Chapter 6, Part 1: First Date Jitters

  When I woke up from my dream, Eren was waiting outside, knocking on my door.

  “Yo dude... can we talk?” Eren waited for a few seconds before opening the door and walking in. As he made his way to my bed, Eren took a gnce at my face and his face dropped from serious to concerned.

  “Hai-Chi... have you been crying?”

  “...” I stayed silent, unable to process his question.

  What was that dream... Wait, was that even a dream? It felt... so real...

  “NOO DON’T EAT HIM!” I yelled at the top of my lungs, hyperventiting and distressed. Eren just stood there, shocked and disturbed.

  As soon as I processed what Eren had asked me, I became confused, “wait, huh?” I brought my hand up to my face and swiped my finger across my eyes. A single tear fell from my cheek to my fingertip, and I looked down at my hand.

  “why am i crying?” I said, still shaken. One tear became multiple, and they wouldn’t stop forming in my eyes, and fell onto my bed sheets.

  Eren asked, “You good bro?” and I responded saying, “Y-yeah... I’m fine.” while not being able to get that weird dream out of my head. It felt like it actually happened. Like I was actually there. Watching those people die. Who were those people anyway?

  As I moved my body to get up, I felt a sharp pain in my stomach, and I instantly became disoriented. For some reason I was having a difficult time breathing too. My dream started to become hazy, and I couldn’t recall everything that happened while I was asleep.

  “You got some problems, dude...” Eren said, “First you ditch me as your training partner and now you’re acting all crazy... what’s wrong with you?”

  “That was an unreal dream...” I blurted out. Eren was standing there bewildered, looking like I said something I shouldn’t have.

  “Look... If you want to py the victim and act like you forgot what happened yesterday, then that’s fine by me.” Eren left the room, leaving me by myself.

  Once I realized Eren left the room, I scrambled to get out of my covers, falling on the floor with bnkets nding on top of me, “Eren wait!” I shouted.

  Either Eren didn’t hear me, or he was ignoring me. He kept walking away towards the stairs. In the moment I thought if I ran over to him like this it wouldn’t lead to anything good coming out of it, so I just sat on the floor wondering what I should do next.

  After five minutes of sitting in silence, I got up and grabbed my phone. When I looked at the time I realized I had to get to practice. Heading out of my room, I took the elevator down because I was too zy to take the stairs. I made my way inside the cafeteria and when I turned the corner, Jude was sitting down at one of the tables eating a waffle.

  I bet Eren could go for some of those right now...

  I walked past Jude and into the lounge so I could grab some breakfast. I didn’t want to train on an empty stomach after all. Once inside, I saw Eren again, but he ignored me.

  “Hey...” I decided I would try and talk to Eren before he would completely forget about me. But I still couldn’t get over that dream...

  I still can’t get over earlier... What even was that? I’m starting to forget it, but I know it had to be something important. For it to feel so real and not mean anything... It kinda felt like a lucid dream... Wait no... I’m pretty sure I wasn’t conscious, so that couldn’t be right.

  Eren stayed silent for a minute before taking a waffle and replying, “don’t talk to me...” and left. I chose not to follow him. I knew if I kept trying to talk to him, Jude would find out and probably not help me during practice. And plus, Eren would probably get angrier.

  I grabbed a piece of toast and a little bit of apple juice and made my way to the cafeteria. Once there, I saw Jude sitting down, waiting for me. He was probably wanting to talk about yesterday and my decision. It was just the custodial staff, Jude, and a few other people I didn’t recognize actively eating. The pce was pretty empty. I walked over to Jude and took a seat right next to him.

  “I see you made up your mind. Lucky for you, you made the right decision... I can tell you know your career is what matters most.” Jude says, “Your future is all that’s important right now, nothing else... Don’t forget that.”

  Something feels off about Jude... I don’t know what, but it feels weird. It feels like he’s too invested in my future instead of his.

  “Yeah, you’re right...” I say with a mencholic tone.

  Eh, I guess I can just stress about it ter. Jude’s just trying to help me after all.

  “You seem down, what's wrong?” Jude asked curiously.

  “Nothing, I just didn’t sleep well st night” I said, “Anyways, let's get to practice.” I picked up my toast off of the table, and Jude followed me to the practice field.

  “Damn, I forgot my bag.” I said, “Oh well... it wouldn’t hurt if I used sneakers for once.”

  How did I forget about my bag... I literally saw Jude wearing his cleats when I got into the cafeteria.

  “Oh well. It’s fine...” Jude said, “It won’t hinder our practice too bad.” he put his hand on my shoulder, before fetching a random ball from the field.

  Me and Jude practiced for a while. He followed me through a few of his techniques and made me replicate them. Jude told me I’ve gotten better since the st time he saw me, which must’ve been my first day here when I practiced with Eren.

  I didn’t know Jude was watching me and Eren practice. That’s probably when he saw potential in me.

  “Hey, try that one kick.” Jude asked, “What did you call it again?”

