"Earth to (y/n)! Earth to (y/n)!" Bert's voice brings me back to reality and I turn to see him and Jepha sitting on another couple of beanbags, both eating Subway sandwiches while Jepha hands me a bag with food from my favorite place. Dan is behind the counter now, Quinn leaning back against it in a break. "What happened to you?"
"Fuck..." I breathe as adjusting my position and grabbing the bag from Jepha with a thanking, leaving it on my lap with my phone. "Okay, so, I met a guy." Their expressions change in the same moment, but all I do is to roll my eyes and continue. "He said he would like to talk to me more and gave me his number, but... Dude, I guess it's not him. I went, like, oh, your bright red hair and shit and he was confused about me saying red hair and..." I pause, looking at them with confusion as trying to process everything. "He went offline, not understanding why I mentioned it."
A heavier atmosphere slowly makes itself present around us and even Quinn averts his attention away from the notes he was making and looks at me. All of them have a similar look on, like if just finding out a worrying new. I gulp.
Bert makes a motion to sign he's going to speak up, but needs to swallow his food first. "You say... red hair as in firetruck bright red hair? As in shaved on one side and all choppy, about jaw length, all greasy... Walks around always in a stupid blue jacket and with other three motherfuckers?"
"No," I say after thinking for a moment, breathing a chuckle, though it is mostly out of nervousness. They're weird sometimes. "No, not really like that."
There's a thick silence before Bert shrugs and everyone goes back to normal.
"Must be just a random idiot," he mutters before taking another bite from his sandwich.
"Stupid asshole," Jepha sighs. "At least the person you're talking to instead, are they nice?"
"I guess that's the only good point about it all." I breathe chuckle, a bit frustrated about everything since Gerard seemed so nice. "They're nice."
"Aw, c'mon, don't let an idiot like that upset you!" Quinn's voice comes from the counter and I look at him to see him smiling. "Also, up to going out this weekend? I thought we could go over to Devil's Nest again."
"Man, it's really been a while since we don't go there," Bert says as glancing back at Quinn.
"Wonderful!" I sigh as finally opening the bag of food.
~
"My boy, I'm going to fail college." My eyes avert from the papers to Dallon, who sits across from me, both of us in one of the marble tables out in the campus.
Dallon seems unimpressed, eyes glancing between me and my notebook. "What do you have to do?"
"That work... A poem. It'll be worth ten percent of the final grade," I groan as burying my face in my hands. "I have no creativity. The teacher said, write it based on your feelings, maybe, but even my emotional life isn't that impressive." And Dallon is Dallon, to a point not even my words being muffled like this make it incoherent for him. I let my hands drop to the table again. "At least I have a couple of months to do it and it's not even too much if you consider how the teacher expects us to pull on a fucking Edgar Allan Poe and present her The Raven."
A chuckle escapes Dallon's lips, what earns him a playful glare from me for laughing at my misery.
"I'm sure you're going to nail it, (y/n)," Dallon says, so calmly and casually that I'm almost completely believing him. "You're going to find inspiration and write something awesome, I'm certain."
"You've got no rights to be that nice, y'know?" I tease him with a pout, which soon turns into a smile after he chuckles. His attention goes back to his work and I find myself with nothing to do – I'm not working on that poem right now. I grab my phone.
Me:
So
It's okay if you're not the firetruck guy
You're nice, even if you're not him :/
I'm so sorry for bothering, it's okay if you don't wanna talk with me anymore
They haven't replied since yesterday. Oh, hell.
Typing.
They stop.
Typing again.
G. Way:
Oh my hell, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to scare you away or anything,,,
I know the whole situation came out as confusing and I literally have no other explanation other than the fact I'm dumb sometimes, szsz
Anyways, I do want to continue talking with you, okay?
G. Way:
Okay, it's not that I'm dumb, it's just that I've got too much in mind lately in a way I sometimes just bug and also my stupid friend sometimes grabs my phone and acts like it's his, stupid rat, now I need to change the password again haha
Me:
Fuck, I understand, don't worry about it
You legit almost gave me a heart attack
Not literally, but damn, I was already freaking out with my friends
G. Way:
Fuuuck, I'm really sorry
But, sweet! Thanks for trusting me szsz
Me:
Same because I'm literally the murderer living next door to your house :)
G. Way:
Do your job better, I'm still alive
Me:
That's not how you're supposed to react, what even do I pay you for
G. Way:
Sorry, dear, you gotta accept what fate delivered you
Me:
I still have the receipt
Can I return you?
G. Way:
Warranty expired
Me:
Aw fuck
G. Way:
Just asking, but,,, do you wanna hang out sometime? Maybe just for a coffee or whatever
Me:
Ofc!! You can text me when you're free and Imma just check if it works for me too
G. Way:
Sweet!
A sigh escapes my lips as I put my phone away, a happier smile on my face this time.
"He answered?" Dallon asks knowingly, what makes me let out a chuckle, slowly nodding in response. Despite smiling, he rolls his eyes playfully as he starts gathering his things. "Anyways, we're going to the mall today! It's been long since Ryan, you and I don't hang out together, so I practically forced him to come today. And you're coming too!"
