110

I was mildly distracted during class. Not just because of the fact that Ms. Adanna was wearing a beautiful blue tight evening dress, but because I was also trying to think of what to say to Sarah come lunchtime. Before that, let me get back to talking about Ms. Adanna for just a minute. Wow. I had no idea if she was dressed like that because she had a date later, or if she just wanted to look nice. Very nice, in fact. Maybe, though, just maybe she was dressed like that for me. All I knew was that she looked amazing and I was very tempted to have another time-stopped romp with her if my mind wasn't already preoccupied.

I wrote a little note to Sarah on a small piece of paper. In it, I quickly explained to her that I wanted to have a chat with her one-on-one during lunch. I casually dropped the paper over my shoulder in a way reminiscent of how I would irritate the living hell out of Jennifer. I heard her unfurl the note. I then turned my head to the side, watching her smile and nod to me. I nodded back and returned to our lesson for the day.

When lunch finally came around, I was a little nervous but so much more excited. Getting to finally confess my innermost feelings to Sarah, I mean, feelings? What feelings? Well, regardless, I knew it was going to be super refreshing to lay out all my cards on the table for her.

Sarah, Jordan and myself all headed out at the same time.

"So, what did you want to chat about?" Sarah softly asked.

Jordan couldn't help butting in. "Ooh, the two of you are going to have a private chat, huh?"

"Yeah," I calmly replied. "There were some things I wanted to talk to Sarah about."

Jordan was able to tell that this chat meant a lot for me. She knew what I was going to tell her, since she already knew herself.

"How about I run on up ahead and buy us all a slice of pizza?" Jordan suggested. "That way it'll be ready for you by the time you get there and guys can chat along the way."

"Thank you," I smiled to her. "I appreciate it."

"Sounds good," Sarah concurred.

Jordan chuckled softly. "You guys take your time."

Jordan then jogged on ahead, leaving Sarah and I casually striding behind. The halls were already starting to thin out as most of the other students flew past us.

"What's up?" Sarah asked. I smirked and chuckled.

"I'm sure Jordan already filled you in on most of what I wanted to say."

A big grin slowly crept across her face. "About?"

"Look at you, you're about to laugh!" I exclaimed, both of us bursting out with a laugh. "You know exactly what I'm talking about."

"Okay, okay, fine," she admitted with a nod. "I mean, we are like sisters. She tells me everything and I tell her everything."

"I figured." I smiled, keeping my gaze forward. "For a while, I... had a pretty ...minor crush on you, I would say."

"Uh-huh," she playfully replied. She knew it wasn't as minor as I'd been saying all along. "Well, I didn't need Jordan to tell me that. I already knew."

"Was I that obvious?" I asked as I looked over at her.

"Uhh... yes." I softly laughed in response. "But you're a sweetheart, Anthony, you really are. I'm so, so, so glad to have you as a friend. You've been great to me."

I casually led her down the opposite hallway than the one which would've taken us to the courtyard with Jordan.

"Why are we going this way?" she asked.

"Just to talk for a few more minutes. I doubt Jordan will miss us."

She laughed. "All right," she replied with some curiosity in her voice.

I led her outside, out to the area where the school buses would normal line up at the beginning and end of the day. At lunchtime, though, it was totally quiet. Peaceful, just like I could hope for.

"It's a really nice day out," I remarked, looking up at the picture-perfect blue sky and feeling the cool air gently breeze by.

"It really is. I love it when it gets like this. Reminds me of back home."

"Oh yeah? Where's home?"

"South Carolina," she replied, and I nodded. She sighed happily, gazing up at the few clouds in the sky. "Days like this remind me of when I was a little girl. Around this time, the leaves would be piling up and me and my friends would love to play around in them."

"I have some great memories of this time of the year, too. But, there's still plenty more to be made." She turned to me with a sweet smile that just about made my heart melt. "I'm glad you moved down here and gave me the honor of meeting you."

"That's sweet," she quietly replied. Then, I took her hand in mine. She looked at me with an incredibly curious gaze.

"Sarah," I began, preparing to spill my guts, "...you are super, super amazing and wonderfully sweet and beautiful. I mean, like, wow you're gorgeous."

She looked so incredibly touched by that. Her head tilted, grinning uncontrollably.

"Anthony, you're gonna make me blush," she shyly said. And that, right there, was the reason I found her so lovely and so wonderful. She was so real.

"Good. It'll remind me of how real and honest you are with yourself." She looked awe-struck gazing at me. "I know that you belong to someone else, but I still really like you. You are ... super warm and caring and you make me feel like I matter. Also, you're beautiful." She giggled in embarrassment. "I just wanted to emphasize that. ... You're amazing. Whoever this guy is that you're with is ... so lucky to have you and he'd better treat you like you're the best thing he's got going for him because you deserve it. And if he doesn't see that, then he's completely dense." Then, I gave a big sigh of relief. At the same time, the tears were already welled up in her eyes. "That ... is everything I have wanted to say to you for the past four months but I could never muster up the courage to do it. Now that I have, it feels so good ... like a huge weight is off my shoulders. I know that's super cliché," she let out a shaky laugh, "but I mean it. Every word."

She sniffled, letting go of my hand to take off her glasses and wipe her eyes. "Thank you so much, Anthony. You are ... a wonderful guy. You're gonna to make some lucky girl feel like she's the queen of the flippin' world someday."

"I'm sorry for making you cry ..."

"It's okay," she softly interjected.

"... but I just really, really had to tell you all that. It was really important to me, and thank you for giving me the time to listen to me."

"Of course," she nodded in understanding.

Time? Ha, how I loved that word nowadays.

I let Sarah calm down and replace her glasses before I continued on.

"Well," I spoke up again with a big, eager grin. "now that I'm already airing out my secrets, there's one more that I have to tell you."

She smiled as she saw my expression. "You seem pretty excited about it."

"I am!" She laughed. "Okay, brace yourself for this. You ready?"

"Uh-huh."

I exclaimed, throwing my hands outward in a flourish, "I can freeze time!"