Versus

She nearly said it aloud. He did not turn away. Even though he was too far away to identify the deathly intoxicating color, those eyes were just as deadly from a distance.

She was just making friends here; she didn’t want to look like some paranoid schoolgirl. She would feel very foolish if she were wrong. Why would he be staring at her? There was something more to all of this.

She turned away to get her thoughts together. She was developing a plan. She would finish her salad and then…“What?”

She decided to excuse herself to throw her trash away and linger by the concession stand and see what happens. Not sure what would happen? Because…“IT’S ALL IN MY HEAD” she fussed at herself for acting so childish and for her insatiable curiosity.

But yet, she had a plan. She had to know.

“Anybody want anything? I’m getting rid of my trash and need another water.”

“No,” was spoken by all without ever taking their eyes off the field.

She told herself to walk straight, not looking anywhere but straight in front of her. But it’s like when someone else says “Don’t look now” and you look right now! Why can’t we listen to a simple command? Especially if we’re giving the command to ourselves.

She caught his stare again and nearly tripped up a step. She luckily stumbled slightly but enough to jolt her eyes back forward before she could see if he kept the stare. She walked carefully now to the top of the stairs. She had thrown the trash away and was in line to get a water when she heard a voice behind her,

“Excuse me.”

The blood rushed to her cheeks and she knew it. She could only hope the setting sun could hide it a bit.

She always overthought matters. She wanted to just respond “Yes?” but that was assuming that the voice was talking to her. Then she wondered if she should just wait and see if the person tried again or the actual person that they were talking to would answer them instead of an embarrassed Emma.

She opted to wait. Then as usual, her nosiness began to severely affect her, and she turned to look.

And there he was. Standing directly behind her.

“Hey.” He said without a single indication of his mood.

“Hey.” She tried to match the absence of emotion.

She looked back towards the line in front of her and felt a little panic at how little it had progressed forward.

“Um, I didn’t want to bother you, I was just hoping that I could apologize.” He again spoke in a monotone voice.

“For what?” She didn’t mean to act so snottily, but she felt like it was the better course of action. This way, he would quickly leave her alone.

Looking at him sternly, over her shoulder, it was obvious that they both knew “for what.” The corner of his mouth edged up. His half-smirk bothered her in a way that she didn’t understand.

She had mixed feelings all of the sudden. Was she bothered mad or bothered infatuated? She had no idea. Except that she was bothered by “him”.

She was beginning to turn away from him when he continued, “I’m really sorry if I offended you at the salad bar. It was evident that I upset you. I really didn’t mean to. If I did something, I can promise it wasn’t intentional. I was thinking about something and maybe I was too close or, I don’t know but I looked up and you looked mad and I didn’t know what I did. Ok, anyway, I’m sorry. I’m first year and that’s not exactly the kind of impression I was trying to make. So, I’m sorry.” His tone was becoming soft and seemed extremely genuine.

She kept her back turned for a few seconds while she digested that maybe this guy wasn’t a complete jerk.

She slowly turned to face him, “Yeah, I was a little confused.”

She was turning back towards the concession as she saw him look over her head as she finished her sentence. The line had moved up quite a bit, so she started walking forward.

“A peace offering?” he said without explanation.

“What can I get you?” he said as he looked towards the next available window.

“No need, but thanks.”

She walked up to the next window, that luck had it, was freeing up. “Water please.” She quickly asked the girl at the concession window.

“Make that two.”

He cautiously stepped around her and handed some money to the girl at the concession window.

Another girl, working concessions, handed him the waters. This girl was very eager to help him. She glanced at Emma, almost analyzing who the girl was with this beautiful guy. The girl was clearly a year or higher than them, but that didn’t stop her interest in him.

He took both waters and gently extended one to Emma.

“Thanks, but you didn’t have to do that.”

“I wanted to….oh, and I’m Axel by the way. Probably should’ve started with that.” He said with a soft laugh.

He lifted his hand in a half-wave and turned to walk back towards where he had been sitting in the bleachers.

She stared at him for a few seconds, as he strolled through the excited crowd. He stood out a great deal. He wasn’t talking or jumping around like the other celebratory students. He was carrying his water loosely in one hand. Walking slowly with a strength that was very unique to him. She couldn’t remember ever seeing anyone walk with such strength. He was confusing. But he tried to be nice.

She softly shook her head as she headed back to her friends. Almost as if to shake off a confusing feeling. It didn’t work.