How You Get the Girl

My Friends Surprise Me and Not in a Good Way

I had butterflies in my stomach about seeing Ben tomorrow. I normally slid into homeroom seconds before the final bell rang. But here I was, at school, thirty minutes before the first bell, pretending to casually hang out, just waiting for Ben to get there. I had even skipped getting my usual latte. I had it bad.

I was not a morning person but I had gotten up extra early and spent a least twice as long, as usual, picking out my outfit and doing my hair and make-up. I had carefully blown out my hair so that it was perfectly straight and put on that amount of makeup that makes you look better than you really do without looking like you are wearing makeup. And I had picked an extra cute outfit. I tried on at least a dozen before I finally settled on one. I did not want to look like I was trying too hard, but I also did not want to look like I did not care. Beth was of no help. She had kept telling me it was too early to send outfit pictures to her. I had finally settled on a black slim mini skirt, a pale blue sweater with bell sleeves, black tights, and black boots.

While I was pretending to casually hang out by the front door of the school, I got a text from

Kenzie.

Kenzie: We r at your house. Where r u? Ben barely gave me time to brush my teeth so that he could you get u a latte and drive u to school.

I laughed and shook my head. That was so sweet.

Harper: Am at school waiting for u to show up. Would love a latte. Was in such a hurry to get here I did not get one.

Kenzie: : - <

Ben and Kenzie walked in ten minutes later. I pretended to calming walk over to them but I knew I was walking too fast and smiling too much. Ben handed me my latte.

"I'm sorry I wasn't at home when you came to pick me up. I got to school early today," I told him

"I should have told you I was picking you up, I wanted it to be a surprise," he said.

"I know you usually get to school early and I wanted to surprise you by being here," I told him and then I just looked at him. He looked amazing. His hair was still wet and I could smell the spicy scent that I had come to associate with him.

I guess we had stood there smiling at each other for longer than was normal because Kenzie said, "I'm going to go to my locker, you two can just stay there and stare at each other for the rest of the day."

I looked down and blushed and then Ben and I walked to his locker so he could put his things away before we both had to go to homeroom. I normally did not have trouble figuring out what to say but I suddenly felt shy. We were actually going out. I did not want to mess things up. We walked to the main staircase.

"I have English now," I said not wanting to start upstairs to the English classrooms.

"I have math," Ben answered.

"I guess I'll see you during third block," I told him, reluctantly starting up the stairs. I glanced back toward where I had left him when I was a few steps away. He was still standing there, watching me. I smiled at him and felt my heart jump in my chest. He liked me. He actually liked me.

My first two classes dragged on and on but finally, it was third period and I got to see Ben again. I hurried to the computer room and there he was, sitting at our usual desk.

"Hi," I said, sitting down next to him.

"Hi, he said, smiling back.

I tried work on our project but my mind was just not on it and I did not think his was either. We did not get much done. I kept on getting distracted by how much I liked his smile and how beautiful his eyes were. Why did he have to have such amazing eyelashes? What guy needed perfect thick eyelashes like that? And his mouth, I was definitely spending too much time staring at his mouth.