Chapter Text
Tick, tock. Tick, tock. Tick, tock…
Armin sat at his desk, his eyes glued to the clock above the classroom door. His fingers on his right hand drummed on the desk beneath them as he mindlessly chewed on his nails on his left. His leg seemed to be bouncing a million miles per hour. Time felt like it was only moving by one. It was the last day of school. He did it. He had survived nine months of what most call hell. But it wasn’t hell to Armin. Especially when he got to see her everyday.
Annie Leonhardt, arguably the most beautiful girl in school in Armin’s eyes, had asked him to tutor her a couple months prior. She was failing geometry, which she could not afford to do. She was not in favor of repeating that class. Armin was more than glad to accept the offer, because there was absolutely no way he was passing up the opportunity to be close with her for the rest of the semester. It was one of the best decisions he had ever made, and hopefully, it was Annie’s best decision too.
But now the semester was over. No more after school tutoring sessions with Annie. If he was going to make a move, he had to do it now. He won't get another chance. At least not until school starts up again. A lot can happen in just one summer though. What if she finds someone she can fall in love with? Someone smarter, more attractive, less dorky? Yeah, there was no risking it. It had to happen today.
The countdown to that final bell seemed to drag on forever. Tick, tock. Tick, tock. Tick, tock…
Armin shuffled around in his seat, now antsy to just get the hell out of there. Just when he came to the conclusion that he’ll be stuck in that classroom forever, trapped by the continuation of time, the bell finally rang. The other students all jumped up and raced to the door. Armin, being the scrawny and unnoticeable guy he was, unsurprisingly got pushed out of the way to the door. Leaving him to be one of the last kids to walk out the classroom.
“Armin! Have a great summer!”
Armin turned and looked over his shoulder to see his teacher waving at him. “You too, Mr. Berner! See you next year!” Armin called out, and then made his way out into the hallway.
In the hallway, a sea of other teenagers appeared to take up most of the space. That wouldn’t stop Armin though. He was getting to Annie no matter what. It didn’t matter that when he pushed his way through the crowd, others pushed back, harder, and swore at him. The only thing that mattered was getting to talk to Annie. A couple of elbow jabs to the ribs were nothing, even if it did feel like it was going to leave a bruise later.
Somehow he ended up on the sidelines of the hallway again. It didn’t look like there was a way to get back into the crowd. Armin was stuck there until the crowd cleared up. Frustrated, he threw his hands up in the air, bringing them to his head where he grabbed onto his hair.
This is it! It’s over! His mind became a wasteland of negativity. Armin’s one and only chance was now out of his grasp.
He was so wrapped up with his goal to get to Annie that he didn’t even notice the two girls standing next to him. Mina and Hanna, two of his friends whom he had shared a couple of classes with.
“Armin, do you want to sign our yearbooks?” Mina said excitedly, holding out the yearbook towards him.
“Oh!” He jumped. “Yeah, sure.” He let go of his hair as he reached for the yearbook in his backpack. “Sorry, I’ve got a lot on my mind at the moment.”
Armin swapped yearbooks with Mina and began to write something generic about having a great summer next to his picture in the book. A few moments later, they exchanged year books again. Armin then turned his attention to Hanna.
“That’s fine. We won't keep you long,” she said. They happily swapped books, wrote their little messages, and then swapped books back.
Mina and Hanna bid their goodbyes to Armin and then went off on their way, leaving him to deal with the hallway conundrum again. The hallway was a bit more clearer now, which was perfect. Perhaps he won’t miss Annie after all. He began to take a step back out to the main part of the hallway, when he heard someone calling out for him again.
“Hey! What about me?”
Ugh. Now what? He turned his head to see who was behind him. It was his friend, Jean. He was standing behind Armin with a yearbook in his hand as well. A grin appeared on Armin's face when he saw who was it was.
