High school is no place for love stories, everyone knows that. Especially Blink-182 boy.

Just an average sixteen year old, Blink-182 boy had known his fair-share of heart break. First there had been converse girl. Then there was Guitar-Hero chick. And then there had been beautiful SkaterScull princess.

Blink-182 boy didn’t see girls as having names, he saw them as personalities. He had nicknames for each one in his head. Converse girl had been so easy going and free-spirited, while SkaterScull princess and been so dark and macabre. And then there was Guitar-Hero chick. She had been so, so perfect…until the day he caught her sneaking behind the bleachers to kiss the starting Quarterback.

Blink-182 boy had gotten his heart broken several times-each time was more painful than the last.

As a result-he hated love. Hated it. Every time he fell for a girl, it ended in pain. Pain for him and pain for the girl.

Love was just a form of torture, plain and simple.
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It was seventh period when the girl in the black and white checkered skirt walked up to the boy in the Blink-182 Tee-shirt. She smiled for a moment before her quivering lips became a frown.
“What’s wrong?” Blink-182 boy asked her softly. He was friends with Checkered skirt girl. They had been since seventh grade. He grabbed her hand and lead her out into the hallway by a vacant staircase. He looked into her eyes and repeated the question.
She rubbed her arms like she was cold, and then looked away. She hesitated for a moment.

“I’m in love with you.” She said in a whispered tone.

Her eyes sparkled with tears as she looked up into his dark eyes and repeated the words even more quietly, as if to verify that they were true.

“I love you.”

She looked down at her hands as he stared unseeingly down at the top of her head. He didn’t even blink as she turned and walked back towards the classroom. Towards her seat at the waiting computer.
He looked down at the spot where she had just stood. His heart pounded in a strange way as he thought about her words.
What should he do?
What should he do?
What should he do?
What should he do?
What should he do?
What should he do?
What should he do?
What should he do?
What should he do?
What should he do?
What should he do?
What should he do?
The question rang through his head like loud church bell as he stared at the classroom door which stood a mere seven and a half feet away.
He could picture her perfectly-she was probably staring at the blank screen as she wiped her eyes with her black leather jacket sleeve. She was wondering what he would say to her, and if they could possibly still be friends if he rejected her. Maybe four years had lead up to that moment, or maybe just a week. What would she been expecting, really?

A passionate kiss…

A hug…

Maybe a simple reply…

But the boy just stood there. Staring straight ahead. His band bracelets quivering as he absentmindedly lifted up his fingers to comb them through his spiky hair.

He watched as the rest of the class drifted into the room.
Converse girl waved half-heartedly as she passed by him-a reminder of what love did and what it could do. And then the real bell rang. Blink-182 boy walked through the classroom door and past Checkered-skirt girl. He stared at his own blank screen as the teacher poured out word after word of useless information that could not possibly help him in this situation.
The kids on either side of Blink-182 boy chattered happily as he stared ahead at the abyss of black on his computer screen. The iPod headphones in his ears began to play one of his favorite Beatles Tunes, When I Saw Her Standing There. He gazed at checkered-skirt girl, thinking maybe the song was a sign from God.

And as his eyes curved around her he found that his heart was pumping faster, he was sweating and that his brain was moving at a speed of a thousand miles per hour. He loved her.

He started to work on his project but found his eyes kept drifting back to her. He watched her carefully, as if to send her the secret message that he loved her too.

It was a strange thing, their love.

Both had thought that the other would never like them.

The Band Boy and the Pretty Girl.
Black and White.
Yin and Yang.
Storm and Rainbow.

They were so different, yet didn’t that mean that they belonged together?

High school is no place for love stories, everyone knows that. Especially Blink-182 boy.

But he didn’t really care anymore. There was something in the way that she looked at him, Smiled at him. Spoke to him. She was different.
He took out a slip of loose leaf and began to write. Love stories were only for movies, he knew that much, but it couldn’t hurt to hope.

Which was why, as the bell rang again, he got up and slipped the note into her backpack before leaving alone.

He hoped that she’d get it.

And she did.

The next period, checkered-skirt-girl unzipped her backpack. She pulled out her bubble-um pink binder along with a messy ripped up sheet of loose-leaf.

Tucking the short brown hair behind her ears, she unfolded the note.
I love you too.

Her heart leapt and she quickly stuffed the phone number back into her backpack.
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Blink-182 boy waited by checkered-skirt girl’s locker. It was an ugly green color, like the rest of the lockers that lined the hall. But it was hers.

It took ten minutes. 600 seconds time was enough for him to second-guess himself and almost leave twice. He saw SkaterScull princess as she went to her locker just feet away from where Checkered-skirt girl’s was. He panicked. But he stayed.

And after those ten minutes were up, he saw her round the corner with a group of her friends. He recognized a few of them.

She was rifling through some papers as she walked and laughed. When she looked up, she saw him. Her smile vanished and was replaced with a shy, mischievous one that was as nervous as it was happy. She waved all her giggling friends away as she stepped up to him. They melted skillfully into the crowd.

“So…” she said, leaning her elbows casually against the glass window pane.

“So…” He repeated, looking down into her bright eyes once again. She dropped her backpack to the ground and smiled.

“Well, I got your-”

But her sentence remained unfinished asBlink-182 boy put his arms around her and dipped her in the middle of the hallway. And he kissed her.
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High school is no place for love stories, everyone knows that. Especially Blink-182 boy.
But that day, at that moment-he knew that sometimes, you have to write your own love story. Because even though High School romances don’t happen like they do in the movies-it never hurts to try.