Armin looked at me wearily; tiredly. I got up and off of my chair, and sat down beside him. "What happened?" I asked him. He looked at me in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"Well, why were those guys picking on you? It didn't appear that you did anything to aggravate them", I explained. "Oh. They always beat me up. I'm kind of their human punching bag", Armin told me.
"That's terrible, I'm so sorry", I apologized unnecessarily. "I'm used to it. I don't really feel pain anymore", he said. I looked at the floor and imagined what it would be like to be constantly getting beaten up.

"I saw them kicking you. Are you hurt anywhere else?" I asked concerningly. He looked down at himself. "I don't know, probably", he presumed.
"Well, can I look? I just want to make sure you're okay", I requested. He looked at me oddly. I could tell that he was uncomfortable and that I had pushed his boundaries to their limits. After all, we had just met and I had convinced him to come to my house. "Fine", he muttered, to my surprise. "Oh, alright", I said awkwardly as I grabbed the bottom of his shirt.

He shivered and closed his eyes. As I began to pull up his shirt he stopped me, but not in a gentle way. He full-out pushed me, and I fell backward off of my chair and onto the ground. My head made a huge THUMP on the wooden floorboards in my room. Armin gasped and got off of the bed so that he could kneel by my side. "I am so sorry! I don't kn-know why I just did that. I-I'm never this violent", he practically yelled. I sat up and rubbed the back of my head, knowing that a bruise would appear on it, by the next morning. "It's fine, don't worry. I was getting a little too close and I wasn't respecting your personal space", I assured him. He was speechless and unable to fathom what he had just done.

"I-I should go", he stuttered. "My mom's probably worried sick about me. She's super over-protective, and all", he told me. The both of us got up and we exchanged weary smiles. "Thank you so much, Y/N. I really appreciate your unnecessary compassion", Armin graciously said. "It was nothing", I replied. I led Armin out of my room and down the stairs, towards the front entrance of my house. He put on his shoes and I opened the door. He stepped outside and turned to me.

"It was really nice meeting you, Y/N", he mentioned shyly. I smiled and responded by saying, "Thanks. It was nice meeting you too. If you ever need anything, you can come to me. Just tell me if those boys ever bother you again. I know them well, so I can make them stop", I informed him. He nodded as a response and began to descend down the steps from my porch. I felt upset, and couldn't just accept that that would be the last time we'd talk. I really liked him, and I knew that there was something special about him, so I stopped him.

"Wait", I yelled out. Armin turned around. "Can I give you my number. I mean, just in case you ever need me or anything, or if you just wanna' talk..." I practically screamed at him, fading into silence. He walked towards me. "Sure", he said statically. I rushed around the front room of my house and found a pen and a paper. I scribbled down my cellphone's number and handed it to him. He folded the paper up neatly and tucked it into his back pocket. He smiled and said, "I'll message you, sometime". Then, he left. I had offered to walk him home, but he politely declined, saying that he didn't want to be any more of a hassle to me.

I stood at the front window of my house and watched him walk down the sidewalk until I couldn't see him anymore. Those last words that he had said, left a warm presence. I felt as if I was actually appreciated by someone, again. I felt like I could have had a friend, which was something I really needed in my life, then. Once I was sure that Armin was gone, I left the living room and ran back upstairs, to my bedroom.

I lay down on my bed and looked up at my white ceiling. I just stared at it, hoping it would somehow make everything make sense to me, but it didn't. At this point, nothing but experiences would help me understand what I was feeling. So I lay there and I stared into the blankness of my roof.

***

I remember waking up to the sound of my neighbour's dogs barking. I had fallen asleep after Armin's visit and woken up at 8:30pm. I sat up and looked around. I noticed that it was dark outside. I grabbed my cellphone from my pocket and pressed the home button. 8:32pm, it read. I got up and closed my window. I didn't want to have to listen to the sound of those dogs yapping all night long. I sat back down on my bed and looked at my phone's screen. There was nothing. Not a single notification.

I felt kind of offended, seeing that Armin had not left me a single message. I felt like having false hope was pathetic of me, and I needed something that would take my mind off of Armin. At that time, the best thing for me during a hard time was to take a shower. So that's what I did. I went into my bathroom, turned on the shower, stripped and got inside.

The steam and hot water felt wonderful and it was exactly what I needed. When I felt that I had spent enough time in the heat, I got out of the shower and dried myself off with a soft, white towel. I put my hair up in a towel turban and walked back into my room. I noticed my phone's screen was lighting up, so I walked over to it. I had six missed messages. I sat down on my bed and unlocked my phone.

All of the messages had come from an unknown number. I opened up the texts and read them.