“You want me to sign your yearbook too?” He asked as he turned his whole body towards Jean. The two boys didn’t always get along. In fact, it wasn’t until they got to high school that they became friends. Becoming friends with Jean was another one of the best choices Armin believed he had made. No matter how many times his best friend, Eren, had insisted that Jean was a bad guy, Armin loved being friends with him. He actually had a lot of great friends now. They made his life worth living after struggling so much throughout the years. Now only if he could at least get Annie Leonhardt’s phone number, then his life would be officially perfect.
“Well, yeah. Of course I do,” said Jean, handing the book to Armin. They exchanged books and began to write in them. As they wrote in each other's yearbooks, Jean glanced up at Armin. He could tell he was anxious about something.
“Is everything alright?” he asked.
“Huh?” Armin looked up at Jean. He then looked around the hallway that was now mostly cleared out. His heart sank as he took in the sight of the mostly vacant hallway. Just a couple of minutes ago this place was packed. If only he hadn't been stopped, then— no! The people who had stopped him were his friends. He couldn’t think of them as a nuisance. It’s just not right.
Armin sighed and lowered his head. “I just really wanted to see Annie before she left, but she’s probably long gone by now.”
“Hey, you don’t know that for sure.” Jean said as he and Armin switched back books. Jean never really had the reputation of a ‘nice guy’. He had always been the opposite, being a complete douchebag to everyone he had ever met. Especially to Armin.
Armin was an easy target for guys like Jean. The dorky nerd could never compete with a gorgeous, athletic, popular jock like him. At least that’s what Jean had always thought. He thanked God, or whoever was up there, that it was Armin himself who brought him out of that mindset. Jean also loved being friends with Armin. He couldn’t imagine life without him.
“I’m sure she’s still here.” Jean said, now appointing himself as Armin’s wingman. “There’s still a lot of people hanging around.” He motioned his hand towards the other kids who were still loitering in the hallways.
Armin shrugged, trying to avoid eye contact with Jean. He could feel his face heating up as his eyes began to water. He didn’t want Jean to see him crying over something that seemed so stupid to cry about. However, Jean did notice, and knew the feeling all too well. He had felt the same way when a certain brown haired, green eyed, asshole seemingly caught the attention of his own crush a few years prior. Armin was too good of a guy to feel that same kind of hurt.
Jean wrapped his arm around Armin’s shoulder, and began to steer him towards the front entrance of the school. “C’mon! Let’s go find her!”
The two were quickly stopped by another friend before Jean could even drop his arm back to his side. Sasha Braus, who appeared out of thin air, commanded them to halt right then and there, nearly losing her balance doing so.
“Don’t move!” She exclaimed while holding out her hand in front of their faces.
“Sasha, we’re in a bit of a–” Jean couldn’t get a full sentence out before he was cut off by the sound of a camera clicking, along with a bright flash that had temporarily blinded both him and Armin.
“There! Now I finally got a good picture of you two,” Sasha said as she held up the digital camera to Armin and Jean’s faces. Jean had a distorted expression on his face. Armin’s eyes were barely even noticeable from the flash reflection on his glasses. It was definitely not a good picture.
“Lemme see,” their other friend, Connie, said walking up behind Sasha. He snorted after she showed him the picture. “That’s the worst photo I’ve ever seen!”
“Then I’ll just take another one,” Sasha said in a sing-song voice. “Smile, you guys!” She snapped another picture of Armin and Jean before they had another chance to protest. She looked down at the camera that revealed an even worse photo than before. She again showed the picture to Connie. They both snickered at the unfortunate photo.
“That’s definitely going in our photo album.” Connie chuckled.
“What photo album?” Armin asked, starting to give up on finding Annie. He was hoping that directing his focus to something completely different would distract him from missing out on that once in a lifetime opportunity. The one where he got a chance to get Annie’s number, ask her out, become her boyfriend, marry her, and then live happily ever after.
Sasha and Connie perked up excitedly after hearing Armin’s question. “It’s only the best photo album ever to represent the best summer ever!” Connie said.
