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“Just one date.”
“No.”
“Literally, I’m talking coffee.”
“No.”
“Fine, tea?”
“Still no.”
“Alright, alright, since you’re twisting my arm... Hot chocolate?”
A pause.
“You’re funny.”
“Ha!”
“But the answer’s still no.”
“Aw, come on!”
Sarah Jacobs finally cut the lunch line, much to the indignation of the people behind her, to stand behind one Al DaSilva as he grabbed a slice of pizza and a cup of juice.
“You know the pizza they serve here is nasty, right?” She leaned over his shoulder to peer at the food in front of him. Sarah turned her head to look at Al while he glowered at the fries as if they had done something to personally offend him. She took the time to watch his face. It really was unfair how long his eyelashes were. He didn’t even curl them or anything, they just looked like that all the time.
After a moment's decision, Al grabbed the fries and moved to the register, dislodging Sarah from her perch on his shoulder.
“I am not going on a date with you, Sarah,” he frowned while handing his ID over to the lunch lady.
Sarah grabbed a fry from his tray. “Is it because I’m not pretty enough for you?” They moved out of the line and Al stalked away, Sarah trailing behind again. “Or are you scared of Hot Shot? No, it’s because I’m taller than you, isn’t it?”
Al raised his eyebrows. “It’s none of those things, mostly because you are not taller than me.”
“Aha! So you think I’m pretty!” Sarah beamed at him.
“Oh shut up, you know you’re hot as fuck,” Al grumbled.
“But who needs self-confidence when I have oh-so-lovely poetry such as this to keep me going?”
Abruptly, Al stopped walking and whirled around, taking Sarah by surprise. He leaned forward until their noses were almost touching, separated only by the tray that was pressed between them. “I’m only going to say this one more time, so I want to make sure you can hear me, okay?” His eyes flickered down for a split second before looking up at her again. “I will never go on a date with you, and no amount of asking and pestering will change my answer.” Sarah just smiled and leaned in a little more, because she could. God, he smelled good. Like tangerines and plastic from the cheap pens he incessantly chewed on. She probably shouldn’t find that attractive. Maybe she was insane.
“I don’t believe you,” She said softly.
“Oh yeah? Why’s that?” He smirked.
“Because you’ve been in love with me since the 7th grade, and that’s not going away any time soon.” Then without warning, she flipped his snap back off his head and put it on hers, leaving him standing slightly aghast and hair sticking out in odd angles. “Plus, you hate fries. You only got them 'cause I was standing in line with you.” She plucked the fries in question off his tray and turned around to walk away.
There was a beat of silence before, “I want that hat back,” Al called out as she strolled out of the cafeteria.
“You know I always give them back,” she answered. “And you didn’t deny what I said!” There was no response, only a quiet sigh.
Yeah, Al would go out with her. He just needed time.
“Okay, what will it take?”
“ Jesus Christ, where did you come from?” Al jumped out of his chair, knocking his knees on the table.
“I appear whenever someone thinks of me,” Sarah grinned.
Al just rolled his eyes and scooted his chair back in, looking ridiculously large with the way he was hunched in on himself. Sarah had come to bother him at his Three Dimensional Studio class. There weren’t many kids, maybe thirteen in total, but everyone was at a separate table, each one working on something more intricate and convoluted than the last. Al had laid out what looked like a very interesting…
Sarah tilted her head, not unlike a puppy might. “Wait, what are you making?”
“Art,” he said shortly. “And what are you even doing here, anyway? Who let you in? Don’t you have class right now?”
“No,” she drew out the word. “I get a free period this week, remember? Since-”
“Right, right,” he cut her off, distracted. “Henderson’s on vacation.” He continued frowning at his sculpture, fiddling with pieces here and there. “But you didn’t say how you got in.”
“I let her,” Mr. Denton called from the other side of the room. He was working on his standing desk, changing the songs every two seconds and humming a different tune that was not remotely similar to any of the ones he was flipping through rapid fire. He was one of the Art teachers at the school, but you wouldn’t know it unless you saw him in class. Every morning he showed up in a button-down, jacket, and tie with his worn-out briefcase like he was some frazzled reporter. But by the end of every day without fail, his jacket would be abandoned on a random chair along with his tie, with his sleeves rolled up and constantly patting his forehead with his handkerchief from the sweat of how animated he got about his class and his kids. He was a weird guy. A fun guy, but weird.
Al paused in his work to look over at his teacher, his eyebrows making even more of a comical V shape. “And why would you do that, Denton?”
“Because Bryan here knows when he’s lost a fight,” Sarah leaned on Al’s shoulders and put her head next to his from behind, her hair falling over her like a curtain. Al paused for a moment like he was going to say something, but huffed instead and continued to ignore the girl next to him. He was working steadily, but Sarah could see a faint blush working its way up from his neck to his cheeks, turning his skin a pretty shade of pink. She wanted to bite it.
Swiftly, Sarah dragged a chair from another table and flipped it backward before sitting in it, placing it to the right of Al. She leaned in, folding her arms on the back of the chair so she could put her head on them, right in his line of view. Perfect , she thought.
“Okay, let me get a few things straight,” She said conversationally. “You find me attractive, don’t you?”
“Pretty sure everyone does,” he stumbled less confidently, dropping the piece of paper that was in his hand.
“No,” Sarah chided. “I want to hear you say it.”
A long sigh. “Yes, I find you attractive.”
