THE FIRST TIME OSKAR realised that women might just be the most ethereal creatures on the planet, he was just shy of eight years old and completely and totally in love. Sara Johnson was every bit a warm summer's day, with unruly blonde hair pulled high into pigtails and cute little rainbow ribbons tied in bows. With her two front teeth missing and a pair of denim overalls over her favourite unicorn t-shirt, Oskar knew then and there the reason behind why his father looked at his mother in the soft way that he did.

That was, until he laid eyes on the very being that is Lulu Loveberry. Lulu seems to be a soft sea breeze on a hot afternoon. She is the thawing of your mindless turmoil, a soothing warmth to the worries swimming inside your head. With a smile that cuts your breath short and skips the beats of your heart. Oskar's hands twitch at the thought of running them through her hair, no doubt silky smooth and capable of slipping through his fingers with the ease of butter melting on warm toast.

Oskar sighs embarrassingly, feeling disheartened and slightly delusional. He slumps forward onto his elbows, the movement knocking his notebook out of place with the rolling of his pens following suit. He huffs, before rearranging his belongings to line up with each other once more.

At the melodic sound of a laugh, Oskar flickers his gaze over, finding Lulu's rich pink hair swinging as she knocks her head back, eyes glistening as she listens to her friend speak. His cheeks warm and his chest hammers, an unexplainable and, most definitely, ridiculous reaction to a girl he's laid eyes on for barely twenty minutes.

He leans on both hands, his fists pushing at his cheeks and squishing his face awkwardly, his eyes slightly squinting. Suddenly, his shoulders sag as he lets out a quiet noise of distress, for what reason, Oskar might spend the next three days trying to decipher.

"Take a seat everyone." His lecturer says as he saunters through the doorway of the lecture hall, even though not a single student seems to be doing the opposite. A black backpack is slung over his shoulder, evidently creasing the suit material underneath as he pulls a laptop out and runs a hand through his greying hair tiredly.

Oskar shifts in his chair slightly, manoeuvring in a subtle action to find a position in which his back won't seize, and his neck won't tighten from having to sit in the small plastic seat for two hours.

He stays that way minute after minute, scribbling notes and tapping rapidly on his laptop, all the while his teacher's muffled voice in the back of his mind keeps the distraction of his thoughts at bay. He scratches the top of his head at things that tend to confuse him and lets out a heavy breath through his nose when his writing smudges under the movement of his left hand.

Through each passing moment, a flash of deep magenta hair burns its way into the corner of Oskar's eye, causing him to flit his gaze over every so often. Lulu's hair swishes swiftly as she leans towards a friend beside her, the pair speaking in hushed whispers and breathy laughs. Lulu's lips move with a bewildered expression, fragments of their conversation floating through the air and towards him as he tries hard-or not very hard at all-to ignore the want of leaning a fraction further forward and eavesdropping on the chatter.

A soft tap on Oskar's shoulder jerks him back into his seat, the hushed whispers that were once clear enough for him to hear now a jumble of white noise in the room. He freezes, the muscles in his lower back aching as he swallows, turning around to whoever felt it necessary to touch him. A boy stares back expectantly, awfully bright blue eyes shining in tandem with a wide-set smile that seems unnatural.

"Hey", he says in what is not considered a whisper. "Can I borrow a pen?" He nods over to the pens on Oskar's desk before looking at him hopefully.

Oskar gulps audibly, his heart hammering in a way that he's sure the sheer pressure in his chest will simply burst his ear drums. He opens and closes his mouth, his tongue dry as he becomes a fish out of water desperately gasping for a breath on the shore of its home. He needs the deep blue ocean where the stars align and the sun can't reach and he can breathe clearly and properly, his chest clear from every painful ache it musters.

Oskar doesn't need air. He needs water.

The stranger stares at him with furrowed brows as Oskar feels a bead of sweat trickle down his temple. He thinks of nothing as he grabs his stupid pen and hands it to the stupid boy who smiles and says something along the lines of 'thank you' but Oskar can't be too sure because all he can think about is the lack of air and need for water.

What was once a quiet lecture room is now suddenly so loud and chaotic and claustrophobic and ginormous all at the same time.

Oskar spins in his chair, stares into a seeping river of magenta that flows with a sweet, whispered laugh and breathes. He wants to knock himself over the head for it, the calmness he can embody from simply staring at her-which he has no doubt would creep her out entirely. But when Lulu turns slowly and stares deep into the murky brown of his eyes, the smallest of smiles quirking her rosy lips, the wind knocks right out of him. He surprises himself with a smile in return and she waves, so tiny he almost misses it. But that was all he needed to clear the ache in his chest and calm the indefinite scattering of his mind.

