A Path to Nowhere (JohnDave Fic)

2 - Long Walks

      We continue to sit sipping on the smoothie in a corner of the small establishment. I attempt to avoid making "eye contact" with the blonde in front of me, but I can feel his intense gaze burning through those aviators. As the drink is nearly finished, Dave abruptly leans back.

"You can finish it. I think I consumed enough of Smooth Moves to have enough of my own." He states, leaning his head on his hand. I utter a thanks and sit back in my chair as well.

     The air thickens around us as Dave keeps scrutinizing me while I dodge his stare. Despite the light chatter going on around us, it feels uncomfortably quiet and as though we're the only ones there. It's like I ended up in his trap and he's debating whether or not to eat me alive or toss me aside, similar to trash. When the cup is empty, Dave gets up, takes it, and throws it away. He turns back around towards me to make a motion to follow him, which I reluctantly comply to. We walk next to each other going to an unknown destination as my throat runs dry, even though I just drank half of a smoothie.

"John, do you trust me?" Dave breaks the unbearable silence, making my heart stop with the question. Thank you for that because I would not have been able to do it myself.

"Yeah, of course. You're my best friend...Why wouldn't I?" I don't sound sure of myself as I finish replying. It actually feels like he's a stranger right now, as if all of the memories I made was with a different Dave and the one walking with me is the Dave from when we first met. That's probably because I haven't been talking to him too much recently. Thinking about it, I have been really dry in our conversations as of late, and flaky...Maybe he's not annoyed with me, maybe he hates me now. Great, my recent self-diagnosis of scatterbrain syndrome has led me to ruin my relationship with my greatest chum on this planet. Wait he said something.

"Are you fucking listening? I asked you if you're okay." Now he's definitely pissed off. Nothing grinds Dave's gears more than when someone isn't listening, particularly when it's me. It's not even an easy question to answer. 

"I'm sorry. Yes, I'm okay. I-I'm also sorry that I've been a terrible friend. I'm not trying to ignore you or anything, I've been stressed and overthinking things. It's mostly related to school and life beyond that and how I'm gonna get to the point I want. Even though there's nothing major going on right now, I know there will be soon and I'm worried about it.  Sitting around thinking about all of it won't fix anything, but I can't help but find myself doing it and that is the sole reason I keep forgetting plans. And I feel very shitty about it so I'm trying to not get all disassociated. This will probably go away in a bit, I just need you to be patient with me." 

     After venting my pent up thoughts that I'm too afraid to share over the phone, I feel way better. Forget everything I said before about Dave being a stranger to me because I can only drop weights on my shoulders with him. He's my rock and that's not going to change.