An Odd Romance

[skillbox]

Hey all!

This is a short eccentric romance that I wrote. As of now, I've not got any other chapters lined up to post. I was interested on how people felt about a slowburn with these characters. I might follow up with a couple new chapters. Hope you enjoy what's been written so far!

Chapter 1
I always liked the eccentric. It’s not just a fascination with strangeness, but an obsession. I have a rare condition called photophobia, which forces me to wear sunglasses indoors. While I try to act ‘normal’ to compensate, I think the taunts about being weird pushed me to seek out oddities in other places. Surreal blogs online, bizarre artwork and… quirky girls.

None of my crushes were ever conventionally attractive. Goths, tomboys, hell- there was one absolute psycho I mistakenly dated for a year. Big mistake. Her constant verbal abuse made me pretty insecure. She once jokingly told me I was only ‘dateable’ because she felt sorry for me. That was when I decided I’d take a break from romance for my last year of schooling.

That was before the new transfer student Maelis joined.

The name got me first. Then her strikingly short black hair, a messy mop that only seemed to heighten her tiny frame. She wasn’t even five feet tall, with hands that barely reached the end of her sleeves. Dark unassuming clothes, pitch black lipstick that emphasized the permanent scowl on her face. The best part, though? Unlike my ex, she barely spoke a word- the only time I’d heard her voice was during morning attendance. I was infatuated immediately and it only got worse in the three months since she’d joined my class. She didn’t even know I existed. I wished somehow that’d change- unfortunately, I didn’t know it my wish would be granted in the most humiliating way.

Let’s go back to the start of the school day. I was talking to my friend Frankie, the tomboy crush (the one who, thankfully, wasn’t a psycho). Her blonde ponytail was messily tied, a floppy fringe nearly matching mine, and her piercing, diamond-colored eyes sharp as ever. We technically dated for all of a couple days after she’d randomly kissed me on the playground when I was seven. We broke up and have been best friends since. There’s always been a subtle undercurrent of sexual tension between us since we hit our teens. Classic story, right?

“Eli. If you’re going to talk so much about some random girl, can you man up and talk to her?” Frankie rolled her eyes as we walked toward the lockers. She always wore an exasperated look, and I really hoped it wasn’t just a me-specific expression.

“She’s not just some random girl,” I said, “She’s… different.”

“She’s a girl, dude. Not an alien. Not a cryptid. Walk up, say hi and ask about her hoodie or whatever. She might actually be grateful. She might be lonely… And you might, I dunno, get a date?”

“She doesn’t talk to anyone who tries. Why would she talk to me?”

“Because whining to me isn’t working?” Frankie shrugged, “Didn’t you swear off dating this year? That was your whole ‘look, I’m so mature now’ thing, remember?”

I paused, letting out a sigh. Damn it, she was right. I tend to fall for crushes pretty fast, but Maelis felt different and maybe that was the problem.

Frankie shot me as concerned a look as she can manage, “Hey- I wasn’t trying to be a dick. How about we hang after school? I scored some from my guy.”

Drugs. The perfect way to numb life's struggles. That’s only partly sarcasm, considering how tempting smoking weed with Frankie seemed. We started heading to class, and I grabbed my bag from my locker, relieved to find it unscathed. No douchebag had wrecked it this time.

Class dragged on, just like it always did. We had Miss Tomi, a teacher who had as much interest in teaching as we did in learning, which wasn’t very much. Meanwhile my attention kept drifting to Maelis. She sat at the corner of the room, her tiny frame hunched over her textbook, her shaggy hair falling messily over her face. The only sign of life was the occasional scratch of her pencil against the paper. I was relieved she didn’t notice me staring as the last thing I needed was for her to think I was a stalker.

After a class I somewhat enjoyed due to the chance to stare only a little creepily at my crush, I had to drag myself to the worst class of the day, gym. Tall, skinny and uncoordinated, I was an easy target for some of the muscled brain-dead jocks. With Frankie being my only real friend, there wasn’t anyone to stand up for me in the boys-only class. Gym usually meant me being knocked around basketball practice, shoved aside or nearly having my sunglasses broken for laughs. They found that last part particularly funny.

I offered to stay behind and clean up the gymnasium after the class. This was so I’d have an excuse not to shower with the other guys. Compared to the other guys who strutted with unfound confidence, I was overly shy. But I also knew there’d be relentless teasing from the bullies, due to my overwhelming paleness and, well, smaller stature. My body was kinda feminine compared to most guys- big eyelashes, naturally hairless and a bubble butt that the girls would be jealous of. Honestly? They could have it.

I was sweaty enough that skipping a shower wasn’t an option. Thankfully by the time I’d put the balls in the storage room, the changing room was empty. I was still awkward while disrobing even if nobody was around. There was something weird about doing this in the middle of school and not my own home. This was a rare occasion that the sunglasses came off, leaving my eyes blinking hard, irritated against the brightness of even the room's dim lighting. With what happened next, I wish I’d just stayed gross.

