face and picked it up. Carefully, I opened it and pretended to read it for a moment.

“Rina,” I said to her. “I think this is yours.”

“Oh,” she said and took it from me. I saw her eyes scan over it for a moment before she tucked it into her binder.

Please keep my partner occupieddddddd, I’ll tell you why after school. <333

“Tank you Melobee. Okay. So anyways, as I was saying,” and she turned back to James. Rina is officially my hero at the moment.

For the rest of class I did my best to look like I was completely focused on the work in front of me. Luckily, it was just a review on stuff we’ve already learned so I could speed through it pretty quickly and still keep my ears open to the conversation between Rina and James. So far, she has kept up conversation by asking him about what kind of music he likes (Metallica, Megadeth, AC/DC), his favorite food (chicken enchiladas or lasagna), and what he likes to do for fun (play music and write a little). I already knew these things from our conversations via text, but hearing them said by him makes this whole situation all the more real. If there was any doubt left in my mind, it is pretty much gone now.

Every once in a while I would sneak a glance in his direction, and every time he was looking straight back at me. I could feel my face heat up and I instinctively lowered my head even more to hide my face with my long hair. Why was he staring at me? Did he know?

Ringing filled the halls and signaled that it was time for us all to go home. I packed up my things as quickly as I could and helped Rina pack hers. James was standing by. I assume that he was watching us, but I did my best to keep my eyes away from him in an attempt to stop embarrassing myself.

“Lets go find Zaney,” I said as I grabbed Rina’s hand, slung it over my shoulder, and began to drag her out of the classroom. As soon as the door was out of sight, I pulled her along even faster until we reached a secluded corner of the school.

“He’s my James!” I exclaimed in a loud whisper.

“Wait, that guy in our math class?”

“Yes! There are too many things about that James and my James that are the same for them NOT to be one person. What am I going to do?!” I threw my hands in the air and began to pace slightly back and forth.

“Why don’t you just tell him?”

“How the hell am I supposed to do that?” I stopped in front of her and said in a high-pitched, overly happy voice: “Hi, I’m Melody and I’m pretty sure that you’re my boyfriend.” I resumed my pacing, /end of dramatic introduction. “It doesn’t work like that Rina. And anyways, he’s just so cute! You know how I get around cute boys.”

“Yeah,” she said, dragging out the h a bit. “You get all shy and blushy and freaking out-y. “ Her eyes rolled up a bit and she had on the face she gets when she’s trying to figure out if what she just said is a real word. It generally isn’t. I sigh.

“How do you think I should tell him Rina?”

Her eyes get big and she puffs out her lips a bit. She was focusing on something behind me. Tentatively, I turned around and saw that we were not alone. James was standing there in all his glory, and I’m pretty sure he just heard everything.