Grilled Cheese- Peach Face

There’s a boy named Thomas. He’s been your friend for forever, just like David and Jacob. But Thomas makes you feel…different. He makes your heart beat a million miles a minute and he makes those love songs on the radios make complete and total sense.

Is this a crush?

When you guys go to Dave and Buster’s for his birthday, you make sure that you sit next to him during dinner, and play games you’re good at with him. You look at him to make sure he’s laughing at your jokes, and you wore something pink to make him think that you’re more than “one of the guys”.

You take jokes from David and Jacob, who insist that you have a crush on someone in the group, while you blush and deny and otherwise, keep quiet.

At school, you’re with the boy,s feeling like Tommy’s little puppy dog, even though hanging out with them is exactly what you’d be doing, crush or no crush. When you meet a girl in science class, you recruit her as a friend, simply because you need someone to talk to about it, because the rest of the boys are useless.

You and Mandy grow really close, having a few sleepovers and hang outs yourself. All during this, you guys talk about how Tommy is stupid and her crush, who happens to be your other friend, Jacob, is too dreamy.

Eventually, you decide that you guys will hand out with the boys and try to be wing-women for each other. When you bring her to your table to eat lunch so she can meet the boy you’ve been gushing about and get connected with the one she adores, Thomas can’t help but drop his jaw. Mandy practically does the same for him.

And, just like that, your crush is dating your best friend.

So this is why it’s called a crush.

Crush-Tessa Violet

Even though your soul felt crushed, seeing how happy they still make each other after two years heals it fairly quickly. And anyways, there’s a boy named Charlie in your history class that you’ve had a crush on for months. On the first day of school, you walk into first period to find that, somehow, this semester, the universe has blessed you with a seat right next to him. You talk, you laugh, and you let each other cheat during tests.

It’s an “everyone sees it but them” type of crush. A “they’re scared of losing what is for something so obviously meant to be” type of crush.

When it’s time for the final, you and Charlie create a study group with your two friends who know you’re crushing on each other. When you go to the cafe to study on Saturday, they ditch you, and neither of you are in the mood to study anyways. “let’s go on an adventure.”

You hop in the car and drive out to downtown LA, to run rampant through the thrift stores and plan outfits for each other. You grab lunch at Porto’s before taking pictures of each other with a disposable camera that you found in the back of your car.

When it’s close to 3, you get hungry again and head to target, where you get lost in the dollar section and dump a bunch of games and crafts in your cart. You go around for a while and each get things you genuinely need before going to the Starbucks area to get something to eat.

On the drive home, you smile at each other and scream sing at the top of your lungs, watching the sun go down and waiting for it to take you home.

You wake up wishing you could do it all over again.

Silly Girl- Chloe Moriondo 

Josh is the boy who sits on the other side of the room in Math class, and he makes you forget about that dream you had about Charlie. He’s the boy that you daydream about, he’s the boy that you see all the time, even though he doesn’t even know that you exist.

You think about him when you go to bed and he’s on your mind the minute you wake up. You are obsessed with him. His smile, his eyes, his hair, and the way you think he is. His physicality, and the person you want him to be.

You stare at him from across your math class, never whipping your head away from him because he doesn’t notice. When the seating chart gets you to sit right behind him, you start to dress up and look cute.

He asks you for pencils, he steals your pens, and he tells you all of his jokes because he doesn’t have any any friends near him. You think you’re falling for the guy, and just as you’re gushing over him, you all turn the corner and see him making out with his girlfriend.

Your heart is broken. Your ego is bruised. And you feel as if you may never breathe again.

And then you see David…

Peach Colored Notebook- Lena Fine

Remember David? He’s been your best friends since Kindergarten. He’s the boy that you had your first kiss with in 7th grade, after all the girls made fun of you for not having it yet. He’s the boy that you’ve had plenty a sleepover in the treehouse hidden in your backyard with. He’s the boy you cried about Josh to, and Tommy, and Charlie.

He’s been by your side for years, and yet it took you this long to find him this way. And yet, he still saw you.

It happened during lunch one day, when you were watching each other talk and laugh to the rest of the group. You made a joke about how the Area 51 raid was inspired by the Kyles of the world who all had too much Monster one day and he laughed so hard that water came out of his nose.

While everyone was laughing at him and choking on their food, you could see the embarrassment in how quickly he dried himself off, and the complete goofiness two seconds later when he added that Josh was probably head of the planning committee.

After that, you oddly saw something different in him. You saw how weird he was and how hilarious his jokes started to be. When you guys got paired together for a group project, you realized how dedicated he could become, and how smart he actually was. You saw the side he hid from the rest of the boys.

One day, he asks if you want to come over and work on the project. While you guys work outside, you eat some chips and drink caprisuns, like you always have. He says something that makes you laugh and you make eye contact for a little bit longer than usual.

When he takes a breath to say something new, you ask him “Would you want to go on a date?”

You stare a little bit longer before you see his eyes smile, and he says “yes” in the tiniest whisper.

You don’t know how, but suddenly you realize that you and him are kind off…

In Love- khai dreams

Somehow, you guys were able to finish the project that day. Through jokes and flirting, through long periods of staring contests and more Capri Suns. But done.

You take the reigns on the date, and tell him that it’s a surprise. Get dressed up.

You put on a sundress and a leather jacket, curl your hair and put on some makeup. When he gets there to pick you up, you find that he cleans up…really well. He finds you with a picnic basket and some apple cider.

He asks where you’re going, and all you give him are the directions.

A picnic in the hollywood hills at sunset, between a couple trees you now deem your own, and a parade of inside jokes and dreams for your life.

Your story begins with a kiss that seems to last forever.