what happens first is you notice.
well, i don’t know about you, but that’s what happens to me.
i notice that he’s there; sometimes i don’t even have to see him- i can just feel that he’s around me. i do this thing where i don’t inhale, i don’t exhale, i just close my mouth and tighten my throat and trap whatever air i have in me within the surprisingly tiny space that is my lungs. i realize now that it’s my way of being in that moment, of keeping that first exhilarating feeling with me for as long as i can hold that breath; that breath filled with anxiety and happiness and anger and too many emotions to result in anything good or stable. then i become suddenly more conscious. my eyes widen, my lips part, and i keep my gaze anywhere away from him. of course, i’m somehow still able to take in every single aspect that is him. which shirt is he wearing today? his eyes are always straight ahead, his expressive very serious and severe. he hunches and walks on quickly, and for some reason his terrible posture makes him all the more beautiful.
the worst is when we walk so close together, like pass each other in a doorway, and i’m always the one to step aside while he walks practically right through me without a word or even a glance of ‘hello’ or ‘excuse me’ or anything remotely close to communi-fucking-cation. i look at you, dammit, i raise my eyebrows and offer a fucking smile in such a way, so why the hell can’t you?
why is it that the last time i spoke to you, you just kept walking- you responded, but you didn’t look at me and you didn’t even stop, you just kept walking as if talking to me was really indecently painful and who the hell am i to ask you to do something so inconvenient and ignorant.
god, how does he look like that? i can’t even begin to comprehend or explain how beautiful i think he is. sometimes i just want to look at him until i find him disgusting, just to get the idea out of my head. he can ignore me, talk down to me, be disrespectful, sarcastic, and all i can think is, “my goodness, you are so beautiful.”
i put on a solemn face when he’s there. i’m not overly happy, but i’m not too sad, either- either way, i’m feeling something and you don’t know what it is.
please, come and find out. please.
and then he passes, and i keep my back straight and my head up and my nails digging deeper and deeper into my palm, up until i turn the corner and i’m out of sight. i must be out of sight, out of mind, right? he couldn’t possibly still think of me when i’m not there, right? he probably doesn’t think of me at night and play fantasy scenarios of us in his head when he’s alone, right?
and i want him to love me. god only knows i’d have no idea as of what to do with myself if he ever did love me, but i justwantit. sometimes i imagine his eyes, his sad, sad eyes, telling me that he loves me, that he wants to be with me, that he needs me and i need him and that’s enough. sometimes, in these stupid, little, kid’s dreams, he doesn’t even say anything. he just looks at me. really looksat me. maybe it’s because he doesn’t look at me now; maybe that’s all i really want, for him to look at me.
but for now i’ll have to deal with the quick glance and the inevitable, desperate feeling of being hardly acknowledged, but not seen.