Irrefutable Pining

          David Peer was just about ready to go to school. He had his sneakers on and his project that he had half-assed stowed away in his backpack. It was 6:45 AM on a Tuesday when the brown-haired boy shut off his kitchen light and ventured outdoors to his bus stop. The cold air nicked at his face; He checked the temperature, 24° F. Damn, he thought. I should have worn a heavier jacket.

       He slipped his phone back into his coat pocket after popping in his brand new and expensive AirPods. Nirvana played in his ears as he waited for his bus. The music was loud but it didn't really catch his attention. There was only one thought in his head, and it wasn't of "Smells Like Teen Spirit". No, it was of Adali Torres, the Latina beauty at his school. He had been infatuated with her for years now, ever since he first saw her back at William Henry Elementary School, it was like love at first sight and it had been growing more passionately and astronomically ever since then.

       Only a few people knew, and that was his friends Hunter, Chase, Brandon, and his makeshift "therapist" Chloe. She was friends with Adali. Not best friends, but she wasn't BFFs with him either. Sort of a middle man. Chase was sort of a brute force, not really interested in feelings. Hunter didn't really take things seriously, especially anything David had to say. And Brandon, he was only concerned with Paige, another girl at David's school, Central High.

       The bus pulled up a few feet in front of him and the doors opened. He stepped on and looked around. It was loud and smelled strongly of Axe body spray and sweat. Despite the depressing scene, he was pleasantly surprised to see an open seat next to Adali. He made his way over to her and plopped down into seat seven.

"Get in the van!" David exclaimed his signature line.

       "David, we're on a bus." Adali calmly replied, a small smile on her face. He supposed she was right, but to be honest, anything she said was right to him. She could tell him that Jupiter was the smallest planet in the solar system and if NASA said otherwise, it would lose all of his trust. He liked to think he was good at hiding it though.

      Anya, another girl who sat in the seat behind the two popped her head over the back of the seat.

"Stop being a creep David, Adali is not interested in living in your basement or running away to Florida with you!" The Indian girl scolded.

"That's not up to you to decide. Who knows, some people are into it." David nonchalantly replied. Anya replied with an exaggerated scoff.

"David," Adali chimed in. "I'm not interested in living in your basement or running away to Florida with you. We're fifteen."

"Someday you will. Just you wait." The boy replied, leaning back in the weathered, old bus seat.
           Adali then turned away and glanced at the passing home through the window.

~~~•~~~

       David sat at his usual lunch table, with the rest of his friends, whom his classmates had dubbed, "The White Boi Gang". That day he had chosen the fried chicken and Mac n' Cheese from the wide variety of shit the school provided for lunch. There was a conversation going on at his table but he wasn't very interested  in it.

       David was only focused on the fact that the curly haired girl he was crushing on was not in her usual seat, the next table over to him. Instead, she was sitting next to Chloe, deep in conversation. This confused the boy because the table Chloe sat at wasn't comprised of Adali's usual crowd.

       Instead, it was filled up with the overachiever academic kids who played Dungeons and Dragons; losers basically. Louis, he only wore sweats and had a speech impediment, but nonetheless was a smart kid. Lydia, she was the token Asian girl, good at class and dressed moderately trendy. Ryan, he was a 4,5" redhead who probably dreamed about discovering a new word to put into Webster's Children's Dictionary. Connor, he was the autistic kid who made it a mission to correct every teacher in the form of five minute rants. Anya, the Indian girl from before, you could find her pressuring her friends, who could all be found in that very table, to finish their group project and praise Jesus. And finally Chloe, the opinionated girl who sat next to Adali for the day.