There was a pause back and then Beth spoke again.
“What do you mean, ‘not exactly’?” she asked dubiously, “tell me exactly what happened?”
“Beth, I panicked ok?! I had it all in my head what I was gonna do and say and how he was going to react and I had full on solutions to every single thing he could have said to me and then you’ll never guess… I literally walked straight into him at the school gates and everything just flew out of my ears,” you wailed as you sat up again.
Beth sighed, she knew you. She knew how quickly you could be derailed so she saw this all unfolding in her mind as you were telling her. None of it surprised her.
“So what happened?” she asked again, “no wait, can I guess?”
“Go ahead,” you sighed as you flopped dramatically back on the bed with your arm up on your forehead, just like you had practiced.
“So you saw him and then froze… and then ran before he could speak to you,” she guessed correctly.
“Uh, yeah pretty much spot on. But he was with his friend Oikawa, who I know too and Oikawa called out to me and that’s what made him look up. I looked at him right when he looked at me,” you said.
“And then you ran,” she said.
“Yep,” you replied.
“And hid. But watched where he went,” she said.
“Damn, you’re good,” you said with surprise.
“And then did you bump into him in the classroom?” she asked.
“Well yes… but no,” you said, “I waited—,”
“—Until the last minute and then snuck in behind the teacher?” Beth asked.
“Wooooow,” you hummed, impressed.
“You’ve done that at school before, but not about any boys,” Beth said, “so I can picture you doing it so clearly.”
“Ok fair,” you said with a shrug.
“But then what happened when the class ended?” Beth asked.
“It was homeroom class,” you said.
“Wait, you ran,” she said, clicking her fingers as she said it.
“Yeahhhh,” you sighed, “I did.”
“Girl, this isn’t getting you any closer to him?!” she said with exasperation.
“But he chased me,” you said optimistically.
“Wait, what?” she asked with surprise, “wait, he chased you?”
“Yeah, and then he caught me because he’s mega fast, and then he wanted to talk to me but I was in full crisis mode and my brain wasn’t braining and then Oikawa came out and he distracted Iwazumi for me so I ran again and went to first class but he kept looking at me,” you whined, “every time I wanted to look at him, I couldn’t, because he was looking at me! And when I looked at him he didn’t even try and look away, he just stared!”
Beth squealed and then tried to hide it and play calm but you could tell she was enjoying this.
“Wait, so he’s cute right? And so this cute guy you went to primary school with was just straight up staring you down and chased you in the hall to catch up to you?!” she squealed, “oh god, my fanfiction heart is thriving right now, I need more.”
“Ok well… so I ran again after class too but he caught me again and he pinned me to the wall,” you said.
Now, poor Beth was struggling to breathe at that point and you heard her muffled scream as she slapped her hand over her mouth and screeched into it but being in the girls toilets at school meant that the echo was real and you could hear it even through the phone.
“Why? What?” you asked, too hung up on the fact that he called you his friend to be seeing these other signs.
“Girl, I’m failing to see what the problem is here?” Beth said, half hyperventilating into the phone as she rapidly fanned herself with her other hand, “this is amazing, oh my god.”
“But then he apologized about the whole arm wrestled thing and he called me is friend. I don’t want to be friend I want to have the word GIRL in front of it. Girl. Friend. More than friend. Girl who is next level up from friend, girlfriend.”
“I hear you, and I know what you’re saying, but I still say you’re in a damn good position if you play things right,” Beth said, “I know he said you were his friend but look at all the other signs. If you didn’t mean that much to him, why was he chasing you so much and staring at you and everything?!” she asked, trying to play lawyer, judge and jury, “girl, you just need to come back to the original plan of been cute and charming and you’ll get him for sure! I promise you!”
“How can you promise. You can’t promise,” you snorted, “but for some reason I trust you. Can you really make it happen?”
“Lowkey feel like it already is happening but that’s just me being delulu and living off crumbs here, give me something I can sink my teeth into,” Beth said, half mumbling into the phone.
Just then you heard the bell ring on her end of the line and you and her both paused.
“Shoot! I was gone the rest of class! I better go and say something to the teacher or I’ll be dead,” she whispered harshly, “I’ll just say I had really bad stomach cramps or something.”
“Good luck!” you said, “I’ll strategize some more.”
“Good luck to both of us, I’ll call you tomorrow,” Beth said and then she hung up.
You lay there and then sighed.
“Well, I guess she does have a point. I’ll try and be more cute tomorrow,” you thought as you heard your mum’s footsteps coming up the stairs, “I’ll eat some yummy food now and then regroup for tomorrow. Yeah. I can do this.“
—————
The next morning you were up and ready with your game face on.
“Just need to be cute and charming,” you thought, coaching yourself as you got ready in the morning and then left for school.
Because you had met Iwazumi and Oikawa at the gates yesterday, for some reason you were fully expecting them to be there again same time as last time and that’s where you had started your morning dialogue in your head.
So when you got to the gates, and they weren’t there, your plan had already hit a snag.
“Now what am I supposed to do?” you asked yourself as you paused there, “I was supposed to bump into them here!”
Stalling, you stood for a second but then the girl who had asked you about your perfume yesterday came up behind you and stopped to greet you.
“Hey,” she said with a smile, “we had the same class yesterday, I asked you about your perfume.”
“Oh hey,” you said, returning her smile, “yeah, I remember.”
You felt like you should walk with her so started moving again and she matched your steps.
“Where’s your locker?” she asked as you both entered the building, “is it near mine?”
You looked to her then looked ahead and pointed to your locker.
“Mines there,” you said.
“Oh mines further back,” she said, pointing further down the line and you looked where she was pointing and saw Iwazumi standing at his locker.
He had just closed it so you got a good side profile shot and then he turned and headed off down the hall.
“Oh… cool,” you said, still looking after him.
The girl noticed you had locked onto someone or something and saw the back of Iwazumi heading off down the hall and looked at you again.
“Your friend from primary school,” she said.
“Who what? No? Yes?” you said quickly, “I wasn’t… umm… sorry?”
She laughed and you matched her laugh nervously.
“He was looking at you at lot yesterday and you were looking at him too,” she said casually as you walked with her to her locker, noting it was two up from where Iwazumi’s was.
“Uhhhh,” you hummed.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“It’s kinda awkward,” you said sheepishly to her.
“It didn’t seem awkward? It seemed like some good tension to me… like that you two like each other but you haven’t said anything yet,” she said calmly.
You felt your heart suddenly squeeze and your lungs fold open and close rapidly like an accordion.
“Really?” You wheezed out.
“Yeah,” she said calmly, “anyway, wanna get your things for class?”
You just nodded because you couldn’t speak, and then you walked back to your locker and she came with you.
“Ok. It’s ok. Just do what we rehearsed,” you said to yourself as you got your things.
You made idle chat with her as you walked to class and then you stepped in with her, deliberately keeping your eyes on her as you entered and then sat down in the seat beside her, where you had sat yesterday, still chatting.
You made sure to sit nicely and then flicked your hair back over your shoulder and glanced back as you did so, making sure to check for Iwazumi.
He was there, and he was looking at you.