The Start of Something Forbidden
It started like any other week. Same hallway, same faces, same tired mornings. Nothing about that day was supposed to be different except that it was. He had just started at our school, the new student counselor everyone talked about but I barely noticed. I’d seen him around once or twice, maybe passing through the corridor, but he was just another adult face in the blur of school life. Until that one moment.
We were in class, laughing, music playing softly from someone’s phone. I was dancing not seriously, just joking around, feeling free for a second in a place that always felt too heavy. My friends were laughing, cheering, and I didn’t even notice the door open. When I turned my head, there he was. Standing by the doorway. Watching.
Our eyes met just for a second but it felt like time froze. His expression wasn’t strict, not like a teacher catching someone doing something wrong. It was softer. Curious. Almost amused. I froze, then laughed because what else could I do? He smiled too, a quiet, knowing smile that sent a strange warmth through me. And just like that, something shifted.
After that day, I couldn’t unsee him.
Every time we passed each other in the hallway, our eyes would meet for a heartbeat longer than they should. When he spoke to someone, I’d catch his reflection in a window, already looking at me. Sometimes, when I looked away too quickly, I could still feel his gaze gentle, patient, as if he was waiting for something neither of us could name.
Later that week, I was still joking around about it with the girls in my class. They’d laugh, roll their eyes, and call me dramatic. None of us knew that, soon, my jokes about attraction would turn into something real, something I couldn’t laugh away.
