More Awkward Than Awkward But Perfect Nonetheless
There exists only two types of boys: one, the eye candies, and two, the rest of the male population.
James Hampton was not in the first category. He was the type of guy who just accepted natural order and thus, did not care enough to improve his physique in any way, shape, or form. Basically: he looked like a nerd – plaid shirt, black-rimmed glasses, and lanky as a palm tree – but was not a nerd. Surprisingly, he was a drummer in the band, who refused to wear contacts because he was scared his iris would fall off when he took it off.
Weird: that would describe him.
I'd say so because at one point he's joking around in class and another point he's sitting alone on an oak bench in the park like a friendless introvert.
"Hey, mind if I sit here?" I asked, as I approached his lonely bench.
He looked up, surprised at first, but his expression softened almost immediately when he recognized me. "No, not at all, Allie,” he smiled softly, to which I smiled back. “Please help yourself with the empty space that's been keeping me company recently," he stated sarcastically. "I'm sure this bench has been dying to get some lady to sit on its face the whole day"
“But it got you instead,” I faked a pout at him as I sat myself down beside him, keeping a fair distance in between us. “How unfortunate,” I added, stroking the bench in mock concern.
“Hey,” he stared at me, a serious expression on his face. “It would be a privilege for this bench to have my butt on its face” He laughed, and his laugh was really funny; it was breathy and broke into small parts, with a lot of heh heh heh’s which was contagious enough to make me laugh along with him for about a solid minute or so.
He adjusted his glasses when our laughter subsided and the silence ensued.
“Why are you even here, all alone?” I asked a little while later, staring ahead at nothing in particular.
“I – uh. I’m just… I’m a bit conflicted, at the moment, I guess.”
I raised at eyebrow at his answer, turning to him for an explanation.
“You see,” he started. “Today, I sorta… kinda… asked this girl out”
“Sorta kinda asked a girl out?”
“I mean, you know,” he faced me. “Well, I guess you don’t actually know since you don’t ask people out, right?”
I nodded once to let him know that I was listening and was just waiting for him to get to the point already.
“You see, I didn’t actually ask her out, like, in person? I mean, I would have, but I’m too scared of rejection, you know? So it was more like… I wrote her a note and snuck it in her coat?” he explained, although it seemed more like he asked a long, complex question. He took a few moments before continuing. “Two hours ago,” he sighed. “And she didn’t call or text or give me the smallest hint to whether or not she likes me too. So, right now, I’m not sure if I just got rejected, or she just hasn’t read the note yet”
I held back a giggle. How cute is it when boys stress over girls and act like girls doing it? Like, seriously, I would have already pinched his cheeks by now had I not been made aware that check-pinching was not in the list of things that inflate a man’s ego.
Instead, I settled for a pat in the back. “Hey, stop over thinking things, okay?” I told him. “She probably just hadn’t read it yet. You’re not nearly that bad”
“Nearly?!” he exclaimed, feigning shock.
I chuckled. “I mean I would totally date you”
“What?”
“H-hypothetically speaking, of course,” I added immediately.
“Oh,” he nodded. “Well, hypothetically speaking, I would totally date you too.”
“Good”
“Yeah”
“So...”
“So…”
“Hmm?”
“It’s getting pretty late now,” he motioned at the sky (which has looked the same the entire day because the sun never knew that England existed somewhere), before he bolted off the bench and shoved both his hands on his coat pockets. “Want me to walk you home?”
I stood up with a grin. “Sure”
It wasn’t a long walk; my house was only about 3 blocks away from the park. As we walked (pretty slowly, I must say), we talked about music and reality shows and how Hitler could have very possibly been satan’s offspring with a human and how weird that could have played on. It felt like we talked about anything and everything before we reached my front door.
I told him my thanks and turned the knob but it was locked. My face dropped. “Guess my parents are out,” I told James, who was still on my front porch because he insisted he won’t leave until I’m inside the door because a wild bear might pop out of nowhere and attack me and he had to video tape the entire thing.
“Don’t you have keys?”
“Right. Keys. Clever thinking, James”
“You know me, always the brain,” he joked and I laughed before rummaging through my coat.
“It should just be here in one of these pockets,” I said, trying to find my keys but instead finding a piece of crumpled paper hastily shoved inside one of my coat pockets.
My gaze immediately went to James, then back to the paper. “Is this…?” I trailed off, but was cut off by James, who suddenly popped out of nowhere, now a few inches from my face.
“Wait!” he put his hands on top of mine to stop my hands from opening the note. “If it is – and I’m not saying that it is – I’m just saying
if it is, and you don’t want us to be like that, then we can just forget about this whole shebang and act like nothi-“
“James,” I interrupted him, waving my hands in front of his face.
“Y-yeah, what?” his entire face was redder than a tomato.
I moved my face closer to his. “Shut up”
He nodded, and I could see his adam’s apple bob up and down as he swallowed.
We were so close to each other now. Just a few inches. I can feel him breathe.
And then, I laughed, really loud, throwing my head back in amusement.
He just stood there: puzzled, embarrassed, red.
“This is my shopping list”
I swear he just became a tomato then and there.
I nearly rolled on the floor laughing at his unmoving form as I explained, “I read your note two hours ago. You’re not really that good at shoving things into people’s coats without them completely noticing what you just did. But, you are good at running off. I looked all around for you, you know. Took me two bloody hours”
“Wait, just to be clear, did you come looking for me to reject me or-“
“Of course not, you dweeb” I said, playfully punching his arm.
“Then does that mean-“
“Yeah”
“So, we’re-“
“Yeah”
“Just to confirm, we’re officially-“
“Yeah”
“So, you’re saying-“
“Yes, James, I will go out with you now, god, will you just kiss me already?”
“Okay” he took a deep breath. And after a few moments, “Wait, what?”
I just kissed him, to shut him up, and we just clicked. Like yin yang. He wrapped a hand around my waist, pulled me closer to him. I tangled my hand in his hair, making him jump a bit in surprise but later took it as an encouragement to kiss me more passionately. I felt him smile as his chest rose and fell rapidly against mine. And in that moment, we completed each other. Like yin yang.
We barely pulled away, breathless afterwards. I got my arms around his neck and his arms around my waist, and we just smiled at each other, not speaking or moving for a long moment.
“So,” I murmured, still grinning like mad, my arms still not leaving his neck.
“Yeah?” he said equally as soft, smiling from ear to ear.
“How’d you like to help with shopping?”
He let out a low chuckle as he pulled me into a hug and moved down to nuzzle his head on the dip of my shoulder, which tickled a bit but was a good kind of tickling feeling. “Aliesha?”
“Hmm?” I hummed at his chest.
“At this point, I would do anything for you”
-Desimandrius