  I wasn’t sure what kick he was talking about, but I told him it was called, “Dragon’s Fury.”

  Why the hell did I say that... I just pulled that out of my ass... That’s so embarrassing.

  “Yeah! That one.” Jude said with excitement.

  “Yeah, I can do that one... Watch this.” I was so embarrassed I just called it that. ‘Dragon’s Fury’ sounds like a little kid's toy. Some superhero figurine that a 2-year-old would accidentally choke on.

  To do ‘Dragon’s Fury’ I have to jump pretty high. Last time I checked my vertical it was around three feet or so. One of my best features is my high jump. You could say I'm genetically gifted. My mom can’t jump for shit, so I’m sure I got it from my dad. First, I started to run towards the goal. But something felt off. I looked down and the second my foot touched the ground, the fake grass ripped apart and the ground below was breaking into cracks. It felt as if my legs were just pure muscle and every time I leaped into the air, it felt as if I was going to fly. I yelled at Jude to throw his ball at me. My pn was once he would throw it, I would jump up to the ball and kick it into the goal with full strength. For some reason he had thrown it unusually high.

  When I pyed with my high school team, I would usually stop and catch the ball with my foot, this time was different though. I didn’t even try to kick that hard, but I wasn’t able to control myself. Without me thinking, my heels dug into the ground, and I felt something unusual. My legs tightened. My muscles felt over ten times stronger. The ground had indented down by a whole foot. The size of my legs had slightly grown. It felt as if they had doubled in size, and I jumped as if I was going to fly and not come back. It felt like I had jumped over six feet off the ground, not including the one-foot indent I jumped out off.

  I kept gaining height and I peaked at over eight feet. When it felt like I wasn’t going to get any higher, I flipped my body almost one-hundred-twenty degrees. I took a look at the goal and then I gnced at Jude and his devilish smirk. I felt an explosion of rage and some sort of hatred that I don't even know where it even came from. Still with no control over my body, I had hit the ball with my leg at full strength and it had flew so fast, it went past the goal and barely missed Jude. A slice of his hair was ripped off by the sheer speed of the ball. But the ball went passed Jude and hit the wall behind the goal. It caused a rge dent in the concrete, about half a foot. I tried to gain my bance while still in the air. It was just as if time was frozen. I was falling so slowly. The ball was still lodged into the wall, spinning rapidly. Two seconds ter, there was a second impact, causing rubble to fly everywhere. Jude, standing right next to the wall, had been completely unscathed. The second impact produced a raging gust of wind that felt like it had been locked away for centuries, waiting to be released.

  After the ball made contact with the wall, Jude wasn’t fazed at all and didn’t move a single inch from where he stood a second before. The hole in the wall was so massive, the bricks around the hole started to crumble. The wall was connected to the cafeteria, so the cafeteria was now exposed. Everyone inside the cafeteria saw the hole and ran out to check on us. They were just staring at us in shock. Well, more me than Jude. I started to lose my bance and fell back on the ground. People who heard the commotion ran to see what happened. A couple ran to the cafeteria and looked through the gaping hole in the wall. The rest of the people in the vicinity ran to my aid, unaware that I was the one who caused the damage. Jude was still standing by the goal, walking towards me. I myself was unaware of the repercussions of what I just did. Everything started to become dizzy, and my head felt like it was getting heavier and heavier. Slowly, my eyes began to close and everything faded into the darkness–-

  “Hey, what time is it?” I asked the man in the corner of my hospital room, as I started regaining consciousness.

  “Oh, you’re awake!” the man said, “You’ve been out for quite a while...”

  “How long exactly?” I said while still half asleep and slurring my words.

  “It’s been two days.” the man says.

  What happened... The st thing I remember was Eren walking away after I... Wait, why did he walk away?

  “What time is it again, sir?” I asked.

  The man went to check his phone for the time, “Hold on...” he said, “Right now, it’s 3:24 in the afternoon.”

  “Who are you and why am I in the hospital?” I started to feel uneasy.

  The man walked out of the shadows and into my view, “Don’t worry it's just me.”

  “Oh, it’s just you coach.” I said with a sigh of relief.

  “Yeah, don’t worry. You’re in good hands.” Coach Vance said.

  “And why am I in the hospital?” I asked him my previous question.

  “You’re in the hospital because you went unconscious.” he said with an anxious tone.

  “Are you alright?” he asks me with the same tone as before.

  “Yeah, I feel fine.” I replied.

  Wait... did he just say it was 3pm? Shit, I'm te for my date with Laura.

  “Sorry, but I have to go.” I said, “I need to get ready for my date.” I tried getting up from the hospital bed.

  “Wait kid, calm down. Your date has to wait.” he said, “Your health is more important.” he said with a serious tone.

  “Yo coach, you wouldn’t understand...” I said assertively, “She’s a twelve and I'm a three... I need this so don't get in my way.” I gred at him with one eye, menacingly.

