The Boy with a Pretty Smile

“Did you see him today?” Meen excitedly raised a question, as soon as we sat on our class’ wooden chairs after returning from our break.

“Yeah, he’s so cute as usual!” Sheyla said with a broad curve on her mouth, expressive as she had always been.

I smiled listening to my friend’s chattering, but didn’t answer. They were talking about the boy from the next class, Daniel, a popular lad among the ladies in our school. He was a guy with an average height, not too tall, not too short. His skin was tan with a nice colour, he always styled his hair in the pompadour like Nick Jonas and most importantly, the sweet smile he often put on made him a heart-throb.

“Really? I didn’t get to see him…” said Meen with a pouty look.

“Don’t worry, he would pass by our class in a minute.” I finally spoke after listening to them for a while.

“How did you know?” Along with her question, Meen raised her right eyebrow upward.

“I mean, he normally did. Didn’t you guys notice? Once in the morning, next was after the break and lastly before the school ended. Thrice a day.”

“Nana.” Sheyla suddenly called my name while wearing a mysterious smile on her face. She then continued, “Do you have a crush on him?” Both Sheyla and Meen then moved their bodies forward, cornering me from both sides.

My face reacted first before I could utter any word, I could feel the hot sensation gushing to  my face. I must be blushing.

“Oh my god! Finally!” My friends squealed in utter euphoria as if they had placed number one in the entire school. Their giggles echoed throughout the whole classroom. We were lucky the teacher hadn’t entered for our next lesson.

Unknowingly, a shy smile was formed on my lips. I understood the reason they were exhilarated with this news. Unlike my friends, I was rarely fascinated with boys and had never liked anyone before. Even if I did, I was quite reserved compared to them so there was no way I could brace myself and date someone.

 It was early this year that I noticed Daniel’s presence as his class was next to mine now. It was actually his smile that intrigued me, his kind and pleasant demeanour invited a smile on my lips without me knowing.

I did several new things I had never done before. During the break, I would make sure to visit the toilet to fix my school uniform, I wore pinafore more often than baju kurung to school. I thought pinafore would make me stood out more as it looked gracefully like a dress. My everyday hairstyle would be a braid, which I had only done it during special occasions. More silly, whenever Daniel passed by our class, I would get talkative while being conscious of his presence. And going to school now had never been exciting like before.

“It’s Daniel!” Sheyla suddenly exclaimed in a whispering voice. I turned into the direction Sheyla was pointing to, our class’ back door. It was about two meters from our tables.

Sheyla, a well-known friendly girl, sprang up from her seat and rushed to Daniel and his two other friends. Meen and me merely stayed back for we could also listen to them from our seats.

“Are you looking for someone?” asked Sheyla. My heartbeat rose from her question, quietly anticipating his answer, albeit he might not even know my existence.

“Umm…” Daniel hesitated for a while then continued when his friend nudged him, “Do you have some time after school?” Upon that line, his pretty smile appeared. His two other friends were smiling joyfully behind him.

Different for me, my heart sank while emotions welled up within me. When my eyes met Sheyla’s, her flabbergasted face showed that she hadn’t expected this either.

“I’m going to the toilet.” I tried to hold back the stirring emotions that could burst any minute, composed as I could and headed to the toilet to cry my heart out.