pink nights / sally face

coffee w sal

"y/n! Y/N! wait up!"

i turned around to sal running up behind me.

he panted lightly, "hey! i saw you leave the library, it's been a little while. what's up?"

immediately i smoothed my hair, "oh, you know. just doing school work." i readjusted my bag, "um, what about you?"

"yeah, me too. not much excitement lately. so, how's your psych project going?"

"it's going alright." that's a lie. i haven't even started it.

sal nodded, "that's good... um," he laughed, "i'm still here if you ever need help."

i smiled, "well i might end up annoying you soon, i actually haven't gotten much done. i've been feeling kind of .. overwhelmed." that's an understatement.

he returned the smile, "ah, there's no need! so where are you headed to?"

"i was about to get a coffee but i had no real plans."

"mind if i join?"

i smiled and shook my head, "not at all."

it was a nice day out. sunset was approaching and the air was cooling down. sal and i walked to a nearby coffee shop across from campus. i'd only ever passed the place and i figured i'd try something other than dining hall coffee.

once we got our drinks we took a seat outside on the patio. i got a chai tea and sal got a smoothie. he said coffee made him too jittery. it was funny to me imagining sal with lots of energy.

"sorry you haven't seen a lot of me lately. i've been really busy school. ash told me you and her went out with larry to get pizza. did you like the place?"

"oh you don't have to apologize, i totally understand. but yeah, the place was good. a little odd but i liked it." i took a sip of my drink, "are you doing alright? i-i mean with school and everything."

sal stirred his pink smoothie, "um, yeah. for the most part." a breeze pick up and blew his hair lightly, "i think i just need to spend some more time with you guys. i've been feeling wound up and i just need to have fun with my friends, you know?"

"yeah, i get that. being alone can drive you crazy."

sal laughed, "and with the way people look at me already, i don't need to get any crazier."

i laughed along, sal was so easy going. even knowing he was stressed, he was still able to joke around and laugh.

"hopefully we can all do something together soon. do you like bowling?"

"i'm terrible but it's so fun."

i could see his eyes squint behind his mask, "aw, i'm sure you're being too hard on yourself. i mean, larry and ash are insane competition but i believe in you."

i smiled, "what about you? are you any good?"

"ah, i could put up a fight. but, uh, no i guess i'm pretty shit too." he shook his head and took a sip underneath his mask. "i'm not very competitive though. or athletic ..."

"sal!"

a tall red headed boy walked up to our table. he had curly hair and wire glasses. his backpack was full and honestly probably hurting his back.

"todd! oh my god, sit!" sal pulled out the third chair sat at our table.

the boy sat down and let his bag fall off his shoulders, "god, these classes are killing me. literally." he pointed to his bursting backpack.

"i totally believe you." sal turned to me, "oh, todd, this is y/n. y/n this is todd."

todd reached out for a handshake. i took his hand instantly feeling embarrassed for how warm my drink made my hand.

he didn't seem to notice, "it's nice to meet you, y/n! i like your pink tamagotchi!" he pointed to the little keychain on my bag. "i modded one in middle school to play songs from my mp3. mine was white."

sal laughed, "y/n, todd is an engineering major if you can't tell. we went to high school together."

"we sure did. it was a wild time!" todd laughed.

i smiled at sal, "you two don't strike me as party animals."

sal redirected, "so todd, how was your summer? we missed you."

"it was great!" todd went on to explain how he had studied abroad for the summer in some computer engineering program. just by listening to him talk, i completely believed he modded his keychain tamagotchi.

"do you still have the gearboy?"

"uh, y-yeah. i mean, not with me but yeah." sal took another sip of his drink and played with the strings of his hoodie.

"okay, that's good. we might need to keep an eye on it soon." todd started to grab his bag.

"is everything okay?" sal pressed.

"don't even worry, sal. everything's fine, it's just housekeeping." todd stood up and slung his backpack back on, "well y/n, it was really great to meet you. i hope i get to see you two again soon! i missed you, sal."

i nodded and smiled as sal said his goodbyes to todd.

"you have a gearboy still?"

sal hesitated, "oh yeah, it's one of todd's little modded gadgets though."

"oh that's cool! what does it do?"

he paused for a moment while he twirled his straw, "it's like .... kind of like a ... police radar."

"oooh, i used to know a guy in high school who had one. it's like for when you're driving around right? detects police activity?"

sal lifted his mask again and took a long sip of the last of his smoothie, "y-yeah .... something like that."