Normally, I see her walking around with a few friends talking and giggling while toting a pile of books to her next class. I've wanted to say ‘hi’ but I'm so worried that I'm going to to stumble over my words that I end up not saying anything. It's so frustrating.

Today, I saw her sitting in the library, alone, surrounded by piles of papers that shifted slightly with the wind that came through the small open library window next to her. I smile to myself as I watch her push a lock of chocolate brown hair behind her ear as she flipped through a used notebook. Her face crinkled into a confused stare as she glanced from her notebook, to the laptop on her knee, and back again. 'How can she make me feel this way when all she's doing is studying?' I thought to myself. Her expression quickly changed from that of confusion to delight as she pulled a sheet of paper out of her bag and quickly tapped something into her laptop. I smiled to myself. However, my smile quickly disappeared when one of my friends roughly pushed me in the arm.

“Hey! Earth to Andrew!” Mat waved his hand in front of my eyes to get my attention.

“Wha-what?” I reluctantly ripped my eyes away from her and refocused most of my attention back on my friends, clearing my throat.

“What's going on with you, man? For the last few days you've been so spacey. What were you staring at?” My friend, Conner, turned to search for what was distracting me. When his eyes finally crossed her, he turned back to me with a disappointed stare.

“Does this have something to do with Eleanor? Dude! Seriously, do you like her?" Mat ?blurted out. He and Connor sat across from me at the small wooden table with Ryan next to me. They must've all had the same thought because when I looked at them, all of their eyes were locked onto mine, like a cat's to a laser.

“N-no. I just have a lot going on with college applications,” I stuttered. I tried to escape their stares by turning my focus to something else, but my friends continued to look at me disbelievingly. After a few tense moments, they let out a hearty laugh.

“Good. I mean come on. Why would you want to be with her? She's such a loser. You should be more focused on someone like Vanessa Smith. She's so hot,” Conner elbowed me roughly in the ribs making me wince. As they spoke I rubbed my now throbbing side.

“Yeah, Vanessa is such a babe. Eleanor? Just forget about her, dude, she's not worth your time,” my friend Ryan spat. I clenched my fists under the table and gritted my teeth together to keep from saying something I'd regret. I sat ?silently contemplating what to say next. "Yea, You're right. I mean Vanessa is so much hotter than some nobody like Eleanor,” I lied as I looked down and rested my head heavily on my hand and tried to focus on my math homework for a while. I wanted to burn my tounge with an iron.

Eventually my eyes slowly wandered back to Eleanor and watched as she continued to look through her notebook. Like she knew someone was watching her, her head whipped up and as she looked around the library her eyes locked with mine and my eyes widened. 'Look away idiot! She's gonna think you're a stalker!' I ripped my eyes away from Eleanor's and forced them to look at my calculus homework in front of me. I could feel her eyes still locked on me, but after a moment, I felt her shift her gaze away and back to her work. I waited a moment then decided it was safe to look back up, and as I did, I noticed that she had begun to pack up her books. 'Great job, Andrew!' I told myself 'You scared her away.'

Once in a while her eyes would shift from her task to my eyes and a small smirk formed on her perfect lips. 'Focus Andy!....... I hope she doesnt notice the red on my face.' She looked up about four or five times until she had one neat pile of papers and only one notebook left to put away. However, before she put it away, she opened to a random page and quickly wrote something down and ripped the page out. 'What is she writing? She looked like she found what she was looking for before. Maybe it's a note she forgot before?' I couldn't help but wonder, everything about her fascinated me.

She closed her notebook and shoved it into her backpack and began to pick up her pile of papers as I was ripped away from my thoughts of her as the sounds of three zipping backpacks rang out from next to me. "Good. And don't be late to practice again. You know Conner here likes to get a li?t?t?le "pummeling-of-freshman" i?n ?b?efore the game," Ryan sneered.

I finished packing my bag and stood up uncomfortably laughing with them as they turned around and stalked off away from me. As they walked, they split in half to let Eleanor pass between them but when she was just a few inches past Ryan and Conner, Mat reached out with his foot and hooked her left foot with his and tripped her. As she hit the floor the boys mocked a remorseful "ohhhhhhhhh! Sorry Eleanor didn't see you!" and they walked off cackling over their little "victory."

I swiftly dropped my backpack and knelt down to help her collect her papers. "I'm sorry about them. They think they're hot s***." I apologized.

"It's alright," she frowned as she tried to shuffle her papers back in order. After a few minutes we finally collected all her papers and we stood up. "Thanks," she blushed slightly.

"No problem, any time," she smiled at me. We stood there awkwardly for a few seconds when she broke the silence.

"Thanks again Andrew," she smiled shyly bringing the pile of papers closer to her chest. "C- Call me Andy!" I practically screamed. She giggled quietly, turned, and hastily walked away from me.

I stood looking down at my feet. 'Are the guys right?' I thought. 'Should I even like Eleanor? Am I wasting my time? No. I remember, the fluttering in my heart and the sweat on my hands when I knelt down to help...' I was knocked from my thoughts when I noticed that she had forgotten a small folded paper laying on the ground. "Oh! Ele-" I stopped she was already gone, and I was stuck with this small sheet of paper. As I looked at it, I realized it was the same sheet Eleanor had previously wrote the strange note on, curiosity got the better of me, and I opened up the small paper. My eyes widened as I read through the little handwriting.

Instead of staring at me from across the library, maybe you want to go out somewhere sometime? Idk. Let me know. 1(847) - 775 -9852

And at the end her signature graced the paper perfectly:

Eleanor