This story was inspired by a short story I wrote in my creative writing class. It's a story of love, friendship and self-worth, following Caleb and Maya's relationship from the very beginning.

Chapter One

Caleb moved through the bodies of sweaty teenagers, eager to get outside. He stopped at his locker to collect his books, going through a mental checklist in his head. Chem? Yes. Geometry? Yes. Spanish? No. He quickly filled his book bag with miscellaneous papers and books that wouldn’t be touched until the end of the weekend. Closing his locker, he made his way through the mustard-colored hallways, passing a few of his friends from the football team.

“See you at practice, man?”

“Yeah, yeah, see you there” were the only words that he could form, clearly nervous for the upcoming event that he was putting himself through.

He pushed past the heavy doors, putting him in route to the courtyard. Caleb looked around when he made it outside and saw her from across the room. He couldn’t look away; he couldn’t see anyone else, hear anything else, and all he could see was her smacking on that mint gum from across the room. When in reality, there was no real way for him to know if it was mint gum that she was chewing – that detail was a product of his imagination, one he’d thought of a lot. Forcing himself out of his trance, Caleb saw that Maya was staring straight at him with the most quizzical look on her face. Getting nervous, he approached her, noticeably slower than when had started his journey through the school to this moment.

Maya was reading a book, not that that was unusual; she always has her nose in a book. She was looking down and Caleb could only see her long brown eyelashes, not that he didn’t already know exactly what her eyes looked like (hazel, with specks of gray on the outer corners). Caleb wiped his sweaty palms against his uniform trousers and cleared his throat.

“Hey, Maya,” he mustered.

No response. She didn’t so much as glance up.

He cleared his throat again, “Are you coming to the final game tomorrow?”

She finally looked up at him, revealing her freckled, rosy, cheeks, “What’s that?”

He coughed, “Game... Are you going to the game?”

“Oh, yeah. Lexi, Marissa and I are planning on going.”

“Cool, cool, cool.”

He heard a group of girls giggling behind him. Those girls clearly realized why he was talking to Maya, and it was obvious to them how flustered he was. Caleb wished that they would just go away. Why did girls do that?

He looked back at Jenna, whose face remained impassive. What was she thinking? He wished he could just read her mind. Could she see where he was going with this? He felt so stupid and he was starting to regret his momentary burst of motivation to ask out the girl he had been falling for since second grade. It was really his friends' fault for pumping him up and making him feel like he could do this. Who was he kidding? Caleb ran his hands through his long hair in the front and looked down at the ground, where he dug the tip of his shoe into the worn-out cement floor. Pumping himself back up with a little pep talk, he mustered up the courage to tilt his head back up.

“So after the game...”

Maya tilted her head to the side as if in question. She was going to make him spell it out for her.

“So after the game, would you maybe want to get a sundae?” he stuttered

Caleb noticed Maya fluffing out her school skirt, twirling her hair, chewing her bubble gum, taking her sweet time.

“Like a date?”

“Yes, a date.”

She squinted up at him, holding her hand up to shield the sun from her view. His heart was beating at an alarming rate, making sweat beat down his neck. He could barely hear her when she replied.

“I would love to go on a date with you.”

He didn’t trust his hearing enough to run with it. “Did you say yes?”

She chuckled. “Yes.”

“OK, OK. Yeah, me too.”

She just laughed again.

“I will find you after the game?”

She nodded, which made her hair sway.

Caleb could not stop smiling, and as he turned to leave, he heard her one last time.

“Good luck at the game, Caleb,” she wished him with a small smirk on her red-painted lips. He thought that he uttered a “thanks” but wasn’t sure. Caleb kept walking back toward the school with a cheesy smile on his face and slowly started to pump his fist – careful so Maya wouldn’t notice – in a victory cheer.

In the next chapter, we get a glimpse of what Maya is up to two years after high school – from her perspective.