The story of us.

The Meeting Story

It is August 11th, 2016, and the weather is particularly flawless. There is a rainbow in the sky and it iss the perfect start to a perfect year. The past few years at my small private school had been... well rough. Grade 7: I had no friends and was bullied. Grade 8: still had no friends and a girl tried to shoot up my school. Grade 9: I hung out with the only person who would talk to me but ended up changing who I was and losing myself in the process. That was until the end of the year when I got close with two of the baddest bitches that ever walked the dusty red hallways of that god forsaken school, Jenna and Cora. By bad of course I mean we were burnouts who kept to ourselves. We literally failed classes together because we just talked all year. When summer came I knew that my 10th grade year would be the revival of myself. I would be the person I had always secretly wanted to be and I would be the person I was born to be. Beyoncé. NO IM JUST KIDDING but, oh my god, that would have been a plot twist let me tell you. Anyways where was I? Oh right, first day of school. So I walk into school and meet my two friends, totally ignoring my ex friend from last year, and my homeroom teacher announces to us that our international program has expanded further than the usual Chinese exchange students.

"Putnam Bridge Christian Academy is proud to welcome two brand new exchange students from Germany!" She said pasting a Disney quality stage smile on her face.

"Garrin, Franz. Please come in and introduce yourselves to the class."

The boy who came in first was wearing a fluorescent sticker on his chest that said 'FRANZ' in big obnoxious script. He was abnormally tall, with perfectly sculpted dirty blonde hair that was styled without a hair out of place. His body type was very thin and seemed to be rather.. constructed under his white uniform polo shirt. He smiled to the class and his teeth glistened in the fluorescent lighting.

"I'm Franz and I'm single at the moment so call me!" He says arrogantly in a thick accent waltzing to the back of the room to find an open desk.

As the class finishes chuckling at the newfound clown the next boy walks in. He is equally as tall but he has a different stature to him. He has broader shoulders and is more evened out in his body type. His hair is a slightly more pigmented blonde and his eyes twinkle bright blue. He has a certain natural boy next door beauty to him. He gives a nervous small smile and addresses the class.

"Hi... um I'm Garrin."

He says in a subtle voice also with a thick accent. He sits down quickly in the first available seat across the room from my current seat. Everyone begins to chatter about these new students. I hear bits and pieces of conversations and most of what I hear is the attractiveness of the boys. Being a closeted homosexual I silently think to myself that Garrin is such beautiful specimen. His shy mysteriousness is intriguing. I hear Jenna say that Franz is the hot one and I do a 180 degree neck snap in disbelief. I thought Garrin was the one everybody liked. Just as I'm about to rebut the teacher cuts me off with her gaudy princess golf clap.

The entire period I ignore the reading of the Geometry syllabus and mentally try to convince myself that Franz was cuter but I just couldn't do it when I look over and see Garrin's beautiful, real, broken, pained, extraordinary, perfectly imperfect smile. There isn't anything wrong with Franz. He is just too polished. Basic looking class clown fboy who gets nudes from any poor, innocent girl with thumbs. But I mean don't judge a book by the cover right? Unless of course that book is 50 Shades of Franz.

The first semester flew by and everything was going just as planned. My friends were amazing and brought joy to my life and I had formed an.. interesting "relationship" with Garrin. Basically it consists of throwing paper at each other 24/7 and a perpetual war of trying to trip each other in the hallways. It is innocent. It is fun. But I don't want to just be friends. I kept feeling more and more attracted to Garrin and the more we hung out the more I thought about him. It can't be healthy to hide these intense, surreal feelings in like I'm doing and since I'm not one to damage my body after all.. I guess telling one little person about one little sexual orientation never hurt anybody right? I grab my phone and hurriedly type in my four digit passcode and tap the rainbow logo on my home screen. I find Cora's name in my Instagram direct messages and begin typing.

Me: Okay so I need to tell you something..

Cora: Ohhh no bih what did you do??

Me: I may... or may um...

Cora: Yes??

Me: UGH promise you won't tell anybody???

Cora: Yes yes yes NOW TELL ME

Me: I'm gay.

Cora: Dude! Ik

Me: Wait wtf how??

Cora: You're really bad a clearing your search history. Hate to tell you <3

Me: WOW. Well okay!

After I told her we talked for hours about how long I've known that I was gay and boys I thought were cute. We finally ended the conversation and went to bed. A weight felt like it was lifted off of my shoulders. I now had a person to talk to. Someone to vent to. To cry to. To gossip with. A person I could trust. Cora was now my best friend, and I loved every minute of it.

I wake up in the morning, check the time, and send out my usual "Goodmornting sluts" Snapchat to my friends so we can keep our streaks. I speed through my bleak AM routine so I can get a good seat on the bus and start my day. Oh god I'm one of those kids that races to school so I can sit up front. Gross. No matter, I get to school and rush to my homeroom to see Cora. When I get into the room all of the early birds are talking with what seems like dismal looks on their faces. Cora motions me over with a simple hand gesture.

"Why does everyone look like someone died?" I say playfully.

"Don't be upset, but Franz is going back to Germany after Christmas break." She says unsure.

"What?? Wow. That kind of sucks. Fun while I lasted eh?"

"You don't get it, Jack," She announces in a serious tone. Garrin is leaving too. You only have one week left before he goes and you never see hi again."

I feel sick to my stomach now. A rush of emotion fills me. I just want to yell, cry, and vomit all at the same time. I look around the room and my vision is blurred. What am I going to do? I need him. I need his humor. I need his attention. I need his love. I need him.