Disclaimer: I don't own these characters.
Ariel: Chapter 6
I had been nervous all night and morning. Now, it was coming down to the simple matter of starting a conversation with Eric. It was a terrifying idea to me, but I no longer felt like I could get hurt. His reaction to my singing had already done its damage. My heart was hurting and I couldn't smile.
I walked into first hour early. I saw Eric sitting in his seat. He looked like he had something on his mind. I went over and sat down, facing him. I took a deep breath.
"Hey Eric," I said. Talking in front of him, facing my fear, lifted a weight from my stomach I hadn't known was there. Eric looked at me.
"Hi Ariel. Um, about yesterday I'm sorry," Eric said.
"It's okay," I said.
"No, it's not okay. I hurt you, I can tell. It was just, well, you surprised me. I feel like a complete idiot now," Eric said.
"Why would you ever feel like an idiot?" I asked. Eric looked down.
"Because I asked you to help me find you," he said quietly. My cheeks warmed with a blush and I placed my hand on his.
"It was my voice you were looking for?" I asked quietly.
"I can tell even when you're just talking now. It was just so obvious and I didn't realize-" he said but stopped when I started giggling. "Ariel?" he looked up at me.
"I'm the silly one. When you talked to me, I should have just talked instead of nodding my head!" I said.
"But you were resting your voice," Eric said. I shook my head.
"I was just too nervous to talk to you. I went with the voice resting idea because that was less embarrassing than admitting that," I confessed. Eric laughed.
"Well I'm glad you're talking now," he said.
"Me too," I said. He turned his hand over and held my hand. I held on tight.
A/N: I'm thinking I'm going to make a sequel to this story when it's finished. It'll have some of the same characters and some different ones still set in High School.