Young Love

Eruanna wasn’t really paying attention to what her friend Amara was saying. She was distracted; anxiously waiting for a glimpse of him. She suddenly realised that Amara was saying her name. “E? Earth to E? Care to give me your thoughts on this? I keep telling my mum that she’s being totally unreasonable.”, said Amara, cutting into Eruanna’s thoughts. Eruanna started to apologise, but just then spotted Sandeer coming around the corner with his friend. A shy smile stole over her face before she could even think to conceal her obvious pleasure at seeing him. Too late she schooled her face back into one of indifference, but Amara was smirking knowingly at her.

“Hi girls”, called Marcus, Sandeer’s best friend, as they approached. Sandeer smiled at Eruanna and said “Hi E. How are you doing?”. “I’m good, thanks. Yourself?”, replied Eruanna. “I’m good.”, said Sandeer. Even this little exchange of pleasantries made Eruanna’s heart sing.

Eruanna turned her attention back to the conversation of their friends. “So, are you girls going to Sahara’s house on Friday after school?”, asked Marcus. “I’ll be there. My parents said it would be ok if there was adult supervision, but mum’s picking me up before supper”, replied Amara. “Cool, so we will see you girls there. Save a dance for me, Am”, said Marcus as he winked at Amara. “You’ll be there too, E?”, asked Sandeer. Eruanna didn’t know what to say, and an awkward silence ensued. The truth was that Eruanna was not invited. She wasn’t what you would call “one of the cool kids”. She was not the partying type either. Her idea of fun with her friends was going out for lunch, ice cream or a movie. “Uh, no I don’t think I’ll make it. But I hope you guys have fun.”, she replied in as pleasant a voice as she could muster. She tried desperately to hide her disappointment at missing out on a party where Sandeer would be. His next words however made her feel better, “I wish you were coming. It won’t be the same without you”.

As the guys left to go to class, Amara turned to Eruanna and asked, “Why don’t you tell him?” Eruanna blushed and said, “I don’t know what you mean. He’s just a friend. That’s all. He doesn’t care about me in that way. He only sees me as a friend and if I tell him that I really like him, then the only consequence will be that I will lose a great friend.” She had said all this in a rush, while Amara stood smiling at her. “Stop smiling at me like that”, Eruanna finally said, smiling herself, and pulled her friend to class. Deep down Eruanna was saddened with the thought that he would never see her in that way and she couldn’t blame him. She was just a plain Jane; nothing special. But she couldn’t help dreaming about a future with him nonetheless.