NOTES:

Hopefully I'll be able to finish this fic smoothly, haha.

The cover image is by finalmix13 on deviantart

Enjoy!

He always noticed her.

He couldn't help it when his eyes darted to her whenever she laughed, the sweet sound making his mouth inch up in response. Whenever she walked by him, her dark hair would emit the scent of strawberries. He couldn't remember the amount of times he had thought about burying his nose into her hair. Even her loud snores were so appealing to him- her room was next to his. Since his insomnia barely let him sleep, he could always hear her, and he thought what it would be like to curl up against her and wrap his arms around her.

He could never do those things in real life, though. If anything, Chris knew when to respect boundaries like the gentleman he was raised to be. If she didn't feel the same way, then he wouldn't force her to. It just didn't seem right.

Still, he knew being friends wasn't ever going to be enough.

The four friends decided that walking to school to enjoy the nice weather instead of having Danny drive would've been better, so they left the door, some of them still eating breakfast and others studying for a test that day.

It might've seemed weird to see four teens living in the same house together had they not known why they were living together. All of their parents- Wallow's, Danny's Chris' and Beth's had passed away when the building they had worked in caught fire. They could only find solace in each other and decided that living together would've been the only option. They decided that living in Chris' house-now theirs-would be best since his house was the biggest, and money wasn't an issue; their parents had made enough money that it became an afterthought.

Wallow and Danny had begun talking about which of the newer movies was better, and Chris watched Beth out of the corner of his eye. She had her glasses perched on her nose and she was looking down at her pre-calculus book, trying to study for the test she had today.

"What is it Chris?" She asked without taking her eyes off from her textbook.

He immediately jumped out of his skin and his face heated up- he didn't realize that he had been staring at her.

"W-what? Nothing! I wasn't staring at you or anything if that's what you mean." He wanted to smack himself for opening his big mouth.

She laughed. His heart skipped a beat.

"You know how he is, always starin' off into space and stuff," Danny chimed in, throwing his arm around Chris' shoulders and grinning.

"He's always been hella weird." Wallow shrugged, walking ahead to join Beth. She tucked her glasses in her blouse and asked Wallow questions about what would be on the test, to which he obliged with a big smile.

"Bro, just ask her out already. We've been watching you for years with this girl and it's damn obvious that you're crushing on her. Just ask her out and save all of this embarrassment, man." Danny's hand clapped on his shoulder as he shook his head in shame.

"What? No! Beth and I are just friends, man. I don't like her like that-yeah, I don't." Chris stared nervously from Danny to Beth, hoping that she couldn't hear the conversation that was going on.

Danny gave him a stern look that said, come on man, we both know you're a terrible liar.

Alright, he admitted that he may have a tiny. . . medium. . . big. . . okay, huge. He had a huge crush on this girl and he wanted nothing more than to kiss those lips that were smiling at him earlier. Ever since they were kids he thought she was this kick-ass girl who could take on the world. As they grew up, he began to notice her more and more that way and suddenly the urge to smooch on her became as big as the urge to share an ice cream with her.

"Yeah, you're right," He admitted hurriedly. "But how do I make her notice me? I mean, I can't force her to like me back-"

"Maybe you can."

"-But if can get her notice me, maybe I can work my way up, y'know?" Chris ignored Danny's weak jab at humor. They both stopped walking once they made it to the steps of the school.

"Look, if I learned anything from when me and Beth dated is that if you want her to notice anything, you have to be up front about it-she's a dense as a bag of rocks."

"Hey!"

Danny raised his hands defensively. "Just bein' honest, broseph. If you want her to notice you, do it with a bang." With that last phrase, he turned and gave a wave before he walked into the school and began to head to his Computer Science class.

"With a bang," Chris muttered, rubbing his mouth in thought as he began to make his way to his English class. A class he shared with Beth, of all people.

Her face was still buried in her textbook when he came into the classroom, but she immediately closed it once he sat in the desk next to her. She didn't have her glasses on her face this time, so she could now look at his face with her clear green eyes without any obstruction.

"What's up?" Beth chirped, brushing some stray hairs from her face.

"Nothin' much. Hey, how'd you feel about that episode of B.R.A.S.S. yesterday?" He didn't really want to focus too much on getting her to notice him just yet. All he really wanted right now was to talk to her.

Beth's mouth eased into a grin and he felt his mouth mimic hers in response.

B.R.A.S.S. was a Sci-Fi show they had stumbled upon about these kids who called themselves the Bravest Warriors and helped the galaxy, no matter how hard it was. It was a little cheesy, but pretty good. They never missed an episode.

"I didn't expect a fight on Zygraxis, and it kind of freaked me out a bit," She admitted, her hands making all sorts of gestures.

"Yeah, same! I thought the way Kirk handled it was really cool." He clenched his fist almost as a sign of solidarity for the fictional character.

"It was kind of-"

"Hey Chris, hey Beth!"

Plum Mére made her way over to the duo and gave Beth a hug in greeting. When she turned towards Chris, Beth took it as a sign that the conversation was over and turned back to face forward, her face a bit crestfallen.

Just as Chris was about to comfort the girl, Plum placed herself in front of his view, her mouth curving up into a slight smile.

" I know this isn't the best time since class is about to start, but I was wondering if you wanted to have lunch with me today?"

She had a slight accent which people tried to pinpoint as French (her surname was French after all), which she adamantly refused. If anyone listened to her long enough, she did have an accent, but it was probably somewhere else in Europe-maybe somewhere from the Nordics?

"Hey Chris! Did you hear me?" She waved her hand in front of his face, jolting him out of his thoughts.

"Yeah, sure," He said quickly, not remembering what question she asked but not wanting to be rude by asking her to repeat it.

"Great! See you at lunch, blond boy." Plum waved, giving him a wink as she went back to her desk.

Chris stopped breathing for a moment before he went to stare ahead at the chalkboard, hoping that his blush wasn't noticeable. He quickly glanced at Beth, hoping she didn't notice the flirty encounter.

One glance at her eyes told him she did.