As usual, Buffy's dad picks her up and Cyrus and I walk alone.
"I have our anniversary date all planned out" I mention to Cyrus. I was so caught up with having to come out that I almost forgot that it was still our Anniversary. "What're we doing?" He asks. Cyrus has paid for most of our dates, and I always felt bad about it so I've been saving up so that I can pay for our anniversary date. "Don't worry about it, let's just drop off our stuff at my house" I tell him. He doesn't question me any further.
I feel like I've been dodging so many questions today.
First, the spoon. Of course! It's our go to place, a date wouldn't be complete without going to the spoon.
Okay maybe it could be, but c'mon, Amber said she'd make something special for us.
We slide into our usual booth near the window. The sun was still out and shining, I'm so glad the weather has been warming up. As much as I enjoy the cold- I've missed the warmth of the sun.
Amber spots us on her way to take an order from another table. She nods in my direction signaling that she knows we're here.
She brings our meals, and even a sundae to share for desert.
Cyrus argued with me about who pays but I won at the end. We leave shortly after and walk to our next destination.
Cyrus intertwines our fingers and seems to be enjoying our mystery date so far. He sways our hands back and forth. I lead the way the whole time of course, Cyrus still has no idea where we're going.
He gasps when I stop in front of the roller rink. "Tj I don't know how to skate.." he starts. "You said you've always wanted to go roller skating for a date. Who cares if you don't know- I'll teach you" I tell him. "You can roller skate?" He asks as we enter. "Uh yeah, I loved skating when I was younger" I tell him. I go over to the counter to rent shoes.
Luckily I haven't forgotten how to skate, I haven't done this is a while. Mason and my old group of friends would skate all the time together. But it's been a while since that.
Cyrus was able to manage standing up on his own, before tumbling back to the ground. I hold my hand out to help him back to his feet- which wasn't so easy.
"Okay okay how about you hold onto the chair before you bring me down with you" I laugh. He nods and does as told, he holds onto my forearms as he stands back up and starts to roll. "You're doing good, okay just try to take a step like this.." I demonstrate.
After a couple of minutes of teaching him, he is able to walk in the skates. "Oh my god look at me I'm doing it!" He exclaims. I can't help but smile. He has pure excitement in his eyes.
We skate around for a while with a couple of tumbles but nothing too bad. Cyrus and I were holding hands and skating around in circles, nothing seemed to ruin our night.
Everything was perfect until I hear a familiar voice from behind me.
"Tj?" The voice calls. I freeze, causing Cyrus to stop as well, but he doesn't let go of my hand. I turn around to see the face of the voice. Mason.
"H-hi Mason" I say. It's been almost a year since I last saw him. "How've you been?" He asks. "Good, you?" I forget for a moment that Cyrus is still beside me. He squeezes my hand which reminds me that we're still holding hands.
"Uh Cyrus this is Mason, Mason, Cyrus" introduce them to each other. "Is this the new boyfriend?" Mason asks. He caught me so off guard that I could barely say yes to him so I just nod instead. "Uh can I talk to you for a sec?" He asks me. I can feel Cyrus' eyes on me, I look at him and he has the most confused look on his face. "Sure, Cyrus I'll be a minute" I tell him. He nods in response and I feel terrible for leaving him in the middle of the rink like that.
Mason and I stroll over to the edge of the rink, I'm still not sure what I should tell him. "How's your new school?" He asks trying to make small talk. "It's good, better than the old one" I tell him. "I made some new friends, how's everyone else?" I ask him about our old friend group. "We're okay, I mean I don't really talk to them that much anymore. We sort of started going out separate ways.." the tension between us is uncomfortable. The awkward silence was unbearable, especially because I want nothing to do with him.
"Listen, I'm sorry for what I did last time we spoke. I know this is such a late apology, and I don't expect you to forgive me but I want you to know that I'm truly sorry" he confesses. I feel sick. Seeing him made me feel like I wanted to cry and talking to him makes me want to throw up.
"Okay" is all I can manage to say. "Okay? Does that mean we're okay?" He asks. I shrug, "I don't know. I guess so" I tell him. I don't care about forgiving him. I just want our conversation to end so I can get back to Cyrus. "Alright, so I'll see you around?"
"Maybe" I shrug before leaving without saying goodbye.
I look for Cyrus around the rink, I don't see him anymore. I walk around till I spot him sitting on one of the benches removing his shoes.
"Hey you okay?" I ask when I approach him. "You wanna leave?"
"Yeah, my feet are killing me and obviously your night is ruined" he starts to untie his second shoe. "What? No, no my night isn't ruined. I just, I just didn't expect to see him tonight" I explain to him. "Yeah, and that ruined your night. I can see it in your face Tj, you're upset. Who even is he anyway?" He asks me.
