Best Friends

Chapter 3 - Love Poems (Part 1)

"Love poems," Ardyn Izunia dramatically proclaimed, "were a transcendental language of their time. They provoked desires, stirred emotions, and waged wars on behalf of the human heart."

Noctis was 5 minutes deep into this class, and he had absolutely no clue what on Eros Ardyn was even saying.

Prompto was not joking – this guy was eccentric.

When Noctis arrived at his third period Literature class, he was taken aback by the layout of the desks. They weren't lined up in rows, but rather, in a circle, like you'd see in some sort of theater club. Luckily, he was able to see his friends around the room; Prompto and Gladiolus sat next to each other, followed by Ignis, then Iris (who was oddly avoiding eye contact with him), and finally, Luna, who sat in the empty seat he had reserved just for her.

When everyone was seated, Ardyn entered like a storm.

His outfit consisted of a maroon dress shirt, with the first three buttons undone, and black pin-striped slacks. His wild hair was a red-violet unlike anything Noctis had ever seen, and he wore a smile that seemed as sinister as his personality. Then, he made three demands:

He demanded that the class call him "Ardyn" and not Mr. Izunia.

He demanded they take their notebooks out.

And he demanded that they each brainstorm ideas for a love poem.

Noctis was shocked. How the hell was he supposed to come up with a love poem on the fly? He hated writing! Nothing he ever wrote was good. And Ardyn's syllabus (which he saw when looking over Luna's shoulder) mentioned nothing about writing love poems, let alone studying poetry. Was this teacher high? How could he forget to put that on his own damn syllabus?

For crying out loud, Noctis could barely tell the girl that he loved for eight years his own feelings. He only summed up the courage after Gladiolus and Prompto dared him to take Luna out on a date and confess. She was graduating this year, going to college, and he knew he'd be seeing less and less of her. The kiss was something he did by instinct. When she was clutching on to him, laughing into his chest, it felt right. When she was teasing him, it felt right. And when he kissed her, that felt right, too. The countless number of kisses they'd shared since then spoke the words he had wanted to say for so long.

So how was he supposed to tell her how he felt through a poem?

He peeked over at Luna who had been taking careful notes. She could definitely write a poem in her sleep. She was Luna. Luna could do anything.

"Use your personal experiences and write something I haven't heard before," Ardyn excitedly continued. "Tap into your teenage hormones, if you must! But remember – your grade will solely be determined by the way in which you deliver your words. Yes, you all heard me – you'll be reading your poems out-loud for the entire class."

Noctis' throat went dry.

He was going to fail.

He panickedly glanced over at his friends. Ignis was cool as a cucumber, Gladiolus looked bored, and Prompto was too busy checking out the girls in the room (probably for inspiration).

Overall, they didn't appear as anxious as he was to get the hell out of there.

As if hearing his thoughts Ardyn shot his amber eyes straight to him, a calculated plan dancing in his untrusting eyes. Rapidly, he said, "Noctis, you shall do the honors of going first."

A hush fell into the room. All eyes were on him.

Oh no.

Oh, gods, no.