“I can’t make any promises, so I’ll let you know.”
“That’s fine with me. Good luck on your test. I’ll call you tomorrow.” He bends down and kisses me on my cheek and heads down the hall. I stand there completely stunned as I watch him disappear. Holy shit, he just asked me out on a date.
Still in shock, I enter the classroom and find my seat. I glance behind me and catch Duke staring at me. His eyes are warm and soft and he mouths, “Good Luck” to me. I smile back at him and whisper “Good Luck” to him as well. Jose passes by and sits behind me. Uggh, I can’t wait for this class to end so I can get away from this prick. He sits up and leans toward my right ear, “I’m going to miss sitting behind you. Hopefully, we share more classes next semester.” He reaches his hand to my flowing hair and softly caresses it. My body shivers with disgust and I pull it out of his grasp and turn around, “In your fuckin’ dreams, creep. Leave me the hell alone. You got that?”
His eyes widen and he leans back into his seat, a devilish smirk on his face. “I guess we’ll see, won’t we?
I turn around just in time for Mrs. Robinson to pass out the finals. Letting go of my anger, I focus solely on the test in front of me. Within the next hour, calculations and equations are all I think about, and as I answer the final question, I breathe a sigh of relief. With a quick pace, I give Mrs. Robinson my test and race out of the class only to crash into Duke.
“Whoa!! Slow down!” He steadies me with his arms.
I chuckle, “Sorry, I’m just happy to get away from Jose. I’m happy this is the last class with him.”
“Me, too. He’s gotten in the way of a lot of things and I can’t fucking stand him. It’ll be alright, Raya. He won’t bother you anymore.” He caresses my arm for a few seconds and then pulls away, clearing his throat. “So, uhh, what did Taylor want?”
I glance away to avoid his eyes, “He asked me out on a date.”
“He finally did it, huh? Took him forever.”
My head snaps to look at him, “Wait. What do you mean?”
He laughs and shakes his head, “After the Halloween party, he asked me if he should ask you out and I told him to go for it. Honestly, I thought he would have asked you out weeks ago. I don’t know what took him so long.”
My heart drops and an unbearable sadness falls over me. “Oh, is that right?”
“You know he’s crazy about you. You should give him a chance. He’s a really good guy.”
I close my eyes and try to force back the tears that are threatening to escape. My heart aches at the loss of Duke’s affection. All I want is him and I know I won’t ever get it. “I’m not so sure. I like him, but not as much as he likes me. I don’t want to rush anything. Besides, I told him that I can’t make any promises. I’ll be very busy with work during the break and won’t have much free time.”
“Ehh, he’ll wait. He doesn’t have a lot going on anyway.” He glances at his phone and responds to a text m
essage. “Okay, well I’m going to catch Melanie before she heads off to her next class. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”
“Okay. Tell her I’ll see her in English.”
“I will.” He waves at me as he heads off to go get his girlfriend. At that moment, I realize that my feelings for Duke are purely one-sided and I need to get a grip on them. A single tear escapes and I quickly wipe it away. I promised myself that I wouldn’t stand in the way of Duke and Melanie. I’m not like that and I refuse to be the reason for a breakup. Their friendship means so much to me and I won’t ruin it.
Maybe I should go out with Taylor, but how can I with Craig being home? Hopefully, he has a conference coming up soon and will have to go out of town. I’m going to have to find a way to explain this to Taylor. I hope he’ll understand. I grab my cell phone and send a quick text to him.
Me: Meet me at work tomorrow.
I head down the hallway, making my way to endure the next final in line. A few minutes later, I hear my phone beep with an incoming text notification. I grab my cell to read the message sent from Taylor.
Taylor: So, is that a yes?
I laugh to myself. He always gets a head of himself.
Me: It’s a maybe. I’d like to take things slow so if you want come visit me at work.?
Taylor: Of course! What time is your shift?
Me: From 11-7
Taylor: Okay, I’ll see you there. Maybe we can do lunch?
Me: Yeah, that sounds good. See ya tomorrow.?
Taylor: See ya then sweetie ;)