Letter's

A Wonderful Night

That night he falls asleep happily, for the first time in a long while. Where his nightmares sewed scars deep in his heart, there is now a hand to hold. The never ending void of self-hatred, replaced with soft words. A life he once thought was doomed, now has a chance to flourish.

Zane woke up on the bear, at peace he stayed there. Zane let his mind wonder, as he never got to before without worrying about something, or thinking about Travis. But he can think of Travis now, and be happy! The whole thing still amazed him, how could Travis want to be with him? Was it just the knowledge that someone liked his pick-up lines that were so wonderful to Travis? To the point, he would want to date them?

But Zane wasn’t going to dwell on that too long, he had a date to go to! Just saying that gave Zane goosebumps! Zane practically jumped out of bed and made himself a good breakfast, which he usually never does. Most times it's just something quick, or nothing at all, but with the newly found serotonin, he made a traditional Japanese dish: warm rice, salted salmon, miso soup, and seaweed.

Zane had to go to the store to get some of the ingredients, but it was well worth it. It's stuff like this that makes him think back to the best parts of his childhood, his mom is a great chef.

Zane washed the clothes he wore yesterday, as it is the only nice outfit he has for stuff like this. Zane’s gonna have to go to the mall again if Travis wants to bring him on more dates. The thought of that doesn't sound too bad.

While the clothes are in the wash he takes another shower. This time he puts extra care into cleaning himself up. Yes, Travis has seen him on some of his worse days, but he wanted to prove to both him and Travis that he was committed and not a failure of a human being. He made sure his hair was nice and put lotion on his hands. He even painted his nails black.

While he was still waiting for the clothes to be ready, he got a text from Travis, ‘Does Core food sound good?’

Core food was this nice Mexican restaurant, Zane heard it was quaint and felt cozy. Zane had never been there since mostly only couples go there, this is due to the spacing of tables and the lights making it a pleasant romantic place to be. A perfect place for a first date, so Zane sent back, ‘It sounds great, when?’

After waiting a bit Travis comes back with, ‘just booked a table at 6. see you there!’.

All Zane could think was, ‘Oh god this is really happening!’. This dream coming true was getting better and better as time went on. For the rest of the day, Zane went around thinking of what to say, how he should greet Travis, and other little things. Anticipation was slowly nagging his brain, all he wanted was Travis, but he must wait. He must wait for a couple more minutes, which is nothing in comparison to the years he has already waited.

When it's close enough to 6, Zane booked it there. When he finally makes it, he’s 15 minutes early. So Zane texts Travis, ‘Hey, I’m there early so text me when you make it’. And 5 to 6 minutes later Zane finally gets a text back,

‘Im walking to the front right now’

Zane shot out of his car and tried his best to calmly walk towards the front entrances; he didn’t want to make it that obvious how badly he was holding it together. Zane scans the cars and it doesn't take long to find Travis. Zane then gave him a simple wave in his direction. Once Travis spots him, he lights up swiftly picking up his pace to be with his date.

“HEYA!” Travis shouts, before slowing down to walk with Zane, “It looks like we’ll have a great night!”

Zane, puzzled, “What do you mean?”

Travis pulls out a wicked grin, “Oh, you know, it’s just a lunch”

Zane was now disappointed with himself, “Did you just make a food pun?”