The sun warmed his skin. Lazily, Kris had closed his eyes. With this temperature, the light breeze toying with his hair and the fact that there were no classes today, he could enjoy life here. Something cold touched his stomach. Blindly, he touched for the can of coke, rolling it up and down his heated skin, enjoying its coldness. 

"What a fucking toddler," Nish spatted next to him. "Retarded idiot."

Kris sat up, opening the can. For a moment he squeezed his eyes against the fierce reflection of the sun on the lake; then, he gave Nish a questioning look. His friend nodded to the side. 

A boy ran through the grass with a large self-made kite in the form of a turtle, in the same bright green as his swim shorts. Kris believed to hear his laughter even from this distance and the corner of his mouth curled up. It was the same kid who stood in front of their door and changed into a piggy three weeks ago. 

His skin was suntanned and his dark curls bounced around his head while he looked excitedly at the sky. 

With a hint of a smirk, he turned towards his friend. "Jealous of his artistic talents? You can't even make a paper airplane."

Nish huffed, taking a sip from his coke. 

Kris' eyes wandered off to the boy again. There was something intriguing about him; how he was playing with his kite all alone, not caring about what other people thought of him. He expressed a kind of innocence most people lost already a few days after arriving at this place. And how long was the kid here? At least almost a year...

Suddenly, the boy looked to the side. 

For a moment he stared at him—then, he stumbled over his feet and fell. He let go of the kite, which was taken by the wind. With a clumsy attempt, the boy tried to grab it, losing his balance and tumbling into the water this time. 

Next to him, Nish started to laugh. 

Kris couldn't help but chuckle about his clumsiness, although he thought it was cute. The boy climbed back on the shore, his face red like a tomato. After a brief look at them, he changed into a piggy again and ran away. 

Kris' smirk faded—for some reason, he didn't like the fact that the boy fled in panic for the second time now. Was it because of him? He knew he had quite the reputation, but it wasn't clumsy boys like him who had a reason to be afraid of him. His glance wandered to the sky, but the kite was out of reach. 

He took another sip. Somehow, he couldn't shake off the image of the kite flying boy with his sun-kissed skin and giddy smile. 

☆☆☆

The umpteenth letter disappeared in the drawer of his desk. By now, there was quite a pile. Fox wished he could find the right words and although he could write whole books, there wasn't a single letter he really dared to deliver.

But he just wanted to do something. 

Something else than panicking and running away, that is. Every time he found himself face-to-face with Kris, having the perfect opportunity to say something, his brain turned into mud, he clammed up and lost control over his gift. 

Over the past weeks, it happened at least five times. 

Although there was a little bit of progress yesterday when he could have sworn that the boy had smiled at him. Instead of panicking, he'd run into a door, butting his head so hard he couldn't say with certainty if Kris had really smiled at him. 

And if he did smile... it was perhaps meant for someone else. 

He just couldn't get the guy out of his head. 

At night he dreamt of him and during the three meals he couldn't eat a thing and during classes, he could only think of these beautiful eyes so that the pages of his notebook were full of hearts and crystals instead of notes. 

This had never happened to him before. 

When he arrived at this school, he had a crush on Fire. Since the first meeting, he had been impressed by the tall boy, with his flawless skin and fiery eyes. And his beautiful, elfish white hair. 

But it had never stopped him from talking to the boy, he'd been perfectly able to eat and it simply wasn't like... this. Sometimes he felt so many butterflies he didn't even notice that he was turning into one himself. 

And because he got it so bad, he believed he needed to do something. 

Even when he made zero chance, since the guy was two years older than he—and, not to mention, super handsome and cool and not as clumsy as Fox himself. 

But if he kept going like this, there would be a day on which the answers on his tests turned into hearts as well and he might even go through life as a butterfly permanently, which he believed was a very tragic ending for himself. Being expelled because of a too high dose of infatuation. Nope—that wasn't cool at all. 

And so, he sent an s.o.s. text to Safira. She was never pleased with his monologues about Kris, but she was his best friend, and being annoying about awesome guys had to be part of every good friendship. She never took his urgent messages very seriously and texted back that she was at the soccer field. 

When Fox got there, she was playing soccer with some guys. She gestured for him to join them, but Fox shook his head and climbed on the gallery. He did like soccer, but with his current concentration (which was smaller than a pea) it would only end in the ball against his head and belly-flopping on the grass and he was sure Kris would somehow see it so he would make a fool of himself for the hundredth time. 

About fifteen minutes later, the sporters quitted and Safira flopped down next to him. Her face was red and she squeezed the water bottle above her head before gulping down the rest of it.

"I'm surprised you answered me in the first place."

She sprayed deodorant around her. "We were winning anyway. Well—tell me, what's up?"

"I'm in love and I don't know what to do," he blurted out. 

"And in what way is that different than in the past ten weeks?"

Fox shrugged. "I tried to talk to him—well, to say hi, but I couldn't even do that, and I wrote like twenty love letters but they're all stupid and... how can I get to know him if I mess everything up!" Desperately, he raked his fingers through his curls. "You have to put in a good word for me! Or figure out how he feels about me—and if he's into guys at all!"

 "I'm staying out of this."

Frustrated, Fox squeezed his hands to fists. He shouldn't have been surprised, for she said that time after time. But by now, she felt like his only hope. "But..."

"I get it—you find him intriguing." Safira wasn't someone who enjoyed physical contact, but this time she took his fist in her hands and waited until his fingers relaxed. "But you're way too sweet for him. You truly have nothing in common."

"But I like him anyway! Opposites attract—they say that for a reason!"

Safira sighed. 

"If you really don't want to help me, I will try to get to know his best friend. If he thinks I'm nice, then..."

"Nish is a dick. Even worse than Kris."

Fox uttered something between a frustrated grunt and a deep sigh. 

A conversation was out of the question. So was a love letter. Apparently, contact through Safira and his best friend wasn't an option either. What else could he do?

"There's someone at school who can manipulate feelings, right? Maybe he can take my nervousness away!" He perked up. 

"No. He is dangerous." Safira sighed. "I'm serious. Stay away from that guy."

Wronged, Fox crossed his arms. "Well, you don't want to help me either. Why is it so hard to introduce us? When you're around, it's less scary."

Safira rolled her eyes. "Argh, fine, I'll see what I can do. Hopefully, you'll finally see that this is all a waste of time."

Fox forgot about his dissatisfaction immediately and pulled her into a hug. "Thank you so much Safira! You're the best friend ever! If I ever have to get you a date..."

She pushed him away and gave him a stern look. "I'm not getting you a date, Fox. He's not a relationship kind of guy anyway and having a one night stand is not like you."

The thought alone made him blush. 

"This gets you nothing," Safira stressed once more. "But maybe you'll have to hear his dirty talk yourself before you will draw that conclusion too. Soon, we have a party. I'll see if I can take a plus one."

Fox grinned from ear to ear. That sounded perfect!