Wesley Crusher sighed quietly into his drink. He was alone at Guinan's bar again. Staring wistfully over at that boy he'd seen in a couple of times. But he just couldn't go over and talk to him, even though Wesley thought he was uber cute.
Even his mother didn't know that he'd never liked girls that way. This was his first crush, on a boy, about 17, same age as him, and he didn't know what to do about it. The boy was surrounded by friends of both genders, laughing light-heartedly.
Suddenly, he looked over Wesley's way. Cheeks burning, Wesley averted his eyes. When he looked up, the boy was saying something to his friends, and rising from his seat. Oh no. He was coming over. Wesley's palms were sweaty in his lap as he freaked out. The boy would politely tell him to stop staring. Or maybe worse – he'd call Wesley a weirdo, a freak?
But as the boy approached and Wesley saw this cuteness close up, he saw a smile? A really friendly, super cute, nice smile.
"Hi," the boy sat down, still smiling, beaming. "I'm Darren. I noticed you were staring and-"
"I'm sorry," Wesley blurted out. Trying to calm down, he continued in his logical reasoning voice. "I just thought you were cute, and I." His mouth went dry. He'd really said it.
"Well, you're in luck," the boy smiled again, effortlessly oozing charm and attention onto Wesley, which unnerved him, because he'd never had that before. "Because I think you're cute too."
He was smiling, leaning in, genuinely interested, Wesley realised, and a slow smile plastered itself onto his face as they began to talk…