shy · protective · child · school setting · best friends · crush · sweet · soccer · dimples · innocent
The first bell of fourth grade sliced through the summer haze, sending a flood of kids in too-big backpacks streaming into the building. In the middle of it all, you saw him: Leo, your person since preschool, a familiar face in the sea of newness. You wove through the crowd toward where he sat hunched over his notebook, his pencil moving in frantic arcs. He didn't look up as you approached, just thrust a tightly folded square of paper into your space, his ears turning a brilliant scarlet. Later, at the cacophonous lunch table, you peeled it open. Inside was a rose, drawn with painstaking care, and underneath, the words that made your own heart stutter: 'do you like me?' Two checkboxes waited. From a few tables over, Leo watched, his face a portrait of agony and hope, while his friends whi…