A Short Excerpt

A Story by Greyscaleinblue

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"This is going to make things really difficult."

"What do you mean? I just want to know why you're acting like this. Man, we used to be cool. Remember that day we were here and I was on the register? It was morning time."

"But Cj...''

"And then you told me you wanted to get to know me better. Remember that?"

"Cj."

"And then we just talked like friends. What happened to that?"

"We can never be friends."

"W-What? What do you mean?"

I turned my back to him and took a few steps forward. My palms were sweaty and I could feel him looking at the back of my neck, maybe at my butt, but he was looking at me besides. I licked my lips. "Did you ever watch 'Hey Arnold'?"

"Yeah..." Cj said slowly. I heard him step closer.

I took two steps forward. "And Helga, how she loved to write her poetry and even though she was over emotional, at the same time could be emotionless and tomboy like?"

"Okay."

I could feel his facial expression change from concerned to confused. Maybe he had lost interest by now. Too bad. This was the only way I knew how to explain.
"And remember.." I sighed. "Remember how big of a crush she had on Arnold?" I turned around.

His eyebrows were furrowed and he had a slight smirk on his face. There was a twinkle in his light brown eyes.

"It's like that between me and you. But... I just feel like if I try this friend thing with you, it's gonna turn into something else. I'm going to hold on too tightly. I'll fall in love."

"What's so wrong with falling in love?" Cj's voice was soft, his words a love song.

"When it's with someone like you, I'm afraid I'm gonna mess up."

CJ leaned across the counter. "isn't that the fun of it? And then we get to spend time figuring each other out and starting from scratch."

"We?"

"Hypothetically I mean. If it were to happen. You know. Love." He interlaced his fingers and stared off into the sea of groceries.

It was close to twelve which meant the last announcement had to be made. I picked up the phone and hovered my finger over the page button.

"Attention Kroger shoppers..." Cj said into the phone as he quickly took his from my fingers.

My heart skipped a beat. I waited for him to finish and watched as the clock struck twelve.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Jordon." He brushed past me and smiled as he headed toward the clock, leaving me to wonder what the hell had just happened.