Desire

I walked into the Photography classroom, my heart thumping through my chest. I spotted Lydia in the far corner of the room, fiddling with her camera battery. I looked more around the room and saw some other people who were talking to one another. Then, I saw Harry.

He fluffed the hair above his forehead with his right hand, making goose bumps fly down my arms. He wore a gray-colored beanie, a white t-shirt with a small front pocket, and the ripped black jeans he wore the day before. His eyelashes fluttered onto his waterline gracefully. He licked his lips slowly as he sat solemnly in his chair. I began walking towards Lydia, my sandals flopping quietly against the tile. Lydia's head shot up.

"You made it." she said.

"Yep." I nodded.

"Sit down." Lydia pointed to the empty chair next to her. I sat my brown leather backpack down on the floor and took a deep breath in as I slid myself onto the flat surface of the chair.

I noticed the teacher at the desk in the front of the room staring at me for a brief moment and start walking over to where I was sitting. She stood before me.

"May I ask who you are?" the woman spoke. Lydia looked at me.

"I'm Grace, Grace Collins," I replied. "I'm helping Lydia out with her photo project this week."

Lydia smiled at the teacher.

"Oh! Alright. That's fine. My name is Ms. Coleman." she grinned. She held out her right hand.

"Nice to meet you." I shook her hand. She smiled sweetly and walked back to her desk.

"Good. She likes you." Lydia told me. I smiled and nodded.

"What's the plan for, you know...?" I whispered.

"I have an idea," Lydia said. "I'll go and get Harry and ask him to help me with my camera battery. You stand by the side of the table next to you pretending to be on your phone, and I'll casually introduce you to him somehow during our conversation when he comes over. By the way, my camera battery isn’t actually broken. I pulled a few wires loose before you got here."

"Okay. I'll play along." I murmured, smiling.

Lydia looked me in the eyes one last time, stood up out of her chair, and made her way over to Harry.

As Lydia reached him and began speaking, he flicked his head up. His eyes sparkled in the ceiling lights, making my heart beat even faster. Harry got up out of his chair and followed Lydia to the desk near me. He turned his back to me and picked up Lydia's camera battery. The muscles in his back caved into the back of his shirt.

"So you're saying the battery isn't charging?" Harry asked Lydia.

"It was before, but the little green light on the charging pack isn't turning on anymore. Grace, would you maybe know how to fix it?" Lydia spun her head towards me and widened her eyes. For the first time, Harry looked straight at me. I looked back at him for a couple of seconds and flickered my eyes back to Lydia.

"Um... I can try." I said, smiling at Harry. He smiled back.

I walked over to Lydia as I slipped my phone in my pocket and brushed my shoulder against Harry's arm softly. He was remarkably tall for his age as I could see from when I was standing over by the desk. Lydia handed me the battery and the battery charging pack, and I fumbled with it, trying to get the green light on the charger to turn on. I pushed the battery up with my fingers near the power source forcefully, and the light came on. Lydia smiled.

"You fixed it," Lydia said happily. "Thanks, Grace."

"No problem." I replied, shyly smiling. Grace’s eyes widened again.

"I don't think we've met," Harry stated. "I'm Harry."

"Hi." I smiled shyly, blushing as the words slid out of my mouth. I combed the front part of my hair with my fingers.

"What grade are you in?" Harry asked.

"I'm a sophomore with Lydia." I told him. He nodded.

"I've known her since, like, kindergarten," Lydia said on the side. "Remember how we were both obsessed with Barbie dolls and how we'd dress them up and have, like, little fashion shows with them in my bedroom?"

I laughed, and Harry laughed also.

"Yeah." I said.

"I used to be obsessed with train sets," Harry told us, glancing at me. "I had one in the garage and I'd play with it for hours."

"My little brother was the same way. He had a train set too, and he would leave it running all afternoon in the summer." I laughed. Harry grinned.

"Of course, my parents would yell at me for leaving it on too long because the electricity bill was so high." Harry smirked. I snickered and bit my pointer finger nail.

"I'm gonna go start my photo project. I'll talk to you guys later." Lydia quickly winked at me before Harry could see. We nodded as Lydia grabbed her camera battery off of the charger, put it in her camera, and walked out the partly-opened classroom door.

"So you like photography?" I asked Harry, biting the inside of my lip.

"I find it... as a way to express my vision for different things." Harry replied.

"Can I see the photos you've taken?" I said.

"Well, here's the thing... I take most of my photos with Polaroid cameras. You know, the ones where the pictures develop instantly?" Harry stated.

"Yeah." I spoke.

"I barely have any digital photographs. My Polaroid pictures are all at my house hanging on a couple of wires from the ceiling in my bedroom. At least the good photos. I threw the bad ones away." Harry said.

"Oh." I replied, smiling.

"You wanna come over and see them?" Harry seemed to have a better interest in me. My stomach clenched.

"Sure. Why not?" I said, butterflies in my stomach. Harry's eyes brightened up.

"Cool. Come with me after class. I walk home." Harry told me. I nodded.

My heart trembled as his name echoed in my mind. Harry. Harry. Harry.

Notes