Lulu is water. And Oskar, well now he's without a pen. His favourite pen and he swears nothing good ever comes out of sharing.

By the time Lulu turns around and his teacher stops talking and Oskar stops sulking over his only good pen, he manages to finish and submit his essay and sit through the rest of the lesson with his earphones in and a chest so clear he's not even sure it belongs to him.

He packs his things neatly into his backpack before rushing out of the building and into the sweet autumn air, the rustling of the trees and the wisp of the wind filling his nose with the scent of pine and cooling the build-up of nervous sweat from his hairline.

The sun shines fondly, soft enough that it intertwines with the breeze and creates a middle-ground of weather. A few clouds litter the sky as the sun weaves in and out, the large trees lining the campus offering up shade when the sun has finished you off. Oskar barely makes it halfway to his park bench when the echoing of his name sounds from behind his music. He halts in his spot, and he almost keeps walking until the voice sings out again.

From behind, Lulu had begun closing in on him and Oskar takes more than a few seconds to remove his earphones. She stands in front of him, binder pulled to her chest and backpack slung over a shoulder. A faded band t-shirt sports tiny holes around the collar and loose cream pants fly in the breeze.

He panics.

Of course, he panics.

"Oskar, right?" Lulu holds up a crumpled piece of paper with his name scribbled across it. So, Oskar nods, considering that's all he can really do. "I picked up an extra elective for this semester, it seems really cool."

He nods again.

"Not much of a talker?" She muses.

He shakes his head.

"But you can hear me?"

And nods and nods and nods and kind of furrows his brows amusedly.

"You don't talk?" He shakes his head; Oskar just shakes and nods his head at every question, and he'll continue to shake and nod until his stupid head falls off. But Lulu doesn't stop smiling, she doesn't faze at his absurd quietness and even if she has, she doesn't give him a single chance to notice. She still stares at him like he's one of the most interesting people she's ever met in her life, and she just keeps on smiling.

"Well, luck you, I love to." She giggles and Oskar doesn't really know how to respond, he's not quite sure if she's laughing at him or if, in an ideal world, he's meant to be doing it with her. Honestly, he's not quite sure what was even funny. All he knows is that she has the prettiest pale green eyes, similar to the colour of a green tree python which is both unique and kind of terrifying.

Oskar blows raspberries as he wrings his hands together and purses his lips, his own silence deafening him. Lulu just stands there and if she keeps standing there Oskar might feel so awkward, he'll puke and pass out at the same time. His mouth will fill with saliva and his vision will blur and he'll wish that the entire world swallowed him-and only him-completely whole so no one would ever have to notice him again.

Except for her. Maybe he'd be okay if she noticed him over and over. If he doesn't puke or pass out and embarrass himself in front of the only person that seems like fresh air.

"I'm not usually so forward. But, uh, you're cute." Her face scrunches and her cheeks bloom. "Turns out when you think someone's cute, you tend to do silly things." Boy, she can say that again.

Oskar nods. His neck is really starting to hurt.

"Do you mind if I sit with you? I mean, if you are going to sit. Honestly, maybe you really enjoy standing. You're super tall, so your legs must really cramp when you sit, I guess." Lulu rambles and Oskar's not sure he's ever heard someone spew so many words in such a short amount of time.

"But my legs are kind of hurting so would you want to sit with me?" She's so fucking cute, he thinks.

He lets out a heavy breath through his nose-an adjacent response to a laugh-and quirks the side of his mouth, turning and walking toward the table that had been practically yearning for his company. Oskar drops his bag to the floor and swings his legs over the bench, slumping and rounding his back.

"I know it must be weird," Lulu sits down across from him. "Or maybe rather annoying." Oskar raises his brows in question, a confused expression etching into the fine lines of his face.

"To live so comfortably in your own silence, only for some stranger to create noise." She chews her lower lip and the thought of pulling it out from between her teeth with his own hand causes a tiny shiver down his spine. "I hope I'm not disturbing you."

You, Lulu Loveberry, are just the disturbance I needed. The words run through his mind like a scratched CD stuck on loop, repeating the perfect line of a song over and over again. Oskar smiles shyly and shakes his head, his eyes flickering to the red packet that pokes out of her pant pocket. He points to it with a smile and then holds out his hand. Lulu looks down and laughs, retrieving the Skittles packet before handing it to him. Her laugh is so soft, yet it seems like the loudest sound in the air, the birds harmonising with the melody that falls from her mouth.

If this is the noise she plans on bringing, Oskar wants to turn it to the highest volume.