Her laughter hits my ears and rings like a glass bell. Her blue eyes shine like the sunlight hitting a clear lake. I am attracted to this girl. I walk over. "Hey," I say.

"Hey," she replies.

"I'm Rhoda," I introduce myself.

"I'm Mandy," she answers.

"Mandy." I like the name. It tastes like sugar on the tongue. "I see you around school a lot and...I kind of...like you," I admit, hoping against hope.

"Really? I...kind of...like you back...." the girl agrees, fading out.

We talk the rest of the night at that party, then exchange numbers and head home.

A week later I ask her out and she says yes, we begin dating.

Love.

He'd known Kyle for a long time. They'd been best friends since kindergarten. But all of a sudden, they'd been looking at their friendship as more than a friendship and he didn't even know how it happened. They'd been holding hands and everything. How was he to take this? Was he supposed to go with it?

Was he gay?

Yes. Yes, he was gay. And he was going to go with it, because he realized how much he loved Kyle.

He smiled to himself as he drove himself to the restaurant. He was going to see Kyle, and he was going to enjoy the date.

Love.

His last ex, a pretty blonde girl with blue-green eyes, walked past him, swaggering her butt out ridiculously. Why had he even fallen in love with her? Because she had a large bust and a bigger butt, that's why.

His boyfriend, Grayson, slid onto the cafeteria table seat next to him. "What're you thinking?" the taller boy asked.

"How I could ever loved Meg the way I love you," Ben answered, still staring off into the distance.

"Shhh, that was last year. We have each other now, that's all that matters." Grayson kissed his boyfriend's ear and grinned.

Ben smiled back and hugged the tall boy, glad that there was someone who could make him feel like this.

Love.

She--he--looked in the mirror at her--his--flat chest and short hair. How was she--he--supposed to feel?

Happy. He was finally who he wanted to be. He was a boy, a young man.

The girl burst into the hospital room and nearly tackled him before remembering the sensitive lower abdomen from his surgery. Instead, she resolved to just hug him. He smiled into her dark hair, feeling like he was finally free. He was himself.

And as he and his girlfriend kissed, he felt it.

Love.