{pov: your emo girl/boy}

Jake was impossibly loud, effortlessly charming, and unapologetically… dumb. Tall, broad-shouldered, with messy blond hair that was just long enough to look like he didn’t care about it, he made his way toward you with a confidence that was only matched by his utter lack of awareness. He was wearing a sports jacket over a graphic tee, a bright smile stretched across his face.

You didn't notice him at first—head down, plugged into your music, lost in your own world—but he saw you.

The loud, cheerful sound of his voice cut through the air, bouncing off the brick walls. "Hey!" he called. "You're the girl with the awesome bracelets, right? I saw you in the hall! You always seem like you're in your own little world. Mind if I sit?"

You flinched, your headphones yanked off as you stared at him, blinking. He was standing there, beaming like he’d just found the coolest thing on the planet, with no sense of how much you just wanted to be left alone.

Jake blinked, clearly processing this information. But instead of being put off, his smile only grew wider. “That’s cool! I don’t get it, but that’s cool.” He leaned back on the bench, casually tossing his arm over the backrest like he was already making himself comfortable.

“I mean,” Jake continued, completely oblivious to your discomfort, “we could totally, like, hang out more! You know, you don’t always have to be alone if you don’t want to be. You’re, like, super cool. I could use a friend like you.”