He Wishes

Taking a deep breath, he crossed the line on the floor, separating hallway and classroom. To anyone else, the dirty, barely visible indentation in the concrete floor, was non-existent. They wouldn't ever notice it, even during their entire high school experience. But to him, to Ross Geller, this line was all he'd been able to think about since he'd woken up that morning.

Walking slowly into his homeroom, he quickly scanned it to see if she'd arrived yet. She hadn't.

But there were still seven minutes left until the bell rang, signaling the start of the day. There was too much time left for him to even dare to hope that she wasn't coming. That she'd gotten sick or had decided to switch to a different homeroom.

The odds were that she was talking and hanging out with her friends before class, not wanting to be a loser who showed up early for school. That was probably what everyone was doing, seeing as there were only two people besides Ross in the classroom.

"Excuse me, young man," Ross jumped slightly and turned to face the teacher.

"Yes?" he quickly responded, not wanting to appear as if he were still daydreaming or was too stupid to understand her.

"Were you planning on taking a seat anytime soon? Or would you prefer to stand up there all day, lost in your oh-so-important teenage thoughts?"

Embarrassed at being caught thinking about Rachel by the teacher, Ross nodded and shuffled to his seat in the back of the room.

Looking for something to do, he checked his watch. Four minutes left. Breathing deeply, he leaned back in his chair, until his head made contact with the wall. This was the advantage of sitting in the back row. Slightly shifting in his seat so he could sit in the most comfortable position possible, he closed his eyes.

After a minute or so, he began to drift off. Although not yet asleep, he was lingering in a state somewhere between consciousness and unconsciousness.

As is standard of people in this level of awareness, his unimportant thoughts were extinguished. All of the meaningless crap that had been sifting through his mind disappeared.

It was almost completely empty… except for one image. The picture had not left his mind for a day now, and though he'd tried to shove it to the back of his thoughts, in this moment it was all that remained.

Of course, it was a memory of Rachel. It was the single moment from almost exactly twenty four hours ago. Her smiling face looking back at him before she turned away. He smiled widely at the thought.

Still lost in his dream, he was willing her with all his might to turn back around.

For what seemed like a couple of minutes, he stared at the person in front of him, just wishing for one look at her face.

And then it happened. She turned in her seat to face him. The dream Ross was literally grinning from ear to ear. What should he say to her? What cool opening line would show her just how smooth he really was?

He was trying intently to answer these questions when he was shaken awake.

Horrified, he realized that what he'd been dreaming of was only partly true. She was there, she was sitting in front of him, and she was facing him.

But the expression on her face was not the one she'd worn in his dream. It looked as though she was desperately trying to hold in laughter. Feeling his face grow increasingly red, he averted his eyes from her.

It was then that he realized that every single other student was looking back at him, all of them laughing.

This confused him. What was so funny? It was a little funny that he'd fallen asleep, but it wasn't enough to have all of these people rolling on the floor.

The teacher had caught on at this point and was now trying to silence the class. It only took a few moments for this to happen. They all turned towards the front and stopped staring at him, but a few were clearly holing in giggles.

When Ross was sure no one was watching him anymore, he looked down at himself, trying to find the cause of the laughter.

When he tilted his head, something fell onto his leg. It only took him a second to recognize it as drool.

He slowly brought his hand up to his mouth and chin, scared of what he would find. Letting out a soft groan, he wiped off the thick tail that had been dripping from the left side of his mouth.

Mortified that so many people, and one person in particular, had witnessed the incident, he buried his face in his hands.

For the next five minutes of homeroom, he never once glanced up to see if anyone was still laughing at him. He simply stayed frozen in that position, hiding his face from them all.

When the bell finally rang, he jumped out of his seat and practically sprinted towards the door. At this, every student in the room once again broke into a hysterical fit of laughter.

He heard someone call out, "Who woke the beast?", as he ran into the hallway.

Terrified at the sound of the words, he stopped dead in his tracks. He prayed silently that it hadn't meant what he thought it did.

Bracing himself, he looked down. There, underneath his jeans, was a horribly noticeable bulge.

Absolutely overcome with humiliation, Ross dashed into the nearest bathroom, which was a few doors down.

Seeing that no other students were there, he locked himself in one of the stalls. Sinking onto the seat, he closed his eyes, trying to make it all go away.

It was moments like this that made him hate his life, that made him want to be someone else. Nothing like this would've ever happened to anyone other than him. He'd been caught by twenty people, including a teacher, all of whom probably knew exactly what he'd been dreaming of. It wouldn't take a genius to figure it out.

He stayed there for a few moments before he had to leave for his next class. At least she wouldn't be there. He couldn't take another incident like this one. Ross was not looking forward to tomorrow's homeroom.