When I was a kid, I didn't really believe in crushes, love, and other things similar to love. But when I first felt it with the first girl I'd fallen in love with, it was a good feeling. But the person I've really fallen in love with since the others in the past few years, was my friend. I fell in love with my friend for 15 years. Actually, I fell in love with her in the fifth grade. And my feelings haven't changed ever since. Every time I see her in class, my heart beats faster. Kassandra feels special, like a girl that has no flaws. That one pretty girl in the class that everyone adores and loves. But the person she likes hanging out with more is me than the other popular girls and boys in my class. She trusts me, and I trust her. We always tell each other our secrets, but my secret is not worth telling her.
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"Hey, Sandy!" I shout in her direction while running to her, "Hey, Sandy!" I shouted again, but this time, nearing her and feeling tired.
"What, what, Micah?" She replied to my shouting, looking down at me while I'm still trying to catch my breath, "Are you okay there, bud?" She asks while patting my back.
"I'm fine, I'm fine. Just tired, that's all." I say while letting out a tired chuckle. "Oh! I almost forgot, what were you doing here at the university this early?" I ask her
"Oh, me? Well, I just thought that going here early will make you jealous, but that's not really the case, I just want to go here early so I can do my assignments easily. Plus, everyone has answers under their desk."
"There ain't no way you do that every day." I say in shock, "Don't tell me you also do this during exams, don't you?" I point at her.
"I'm kidding! Well, the exam part was not true, but during assignments and exams that are due for tomorrow, but yeah, I do it every time. I'm lucky that I haven't been caught yet." She said, chuckling.
I can't help but stare at her, God. Her eyes are cute to look at when she's smiling, they smile as well, and the way that they glisten in the lights of the university makes her eyes even more beautiful to look at. But I should stop staring, she'll notice. I pulled away from looking at her and instead thought of a topic to talk about while waiting for class to start. It's still dark out.
"Hey, uh, Sandy?" I said
"What's up?"
"This is probably gonna be a weird topic to talk about but did you know that food coloring sometimes comes from animals?"
"Well, I- for starters, that is a very weird topic to start a conversation with. But I didn't know that. Where the hell did you get that from?" She said while letting out a chuckle, which eventually leads to a laughter
"I got it from Jay." I answered her question, "You know Jay, right?" asking her back
"Jay who? Which Jay? There are a shit ton of Jays in our class, you know that right?" She answered back with a sarcastic remark
"Um, you don't know Jay Corrigan-Davis?"
"Oh! That Jay, dude's cute, but not my type. But yeah, I know him. He's a close friend."
"Wait, really? You're close with him?" I ask her
"Yeah, I am! We've met since the first day of uni started, He's a great guy. Dude's a fucking skyscraper with that height."
"Ehhh, that's true." I agreed, "But you know what's funny?"
"Hm?"
"The thing I find funny is my height."
"What's wrong with your height?" She asked, "Oh... I get it, you're still 5'7, heh, short." She then teased me
"Says the girl who's 5'3"
"Hey! You're just four inches taller than me! That's wayyyyyy below the belt, buddy!" She responded, sounding annoyed and then hitting me in the arm
"Ouch! What the hell, Sandy!"
"Heh, that's what you get," she said, still hitting me in the arm
"Alright, alright! That's enough punching me, Kass, Why don't we go inside the classroom now? And while nobody's there, we can look through their answers."
"Fine, but I won't forget what you said about my height."
I stand up, and I glance at Sandy, she lifts her arms that looks like she's asking me to help her get up, I grab her hand and pull her up,
"You're too light for your height."
"I swear to God, Micah, one more height joke and you're getting my fists to your arm again."
"Heh, that's cute."
When we got into the classroom, we walked over to our desks and quickly sped through desk after desk to look for answers for Sandy's assignment. When we got to Jay's desk, there are a lot of notes in there, which was pretty obvious since NOTES were written in all caps, and not too hard to come across. He needs to take care of his things more. And we didn't even notice that Jay was already in the classroom, he was just staring at us by the blackboard. Sandy was the first one that saw him.
"Jesus Christ, Jay! How long were you standing there?"
"Probably about ten seconds until you noticed me, I just recently went in, what are you guys doing?" He asked
"Before you get mad at me, please do note that it was Sandy's idea to go through your notes fold-" I was saying until Sandy punched me to shut me up, "Ouch! Sandy! What the hell was that?"
"Woah-oh, my idea?" She said, with a bit of annoyance in her voice.
"Yeah! Obviously!" I told her.
