I happily walked down the hallways of my high school. It was a really good day for some reason. I just felt good and bouncy, and I felt like things were going my way.

There were no pop quizzes, and none of my teachers were piling a ton of homework on me. All of my friends were at school, and a decent amount of them were in all of my classes. Things were just fantastic.

I smiled even wider when I saw my best friend Jessica walking towards me. We linked arms when we met, and she seemed in a bubbly mood.

"So how has your magical day been for you," she asked happily.

"Well it hasn't been magical, but it has gone rather well for me. I'm in such an amazing mood right now." I said excitedly.

"Mine has been magical. You would not believe the gorgeous man I saw today. Well he's not a man obviously; I'm not you." She joked.

I glared at her playfully before I let out a good hearty laugh.

Of course Jessica knew about my man crush on Brian Senior. I told her right after I met her, and I faced no judgment from her. She teased me all the time, but she meant no harm. She was a rather playful girl and took many jabs throughout the day.

"But back to the gorgeous boy I saw today," she started.

I smiled. She had done this a ton with me. It was almost every day that she told me about the new adorable guy she had seen in the hallway. I honestly didn't mind. She was funny about it. She said they were pretty or cute, but she never crossed that annoying line.

"So he was this adorable little thing. I swear he's really short. Well not as short as me, but he was pretty short for a guy at least. I think he'd be a good size for me though. Anyways he had dark hair. He's kind of a bit more punk rock than I'm used to," she ranted.

It's true. She wasn't all that into rock as I was. She was a bit more modest, and she had a strict moral code for a fifteen year old. She quite enjoyed bands like Queen or Metallica, but she certainly didn't live like she liked those bands.

"I think if I ever see him again that I'll go up to him and introduce myself," she said firmly.

I had to contain my laughter.

Jessica introduce herself to a boy? Jessica introduce herself to anyone? It wasn't very likely. She was a really shy girl, and she was terribly at meeting new people.

We spent the rest of lunch talking about her new love interest and my desperate love for Brian. It was a normal lunch.

My next two classes went by pretty fast, and I got lucky yet again. There were no pop quizzes or very much homework at all.

The last class kind of dragged on, and I was sitting in the middle of it. This teacher was particularly boring. He almost made me fall asleep everyday. It was a struggle.

I sighed in relief when the school bell rang. I didn’t necessarily hate school, but I wasn’t in love with it. I loved the structure of school though. School was just something I had to do to make myself worthy enough for my perfect man.

This last class kind of drained away almost all of my good feelings for the day.

I quickly packed my stuff into my backpack, and I headed out the door, while I could hear my teacher lecturing the students that the bell didn’t release us. Most of us didn’t take her too seriously.

I did take high school seriously though. I didn’t have to really pay too much attention in classes like English or History, but I did have to pay attention in Math and Science classes. I was trying to get in a good college after all.

I made my way to the parking lot, trying to find Brian Jr.

I found Jessica before I found him. She seemed to be in good spirits still.

"I saw him again," she nearly shouted in my ear. I stared at her oddly.

"The love of my life for the day," she explained. "So how did it go," I asked quickly. She sure knew how to make me happy all over again.

"How did what go," she asked confused.

I sighed deeply. I knew that she wasn't going to introduce herself. She always did this to me. She was such an odd girl.

"Oh... Yeah, I didn't introduce myself, Arianna. I'm not crazy! Well I will introduce myself tomorrow if I see him again. He was just around a lot of people is all, including Brian." She reasoned.

I spotted him near his usual spot, surrounded by his best friends. They liked to talk forever after school for some reason. I just liked that I could find him in the same spot every day after school.

I smiled big, knowing that I’d be able to use him to get to his dad yet again. He would give me a ride home, and instead of going home I would just follow him inside his house.

"Look Jessica, I'll see you tomorrow. You introduce yourself to that kid once you see him again. I gotta go catch Junior before he leaves," I said quickly.

I ran over to him, and he smiled at me.

The thing about Junior and I’s relationship was that it was complicated. I didn’t particularly hate him, but I wasn’t his best friend. I could talk to him for a while, but then I would grow bored of him. He, on the other hand, seemed to like me a lot as a friend.

“Do you need a ride home or something, doll face?” he asked smirking.

I rolled my eyes, and I glared at him.

