Realities | A TMF Fanfic

Chapter Two | New Number

Zander lay down on that same concrete ground, feeling that same buzzing sunshine against his face, egging on his eyes to remain shut. Feeling any type of sunshine in this city was honestly fairly uncommon. Usually the sky was filled with greying clouds that gave off a desaturated mundane atmosphere. It fit the city well. In the summertime sunny days like these were more frequent, but with the summertime coming to a near end, surely these types of days would soon fade away again, the same.

Taking note of how it certainly felt like five minutes had gone by since he and Jake started to lay down, Zander held up his phone to check the time. Six minutes had gone by, possibly nearing seven. Knowing the bike's paint should now be dry, Zander sat himself up to look to his friend.

"It's been over five minutes. You can put the screws in now, Jake," the lilac-eyed boy informed, then asking, "Milly should be here pretty soon anyway, right?"

Hearing no response, Zander turned his sight to Jake, whom he saw curled up, still lying on the ground. "Jake?" he called. Still no response. Had he seriously dozed off? Zander took his hand, then nudging Jake in his shoulder, to which the latter groggily opened his eyes.

"Huh?" Jake asked, confused at what had happened.

"You fell asleep, goon," Zander chastised.

Slowly lifting himself off the ground, rubbing his eyes, Jake countered, "I didn't fall asleep. I was just resting."

"Resting, taking a nap, whatever you want to call it," Zander smirkingly patronized, "Anyway, Milly's bike dried and you just have to put the final screws in. Unless you feel like having me mess it up."

"No, I'll do it. It won't take long," Jake replied, lightly yawning.

As Zander watched Jake then proceed to finish off the final part of Milly's bike, he took note of how what Jake was doing really didn't look that complicated. He could've probably taught him fairly quickly, but regardless it would've taken longer than what was happening right now.

Jake made one final turn with a tool, finishing off putting in the last screw. "There, it's done!" he proudly announced.

With the bike being complete, Zander took a second to admire what he and Jake had put together over the past month. If he was being honest with himself, Zander only did around thirty-five percent of the work. He was kinda confused why Jake wanted his help so badly in the first place. Jake assured that he was helpful throughout the entire thing, but it kinda felt like Jake could've done the whole thing on his own just as easily, and at any parts where he needed a spare set of hands, he could've asked one of his many household members to just step in for a brief minute. That being said, Zander still had put work into this, and was proud of what he had done.

The bike wasn't anything fancy. Afterall, the main goal of the project was just to get it working at all, rather than revamping it. It did look nice though. The main reason Jake got the idea for this project in the first place was that after Milly left, he found this rosy saturated magenta paint color back on one of his family's shelves -- a color that would nicely compliment Milly's hair. Zander knew she would like it. Speaking of Milly...

"Hey, Jake? When did you say Milly was gonna get here?"

"Um..." Jake mumbled, fidgeting around to pick up his phone and try to answer the pianist's question, "Almost anytime now; according to the time stamps on her texts at least." Drawing a finger to his chin, reflecting on his friend, Jake elaborated, "Sometimes she tends to underestimate things though, so I don't really know."

Eyes trailing off to the side of the road, Zander spoke, "She actually seems to be just about right this time."

Jake, following his friend's stare, looked to see Milly's mom's car pulling up to the side of the road to drop her off. A look of realization hitting the boy's face, he quickly turned to his violet-haired friend, "Wait! Zander, we need to hide the bike. Can you put it off over there?" Jake finished, pointing off to a secluded part of his yard.