155Chapter Ten: Dates and Disasters
"I should talk to her, shouldn't I?" Garret asked. "I mean this is so silly. I'm sixteen years old. I should be able to go up and talk to a girl without feeling like I'm going to die, right? Plus, what's the worst thing that could happen? She says no and we never speak of the situation again. That's not too horrible, right?"
"Umm…"
Honestly, I wasn't paying that much attention to what Garret was saying. Whenever he got on the subject of Megan he basically repeated the same things over and over again to try to reassure himself the end of the world wasn't near. He really didn't care about my input. I'm pretty sure I was only here so he wouldn't feel like he was talking to himself.
"Exactly. Tomorrow after school I'm going to up and talk to her. If I don't, you have permission to kill me," Garret said and then felt back on to my bed.
"Okay," I replied. Not turning around from my computer screen.
I'm a great friend. I swear it's just the Internet was a bit more exciting than Garret at the moment.
"So, anyways. Seth told me you and Tony met up after school yesterday," Garret said.
"He did?" I asked.
"Yep."
"Oh."
I don't really understand why I didn't feel like expanding on the subject and maybe mentioning to my best friend that I was now dating Tony. Or, at least I think I'm dating him. We did go on a date, right? And it didn't end horribly so logically we would be dating. I'll continue worrying about this later. Anyways, back to the matter at hand.
"Yeah. What did you two do?" Garret asked.
"Nothing really."
I'm a horrible best friend.
"You really suck as a best friend, you know that?"
And apparently he's psychic.
"What?" I said, and turned around from my computer. "What do you mean?"
"Seth told me you and Tony went on a date. Apparently, Tony actually trusts his friend and told him. Seth thought I knew when he mentioned it."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
"I'm sorry," I said. "I didn't really think it was a big deal, plus I thought it might be kind of weird mentioning it."
"Weird? I go on and on about Megan all the time, and I'm not even dating her."
He had a point.
"Yeah, but that's a bit different…"
"Because she's a girl? I thought by now it'd be pretty obvious that I don't care."
"Okay, fine, you're right. I'm sorry. I'm a horrible person who doesn't deserve your friendship," I said and laughed.
"Good." Garret smiled. "Now that we have all of that sorted out, let's go back to Mission: Date Megan."
"Your plan has a name now?" I asked.
"I thought it kind of deserved one."
Apparently, Garret wasn't lying this time. He actually was going to talk to Megan—or at least attempt to. I'm not entirely sure yet. It's only been ten minutes since school ended and currently Garret is trying to walk over to where Megan is sitting. I say trying because he keeps walking, stopping and looking back at me. I'm actually sort of frightened. Garret finally made his way over to Megan, after another minute of stalling and from what I could see, he was actually conversing with her. Though, what he was actually saying, I'm not entirely sure of.
I started debating to myself whether I should wait here or go do something else when I felt a tap on my shoulder and I turned around. It was Tony. Since our "date" two days ago we have acted completely normal. Or, well, as normal as I can be, and as sane as Tony can actually act, but everything does seem fine, which I guess is good. Right? I'm not sure. This has never happened to me before so for all I know this is going horribly wrong.
"Hey," Tony said. "What are you doing, exactly?"
I'm assuming he's wondering why I'm just standing here outside of school.
"Garret is attempting to ask Megan out," I explained. "I'm here for moral support. Or to kill him if he fails."
"Oh, well, I hope everything goes well. I rather not see you get arrested for murder."
"Me either," I said, "but everything seems to be going well over there. I mean, they're still talking so it's not as if she flat our rejected him."
Tony looked over at Garret and Megan and said, "That's true." Then turned back and looked at me. "So I was wondering if you wanted to go out Friday night. I'm not entirely sure what we'd do but it could be spontaneous."
"You mean a date, right?" I asked.
I am a complete moron, I swear. I should never be allowed to speak again, except for yes and no answers.
"Yes…I figured I didn't have to include the word date since we are dating, right?"
"Yeah, I know. I was just…checking."
"Okay, well, now that we've cleared that up, is Saturday okay?" Tony asked. "I would say Friday but I have work. I mean, if Saturday doesn't work that's okay. There's always next week or Sunday. I don't know if people go on dates on Sundays, though. I've never really heard of that. Not that we have to be traditional or anything." He said that all very quickly, making me take a few seconds to understand just what he said.
