The shoelace on my right shoe is undone. The boy behind me is walking too fast. I'm going to trip. I'm going to trip. The floor is going to be cold. It's going to hurt my cheekbone. He might trip over me if I fall. I don't want to cry in front of everyone.

"Make a left here, Dani." Mrs. Elle says, ten students in front of me. I'm going to trip. The scabs on my arm are starting to burn again. My toe is too big for this shoe, it's going to leave another blister. As if I don't already have enough.

"He said he likes Riley Smart, Elizabeth, this is serious shit." I hear behind me. Oh, no, not another angry girl friend coming my way. I don't even want to date. I dated someone for a week in seventh grade and that was terrible. Plus I'm only fourteen, this is freshman year, I should be thinking about my education, not boys or girls or anyone in between.

Except, the boy in math is pretty cute. Shawn. Ugh. He got taller than he was last year, too. We have good chemistry. I'm too shy, though.

"Riley?" Luke speaks, putting his hand on mine. "Are you listening?"

"Something about your band? I-I'm sorry, I'm really tired."

"It's alright. I was asking if you're open to making our relationship public yet? I mean, I'm fine, but the guys at Modest really need more drama for the band. It's up to you, though, they know you don't want to." I watch his teeth scrape over his pink bottom lip, and take a deep breath.

"Sure."

"Huh? Wait, are you sure, though? There's no pressure."

"Sure, Luke. I love you, I don't care what the media wants to say about it."

He beams, and I get butterflies in my stomach. I love that I still get that feeling from his smile. "Great, I'm going to go call them." He kisses my cheek. "I love you too."

I figure it'll take a few days for how it'll be announced to be planned out, so I should go shopping before it's labelled a sighting. "I'm gonna go out, babe." I say, before driving out to the mall. Did I mention I finally got a car? The past few months I've been using a rental or Luke's, but now I have a beautiful light green Prius. Ah, the luxury.

I went walking around Kohl's for an hour, maybe. I don't know why I said yes to Luke. I don't think the drama will get to me, but I definitely don't want to be famous. That's the whole reason I don't tell people my name on social media or on the fanfiction website. Which I haven't even written on in five months. Even if I did want to be famous, I don't want my reason to be who I'm with. I want to earn it.

"Riley?" I hear for the second time today. Oh great, here it comes, maybe they already announced it. I look up from my smoothie, and my eyes widen.

"U-Uh, hey." I stutter, as my cheeks go red.

"Shawn." He reminds me.

"I-I remember." I say nervously. He sits across from me, while I try to remember how to not actually like a smitten little fourteen year old. "How are th- um, you- How are things?"

He grins. "Great. Second year of college. What about you, how are you? You kind of just disappeared in highschool."

"Oh, right," I smile, "I went on tour? With 5 Seconds of Summer. And then I dated- Well, I still am- dating the lead singer? Which sounds more crazy now that's it's being said out loud?" I laugh.

"Really? Hm. That makes my life sound boring." He chuckles. Afterwards he bites his lip, and I start hating myself for getting butterflies. "Well, I graduated and am in community college now... No famous bands liked me enough I guess." He laughs. "I moved to Los Angeles for my girlfriend but we didn't work out, so I'm single aaand yeah, shit, your life really is more exciting than mine."

"Yeah, because I was always so exciting." I laugh, and roll my eyes.

Shawn shrugs his shoulders, and takes a drink of whatever's in his cup. "You were to me."

"What?" I ask. Memories of high school come back and I suddenly come to the conclusion it's a dare.

"I don't want to overstep because I know you have a boyfriend, but I liked you for most of high school." He blushes. "Really sucked when you left."

"O-Oh. Th-That's interesting." I stutter.

"Sorry, am I being weird? I feel like I'm being weird."

"Not at all, if anyone's being weird it's me."

"I caught you off guard in a shopping mall and then confessed my high school crush to you, I think I'm being the most weird."

"Oh yeah? Well I can't say anything authentic and keep stuttering, so there."

"Pfft, I'm wearing shorts." He stands up, "Look at this. I don't even like shorts."

"You hate shorts." I nod. "Those shorts particularly are terrible. What is that pattern?"

"Hawaiian I think? I don't even know the pattern of my clothes! I'm being the most weird."

"Ultra weird."

"Ultra weird, yes." He chuckles.

"If it helps, I'm wearing a dress. And you know how I feel about dresses."

"You do not like them."

"I do not." I smile. "We're being equally weird. We're twenty year olds in a weirdness competition. In public."

"Ugh, you know my major is math? I'm a mathematics major, Riley."

"Good lord, what went wrong?"

"Everything." He sighs, and dramatically swoons out of his chair. I laugh, while five different people look over at us.
.

Notes

Y'ALL I'M IN HIGH SCHOOL AND I FUCKING LOVE IT AND THERE'S THIS GORGEOUS GUY SHAWN IN MY MATH CLASS AGH ALSO IM SO SORRY I'M NOT POSTING I NEED TO END THIS OR GET BACK MY WRITING ABILITIES BC I HAVE SUCH WRITERS BLOCK IMA DIE. ALSO THIS IS SET IN LATE SEPTEMBER. COOLIO. I DIDNT REREAD IT BC I NEED TO STUDY BUT I HOPE ITS DECENT I AM TRYING TO MOVE THE STORY IN THE DIRECTION I WANT IT IN BUT IM SO TIRED ALL THE TIME BLEH

LOVE YA BEANS
JUPITER