Connie began to ramble all the ideas they had in order to have a great summer. Sasha then joined in, joyfully sharing her ideas as well. As the two went on, Jean noticed that he still had his arm around Armin. He felt his face get slightly warmer and he looked down at his friend, who was looking up at him as well.
“Erm…sorry.” Jean said as he awkwardly removed his arm from Armin’s shoulder.
Armin took a step to the side, now presenting a significant amount of space between him and Jean. “It’s…it’s fine.” Armin mumbled. He turned his face away from Jean, readjusting his glasses. His face was now heating up for the second time, except now it was from embarrassment. He definitely noticed that Jean’s arm was still around him, way before Jean himself did. Why didn’t he say anything? Was he weird for not doing so? But Jean was his friend, so surely it didn’t matter, right? Either way, Armin didn’t really mind having Jean’s strong, muscular, athletic, arm arou—
“What is this about having the best summer ever?” Asked another feminine voice behind the group, interrupting Armin’s trailing thoughts. He turned around to see Eren and his other best friend, Mikasa, walking up to them.
“We are having the best summer ever, Mikasa!” Connie proclaimed as he pointed his finger to everyone in the group.
Sasha walked up to Mikasa and showed her the photos she took of Jean and Armin. “We need to document everything about summer ‘05,” she said. Mikasa looked down at Sasha’s camera and giggled at the photos.
Eren leaned over to look at the photos and let out a soft chuckle. “You got some real good ones,” he said. “I really like how you captured Jean’s resting bitch face.”
Laughter erupted within the group. Eren and Jean got along the least out of everyone, even though they’ve been hanging around each other for months now.
Jean rolled his eyes at Eren, not really wanting to feed into his antics at the moment. He had been doing his best to not argue with him, per Armin’s request. If he wanted to be good friends with Armin, he had to learn to accept everything that came with him, including Eren Jaeger.
He watched as the rest of his friends carried on talking, laughing, and taking pictures, all with Eren. Jean hated how effortlessly Eren could capture the attention of people. By himself, Eren was the quiet, loner type. If you put him in a group however, then he seemed to steal the spotlight. Jean was very jealous of his ability to do so. Eren was practically a nobody to him. So how could he be so popular? Even with the girls too? Eren always seemed to have girls around him.
Even though Jean was jealous, he’ll never admit it. At the end of the day, he was a much better man than Eren. He had to be. However though, Eren was the one who was the center of attention at the moment, and Jean was the one standing in the corner by himself.
Jean closed his eyes and sighed as he lowered his head towards the ground. Maybe Armin hadn’t changed him as much as he thought he did if he was still worried about something like that?
He leaned his back on the lockers behind him, then shifted his attention back to Armin. He was the only other person not interacting with the others. Instead, all Armin was focused on was the door that led everyone outside. Jean looked up at the exact moment that Annie Leonhardt walked out of the school. He gasped, then looked down back at Armin.
Armin whipped his head around to Jean, mouth agape. This was the moment he had been waiting for all day. Still, he was hesitant to actually follow her outside.
“Go!” Jean nudged Armin’s arm, encouraging him to go after Annie. “You’ll regret it if you don’t.”
Armin nodded at Jean, and then took off towards the door. He ran as fast as he could, not taking in consideration of the final bunch of students and teachers still occupying the hallways. All eyes were on him, but he did not care. He was getting to Annie no matter what. No one could stop him. No one except the teacher he was about to ram into.
“Umph!” Armin let out a grunt as he fell backwards onto the floor. The way he crashed into the teacher had caused them both to head butt. He rubbed his head as he looked up to see who he ran into. His eyes widened once he saw who was standing before him. Ah shit…
It was no one other than Mr. Ackerman standing in front of him. He dusted himself off, then looked at Armin with a scowl, one that was typically reserved most of the time for Eren. “Armin, what the hell are you doing?” he asked sternly.
“Ah–I…I’m…erm…” Armin stammered. Mr. Ackerman was for sure the last person he wanted to run into, both literally and figuratively. He glanced up towards the door where Annie had walked out. That’s right, he was on a mission. He let out a deep breath and got up.
