𝙇𝙚𝙩 𝙈𝙚 𝙄𝙣.

He's A Crackhead, Man.

Killian couldn't stop thinking about West, and when lunch time came around, he found himself scanning the crowd in the cafeteria for the boy with hair as dark as night.
He was overcome with a feeling of great disappointment upon spotting him sitting side by side with a red-headed girl, sharing a tray of fries. The gentle smiles, hearty laughs and fond gazes directed at each other made him wonder if there was something going on between the two, made him wonder why he even cared. West was clearly not interested.

"Earth to fuck face!" Harper exclaimed, as he violently snapped his fingers in front of Killian's face.

"Huh?"

"Were you even listening, man?"

"Yeah, definitely..." Killian nodded absentmindedly, "Do you know who that guy over there is?" He asked, subtly pointing to West and Brittany's table.

"Winston, Weston... something. Why?"

At the mention of his name, Killian's table fell into a hushed silence, his teammates exchanged conspiratorial glances, like they knew something he didn't.

Killian caught on, "What's the big deal, guys?"

"His name is Weston Rickert, and you don't wanna go there, man. That Vietnamese kid is bad news. I heard his dad is on crack or something, he probably smokes crack too. Or deals it." Fletcher, their team captain answered, his voice dripping with venom.

Harper was unimpressed. How and why did they know this information? "We're friends with gossipmongers, Lord save us." He remarked.

Clancy, their wide receiver, however, took it upon himself to have the last word, "He's bad news. If I were you, I'd stay the hell away from him."
-
That afternoon, Killian and Harper were on their way home when they decided to pass by the local skate park so Harper could get some practice in.
As always, he was rambling on about his Meme page that had over 100K followers. Killian didn't really understand the concept of memes, so he just nodded at everything his best friend said, adding a "hmm" or a "that's funny" wherever necessary.

"...and the pikachu memes are literally gaining so much traction, I'll be at 200k before the year ends, see?" In an effort to flaunt his Instagram page, Harper forcefully (and on purpose) shoved the phone in Killian's face, colliding with his nose on the way.

"Whoops, sorry." Harper said, without a single trace of being apologetic in his tone.
Killian brushed a finger over the tip of his nose, shooting Harper, who only giggled, a glare at the same time.

They continued walking through the park until they came across the ramp.
They hadn't expected to see the one and only Weston Rickert, though, who'd just executed a Darkslide on a kink rail without breaking a sweat.

"Holy shit..." Harper cursed, his mouth falling wide open. The Darkslide was a difficult trick to master, and he'd been skating for over 5 years. Witnessing West do it so effortlessly suddenly made him feel like a noob.

Killian had the exact same reaction, except he wasn't just impressed with the boy's skills, there was something else behind his eyes, something akin to adoration. "Holy shit is right."

Harper noticed the look Killian was giving West, he'd seen it before, one too many times. It never ended well.

So, that's why he was asking all those questions earlier.

"Nope." He asserted, tugging Killian away from the ramp.
Skating would have to wait another day.

Killian was caught off guard, he tried to shake him off but Harper's grip on his wrist was strong, "Dude, what the hell?"

"Not gonna happen."

Harper knew his best friend well. He knew that when Killian liked someone, he'd stop at nothing to get that person's attention. Gender wasn't something he particularly stressed over, to him, everyone was free range.