I've been watching him from across the room for a while. He's stood in the corner with his friends, laughing occasionally. His smile is beautiful, it lights up the room the same way he did when he walked in. I feel completely and utterly enamored by him. As I'm staring in awe, he looks over in my direction. We make eye contact, he smirks shyly at me, and my cheeks heat up. I instantly break the eye contact, and stare at my shoes, as if they're the most interesting things in the room. I timidly look up and see him walking over to me.

My mind goes blank.

I'm still blushing from when he looked over at me earlier.

I should try to steady my breathing.

But before I can even think about calming down, he sits on the sofa, right next to me. A few seconds go past before he speaks to me. It's not an awkward silence, though, it's more of a comforting silence. His presence calms me down, and I wonder why I was even mildly freaking out a few moments ago.

"Hey," he says "I'm Josh"

I don't know how to describe his voice, other than gentle.

"Josh", I repeat. The dusty pink haired boy now has a name. I like that name. "I'm Tyler"

I give him my hand and he shakes it.

"You looked pretty bored, I just thought I'd come say hey"

"Yeah" I almost laughed "I don't wanna be here"

"Same here! I know the guy hosting, I didn't wanna just not show up, ya know?"

I didn't know, but I nodded in agreement.

"What's your story then? How did you end up at a party you quite obviously don't want to be at?"

"Friends dragged me here, said I need to try and meet new people"

"Well then, mission complete!" He laughed, "You've met me!"

His laugh is contagious and makes me smile.

"You're right, I suppose. I guess that means I can go home now, huh?"

"By all means. But do you really want too? This party sucks, and It'll suck a whole lot more if I haven't got someone to chill with"

He has a point. I don't really want to be here, but now Josh is here, he's at least making this experience worthwhile.

I fiddle with the sleeves of my hoodie, and Josh sips the last of his beer. We both watch the party from the sofa for a moment or two. Again, we sat in a comfortable silence before Josh spoke up again.

"Y'know, you don't seem like the party type at all, and this party isn't half as fun as I expected it to be. You wanna get out of here? Go somewhere quiet, maybe? It'll be easier for us to talk"

It's almost like he can read my mind. I'm slightly hesitant to leave the party with an almost stranger, but I agree. He stands up and offers me his hand as I stand up. I take it and feel myself blushing again. We make our way to the back door and head out onto the back porch. The sky has turned from dark blue to totally black now, but the stars are still so bright.

"The park?" Josh asks me.

"The park" I agree.