"Well, you guys, you could've just asked me yesterday if the both of y'all want to borrow my notes folder." Jay said
"Me? No, I don't need it, Sandy needs it the most. She keeps procrastinating." I said, then looked at Sandy, and she agrees with what I said, "Also, what are you doing here this early? I thought you don't go to class until like 7:30 am." I ask him
"Oh, me? I'm just waiting for Monty," He said then chuckled,
"Monty? Who's Monty?" I ask him
"Oh, yeah, I forgot to introduce him to you guys but he's my boyfriend."
"Woah, woah, woah, woah there, buddy, you have a boyfriend?" Sandy says in a surprised manner, She and I did not expect that. "Since when?" she added
"Oh, about two years ago, just didn't bother to tell you guys," he said, and as an afterthought, he added, "especially Mikayla and Karah, they're both not to know."
"Two years ago?" Sandy and I said at the same time, surprised, we didn't say another word for 15 to 30 seconds until Jay spoke
"I'm just fucking with the both of y'all, I was planning on introducing him to you guys today at recess. But I guess the both of you guys will meet him right now while the other two will have to meet him at lunch. Also, we didn't meet two years ago. I met him over spring break. And by that time, we got close in an instant, and by over a month or three, I found out that he likes me as well. He's pretty cute when he's flustered, to be fair, and after that confession thingy, we both made out like we were feral wol-"
"Okay, okay that's enough, Jay, we don't need to hear the details." I say, letting out a bit of laughter.
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After an hour of copying answers from Jay's notes, we suddenly found ourselves surrounded by our classmates. Jay and Sandy are still sitting by me, and I didn't mind and continued copying the notes until Jay suddenly stood up from his chair and ran down the flight of stairs to the door to see him hugging a boy, is he the Monty Jay was telling us about? I ask myself, then I pat Sandy on the shoulder repeatedly, "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey Sandy,"
"What?" She said.
"Look down there, It's Jay with a guy. Do you think that's the Monty he's talking about?" I point at them,
"I think so, yeah." She said, "And stop pointing, it's rude and the both of them are coming up here."
I stopped doing so once I noticed the two going up to the desks, and once they were up here the both of them sat down next to me.
"Hey, guys." Jay said, "Monty, this is Michael or Kassandra, and the both of you guys, this is my boyfriend, Montgomery."
"Hi, I'm Michael James Ashford," I say then putting my hand our for a handshake, "but you can call me Micah instead," I introduced myself,
"Hello," Monty said whilst shaking my hand violently, "I'm Montgomery Gallagher, but Monty's fine with me."
"Oh! And this is Kassandra," I introduced Sandy to him, "She's probably German because of her last name, which is Schmidt." I whispered to Montgomery
"I heard that, you fool." She said to me while glaring at me, and she looked away to look at Monty, "anyways, I'm Kassandra Schmidt and I'm the friend of those two fools."
"Oh, shut up, Sandy." Jay said.
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When the school bell rang, it was lunchtime, I stood up and walked down the flight of stairs in the classroom to the door but Sandy stopped me from going down with a shout, I turned around and looked at her.
"Hey, Micah! Wait for me!" She shouted, making me stop in the middle of the staircase, I look back at her and she was already grabbing her backpack. Then ran down past me, saying, "Last one there will buy two Lunchables!"
I ran down as fast as I can but I was too late. "I hate you, you know that?" I said to Sandy.
"I thought you loved me," she said then making a pouting expression.
Her statement made me red, tomato red, even, "Stop making me flustered, Kass. Don't make me remember that thing I said back on the 14th of February."
"Yeah, I still hoped that you sent it at least after Valentine's."
"Heh, you complained about it to me the whole day."
We walked down to the cafeteria, Karah and Jay were already there, same with Montgomery. I looked over at Sandy and she looked back at me, I turn away and start a conversation
"Why don't you go over to the others while I'll buy you two packs of Lunchables?" I told her
"Sure! Can't wait for those, also, don't worry, I'll pay you back." She said with a smile, then ran off to the table where the others were sitting.
I walk to the counter to buy two packs of Lunchables, and whilst waiting for the staff to grab them for me, I look back to the table. Seeing Sandy smile and laugh always puts a smile on my face. She makes me happy every day I see her. I would kill to see her smile like that every day. I would do everything to see my best friend smile like that.
When the staff returned to the counter, I gave him the payment and told him to keep the change, then I walk over to the table.
