Crush Radio Tyler seemed to occupy my mind these days. I tried hard not to think about him but I did. I forced myself not to; engulfing myself in my work but my efforts to avoid him were futile.

Apparently I couldn’t completely avoid him in gym class. Our insufferable stickler for rules, gym teacher, Mr. O’Connor, paired me with him during a badminton game. He made us shake hands before the game. Tyler strutted towards me in his cut-out muscle navy muscle sleeve shirt, grey sweatpants, and DC white and black sneakers. He smelled of tobacco and was sucking on a cherry lollipop.

“I thought you were smart” I smirked.

“What?” he responded with an attitude.

“Smoking is a killer” I responded, annoyed.

“Do you have anything else to say?” he laughed. He was obviously not interested in small talk. When he extended his hand for me to shake, I slapped it away and returned to my post; positioning myself ready to start the game.

“Fiesty” he yelled at me. I ignored him. Mr. O’Connor was not pleased. He gave me a disapproving look.

“Be nice, Beatriz” Mr. O’Connor said to me. I faked a smile. The game was against two other freshman’s which I didn’t bother to remember their names. It was a ruthless game and I won. Well, Tyler and I won. I was fast and he was strategic. We made a great team.  After it was over, we were both sweating like pigs. Tyler lifted his shirt to wipe away the sweat from his face exposing a masterpiece of hard-rock abs. His white skin glistening even under the gym’s fluorescent lights. I quickly looked away.

I could not let this obnoxious green-eyed intelligent yet very so handsome jerk impair my focus. I knew exactly what I had to do. Suddenly, something unexpected happen. He walked up to me and started talking to me.

“Great game, Beatriz. You’ve got a strong swing” he smiled at me. I just stared and nodded as if I was an emotionless robot. He was trying to get to know me but I was frozen and scared of this new development in our relationship. I could only manage to give him a thumbs up.

“You know I have done all that science thing, I’m looking for new challenging ventures.” He continued. I just nodded again and looked away.

“Please excuse me but I have to go” I said, half screaming at him as I ran to the girl’s locker room. I lay against the lockers trying to calm my ever so rapidly beating heart beat.

Could it be that he likes me? So many thoughts ran through my mind but I quickly dismissed them. We could never be friends. He was a senior, a popular senior at that. He could never be friends with the likes of me.

“Do you have anything else to say?” repeats in my mind over and over again. I have so many things to say, I hear myself whisper.

The Green-Eyed Scientist with the hard-rock abs was put in the back of my mind as I went on to my other classes and pretended like nothing ever happened.