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There was a deep feeling of panic, and confusion setting into your chest as you were standing in your apartment doorway.
You were facing your living room, your back pressed against the cold door as you watched the rain pour down outside of your window. You were soaked from head to toe, and had just said goodbye to your best friend Ryland, who you happened to be falling for.
Ryland and you had become inseparable since you started teaching at Cleveland Grover Middle, so it was no surprise to you when he offered to walk you home when it started pouring rain. The thing was…recently you started to notice some signs that he might be falling for you too, hence the confusion.
You interrogated your memory, thinking back to the walk home just then, putting your hands over your wet face:
He gave you his yellow raincoat, leaving him in just his blazer in the pouring rain, he walked five blocks from the school to walk you home, the opposite direction of his apartment…he lingered in the doorway when he said goodbye…
“Oh my god,” You gasped, removing your hands from your face. “I should’ve kissed him.”
You panicked, reaching for your phone, your heart was beating fast. You began anxiously pacing back and forth, thunder clapping in the background as the sun began to go down.
You could call him, but what would you say? ‘Hey, were you wanting to kiss me back there? Come over and kiss me then”? You shook your head, you groaned in embarrassment.
“He’s probably long gone by now.” You rationalized out loud.
You laughed at the absurdity of you talking to yourself. You took a deep breath, and decided you were going to go downstairs to check the mail, before brewing yourself a cup of coffee, you'd figure this out later.
You picked up your keys that were on the kitchen island and headed to the door and began rationalizing again:
You would tell him how you felt next time you saw him, and if he didn’t feel the same then you could still be friends and you knew Ryland, he would be so sweet about it too, although it would be a little awkward—
You opened up the door and Ryland was pacing back and forth in your hallway. He was still just as drenched as you were. His yellow jacket that you gave back draped over his shoulders, his arms not in the arm holes.
His head jolted up to meet your eyes, and your heart sped right back up, he paused his pacing and walked a little closer to your doorway. His wet hair stuck to his forehead. His glasses were fogged up and now rested on top of his head, his hands were interlaced in front of him in thought. You could tell he was being shy, by the way he rocked back on his feet and ducked his head a little.
It was so endearing whenever he got shy, you were so used to the confident science teacher every student looked up to.
Ryland had a way of turning his awkwardness into confident lectures, as if his awkwardness came from years of people not willing to pay attention to him. So he became confident when teaching because it was the one way he could actually talk about the cool science stuff he cared about. Because the students also genuinely cared.
“Were you…pacing back and forth just now?” You asked, too nervous to say anything else.
“Yea, I was." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I was thinking about this theory.” Ryland said, scrunching his nose.
“I think we might be thinking about the same one.” You barely whispered, hopeful you were right. “But you should share it with me anyway.” You said seriously, your keys now falling out of your hand, abandoned to the floor inside your doorway.
Ryland was now standing close in front of you, his hands moving as he spoke.
“My theory is that you wanted me to kiss you.” Ryland blurted out. “I could be completely wrong— or maybe I just wanted to kiss you—okay mostly I wanted to kiss you—”
Your heart shuddered in relief, you had in fact not read the signals wrong, he was falling for you too.
“Maybe you should run an experiment.” You said, your eyes lingering on his.
He paused, then his eyes lit up in recognition, you could hear his breath hitch as he nodded. He stepped closer toward you, placing his hands on the side of your arms. You shivered out of coldness, wanting him to be much closer than he was. Wanting him to warm you up.
“Let’s hope this experiment is successful.” He mumbled.
“I don’t see why it wouldn’t be.” You said.
He looked you in the eyes shyly, before leaning his head down to hover his lips over yours. You could feel his breath, his nose grazing your cheek. Until finally, he leaned forward and pressed his lips to yours.
Your body relaxed as you lifted your arms to circle around his neck, pulling back from the kiss, just to kiss him harder, tugging at his hair between your fingers as you kissed him back hungrily. It was as if all the tension between you two came down to this, as if you had both been thinking about this for a long time, and you could feel his mouth upturn into a smile.
"I'm so glad you didn't leave, I was pacing back and forth thinking about this too." You admitted, kissing him again.
Ryland sighed, "Yea?" He asked, you could feel a smirk pressing against your mouth.
You pulled your hands from his hair, and ran them down over his clothed chest, and a groan escaped his mouth as he prodded at your lips with his tongue. His arms wrapped around you, running up your waist to your back, pulling you flush into his body.
After a few minutes, you pulled back breathless, your forehead pressed against his, you laughed into his mouth. You could feel the slight burn on your face from his stubble, and you reached your right hand up to graze your fingertips against his face to feel it.
“I think your experiment was well executed.” You whispered, placing a chaste kiss on his upper lip.
“Wow—you are amazing, I mean I knew that already but—” Ryland said through the silence, stumbling on his words. “Why didn’t we ever do this before?” He asked.
“At least we’re doing it now.” You sighed.
You grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him inside, shutting your door and his yellow jacket soon became abandoned on your apartment floor.