The ringing of the school bell echoed throughout the building, which told the students that their evening lessons were over. They could finally go home and relax for the evening. The mixture of chit chat as the crowds exited making their way home spread out through the area.
One man was standing outside, waiting for someone. His green eyes fixed onto his watch, 3:10.
"He should be out any minute." He muttered under his breath, hoping that he didn't get detention again. The attention of his eyes snapped away from his watch to focus on a dark haired boy in school attire sprinting towards him.
"Hey Antonio, sorry I'm late." The boy shouted, frantically waving his arm.
"Hey Lovino." Antonio happily greeted to the boy.
"We had to stay behind an extra 5 minutes because someone stole something and the stupid teacher wouldn't let us go."
"Some people..." Antonio said, rolling his eyes. "I want to tell you something, since we are close friends."
Lovino's green eyes fixed to meet Antonio's as he explained this, heart pounding in his chest.
"I have a crush on someone." Antonio confessed, laughing nervously. Lovino just stood there in complete shock, trying to grab words from the whirlwind which was now his thoughts. A warm feeling flooded into him which appeared on his face as a blush.
"Who?" Lovino stuttered.
"It's a secret." Antonio smiled.
"So you said that and won't tell me who it is?" Lovino huffed.
"Mhm." Antonio nodded. "I'm sorry, but you were the only one I could trust."
'He trusts me with that information? He must be looking for advice.' Lovino pondered, trying to find the right way to say it.
"Well, I suggest you tell that person, what have you got to lose?" Lovino commented, stomach lurching.
"I'm not sure whether that person likes me back."
The words of Antonio never exited his thoughts, constantly on repeat and wondering why he had a warm feeling radiate inside of him everytime. Lovino picked up that Antonio's words were being directly aimed at him. But, that can't be right, they were best friends and nothing more. The warmth and butterflies woke up, contradicting his thoughts. If they were best friends then why was he feeling this wonderful feeling?
Night came and it was extremely clear. Lovino decided it'll be best to sit outside and enjoy the twinkling of the stars to get his mind off stupid Antonio and his words. He grabbed a book and wrapped up warm, saviouring the peaceful and quiet night sky and indulging in his book.
Suddenly, something caught his attention and he ripped his green eyes off the book and focused on the night sky.
Comets shot by, stripping the cool night sky. The boy peered at them, then he remembered. They were called shooting stars and in one book he read that some people believe that if you wish at a shooting star that wish would come true.
Lovino snickered at the very thought of people believing such nonsense. Then he reconsidered and stared at the sky, it was worth a shot, right?He pressed his hands together, squeezed his eyes tight and wished in his head that the one he most truly loves would just confess his emotions attacked him and an urge to just tell someone flooded into him. This was driving him completely insane. He just had to spill his feelings to someone soon.
Days turned to weeks and the two still remained best friends and Lovino started to get frustrated. Lovino focused onto the bus stop as he stepped towards it, seeing Antonio sitting there, humming happily to the music he was listening to. He cussed under his breath, not looking forward to seeing him.
"Hey Lovi" Antonio chuckled.
"Hey." Lovino mumbled, fixing his eyes on the pavement, tracing the cracks with his eyes.
"You look sad. What's wrong?" Antonio asked in a worried tone.
"Nothing, I don't want to talk about it." Antonio just shrugged it off, thinking he was just tired. After all, he would have said if anything had happened.
Antonio spent the whole day worrying about Lovino and images flashed in his head of his sad face. He sat in class, vacantly looking out of the window and fiddling with his pencil to try and pass the time. He resisted the urge to fix his eyes onto the clock, but every second felt like hours.
Finally, school had finished and he met Lovino in the same place. But Lovino seemed distant towards him.
"Are you sure you're ok?"
"How many times do you have to ask me that, YES I'm fine."
Antonio narrowed his eyes in suspicion, that didn't really seem convincing.
"Look, don't worry about me." Lovino sighed. "I guess the upcoming exams are stressing me out."
"Well, try not to worry about them. You can't think with a tense head."
"I will, cya Anton."
Antonio smiled and waved at the boy who sprinted off to his house.
"Some wish that was." Lovino muttered under his breath standing underneath the night sky. The dull light from the full moon cast on him as he stared up to space.
"Yes, you there. Grant me my fucking wish!" He shouted, pointing to one of the twinkling stars. "Hmph!" He sighed and slumped himself down on the lawn chair. Maybe he should confess instead of waiting for that idiot. "I want my wish, ok?"
Antonio knocked on the door of Lovino's house, he was really concerned about his best friend. He wanted to make him feel better, but his ears pricked up and he heard talking. 'That sounds like Lovi.'
He headed towards the direction of the chattering and hid behind a wall, giggling at the silliness of Lovino mumbling to himself. But his voice changed and went hoarse with emotion.
"I just want him to confess, I know he loves me back." Antonio heard Lovino mumble which made him blink, puzzled at what it meant. That is until he felt the gaping hole like his insides had been crushed. His feelings tore through him so fast and his only instinct was just to run. Not thinking clearly, he launched off running in the other direction back home not caring about his legs burning.
Antonio arrived back home, gulping in as much air as possible. He stumbled and wheezed, heading towards the shower to try and relax his weak and burning muscles. All that came to mind during the shower was Lovino and his ranting about someone confessing love.
The sun rose, peeping through the curtains and Antonio clambered out of bed, not his usual cheery self like he was every morning. The thought of calling in sick crossed his mind so he didn't have to face Lovino.
'No!' Antonio thought, sighing to himself. His stomach twisted whilst he admitted to himself that he couldn't escape Lovino forever. He fought back the urge gnawing at his mind and got dressed in his usual school attire, staring at himself in the mirror to see his green, bloodshot eyes glaring back. He felt sick to his stomach so he skipped breakfast, sighing to himself and headed out. Thoughts flooded his mind, maybe he did overreact to last night.
