1 Chapter One

At school competition was key, the more electives you succeeded at, the more popular you became compared to everybody else. Matthew, being a very awkward and smart 16-year-old boy, wanted to fit in, fit in, and not have to be bullied again like at his other school. Bullied for his structure, being too lean and for looking like the typical nerd because of his big black square-shaped glasses. Matthew knows he's smart and he's not afraid of showing it. The harsh words he was told would get to him because even though he was strong, he believed every word they told him. The memories were still there, and being called names like stupid, ignorant, and worthless didn't help his self-esteem. It also affected the way he looked at himself and the way he looked at the things he did, as his passions. It affected his motivation to grow and become a better person in the future. His motivation seemed to deteriorate with every hurtful word they said.

When Matthew first came to the new school, to fit in the joined many electives that were his hobbies his passions but he never thought that he would have competition in the ones he was best at. He believed that if he occupied his mind with a lot of things he wouldn't have time to remember the horrible things he went through at his old school. Being in a 6a high school is a hard task, but having to deal with a person you don't like in almost every period makes things worse as a whole.

Matthew would do his best to avoid him by picking his electives at the most inconvenient times to avoid Collin but he always seemed to have that same boy every single time. They had met before he moved to the school through his friend Charlie so he knew Collin pretty well. He tried choosing times he knew Collin would be the most annoyed with yet Collin would somehow read Matthew's mind and be in the same class as him. In every class, he was always there with his wide grin. All the classes he wouldn't mind him being in his presence was missing. He was just there when Matthew didn't want him present. He remembers the first day he heard his name, Collin, from that day forward he sought to be better than him. Collin was only older than him by four months exact. Collin being born on January 7th, and Matthew was born May 7th of the same year.

Collin and Matthew had many things in common, actually out of all the electives they did they only had one or two that were different. They both loved art, orchestra, swimming, basketball, and cooking. Matthew liked photography and composing music while Collin loved acting and weightlifting. They would always compete with each other to see who made it to the end of the pool first, who had the best work of art, who would cook the same meal better, who would shoot the most three-pointers at a game, and who could get the best compliments from the Orchestra director since Matthew played violin and Collin played piano.

Matthew and Collin were so similar that they even shared the same best friend, Charlie. Charlie is a nineteen-year-old that lights up the room with happiness everywhere she goes. Her brown eyes, freckles, and blonde hair with purple tips helped her stand out even more. Charlie being 5ft 6in, two inches shorter than Matthew, was older than the both of them. Collin and Matthew would always tease her about it when they would hang out after school since Charlie was already attending college. Charlie would especially get mad when Matthew made fun of her around Collin because he's 6ft 2in. They all looked so different from each other, with many features that many find odd, but amazing that they can get along.

Matthew and Collin didn't get along because they were always competing but when it came to Charlie they would put their differences aside and be nice to each other for her. Charlie met them a long time ago but it wasn't until Matthew moved to the same school as Collin, did they get the chance to get to know each other more. Matthew, unlike Charlie, tried his best not to stand out too, even though he is such a huge part of the electives he is involved in. But to his luck, many found him somewhat cute because of his green eyes, jet black hair, lean body, and his glasses. Matthew hated his green eyes so to not make them stand out he never wore green. He mainly wore black, trying to blend in with everybody else; to be as average as he could until it was time to compete.

Today Matthew wore black jeans, a black plain t-shirt, and an oversized black hoodie like he always does. The fifth-period bell rang so Matthew puts up his stuff and heads towards the hallway. Leaving the art classroom, he enters a hallway full of colors both dark and bright getting a few hellos here and there. Everybody seemed happier than usual which confused Matthew because it was only a few days after winter break. As he turns the corner of the hallway heading towards his locker to put up his books he sees Collin hanging out with his usual group of friends. Unlike Matthew, Collin loved the attention, many found him very handsome and he knew he was. He made sure he would stand out from the rest, he wanted to be the best while looking his best. With blue eyes, light tan clear skin, muscular body, and curly brown hair many noticed him from a mile away.

"Happy Birthday Collin!" Joshua, Collin's best friend, screams from the other side of the hallway gaining everyone's attention. Collin turns around and smiles making Joshua run towards him and tackle him with a hug. "Dude you're finally seventeen! I'm so happy for you! Just one more year and you're outta here."

"Yeah, but Joshua please don't tackle me again. I'm not in football as you and I wasn't expecting you to push me to the ground." Joshua laughs saying sorry. Joshua helps Collin up and Collin joins the circle of Jocks.

It being Collin's birthday everybody was excited that it was Friday and that there was a party tonight. As he finishes putting up his books, many had already left for their classroom or lunch like how he is supposed to but instead, he decides to skip lunch. Matthew then enters the art room, being the place he always goes to when it's time for lunch and continues his art piece from the day before. As he finishes, he admires every detail, every color, and texture of his portrait. Matthew was so proud of himself and truly for once was fully satisfied with his masterpiece. Once he is done, he puts it up, being done earlier than usual, and heads out.

Instead of walking out into the empty hallway, as he opens the door he bumps into someone. He quietly whispers "sorry" as he looks up to see he ran into, and to his luck it's Collin. They look into each other's eyes, there's silence, no one was around because they were either at lunch or in the library leaving them both alone. Matthew waits for Collin to move or to hit him forcing him out of the way but he does no sudden movement, he just scans Matthew's face making Matthew uncomfortable. He looks at the ground and says excuse me and quickly Collin apologizes and lets Matthew leave.

