lucidity | shyland ✓

two

shane laughed again, louder this time. 'well, when most people go out on dates, they know each other's names.'

he liked boys. well, that was different. i'd never actually had a full on conversation with someone who liked boys before. my parents always said it was wrong, to be frowned upon, but that we had to keep this opinion to ourselves as so few people in our town follow the true word of the bible.

i remember, a few months ago, loren coming round my house and telling me that garrett watts was gay. she'd seen him kissing a boy in town. according to her, the whole day had been ruined after she witnessed their interaction and that her chauffeur had had to come pick her up. that seemed a bit extreme and dramatic, and i was about to open my mouth to say such a thing when morgan had burst into my room, along with her boyfriend, andrew (who, may i remind you, is also garrett's brother.)

this did not end well. morgan had started screaming at loren about how she couldn't slag off her boyfriend's brother just for loving someone, hence loren had retorted that my sister didn't have the privilege to even speak to her, let alone tell her off.

funnily enough, they haven't really spoken since.

'this isn't a date, shane.' i told him through purses lips, narrowing my eyes as he grinned.

'you sure, princess?' he replied with a cocky smile, running his finger along the edge of my frappe, collecting a dollop of creme before innocently placing it on his tongue.

out of desperation for him to just leave already, i cracked. 'fine. fine! my name is ryland, okay? now please, leave me alone and let me have what's left of my raspberry frappuccino.'

shane cheered in victory, throwing his arms in the air and making customers turn in their seats to see what all the commotion was about. 'so, the pretty face has a name.' he stated, licking his lips slightly as he slid the cup across the table.

my cheeks flushed at the adjective. pretty. boys weren't pretty, they were handsome, surely? maybe that's just a term of phrase people like him use. i drank the last of my coffee, tossing it into the bin a few feet away from me.

'you owe me four dollars for that, you practically drunk the whole thing.' i informed shane, who was looking at me with a small smile on his face.

he nodded and agreed, before hesitating and speaking again. 'dates with boys as beautiful as you normally cost a lot more than four dollars, ryland. how about i take you out on a real date, make up for this?'

a date. with a boy i'd just met. there was several problems with this. i have a girlfriend, i don't like guys, i didn't even know him, just to name a few. i opened my mouth to reply, but my phone started ringing. it was really loud but no one even flinched or glanced at me, not even shane, as i scrambled to find my iphone. when i finally retrieved it from my bag, it wasn't even ringing, so i looked up to ask shane if it was his, but he was gone.

'ryland, for fucks sake!' a voice screamed and i bolted upwards, blinking slowly in confusion. wasn't i just in a cafe with shane and the coffee and the phone? why was i in bed and why was morgan yelling at me? she stormed in, slamming the door behind her and sitting on the edge of my bed cross legged. 'your alarm has been going off for the last five minutes, it's seven am, you need to get up.'

'what?' i asked, head aching badly. 'schools cancelled.' my voice was thick with sleep as i spoke, eyes threatening to drop shut again.

'no it's not, you dork, hurry up and get ready or i'll eat your breakfast too.' she grinned, pushing my shoulder lightly before returning to her own bedroom.

slowly, i attempted to stand up, but ended up stumbling back into bed. that whole thing was a dream? the boy who stole my coffee, who liked boys, who flirted with me, who called me pretty, was a dream?

why do i feel so disappointed?