Lost in the Love Letter

ch. 6 - the boy

Their eyes met.

Mandy froze. She went silent, and a flustering heat filled her cheeks. It felt as if she blacked out, and yet he was the only thing in her vision. There was a small piece of her that hoped it couldn't be him, but she was sure it was. His chestnut brown hair, his familiar, soft golden brown eyes; it was undoubtedly him.

Hunter. 

Hunter was standing right in front of her.

Dominic: "Mandy? You good?"

Suddenly, the bell rang to resume classes.

Mandy: "Um.. I-

She stumbled back. She glanced over to Dominic, and whipped her eyes back to Hunter, then rapidly turned around while pulling Dominic's arm.

Mandy continued: "Yes, let's go."

They left.

_________________________________________

Mandy could still feel her heart pounding in her throat when she and Dominic took a seat in their next class. She was trying to take deep breaths, but stopped breathing all together when she saw her worst nightmare entering the classroom. Hunter. He was in her class. Thankfully he took a seat on the opposite end of the room. His eyes scanned the area, and then saw Mandy, who was turned away in hiding. His eyebrows furrowed, and the teacher spoke up:

Mr. Marks: "Hey guys, welcome to 6th period! Just one more period after this and you will have made it through your first day! I'm sure you've had lots of lectures about going over a silly syllabus, so I'm going to pass out mine and you can look it over at home! But other than that, you can start taking notes from the video I posted online, and talk with a friend when you're finished."

Mandy was struggling to crank out the math notes. Simple assignments like this are a piece of cake to Mandy, but her mind was elsewhere. Her thoughts were intensely on Hunter. She felt her 7th grade anxiety rushing back in, and butterflies returned to her stomach. She didn't want to be sucked back into middle school. She didn't like who she was back then. Mandy spent so long climbing up from that ladder, and refused to come down now. She fought with everything she had to keep herself from glancing his way. She decided to finish taking her notes later at home, and wanted to focus on Dominic to distract her.

Dominic: "Here, let me give you my number so that you can text me if you ever need something... and so we can remain friends throughout the year."

Mandy: Oh great, thanks!

They swap phones and exchange numbers. Dominic puts in his name as "Dom" and then gets his phone back from Mandy. He puts in her name and turns to show her.

"Manda!!!!!!!!"

Mandy: Haha, very cute but you spelled it wrong.

Dominic: "Oh what? *he looks at it* Ohhh I see. Nah I kinda like it that way. How many people call you "Manda?"

Mandy: "... no one does"

Dominic: "Okay... well not anymore"

They laughed a little, and thankfully, Mandy remained distracted from Hunter for the remainder of the class.

_________________________________________

*the end of the school day*

Mandy: "Thank you so much for everything today. I'm so glad I got you, and not some crazy ASB freak."

Dominic: "Weren't you in ASB at your old school?"

Mandy: "Exactly, that's why I know some of them are freaks"

*they both laughed*

Dominic: "Well of course, I too am so glad I got assigned to you. I actually had so much fun today. Let me walk you out."

They headed to Mandy's car. And Dominic watched as she got in her car.

Dominic shut her car door and waved goodbye. Mandy waited for him to leave and then pulled out of the parking lot.

When Mandy arrived at home, she had a lot on her mind. She was trying to process everything that went down today, but then her mom came in... ready to bombard her with questions.

Mandy's Mom: "Hi honey! So... how was it?!"

Mandy: "It was pretty good."

Mandy's Mom: "I'm gonna need more information than that! Come on, tell me some details."

Mandy: "Well, I met a good amount of people today. The school is fairly small so there aren't too many more people to meet. And my ASB guide was actually really great."

Mandy's Mom: "Oh how were they?"

Mandy: "Dom was so cool, and just down to earth. We actually had some stuff in common."

Mandy's Mom: "Well that sounds awesome! We can talk more about it later, but I'm gonna go shopping now, and explore the town a little bit more. Wanna come?"

Mandy: "No thanks, I have some stuff I need to do here."

Mandy's Mom: "Got it, see you later honey. *they exchanged smiles as she left the room*

Mandy later ordered a pizza online and then grabbed her phone to text Emily and Selah, who were back at home. As she opened her previous messages with them, she saw that they left her on "read" and never responded. She once again remembered how things changed when she moved, and never imagined her friends completely pushing her aside like this.

However, she did receive a text from Dom.

TEXT MESSAGES:

Dom: Hey Mandaaa

Mandy: Hey what's up :)

Dom: I just wanted to say I had a lot of fun with you today. I'm really glad we have all of our classes together, and can't wait to get to know you more this year.

Mandy looked at the text and grinned. She turned off her phone so she could do some work and then went to bed.