"I need to ask you a favour."

☆

The feel of the bus grinding to a halt is enough to wake him from his light doze. He opens his eyes to see everyone getting up to get off. He stays seated, choosing to wait. He gazes once again out of the window, where he sees Archie waiting for him. They lock eyes, which causes Archie to grin from ear to ear and wave as if Bay had just come back from an overseas trip. It makes him smile back and causes that feeling of happiness inside of him, which seemed to happen to Bay more often of late, maybe it was because they saw each other less.

He finally filters off the bus, making his way to Archie, who out of habit, ruffles his hair as a greeting. "Get off." Bay complains, jerking his head away as he subconsciously looks around to see if anyone else has seen. "Don't do that."

"Why not?" Archie furrows his brow. "I always do that." He reaches forwards to do it again, but Bay pulls back, avoiding the contact.

"Don't do it publicly. People might think...y'know." Bay looks away from Archie's gaze.

"You think too much, never mind other people." Archie shakes his head in amusement. "C'mon, let's get some breakfast before class." He pulls on the sleeve of Bay's blazer.

"I've had breakfast." Bay complains.

"Well, I haven't." Archie replies as he pulls his friend along behind him. "Besides, I need to ask you a favour."

Bay huffs out a sigh of annoyance as he gets dragged in the direction of the canteen, but he wasn't really annoyed. Not really. He would take everything Archie was willing to give, because not only was he his friend. He was his bestest friend in the whole world.

****

As he sits there with his orange juice, Bay watches on at the boy opposite, taking a bite from his toast, consuming the whole slice in one go. "You will get indigestion if you eat like that." He says, rolling his eyes as his friend devours the slice. Archie just shrugs it off as he manages to find space in his mouth for a drink of milk.

He swallows it down, before pointing to Bay's glass of fresh juice. "You don't eat enough. You will wither away."

"I told you already. I've eaten." But the reply still doesn't satisfy Archie.

"Open." He says, holding up a fresh slice of toast.

"I said I..." Archie finds a gap and pushes a corner of the toast into Bay's opened mouth. He smiles at the glare he is getting from his friend as he has no choice but to take a bite.

"Now I know you've eaten. Now I'm happy.' Archie grins as he continues eating his own slice.

"I said I'd eaten." Bay rolls his eyes. "Why are you being so nice to me this morning? You don't usually share food."

"I'm always nice." Archie says defensively. "But maybe I need some intel from you "

"Intel? What do you mean?" Bay says looking confused.

"Her." Archie points to the girl just entering the canteen with a few other females." Bay turns to see the same girl who was on his bus. The new girl with whom he had a feeling for but wasn't able to fathom what that feeling was.

"Lena. Her name's Lena." He says, trying to sound disinterested.

"Lena.." Archie repeats, thinking how beautiful and fitting the name sounds.

Archie looks at Bay. "Do you know her?"

"She goes on my bus. That's about it." Bay admits. He knew far much more about her than he was letting on. He may have listened in to a few of her conversations on occasion. Bay knew she liked dogs, wanted a tattoo, enjoyed skateboarding and loved pizza. She had also posted drawings of anime characters online.

Archie looked at Lena, then again back at Bay. "Hey Bay. Do you think you could put in a good word for me?...you know. Like, well...you know?"

Bay puts his toast down, waving his hands and shaking his head firmly. "Oh no. I'm not doing that. I only know her name. I don't actually know her."

"Ah come on Bay." Archie nudges his arm. "Look at me, I need a little help from my best friend."

"You go. And you also know her name now, which is as much as I do."

"Please." Archie begins to whine

Bay furrows his brow. " Are we 10? What am I supposed to say? Hello, my friend fancies you? Stop being a fraidy cat and do it yourself."

Archie looks at Bay as if this was fighting talk. "Ok I will!" And to Bay's surprise, he forcibly gets up from his seat and starts to walk assertively towards the group of girls, still standing near the door. As he gets closer, his heart starts to beat uncontrollably faster.

Bay watches from his seat, as Archie walks closer to the group, then walks straight past them and out the canteen door.

He feels a sigh of relief wash over him. Though he also felt that empathy. He felt a strange familiarity to that feeling of fear, nervousness, rejection. But one thing he wasn't so sure about was why it hurt to see Archie wanting to pursue her. Did Bay really like the girl that much?