A great man once said; "There is only one happiness in life: to love and to be loved". Now, I'd say I could relate to that statement. Only problem? The latter half of that sentence isn't very applicable to my life. Being loved? What a load of bullcrap. The only person who has ever loved me, I'm pretty sure, is my cat - and he gave up on me too by running away on the evening of my sixteenth birthday.

Before we take a deep dive into the tiring abyss that is my life, let me introduce myself. I go by the name Kairo Alden and I'm a hopeless romantic - emphasis on the word hopeless - and I spend most of my time in class not-so-subtly staring at my classmate, Alexandria Miller.

Alexandria isn't the most popular girl out there, and she isn't the prettiest either. But I've been captivated by even the mere thought of her ever since the day her and I partnered up for a stupid Chemistry project a year prior. Yes, a whole year had passed since I'd grown feelings for her - and I'd never mustered up the courage to confess to her, because I knew I'd get rejected.

"You idiot, you're literally drooling," Ethan said, nudging me with his elbow.

That brings us to the first side-character of this story; Ethan Ivanov. Ethan is Russian by blood, and often boasts about his roots. He's even quite fond of insulting us in his language, because he knows we wouldn't understand jack-shit. However, I've been taking Russian lessons in Duolingo and I'm secretly aware that he's been calling me a smelly donkey, I've just never said anything about it.

"He's probably thinking about Alexandria again," Barbara pointed out with a snort.

And that brings us to the second side-character; Barbara Schneider. Barbara's originally from Germany, but she can't speak the language for shit. We call her 'Barbie' because it's less work than having to call her 'Barbara'. Ethan says her name is like a tongue-twister of it's own - but she insists that he's just illiterate.

Barbara is a known lesbian at our school, and she's even dating the star quarterback of our school's sister, Hailey Nguyen.

Often times, I would feel inferior to the rest of my friends. I have plain dark hair - unlike Barbara who had dyed her hair a blinding shade of platinum, and Ethan who was blessed with natural blonde highlights mixed in with his light brown locks. Ethan and Barbara were a part of the drama club and I was a part of the school's press team, and I barely did any work there to begin with. Ethan was known in our school for some insane prank he'd pulled on one of the teachers and Barbara was known for being exceptional at basketball.

And you wanna know what I was known for?

I was known for being a part of a stupid soda commercial when I was only six. My mother had forced me to take part in it and if my acting skills weren't bad enough, I had to say the line: "Mmm.. who needs a girlfriend when I have my soda can?" with a very obvious trail of soda dripping down my chin - and the smile I was forced to wear made me look like I was being held at gunpoint.

Whoever noticed me at school would call me 'soda-boy' or ask me if I was still dating that damned soda can. It was so bad that I completely quit drinking soda at the age of thirteen and I wouldn't even go near the damn soda aisle at any store.

"You know," Ethan began, dragging me out of my thoughts. "It's about time you did something about your stupid little crush on Ms. Miller over there."

Before I could ask him what on Earth he meant by that, Barbara quickly squeezed her way into the conversation, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"A confession!" Barbara chanted at the same time in which Ethan shouted out: "A love letter!"

"Same thing," she huffed before slouching in her seat.

"There's no way in hell I'm doing that," I protested. "I'd rather turn into a goat and sacrifice myself for a ritual."

"Oh, come on! So you're just going to keep staring at her like a complete weirdo?" Ethan groaned.

"Yes," I stated bluntly.

"Alright, how about this?" Ethan began after a moment of silence had passed. "If you'll agree to the love letter thing, I'll pay for your lunch for this entire month."

I paused - and then I turned to face him with a smug grin on my face, "You've got yourself a deal."

Ethan let out a victorious cheer before being silenced by the teacher, to which he sunk in his seat, the grin still not leaving his face as he whispered to me silently, "So that's the straw that broke the camel's back, huh?"

"If you don't shut up I'm going to break your back," I hissed.

"Why? So you can go back to staring at your potential girlfriend over there?" he teased.

"Yes," I responded again before drowning him out completely so I could take another glance at Alexandria.

My heart was racing by just staring at her, how could I possibly write her a love letter? And risk facing a harsh rejection? Seems like a lose-lose situation to me.

The only silver lining was that I'd be getting free lunch - and I'd do anything for free food.

Looks like I'll just have to suck it up then.