Flufftober:
20: Secret Crush
Dealer’s choice
I'm trying to get back into the swing of writing, before I tackle some of my older, harder stories. So - Please enjoy. ...
It started small, the way these things usually do. An off-handed kindness at a moment when it was needed most. Whatever the gesture was, it had been lost to the mists of time, but the feeling - the feeling was still there. A touch of light and warmth in a moment of cold darkness, enough to drive the shadows back.
They were in several classes together, so there was the comfort of knowing that there was an almost-maybe friend around. Someone to help buffer the gut-sinking nickname of 'New Kid'.
The little kindness continued; a saved seat at lunch, a passed note about a teacher and their temper, a presence near the lockers at the end of the day. Enough repeated meetings that it was less of a chance and more like being friends.
The end of summer drifted into fall and while she was sure it was friendship on his side, it was become far, far more on hers.
She watched him from the corner of the hall, tall, impossibly handsome, with eyes so blue, it made the sky jealous. She shook her head at the last one. Too much analysis in Mr. Rowe's English class.
It was two weeks to the Fall Formal, which was also the Homecoming Dance. She wanted to go, she wanted to go with him. But she was still the 'New Kid' and he was on the baseball team. But she'd die inside if she saw him dancing and laughing with another girl. But was she brave enough to maybe wreck the best friendship she'd ever had on the chance he'd say no?
"Tis better to have loved and lost, than to never have loved at all." More from Mr. Rowe, but it still fit.
So, Sally Farmer put on her brightest smile and went to ask Grant Tracy to the dance.