Over the noise of the shower water, I heard laughter, low and mocking. Some guys from my class had re-entered the locker room. I immediately went bright red, even though they hadn’t come near the showers yet. Did they know I was here? Probably not. But something had them cracking up. I stood there, awkwardly, naked and wet, no longer attempting to wash up. Instead I clutched my hands to my crotch for cover, praying they wouldn’t come round the corner.

Only a hand came round. I watched, frozen, as it moved in slow motion to snatch the towel I came in with.
“Have fun, loser.”

The laughter and the jocks left. Along with my clothes, towel and dignity. What the hell was I going to do? My face went red, my mind went blank. I began desperately searching the locker room for something- anything, to cover up my awkwardly nude body with. I was used to the bullying- but never anything like this. My head started to pound from a combination of stress and the bright lights attacking my eyes. The jocks had mockingly left one thing: my sunglasses. I slipped them on. It just made me feel more naked.

I had to come up with a solution. And the answer wasn’t in here. Taking a deep breath, I peeked my pale blushing face into the hall, cracking open the door slightly to make sure there was nobody there. Scanned both directions. Empty. Was I really about to streak through the school naked? Did I have a choice? With great resignation and even greater mortification, I shut my sore eyes and took a step braver than the astronauts. I just had to hope no one came through and caught a live showing of my bare bouncing butt.

I dashed barefoot down the hall, internally screaming while trying to be as quiet as possible to not draw attention. I needed to get to my locker- I had a spare set of clothes in there from another day. It was a couple minutes away but if I was lucky, every other student would be in class. If I was unlucky, my crush, Maelis would be right in front of me. I was unlucky.

God, was I unlucky.

Her eyes widened as much as mine, cheeks almost flushing the same deep red. I wanted to just sprint, run past her, just bolt but I remained frozen in place. After all, that would’ve got her a big view of my very public display of cheeks.
Her mouth hung open as her gaze drifted down: first to my long hairless legs, then to the hand desperately clamped over my genitals. To my horror the start of my curly blonde pubic hair was peeking out. Her eyes moved up to my wet, bare chest and finally landed on my panicked, goofy face- sunglasses barely able to hide the terror in my eyes.

“U-Um… Em…” I can’t remember which of us tried to speak first, but we both failed. Stuttering over half-formed words and ourselves. Maelis gave out a strange, breathy giggle, clearly in shock. For a second, her eyes flicked back to my barely concealed dick. The V-line of my hips probably didn’t help.

Then she turned around with a flustered groan and a moment later, shrugged off her black hoodie. Without looking, she held it out behind her. With that small gentle gesture, my crush grew out of control. Of course, just as I obliterated any chance I ever had.

“H-Here…” She said softly.

I grabbed it immediately. It was small, Maelis being tiny and me not so much. But I tied it around my waist anyway, making me somewhat covered, if still ridiculous looking. When she turned back, her hands were still over her face. One eye peeked through, checking if I was decent before finally lowering them.

“I… Clothes- were stolen. I don’t know who, I was trying to-” I blurted, voice cracking. I didn't want her to think I was some kind of pervert. As if things could get any worse. My face was still burning. Even if the hoodie hid everything important, there was way too much pale exposed skin on display. Honestly, she was an angel for even sticking around.

“I-It’s okay! Y-You, um, don’t need to explain,” Maelis said, still blushing, “I…. figured it was something like that.”

Silence awkwardly settled between us. What do you even say in a moment like this?

Maelis gave a nervous little smile, “Um… N-Nice legs? Heh…”

“Don’t even,” I sigh, “I… I-I’m going to head to my locker. I have a change of clothes. T-Thanks for the help… Once I’m dressed, I-I’ll give the hoodie back…”

“Um… Maybe wash it first?” Maelis added, still wearing that soft smile.

“Y-Yeah, that’d probably be wise…” I blurted out mortified, before beginning to walk away. Trying somehow to escape the most embarrassing moment of my life.

“E-Eli!” Maelis shouted after me.

“Yeah?” I turned, hoping that maybe she’d say something sweet.

“You, uh… might wanna adjust back there. Your butt’s… kinda…” Her face vanished behind her hands again. God, could this get any worse? With a tug for decency, I went bright red, stumbling off before I died of shame.

I reached my locker without passing out. Barely. Threw on my spare clothes. I really missed those. I tried not to think about how much of me Maelis had just seen. Or the way her smile lingered in my mind, soft and strange. I couldn’t help but smile back.

[NickTwisp]

This is a very good story with excellent character development thus far. Especially like that Maelis is sympathetic to Eli's naked situation and helps him out by loaning the hoodie for some cover.