Ryan and Luke hung out the whole day on Sunday. At first they hung out at the park for about thirty minutes and after that, they went to get breakfast at an IHOP close by. They shared a huge stack of fluffy pancakes and ended up making a huge, syrupy mess but they took their time to clean it up. After that they went to some weird arcade. They frantically clicked buttons and jostled controllers, trying to get a better score then each other. Ryan beat him on every game. They played multiple games of laser tag, sometimes they snuck around together, aiming at others and sometimes they solely aimed for each other. Ryan usually got the most points out of everyone and she beamed at her name in first place. Luke sighed but laughed as he saw his name only around the middle on every game. After the many rounds of laser tag, they went to get food at the free all-you-can-eat buffet. They ate pizza, bread, macaroni and cheese, ice cream, cinnamon rolls, and an excessive amount of junk food. They continued to hang out the rest of the day and they hung out at lunch on Monday. Weeks went by and they hung out every day, at lunch and after school. They would meet at the mailbox, and walk together down the street. Toward the sun. Towards the park. To the same bench they sat on that day. And every time Luke would put his hand on Ryan's. One day she told him about the people who had been bullying her. The "leader's" name was Hunter and his friends' names were Justin, Ronnie, Bethany, and Lisa. Times here and there Luke would see them around in the halls but never at lunch. They would glare at him and whisper to each other but Luke ignored it. There was no point in paying attention to people like them. To people who judged so cruelly, for no reason, and acted upon it. Why should Luke think about the negative things like them, when he could instead think about the positive people he had, like Ryan. At lunch Luke and Ryan always sat, eating, laughing, and talking about bands. Every day Luke would wait in line, buy his lunch, and sit down next to her in the corner in the far back of the cafeteria. In class, Luke thought about her and how lucky he was to meet someone like her. The teachers even caught him smiling to himself at times. Once in geometry he sat, thinking about her. How much of an amazing person she was.

"Luke."

He had looked up to see his teacher glaring at him.

"Why are you smiling? Would you like to share what's so funny to the whole class?"

"Wh... what..." Luke had looked around to see everyone staring at him, including Matt. However, once they had made eye contact, he looked back down at his homework and continued to scribble theorems and numbers.

"I... no I was just thinking about... something funny I saw earlier." His teacher had stared at him in an awkward silence for a second to long and finally said

"Ok. Well pay attention and don't let it happen again." She had looked him up and down once more and walked back to her desk. Some of the class had giggled but for the most part didn't care, they looked away and continued whatever they were doing. Luke was still able to finish all his work and managed to keep As and Bs in his classes. Another week passed, and Ryan and Luke were getting closer. They were super chill around each other, instead of tense and nervous like that day at the park. This meant that Ryan was much more talkative. Eventually Luke invited Ryan over and introduced her to his mom, who's reaction got on his nerves a bit. After Ryan had left, she repeatedly said things like

"Is She your girl friend?" And

"Just don't have sex..." he shook his head at the ignorant comments.

"She's just a friend, mom. Chill." However, no matter how much Luke tried to convince his mom of this, he couldn't seem to convince himself. Break was coming up, this was their last week of the semester, so this meant multiple things. One: of course they wouldn't be in school for two weeks after this week. Two: some school dance was coming up. And three: semester finals. On Monday Luke and Ryan agreed to hang out after school to study. They met by the mailbox as usual, and walked over to Ryan's house. When they got to her room, Luke dropped his backpack on the floor with a thud.

"Damn. There's so much to remember. How am I ever going to pass these?" He said with a stressed groan, burying his face in his hands and sitting on Ryan's bed.

"You'll be fine. We have plenty of time to study now and tomorrow. And I can help you." Ryan sat next to him and put a reassuring arm around his shoulder, smiling. Luke sighed.

"What do you want to start with?"

"What do you want to start with? You pick, you know what areas you need the most work in."

"I guess science." Luke pulled his backpack upright and unzipped it. Ryan helped him memorize different terms and other science-related things that bored Luke to the bone. After that, they studied geometry. Angles, theorems, none of it made sense to him. They didn't need to study for language arts, they were both great at writing. Next they had to study dates, names, events, wars, and so much more in history.

"Ughh this is so useless!" Luke complained and laid back on the bed, rubbing his eyes.

"I completely agree with you but do you want to fail finals?" Ryan looked down at him.

"I sure know I'd rather be doing something else right now instead of studying a bunch of shit we're never going to use in life."

"Except writing."

"We're not studying that right now."

"Do you want to?"

"We don't need to. I mean how do we study for that? Write an essay?" Luke kept his hands over his face.

"We could write a story."

"About what... us?" Luke raised his eyebrows. Ryan blushed for a second, then fell back on the bed laughing. Luke lifted his hands from his face, his eyes wide.

"Oh my god! Did I really say that? That's weird. Oh my god I'm so sorry I didn't mean to..."

"Luke... it's... it's fine!" Ryan said in between laughs.

"Nooo it's not I'm so so.." Luke turned his head to face Ryan's and stopped. He hadn't realized how close they were. They were both laying on the bed, their faces turned toward each other. They were both silent now, staring into each other's eyes. Their lips were closer then Luke found comfortable. A long moment of silence passed between them. Luke bit his bottom lip nervously. Suddenly he sat up and caught his history book before it fell off the bed.

"Uh... I... I gotta go." Ryan sat up to.

"Oh uh... yea it's... oh it's 6:00. Yea it's a bit late." Ryan responded, staring at the clock.

"Um... I'll see you tomorrow. It's funny we only have a week left." Luke said awkwardly, shoving his books in his backpack.

"Yeah. Yea it's weird. See ya!" Ryan called as he fled down the stairs and out the door.