Just a warning, this is the typical “Boy meets Girl” story. This one begins one cold day in December. I walk into the cafeteria, or excuse me, dining hall as our principal likes to call it, and I see him. Well, maybe I saw the table first, but he was what drew my eyes to that specific table. This wasn’t a lunch table, it was a table set up in front of mine selling tickets for an upcoming dance. All the proceeds go to Haiti, so I thought I would go; plus, who doesn’t love to go to school dances.


I go up to the table and ask “How much are the tickets,” and he simply replies “Five dollars,” with a smile. As more people pass the table this boy that I instantly love tries telling them to come. I tell him “I’ll have the money tomorrow, promise.” With that I walk about two feet to my lunch table and sit down.


One of my friends, Laura, is selling tickets with him. She tells me he is a senior, and one of her brother’s friends. That’s all I needed to know. I didn’t like him more than a friend, in fact, except for when I occasionally walk up to the table and have little conversations with him about the dance, I didn’t even think we were friends.


The following day I can’t wait to get to lunch. I go up and I find that I am four dollars short of getting that prized ticket from that boy. After some persistent and loud begging to my friends at the lunch table I get those four dollars. I go up to the table and hand him the money. Again with that smile, he hand me the ticket and I smile back before walking away.


I started seeing him more and more around school. In lunch I would somehow spot him out of the hundred or so people. In the snack line, just standing up, or sitting down, I would find him. When the dance comes I get ready and go with my boyfriend and some of my other friends. Of course, he’s there. And there aren’t a lot of people in the “dining hall” dancing at all. The dance is lame until Laura tells me to go up to him and say “You’re a narcissist,” so I do as I’m told. He chuckle, smile, say “thank you,” and I walk away. I didn’t, and still don’t know, what a narcissist is...


A few months pass and I still see him in the halls. One day, he comes on my bus. My bus! That means he lives by me! I expect him to get off at the first two stops, which would explain why I never saw him in the neighborhood before. But of course, he gets off at my stop. I walk unreasonably slow when I walk home, and was expecting him to pass me or go down one of the side roads in my neighborhood, but he doesn’t. We step in perfect sync, whether I speed up to stay with him, he slows down to stay with me, or we walk the same speed just naturally, I don’t care.


We continue walking together. Well, not together, he is on the sidewalk and I’m on the street, but in my mind, we are walking together. Another good thing, we are getting closer to my house, meaning he lives closer to my house. But then something pops in my head

“Wow, I can’t believe, if he does live close, I would never have known. Why is it that people in this neighborhood don’t talk to other people when they are walking home, regardless of if they really know them or not? My dad actually asked me that a couple of days ago...”

I try to push that though aside as I steal probably the fiftieth look his way to make sure he is still there. Wait, no he isn’t, he is on the other side of the street. That boy somehow crossed in front of me without me noticing. “Good job Sam,” I say to myself. Then he does what I never expected, he start walking in the driveway of the house right across the street from mine! I take my time walking up to make sure he notices where I live in relation to him. I hope he saw. But here comes those thoughts again...

“Why did I never know that....? Why didn’t I mention we were neighbors to him? Why didn’t I mention the fact that he sold me a ticket a few months before.” Of course I don’t say anything and he walk up to the front door, a few hundred yards away from where I’m presently standing, fumbling with his keys. I stare at him, literally stare. But I still can’t believe we parted and walk into two houses yards away without saying anything.


In the house I still wonder how I never knew and why I didn’t say anything about it. I still don’t know if I can call him my friend. All I know is that I have a HOT senior neighbor, just don’t tell my boyfriend.