Hopeless

As the girls entered Samuel's college campus the first thing that caught their eyes was a group of boys playing football in the courtyard. Among them was a boy in a yellow t-shirt that read, "I'm not arguing, I'm only explaining why I'm right." along with dark blue jeans and sneakers, his hair all messed up giving a ruggedly handsome look as he played with the ball. "There he is!" Ashley whispered to her friend happily directing towards the boy in the yellow t-shirt. "Don't look at him, let's see if he will come to say hi to you now! You have done your part!" she ordered Ashley.

"Ashley!" called out a familiar voice from her right. She turned to see it was Zoey! As Ashley ran up to Zoey and hugged her tightly, the boy in the yellow t-shirt looked up and was surprised to see his mystery girl in front of him. "Am I hallucinating?" He thought to himself as he narrowed his eyes to see if it was her and couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Was it really her? What was she doing here? Was she gonna stay here the whole day? Did she see him?" So many thoughts ran through his mind as he focused on the girl causing him to accidentally trip over the football. "Hey! You okay?" shouted his mates as they gathered around to help him get up!

"He is looking at you! He was looking at you when he tripped over! He has noticed you're here!!" said Anna interrupting as she pulled on to Ashley's arm trying to get her attention who was busy talking to Zoey. "What?" asked Ashley as she turned her head and saw Samuel still now on the ground taking from playing with his friends, his legs crossed, eyes still looking at Ashley from across the courtyard.

He didn't smile or wave, just stared at her like he was still trying to understand her like he was still unsure of what he meant to her or maybe what she meant to him. Their eyes had already met, she had to do something even if he didn't. "Who tells a guy she likes his shirt and completely ignores him after that? She had to do something before things got awkward!" she thought to herself. She smiled at him, giving a quick wave making sure to look casual but still staying near him, in his sight so he keeps wondering about her.

"Anna! This is my friend Zoey!" said Ashley as she introduced both her friends.

"So you're her new sidekick!" remarked Zoey as she took a good look at Anna.

"That or you can just think of me as her best friend from college." smiled Anna.

"Hey, I didn't know Sam was in the team," asked Ashley curiously

"Oh yeah, he is in the team but he said he won't play in the official matches this year. Something about focusing on studies for now" answered Zoey

The girls were just getting to know each other when they heard people shouting from the direction where Samuel was sitting. They turned to see what was happening and saw Samuel looking furiously red, shouting at top of his lungs on another guy to quit pushing him.

"That's your sweet and nice guy?" said Anna teasing her friend.

"Shut up!"

"Wait? What happened? Who was this guy, why did he keep nudging Sam at his chest provoking him to react?" The crowd started to gather around them with some of Sam's friends pulling him aside, trying to calm him down and stopping from getting involved in a scene.

"Okay everyone show's over! Nothing to see here!" one of his friends called out on the crowd trying to disperse the people who were gathering.

"Hey! You know what happened?" Ashley asked one of the guys standing near the scene of action! "Hey, yeah, apparently that is one of the guys from the administration officials who had asked students playing football earlier not to leave their bags or belongings on that staircase outside his office while practising." He said pointing. "That guy in the yellow t-shirt, Sam didn't know that so he had kept his bag over there when he was practising football. The guy found out and came here trying to confiscate his bag, Sam apologised but the guy started pushing him a little threatening to suspend him from classes if he didn't hand it over, that's when Sam lost it because they kept physically pushing him. "Oh, poor Sam!" Ashley thought to herself.

"Anna... What if this wasn't a good idea after all," she said sadly turning to Anna.

"What do you mean?"

"He didn't say hi to me first, I had to wave at him, he got into this weird fight and now his mood is all ruined. He is having an awful day. Maybe we shouldn't have come, I can't expect him to so do anything sweet and nice after this incident." she said hopeless and then adding, "You know what maybe there is nothing there, okay? I ran across an entire sidewalk just to say hi to him! I complimented his god damn shirt and now out of nowhere I am here at his college campus just cause I wanted to see him, I have been standing here for the past fifteen minutes and he still didn't take the hint? What if he knows that I like him but he doesn't like me back! I can't do anymore, okay? I can't, I just can't! she said frustrated with how things were going.

"Ash please listen!" said Anna trying to calm her friend down. "I was just teasing you before, okay? Look, he is not one of your typical boys, alright? Can't you see that yourself, he is one of those sweet, shy, nerdy boys who are nervous to make any move until they are completely sure, okay?"

"He didn't look that nervous type right now... Plus how much sure does he wanna be? I am not doing anything anymore. He is gonna have to take the next step now!"

"Okay okay no one's asking you to do anything but just stay here where he can see you," she said bring Ashley to a bench nearby.

It was only a matter of few minutes, as the girls talked Samuel got up and continued practising playing football with the team member.

However, his eyes kept coming back to where Ashley was sitting on the wooden bench. While Ashley was busy overthinking about why Sam never made a move for her, Sam had started wondering why Ashley was no longer looking excited to see him, getting annoyed a little about why she was no longer even looking at him when he had always enjoyed those few seconds whenever their eyes met feeling like they had little conversations of their own.

"Why isn't she glancing over in my direction? Was she thinking less of me now that she saw a louder side of me? Or was she regretting complimenting me earlier?" he thought to himself.