"Yo." I say
"Hey, Mike." Karah said, "Heard you lost a race against Sandy, come on, you know you're better than that." She said, teasingly
"Hey, she cheated, okay?" I said while looking at Sandy, in whom she gave me the middle finger, "Fuck you too." I responded
"Don't worry, Micah! I'll pay you, how much was the both of them?" Sandy reassured me.
"$5.72 bucks, I'm expecting it. Don't act dumb when I ask you for it, you get me?" I told her
"Fine, I'll pay you by tomorrow." She said
"Anyways, Montgomery, when did you meet Jay?" I turn to Monty to ask him
"We met by the ice cream store by the Wellspring Mall." He answered,
"Ooh, ice cream? I didn't know Jay liked ice cream that much," Karah looked at Jay and teased him.
"Shut up, Karah, you didn't know that I like Ice Cream? We're childhood friends for God's sake."
"I was only teasing, idiot."
"Yeah, yeah, anyway, what are your hobbies, Monty? If that's fine for me to call you Monty?"
"Monty's cool, so it's fine by me, plus it's my nickname so it's very fine to use. And for my hobbies, well, I like singing and playing the piano. And also add the guitar there as well. I just love playing music."
"Wait, really? Same!" I said in a surprised manner, "Well, what are your favorite bands?" I ask him.
"Recent? Uh, I like The Goo Goo Dolls for now, but it may change depending on if you have a good band recommendation for me."
The others were just looking at the both of us talking, I can feel that they can't relate because they aren't music nerds like us
"Iris is a good song, loved that song perhaps," Monty added, "I can sing it easily."
"Yep, Iris is a good song. Very." I agreed with him, "But hey, you should listen to Valley. They're an underrated band. And I am not kidding, their songs are so relatable in a way that you can almost apply it to your own life."
"Really? Alright, alright, I'll try to listen to it later."
"Nice! I totally recommend the Last Birthday EP, definitely a good album, and they released a new song called Champagne as well."
"Sure! I'll give those a try as well."
After we stopped talking, the bell rang on time, we decided to walk back to our respective classes at the time. I walked back with Karah to escort her to her class at the time while the other three has walked back to their class at the same time,
"So...Karah, how was your day?" I ask her
"Doing great so far! How about you?"
"Eh, it's fine, but the thing keeping the day great is Sandy looking cute as always." I answered
"Creep." She said
"Hey, shut up! She's just...something."
"Something?" She replied in confusion
"Yeah, she has something that's keeping her special and close to my heart." I said, gripping the strap of my backpack, and looking at the sky, "She has that vibe."
"Huh. No wonder you're easily heartbroken."
"I'm not easily heartbroken, Karah! If I am easily heartbroken, then give me one example of being so down after a breakup or a rejection."
"You remember that Mackenzie incident?" She replied, "The one where you keep saying "Why didn't she choose me, why didn't she choose me?" Bullshit." She said, laughing at the way she imitated my voice, "You were so down that you chose to sing Harry Styles' Falling, and kept hitting the high notes every single time, which was impressive, but you seriously need to control that hopeless romantic head of yours. That's why you keep being so depressed all the time, you know?"
"I know, I know, but I can't help but give all my love to someone, you know? Especially when it's for Sandy. I just don't want to tell her that I love her so much yet." I said
"Really?"
"Yeah, really. I'm just so in love with her that I sometimes forget to care for myself. And I'm sorry if I'm being a narcissistic bitch sometimes, but it can't be helped. I love her and I will always do."
"That's cute." Karah said
"How about you, Kar? Have you fallen for someone yet?" I asked her
"Well, I fell for someone before Uni, so yeah sure." She replied
"Who?"
"You know Noel, right? From the twelfth grade?"
"Noel Spring? Yeah, I know him."
"Well, when I confessed to him, he actually reciprocated my feelings for him, but we only dated for like a few months, before I found out that he didn't actually love me. He was just using me. And that broke my heart." She said, "But thinking about it now, it doesn't really affect me anymore since I learned a lesson from that experience. I now look at myself that I am worth it. I have a value and I am not letting anyone take that away from me."
"That sucks to hear, Kar, but hey, at least he's gone now, right?"
"Yep."
"Alrighty, then I might have to pray for you to find your perfect man, huh?" I say, teasingly
"Sure, sure! You just made me blush from that," she said, face red and all, covering her face, "Oh, we're actually here now? Thanks for escorting me here, Mike."
"No problem! Will always do that to my friend. Alright, take care, learn well, okay?"
"Okay." She said as she walked inside the classroom.
I walk back to the class I need to be in, and when I was walking back I just can't help but think of Sandy, I really care about her. I really do.