“Sorry, sir.” Armin apologized. He dusted himself off and began to make his way towards the door. “I’ll see you later!” He called back.
Mr. Ackerman shook his head as he watched Armin run out the door. “Damn brat,” he muttered.
Outside, Armin took in the breeze of the late spring day. It was a beautiful one. A perfect one to ask out the girl he had been longing for. He had never felt more happy to be outside in his life.
Standing just a few feet in front of him was the one and only, Annie Leonhardt. She was looking down at a mp3 player, skipping through the songs she didn’t care to listen to at the moment. Just as she placed an earbud in her ear, she looked up. She softly smiled at Armin when she noticed him, and began making her way to where he was.
Oh my god! She’s walking to me! Armin’s heart skipped a beat as he watched Annie walk towards him.
No. She’s walking to someone else... He looked around to see if there was anyone else behind him. To his surprise, he was the only one that Annie could have been looking at. All the other students were either hanging out on the corner, at the crosswalk, or across the street. He turned back to Annie, dumbfounded that she could actually be making her way to him. There’s no way she wants anything to do with me now…
A gentle wind blew through her platinum blonde hair. Her icy blue eyes, complemented with a dark eyeshadow, glistened in the sunlight. As she got closer, a pinky, rose colored blush became more noticeable on her clear porcelain skin. Everything about Annie Leonhardt was flawless to Armin, but her face alone could have only been constructed by a goddess.
Annie walked right up to Armin, erasing all his doubts. “Hey, Armin,” she said, batting her eyelashes.
Armin felt his brain short circuit the second Annie said his name. The sun illuminated her perfectly, like she was an angel sent down from heaven. He was speechless as he took in her beauty. She was undoubtedly not like the other girls, not even close. From her rebel aesthetic presented in her clothing, to the many piercings on her face and in her ears, Annie was considered a ‘bad girl’ by most. Armin didn’t care though, because it was one of his favorite aspects about her. She did not give a damn about what people said or thought about her, and Armin deeply admired her for it.
Annie raised an eyebrow at Armin, wondering why he was taking so long to reply. Maybe she had something on her face? Or maybe part of her lunch was stuck in her teeth?
Watching Annie’s face suddenly change made Armin realize he was staring at her.
“H-hey, Annie,” he said, finally being able to muster up something to say. He rocked back and forth on his feet. “Watcha doing?”
Armin internally facepalmed himself the moment the question left his mouth. That sounded stupid. Why the hell would I ask that?
Annie smiled as she removed the earbud from her ear. “I was getting ready to leave, but then I saw you over here.” she said as she paused her music. “I was hoping I’d see you.”
Armin’s face turned bright red. A million butterflies fluttered around in his stomach. “You were?” he asked with a giant grin on his face.
Annie nodded her head. “Yeah, I just wanted to say thank you for everything.” She dug around her book bag and pulled out a paper. “All that hard work really paid off,” Annie said as she handed the paper to Armin.
He looked down at the paper to see it was a geometry test with an almost ideal score. He flipped the test front and back, examining the answers. “Wow, Annie!” Armin beamed. “This is amazing!”
Annie looked down to the ground, tucking her hair behind her ear. “Thank you,” she said in a soft voice. She could feel herself blushing now too.
Whenever something happy or exciting happened, Armin’s friends wasted no time hugging each other. Armin however, wasn’t sure that he and Annie were actually friends, even though it felt like they were sometimes. She was such a reserved person, and even though Armin loved her ‘too cool for you’ persona, it still came off as standoffish sometimes. He wanted to know everything about Annie, but for now he would remain in his place. Which meant refraining from giving her a hug, and just simply handing the paper back like a normal person.
Just as things were about to get awkward again, Annie spoke up. “So, did you get one of those yearbooks?” she asked while looking back up at Armin.