Matthew leaves surprised he even came across him, he is always in the lunchroom socializing which confused him on why he decided to go to the art room. He brushes it off, Maybe he wants to express himself too, I mean he is in art he thinks and heads to the library. He goes down the horror section like he usually does and picks up a book from the shelf and starts reading what it is about. Losing his interest after only reading the first chapters he puts it back. Then he goes down further the aisle, he can smell the books, both old and new, along with the smell of fresh ink that Matthew loves so much. Finally, he spots a book that captures his interest. The title was familiar and he remembered how many people kept recommending it to him.

He looks around, no one is in sight, the book is on the very top of the shelf. He tries to reach it, even having to get on his tippy toes but it's no use. No matter how hard Matthew tried he still couldn't reach it. He looks down the aisle for a ladder or a stool but none are in sight. He sighs, Maybe if I jump up I will be able to reach it. I mean I am in basketball and with that, he convinces himself to jump up to reach it. He jumps up, reaches the seventh one. Dang it, common Matthew, you can do this! Matthew thinks and tries to motivate himself.

He tries and jumps again, he barely reaches the sixth shelf with his fingertips. He sighs, Oh well I'll just read something else, Matthew sighs as he finally gives up. He turns around and jumps cause he gets scared because instead of an empty aisle Collin was standing right in front of him. What in the world? Wasn't he just in the art room? Man, it seems like he is following me everywhere I go.

"Do you need help?" Collin asks getting closer to Matthew. Matthew backs up bumping into the shelf with a slight blush rising to his cheeks.

"Yes, please. I was trying to reach the book that is on the very top of the shelf but um... I'm too short to reach without a ladder or a stool." Matthew looks at his feet, feeling embarrassed he had to ask for help.

"What is the book called?" Collin asks already scanning the shelf trying to guess which book Matthew was interested in.

"Umm... It's called The Shining by Stephen King" Matthew mumbles quietly feeling nervous and anxious with having Collin so close to him. Collin moves even closer, making Matthew think how can we possibly be so close to each other without physically touching? Matthew looks at his feet, he's not used to people invading his personal space. Collin then lifts Matthew's face, with his fingertips on his chin, and they look into each other's eyes.

Collin leans in and whispers in Matthew's ear

"Can you repeat that? You were mumbling." He shivers, feeling chills roll down his spine.

"The Shining... The Shining by Stephen King" Collin then let's go of Matthew's chin, backs up, and skims the top row again. Finally spotting it, Collin reaches for the book, standing on his tippy toes and gets the book with much more ease than Matthew. Collin then hands the book to Matthew, feeling as if electricity ran through his body when their hands slightly touched. They look into each other's eyes, Matthew waiting for Collin to let go of the book, to stop touching each other's fingertips, but Collin doesn't let go.

"Thank you" Matthew whispers hoping Collin will let go, but there is no sudden movement. Matthew had never felt like this, for anyone it only seemed to confuse him even more.

"Anytime. Just call for me and I'll help." Collin says sounding sincere. Matthew blushed, Collin had never been that nice to him, no one had been that nice to him since the first day of school.

"Collin! Collin, are you in here!?" Joshua calls out from the entrance. Collin faces the entrance seeing his best friend and smiles.

"Yes! I'll be there in a sec!" Collin yells backs at Joshua having the librarian yell at them to be quiet feeling annoyed, then he turns his face back to Matthew and whispers "I... I got to go. Umm... See you in Orchestra then?" Matthew nods and with that Collin smiles and lets go of the book. Collin heads towards the entrance and as Collin turns the corner, Matthew finally lets go of the breath he didn't even know he was holding. Why do I feel like this when I am around Collin? Matthew thinks as he shakes his head maybe it's because I am used to avoiding him? and heads to his favorite spot to read.

Matthew then sits on the couch by the window, seeing all of the students out the window outside talking. He sighs, opening the book to the first chapter and begins reading. Little did he know that after talking to Joshua, Collin stayed and watched him read from the distance.

Not much time passes, Matthew would guess ten, fifteen minutes or so, and the bell rings to announce it was passing period. Matthew then quickly checks out the book and heads to his photography class. As he enters the class and takes a seat, Mrs. Mayweather, the photography teacher assistant, was already taking attendance while Mrs. Clent, the photography teacher, and Mr. Clay, the theater arts teacher, set up the classroom for the day.

After attendance, finally, Mrs. Clent announces that they are going to be working on a project with the theater arts class this whole week and that they must cooperate in other to pass. "This project is going to be worth sixty-five percent of your grade this six weeks so you cannot fail this assignment or you will fail our class. We put everyone in alphabetical order between both classes and Mrs. Mayweather is going to read out the list so you know who your partner is according to the order while I speak with Mr. Clay about how we are going to arrange you."

With that, she leaves to the other side of the room with Mr. Clay while Mrs. Mayweather started reading out the names. Matthew ignores her for a while, not knowing who most of the students were didn't quite intrigue him to listen to. Until finally he hears a familiar name.

"Matthew Johnson and Collin Jones, Carly Lee and...." Matthew tunes out the rest of the names said. You have got to be kidding me. Out of all of the people in the world, there couldn't be a person between us. Matthew looks around the room, in hopes that Collin is somehow out of nowhere absent even though he saw him not long ago, and Matthew groans as he hears Collin call his name behind him. Matthew turns around and to his luck, Collin is only a few inches away.

"I guess we didn't have to wait till orchestra huh?" Collin whispers making Matthew gulp and take a few steps back causing Collin to slightly frown but quickly shake it off and move on. Why did he frown? It almost seemed like he wanted to be close to me but it can't be. Right?

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