Monsters and Men ~ Rosenwalker & Richpez

Chapter 1

Brian Rosenthal groaned as he opened his locker and pulled out his math textbook. Trigonometry should be illegal, especially at seven in the morning. He closed his locker and leaned against it, allowing his eyes to fall closed for a second. He'd just pulled an all-nighter between homework and stressing about how little time he had to sleep because of said homework. Today was going to be a miserable day.

His eyes popped open at the sound of footsteps approaching. He turned to see his best friend, Joey Richter, standing next to him, one coffee in each hand. "What is up good buddy?" Joey asked, handing Brian one of the coffees.

"You, are a life savior." Brian applauded, taking the warm coffee and sipping it. "It's really freezing today and I'm exhausted."

"You look it." Joey teased, opening his locker, which was next to Brian's. "Another all nighter where you spend the whole night stressing about how little time you have left to sleep?"

"You know it. And it's freezing. And we're gonna be here until who knows how late tonight with play rehearsal. And I'm totally going to fail this trig quiz. I seriously could not be more miserable."

"You think you could try to be just a little less pessimistic?" Joey suggested as he closed his locker. "Maybe today won't be all that bad."

"You're right. It'll be worse." Brian gestured his head towards the end of the hall. Walking down the hall was Joseph Walker with his incredibly beautiful and popular girlfriend, Zoey. Brian had more or less been completely head over heels in love with Joe for nearly a year. He knew he shouldn't stare, but it was hard not to as Joe walked hand in hand with her down the hall. Zoey flipped her long red hair over her shoulder as she opened her locker, handing Joe her books to carry for her. Joe leaned against the locker next to hers as some of Zoey's friends approached her, all as loud and obnoxious as she was. Brian couldn't help but notice and appreciate Joe's striking jawline as he leaned against the wall, looking bored and unbothered.

Brian was snapped out of his trance by Joey flicking his fingers in his face. "Earth to Brian."

"Unfortunately, I am still on this damn planet."

Joey laughed. "Come on, don't let that get you down. There's plenty of fish in the sea for you. Be happy for Joe."

"Oh please, you don't like Zoey either. None of us do."

"Hey, I've never said that I don't like her. We're just different people in different levels of the high school food chain. She's penthouse pretty pristine popular rich girl, and we are subbasement theatre kids."

"You know, something about that incredibly long description of her makes it hard for me to believe that you have no opinion of her." Brian teased, a slight smile finding its way to his lips.

"Fair enough." Joey closed his locker, leading the way for Brian to follow him to their trig class. They walked by Joe on their way.

Joe smiled at them as they approached, walking over to them. "What up you guys?" Joe asked, seeming happy to have an excuse to slip away from his girlfriend and her loud friends.
Brian bit his lip. The combination of a lack of sleep followed by coffee had his heart racing, and he was way too nervous to talk to his crush.

Luckily, Joey came to his rescue. "Nothing much, we're on our way to go fail this trig test."

"Oof, good luck. You okay Bri? You look exhausted."

Brian locked eyes with Joe, not prepared to be signaled out. He was both terrified but at the same time his heart soared. "Uhh, I'm okay, I was up all night studying and running lines for rehearsal tonight, how are y—"

"Joseph!" Brian was cut off my Zoey's droning voice.

Joe turned to face his girlfriend. "Yeah babe?"
She walked over away from her friends, eyeing Brian and Joey up and down. "It's getting close to first bell, we should get going if you want to walk me to class."

"Oh, um, okay." Joe mumbled awkwardly, Zoey already walking away from him. "Uhh, I'll catch up with you guys later?" Joe asked in an apologetic tone.

"All good man, see you in Glee club." Brian reassured. Joe smiled at him before running off after Zoey. Brian closed his eyes, burning the image of Joe smiling at him into his memory.
This crush would be the death of him.

Hellooooo. Had this idea swirling around in my head for a few weeks and decided why not. Was gonna do this for my oneshots book but it was really long so decided to make it it's own book. This story is going to start like a very typical high school AU and slowly grow angsty, you've been warned.