Chapter 4: LOVE OR INFATUATION?

We were back in class as Kate was feeling better after seeing her menstrual cycle at school. I considered Kate to be a beautiful lady, she's tall and fairly built and a cheerleader at school. I hadn't told her about my encounter with Nick Wow, now I say his name as Nick in my mind, not Nicholas. I turned to look at Kate munching some chocolate cookies. "That's gonna be too sweet for you," I said. She didn't say a word, this was the time to tell her about Nick or Nicholas. I met a boy today, he was....... "Hey beautiful", someone said from behind. Who could that be, I never talk to anyone in this class aside from Kate.

Wait, I recognized that voice. " Hi Pearl, remember me?" "Oh yes how couldn't I, it's Nicholas," I thought. "Is this the boy you like?" Kate asked. "I didn't say I like him" I argued. "You ladies were discussing me that must be good," he said laughing.

For the rest of the day, I could hardly concentrate in class. It turned out Nicholas was a transfer student and on the basketball team. I noticed he was staring at me for most of the day which made me feel uneasy. I felt his ocean blue eyes staring at my soul, I was so drawn to him. He was handsome, tall, had nice hair, and could get any girl of his choice but why does it feel like he liked me? Though he hasn't confessed his feelings towards me or was I just obsessed with him? No, he doesn't like me, I denied vehemently.

Girls like Frances, Sophia, and Linda who called themselves the circle of three were all over Nick during school hours. The circle of three aka meanies was feared by most students, they were popular and loved to get their way with anything. They were acclaimed to be the most beautiful girls in school and fashionable. Why were they trying to seduce my Nick? Oops! Not my Nick but what am I saying? Am I getting jealous, do I love Nick, or is it just an infatuation? I felt confused. I hadn't felt any affection towards the opposite gender and here I am drooling over a boy I barely know. This could be the teenager's hormones, I'm 16, at the age where we can't help but feel a certain way about some things. This would pass, I thought.

"Let's go home, girlie" Kate said. It was past 2:00 pm classes were over I checked my wristwatch. I needed some time alone but I had to give Kate an excuse just not to go home together. "Oh, I forgot to tell you, there is this personal research I'm working on for our next Biology project, I'll need to be at the lab for a few minutes" I replied. Kate accompanied me to the lab while I stayed there even after she bade me goodbye while going home. Here I am wondering why I had to lie to Kate, taking a look at some of the skeletons and sketches of the human anatomy, I was naming some parts. "What is the largest organ in the body?" someone questioned. "Nick," I said surprisingly. "Well, that's a compliment but I'm not the largest organ in the body" he laughed. "I didn't say you were" I argued. Of course, I was surprised to see him. "What are you doing here?" I questioned. "I school here," he said sarcastically.

I laughed and we began discussing the human parts, he was quite knowledgeable which was amusing. We laughed and talked about how all the girls were mesmerized by him. I asked why he transferred here, and he was quite reluctant to respond but he told me he wanted to be on a good basketball team to get a scholarship to study at Harvard. He asked which college I was planning to attend and I told him I had no plans. He jokingly asked me to join him at Harvard and said we could be roommates which we laughed about. Suddenly, the light in the lab went off, we tried checking what was wrong and discovered someone had locked the door. This can't be happening, I checked my phone to call Kate but there was no service. This was unusual, it was past 6 pm and we didn't realize we had been in the lab for 4 hours.

"What are we gonna do?" I asked. "Well, we need to wait, hoping the janitor or someone else comes in to help" he answered. It turned out Nick wasn't with his bag and there was no way we could try getting help. The only source of light was the flashlight from my phone. Lizzy wouldn't care if I wasn't home, what about Nicholas? "Nick, wouldn't your parents be worried sick about you?" I said with concern. He responded that his parents weren't on good terms with each other and were always busy so they wouldn't know he wasn't home. I sat tiredly leaning on the door as I shivered, yes, I was cold, it was winter and the atmosphere was windy. I continued to shiver and Nick offered his jacket, which I took. I couldn't help but ask if it wasn't too cold for him but he responded with a smile. He sat next to me but I couldn't look him in the eyes, I knew he was staring at me. "Please, stop," I said. "Stop what?" he asked confusedly. "Stop making me like you, thought-out the day you've been everywhere around me, can you leave me alone," I said angrily. "Well, we're stuck here together, you can leave here if you can" he responded.

I was making a big deal out of this, it wasn't his fault, I was falling for him. I apologized for what I said and he questioned to know if I was apologizing for liking him which I didn't respond. Nick was shivering, I gave him his jacket but he refused to have it, then I told him we could share it. What a foolish thing to do I thought, we sat closer and tried using the jacket for both of us. We held each other, at this point we were in each other arms, I felt warm. "Your heart, I can hear it," he said. I didn't respond, I loved the way he smells, I could feel his broad chest and the way he wrapped his hands around me made me feel safe. "I can also hear your heartbeat" I finally said and looked at him. Our lips locked and we kissed, that was my first kiss.