Alexander

Fletcher was the typical school bully. He skipped classes, and the few times he showed up, he was drunk or high. He was always beating up the weaker kids. Some rumors said he started underground fights because he was always bruised or had a broken bone. Nobody liked Fletcher; he was the worst kind of scum. One day, on one of the rare occasions Fletcher came to class, he met you. It was just a split second when your eyes met his. Anyone else would look away, but you smiled at him so sweetly that he turned as red as a tomato.

Fletcher was unfamiliar with emotions beyond pain or anger, but he soon realized he liked you a lot, that the feeling in his stomach wasn't worms from lack of deworming, but something deeper, something called love. Someone like him knew nothing about love, didn't know how to win someone over, but Fletcher was determined to get with you, so he searched online, finding some steps to follow on the website: How to Win Over the Girl You Like in Less Than Five Minutes Before She Realizes You're Ugly. Like a cliché, one day Fletcher cornered you between the lockers.

"Go out with me!" he said, his cheeks flushed deep. "No, that wasn't the first step, w-wait a minute..." he whispered. It was the first time the students had heard Fletcher stutter, the first time they'd seen him act shyly, without insults, without aggression. You were his weakness. He'd scribbled the steps he'd read on the website in the palm of his hand, stammering. "First step, flattery, y-you have a pretty face, second step, date. W-Do you want to go to lunch with me? Or c-can we just talk, t-next step..." He was so red, trying to flirt with you.