“I wanted to ask if you’re okay?”
It wasn’t what he was expecting. His gaze snapped upward, meeting Nina’s brown eyes once again. They held his gaze this time, and he saw it so clearly.
Concern, swimming so vividly in her stare.
“I - what?”
“Seth, I’ve noticed…You’ve been acting differently. You’ve been more quiet. I just wanted to see if everything is okay with you,” she dropped her gaze again, and he wanted to tell her to not look away. He wanted to be ensnared in those warm eyes of hers. “Sorry if I’m overstepping. I know we don’t really talk but I just - I was just worried, that’s all.”
Her genuine care poured over him, enveloping him in a hug. It’d been a feeling he wasn’t accustomed to, a sensation he rarely felt. Nina cared for him, regardless of their situation.
Regardless of the fact that they hardly spoke, barely interacted except for stolen glances that he was sure both of them were aware of. He kept her at a distance, but close enough to still feel her warmth. It’d been like that for four years now.
“Oh, I’m - I um - yes. I’m okay.”
It was all he could muster, all his brain could form. Nina held his gaze once more.
“I hope you are. I’ve missed your jokes in class, Seth.”
She stepped forward, and for a moment he thought she was going to give him a hug. But no, she was just putting the sports markers back on the shelf behind him.
Her arm brushed his, and he felt a spark at the point of contact.
“Thank you, Nina,” he murmured.
She stepped backward, and nodded.
Then, her lips stretched into a smile.
“I hope this means that my favourite class clown will be coming back. It’s been…a little dimmer without your antics. As idiotic and annoying as they are.”
He was taken aback by her brazenness, something that he hadn’t seen directed at him often. Then Seth reminded himself that this was the girl who had to live with the fact her secret crush hadn’t been so secret for long.
That kind of thing would’ve surely made someone a little more shameless.
He chuckled, and the action made him feel like himself again.
“Did you just call me an idiot, Nina Mendez?”
“The best kind, don’t you worry.”
After that, she scrambled out the door, as if it were a confession.
The next morning during the first science period, Seth found his eyes drawn to Nina. He often watched her, even when he didn’t realise. Like his gaze and undivided attention were wired to him.
Her hair was tied into two low buns.
Halfway through the class, Nina called her friends to watch her. She crumpled up one of her notes, a useless one perhaps, and tried to shoot it into the bin. It missed by just a centimetre.
Her friends laughed along with her, as she got up. She stepped backward, by about two metres, and tried to shoot again.
It missed once more.
Seth hid his laugh beneath his palm.
Then, Nina tried for the last time. She stepped closer to the bin this time, only half a metre away. Turning her back on it, she tossed the paper over her shoulder.
It should’ve made it in, but it rebounded off the wall, and hit her knees.
