"No, that's clearly not the right way to do it."

"What are you talking about? It's the quickest, most logical way to solve it!"

Aris huffed. How could Callum still not understand? His oh-so-amazing brain that he kept bragging about was too small to really understand math, huh.

"Now, now, you're both right," Mrs. Kareen said. Aris just managed to stifle an eye-roll. His method was clearly better. He crossed his arms, reminding himself that today was a good day, and that he shouldn't let a stuck-up kid like Callum ruin it for him. His eyes glanced at the clock. It'd only been three minutes since he last checked. His shoulders slumped and he leaned over his arms that he'd propped on the desk. Well, at least he was three minutes closer to the end of class. Now there were only ten minutes left.

Even just that thought was able to tug at his lips, but he caught it just before breaking into a smile. What crazy kid smiled in a math class? Besides, he was already acting weird. He was usually very attentive in class, but today he just couldn't muster it. His mind was elsewhere, and that place had proven to be dangerously entrancing throughout the school day.

All ever since his conversation last night with Call—no, not that Callum. This was a guy he'd met through the Magical Notebook that he and his Call had so creatively named. They'd been conversing via the notebook for just about a year now, and finally they were going to meet. Aris tapped his pencil against his math notebook filled with half-hearted notes, but more so with little doodles.

Too many times he'd found himself drawing small sketches of what Call could look like. Some where he had curly hair, others where it was straight and long. Some with sharper features, others with softer ones. This he allowed himself to do, but he made it clear to himself that he was just drawing his possible looks to practice his drawing skills. 

And that's what he'd answered with when his friend caught him at lunch. It was better he didn't know. He'd already come out to his family and his closest friends , but his other not-so-close friends didn't need to know. He had a feeling they'd just assume he liked them just because it turned out that he liked boys. And it'd be better not to tell anyone about a magical notebook for obvious reasons.

Another glance at the clock. Five minutes.

He ruffled his wavy black hair to the side. He leaned back and crossed his arms, his finger tapping against his upper arm. He forced it to stop. Just because he was getting impatient didn't mean he had to be rude to the teacher. Instead his finger dug into the new muscle he'd been able to acquire from his occasional training schedule. Really, his arms were just more toned, but it was a big accomplishment for him. Even though it wasn't something he could focus on now.

Two minutes.

Can't wait to meet you :)

That's what Call had written this morning. Another smile threatened to dance on Aris' lips, and once again he managed to suppress it with an unnatural down-pull of his lips.

The scraping of chairs being pulled back snapped his attention back to the room, realizing that class had ended half a minute early. He got up, instantly packing his stuff away. He swung his backpack over his shoulder and then left with the crowd of students, excitement replacing his blood. Then, as he stepped into the hallway, a sinking feeling made him stop like a ball and chain that had just appeared around his leg.

He still had half an hour before they were supposed to meet at the café.

"The lockers are that way, if you already forgot." That voice. Aris clenched his teeth.

"School's over, Callum. Consider not bothering me? Besides, if anything I'd be waiting for you to make sure you found your way. You know, considering that you couldn't remember enough from science class to get an A."

Callum was silent for only a second. "And what'd you get for the last test, huh?" 

Aris turned around to look him in the eye. "Stop living in the past, will you?"

Callum shook his head in disbelief. "You brought it up first! Besides, I actually have somewhere important to go." He turned away, already contemptfully walking past him.

"I do too," Aris said, but it was almost more to himself because Call didn't hear him. "Thinks he owns the damn world," he muttered under breath. He sighed, finally opening his locker. He took his casual jacket and left, searching for a bench. When he found one, he sat down and unzipped his bag, digging his arm into it. 

His fingertips found the Magical Notebook and he pulled it out, immediately flipping through the pages. The first few pages were already blank and in the rest the ink and lead was fading. They'd found out that anything written in the Magical Notebook started to fade, and after a month it was gone. 

They didn't know why, but then again they didn't know how the Magical Notebook worked in general. They just knew that when one person wrote something in their notebook, it'd appear in the other's. He found the most recent page and read through it, just the memory of it making him giddy.

Can't wait to meet you :)

I can't wait either ^^

We should order a caramel cheesecake

YES. That sounds lovely. Split one? ;) XD

Sounds great. I'm assuming you're paying?

*Eye roll* I guess so

Next time I'll buy us chocolate cake

I'll remember that. See you tomorrow <3

See you ;)

Aris smiled, the memory of the entire conversation making him feel like a little boy at an amusement park. He bent down to unzip the compartment where his pencil case was—

He stopped himself. They were only twenty-five minutes away from seeing each other. His face fell with his shoulders. He didn't want to seem clingy.

Damn.

