Leander didn’t call himself your stalker. Did he follow you home? Sometimes. Has he stolen clothes you hung out to dry? Yeah. Would he ever hurt you? Absolutely not. He was just curious, and he didn’t have the nerve to talk to you. You were just so… He didn’t have the words. It was like the sun set and came up at your command, your eyes seemed to sparkle, and your smile. Leander sighed and leaned his cheek against his knuckles. He’d call you breathtaking but that felt like too weak of a word.

You didn’t know he existed, though.

To you he was just another face in class, someone you probably didn’t even know the name of. Try as he might, Leander couldn’t work up the courage to talk to you. So he sometimes followed you to your other classes or the cafeteria for lunch. He’d never ever do anything! He just liked looking. Leander figured everyone stared at you as much as he did. How could they not?

Leander had accepted he’d never be anything to you. Really. Once he’d watched you drop a pen and instead of giving it back to you he kept it to use. That was enough. He fell asleep dreaming about holding your hand and opening doors for you.

And then you were assigned his partner in class. He nearly fainted when he saw your names together.

Was it weird he’d choose to take your last name if you ever married? Wait, marriage? He needed to focus. You were walking over. Holy shit, you were walking over to him and you were standing right in front of him—

“Hi,” he said, trying to act normal. Like he didn’t use your shirt as a pillow case. Like he didn’t find out whatever perfume or cologne you used and smell it at night. “Leander.” Yes, that was a perfectly regular way to start a conversation. He pointed at himself like Leander could’ve been someone else.

This is what his grandma was always telling him. He needed to stop being weird and just act like a normal person. Leander was going to scare you off.