A/N ok I know I'm awful I'm sorry I haven't updated for like a week. Oh whale. Well, here this is!
"Would anybody like to share their short story?" Asked Mr. Tatanako. It was Friday, you know, the day after yesterday. Anyway, yeah, we had a short story due, and yes I did it, what do you think I am, a slacker? So anyway, moving on, I looked down at the short story on my desk. It wasn't really that short. It was kinda-sorta ten pages long. And the minimum was two. Yeah. Well, as usual, I didn't raise my hand. Ryan did read it and said it was amazing, but it really wasn't. I mean, all I did was idea-vomit onto the page, it literally took me only a half hour. It was bad, and I was too shy to raise my hand. Ryan poked me and pointed at Mr. Tatanako. I slowly shook my head no as he called on Sydney, a girl who sits in the front and is extremely outgoing.
     She read off the story from her page. It was pretty short, probably about two-and-a-half, three pages long, but boy, it was confusing. She used a deep meaning, that even she didn't understand, so the meaning of the story came out unclear and blurry. However, it was well-written, despite the confusion with the meaning. She used fabulous words and imagery, and amazing metaphors and symbolism, but it just came off not right.
     "Very good Sydney, but next time, use a meaning you can easily comprehend so it comes off more clear to the reader or listener," Mr. Tatanako smiled. Sometimes, that man was too nice. I mean, his wife literally died two days ago, and he's perfectly fine. He is a trooper. "Any other volunteers?" He asked.
     "Raise your hand," whispered Ryan.
     "No," I replied angrily.
     "Do it," he responded.
     "No."
     "Yes."
     "No."
     "Ryan, you seem to be chatting it up with Felicia," Mr. Tatanako said, and I mentally died inside, "Would either of you like to share. Ryan and I had a glare off until he finally gave up.
     "Fine," Ryan said, "I'll read."
     His story was riveting. It was about a boy, slowly driving himself mad over his crush. He loved her so much, but she didn't notice him. His small acts of kindness, his constant compliments, his small glances and smirks. They were even close friends, she never noticed. The boy would go, day in and day out, trying to get her attention, slowly driving himself insane, until he finally cracked. He cracked and left the school and was never seen again, not by his parents, not by police, not by the girl. But the girl would recall hearing voices in her head saying, "I love you" and "I'm waiting in the river." Eventually, you could figure out that he drowned himself in the river. It was amazing. One weird thing was that he was stealing small glances at me the entire time.
     Now, I haven't told you this yet, but I have a small crush on Ryan. It's very slight, but it grows everyday with every time he looks at me, every time he smiles with me. So when he jokes about my crush, he's joking about him. Now, what alarms me is he was looking at me occasionally while he read the story. Me. It made me wonder for a second if this story was based on real life, and Ryan just hadn't cracked yet. He was kind to me, he gave me compliments all the time, he randomly looks at me and smiles. Does Ryan like me?
     Anyway, Ryan slowly sat down, looking at me while I did. "That was amazing," I whispered to him.
     "Was it, now?" He smirked.
     "Yeah," I replied, "It was." Now, you may be asking why I don't just ask him out, or hint that I like him too. But I can't. Yeah, we're in 8th grade, and if we were ever going to date, it would be now so that it wouldn't get awkward because it wouldn't get serious. But what if it did get awkward. What if we didn't last, and our friendship went away and was turned into a turmoil of awkwardness? I don't want to lose Ryan, he's my only friend I am comfortable with, I don't want our friendship to ever leave, so no dating, no romance. We will stay friends to stay safe and avoid awkwardness.
     "Hey, Felicia," Ryan said.
     "Yeah?" I replied.
     "Who is your crush?" He asked, "We've talked about this mystery character so many times, but who is he?"
     "Doesn't matter," I replied.
     "Fine then," Ryan smirked, "I'll get it out of you at some point."
A/N okay, I'm ending the chapter there, and by the way, I think this will only be like ten chapters or so by the way I'm thinking about this. :)-Piper