"I'm really tired, but I'm honestly not even complaining about this!" I grin and move to gather my things too, sighing softly.
Ryan soon joins us and there's this still feeling there's something missing. And there is. The school. Brendon. Andy being annoying. (F/n)'s jealousy. And... something else I can't quite decipher what it is.
"(Y/n), did you receive that poem assignment too?" Ryan asks once we walk past a bookstore, seeming to be just as in pain as I am about this.
The mall's atmosphere is really calming after the stressing day or maybe the sensation is actually only due to the sudden change of setting. It doesn't matter.
"Yeah!" I groan, though letting out a chuckle at how Dallon looks at us like if superior and Ryan ends up laughing too. "If Earth is flat, explain how my life is going downhill," I joke, snatching another fit of chuckles from the three of us.
"But you're going to do well." Dallon smiles peacefully before his expression turns into the exact opposite and he glares at us. "Or else I'm hunting you down." As much as he's clearly joking, his words and the dark tone they're said in make me die a little bit in the inside and Ryan seems like just accepting his fate, earning himself a light slap on the arm coming from Dallon.
"I admire the way you're able to keep up with everything," I tell Dallon honestly. His grades are good and he's always so chill. A complete goal.
"Thank you," he smiles at me softly, "but it's not as easy as it seems."
There's a brief pause in which Ryan lets out a quiet grumble, still, the subject itself doesn't go much further with Dallon saying we shouldn't be thinking about studying now, so we just get lost in putting the news up to date, considering it being so long since the last time the three of us went out like this. Ryan finally tells us about how things are going with the girl he likes, Dallon mostly talks about the car he's been wanting to buy and I don't have much to tell besides about the last concert I've been to with Jepha and the others and about Gerard.
"I swear I'll be the one to hunt you down instead if you forget about us," Ryan says in an extremely serious manner which perfectly contrasts with his dramatically sad voice.
"And I give you the permission to do it," I reply in a poor attempt of copying him. "And also allow you to bring Dallon with you."
"Wonderful," Dallon whispers, making Ryan and I drop our postures, grinning as going back to eat.
"Got plans for this weekend, (y/n)?" Ryan asks. "There's a party this Saturday. At Carson's."
I nod before finally being able to speak up. "I'm going out with the guys this weekend. Not like Carson's parties are the best, tho... I mean, the last one I went to turned out to be so problematic."
"Wow, the one in which that high school kid passed out?" Dallon asks as looking at me with certain desperation that's also shared by me as I nod. "You shouldn't go, too, Ryan."
Time practically flies by, to a point we barely have a sense of it and are just aware of how late it is when Dallon's mother is calling him. We say our goodbyes at least a hundred times until finally leaving for real and not continuing the conversation instead.
The pleasing sensation of happiness lingers in my chest once I start walking away, what's good and depressing at the same time since it is awesome, but the description doesn't apply to feeling it dissipating. Going back to the same everyday setting makes me notice how much things have changed and this feeling that there's something missing feels stronger. If I at least knew what the reason is...
"Hey," I greet my mother as walking into the house, smiling tiredly.
"Hi, dear, you've taken long today! Something happened?" She averts her attention away from the TV and looks at me with a small smile.
"I went to the mall with Ryan and Dalls. We managed to get time for each other today," I explain with a smile and press a kiss to her cheek when passing by, directed towards the stairs. "Also, I've already eaten dinner. I'm tired, probably not coming downstairs again today, okay?"
"Of course, dear!" She calls with a smile. "Good night!"
"Good night!" I reply when reaching the top of the stairs and head to my room.
Some of the stress is washed away with the sweat when I take a shower and I somehow feel even more tired when my body finally hits the mattress and I sigh comfortably.
My phone buzzing changes my plans of going to sleep already and I take it in hands to see it's Gerard – he sent mirror selfie in which the phone mostly covers his face, but it's enough to see his freshly dyed black hair, his free hand in an okay sign. I guess firetruck style is gone now, ignore the rat in the background, he dumb – the caption says and I can't hold back a chuckle as reading it. The last part gets my curiosity for a moment and I notice the guy in the background.
He's familiar.
A bit of thinking makes me conclude it's the same guy I've seen with him long ago, if I'm not wrong. He's got a confused face on as probably unaware of Gerard taking a picture, sipping on whatever he's got in a plastic cup from a straw and, to be honest, he still looks really handsome.
Me:
Oh, so it's vampire style now
Looks so nice, amen, dyed it by yourself?
G. Way:
Nop, my friend Ray helped me and thank you :]
Now the whole gang is matching 💅
Less Ray, he toxic
Jk, he sweet
Me:
So cool, I stan sm
Wish I could match my gang but I don't even know if I'm in a gang at all or if I'm in two at once
G. Way:
Join us
Join the dark side
We have
Um, we have us and we're pretty awesome, I swear
Me:
Suuure
That's just shameless self-promo
Let's see about that, sir
And tell your rat he also looks very nice
G. Way:
Hmmm
Will do ;)
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