I knew he would blush easily, with his russet hair and fair complexion, so I didn’t read much into it. When the teacher ended his speech, he started carrying a hat around with topics folded up inside. He started on the other side of the room. Deliberately?

Justin turned to me. I looked into his eyes, studied his face. He blushed deeper when our eyes met and looked down at his Psych book on the table. I kept watching him, straining for something to say.

“Do you like psychology?” I hedged. Lame. But I had to start somewhere!

“Sorta.” He rasped. He swallowed. I didn’t know what to say next. I checked on the teacher’s relative position to us and concluded that we had a few more moments to fill as un-awkwardly as possible.

“Do you work after school?” I decided on the neutral territory of schedules.

“Yeah, sometimes,” he paused. He settled back in his chair. “I work over at Dairy Queen.” He looked up at me to see if I approved of his job. I nodded innocently.
Wow! A whole sentence. AND eye contact!