I'll Be Here

absence of his touch throughout my whole body.  I watch him and he watches me. 
    This whole situation screams of crazy.  Alex Faber is someone that I used to crush on but lost the right to think about a long time ago. 
    I should just turn away and go find my friends.  Alex will go back to college and I’ll never see him again.  Right?
    I should say goodbye and have that be the end of it. 
    I should remember how depressed I am about my boyfriend of two years breaking up with me last week. 
    I should be thinking of ways to get him back. 
    I should do a lot of things. 
    What I do is this: I take a step towards Alex and pluck a stray eyelash off his cheek.  His head jerks back as I reach up, but when he sees what I’m doing he relaxes and smiles.  The skin of his face is warm—so warm.  My finger lingers on the spot and I imagine the blood moving beneath the surface.  Alex sucks in his breath. 
    The eyelash evades me and I have to attempt to remove it twice before I am successful.
     “Make a wish,” I say and he blinks at the dark eyelash balancing delicately on the tip of my index finger. 
    His fingers wraps around my wrist to steady it as he blows.  He closes his eyes and opens them.  I am so close that I can see the dark pupils expand and contract in the sunlight.  I can feel the warmth of his breath in my hair.  It is a combination of pepper and honey.
    “I’ll be home again next weekend.”  The watery words pour from his mouth and wash over me. 
    I fall into eyes, blue and endless.  “I’ll be here,” I say, coming up for air.

 
     
    We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled.  The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.
    ~Ray Bradbury

 
    CHAPTER ELEVEN
     
    “So will you?”
    “Hmmm?”  I’m so deep in thought that I don’t realize that someone has been talking to me. 
    I look up and the shadow in front of me solidifies into the shape of a boy.  It’s Wes Hardin.  He’s got this funny look on his face and he pulls on his earlobe like maybe he’s uncomfortable.  Puffy white clouds pass lazily in the blue sky that frames the space beyond his head.  “I’m sorry, Wes.  Did you need something?”
    “Ummm.  I asked you to go to prom with me.”  He screws up his nose. 
    “And I know that you and Dustin just broke up and that this is pretty fast, but I saw you sitting over here by yourself and I figured if I can’t ask you now then I might never do it.” 
    “Oh.” 
    Ohhhh . 
    Crap. 
    I’m stunned.  I honestly wasn’t expecting anyone to ask me to prom.  Not with the way that Taylor has been encouraging the entire school to treat me like I’ve contracted the plague. 
    Wes is nice.  Cute in a nerdy glasses-wearing, skinny-armed kind of way and we would probably have an okay time at prom, but I’m not sure I even want to go anymore.  I’m definitely not ready to commit to a date. 
    “Wes, that’s really nice of you to ask but I’m not really sure that this is a good idea.  Would it be horrible for me to say no?”
    He lets go of a breath that he’s been holding and when he smiles tentatively it reaches his eyes.  “No, it wouldn’t.  But it would be less horrible if you say that you’ll think about it.”
    I bite my bottom lip.  “Okay then… Can I think about it?”
     Wes smiles adorably.  “Thanks Willow.  You’re just... You’re so awesome and I—”  He’s blushing and it’s making me blush right back at him.  “W-will you just, you know, let me know?  Or whatever.” 
    He leans forward awkwardly and grabs my wrist almost like he’s shaking my hand.  His skin is soft and slippery.  The whole thing is so incredibly strange that I almost laugh.  Wes looks back over his shoulder twice as he walks off towards the cafeteria.
    “Tell us everything right this minute,” a deep voice says from behind me.
    Laney and Lance plop down on either side of me.  Lance drops his backpack in my lap and I let out an oath at the weight. 
    “Wes Hardin just asked me to prom.”
    Laney is scribbling something on the inside flap of a folder.  “And?”
    “And I told him that I would think about it.  I think that I’ll send him an email letting him down easy.”
    “Wes was my chemistry lab partner sophomore year,” Lance offers.  “Pretty cool dude.  He did almost all of our assignments and I got an A in that class.”
    “Well, if I need someone to go over the periodic table