Truth Or Dare (Being Rewritten)

Chapter Two

Lionel Weiß

You would think that I would know what I'm doing, being openly gay and all.

But I'm the only gay kid I know in our school that's in a reasonable age range to date.

So I've never been on a date before.

It was a little weird, extremely unexpected when Andre texted me. As he said it is not like we talk that much. We have a few classes together, we worked on a group project together last month for like, a week. He seemed nice.

Or at least, nicer than a lot of his friends. I don't know, he's never really called me out. I guess if he's been weird with his sexuality, he wouldn't anyways. And I mean, his friends don't really do it anymore. One really good comeback stopped that bullshit.

But don't get me wrong, I've wanted to go on a date for forever. It gets lonely sometimes.

Knowing we didn't have school tomorrow for the end of the quarter, I walked over to my closet to plan for this date. I didn't have any other plans.

We are going to a movie.

How do you dress up for the movies?

Before I could respond, though, my phone went off. Another text.

_andre_nile_: we don't have school tomorrow, do we?

I didn't think I would be the person he texted about that, but okay. I wasn't expecting a text until like, tomorrow afternoon to just make sure the date is still on.

lionelweißnicht_x: no, the quarter ended today. Why?

_andre_nile_: well, and I hate to sound cheap, but what if we went out for lunch and did the matinee instead?

For a minute, I thought about that, confused.

What does that have to do with the movie?

lionelweißnicht_x: ...

lionelweißnicht_x: what's a matinee? I don't think you're talking about a manatee, right? You don't go to the zoo for just a manatee. You'd just go to an aquarium for that.

Don't even think about making fun of the fact that I didn't know what it was, okay? English isn't my first language, I moved here like a few months ago. Three, to be exact. My English is pretty good, but sometimes I'm still confused as hell.

_andre_nile_: oh no, not a manatee. However, manatees are good.

_andre_nile_: matinees are earlier showings of movies for a cheaper price to get in. It's the same movie, concessions and whatever. Just earlier and it costs less to get in.

lionelweißnicht_x: ooooh, that makes more sense than manatees.

_andre_nile_: 😂😂😂 yeah, I kind of figured

lionelweißnicht_x: look

lionelweißnicht_x: English isn't my first language

lionelweißnicht_x: and I've never heard that before

lionelweißnicht_x: so it's not my fault

It took him a second.

_andre_nile_: wait

_andre_nile_: English isn't your first language?

_andre_nile: I thought you moved here from like, the cities?

lionelweißnicht_x: 😂😂😂 honey no

lionelweißnicht_x: I came here from Munich. That's why I TA for your German class?

_andre_nile_: ...I really am a dumbass sometimes. Wow.

lionelweißnicht_x: oh whatever, you are not a dumbass. It's not like my English is super shitty so you can easily tell. Or at least, I don't think it's shitty.

_andre_nile_: no, it's really good! I wouldn't be able to tell you weren't a native speaker until you asked me what a matinee was. I forgot a lot of things like that.

_andre_nile_: but uh, I should get ready for bed. It was a long day. Meet me at the school tomorrow at 11:30?

lionelweißnicht_x: gross, but hell yeah.

lionelweißnicht_x: I'm joking, I'll be there ;) School is gross, though.

_andre_nile_: oh, definitely

_andre_nile_: but I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight :)

_andre_nile_: ;)*

lionelweißnicht_x: goodnight ;)

With a small smile, I returned to my wardrobe. Where I was still clueless about what to wear because now it's lunch and a movie? Which is a lot less popular than dinner and a movie, but I guess it leaves time afterward just in case.

I don't want to dress up a ton. Or too much, it might make him anxious. I did that once with a friend in Germany. They asked to hang out for like the first time in middle school and I wore a crop top and he looked kind of worried.

Most of my wardrobe is shit like that because that's what I like and my parents are pretty supportive of it.

I could wear some jeans and a shirt, but I feel like that isn't quite enough. Like, I want to make some sort of an impression, not like I just threw on what was there.

Of course, if I did that, that outfit would be the last thing that would come out. Separately they'd come out. But not together.

Pretty sure that it's sort of normal for guys to wear overalls, I decided to go with that and a dark grey shirt. Would I need to wear makeup?

We'll find out based on how motivated I am in the morning.

•••

I woke up panicked because it was already 10:00 and it takes me 20 minutes to get to the high school if I almost jog.

And I'm not jogging. It'll ruin my whole ass look and make me smell like shit.

Hopping in the shower, it was an intense ten minutes. Like, I'm anxious and nervous and I've never done this before and he's never gone out with a guy before.

What if we're both super awkward about it? Or we don't agree on something that's a really big deal? I don't even know what that would be, but it could happen and I can't drive so I can't just like, leave because to walk to the theater from here is like 45 minutes.

What if he realizes partway through the date that he isn't actually bi or whatever and I don't notice? Or if he just doesn't like me. We have really different personalities, we do different things.

What if my first date sucks?

Sighing, I let the hot water just try to let my anxiety go before getting out and drying it, making sure it wasn't a mess. I threw some light blue eyeshadow on, it was barely noticeable, and some eyeliner and a lip stain. Nothing dramatic, he might not even notice the stain.

Throwing my go-to rainbow pin onto the pocket of my overalls, I shoved my phone, a pen (you never know), and then I put my wallet in another pocket.

Naturally, I had fun socks. They were green with cacti.

Looking in the mirror, I felt like I should do something else. Like he might not like this.

But I didn't really know what else I could do at this point in time. It's not like I had the time.

So at 11:00, I walked out the door because there's only way to go into this: without looking back.