I moved the toothbrush back and forth in my mouth as I stared at my reflection in the circular mirror. I hated the way I looked. I wanted to change it but whenever I brought up the idea to my parents, which mind you wasn't often because they're too busy working, they would dismiss it. You see, my parents hate change. They hate changing as people and they hate other people changing. They only prepare for what they expect and not the unknown. I was wearing jeans that were slightly baggy on me, a baggy white t-shirt, and Air Jordan One Retro trainers. I ran my Right hand through my shortly cut, straight and dirty blonde hair. I then looked in the mirror and just glared at the reflection that stared back with peircing, icy blue eyes, so icy in fact that they almost looked white and did look white in some lighting. I then made my way out of my house and to the bus station. I sat on it and patiently waited for my friends.

With my spectacular eyesight, I immediately saw my two best friends strolling up to me. They were in the middle of a conversation and their smiles turned into wide grins once they saw me. I put up my Left hand in greeting. My first best friend who I had known since I was born as both of our mums and dads were best friends with eachother. We were kinda forced and pressured to bond with another but I didn't actually have a problem with it and neither did he, we got along just fine and soon I knew things about him I probably shouldn't and vice versa. He was probably my favourite person. We are incredibly close in size, me being exactly six feet tall and him being six foot one and we are both skinny. He has light brunette hair in the exact same hairstyle as me (What a copycat), with dark green eyes that straight up look like emeralds. He also has a defined jawline but it's a bit sharper than mine, (Mine being angular.)

My second best friend wasn't originally my friend at first. He was actually Jayden's friend. We were all about seven at the time and Jayden eventually introduced him to me. My parents approve of him. You see, whenever I make a new friend (Which is rare) they have to get my parents' approval so I just choose to have two best friends and that's it. He is slightly shorter than the both of us so we always make fun of his height and in return he reminds us how we are long-necked giraffes (I don't need a reminder, thank you). His name is Kyle. He is skinny just like us (We're skinny kings) and is African-American with a buzz cut but also a small afro along with hazel eyes and a soft jawline.

He was wearing jeans that were snug on him, a white t-shirt with a yellow logo on the front, and a pair of Adidas shoes. Jayden was wearing straight, non-baggy, black jeans, a black short sleeved tee, and a pair of black Nike Air Forces.

"What's up, guys?" I asked them, grinning from ear to ear as I stood up and fistbumped Jayden with my right fist.

"The sky." He answered.

"Oh, very funny." I rolled my eyes then fistbumped Kyle. He said all he needed to say just with his smile. The yellow school bus slowly came to a stop in front of us and the double doors opened. We made our way up the three steps, me in front. I slid the driver my golden coin. He gave me a nod in return. I waited for Jayden and Kyle to pay and they did. We made our way to the right of the middle of the bus and I took the window seat, Jayden sat next to me and Kyle sat next to him.

Jayden smirked at Kyle. "How's it going with your girl, Kyle?"

Kyle's eyes widened. "It-Uhhhhhhh-Yeah, it's-good." He replied.

"Been with her for a week?" Jayden asked.

"Y-Yeah, about." Kyle stuttered a bit.

"Did you pop her cherry yet?" Jayden asked. I giggled quietly.

"What!?" His pupils dilated once again. "N-No. It's not that serious, Jay."

"You sure, Kyle?" He wiggled his eyebrows at Kyle.

"Sh-Shut up!" Kyle stammered.

Jayden and I burst out into laughter. That's when we suddenly came to a stop and the double doors opened. I was pretty sure I knew everyone that came onto the bus at least a little bit. So, I was pretty sure I had never seen the guy that was walking on. When I tell you he was HOT. He was gorgeous. My breath caught in my throat as I stared at him. He had bright, spiky, short red hair and each strand of his hair looked like a little flame. He also had bright, lime green eyes with specs of blue splashed into them. A couple of freckles were dotted all over his face. He wore lime green glasses, a dark green, zipped up tracksuit jacket, a Nike lime green shirt underneath, Nike dark green tracksuit bottoms and dark green and white Nike trainers. I didn't hear what the boy said but he slid his circular golden coin to the bus driver and he nodded at him. He then made his way over to the middle of the bus. His eyes scanned the entire vehicle, they even scanned over me. This was it. He was the one!

He whipped out his phone (which had a shiny, dark green phone case), placed his white airpods in his ears and sat down near us, more towards the front of the bus. He then began to doomscroll on TikTok. I leaned over to my best friends who were taking little glances at the boy.

"New guy is actually cute." I whispered. Jayden silently chuckled,

"Why don't you go talk to him then?"

