status. thats what always mattered. especially in high school. stupid cliques wanting to be at the top of the food chain around here. it was stupid really. none of this would even matter after these four years but it seemed like the most important thing on the planet during it.

for dean, its all cliches. overused and overplayed cliches. he supposed they were good ones though so who was he to complain? he’d somehow found himself at the very top of this silly social hierarchy. not that it was hard for him at all. all sports and pretty girls falling at his feet and parties and big friend groups and blah blah blah— typical popular teenage boy stuff. it was fun, as annoying as classes and school was, dean always found the social part of it as easy as a hot knife through butter.

he did however, fail to realize that high school wasn’t exactly a cake walk for everyone because of this. well- of course he realized not everyone was all popular and was friends with like the whole school and all that but being and doing all that wasn’t hard for him so he thought that was just by choice.

those kids who kept to themselves and only had a friend or two— that was by choice right? and he could get that, not everyone wanted to go to parties every weekend, some people weren’t a social butterfly or whatever like him.

and usually, he didn’t pay much attention to those kinda kids. he left them to their solitude and paid attention to the girls batting eyelashes at him and the guys inviting him to parties.

there was just.. well- there was you. you, who once he noticed for the first time he couldn’t stop noticing. it wasn’t like there was anything particularly noteworthy about you, if anything it was the opposite. you kept to yourself, kept your head down, never really saw you speak to anyone, headphones in and pencil moving— it was all so.. uninteresting. surface level you were so uninteresting.

really, you were kind of a loser. actually- not even kinda, you definitely were one.

he probably shouldn’t care as much as he did, he never gave a second glance at people like you but for whatever reason you just drew him in, in a weird way? all quiet and mysterious and kinda cute actually..?

maybe that was it. maybe it was just because you happened to be a little attractive in his eyes that made him wish you were more social than you were. wish you came up to him batting your eyelashes or inviting him to a party.

it was a stupid infatuation he had for no reason and one he quickly decided he needed to explore. he kinda thought you wouldn’t really wanna talk to him, being who he was and you being who you were but whatever— who would dean be if he didn’t shoot his shot at the people he found attractive and intriguing? thats like his whole thing. so the next time he saw you, he’d talk to you—he told himself—find out your name at the very least.

and that’s in the library. catching a glimpse of you while talking with his friends. sat by yourself, pencil in hand, headphones in like always— he can’t say he’s seen you in many other positions than that one. always working.

walking away from his friends and over to you with all his usual suave and charm. “hey, you mind if i sit?” just gesturing towards the chair beside you in the most casual way he could. because he could totally be normal about this, definitely, dean was great at being normal..