Immediately, Paul started explaining in great detail a project he was working on for chemistry. He was so caught up in what he was saying, he didn’t realise she was trying not to laugh.

‘What?’ he asked now, his face colouring.

‘Nothing, nothing. It’s just you’re so brainy!’ she said, and Paul swelled with pride. Many people had told him the same thing over the years, but it was different coming from her – special.

‘Why are you laughing then?’ he asked, suspicious.

‘Stop scowling.’ Claire laughed and she leaned over, placing her finger on the centre of his forehead as if to wipe away the frown lines.

Was she flirting with him?

He thought she might be. Her touch had been electric, and he couldn’t help himself. As her hand came down from his face, he caught her by the wrist. For a few moments, they sat there, looking at each other, her wrist in his hand. And slowly, as the magnetic force grew between them, they leaned in to each other, their lips meeting.

*

Paul shut his bedroom door behind him, finally alone. The events of the afternoon raced through his brain, flooding his body with adrenalin. Claire. The kiss. Asking her out. Her agreeing. Their whispered conversations and secret glances after the librarian had come back from her lunch break. They’d spent an hour together in the school library and it was the best hour of Paul’s life. They’d agreed to meet in the same place after school the next day and she’d agreed to go to the cinema with him on Saturday night.

Apart from that, they’d sat, secretly holding hands under the table, Paul reading his textbook, and Claire writing up her notes. She was left-handed Paul noticed, her writing a beautiful cursive script that he’d never managed to master. He could feel their hands grow clammy under the table but still, she didn’t move her hand away and Paul hardly dared to breathe as he concentrated very hard on the book in front of him. It was only when another student came into the library that Claire pulled away and let her long blonde hair fall like a curtain between them.