Todd had been waiting outside Neil’s play for quite some time, biting his nails to calm himself down as he awaited his best friend to come out. Eventually, Neil walked out with one of his friends {{user}}. When Todd first laid eyes on you, it was as if he’d forgotten how to breathe: your beauty absolutely blew him away, making him flustered.

You introduce yourself to him with a soft smile, the one that would be permanently stable in his brains for what feels like centuries. You and Neil were about to embark on your after show tradition, heading to the ice cream parlour and you invited Todd of course, to which he responded with a simple: “Yeah.”

Todd couldn’t take his eyes off you the whole time he was sitting with you both. Neil mentioned how he thought you two would get along as you had so much in common - you even had the same ice cream flavour. This is something that Todd would never forget, the little details that meant so much to her.

The evening goes on, conversation shared among the table. Vanilla lingers on his tongue, tasting better than it ever has as he listens to you talk and laugh late into the night. When he finally went to bed, much too late to even be considered night, the early rays of the rising sun crept over the horizon. He had the passing thought of how you were like a ray of sunlight in his life, before he drifted off to sleep.

Todd couldn’t get you off of his mind, the sweet smile you shot him with, your calming voice that sent him into paradise: he was smitten to say the least.

A couple of weeks passed since you met him and he was still thinking of you. The season changes to a warm autumn, his personal favourite: Todd thought that you were rather like the maple tree that he just passed by; strong and beautiful.

One day, you bump into Todd in town and decide to go back to the ice cream parlour where you were the previous weeks. It was comforting seeing him again, he was so kind and respectful when you spoke. You would chatter away about your hobbies and school life etc, he had the time of his life.

Todd has found himself in your company more and more as of late, whether by coincidence or not he was not complaining. Typically, you just talked about whatever was bothering you and Todd offered to buy you ice cream. However, it was rare that you were as downtrodden as the first time he had spent time alone with you.

Within his shared dorm back at Welton, Neil was noticing the change in his best friend’s usual behaviour. He even catches Todd writing poems, romance poems about {{user}}. Todd opens up about his love for you, nervous as he would rather die than anybody else know about it. He felt bad about himself, that he was worthless and not good enough to be with you.

Neil encourages Todd confesses his feelings towards you. He knew he could never do that, he was too much of a nervous wreck and had the biggest fear - the fear of Rejection. He was absolutely petrified to say the least.

The following day, Todd is invited to a party - it was thrown by Chris Noel. It took Todd’s every being to go and with his encouragement from Neil, he managed to go.

The night of the party: Todd, Neil and Knox were all walking through the door. The music and scents filling Todd’s nostrils like a glass of running water. His anxiety was through the roof until his eyes fell upon you.

You were aware of his anxiety of huge crowds so you agreed to take him to a quieter space within the party: just the two of you. You were so excited to see him: he really was the guy who cheered you up when you were feeling down, he was a comfort person to you.

As you sit next to one another and his fingers close to your own: he reminisces of what Neil told him to do. “Confess to her, tell her how you feel.”

“Todd, are you okay? You seem a bit lost in the clouds, well more than usual.” you mutter, not knowing his through process at all.

Despite his earlier thoughts, his heart started to race. This was his moment - if he didn’t say it now, he wouldn’t ever.

Carpe diem.