Black and Blue are the Price of Love

First Impressions are a Bitch

A/N -  This is kind of a version of Closer to you, which is on my AO3, but I decided to re-write most of it, so there's a completely different ending and new characters, so to speak. Let me know if you want me to continue writing it.

Dalton walked to school carrying his backpack, surrounded by the cold morning air. He knew that once he got to school, his day would be transformed into a virtual living hell. It happened nearly every day, ever since that first year of high school, and he had come to accept that he couldn’t change it, or do anything about it, so he endured it. 

It’s not like anyone else tried to stop it, so why should he?

He slowly trudged up the stairs to the schools’ front door and sighed heavily, preparing himself for what was about to come. His hand came up to the door handle to open it, but the door flew open from the other side, making Dalton jump back slightly. In front of him was a boy who was absolutely beautiful. 

There he was again. The boy that Cole had watched and fallen in love with from afar. He was amazing in every way and Cole always wanted to talk to him, but always thought he wouldn’t care about him. 

Cole just knew this boy was breathtaking, and Cole knew, for sure, that he liked-possibly loved him. Seems crazy, doesn’t it? They hadn’t even ever talked to each other. Cole didn’t even know his last name. 

But he couldn’t deny that he loved every single little thing about that boy, the way his blond hair framed his perfect face, the fact that when he laughed, there were dimples on his cheeks, how he would nervously scratch at his nail polish when he was bored in class, and even the way his amazing sea green eyes would quickly shift back and forth from the board to his journal when the teacher talked, scribbling down notes. 

Damn, Cole had it bad.

Cole just nervously shuffled out of his way, afraid he would say something extremely stupid, and walked on past Dalton.

Cole was in such a rush to get away and not come off as complete idiot that he ended up slamming shoulders with Dalton

Cole looked up at Dalton for a brief second before avoiding his gaze and stammered nervously, “Oh I-I’m so sorry” 

Dalton was startled that he even acknowledged him, much less apologized.

Dalton muttered a very nervous filled “N-no... i-it’s fine” and dashed into the school without saying another word. 

Cole stood outside, mentally slapping himself. He should have said something to him. He should have asked him if he was okay or…...or-or…. Cole sighed. 

He just got so nervous around that boy, that blond ball of perfect. It made his mind cloudy in the best way and just being around him made his stomach twist into untieable knots.

Cole just sighed heavily one last time and shook his head and attempted to clear his thoughts, and resumed walking to the field. 

~~~

Later that week, Dalton was walking down the hallway on his way to his first class. That’s when it happened again. 

A group of 3 guys cockily and slowly strolled up to Dalton, their sneakers thudding against the tiled hallway.  Dalton knew partly what was coming, and that he would only make it worse if he tried to evade them, so he just stopped walking once they were near him.

Brain was in front, he was the biggest out of the three and his black hair was buzzcut into a neat square, almost as if he was in the military.

The other two both had brown hair, Dave being tall and lean with a shaved head, and Chad with curled ringlets and freckles, and at first glance, unlike the other two who were dark and looming, he appeared almost cute.