Flipped

by Wendelin Van Draanen

who make me feel like so much more than the sum of my parts.

She didn’t just barge into my life. She barged and shoved and wedged her way into my life.

Uhm... What an icon!? Lol

This was the beginning of my soon-to-become-acute awareness that the girl cannot take a hint.

Finally I break free and do the only manly thing available when you’re seven years old — I dive behind my mother.

My heart stopped. It just stopped beating. And for the first time in my life, I had that feeling. You know, like the world is moving all around you, all beneath you, all inside you, and you’re floating. Floating in midair. And the only thing keeping you from drifting away is the other person’s eyes. They’re connected to yours by some invisible physical force, and they hold you fast while the rest of the world swirls and twirls and falls completely away.

By the fourth grade I’d learned to control myself. The sight of him—the thought of him—still sent my heart humming, but my legs didn’t actually chase after him anymore. I just watched and thought and dreamed.