Young Love Was Such Dumb Love

John O'Callaghan was walking home from school his last day as a middle schooler, Max still by his side talking about this new game console. Both of them had their bangs gelled up straight and John licked his brace-clad teeth. The only thing getting him through the torturous orthodontia was the promise that someday he'd have a perfect smile and get lots of "babes". He turned his head after hearing girls laughing behind them.

"Your brother is, like, super cute," A blond girl said, she was dressed in all Hollister and had bright Old Navy flip-flops on that were smacking loudly as it was obvious that she was trying to catch up with him.

"My brother's a nerd," Benny scoffed, she had gone into adolescence well, seeming to have skipped the awkward phase that most kids went in and John just couldn't seem to get out of. "Knock yourself out," She seethed sarcastically and the other girls laughed on cue. "Can we help you O'Callaghan?" She said turning her attention to John, she raised an eyebrow challenging him and he suddenly felt nervous. Obviously she was hot, but it was even more obvious that his best friend's little sister that his best friend hated.

"No just wanted to know where the annoying high pitched noises were coming from, but then I realized it was just you and your pack of slutty followers," John said, realizing how mean it was and not really caring. After Benny and John had known each other for so long they had seemed to come to an understanding that they were allowed to hate each other. Somehow their days of childhood play had dissipated as Benny began to make her own friends, so they drifted back to a state of ignorance or contempt almost like siblings themselves. Neither of them knew that they wished things were different.

"Clever, why don't y'all go play some Dungeons and Dragons or better yet, why don't y'all watch each other jack-off and dream someday a girl will actually notice you?" Benny retorted sharply, her southern drawl coming out again. That's how John knew if she was really mad, her accent came out. For some reason Max didn't have the same effect, maybe he had grown out of it. John stood speechless of what had just been said to him and scoffed.

"Fuck you Benny, why don't you and your little whore-y friends go play somewhere else," Max responded for him, not even looking up from his gameboy which made it all the more impressive. John turned around and walked into the Fallon household next to Max while Benny and her friends waited on the sidewalk.

"With pleasure," She spat back, she turned to her group of friends before selecting one of them. "Melissa, can we go to your house?" She asked, being genuinely nice. Benny simply had to be mean to John and Max because they, well, made it easy and because they teased her first, ever since she could remember. First it was cooties, then it was her lisp from her missing tooth, then it was because girls can't play football, finally she gave up and made her own friends and even though she was one year younger than them, she fought just as hard.

"Sure, but Garrett is home," Melissa shrugged, reminding the group of her brother. They all shrugged deciding they were rather apathetic before walking over a couple of streets to the Nickelsen household.

"Dude, your brother's hot too, and he's our age," the blonde girl noted again, twisting her hair around her finger in a reverie. This time both Benny and Melissa scoffed, shocked by their friend's behavior.

"Megan, shut up," Melissa said sharply, Megan simply nodded as they made their way over to the house. Garrett was hole up in his room with his friend Pat and the girls decided on simply watching MTV and gossiping on the couch. Oh to be a middle-schooler.

Meanwhile, John and Max waited for their friends to get there before they could start their Halo tournament. Both boys in their growing stages, wolfed down an obscene amount of food before setting up the TV, Max was talking about how excited he was for summer then high school, to finally go to a different school that his sister.

"She's such a bitch, I don't even know why half the guys like her," Max complained as he sorted through wires plugging them into the TV, John did, but he didn't dare to say anything. "I mean she's always been like this, dude you remember like when we were six?" Max asked turning to John.

"Dude, I don't even remember what I learned last week," John cracked a joke, his voice cracking slightly as he attempted to make his voice louder. Truth be told, he did remember, he remembered Benny chasing them around wanting to play and be one of the boys. John crashed into the plush gray couch and heard someone walk in seeing Jared Monaco and Eric Halvorsen cheering as they walked in.

"Heeeey!" Jared called out as he held a case of Mountain Dew over his head and plopped it down on the coffee table, Jared was already growing taller, in fact all of John's friends were growing taller except for him. It was starting to make him feel a little self conscious. "Can you say all-nighter? We're gonna party this shit up!"

"Sup John Oh!" Eric Halvorsen said jumping over the couch, John had recently acquired the nickname this year after another John was in his class resorting to the last name initial, but it caught on.

"Nothing much, Jared's slutty sister was hitting on Max again," John said a sly smile growing across his face as he looked to Jared, who seemed unfazed. Everyone grew silent and stared at Jared until he looked up and shrugged.

"Not gonna lie, she's pretty slutty," Jared said, seeming apathetic about the truth. They continued to play video games until early hours of the morning when Benny was trying to sneak in, John was going to the bathroom when he saw the girl crying still trying to muffle her sobs.

"Benny?" John asked, she looked up surprised that someone was up and then looking back down, ashamed of her tears. She gave him a half-smile and placed her index finger to her lips and she ran up the stairs without saying a word to him. John stood there curiously and decided to follow her and as he got closer to her room he heard the crying get louder. He knocked as quietly as he could on the door, conscious not to wake up her parents and she cracked the door open just enough for her cloudy brown eyes to intensely stare at him.

"Go away John," She said firmly before closing the door in his face. John stood there looking at the door before looking down at his feet wondering what had just happened. He decided not to press the issue feeling oddly rejected and as he walked away from the door the crying got softer, wondering if he would ever understand girls. He had a particular girl on his mind, put away due to the circumstances and a fair confidence she had no interest in him. After all, in his mind she was the beautiful, thriving girl and he was the nerdy boy with intricate orthodontia.