I immediately started to stutter, "M-Me!? Talk to him!? Hell no!" I wasn't out of my mind.

"Coward." Jayden insulted me. I playfully shoved him as Kyle just watched us,

"Shut up!" I whispered. We continued to stare at him, me especially with my eyes practically glued to the guy.

Jayden chuckled then teased me by saying, "Dude, you're being so obvious. Just go talk to him already."

"And say what? 'Hey, I think you're cute, can I have your number?' Oh, please! I'll make a fool of myself doing that!" I quickly snapped back. Kyle and Jayden started to laugh.

"Come on, man. Where's your confident at? You won't know until you try." Jayden said to me.

"Okay, mum." I rolled my eyes and my best friends laughed hysterically. "Fine. I'll go talk to him." I gave in to Jayden's encouragement.

"That's the spirit, man. You got this." Jayden patted me on the back as I started to get up from my seat. I watched the new kid hum to the music in his air pods and my best friends silently cheered me on.

"Okay, I can do this. I just got to talk to him." I gave myself a prep talk. I finally got out of the aisle and before I could stop myself, I took a deep breath before slowly tapping him on the shoulder and I thought about what I was going to say. Nevermind, maybe I was out of my mind. The guy turned to look at me and pulled out his left airpod. I ignored the tightening in my pants. I cleared my throat and tried not to stutter,

"Hey! Mind if I set next to you?" 'For goodness sake Max, that voice crack was horrendous.' I thought.

"Sure." He shrugged, putting the airpod back in and closing his eyes. I smiled at him and sat down on his left, in the middle seat. I glanced at my best friends who were both watching the two of us and I quickly gave them a thumbs up to signal that everything was going well so far. The new kid just mentally vibed to his music. I shuffled in my seat for a second as I thought of a way to start of a conversation, but the only thing that he could think of to say was the most simplest thing, and that was:

"So, what's your name?" The guy didn't respond. I sighed and slowly raised my hand again, tapping his shoulder to get his attention. He removed the same airpod once again,

"Yeah?" He asked, facing me.

"I just wanna know your name." I smiled.

"People call me Flint." He gave a slight shrug and a slight smile. I leaned back in my seat.

"Flint? That's an interesting name. I like. It's uncommon to hear too." I told him honestly.

"It's not my actual name. It's a nickname." He explained. I nodded in understanding.

"If I can ask, how'd you get the nickname?"

"I love engineering and my mum's a Blacksmith so when I'm not playing video games, eating, drinking or sleeping, I'm usually helping her in our basement and I'm great at making fires so I'm called Flint." He explained, his smile getting wider. I silently chuckled.

"You must have a lot of hobbies, eh?"

"Not really. What's your name?"

I smiled and extended my hand towards him, "I'm Max. Max Driver."

"Nice to meet you, Max." He took my hand in his and shook it firmly before letting go. "So, is that Maxim, Maxwell or Maximus?" I loved getting this question, it was one of my favourites to answer.

"It's all three. It's Maximillian, but everyone just calls me Max since it's shorter." He gave a slight nod and put his Air Pods back in, leaning back but not closing his eyes this time. Oh God, was I boring him? Or maybe I was weirding him out? Or maybe- I once again looked back at Jayden and Kyle. Both of them gestured for me to keep the conversation going. I sighed and sat there for a moment, trying to think of what to say next. I went through an inner conversation within my own head to think of something to say, I didn't like awkward silences. In fact, I hated silence all together unless I was really longing for it for some reason. "Excuse me um, can I ask you a question?" Flint put his Air Pods back in his case which was in his bag and switched off his phone, also shoving it into his Nike black bag.

"What did you say? I couldn't hear you."

"I said can I ask you a question?" I thought he was about to say no but instead he went,

"Sure." I smiled as I was happy that he wasn't completely blowing me off like some other guys usually would. Flint's music drifted into my ears, it was faint for me but I imagine it was pretty loud for him.

"What's that song you were listening to? It sounds really good." He flushed and his pupils dilated,

"You could hear what I was listening to? But, I had Air Pods in." He looked so cute.

"Your Air Pods are kinda loud." I informed him, giving a little chuckle and a little smile.

"Damn it." He mumbled and looked down at his feet. I leaned forward to get a better look at his face,

"Are you embarrassed that I heard your song?" I started to tease him, being comfortable enough to do so.

"Uh-" He looked into my eyes and pouted. "No." He lied, knitting his eyebrows and slightly narrowing his eyes. A slight smirk tugged at the corners of my mouth.

