Today has been… interesting.
Last Thursday, I learned that the student council in my school was selling candygrams for Valentine’s Day. You can send them to whoever you like, anonymously or not, and they will be delivered on Valentine’s Day, all for $1. So I sent one to Milton. Pan pointed out that he would respond better to an anonymous candygram than Magnet would, and after thinking about it, I realized that she was right. Magnet would find it weird, but Milton would probably be flattered. I knew all three of the sophomore girls who were selling them, and one of them pointed out that he might recognize my handwriting. Thinking this scenario frighteningly plausible, she realized my panic and offered to take dictation for the message. After confirming that he has orchestra fifth hour (when they are delivered) with my friend Athena (both of them are cellists), I told the sophomore who to address it to. Her reaction was like “Awww, how cute!” and “You guys would be the smartest couple ever!”, and I was like “Let me think and quit embarrassing me.” My message was something along the lines of “Hi. I think you are an interesting person, so here’s some candy.” And then it was done, and I walked back to my lunch table, thinking that the whole experience had been far more stressful than it needed to be.
And then came today. The day my anonymous token of affection would be delivered. I received a couple of valentines today from friends, which cheered me up. To me, caring means doing things for other people without them asking you to or when the giver doesn’t expect anything in return, and my friends showed that they cared today. Usually, it feels like they don’t, so I was happy. I was nervous during first hour, which I had with Milton, but nothing of importance happened. During passing time between first and second hours, however, I bumped into him in the crush of people and my heart felt like it stopped working for a second (ye gods, that is cliched).
Everything was snazzy up until the very, very end of fifth hour. I had received the candygram I had bought for myself and the one that Hanajima bought for me, and it was basically another math class.
…But then the unexpected plot twist arrived.
One of my junior friends in that class told me that while she was helping student council members sort through candygrams, she noticed that there was another anonymous candygram addressed to Milton.
…I don’t know what to do with this information. I call this an “unexpected plot twist” for a reason, because this possibility never entered my brain once. I’ve described Milton’s characteristics elsewhere on this blog: that he acts almost asexual, that he has few female friends and doesn’t appear to hold feelings for any of them, that he enjoys saying polarizing things in seminar to get people to talk, that he is frighteningly smart and witty. It honestly never occurred to me that someone else might have a crush on him. My friend probably would have told me who the competition other sender was, so she doesn’t know. I think I spent several minutes in a kind of shock, which overwhelmed whatever other feelings I might have been having. Now I just feel a sort of twinge of panic, but I’m not sure why. This other person sent their candygram anonymously too, so they want to be revealed as much as I do. But it’s still hard not to panic at the fact that someone else has noticed him too, and it’s a weird thought too. I thought I was the only one paying attention to him. I don’t really know what to feel right now.
Tomorrow I’m going to grill ask Athena about his reaction and basically complain to all of my other friends about this, because complaining always makes me feel better.
…What else don’t I know about?
