The next morning, the red group morning sessions ended earlier than the other groups, so I was stuck with Mr. Smith inside the cabin. I was starving, and I could tell that Mr. Smith was too.

When he opened his mouth to talk, I thought he was going to babble about being hungry, but instead he said, "Celene, did something happen between you and Katrina Murdoch in the past?"

I stared at him for a second. I was surprised that he spoke about her to me. Even though Katrina was one of those bitchy girls who act like they own the hallway at school, Katrina was not like the stereotypes because she was smart, and Mr. Smith loved her. She always gets the highest scores in his class. She was even supposed to be one of the students to attend this camp, but she told Mr. Smith that she doesn't want to go icky camping with losers. So, I replaced her spot.

Camps didn't like bitchy campers either, I thought.

But, as far as I knew, none of the teachers knew about my unfortunate relationship with Katrina. Sure, she would make fun of me and embarass me at school, but she did them at the cafeteria and no teacher dares to eat at the cafeteria. To them it was the hell inside the hell they were working at. Like school was the Underworld and the cafeteria was Tartarus.

I bit my lip and tried to lie to him. "No. Why would you ask that, Mr. Smith?"

He looked like he was going to say something more, but just sighed instead. "Nothing. Just... Do you want to get lunch early? I'm starving."

Even though I wanted to find out his reason so bad, I couldn't understand why, but at the same time I didn't want to find out. Maybe I was scared and afraid to find out that there was something more about Katrina's hatred for me.

I just nodded at Mr. Smith and we both left the cabin for lunch.

¤ ¤ ¤

When the rest of them were having their lunch at the cafeteria, I stayed in my room and went online on facebook. Still, no response from Rover. His account said active 2 days ago, so it meant he hadn't been online since camp started.

Even though I already looked at his pictures and even saved them, I still wanted to check them out. I even started reading the comments.

You are so handsome!

Love this pic.

Hi crush! I love this picture of yours. ❤❤❤

My friend really likes you. (she then tagged her friend)

There were awfully hundreds of comments, and most of them made it look like Rover was a celebrity. I didn't realize how famous he was at Indianapolis until I read every comment and noticed that his photo had thousands of likes. Even Katrina and Jace never had that much reactions on their photos.

I groaned and covered my hand on my face. I was attracted to a person who already had a lot of admirers. I could already tell that I was going to end up like one of them. Of all people I could've been attracted to, why a guy who already had lots of admirers?

"Celene!" It was Cheska, but she wasn't in the cabin. She was screaming from outside. "Celene!" The way how her voice got louder indicated that she was running, and she was nearer. Cheska's voice was just so loud that even though she's a mile away, you could still think she's beside you. I was exaggerating, of course, but you get the point.

When she opened the cabin door, she was heaving like she just ran a 10k marathon. I just looked at her and waited until she could breathe normally. When she did, she said quickly, "Rover is at the meal room and we asked him if our friend can take a picture with him and he said yes so I ran here to get you and we should really go there now before he leaves and you'll regret it for the rest of your life." She didn't even pause to breathe.

I knew that I should have stood up and ran to the meal room, but I was so stuck at the idea that I was going to finally have a picture with him that I froze. My heart started beating so fast that I clutched it. I looked at Cheska again, and though they had this habit of making fun of me, I could tell she wasn't joking.

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and ran for the meal room.

I had to get that picture taken.

When we arrived at the meal room, I saw him immediately standing right beside Prince, Jared and Natalie. He was wearing a black printed sweater and he had glasses on his eyes. With the glasses on, he didn't look nerdy at all. Instead he looked cute and still perfectly handsome.

They were all waiting for me. I stopped, and Cheska looked at me like I was out of my mind. But my feet got stuck on the ground. I was nervous, very nervous, and my legs felt wobbly, until they were numb. It's funny how all night I wanted this to happen, and when it finally did, I was too nervous to do it.

It's cheesy, but it felt like everyone around me disappeared, except for him. They didn't see me yet, so he still wasn't looking at my direction. He was talking to someone, and he was smiling. My stomach suddenly felt butterflies. His smile was geniune, and simple, and absolutely perfect.

My legs wanted to run to him, to talk to him and be the reason of his smile, but ironically, my legs wouldn't move. Like I was in the construction site of our friendship and my feet, they got stuck in dried out cement. I looked at Cheska, and she was looking at me like she knew that I was just nervous, so she pulled my arm and I got out from that cement, that I started feeling my legs again.

When we got there, she pushed me to Rover's side. I avoided looking at his eyes, afraid to see something I didn't want to see. "Okay, look at here. Let's get this picture taken."

We looked at the camera and smiled. Our shoulders touched, and for a moment I felt static electricity running through my veins. I didn't know if he felt it, maybe he didn't, but I felt it and it felt incredible.

That was the thing. I felt everything, and I didn't care if he felt nothing, because all that mattered was how happy I was because he was beside me. It was like asking for a Disney stuffed toy and even though you were given an Ursula, you were still very happy it was Disney.

All I asked for was a picture with him anyway. I didn't ask for him falling in love with me. So that picture was already enough for me.

The moment felt like hours, and I didn't mind. I loved the feeling of our skin touching, even though they were just our shoulders. It would've been our pinkies touching and I'd still be smiling with joy. That was how happy I was that moment.

After the picture was taken, I said thank you to him, still avoiding his eyes. I couldn't help it. Even though I didn't expect to see sparks on his eyes, I was still a bit afraid to see disgust and loathe. So I didn't take the risk and didn't look at his eyes, even though I know how much beautiful those sky blue eyes were.

After I said the thank you, before he could even respond, I ran. I ran away.

I know. I should've stayed and listened to his response. I should've tried to talk to him. I should've looked him in the eyes. We could have had a conversation and I could have heard his beautiful voice. But let me tell you this. When you like someone, and you get to stand close to him, your mind just goes blank. Maybe it's because you feel so much that it couldn't keep up, but that was what happened to me. It went blank, and before I could even think about having an actual conversation to him, my legs told me to run. To run away from the possibility of me falling, because once I fall in love, it's hard to fall out of it.

But maybe I really am already falling for that stranger.

¤ ¤ ¤

Good day to you all! 😄

Have you guys ever experienced liking someone who can't possibly ever like you back? I think yes. I think every teenager in the world have experienced it even at least once in their life. It sucks, right? Wouldn't it be much better if Cupid made us all like the person who can like us back? But I guess Cupid is a bit cruel. Sometimes, I believe that he plays with us, and unfortunately we can't play back. We only get to endure the pain of unrequited love.

BSOTC: Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige. I liked this book very much. It's a story about the Wizard of Oz, where Dorothy is the antagonist. In this book, you can explore the magical land of Oz like never before. Plus, there's a lot of action! A must read!

Z