"Really? You're not embarrassed at all?"

"Mm mm." He quickly shook his head once. The slight smirk grew,

"You're a terrible liar, you know that?" I made sure to let him know, continuing to tease him.

"Am not." He said, narrowing his eyes at me even more. I chuckled at his denial and took in everything to do with him: His defiant expression; the way his arms were crossed; the way he was slightly pouting.

"You look so cute when you're angry." I commented. 'Maaaaaaaaaax.' I thought, avoiding the urge to bite my lip in embarrassment.

"Cute?" He raised an eyebrow. 'Uh oh. Now, he's gonna shun me for being Gay. Great job, Driver.' "That's Gay bro." He said. 'I knew it.'

"It's not Gay if we both have socks on, right?"

"Yes, it is. You're a guy and I'm a guy and you calling me cute is proper Gay." He said matter-of-factly.

"I think the term you're thinking of is fruity, not Gay."

"Isn't that the same thing?"

"...No."

"Yes." He insisted. "You're proper Gay bro."

I chuckled. I wasn't afraid to admit anything about myself, not even to a guy I just met. Especially, not a hot guy like Flint. "I'm not afraid to say another guy is cute."

"You're a proper F****t bro." He said. 'Oh, God. Here we go. Lovely. Now, I gotta insult him but not directly stick up for myself so I don't fuck up my chances with him eventhough I'll probably never get together with him anyway judging by how judgemental he is of me but-' I stopped myself before I could overthink too much.

"If I'm that then you're a pretty stuck-up dickhead." 'Shit, should I have said that? What if-'

"Oh really?" Flint cut off my train of thought at the station before it could set off. "Is that so?" 'Okay, this banter is kinda giving though.' I decided to carry it on by continuing with,

"Yeah. You think you're the greatest thing in the world, yet you can't simply take a compliment without getting all defensive and calling me Gay."

"I don't think I'm the greatest thing in the world. That title goes to GTA Five and calling another guy cute is proper Gay. I'm not wrong." Okay, he had a point with the GTA Five statement. I adore that game. I was also starting to find it funny that he was getting really defensive. I loved irritating him and getting under his skin.

"Really? I think you're only disagreeing with me because you think I'm cute and you don't want to come to terms with it."

"Uh-" I left him speechless. Good.

"You're speechless now, how cute." I pointed out the obvious.

"Uh- I... Shut up, Millian. Where are you friends, huh? Not got any?"

"They're sitting in the row behind us." I shrugged my shoulders. "They're probably staring at us and listening to our entire conversation too. They love that kind of stuff." I heard Jayden and Kyle giggle at that.

"Kind of stuff?" He once again raised an eyebrow.

I leaned a bit closer to him, still smirking. "Yeah. One of them especially. He's like a little gossiper. He loves drama and hearing all the gossip about what people do." I peeked my head round the back of my seat to give Jayden a knowing look. I was right. Jayden was paying full attention and Kyle was half-paying attention to me and Flint. Jayden looked as though he was at the Cinema, watching a movie without the popcorn. He spotted me and winked at me. I sat back in my seat properly. Flint turned around, putting his hands on the top of the bus seat and peering over it at Jayden and Kyle.

"Well, hello there." He said.

"Ahhh, General Kenobi." Jayden completed Flint's Star Wars reference. "We weren't listening in." He said, completely dead-pan and clearly lying. He wasn't even trying to fool us. "We just happened to be looking in your direction and could overhear your conversation." I did the same as Flint so I could see my best friends.

"Hey! Don't drag me into this! It was all you!" Kyle protested.

"You're a terrible liar, you know that right?" Flint said to Jay. Those words sounded familiar to me for some reason. Had I said them?

"Oh, come on. I'm not that bad at lying." Jay protested.

"Uh-huh and I'm a magical Unicorn Fairy from the Land of Mystica." Flint said sarcastically.

"Yeah, we were listening in on your conversation. I was bored and it was interesting. This is the first time Max has actually talked to someone new in a while."

"We!? Again, I had no part in this." Kyle held up both of his hands in surrender.

"Does he have trust issues or something?" Flint asked. I was about to answer his inquiry, opening my mouth when Kyle cut me off,

"He doesn't have trust issues. He's just very picky about who he gets close to." It was slightly honest. Yes, I was picky about who I got close to but only because my parents had to approve of my friends first. Otherwise, I'd probably be befriending everyone I saw. Sadly, I can't so I choose to try and get with hot guys instead. My parents didn't know I was Gay so I could get with guys without them knowing. So far, I hadn't been caught within the twenty relationships I've had. What can I say? I'm a hopeless romantic.