He rubbed his leg impatiently down to his knee, then looked around. Then he looked back at the Magical Notebook as it said in funky writing on the front. Now he felt restless. He bounced his knees twice, then stood up, packing the notebook away. He just had to walk somewhere. But it didn't take long before his legs automatically rerouted him to the café and he gave in. 

Even if he walked there he didn't have to go in immediately, he told himself. And that turned out to be more annoying than he'd thought. He walked around the block, and then again. The clouds overhead were darkening, now a gravel-grey, and the first delicate sprinkles of water misted his hand. He took another look at the dull sky, then turned towards the café now that he was nearing it again.

Ten minutes early was fine.

As if on cue, the fine rain turned heavier, now pearls of water falling from the sky that created darkened spots on his off-black jacket. An even better excuse to go in. He stepped in, fixing his hair that the rain had just barely messed with, brushing it to the side where it belonged. 

He searched the café, looking for someone who could be waiting for someone. And his eye landed on someone who did, and he nearly felt sick at the same time as a surge of anger flooded his system.

What was Callum doing here?

The chestnut-haired boy turned his head to meet Aris' sharp gaze, his own eyes widening. Aris turned to look out the glass of the café door, his stomach dropping at the sight of the pouring rain that clattered outside. Callum got up from the small, rounded table for two he'd been sitting at and walked towards Aris.

"What the hell are you doing here?" He asked in a harsh whisper. A strange look in his eyes shocked Aris, just like the brows that'd been anxiously pulled down at the ends did. Even his voice sounded strained and urgent.

"I think I could ask you the same thing," Aris said, making sure his confusion didn't seep into his voice. Then he furrowed his brows, remembering who he was speaking to.

"That's none of your business."

"Well, it is when I have my own business going on here." Aris' voice was louder than he intended and he looked around, making a note to himself to keep it down.

"I'm going to meet someone, so get your coffee or whatever and go."

"You're not the only one with a social life; I'm meeting someone too." Aris crossed his arms.

Callum shifted his weight to his other leg and then back again, and Aris just managed to notice the fist-shaped bumps in his pockets. Somewhere amidst his anger, Aris almost felt bad for him. He'd never seen him nervous like this. After a few moments of awkward silence, Aris decided to break it. "So, who're you meeting?"

"This guy named Aris—" He let out a short, cynical huff of a laugh. "Not you, dufus." He rolled his eyes, but the way his eyes kept darting around the room afterwards told Aris that the movement was forced. 

But that wasn't really what bothered him. Aris was supposed to meet a guy named Callum that he'd nicknamed Call, whom he'd never met, and Callum was here waiting for a guy named Aris. Exactly at the same time as Aris was waiting for Call. His body seemed to freeze, the panicked realization stupefying him. "What about you?" Callum asked, oblivious to his reaction.

The question all of a sudden seemed hard to answer, his mind still running marathons. It felt like there was both a leaden ball and a bunch of butterflies in his stomach. Leaden butterflies, basically, were partying in his stomach at the sight of the person he both loved and hated.

"Call?" the name slipped off Aris' tongue before he'd registered it, and he stared at Callum for a response.

His brows furrowed, then bounced up as his eyes widened. He stumbled back, placing a hand on the round table for support as the gears clicked in his brain.

Aris just stared, his hands still frozen in his pocket. Of all the times he'd tried to imagine Call he'd never thought it'd be with this messy brown hair, or those freckles that sprinkled his cheeks. He wouldn't have thought the soft features that had the girls falling for him would make up the very face of the boy in front of him.

And now what? What about all the messages they'd sent to each other? Aris' cheeks flushed when he realized that he'd even sent some of them with small hearts. This was the guy he'd been falling in love with, that he'd written to the moment he came home from school and the moment he woke up. The guy he'd spent hours talking to in the evenings, sometimes about the things that happened during the day, and other times cute conversations about the ideal date.

And this is what that should have been. This was meant to be their date, and Aris had imagined since yesterday that it would really be the perfect date. But this felt far from it.

When he finally registered Callum again, he noticed his arm trembling against the table.

"Are you okay?" Aris asked. Not because it was the best question to ask but because he had nothing else to say. Call's Adam's apple bobbed as he gulped. Call didn't answer right away, and Aris' mind was able to form a spider web of thoughts in those few seconds. In the past few months he'd already established that he liked Call, and whether it was love or not he'd let the future decide, even though his heart had definitely told him that it was this morning.

And he didn't want to leave that.

He thought about the heart he'd drawn at the end of their last conversation, and he fisted his hands in his pocket. He'd meant it then, and this was the same person he'd drawn it for. Before he could change his mind, he formed the words on his lips, cutting off Call's stuttering. His heart was now pounding in his chest.

"Wanna get that caramel cheesecake?"