STAY

5.

The next few days I would see Michael around in school a lot. He would usually say hi, but after a while he started keeping his distance. He wouldn't talk to me that often when he saw me. I didn't care that much either. It didn't bother me that much, but a little. I think I got a little disappointed about the fact that he had seemed so different from other guys, but that he maybe was just like them. Or worse. He had in some way seemed interested in me. Not that he was the first guy, but he was the first one that did it in such a discrete way. And in a way that I enjoyed. Not getting straight at the point. Or maybe I was just imagining that. However, something was still different with him. I could feel it. I would always try to shake away the feeling, but it wouldn't leave. I didn't really want to stay away from him, but what choice did I have? He wouldn't always look at me when he walked past me, and if he couldn't look at me, why should I even bother?

During the weeks were we didn't talk to each other, I saw some changes. There was something that started changing but I couldn't notice what it was. He seemed much harsher and not as nice as he had done before. I would never see him smiling. He just looked so serious all the time. When he was eating, when he was talking to his friends. Sometimes I would wonder if he always had been like that or if the troublemakers had made him this way. He would even walk around the halls some days, wearing a hoodie over his head, trying to hide his bruises. But I could see them. They were huge. After a while I figured that I would never know what was going on in his life and that I had to focus on other things than boys, such as my studies. I didn't have time to worry about him. Which I turned out not doing after a while. However he would sometimes cross my mind, and I would always wonder what was happening. Finally I realized that it would always be a secret. Or at least that's what I thought at the time.

***

One Friday evening during autumn, me and Daniella decided to go hang out at our normal coffee place in town. After we finished our last classes around three, we took Daniella's car home so that we could both take a shower and get changed before we headed out for a cozy and long evening together. I just changed into a comfortable black long-sleeved shirt and some light blue jeans before we headed to Daniella's place, where she changed to. We then headed towards the café with her car. The coffee place had only started as a take-away place, but had gradually developed into a real café and even had a menu with food if you would want to eat there. It was mine and Daniella's usual hangout place and we would go there every now and then to talk about everything that was going on.

We entered the café. It was pretty empty for now, only a man with his computer sitting in the corner and a couple sitting together holding hands at one table. We picked out our favorite place which was placed in the corner of the cafe where we could see everyone walking in and out of the shop. The waitress took our orders; one vanilla late for Daniella and a caramel one for me. When we received our order, Daniella and I started talking about basically everything going on in school. All the subjects we had together and not together, about the teachers, the school lunch. Everything basically.

After a couple of hours had passed people, not only from our school but several schools, started arriving at the place. We were lucky to arrive early, because we could see that some of them had to stand by the standing tables the café had provided for the ones that wanted to stand or simply didn't have anywhere to sit. The door continued opening and closing and we could see a lot of different people entering and exiting. At one point the door opened, and the first person I saw was of course Michael. I hadn't seen him this close since the start of the year. I would usually only see him in the hallways but we never passed each other anymore. It was like we were avoiding each other. He immediately stopped in the door, but the people behind him pushed him inside and he stumbled giving away his condition. He was drunk. I looked down at my coffee, realizing that I suddenly didn't know what to do. I could see Daniella looking at me and then at Michael. I didn't say anything for a while until the waitress passed and I asked her if we both could have a refill. As she walked away, Daniella finally spoke again.

"So Olivia, I have been wondering if you and that..."

"No", I answered immediately. "There was nothing between us".

"Oh okay, because I saw you two talking to each other in the beginning of the year and..."

"Yeah I know you did", I said and saw her blushing a bit. "But no. Nothing ever happened between us. I just met him the first day he came to school and helped him find his way to the principal, that's it"

"Really, but why didn't you tell us?", she asked sounding more curious now than accusing.

"Because I figured it was no big deal, which it turned out not to be", I said as the waitress came back with our second coffee drinks.

During the rest of the evening me and Daniella continued talking about everything going on, and she started telling me that she had met a guy from another school in town. She told me the whole story on how they met and that they had arranged their first date during the weekend. While she was babbling about this new guy, I couldn't help it but to look towards Michael and every time I would look at him, he was already staring. He was there with some of his friends, including Eduardo. Me and Daniella stayed for a while, but after a while I started to feel uncomfortable, because Michael would not stop staring. I didn't' matter how much I tried not to look at him, the fact that I could see him in the corner of my eyes staring made it hard. Daniella continued talking about this guy, and I continued to try and give her proper advices but after a while my mind wouldn't even respond to her talking. The only thing I noticed was the damn tall guy with black hair and dark eyes in the corner of my eye staring at me. I had to get out of there.

Most likely Daniella noticed how uncomfortable I felt with the whole situation, so she asked me if we should leave the café and go somewhere else. I nodded and we paid the waitress for our drinks before we got up and walked towards the exit of the café. The only problem was that the exit door was the same door as the entrance door, where Michael was sitting with his friends. I told myself I only had to walk past them, and that I should ignore them. As we both reached the door, Daniella pushed it open and walked outside. Even though I had been so determined not to look at him, it was as if my eyes wouldn't cooperate with my will and al of a sudden I was staring into Michaels brown eyes, who were staring right back at mine. Even though it only happened for two seconds, it almost felt like a lifetime. I got this strange feeling in my whole body again. A sign of warmth. I quickly shock it off and broke our eye contact as a big smile was growing on his face. As if there was something amusing with me looking into his eyes. I walked out the door towards Daniella who was waiting for me in her car.

"What was that?" Daniella asked me. I honestly didn't know what to answer. My eyes were just drawn to his and when they had met, I didn't want to take away the eye contact. The warm feeling was still stuck in my body when I sat down in the car, but I couldn't put words on what it was. Maybe it was the fact that he was different from other guys? Maybe him looking at me and smiling at me reminded me of the first two conversations we had ever had in the beginning of the year. I wasn't in love with this person, I barely knew him. But maybe the feeling was some kind of confirmation that he and I had a connection between each other. He was different. He was exciting. He had something special that no other guy had, but I didn't know what. Because I barely knew this guy.

"He's not good for you", Daniella started saying as we drove out of the cafés parking lot. "I know he looks good and everything, but to be honest Olivia", she sighed. "He's too much of a criminal guy for you. You should avoid him".

I still didn't answer her comment. Criminal? Where did she get that from?

It really didn't matter anyway because I knew that she was right. Or was I just telling myself she was, because I felt something strange going on and I didn't know if I wanted to be part of it or not?