Luke popped in his earbuds as he climbed the steps of the bus. The heavy guitars and screaming helped soothe his head and clear his mind of all thoughts.

"Luke!" Luke glanced up at Matt waving for him to come sit.

"Hey." Luke mumbled as he sat down in the worn bus seat. Matt had short, dark brown almost black hair and light brown eyes. He wore large black glasses and his face was kind and energetic.

"What's up?" Matt asked.

"Not much." Luke replied.

"You seem odd." Matt noticed.

"Weird." Luke looked at his phone as Matt stared at him.

"Ok then." Matt shrugged and looked at his own phone.

"Tell me what's up when your ready." They went the whole bus ride silent. Luke tried to pay attention to the lyrics of the metal blasting in his ears. Though Ryan still lingered in the back of his head. In every one of his classes Luke drew and ignored the teachers' long lectures. He flipped through pages of doodles in a little sketch book. The pages crinkled and flipped, revealing people, animals, anatomy, anything that came to his mind at the moment. However, as he flipped to a new, clean page all Luke could think to doodle was her. He drew little details like her eyes and the way her hair flowed. The day seemed to drag on, each class slowing down. Finally lunch came. Luke could finally pay attention to his surroundings. His eyes darted everywhere as he walked to the lunch line. He waited with hands in his pockets as the line slowly shortened and he kept looking around nervously but she was nowhere to be seen.

"Luke!" Luke turned his head back to see Matt catching up to him.

"Oh. Hey."

"Dude you didn't wait for me when the bell rang. You just darted out the door."

"Oh. Sorry. Guess I forgot." Luke looked at each table.

"Luke what's up with you? You never forge..."

"Matt we're not in kindergarten anymore." Luke made eye contact with Matt for the first time and smiled.

"Common chill." Matt was frowning and staring up at him with big brown concerned eyes. He was Luke's friend since kindergarten. He was always very cheerful and enthusiastic. He had a stupid, crooked smile and mischievous eyes. His messy brown hair was short but hung down in his face. He always made puns and jokes and never failed to make people laugh. Luke smiled down at him warmly but in a warning type of way. To not keep egging him on. Finally Matt smiled slightly.

"Oh. Yea ok sorry man. Do you want me to wait with you?"

"Nah man go sit down I'll catch up." Matt hesitated but didn't argue and he left the room in search of their table. Luke always sat with Matt and his other friends. They were all each other's friends and all of them appreciated each other's presence. Luke stepped forward with the line, glancing around at the room. He still couldn't see her anywhere. He was a little disappointed but he shook it off and ordered his lunch. As he grabbed his tray he turned back around to leave and his eye caught a table in a corner in the far back of the room. One lone girl sat there with a black shirt, jeans, and her hair covering her face. Luke smiled and headed that direction without hesitation.

"Hey, Killjoy." Ryan looked up from a piece of pizza.

"3- day- old school cafe bread with moldy cheese on it. Mmm yum. I'm having the same thing. Mind if I sit?" Ryan nodded her head and Luke sat next to her. She smiled briefly at him and sheepishly poked at the pizza.

"Sorry if I ruined your appetite." Luke laughed.

"Anyway, what's up? Besides east of course." He mumbled the last part. Ryan smiled behind a curtain of hair.

"Hey I saw that. I see you understood my reference." Ryan laughed.

"Yea ok ok I caught it." She said quietly. Luke smiled at her but she still didn't look up at him.

"May I ask you something?"

"Yea."

"Why were you so loud yesterday? And now your so quite?" Ryan didn't answer immediately.

"Because Killjoys make noise?" Ryan joked. Luke nodded. She didn't answer his question but he didn't press it. He didn't want to make her uncomfortable.

"So. Bands. What do you like besides the wholy emo trinity?" They talked the whole time at lunch about bands, art, interests in general. Ryan told Luke about her obsession with drawing and Luke could immediately relate. Ryan seemed shy but safe in Luke's presence. Soon the bell rang.

"Oh damn I didn't realize lunch went by that quickly." Luke looked around at the noisy groups filing out the doors.

"Yea." Ryan stood up with Luke.

"What do you have now?"" She asked.

"Science." Luke made a disgusted face and Ryan laughed.

"I have geometry." She made the same face. There was a pause after Luke laughed where they both smiled at each other. Luke looked down and Ryan looked at the plane white walls. "Do you... is there anyone you sit with at lunch?" Luke questioned hesitantly. He didn't want to make her feel bad. He had to choose his words carefully. But he needed to know. Ryan looked down and opened her mouth but no sound came out. Instead she shrugged her shoulders. Luke paused. He wasn't quite sure what to say. He wanted to comfort her. To let her know she wasn't alone. To embrace her in a warm hug. But all he could muster was an

"I'll see you tomorrow?" Ryan looked back up and smiled.

"Ok."

"Hey, you two! The bell rang. go to class!" Luke and Ryan looked over to see a teacher ushering students out of the cafeteria. Ryan swung her backpack over her shoulder and Luke did the same. They walked together toward the main building in silence and split to go to their separate classes. Luke only had two more classes after lunch. Now that he could see her again and get to know more about her, Luke's mind wasn't as clustered. Ryan liked a lot of cool stuff like emo/punk/metal bands, anime, art, and so much more. She was so alike Luke. It's like Luke found himself.

Luke shoved the rest of his books in his backpack and headed out the door as the end of the day bell rang. Swarms of teens flooded out of the building, talking, staring at their phones, or just walking away from the hell they called "school." It was a Friday so kids were extra ecstatic. Luke himself headed down the line of buses to his own and stepped into the chaos of yelling kids and an annoyed (as always) bus driver. He slipped into his seat. Matt wasn't there yet. Luke stared out the window, looking for Matt or Ryan. Usually Matt was late to getting on the bus so this was nothing out of the ordinary. However, Luke started to wonder where Ryan went after school. Did she take a bus? Walk home? Ride home? Where did she go after school? Did she go straight home? To a coffee place to work on homework? To a park? A bing sounded in Luke's headphones and his phone vibrated in his hands. He looked down at it to see a text from an unknown number. He tapped on it.

"is this Luke?" It read.

"Yea who's this?" He wrote back. A little bubble with three dots showed up to indicate the person was typing back. After a short pause the text showed up.

"hey. it's Ryan. i know this is kinda short notice but do you want to meet up at the mailbox idk how long it will be until ur home but just tell me wut you think or whatever"

Luke could feel his face light up.

"Yea totally! I ride the bus home so I should be home in like 20 min. So I'll meet you there in like 30 min?"

"Ok"

Luke smiled to himself.

'I guess she beat me to it.' He thought to himself and immediately regretted it.

'This isn't a date, idiot. She just wants to hang out.' He scolded himself. The bus started moving and Luke realized with a jolt that Matt still wasn't there. He looked around to see if he maybe sat somewhere else but he was nowhere to be seen. He wasn't anywhere outside the window either. Luke tapped on his screen and wrote a quick note to him.

"Why aren't you on the bus? You ok?" Luke turned off his phone and looked out the window as the movement of the bus and his music took him away.