"Why" by D. S. Aird.

It was a bleak, late-summer morning when I stepped onto the school bus. I wasn't a very colorful person, nor was I a social one. I spent most of my spare time playing video games and reading, and I can't remember the last time I talked to anyone. Not since last year, anyway.

Last year, I went to some private school that's shut down for some time now, thank God. To give you an idea of what the school was like, the principal is a convicted pedophile serving time in prison. I was beaten up every day. I can't remember a single day of that year that I didn't crying myself to sleep, thinking, "All I want, with all my heart, is a friend". But I digress, back to the story. This is a story with a happy ending, after all.

Anyway, I sat down in an empty seat near the back of the bus and inserted my earbuds. I started playing some Lindsey Stirling to calm myself down, knowing that something was going to go wrong this year. It always does. I settled in for what was going to be a depressing morning, and I quickly started to daydream.

After the first song I put on was finished, 4 minutes had passed. A few more people had gotten on, but among those people, only one, a chubby girl named Sydney, had said hi to me. None of which actually sat next to me, I noticed. I muttered a greeting back, and I bit my lip to keep myself from saying more, something along the lines of "Thank you for acknowledging me." I had a nasty habit of being sentimental at the worst times.

The bus pulled up to what seemed to be its last stop, considering the school was less than a mile away. As the doors opened, I sat up, seeing as to whether or not this person would be worth knowing. What I saw made my heart skip a few beats, and my mind stopped instantly.

She's a little short, with wavy light brown hair. She had eyes that were a kind, watery blue. She had a few freckles on her face, which made her all the more beautiful and mystifying. And she looked directly at me. And then she smiled. I forgot my name.

She walked over to the seat I was sitting in and sat down next to me. I didn't object. She greeted me with the most beautiful voice I had ever heard, and the only word I could manage was "yo", like the idiot I am. She asked me what my name was, and some tiny part of my mind started to function again. "I'm Daniel. And yours?"

"I'm Anna," she said. "I didn't see you here last year." Now the rest of my mind kicked in.

"Yeah, I'm new here. Do you mind maybe helping me for a bit? I don't know what I'm doing." She smiled again.

"Sure." I couldn't help but smile back.

The bus stopped at school, and we walked together for some time, talking for a while. After a few minutes had passed, the bell for first period rang, and we both said our goodbyes and went our own ways.

The rest of the day kind of passed in a blur, because I was giddy with the thought of a friend. We quickly became good friends, and since we rode the same bus and had the last stops, we got to talk every day. And though I got bullied a bit throughout that year, I still think of that time fondly, all because of a single girl that I fell hard for.

To this day, she's my best friend, and I love her with all my heart. We talk every day, and I've told her secrets and pains of mine that only God knows about. She is my best friend, she is my shoulder I can cry on, she is the only person that cared about me in the aftermath of the black shadows that seem to creep up from every dark corner, the memories I'd much rather forget than continue to bear witness to them. I may have been saved by God, but he sent me an angel to watch over me too, and I pray that she'll love me too.

To this day, I still wake up and think to myself, think about this wonderful dream that perhaps is more fantasy than reality, but none-the-less I still dream of it becoming true:

"Maybe I might get a happy ending after all."

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Thank you for reading my story. I am Daniel, and I am in love with Anna.