Warm

Three

I spotted my friends sitting in the cafeteria and made my way over to them.

Reese and Cora Clay, I met them in 7th grade and we instantly clicked.

"Hey Dean, could you be a dear and help me with this Spanish essay?" Reese asked, not looking up from their laptop.

Since I was fluent in Spanish I often found myself helping my friends with their Spanish homework.

"And by help you you mean write it for you?" I replied, raising an eyebrow.

"Do you really think I'd do that" they retorted, fake offended.

"Yes you would, infact I remember us being in a similar position once except it was bio that you had me do" Caity spoke, joining our table.

"I've been looking for you all day I have some tea to spill" Cora said, directing her attention away from her phone and to Caity.

"There's a new hottie in my homeroom, he has a bad boy kinda vibe" Cora gossiped.

I blocked out their conversation and focused on helping Reese.

The day seemed to drag on and every minute felt like an hour.

Throughout the day I kept hearing people talking about this new kid, though I never ran into him.

"Hey, you seen him yet?" Caity asked me at my locker.

"What the hell is everyone's deal today? I swear everyone in this damn school is talking about this kid" I said, kind of annoyed.

"Oh honey just you wait" she told me as we exited the school building, "now would you look at that, he's over there"

I followed her gaze and saw a boy leaning carelessly against the school, a cigarette between his teeth. He had faded pink shaggy hair with brown roots, but his head was turned in the other direction, away from me.

"We should introduce ourselves" Caity suggested, already walking over to him.

I hesitantly followed, keeping my eyes on the ground.

"Hi, Im Caity Wells, I know you're  new so I thought we should introduce ourselves" Caity said.

I could feel his eyes on me so I slowly met his gaze.

My heart practically shot out of my chest.

"Benny?"

I stared into the familiar blue eyes of my childhood best friend.

He looked different, obviously. He was taller, taller than me, though I consider myself shorter than average. He seemed to have more meat on his bones, unlike when we were kids. His hair was cut differently, shorter on the sides and more on top, it was a faded mix of pink and brown and kinda looked rose gold, maybe that was the idea?

His eyes were the same. A beautiful Caribbean blue. He's the only person I've met with eyes that beautiful.

"Hey Dean"