I didn't want to go to Ackerman's class, so I just hid in the bathroom, reflecting on what just happened in the last 30 minutes. If I wasn't such an idiot I would've kept my eyes open to prevent all this from happening.

I went on snapchat to help pass the time since it was getting boring in there.

I had a friend from the Castlebury school, so I wasn't surprised when I saw a few pictures of that guy I bumped into earlier.

He was pictured smiling in front of an aquarium full of pufferfish, with another guy who had his arm on his shoulder and leaned his head on the tank.

The longer I looked, Noel's smile seemed more forced. His dimples and lips made him look happy, but not his eyes. He looked like he was about to cry. I felt bad; he looked pitiful.

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After school was over, I decided to go over to Castlebury. I don't know what happened, something just came over me.

The longer I waited, the less confident I became. I stared at the gates, waiting for Noel to come out. I was such an idiot. What was I thinking?

About 20 minutes had passed, and he still hadn't come out. I gave up. I was going to go home. This was pointless.

Right when I was about to leave, there he was. He walked out with his forced smile still on his face.

He looked my way. Shit. I didn't think of what I would say when I would see him.

"Elliot!" He shrilly screamed. He practically galloped towards me, stopping about a few inches in front of me. Too close.

"I didn't think I'd see you again, I thought you'd avoid me or something, but here you are, in all your glory! Guess where we went for our trip?"

It was a good thing he asked that because I had no response to the sentence before that.

"Hmmm..." I hummed. "The aquarium?"

"Ah, who told you?"

"I have one of your classmates on snapchat. We went to primary school together. His name's Daniel."

His eyes went back to being sad the moment I said his name.

He went quiet.

"So," I said, trying to break the silence, "do you have snapchat?"

His eyes lit up, once again.

"Yeah! Gimme your phone so I can add you."

"Sure," I said and handed him my phone.

It was then when I realized I hadn't apologized yet.

"Noel, I'm so--"

He whipped his head up, catching me off guard. "You said my name!"

"Um, y--" I was trying to speak, but he kept interrupting me.

"Say it again, it sounds good coming out of your mouth!

He grabbed my shoulders. "C'mon, say it!" He exclaimed, smiling from ear to ear.

"...................Noel."