Her smile got a little wider. “And you have romantic feelings for me, do you not?”
A longer sigh, then no response.
“Come on, answer the question, at least,” Sarah poked.
“Yes, I have romantic feelings for you,” Al mumbled to his sculpture.
“A ha! ” She exclaimed, sitting up to pump her fists in the air. “Then why won’t you-”
“Would you shut up?” Al grabbed her arm, pulling her back down. “You could be a little quieter, you know.” He looked around anxiously, before standing up, pulling her with him.
“Hey Denton, can I step out into the hallway for a sec?” He marched to the front of the class, dragging Sarah behind him. “I just gotta…” He trailed off, unsure.
Mr. Denton’s eyes flickered to an anxious Al, gripping Sarah’s wrist as if his life depended on it. She couldn’t even find it in her to pretend to look abashed. She winked at him.
“Be back before the bell rings, okay?” He waved his hand in a dismissal, and Al and Sarah were gone before they could see the small smile on his face.
“Man, they really weren’t lying when they said teachers are the hardest shippers,” a voice said from the back of the class.
Denton made a face. “I could sit you next to your ex next semester. If you wanted.”
The kid got back to work.
“Okay, okay, not that I don’t like the manhandling,” Sarah laughed as they moved out of the room and further into the hallway. “But we’re out of that classroom now. Like, it’s all the way over there…” Al didn’t respond, only let go and stormed away until he was in the stairwell, waiting with his arms crossed until she jogged up to meet him.
“No, you listen to me now,” he snapped. “And no more quips and snarks, because I’m serious and I want you to hear me. Like, actually hear me.” Sarah sobered up. Shit, maybe she had taken it too far. She bit back the comment she was about to make about how his biceps bulged when his arms were crossed, and stood still instead.
“I’m listening.”
Al took a deep breath like he was mentally preparing himself. After a shaky exhale, he began. “You know I think you’re probably the most gorgeous person to ever walk the earth. You know that. So I don’t know why you need to hear it from me. Because it hurts, Sarah. Okay? It hurts. It hurts to tell you just because you want to make sure I’m wrapped around your finger. You already know I am. And maybe I never told you I was in love with you directly, but I don’t think I’ve ever tried to hide it. Everyone else knows I’m so gone for you, it’s so fucking obvious, and I know you see it too. You’re smart.
When you’re there, life gets better. It’s as simple as that. My life is already fine, but when you’re here? It’s like I’m finally living it to my fullest potential. Things don’t suck when you’re around. How could they? It’s like I’m living some corny rom-com, and it feels ridiculous to describe it like that, but it’s the closest thing I can think of. And every time I can feel you staring at me when I’m not looking, or you lean on me, or you tease me, I think I die a little inside each time. Really, I do. But I’ve seen you date pretty much every single person in our grade, and the grade above, and the grade below, and now it’s just my turn to be asked out by the Magnificent Sarah Jacobs.
So my answer is no. Because I can’t handle that. I cannot just be ‘someone you went out with that one time’. I can’t just go on a couple of dates with you because you realized that maybe I have nice arms or something, I don’t know, and then go back to being friends like it never happened. Not when I have been in love with you for so long it feels more familiar than breathing. Okay? Are you listening? Sarah, please say something because I’m kind of rambling now, which is really fucking strange because I never talk this much, much less this much-”
Sarah yanked his shirt forward and kissed him.
Al gave a muffled shout against her lips, arms waving wildly at his side. For a moment, he was frozen and Sarah was sure he was going to push her away. But then he wrapped his arms around her, and for a few glorious seconds, everything was wonderful. The chatter from surrounding classrooms faded and her world shrunk down to the two of them in that empty stairwell.
Before she knew it, though, he was on the opposite end of the landing, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
“ No, ” he sputtered. “This is exactly what I was talking about, you can’t just do this-”
“I’m in love with you too,” Sarah blurted.
Al blinked once. Twice. A third time.
“Oh.”
“Yeah,” she stammered. “I mean, uh, I think I have been? For a while. But I didn’t realize until the other day. Which is why I’ve been nagging you about a date.” He just stared at her blankly, so she continued. “And instead of thinking of how to be romantic or something, I just kind of… bugged you. Because it was easier than trying to understand how much I,” she cut herself short, but then barreled on anyway. “How much I loved you.”
Al continued looking at her as if she had grown a third head. “And you wouldn’t just be a guy that I went on a date or two with,” Sarah added, laughing nervously. “Hopefully it’s a lot more than that. If you want it to be, at least.”
Then there was silence.
“Hey, you okay?” She waved her hand at him, but he still wasn’t saying anything.
Wordlessly, he crossed the distance over to her in a few long strides, backing her up against the brick wall. “You should have just said that the first time you asked me out,” Al rolled his eyes before looking directly at her.
Sarah gave a surprised laugh. “Oh, yeah?” She looped her arms around his neck. “Does that mean you’ll go out with me, then?”
He hummed, pretending to think as he snuck his hands around the small of her back. “I don’t know, I might have to see some of that romancing you keep talking about before I make my decision.”
“Naw, romancing is only once you get to the fourth date,” Sarah giggled as Al leaned forward to cover his smiling mouth with hers.
“Damn,” he said a few moments later, leaning back just enough so their foreheads were touching. “Guess that means we gotta go out ‘till we get there, don’t we?”
Sarah thought that sounded like a pretty good plan.