Message In A Bottle

Dec 7

It was midnight on a Wednesday and Fred had enough of moping.

Dammit, why was he acting like such a loser? It wasn't like he'd been dumped, and it wasn't like he tried to get Alex to like him back. Ugh, Fred seriously felt like one of those Nice Guys that people complained about on Reddit. He wasn't entitled to anybody, and definitely not Alex. Alex had shown interest in at least two guys and none of them were him. And while a part of Fred was genuinely, sincerely happy for Alex (and Arthur too, he supposed), there was that immature, pathetic teenage part of him that was continuously whining and sobbing.

He was Fred Hayford, for goodness' sake. People liked him, he had many friends, he was the captain of the basketball team, blah blah blah. Who cared if his childhood crush didn't like him back? There were more important things to life than finding true love, if that even existed. Fred's inner monologue voice was picking up a sour, sarcastic tone. Do not spiral, Fred ordered himself. Do. NOT. Spiral.

Fred had been internally screaming ever since the news dropped. He wasn't doing much and spent his free time watching the World Cup but even that became boring after a while. He'd been distracted and everybody could see. He had chalked it up to "exam nerves" but he knew better. Fred groaned and flopped on his bed.

Honestly, Fred was mad at himself. He was mad at himself because he'd gotten sad over something unreasonable like his crush getting a boyfriend- okay, that was actually a valid reason. Fred would comfort Conner if Bree ever got together with somebody else- okay, now that sounded like he was jinxing them. Nope!

What other single friends did he have- Eugene? Did Eugene even have a crush? Fred's gaydar was not the most accurate, but to him Eugene did vaguely seem like he was on the aromantic spectrum.

Okay, maybe Danielle then. Danielle did seem like the type to have a stupid, overblown crush on some unattainable hot person who would never look her way (it wasn't meant to be offensive to Danielle because Fred related to her). Fred would find it reasonable if Danielle was upset over her hypothetical crush getting together with someone. (Oh wait, now Fred remembered those silly rumours about Danielle having a crush on him in middle school. That was honestly really stupid.) Therefore, Fred should find it reasonable that he was... in such a state.

Because feelings were normal. Heartbreak was normal. Teenage angst was normal. Very much normal. Not immature at all. Fred gulped. Yup.

And of course Alex would like Arthur because he was cool and mature and ambitious like her, they both had good grades, they were both charismatic leaders, blah blah blah. It was very natural. They just fit.

And actually, Fred enjoyed his position as the leader of a small group of basketball clowns very much. His life was just fine. And being single was actually kinda great. Relationships were scary.

See? Fred had so many nice things to appreciate in his life. He didn't want to be sad and mopey all the time. No, he was going to fight that cliché. He was going to break free from the dumb character tropes (the despondent childhood friend, the immature jock) that people from beyond the fourth wall liked stuffing him in. Fred was going to wrestle with the narrative with his own hands. He would break free and be in charge of his own life. He didn't give a damn anymore.

Fred was going to change.

So he texted his friends (strategically avoiding the Bailey twins because that was just awkward) and asked for group study sessions. Because exams were coming up and Fred was going to transform his sadness into anger, and then motivation. He was going to achieve well out of spite. Maybe the world wanted him to be sad by dropping that bomb on him, but Fred wasn't going to let it hold him back.