“Do you like anyone?” Becca asked.

Becca came to their table for the first time two weeks ago and since then she’s sat with them almost every day. When she wanted to stand they had space, and when she wanted to sit they all squeezed into each other like one big happy claustrophobic family. Becca would often bother Finley for her own entertainment but sometimes she’d ask everyone on the table a question.

Delilah raised an eyebrow while pressing a makeup brush on her face, “Not really.”

“Surprising. Figured you of all people would be dating someone, or interested in someone at least,” Becca said before choking and waving her hands, “I’m not trynna call you a…whore or anything,”

“I am with someone, you don’t have to like them to date them,” Delilah clarified as she set the brush down on the table and then dug through her bag, “and I don’t care if you were calling me a whore or not.”

Becca laughed awkwardly while rubbing the back of her neck

Libby blinked her eyes rapidly, while her features were twisted in faint discomfort. She’d looked uneasy since they sat down at the lunch table, and Frankie figured it was because of another failed diet- her lunch tray had a hot dog and fries on it for the first time in three weeks, the diet was clearly over. Still, she should be proud of herself, this was the longest she’d ever lasted.

“I don’t think it’s right for you to put your makeup on while at the dining table,” Libby blurted, her brows raised in concern, “I didn’t wanna say, but…it’s a bit unhygienic don’t you think?”

So the diet wasn’t what she was torn up about.

Delilah looked up from her mirror, lazily, and looked right back down, “This isn’t a dining table.”

“It’s a place where people eat.”

“Really? Didn’t notice.”

Libby shook her head and turned away.

“How about you Lucy?” Becca asked after having recovered from the awkwardness of her interaction with Delilah.

Lucy stared at her, “No.”

“...Okay, that’s nice,” Becca said nodding her head slowly, expecting Lucy to look away but she just kept staring, “Are you okay…?”

“I’m fine,” Lucy said before turning back to her meal.

“That’s…good,” Becca said faintly before turning to Emery, “Emery?”

“Relationships are distracting for young people.”

Libby rolled her eyes, Delilah raised a brow, and Becca’s smile froze.

“I guess..?” She said, “So…”

“No, I’ve never been in a relationship.”

Becca smiled, “I asked if you liked someone not if you’ve dated…whatever. Frankie?”

“Yeah…?” Frankie replied.

“Anyone you like?”

“No…” Frankie said.

Her eyes lingered over him for a moment, “That’s too bad, I thought it was gonna be me,” She said, turning to Finley right after.

“What about you, Finley?”

Finley looked at her with surprise, he was fixing the bow in his hair when she spoke to him.

“You still having trouble with the bow?” Becca asked. She went to him and took the pink bow from his hands.

“Yeah,” Finley said, “It’s too finicky.”

He moved his head backwards, and Becca laughed.

“I don’t need to see your face- I need your hair,” She said while pushing his head forward.

Becca ran her fingers through his hair for ages and didn’t seem like she was actually going to put the bow in his head.

“Stop playing with my hair,” Finley said.

“I can’t help it.”

Becca tried putting it in his hair after a while, but each time she tried it would fall off without fail. “It’s probably getting old,” Becca said.

“It’s been ages,” Finley retorted, taking it from Bella. Turning the bow around and fiddling with it in his hand.

Becca huffed, and held her hand out, “I’ll try again.”

Finley dodged her attempt at trying to get the bow, “It’s okay, I don’t need to wear it,” He said, stuffing it into his pocket.

“What? We’re supposed to be matching today,” Becca complained with downturned eyes, as she pointed to the blue bow in her head.

“We don’t need to match, we're not five are we?”

Becca’s eyes narrowed, "We're literally walking around with bows in our heads and matching clothes. We are five."

Finley stared at her back, and one whatever match they had between each other.

“Okay. Fine. But it looks nice on you, it makes you look pretty,” she said, relenting.

“Thanks,” he said with a tight smile.

Becca grabbed his shoulders abruptly and Finley furrowed his brows in surprise.

“Do you like someone?” her lips rose as she asked, finding something funny. “Stupid question, if you liked someone,”— her smile died down as she watched Finley’s face— "...I’d know.”

Finley turned away from her, lips pursed and face reddened.

“No….” he said, “…there’s no one.”

***

There was obviously someone.

Even if he wasn’t so red, the way he reacted gave it all away.

Frankie was happy he couldn’t blush, otherwise every single guy he’s had a crush on would know it loud and clear.

Liking someone was weird.

Especially when they were the only friend you really had, and especially when they kept giving you reasons to like them. A crush was nothing to Frankie Stahl, as someone who constantly had them. It was weird that it was lasting so long, but this wasn’t the longest crush he’d ever had.

Freshman year he had a crush on Emery which died in less than a week, he hadn’t known he liked Emery in a gay way until he found out what he was midway through Freshman Year and looked back on his clingy actions in embarrassment, realising why he’d been that way.

Jaxon Green was Sophmore Year’s main crush, the crush that stood out the most. Frankie had sat next to him in Mrs Falconer's English seating plan until she disappeared from school about 2 weeks after and the substitute teacher decided that a boy-girl seating plan would do wonders for the class.

The sub wasn’t exactly wrong, Frankie was a lot more concentrated when he had nothing to fantasise about.

Then there was last year when Frankie fell for Malcolm Cavanaugh, a guy in Senior Year who always took the same hallways as him. They’d talk sometimes, but he never thought it would go anywhere until Malcolm actually asked him out on a date. It being the start of Sophmore Year Frankie had some trust left in him.

Malcolm took Frankie out into a completely different state and just left him at a gas station in the middle of nowhere. He recorded Frankie’s face as he slowly drove off and told him that he’d soon rather ‘fuck a dog than date him’.

That was how the whole school found out he was gay.

Malcolm thought that joke was so funny that he spread that video all around the school, he stopped finding it funny when someone drew him kissing his dog.

Frankie didn’t see that picture, thank god for that, but hearing about it was funny enough.

Frankie walked down the hallway, he was going home now, and he was going to walk.

Foster had driven him around for almost two weeks. The rides were okay, consisting of Foster trying to fill the empty air with awkward conversation while driving recklessly.

Frankie thought he’d be more sour about it but he seemed pretty fine with it. The only reason Frankie was walking today was because he had nothing else to do when he got home, and he wasn’t getting exercise in any other ways.

He thought briefly about what Ezra told him and wondered if Foster did actually want to drive him around.

His phone buzzed in his right pocket. Frankie fished it out to find a text from Ezra.

—Wdid?

stop with the abbreviations wtf does that even mean?

—Wat dd I do?

wdym?

—Ydwb

i’m gonna block u

—U didn’t wav back

u were waving at me?

—ho else?

i mean i can’t see you

—behnd u

Frankie turned around to see Ezra and a bunch of other people. His waving hand looked excited to see Frankie but his face was as blank as ever.

Frankie waved back with a smile.

Then one of Ezra’s friends turned around, a brown-eyed guy with straight black hair, he looked between the two of them waving at each other and curled his lip in what looked like disgust, before pulling Ezra to talk to him.

Frankie picked at the hem of his shirt, turned around and continued walking. He stopped at the boy’s toilets, empty at this time of day, and texted Ezra.

Don’t wave at me in school

—y

i don’t like it

—Really?

yes

Frankie stuffed the phone in his pocket and kept on walking.

He was a bit away from the main exit, stuck in a horde of a bunch of other people who were probably regretting going through the main exit instead of the west entrance or the east just like Frankie was regretting it.