I think, for once, I wasn't the only person completely on edge. This made me feel more comfortable for some reason. I smiled and replied, "Saturday is fine. What time works for you?"
"Anytime, really. I'm not doing much. I guess 5 would be—"
I never got to hear the end of that sentence because at that exact moment Garret flew over to us—well more like bounced with a great force—and exclaimed as loud as humanly possible, "I AM THE KING."
"King of what exactly?" Tony asked.
I, on the other hand, said nothing. I debated whether it would be useless to walk away now since half of the students remaining on campus were looking in our direction.
"Megan agreed to go on a date. Friday. It will be amazing because I am, obviously, amazing. It all makes complete mathematical sense."
Garret smiled.
Tony laughed.
I cringed.
I wanted to mention that Megan was probably rethinking her answer if she heard what Garret said, which was most likely the case. Instead I just stood there quietly and smiled.
Two days later, also known as Friday, I entered my religion class and sat at my desk. There I was greeted with a new carving, which again asked for my name. I sighed and suddenly had an amusing idea, something that never really happens to me. I took out my pencil and scribbled the name 'Garret' underneath the new carving. This probably won't amount to much, but beat staring mindlessly into a kitty poster that said "God Loves Everyone" on the wall next to the chalkboard.
For the rest of the class period I spent my time trying to avoid staring at Tony, who happened to sit next to me. I couldn't really help myself. I mean, he was right there. And I, as his boyfriend—I was his boyfriend, right? —I had the right to do that, but I was so obvious. I couldn't just let my eyes gaze to the left of me where he sat. That was too simple, I instead would randomly turn my head at random intervals throughout the class. I realize that I am pathetic, but what else is there do to during religion?
Later that day at around seven I was still home alone because my mother had to work late that day. I was watching TV in the family room and was just about to warm up some leftovers from last night. I had the choice between a very questionable casserole and meatloaf when someone rang the doorbell. I walked into the entryway and as soon as I opened it a figure came flying in. Then shortly after that another taller figure walked in.
The flying blob was obviously Garret. He made he way to the living room and sat down on the sofa.
It took me a moment to realize the other person was Seth, formally known as Cig. I concentrated too hard too hard on Garret's display of insanity to really concentrate on Seth, who for once, wasn't the weird one.
"Care to explain what's going on?" I asked Seth, who was standing next to me and made no motion to get any closer to Garret."
"Well, Benjamin, can't your friends just want to come over and see what's going on?"
"Are we even friends?" I asked.
"That hurt. But anyways, apparently Garret's date didn't go as planned," Seth explained.
"Oh," I responded.
I really had no idea what they were doing here. Yes, I was Garret's best friend, I guess, but I knew almost nothing about dates. Besides my one date with Tony, which went surprisingly well, I knew nothing on the subject.
"He came to me first, said that you'd probably be no help—not offence, his words not mine. Anyways, I didn't even know he had my number. He called me up and started rambling on the phone. So I picked him up from his house and decided to bring him over here."
" I see," I said, not sure whether to be offended by what he said or not.
"It was completely horrible. A disaster. I'm a failure at dating and live in general," Garret said, or well, mumbled. His face was completely covered with a pillow. "I should have known it would have turned out this way. I was overly confident. This is what I get for that."
I stared at Seth hoping that he'd know what to say.
He didn't.
"It couldn't have been that bad," I offered.
Note to self: never become a psychologist or anything else that has to do with human interaction.
"Yes, it was. I was awkward. And weird and I spilled pasta all over myself. I should be locked away somewhere where I can't embarrass myself," Garret said. "You know, this is really your fault. You encouraged me with this. You're supposed to be my friend."
"I'm going to ignore that," I replied. "Maybe she found all of that…endearing?"
"Are you trying to be funny?" Garret asked, then rolled over on his back and hit himself in the face with a pillow.
"Is it working?"
"No."
I am so sorry it took me over a year to update. I really don't have a good excuse except that I'm horribly lazy. I also apologize for the chapter being so short but I really wanted to get it out to prove that I didn't disappear off the face of the earth.
Also, a special thanks to WILLfreakinYUM for motivating me to finish the chapter.