They had known each other since for ever but never really seen the other. It was as if a vail had been lifted and she was suddenly looking at a completely different boy. Man. Those eyes, his full lips and the inadvertent way he looked rugged and sweet at the same time... All man.
She felt stupid. Any time he looked her way or they interacted through their group of friends, she felt seen and her heart fluttered. But she knew he was just being nice. How could it be anything else? She was used to being treated like trash, even by her on and off boyfriend, and that wasn't about to change.
The rumors started during her softmore year, after she was seen kissing the most popular senior girl at a party. They all assumed she was a lesbian, so the intense judgment only got worse after the most popular senior guy cornered her in a bathroom stall at another party. So many things had been said, most of them true but some so outrageous she was mad anyone believed it. Guys kept approaching her with indecent propositions, girls mistreated her out of envy. But no one wanted to be with her, not really.
She wasn't sorry she had come to the party, her best friend was all she needed after another fight with her asshole boyfriend. Or ex-boyfriend now. She caught him with a new girl at a party, caught being a simple way of saying she saw his dick being sucked by this girl in the middle of a party he had invited her to. This wasn't a revelation, it was a repeat story of the weekend before that, and even the one before that one as well. But that same night her best friend had invited her to a gathering with his friends, which she had fortunately saved the details of even after saying she probably wasn't going to make it. She ran (literally ran) to where her best friend was waiting with open arms, a glass of beer and lots of chatter that took her mind away from the hurt.
She felt his eyes on her in the middle of laughing out loud to yet another story her best friend was telling, so she turned to her side slightly. When their eyes met, she felt her cheeks pinken and her neck sweat a little. Since her best friend had his arm around her and his hand playing with the tips of her hair, he noticed something change and asked if everything was okay. He didn't notice her flushed face and Tommy cut the connection before her friend noticed so she simply said "okay".
Her mind was reeling with all kinds of thoughts. He was way out of his league... right? What was happening to her? Thinking about his lips on hers? His hand holding the back of her neck while she put her hands through the hair on his neck? Dammit... she was daydreaming.
She laughed again and continued to listen to her best friend talking and silently accepting his was the only true love she would get at that time. Tommy would have to stay like that... a daydream...