A wall of noise, clanging plates, music, and talking, hit the trio as they entered the small restaurant. Bright orange and purplish blue walls throughout the restaurant, decorated with paintings and posters.
"Oreo churros sound good." Jack said.
"Slow down Cowboy. Let's focus on the tacos first." Crutchie smiled.
Jack groaned. "Fine."
David laughed slightly, following the two to a booth. Crutchie and Jack sat next to each other and David sat across.
"What do you get Dave?" Jack asked David. Dave. He had never heard that nickname before, but he liked it.
Davey shrugged "I'm not picky."
Jack laughed "You're difficult."
A waiter came by and took their order. Jack couldn't even start up another conversation before his phone rang.
"Hey babe."
Davey's mood dropped. Unless Jack was just joking around.
"Uhhh." Jack looked up at Crutchie who shook his head.
"Got plans with Crutch."
"Ok."
"Yeah."
"Love you."
"Bye."
"Is she trying to come over again?" Crutchie seemed rather annoyed.
Jack nodded. "You know she's gonna show up anyway."
Crutchie groaned, leaning his head on the table. "I just want to watch stAR WARS without you two maKING OUT THE WHOLE TIME!"
Ok so Jack had a girlfriend. Amazing. And by the sound of it Davey wasn't going to get anywhere near Jack as long as she's around. "Who is she, exactly?" Davey was just curious, but most of the time it got the best of him.
"My girlfriend, Katherine."
"She's a pain in the ass." Crutchie practically shouted. Davey had to stifle a laugh.
Jack rolled his eyes. "Don't listen to him. She's great." he beamed, leaning against the back of the booth.
"She's an attention whore."
"Can we. Not. Talk about this now." Jack suggested, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"She's the sweetest person ever really." Jack turned his attention to David. "Really pretty, smartest person I've ever met.."
Davey zoned out. Basically everything someone could want in a partner. It amazed Davey how fast he fell for Jack. It's never happened before and in a way, it was scary. It was an unexpected trip on something as simple as a shoelace, he had tried to brace himself but ended up colliding on the ground, falling hard. And fast. All one big blur.
"Davey!" Jack snapped in front of his face, pulling Davey out of his thoughts.
"Hm?" Davey looked up at Jack. His eyes were beautiful. They sparkled in the dim light from the lamp that hung above the table. Perfect greenish hazel eyes, like a shiny marble. So many layers, the more you look at them the deeper they get. Like a bottomless pit of swirls of greens and browns.
"You ok?" Jack raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah. Yeah, just tired." That wasn't completely a lie. David had already had an essay that was due today and he was up until 3 in the morning perfecting it. But for the most part, David just hated hearing about Katherine. She really did sound perfect.
Jack just nodded, quickly changing the subject and getting into a heated debate with Crutchie over who knows what. Davey just listened, like he normally does. It's not like he had anything to contribute to the conversation anyway. He laughed when Crutchie proved his points and Jack looked like a fish, opening and closing his mouth, but he never put his two cents in, no matter how much he knew on the topic. Just listening.
The trio finished only an hour later. Jack had a lecture, Crutchie had to be somewhere with someone, Davey wasn't paying attention to that part he was staring at Jack. And Davey didn't actually have to be anywhere but he figured the library would occupy him, so the three went their separate ways. The walk to the library was brisk, as usual for this time of the year. The temperature hadn't really wavered since that morning. The sky a dark gray, threatening to dump rain on David at any point. It set a gloomy mood for the day, but a cozy one too. Perfect for studying, maybe reading, in Davey's opinion.
He hurried to the library in the main building on campus. Shrugging off his coat and heading to a table by the wall of windows. The library was fairly nice, walls and walls and rows of books. Old, beaten ladders to help reach the top rows of the taller shelves, circle tables in the middle of the room and square ones against the wall. A computer lab type area off to the left and tucked away for the students who couldn't afford a laptop at the moment. David sat at a table by the window that covered pretty much the whole wall. He pulled out his own laptop and textbook, planning on studying and doing some homework for a little bit. He glanced out the window every now and then, looking at the campus sidewalks below. People would occasionally walk by, all bundled up, and rushing by to get into the warmth of a building.
"Hey." Davey didn't shift his gaze from the window as someone sat down in front of him.
"Hello." he responded, turning towards the person and immediately brightening a little. Jack's smile hadn't budged since this morning.
"Fancy seeing you here." Jack leaned on the table towards David.
"Don't you have a lecture?"
Jack shrugged. "Teacher was 15 minutes late, therefore, I left." Jack leaned back in the chair, propping his feet up on the table.
Davey laughed lightly. "You're ridiculous."
"So I've been told." Davey went back to typing on his laptop, checking his textbook every now and then to cite something.
Jack put his feet back on the floor "Watcha working on?"
Davey never looked up at Jack, determined to get this paper done. "Homework."
"Well no duh. But what specifically?"
"An essay." Davey glanced up for a moment before looking back down at his laptop. If he looked at Jack for longer than 2 seconds he would become a blushing mess.
"Still not specific."
Davey sighed, setting his laptop to the side. "An essay on love and jealousy based on Frank R. Stockton's short story "The Lady, or the Tiger." Basically talking about which feeling we think is stronger." Davey got real specific. He wasn't annoyed with Jack per say, but he really needed to finish this essay and Jack was too distracting.
"Well I didn't mean that specific-"
"Ok now you're just messing with me." Davey returned to his laptop.
Jack laughed lightly, "Which one did you pick?"
Davey paused for a moment. "Jealousy."
Jack raised an eyebrow "Really?"
Davey nodded "You think the other?" He tilted his head a bit.
Jack nodded "For sure."
Davey shook his head "Love never lasts. Doesn't help that I don't really believe in it anymore." This was true. Davey used to believe in love at first site and one that would last your whole life with no heartbreaks or mess ups. Not anymore. He looked out the window, it was now raining. A light mist you could only see if you looked at the street lamps, but just enough to where if you stayed out in it for a minute or so you would get uncomfortably wet.
"What do you mean you don't believe in it anymore?"
Jack sure asked a lot of questions. Not that Davey minded.
"I mean I don't believe in it anymore for...reasons I don't want to elaborate on."
A long pause as Davey started typing again. It was almost uncomfortable. He checked the time in the bottom right corner of his computer.
"I should probably get back to my dorm."
"Seems like a good day to get coffee."
Both boys spoke at once. Davey turned to Jack, "That does sound nice, but I have so much left to do. A break isn't really an option."
"It's good to take a break from everything. Besides, I really want coffee."
Davey packed up his things, "Then you can get coffee." he really needed to get back home, he wasn't good at approaching new people so ordering coffee was not a good idea at the moment. He didn't want to embarrass himself by fumbling on words and his roommates were probably a little worried now.
"You're difficult." Jack rolled his eyes, playfully.
Davey smiled "So you've expressed." He slung his bag over his shoulder, "I'll see you around." He turned and walked out of the library, leaving a very confused, sort of disappointed Jack at the table.