The First Move

"Hi my name is X...I mean Mark." OMG! I can't even say this out loud to a mirror. How in the world could I ask her out? Okay. Okay. This is college not high school. Like my mom said, if I have to take charge of my happiness...BUT, I'm not ready.

Mark Burney is a pretty good student. He's also a pretty good athlete. In fact Mark is pretty good at just about everything. Not good enough to stand out but also a little too good to ignore. Also, there is something, ONE thing, that truly stands out about Mark. His face is rigid without any visible expression at all times.

Before his growth spurt and before his mother forced him to take martial arts, Mark was brutally bullied. He was tripped in class while carrying the class's pet gold fish. He ended up with shards of glass in his face. Even after a few surgeries and months of rehabilitation, he could not smile without pain.

Everyone but Mark's mother calls him X, short for Expressionless.

"Hey X! Today is the day! You said it last week."

"Logan? Hey. What's up?" Mark replies with his head down.

"Are you seriously using my government name bruh?" Logan says with a sly look.

"Lo, man I can't do it." Mark's expressionless face can't hide the defeated look in his eyes.

"We talked about this. You have to find out something about her before the holiday break." Logan says pointing to the calendar on his phone.

"I can't. I just feel stupid. I'm going to skip martial arts class today." Mark grits his teeth as those words come out.

"Hey. Did you just say that you won't be there for the competition today?" A voice from behind makes both boys jump.

"Hey. Look X. It's Michelle. I gotta bounce anyway. Later." Logan hurries away.

"Um. Hey Michelle." Mark's voice cracks so much that he coughs after the greeting.

Michelle forces Mark to make eye contact with her. "Mark, I want you to come to the competition. I need you to root for me."

Mark just stares into her eyes and there's an awkward silence.

Michelle looks down then takes a deep breath before looking at Mark again. "Okay. That's not the whole truth. This is the last time that I will see you before the holidays. I mean unless we go out on a date or something. Can we? Do the date thing?"

Mark's face is different. He can feel that something is different but I can't tell what. He still can't seem to make words come out of his mouth but maybe he won't have to...

"Mark, you're smiling. I'm going to take that as a yes." Michelle gently touches his face and makes him blush even more.