Antonio stooped towards the bus stop, wishing for the first time since they met that Lovino wouldn't be there waiting for him. He raised his head, shielding his eyes from the bright sun and there Antonio caught a glimpse of dark brown hair of a person sitting at the bus stop, as his heart thumped in his chest telling him that could only be him. He dug in hands in his pockets and kept his head down when Lovino called his name, begging for it to be less painful.
"Antonio! You're late." Lovino huffed "I missed my bus."
"Sorry, I got caught up in something."
Lovino stared at Antonio for a few moments, something didn't seem right. He seemed so distant and vague.
"Your eyes they are bloodshot, what's up? Pressure of the exams?" Lovino asked.
"Yeah, I had a studying marathon." Antonio lied, feeling a prang of guilt poking at his insides. He didn't like lying at all, especially to a good friend like Lovino.
"You would tell me if there was something wrong, right?"
"Of course."
After the awkward bus journey and listening to Lovino chattering away about exams, Antonio sat in the middle of the first exam of the day, his eyes kept wondering to Lovino who seemed frustrated with the questions. He couldn't help but smile at the quiet angry muttering and scribbling of his best friend. Antonio couldn't deal with it anymore, every inch of his body was screaming at him to reveal his feelings and to hold him close, feeling his warmth and smell stimulating his senses.
But he was just too tense to focus on the exam, his eyes kept fixing onto what Lovino was doing. Finally he managed to write some answers down and focus more on the exam by pretending Lovino wasn't in the room.
The bus ride home with Lovino wasn't any less awkward than before. Everytime Lovino spoke, he felt a prodding which woke up the butterflies in his stomach. The urge to hold Lovino close was just unbearable. He just had to know who he was talking about back then otherwise it'll drive him mental. He sighed and threw his bag on the sofa. Home sweet home. He switched on the TV and relaxed a little, a headache growing. The evening news on the TV reported that there will be a meteor shower tonight.
'That'll be fun to watch with Lovi' He thought, sighing sadly. It wasn't good for him to have these feelings, he should really let Lovino go because that'll just cause the both of them more pain. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't. It wasn't like a switch where you could turn it off instantly. These things take a lot of time and patience. He decided to distract himself with the late night meteor shower, even though he had to be up early the next day for school. The twinkling of the stars spread out across the vast sky and Antonio sat with a blanket, staring to the side, wishing so badly Lovino was cuddled up next to him. The meteors shot across the night sky, making small white slits in the sky. He held in his breath, shut his eyes and put his hands together in a prayer formation and whispered his one and only wished he hungered for so bad.
"Please let Lovino love me back." The thoughts of his wish died down as a sharp knocking came from the front door, Antonio scrambled to his feet. Who could it be at this time? He marched to the door, pretty annoyed, but all that faded away when he opened the door.
"Lovi?"
Lovino said nothing, the two just stood there, awkwardly until Lovino broke the silence.
"Antonio, how long have we been friends?"
"Since we were little, why?"
"Because aren't friends supposed to damn well tell each other things?"
"I'm sorry, I haven't really been feeling myself." Antonio fixed his eyes on the floor, tearing his green eyes away from Lovino's angry ones.
"What's wrong?"
"No, it's stupid."
"Can't be that stupid if it's bothering you."
Antonio sighed, Lovino was right. Lovino didn't back down from things like that and he wouldn't give up until Antonio told him. He took a deep breath and squeezed his eyes shut and let his mind flow into his mouth.
"Look, I'm really sorry, but I was worried about you and I came to your house to see whether you were ok and I..." Antonio explained, pausing to conjure up the right way to say it as the pressure of the anxiety seeped into his voice. "I heard you talking about someone you loved and I don't know why but my first instinct was to run."
"Someone I love?" Lovino repeated, his eyes widened in realisation.
"Yes, I got upset about it, silly isn't it?
Lovino didn't even know how to reply to that, he was dumbfounded about the whole thing. This was unexpected. His brain then caught up with him and he figured out what to say next.
"It's not." That's all he could say to buy more time to think of something else to say.
"Well, that someone I love..." Lovino trailed off and blushed, his heart thumped in his throat and anxiety hit him. "It's you."
Antonio's ears pricked up, did he hear that correctly or was his subconscious playing with him?
"But why me?"
"You're always smiling and I don't know, it just sort of happened." Lovino explained, a knot present in his throat, but he managed to choke out his heart.
"I feel the same way about you too, Lovi." Antonio replied, his voice shaking with the mixture of nervousness and shock.
"You do? Well, I guess I felt it." Lovino felt his face going all hot.
Antonio pulled Lovino into an embrace, one of which Antonio was longing for for an exceptionally long time. Lovino's scent clung to Antonio's nose, a sense of comfort flooded into him and feeling his warm breath catch his skin sent shivers down his spine.
They both stared into each other's eyes whilst in the embrace, Lovino pulled his face closer towards Antonio and their lips met. It felt so right and heavenly, euphoria poured into both their bodies as they shared their first kiss. They broke away from the kiss. Antonio couldn't help but have this wide grin on his face.
"Hey stop grinning, you're annoying me." Lovino teased.
"I can't help it, you're just so cute." Antonio retorted, winking.
The simple action made Lovino's face turn a nice cherry red, he knew that Antonio did that on purpose to spark that reaction.
"Do you want to watch the rest of the meteor shower with me?" Antonio asked.
"Ok, fine."
They sat there, hand in hand with Antonio resting on Lovino's chest watching the stripes appear in the sky.
"You know, I did the same thing before you arrived too, wished to the shooting stars." Antonio happily announced "I wanted it to happen so badly."
"I suppose wishes really do come true then."