[8:01] Hey.
[8:01] Thanks again, for what you did for me earlier.
[8:01] That was cool of you...
[8:05] Oh yeah, by the way, this is Armin.
[8:05] Should have said that before.
[8:06] I'll stop spamming you now...

I was astonished. I would have never had guessed that Armin would have messaged me, that day. Well, on the inside I really wished that he would, but I didn't think that it would actually happen. I read the messages that he had sent, quickly, and felt a warm feeling grow within my stomach. It felt really nice to actually have someone go out of their own way to message me.

I knew that I had to take this opportunity to make a friend, so I made no hesitation and responded with:

[8:09] Oh, no problem at all. And don't worry, you weren't spamming me... even if you were, I wouldn't care tbh 👌🏻🙂

I stared deeply into the screen of my cellphone, impatiently awaiting a response. As soon as I saw the words read appear, my eyes widened and my heart began to race.

[8:09] You're up. I thought you would have been sleeping, by now. Did I wake you up?

My thumbs raced across my touch-screen's keyboard to respond:

[8:10] No, not at all. No worries 😅✋🏻 Hey, are you okay?

[8:10] I guess...

[8:10] ... 😕😬

[8:10] I'm fine. Don't worry. What about you?

[8:10] I'm fine, thanks.

[8:11] That's good.

[8:11] Yeah.

I was beginning to get bored of our conversation. Absolutely nothing interesting was happening, but I expected none the less. I lay down on the floor of my room and closed my eyes. So much was circulating throughout my head. I wondered if I should start making bolder conversation, or if I should just stick to simple responses. My phone buzzed once again, and I grabbed it off my bed. I looked at it and sighed.

[8:13] Hey, don't we have math together?

My eyes widened. That is indeed correct. Armin and I had a subject and I had no clue, up until that moment. I furrowed my brows and tried to remember where he sat. That's right! He sat by the door, which was on a diagonal from where I sat.

[8:14] Oh yeah... we do 😳 Whoops. I don't think I noticed that before now... sorry...

[8:14] It's fine. No worries. It's probably because I'm pretty invisible. I don't really talk much, or make myself noticeable.

[8:15] Idk maybe. It could also just be because of the fact that I never pay attention to anything whatsoever.

There was a long pause. My message had not been read and minutes began to pass. I stared eagerly at my phone, feeling anxious. I pondered, wondering if I had said something that could have turned him off. All of the sudden, my message had been read, and he replied.

[8:17] Back, sorry. My mom called me downstairs. Listen, it's getting late- for me, at least. I gotta' go to bed. Thanks again for what you did for me. I guess I'll see you in math tomorrow...

My heart suddenly plummetted. I was enjoying myself, talking to him. I really did not want the moment to end. It made me sad, having to say goodbye.

[8:18] Ah alright. I better get to bed, myself. See you tomm in math. Night.

[8:18] Goodnight.

After his final farewell, our conversation had been put to an end. I got up off of my floor and sat down on my bed. I felt anxious and I didn't think that I'd be able to go to sleep. "Get a hold of yourself, Y/N. This is Armin Arlert, for god sakes. He's literally the nerdiest damn frickin' geek in the whole school. There's absolutely no need to be getting all worked up over him. So stop, before you fuck everything up and do something drastic. You're better off without companions, so stop trying to make them. God, this is pathetic", I told myself. I actually remember trying so hard to try to convince myself out of what I was about to do, but there was a passion within me that spoke much louder than these words that I spoke.

I grabbed my phone yet again and typed in my passcode. I opened up the text messages between Armin and I and began to type.

[8:23] Hey you actually seem pretty cool and I mean if you're not busy at lunch tomorrow, it'd be cool if we could hang. I mean... If you want. Don't feel like I'm trying to pressure you into anything, though.

That was it. You plugged in your phone and turned off the light.

"I should really go to bed too."

You got under the covers and closed your eyes. Your thoughts were corrupted with only one thing. Armin. You couldn't get him out of your head. Tonight would be a long night.

•••[time skip to the next morning]•••

You walked quietly to school. I'm tired.

"Delu leno ze."

I didn't do my homework like usual. I should mentally prepare myself for the insults and yelling from my teachers. You entered the school dreadfully and grabbed your science books. I hate having science in the mornings. It sucks and requires a lot of thinking. You sluggishly dragged yourself to class and took a seat in the back. You were the first one there so you put your head down in your arms and closed your eyes...

"Y/N!"

You opened your eyes and sat up to see nobody in the class but you and your teacher Mr. Smith.

"It's second period get up."

"Crap I'm late!"

You slipped off your chair and ran to your geography not minding that you didn't have the proper books. Today is the absolute worst.