Particles | Chris O'Neill

>eleven<

question of the day: what are y'all gonna be for Halloween? WHAT SHOULD I BE I HAVE THREE PARTIES I'M GOING TO & I WANT TO HAVE COSTUMES FOR ALL OF THEM ALSO WHEN DID I GET A SOCIAL LIFE

Y/N's POV

When Chris leaves my apartment, I close the door behind him. I lean against the door and smile, my hand over my mouth. Are Chris and I a thing now? The thought of him introducing me as his girlfriend makes me blush uncontrollably.

I walk back over to the couch and sit down, grabbing my phone. I need something to distract myself from overthinking the situation. I scroll through Twitter mindlessly and FaceTime my friend from home for a while. Usually, a FaceTime session with her lasts 3 hours. She's in a rush to go on a date, however, so it doesn't last very long.

A few seconds later, my phone dings. It's a text from Suzy.

S: Hey, I don't know what you and Chris got up to today, but he's got heart-eyes! He dropped by just to tell me. (a/n: i like the idea that Chris would tell Suzy everything, ya know? Like she's his sister or something)

Y/n: Woah, really?

S: Yeah! He didn't shut up about you until he left lmao. Oh, btw, would you wanna grab some dinner tonight with me and holly?

Y/n: Sure! What time?

S: We'll pick you up around 7. Sound good?

Y/n: sounds good to me! See you then!

S: sure thing :)

I look at the time. 5:04pm. I watch another episode of Bojack before running to my room to change my clothes. I decide on a dark orange dress with a high collar and basic black flats. I still have a bit of time before they'll get here, so I paint my nails a deep purple color.

I get a text from Suzy that the two of them have arrived, so I fill Kenobi's food dish, kiss him on the head, and head downstairs. When see Suzy's car, I give a small wave before opening the door and sliding in the backseat. Holly is sitting in the passenger's seat, and she turns to give me a look after we've said hello.

"What?" I ask. I blush as well because I already know why she's looking at me the way she is. "Suzy did you tell Holly?" I ask.

"Well, not completely," she replies, waving her hand a bit. "I sensed there was something going on with you guys at the Halloween party. I was right next to him when he saw you for the first time at the party. He was so cute, he got all blushy and nervous that he had to leave the room. Classic Chris crush." Suzy nods enthusiastically in agreement, making me blush. I turn my attention out the window, watching LA pass in front of my eyes. As I watch, I think about Chris, of course. Maybe when I moved to LA, my luck changed. I have an incredible job, amazing friends who love me, and now, a boy who might actually like me.

We pull up to the restaurant. Suzy goes up to the hostess and says she's part of a group under the name "Arin." She leads us to a table where Arin, Barry, Matt, Ryan, and Chris are sitting. Oh, no. I told Chris I couldn't come because I needed to FaceTime my friend... he's gonna think I lied to him.

He looks up at me, wide-eyed. But instead of looking angry, he smiles a dumb smile and scoots over to make room for me to sit next to him. Ryan is sitting across from us, but he doesn't look up. I feel a pang of guilt until I feel Chris's hand squeeze my thigh under the table.

"Hey, I thought you had to talk to your friend?" He says, scanning the menu.

"I already did. Turns out she's got a date so she couldn't talk for very long." He scoots a bit closer to me, smiling widely.

"Oh, well I'm glad." He bumps my shoulder with his.

"I gotta go to the bathroom," Ryan says suddenly. He gets up and walks away quickly.

"Chris," I say, lowering my voice. "I don't think we should... like... flirt in front of Ryan..." he frowns slightly, removing his hand from my knee.

"Oh. Sorry," he replies. To reassure him I'm not upset, I kick him gently underneath the table.

"But that doesn't mean we can't still go on that date," I say softly. He looks over at me, beaming. I've never had this effect on a guy before. It's like after we kissed, my awkwardness melted away and I became a heightened version of myself. 

"Oh, yeah, I was thinking about that." He turns to me, putting down his menu. "I thought maybe we could go to Disneyland? I know you love Disney and I haven't been since I first moved here..." My eyes widen and I smile brightly.

"Hell, yeah!!!" I exclaim, receiving glances from people at our table. I lower my voice again as Chris laughs softly at me.

"Really? Like, I know you work for them and stuff so if it's too much-" I cut him off.

"No, I actually haven't been since I moved here. I actually get a discount on admission, so that's perfect." His face droops a little.

"Well I don't want you to pay! It's our first date." I smirk at him in response.

"What, you're saying the girl can't pay on the first date?" He chuckles at me, looking down. 

"No, no, I'm not saying that at all. You wanna pay, knock yourself out." 

"You can buy me dinner in the park if you want," I say condescendingly, putting a hand on his arm. He laughs sarcastically.

"You got it," he says finally. "So how about I pick you up next Saturday morning around 10?" I nod, blushing when I realize this is actually my first real date with Chris. With anyone, for that matter. Devin never took me on dates. His idea of a date was for me to sit on the other side of the living room and watch while he played Call Of Duty with his douchey redneck friends. 

When I get home from dinner, I spend an hour talking through my feelings with Kenobi.