“Yeah I did! Did you want to sign it?” Armin said, perhaps a little too excitedly. He scrambled around his bag to pull it out.
Annie chuckled as she pulled a pen out of her bag. “Sure. Why not?”
Armin handed her the yearbook and watched as she flipped to her tiny picture. She clicked her pen and began writing away when she found it. Once she was done, she closed the book and handed it back to Armin.
“Do you think I could sign yours?” Armin asked nervously. Was that too invasive of a question? She would’ve given me hers if she wanted me to sign it…
So far, Annie was the only person who had not switched yearbooks with Armin, but it wasn’t like she had to. They probably weren’t as good of friends as he originally thought they were. All she needed was a tutor after all. There was no use for Annie to keep him around anymore.
“I didn’t get one,” Annie said as she dropped her pen back in her bag.
“Really?” Armin blinked. “Why not?”
“I just didn’t really feel like paying a ridiculous amount of money on a book full of people I don’t even like,” she said.
Ouch… Armin felt as if his heart had been ripped out of his chest. Annie really knew how to make it hurt the most.
She hoisted her bag back on her shoulder, then made direct eye contact with Armin. “Although, maybe I would've if it was just you in there.” she smirked.
Armin felt his face turn beet red for the second time now. His jaw dropped. She had to be teasing him at this point.
Annie put her earbud back in her ear and pulled out her mp3 player again. “I have to get going,” she said. “I’ll see you around, okay?”
Armin nodded his head. He was actually speechless this time, not being able to get any words out, no matter how hard he tried. He hugged the yearbook to his chest as he watched Annie walk off. He had no idea what she had written in his yearbook. He was too nervous to look. What if she had written something to make fun of him? No, that wasn’t likely. Not after what she had just said to him.
Wait! Was she… flirting with me?
“Ugh! I’m such an idiot!” Armin groaned as he smacked his head into his book. That was the one chance he had been waiting for, and he blew it. He reminisced on their conversion, wishing he could go back in time and ask for her phone number. He sighed as he looked down at his yearbook. At least he had gotten her to sign it. He looked back up in the direction that Annie had walked off. She was almost at the crosswalk. There was no way she would go for a guy like him.
Annie’s skirt swished in the wind. The chains on her belt and boots reflected brightly in the late afternoon sun. Armin brought his yearbook back to his chest and tilted his head, admiring Annie as she walked further off. The time he had spent with her, it was nice while it lasted.
I’m such a coward…
Armin watched as she arrived at the crosswalk. She was patiently waiting for her turn to cross, tapping her fingers on the side of her leg to the beat of the song she was listening to. Armin desperately wished to know what song it was. Was it something by Avril Lavgine? Or maybe Evanescence? Maybe it was something totally unexpected, like Britney Spears, or possibly, The Backstreet Boys? Armin giggled at the thought. There’s no way Annie was the type to be into boy bands.
Regardless, he was still head over heels for her. Come fall, he’ll see her again. Maybe she’ll still be single by then, and maybe she'll need a tutor again. High school was hard after all. But for now, Armin would just have to watch her walk away. It’s all he could do.
The crosswalk light signaled that it was okay for Annie to cross. Armin hugged his yearbook closer to him, taking in the final moments that she would be in his sight. He couldn’t keep his eyes off of her. From the way her outfit casted a perfect silhouette of her, to the way that when she walked, she looked so effortlessly cool, and finally, to the way that a speeding pickup truck slammed into her body.
Armin’s face, that had a look of admiration and a soft smile, quickly turned to horror as he watched Annie’s body be thrown almost ten feet from where she originally was. Panic from the people who were still lingering around began to arise. Some gathered around where Annie had landed. Others tried to chase down the truck that hit her, but were unsuccessful as it sped off.
Armin’s arms dropped to his side, letting the yearbook slam into the ground. His eyes widened as his jaw fell open. What was once a moment that made him feel like he was in a movie, turned to complete chaos in a split second.
And yet, all he could do was watch this horrifying scene unfold. Just like the coward he was.