The Beating of Our Hearts

Days go by so slowly when you are very eagerly awaiting something at the end of it. It was Wednesday evening and I had texted Jared yesterday so that he would have my number, and that in itself was embarrassing enough; I had no idea what to say. So it just ended up saying:

‘Hey it’s Riley. Riley Dawson. Uh, Poppy’s teacher. :)’

Awkward or what? And I didn’t know if he’d received it because he hadn’t texted back, and I didn’t want to send another text asking if he got it because that would look too needy and weird and we’ve only met twice. I was in a bit of a pickle.
And I was getting annoyed at myself. I now had my phone permanently attached to me in case he texted. I put it on vibrate in my pocket while I taught and I put it on loud when I was at home. I had become one of those girls.

That’s it. The phone is going on silent and being put on the bedside table. I’m not going to think about it until the morning when I usually check for messages after my alarm goes off. I’m going to make some popcorn and watch a movie and relax.

-An Hour Later-

Relaxing is hard when your mind wanders away from the film and goes down the hall to the bedroom to the phone. But I’ve been good; I’ve resisted going and checking it, there’s no point, I’ll leave it till morning.
I’m giving up on the movie and taking a bath. Then I’m going to bed. And I will not check my phone.

*Jared’s P.O.V.*

I could still feel the jolt my heart gave yesterday when my Blackberry buzzed, telling me I received a new message; when I read it was from Riley and how awkward she seemed in text form, as though she had no idea what to say. I found it incredibly endearing.

I had wanted to text her back right away, but that might have looked too eager. But I couldn’t leave it too long, cause then it would look like I wasn’t interested. I had to time it perfectly. And I think now might be the perfect time. It was evening, so she’d probably have her phone near her. And it was late so she probably wouldn’t be doing any work.

‘Hey Riley, how’s it going. So about this coffee, when are you free?’

Confident, simple, to the point. I didn’t want to ask what she was doing, because that might sound a bit imposing, even though I was dying to know. The ball was in her court.
I kept my phone on me for the rest of the evening, hoping she would text back. By the time I finally called it a night, my phone still remained silent.

*Regular P.O.V.*

I awoke to the sounds to Hanson’s ‘MmmBop’ and slowly opened my bleary eyes. Quickly shutting off my alarm I sat up and rubbed my eyes, hoping to chase away the tiredness. Absentmindedly I grabbed my phone as I got up and made my way to the bathroom to shower so that I could check my messages. Half way down the hall I stopped, all traces of sleep very suddenly gone as I read:

One New Message: Jared Leto

He had texted back. I fumbled to open the message as I re-started my journey to the bathroom. By the time I was ready to get in the shower I had replied to Jared’s message.
Seeing as he sent it last night, it didn’t feel like I was replying too soon. Yes I get paranoid about that kind of thing.

‘It’s going good thanks. And yourself? Well, being free for coffee all depends on how many of my kids hand in their homework tomorrow. And since they’re usually very punctual, I may just be busy. ;)’

What can I say, I like playing hard to get. Plus this way, I wasn’t throwing myself at the chance to get coffee with him, even though every cell in my body was asking me to throw myself on his body. I smiled to myself as I got in the shower, wondering what his reply to that might be.
I didn’t have to wait long, by the time the kids had gone out for recess, my phone was vibrating on my desk with a new message.

‘I’m very well. And even though I’m all for a good education, I hope none of them hand in their homework. But if they do, how does Saturday afternoon sound? Gives you enough time to do some work in the morning and you’ll still have all of Sunday anyway. I know a great place.’

This time I didn’t care about how long to wait or how eager I looked, I just wanted to talk to him; that appealed to me more than anything at the moment.

‘I’m shocked, are you saying you don’t want Poppy to learn? Saturday afternoon sounds good. Where’s the place? I’ll meet you there.’

The reply was almost instantaneous.

‘Of course I want Poppy to learn, but I’m sure all kids need a lesson in laziness once in a while. :) And the place is secret, not many people know about it. If I tell you, I’d have to kill you. And I don’t want that seeing as then we couldn’t get coffee. I’ll pick you up.”

I smiled, he wanted to pick me up. I texted him my address and pocketed my phone seeing as the kids were due back in class any moment.

*Jared’s P.O.V.*

Now I knew where she lived. Fuck, that sounded really creepy. What I meant was now I could possibly ‘accidentally’ bump into her, I could say I was just in the area. Plus, it wasn’t even that far from where I lived, a ten minute drive.

I couldn’t wait to look into her eyes again, to hear her laugh. I wanted to get to know her better. Saturday couldn’t come soon enough.