"Uhm, I know you wanted to say something but my bus is almost here, and I have to get home early. Thanks for the meal anyway. I'll call you," she said, standing in front of me, disappointed.

We were on the street, and I'd been trying the whole day to come up with the ideal, most elaborated speech just to say something that was straightforward.

That morning some friends wanted us to join them at a restaurant, and I thought that maybe that was the best time to say it, but I spent the entire meal overthinking all the possible outcomes if I decided to declare it.

I met her on the first day of classes at the university because she arrived late and I was the one who stood up to find her a chair from another classroom so she could sit.

She was reckless, and everything I wasn't. That's why I started to fancy her almost instantly. She had better candidates, though. And what did I decide to do? I stood there by her side for every fucking bad decision she was taking.

My friends told me so many times that I had already screwed everything up with her, and every Christmas I was trying so hard to get over her just to come back and see her there, waiting for me to talk about her holidays and the many more dumb decisions she took.

It hurt a lot, but I wanted to stay there for her because she was helping me to feel like I was growing up for the first time in my life. It's something I'm not able to explain.

But anyway, we were standing there on the street and she knew I wanted to say something, but the bus was already coming, and she had to go. So, I decided to finally swallow down all those stupid words and just yell at her what I wanted to say for years now. We were going to finish our studies in a couple of months, and I didn't want to lose her forever, because the next time I wasn't going to come back after the holidays to find her there, sitting on our desk waiting to talk to me.

She was already on the line to get on, and when the doors of the bus opened, I just yelled.

"I like you! I like you very much!"

"What?" she asked, with the doors closing in front of her face.

My heart was about to explode. I felt my life abruptly changing its course. I started to get nervous. It was time to grow up for real. For me. For her. And I needed to walk.

"Fuck... Please don't say no," and I stayed there, staring at my feet, feeling nauseous.