"Can't believe you showed up." I said as Garra sat down next to me.

"Can't be the loser club without me." He replied, "did you bring any food today?"

I shook my head, "sorry we ran out two days ago."

He frowned at me, "good thing I did."

My face lit up as he pulled out another lunch box, "got payed yesterday."

I sat down the lunch box carefully and pulled him into a hug. "Thank you."

Garra rubbed my back, "your welcome."

We stayed like this for a bit, he knew something was wrong.

"You didn't really run out of food, did you?" He asked, "you just don't want to eat, right?"

I nodded my head, "yeah I'm sorry I lied to you."

Garra put one of his hands on the back of my head, "lie to me, not yourself." He let me hold him a little more.

"How is Tamari doing? Uni treating her right?"

"She's okay," he said with a sigh, "won't return my calls or texts. Puppet master won't either."

I sniffled a laugh, "sorry."

"Don't say sorry about laughing. That was supposed to make you laugh." He replied, "this what the loser club is for."

"What's left of it anyway." I replied, "everyone else left."

"They'll come back." He replied, "they always do. They'll see that being popular is a waste of time and money."

"Can't belive Naruto left out of all of us. I'm surprised you choose to stay. You can leave at any time and become popular in a second. Why do you choose to stay here?"

"Naruto became a runner and made friends that way. We should be happy for him. Once the season is over, he'll be right back here with us." He paused to pull me away but held me in place to look me in the eye. "You're here. I told you I won't leave you, not like they did. My own siblings left me, I will not do that to you."

"For now, who knows what the future will bring. You may have to move to a different school later on." I said, "never promise forever if you don't know what forever is."

He smiled at me, "and you say you have no talent."

The bell rang and we gathered our stuff, "I'll bring you lunch again." Garra said and walked off before I could get a word in.

----

The last bell rang and we all rushed out into the halls. Garra found me in the crowd and took my hand. People already say things like "they're dating" so why not lead them on.

Garra pushed through the crowd, getting us out of the hallway in record time. "And the loser club is in first place, followed by the people who hate us in last place." He said, trying to make me laugh again.

"You don't sound too happy about winning." I replied with a smile.

"That doesn't matter to me, as long as I got a smile out of you." Garra replied, not letting go of my hand as we walked home.

"How was your day?" I asked him.

"Good, passed all the testes. How was yours?" He asked, never letting go of my hand.

"It's was alright." I replied trying to muster a strong smile. Yet, the sand lover saw right through it.

"Math again?" He asked.

I nodded sadly, "yeah this time they all singed a note, agreeing that no one loves me. No one cares about me..." trailing off caused Garra to stop dead in his tracks.

"You know that none of that is true, right?" He asked, not giving me a chance to respond, "they are all lying to get under your skin. They want you to believe them, don't give them that satisfaction."

"But Garra, what if they're right?" I asked, "maybe they're not lying..."

"Do you believe them?"

I looked down in shame. Believing their lies would only makes things worse, but it's so much easier to just give into them. Still, Garra was right. They don't care about me, but he does. Garra could just leave me and have more friends, maybe even better ones. He chooses to stay, he always has.

He put a hand on my shoulder and a car drives by, blowing all the fallen leaves in our direction. "You know that I care about you. You know that I love you, more than a friend. I only want you to be happy, whatever they say to you will only be lies. If it hurts you, it's a lie. Don't give into their lies, don't give in and become unhappy. I can't be in the loser club all by myself, after all." The last part was said to make me feel better.

"You're always right, Garra. Since when do you love me, more than a friend that is?" I asked.

"Two years after we first met. You were always smiling and I never wanted it to fade. You made me a better person with that smile, I told myself that I wanted to protect it." He answered, pulling me into his embrace. "I've only grown to love you, (y/n). Hell, I may never stop."

"I love you too, more than a friend. Garra, you make me so happy just by showing up to school. You've stuck by my side when no one else would and have always trusted me. You see right through me whenever I lie, which shows that you know me too well." I said, looking up at him. He kissed my lips gentle as if he would break me. We both pulled back and stood in each others embrace.

A few students from our school recognized us and shouted something mean. I was too busy listening to Garra's heartbeat but he flipped them off.

"Love you, even more than sand." He said, kissing the top of my head.