"And why is that, my fellow citizens?" Then, the bus came to a stop at the curb outside the school.

"We're here, c'mon." I hopped out of my seat.

"Ugh." Flint groaned, slinging his bag over his shoulder and then onto his back. I moved into the aisle of the bus, stepped out onto the hard pavement and waited for him and my best friends. Flint stood in the double doorway. "What are you waiting for, Millian? Your Prince Charming or something?" He said, slightly sarcastically. I scoffed at his comment.

"Oh, please. You're just a cute, little smartass."

"Stop calling me cute." He knitted his eyebrows and hopped out of the yellow vehicle.

"Aww, you get all grumpy whenever I call you cute, don't you?" He ignored me and waited for Jayden and Kyle with me, both of whom had probably gotten stuck in the people traffic jam on the bus.

"What are your friends' names then?"

"The one who definitely had no part in Jayden's eavesdropping is Kyle and I just told you the other dude's name. They're both troublemakers."

"Ha, figures."

"Yeah, they're menaces to society. They've got a bit of a reputation here because they like to cause trouble for not only the teachers but other students too."

"So, how come you're friends with them then?" 'Wow, this dude was nosy. Just like Jayden.'

"Because, they're awesome." I gave an extremely basic but honest answer. My two best friends hopped out of the bus and we walked towards the School building. They were having a quiet conversation behind Flint and I.

"Are they also F*****s like you?" I resisted the urge to narrow my eyes at him or even smack him a new one.

"Well, Kyle has a girlfriend and Jayden is Bisexual. But, I'm the only Gay one in our friend group." I replied honestly.

"Wait..." His eyes widened, "You... You actually like boys?" Jeez louise, man. Had this doofus never met a single Gay guy in his life? Did he think they were fictional or something? Sure did seem like it. I stopped walking and raised an eyebrow.

"Uh, yeah? Did you actually not know? I thought it was kinda obvious."

"I thought you were joking." He said and I could tell he was being honest. "Putting on a funny act." He added. We began walking again.

"Nope. I was dead serious. I thought my little flirting made it obvious that I was actually Gay."

"You were flirting... With me?" He double-blinked.

"Yeah. You're a total cutie and I have a feeling you're gonna be a really cool friend."

"Since when were we friends?" He raised an eyebrow.

"We're friends now, aren't we? I don't know about you, but I think we have some chemistry going on here." I continued flirting with him and I heard Jay attempt and fail to cover up a little giggle with a fake cough.

"'Chemistry'?"

"Indeed, Flint. You've been blushing a lot during our interaction." I made him aware.

"Well aren't you socially aware?" He remarked. I picked up on how he was starting to get comfortable around me.

"Indeed, cutie~" I once again caused the blush to return to his cheeks.

"I'm not a cutie and I'm not a F****t either."

"I never said you were but you're starting to make me think with how flustered and defensive you're getting..." I was enjoying teasing the fuck out of him even more by the second.

"Not flustered, embarrassed!" We entered the School building.

"Embarassed, huh?"

"Listen, Maxi. I gotta go to the Principal's office now to get my schedule." He looked over his shoulder then back at me. 'Another nickname. This guy is on fire... His hair sure is-'

"Alright, I'll see you later then shortie."

"Uh- I am not short!" He looked about 5'11 so I was slightly taller than him.

"Yeah, you are. I'm 6'1 and you only reach my shoulder shortstack."

"Shut up, F****t." I heard him mumble. I gave a scoff and rolled my eyes, slightly amused but also slightly offended by the way he was speaking to me.

"Oh-ho, careful there shortie. Keep it up and I may stop thinking you're cute." I was convinced I would never stop thinking Flint is cute.

"I would love that."

"Is that so?" His cheeks darkened to a dark, beetroot red but he said nothing. He just once again narrowed his eyes at me while crossing his arms.

"You're so cute when you get flustered, it's adorable."

"I'm not adorable." He mumbled, turning away and beginning to walk away. Then, he turned back around. "I just realised I have no idea where his office is. Could you- Could you take me?" 'Ha. Look who's crawling right back.'

"Yeah, I can take you to his office. Follow me."

(YES. LET'S FUCKING GO. I'M SO HAPPY. I PASSED MY HIGHEST WORD COUNT IN A CHAPTER EVER WITH 3,700 WORDS. WHOOOO! 👏 ANYWAYS, I HOPE YOU ENJOYED. DON'T FORGET TO VOTE IF YOU DID AND LEAVE A COMMENT. LOVE YOU, GEMERZ 💙)