“And then I just fell to the ground!” 

Sofia laughed out loud, letting herself fall backwards onto her bed. It was Wednesday afternoon, two days after the PE incident. Gabriel had successfully avoided Aaron for those two days, and was now telling his best friend all about the past few days over FaceTime. “Oh my god Gabe! First you jump out of a window, then you trip and fall in front of him! This keeps getting better!” She flipped herself over onto her stomach, holding her phone closer to her face, grinning, “what happened next?” 

Gabriel sighed, “nothing. I went to the nurse’s office and I haven’t seen him since.” He groaned and hid his face behind his hands. Visibly, this was amusing to Sofia, he could hear her snort from his computer screen.“This isn’t funny Sofi! It’s so embarrassing! Aaron probably thinks I’m a loser now! There’s no way he still wants to be my friend. Urghh!” 

Sofia just laughed again, “Don’t worry Gabe! He’s probably just confused at the fact that you avoided him.” She sat up, regaining her composure, “About that, why did you avoid him? I swear you’re making this a lot more complicated than it should be! You better stop avoiding him tomorrow” 

Gabriel went to speak, but the girl cut him off. “ nope! No excuses! This is an order!” She pointed her finger at Gabriel, squinting her eyes as if to gain more authority. Then she frowned and dropped her hand. “Wait. Did you just say Aaron? As in tall guy with green eyes who always wears a red jumper?” 

At those words, Gabriel raised his eye brows “You know him? Since when? How come I’ve never heard of him before?”

Sofia laughed, “Unlike you, I actually talk to people. He was in a few of my classes last year. Not to mention, he’s also kinda my neighbor.” She frowned, correcting herself. “Was. Anyways, we walked to school together several times, and he’s really friendly. Wouldn’t hurt a fly. He shared cookies with me when we barely knew each other, that’s how nice he is.” 

Gabriel slumped in his chair, slightly relieved, slightly annoyed at this new piece of information. Now he really had no excuse to run away. “ Fine. I won’t avoid him again”, he huffed. 

__________________________________________________________________

Okay, I can do this. I’ll just walk in, smile and wave at him. And then I’ll sit down in my seat, and voilà. Socializing. 

What if he doesn’t smile back?

Gabriel took a deep breath, and followed his classmates into math class. His eyes scanned the room, until they landed on a red sweater and a dark fluff of hair. Shit. He’s not looking this way. Aaron had his back turned to him, and was talking animatedly with the people in the row behind him.

 Please turn around please turn around please turn around please- the boy turned around, and they locked eyes. 

Just as Gabriel lifted his hand to wave, someone stumbled into him, sending the contents of his open backpack to the floor. “You’re blocking the entrance, man.” Gabriel muttered a sorry, and scrambled onto his knees to get all his pens and books back into his bag. 

He looked back up at Aaron, who was still looking at him, and waved awkwardly. A smile played on Aaron’s lips as he waved back, seemingly amused. 

Wow. Good job, Gabriel. You suck at socializing