Junior liked to call me by these disturbing pet names. I could never stand how they just seemed to roll off his tongue. I wasn’t sure if he just liked calling me them or if he only liked calling me them because he knew they irritated me.

“Are you going to give me the ride or not, Junior?” I asked annoyed. The only thing that was on my mind was his father. I felt like I had to see him in this very instance.

“Of course I am, but I need you to stop calling me Junior already. I’ve told you before,” he muttered angrily.

“Yeah, yeah, and I told you that I like calling your dad Brian, so calling you Brian would just be weird for me. So you need to get used to it already, Junior.” I ranted.

I noticed that one of the girls was staring at me oddly, and I started to feel a bit uncomfortable.
It was strange. None of his friends ever acknowledged my existence since freshmen year when I yelled at one of them quite rudely. I was having a bad day and being around Junior wasn’t doing me any good, but I did feel bad about it now.

“Junior, when are we leaving?” I asked, not knowing how long I could withstand her staring for very long.

I didn’t know how to deal with his friends. They were very different from me in many ways, and I just wanted to go to see Brian already.

Junior ignored me and continued talking to his friend Matt. Instead Matt looked over at me, and he gave me a smile. I smiled back at him, knowing he was a good boy.

Matt was probably Junior’s only friend that I could somewhat talk to. It was only small talk, but I appreciated him whenever Junior decided to be a complete jerk to me. If only he was my friend instead of Junior’s.

I had to admit that Matt was a good looking boy. He was tall, had dimples, and had beautiful eyes. Not to mention that he was starting to work out and I could already tell that he would look good with muscles. Sadly he just wasn’t my type.

“Hey Brian, I think your girl wants to leave now.” Matt joked. He jabbed Junior in the ribs with his elbow, causing Junior to grunt. Junior tried to hit Matt back, but he barely missed Matt’s arm.

“Don’t call her that!” Junior shouted. Immediately all of his friends made a lovey noise, which confused me considerably. I brushed it off, wanting to go to his house right away.

“Junior, can we please leave now?” I begged.

Junior grunted and started walking to the parking lot, causing me to get all giddy on the inside.

We were going home. I couldn’t wait to see Brian. I loved seeing him. I wondered what he did today. I wondered what he was wearing, and I wondered if I ever crossed his mind today. All I wanted was for him to even have me pop up even a little.

I waved goodbye to Matt, and I ran to catch up to Junior.

Junior didn’t say anything to me on the ride home, and I was too caught up thinking about his dad to notice that Junior was angry with me.

I was a little shocked when Junior tried dropping me off in front of my house.

“I can’t come over today,” I asked innocently.

“No, I don’t want you there.” He muttered.

“Why not?” I questioned angrily.

I wasn’t about to let this boy get in the way of me seeing his dad. I was thinking about him all day long, and I was dying to see him.

“Look, Arianna, you don’t even do anything when you’re over. I don’t know why you like coming over. You just sit there, listening to everyone talk. Why can’t you just go home?” He yelled.

I bit down on my lip.

I hadn’t given it much thought how it looked when I went over. I didn’t really hang out with Junior when I went there. I kind of just sat there, hoping his dad would strike up a conversation with me, which wasn’t very often since he was busy a lot of the time.

“It’s boring at my house though. I like to be out,” I mumbled. Junior sighed deeply.

“Why do you like my house? It’s not like you even talk to me when you’re over,” he stated. I shrugged, not really wanting to confess that I loved his father.

“Look I just don’t want you over today,” he muttered.

“You said yourself that I don’t even talk to you when I’m over, so it’s not like I would be bothering you. Just let me come over, Junior.” I begged.

It scared me when Junior slammed his hands on his steering wheel.

“I’ve told you a million times to stop fucking calling me that, Arianna! Just stop it already. My name is Brian! It’s Brian. You can call my fucking dad Mr. Haner. He’s the dad. You should be calling me by my first name. God I can’t stand that,” he roared.

I sat there, baffled. I knew that calling him Junior bothered him, but I didn’t think it bothered him that much.

I looked over at him, and he was staring back at me. There was a bit of shock on his face, and I knew that he wasn’t expecting to blow up on me either.

“Ari, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to yell at you.” He said softly. I didn’t say anything back to him. I was just so taken aback.

I did the only thing that my body let me do. I got out of the car and walked into my house without saying a word to him.