After a few weeks, Spencer and I had developed a silent routine. I’d wait with bright eyes, my stomach twirling and flipping with excitement. When she got on the bus she would always wave at the driver first. His name was Pete. “Morning Pete,” she’d say with a smirk and he always just nodded. Then she’d flash her pass and glance my way. And I was always staring right back, smiling right back. Just that one glance sent me flying in the clouds. I often had to grip the edge of my seat with my hands just to stay grounded, on the bus with her.

She always sat across form me and pretended to do something. At first she pretended to read a book. She would hold it out in front of her face and then peer over the top of it at me. She didn’t smile then. Neither did I. We just stared silently, getting to know the tints and shades of each others eyes and faces. Then after a few weeks of that her arms began to tire, so she pretended to feel the need to look in her mirror seventy times each bus ride, checking her non-existent makeup. She didn’t need makeup. That only held up until one ride when an old lady sitting beside her frowned and knudged her with her shoulder. “No man’s worth the trouble,” the old woman muttered and Spencer dropped the mirror immediately, trying her best to hide her blush. I smiled to myself. The old woman patted Spencer’s knee and then returned to whatever she had been doing before. Spencer gave me an amused glance and I squeezed the edge of my seat even harder, knuckles going white.

Liza was the first person that I told about Spencer. Liza is my best friend. We slept together once at a party. We never talk about it though. We like it better that way. I told her about Spencer about three months in.

“Sounds creepy to me,” Liza replied to this, and I could barely hide my frown. We sat in the balcony of the theatre. We always ate lunch up there, though it was breaking about five school rules. We thought we were rebels. “I mean, how old is she, and why is she wasting her time flirting with some high schooler?”