(can we be "friends"?) - charobbie

pt 1- the busride (Charlie's POV)

The first thought of the day ran across my mind as I awoke from 2 hours of slumber: "what time is it?". I check my alarm clock. Shit. 7:40. Now for the second thought of my day: "why couldn't mom have gotten me a car for my birthday?". I scramble to get ready, throwing on some random concert shirt with some questionable stains splattered on the hem. I put on the rest of my clothes, throwing my backpack over my shoulder and running out the door, just catching the bus.

As I climbed up the few stairs of the bus entrance, I spot the familiar headphone wearing head in one of the back seats. I approached him, smacking my hand on the seat so he'd notice and give me space to sit next to him. He smiles.

"And now, my beautiful viewers, I introduce you to yet again, my best friend Charlie Walker!!". My friend since elementary school, Robbie. I was almost jealous of how put together he looked. Nonetheless, I smiled and waved at the small webcam next to his head. Robbie smiled back, almost as if this wasn't a daily routine of his. Every day since the start of his broadcast, which was about 2 months ago, he'd introduce the livestream to me. He was a weird dude, but I gotta respect it.

As Robbie continues rambling on to his viewers about how underrated Nightbreed was, I dug through my backpack to find my math homework from last night. No harm in doing things at last minute, right? And to top it all off, I had Robbie's ramblings as background noise. If only I understood math, why the fuck did they have to add that Greek shit in there? It's honestly so confusing and stupid and-

"Hey dude, camera's off for now. Just thought I should let you know". I check. The little red dot in his webcam is gone. He looks at the homework in my hand, then back at me.

"I have the answers if you need them. We still have like, 15 more minutes until we get to school so you have enough time to copy." He says with that stupid smile of his. It's crazy how he can just smile like that and not start overthinking about how he looks. I don't know, maybe i'm just fucked up.

"Oh,uh,yeah man thanks a lot..", I smile back at him. I grab the paper in his hand, putting it next to my unanswered work. I stay silent for a bit, trying to focus. All until I heard Robbie sigh.

"Are you good, Char? I mean, you haven't said but maybe 7 words to me this entire bus ride..i'm just a little worried— oh..is it Kirby? I fucking knew it—"

Oh yeah, Kirby. The girl i've been trying to talk to since the middle of my freshman year. At first, i thought it was just me admiring how confident she was. But once I told my friends how i felt they were adamant that it was a crush. I'd never really had a crush on anyone. Not that I can remember, anyways. But Robbie and Jill were just so convinced I was head over heels for her, so I had to agree.

It's not to say that Kirby isn't attractive, she obviously is. She looks like someone off of some badass action movie. When she cut her hair short back a year ago, I felt so jealous. She looked so comfortable in her own skin and I looked like a knockoff Jared Leto, without the salary and the acting experience.

"Uh, no i'm just tired as hell. Only got like 2 hours of sleep last night". Well, that was partially true. That wasn't the only thing eating at me, though. I don't know what it was, I just felt different. Anyways, the theta was..45°, right? Or was it just 40°? Fuck math.