People aren't as they Appear

“Oh my gosh Will, what if she says no?” I say to Will in a worried voice. 

“You worry too much. Just go up to her and ask her already.” Will tells me. 

Will is my best friend. We have known each other since we were five. He's always supported me through all my dark times with my parents' divorce, bullies, rejections and other stuff. I am nervous today because I am about to ask Jasmine on a date. I don’t even know why I'm even doing this because I swore after what happened with Natalie and my parents' divorce that I would never love again. But here I am, about to ask Jasmine on a date. She is standing with her best friend Raven at her locker. Jasmine is not one of the popular kids at our school. She is a junior just like me and she is always hanging around her one and only best friend Raven, not that she doesn’t have other friends. I’m pretty sure she just likes her company. I sneak a look at her. She’s wearing black high waisted jeans with a cropped tank top and a bomber jacket over it with her black and white convers. And her chocolate skin is glowing more than ever today. 

“Just go, she's about to leave her locker. If you don’t go now, I'll push you,” Will says to me breaking me out of my thoughts. 

Before I could even reply to him, I feel a pair of strong hands pushing me forward and before I could comprehend what was happening, I am in front of Jasmine Stewart and Raven Smith. I start to panic because I don’t know what to do but as soon as I hear her voice I start to recover and freak-out even more, If that’s possible. 

“Oh, hi Trevon,” Raven says. 

“Hey,” I breath out, my nerves getting the best of me. 

“Hi guys,” I hear Will say from behind me. 

I give him a small side glare and he returns it with a smirk. I quickly get myself together and form the courage to ask her out. 

“Hey, Jasmine I was wondering if you would like to go out with me?” I say the words out in a rush that I’m pretty sure nobody heard me. 

She looks up at me, then her best friend, then back at me again. I start to get nervous again and all my thought go back to what happened with Natalie and my parents and how my life is a complete waste. I should have never come her. But then I get cut off short from my thoughts with her words. 

“Like a date?” She asks. 

“Yeah,” I reply. 

“Can I get back to you on that? I just have a lot going on. I’ll get back to you on that by the end of the day, if it’s not too much to ask.” She says giving me a small smile. 

I don’t know what to say or how I should even feel about this. She wants to get back to me on this. If she wants to say no, she should just say it now, no need to drag things out.  

“Okay, sure,” I say at a loss of words. 

She gives me a small smile again then I drag Will and myself to the closes restroom that I could find. I hear the bell ring for first period, but I don’t even care. 

“What’s wrong man?” Will says to me. 

“Why did you do that?” I say annoyed at him and myself for even thinking Jasmine would ever say yes. 

“Bro, I was just trying to help you out and I did. She’s totally going to say yes,” he tells me tapping me on the shoulder. 

“Well she is actually going to think about it. What if she over thinks it and says no? What if...,” I start to say but get cut off by the sound of the tardy bell. 

“We should get to class,” Will says and I nod in agreement. 

As we start walking to English class, all the thoughts of how humiliating it would be if Jasmine says no to my date start to come through my mind. I know I should be more optimistic about things, but I can’t anymore. I am mentally broken inside. After seeing how things didn’t work out with my parents, love and romance is the last thing I want to get involved in.  

Will and I walk into English class and Mr. Frank has already started the lesson for the day. I am thankful that he didn’t stop to question us and just allowed us to sit in our assigned seats. I am even for thankful that Jasmine is not in my English class, but she is in all my other classes so that’s a bummer. 

“Turn your textbooks to page 230, read the passage and answer the questions that follow. I will be collecting you papers after this class so better get to work,” Mr. Frank says out loud. 

It sucks that Will and I aren’t sitting close to each other. I look over to where he is sitting and see he’s already gone deep into the passage. I open my textbook and start reading the passage as well, but my focus doesn’t last too long before my thoughts go back to Jasmine. I still can’t believe I asked her on a date. It’s honestly killing me waiting for the end of the day to hear her answer. I already know that it's going to be a long day. I glance up at the clock on the wall and sigh. It’s only been five minutes. I get back to reading the passage. I don’t get very far before I get back to my normal thoughts, Jasmine. She’s driving me crazy. I never knew this is how loving someone felt like. My eyes then widen at the sudden realization of what I just thought. I love Jasmine. After Natalie, I never thought I would ever love again. 

“The bell is going to ring in about five minutes so please pass your papers to the front of the class,” Mr. Frank says. 

I look up at the clock and see only five minutes left. I hurry and scribble some words down on my paper and pass it to the boy sitting in front of me. The bell rings and I stumble out of the class mad I didn’t complete my work and nervous to see Jasmine in my next class. 

“So, class, today I will be pairing you all with partners to work with on dissecting the rabbit,” Mrs. Miller says, and the class starts to groan. 

So far, it has not been awkward between Jasmine and I mainly because I have been trying to avoid eye contact with her the whole ten minutes of class so far and its been going well. Mrs. Miller starts reading students names off her clipboard.  

“Trevon Walker and Jasmine Stewart,” Mrs. Miller says, and my heart almost stops. Why does life have to be so cruel? 

I look over to where Jasmine is siting and see she's already looking at me. I start making my way toward her slowly wishing the ground the just open so I can just fall in. I finally make it to her after what feels like forever. 

“Hey,” she says awkwardly. 

“Hi,” I say back making it even for awkward. 

We sit there in silence while Mrs. Miller continue to call out people's names. 

“Trevon, about the date,” Jasmine says breaking the silence between us. 

“Yes,” I reply. 

“I can’t go out on a date with you. I’m really sorry,” she says. 

I freeze after the words come out of her mouth. She can’t go. She just said no.  

“Why?” I force the words out of my mouth. 

“Because Raven likes you. We thought you came to ask her out, but you asked me instead. I don’t like you like that Trevon, but Raven does. She has for quite a while now.” she says. 

Her words make me start to think about me and Ravens interactions. I don’t like Raven. 

“Oh,” I say because I can’t form a proper sentence at the moment.  

“Yeah!” she says. 

“Are you sure?” I ask her licking my lips. I can see her look down from my eyes to my lips. 

“Yes! I'm sure I don’t like you, you nerd. And I don’t see what Raven sees you either. Just get away from me,” She practically yells out.  

Very soon, the whole class is looking at us. I just sit there with wide eyes just staring at her in shock. Here last words hit me harder than anything has ever. 

“And I can see why Natalie cheated on you. You deserved it. I don’t know how your parents stayed together for as long as they did, they should have gotten a divorce a long it ago.” 

I can feel the pain all around me, everything I don’t want to remember. I Stumble out of the classroom in a hurry and start to run down the hall to find the closes exit to get out of the school. I get out of the school very quickly and just start to run. I don’t know where I'm going but all I know Is that I need to get away from this school.