  “Y-Yeah sure... I get it.” he said while being intimidated by me, “Just be careful alright...”

  “Good, I knew you’d understand pops. And don’t worry, I’ll be safe.” I say while standing up.

  “Ay coach, could you leave the room, I’m gonna get dressed.”

  “Y-yes... alright...” he still seemed very intimidated for some reason.

  Once I got up, I hopped in the shower. This must’ve been an extremely fancy and luxurious hospital to have showers inside of patient rooms. Also, they had all of my clothes I brought from home to the soccer facility yed out on a chair, next to the bed. After my shower, I got dressed and exited my room. Slowly limping through the hallway, I was finally able to snap back into thought and think of something other than my date. The fact that I had really destroyed the field and the entire wall and almost killed Jude. Speaking of Jude, that weird smirk he had… Whatever, that was almost unhuman. My mind is probably pying tricks on me. Also, I couldn’t have been in the hospital just for bcking out right? There must’ve been a cause for that. I mean, it couldn’t just be from me simply kicking a ball, right?

  “H-hey... Are you okay dude?” as I looked up saw Eren.

  “I'm fine, don’t worry.” I said.

  “Th-that's good to hear...” he said, “They shut down the practice field, so it’ll be out of commission for a while. They're going to start rebuilding it in a few days.”

  “Oh, okay.” I say while trying to avoid eye contact.

  “Also...” he said, “I wanted to say sorr-” Eren was cut off.

  “Yo there's the murderer! You almost killed me you know.” Jude walked towards my direction, “You weren’t joking when you said it’s called Dragon’s Fury.” he says jokingly.

  Jude stops in his tracks and notices Eren, “What are you doing here?!” he said, “You're not even friends with my boy Hai-Chi anymore...” he said in a rude and disrespectful way.

  “Oh yeah...” Eren said, “silly me, am I right?” Eren paused before running out of the building.

  “Yo what the hell?” I say, confused and angered.

  “So what? He’s gonna hold you back from your true potential, come on. I thought I expined it well enough to you the other day.” Jude said while grabbing my shoulder.

  “No... I'm going back in my room.” I said, “I have a date to get ready for.” I say while pushing his hand off my shoulder and walking back in the direction of my room.

  I know I already got ready but come on... Jude isn’t really who I thought he’d be. I just need any excuse to get away from him for a little bit. If I stay in my room, he’s bound to leave eventually. Either that or he drags me along for practice again, even though I'm clearly injured.

  “Oooh my boy Hai-Chi getting a date...” Jude says with an excited tone.

  As I looked back, his expression changed from excited and happy to serious and he started to walk in the direction Eren ran out from. Something lingered in the back of my mind, but man come on... Jude’s a good guy. I think I've just been misinterpreting him these past few days.

  I looked down and realized that I should’ve chosen more date-like clothes, so I went back in my room to get ready a second time.

  I started mumbling and rambling to myself about the date, “Okay, time to get ready. Should I go for super fancy, medium fancy, or just some sweatpants. Well, I mean I don't have any suits, and we are just going to a burger joint. I’ll just put together something nice that’ll hopefully please Laura but still fit the atmosphere. I think I'll wear some jeans and a pin shirt. Oh, I should also add a fnnel. Oh, and my brand-new shoes too... Yeah, that’s perfect!”

  Still in the process of getting dressed, I checked my phone and realized it was already 3:35pm.

  “Crap, I’m five minutes te...” Finally, I put on my watch. And ran out of the hospital building. The dinner reservation starts at four-fifteen, but I was going to meet up with Laura beforehand. Running out of the facility, I made it to my mom’s car that was in the parking lot for some reason.

  “Wait, I can’t go to this pce with my mom’s car... Plus, I don’t have the keys” I said in a hurry while panicking. My hands were starting to sweat from my overthinking.

  “Here...” a man said, “Take these...” keys start flying towards my face and I catch them.

  “Coach?” I said, wondering why he is giving me his keys.

  “Hey Sakka...” he said, “I realized you didn’t have a car, so I came back to give you these...”

  Well, I do have my mom’s car but surely that doesn’t count.

  “O-okay!” I said, “Thanks coach, you’re a lifesaver.”

  “Yeah, don’t mention it.” he said, “Now go get that twelve, Mr. Three.” he says with a smile on his face.

  “Yeah, I understand...” I said, “Don’t worry, I'll bring her back and make her a dy...” I say while running, still with my limp, and clicking his keys to find his car.

  Coach Vance mumbled to himself, “w-well... t-thats not what I meant.” and waved me off, “See you soon, Sakka... Oh and don’t you dare crash my car, it’s a beauty.”

  “Got it!” I yelled back.

  After clicking the keys a few times, I limped as fast as I could to the sound of the horn. Then I saw it. Right in front of me was a beautiful Porche 911 GT3 Rs with a wing rear spoiler. It was all matte bck except for the rims, which were a dark red color.

  Damn, he wasn’t lying when he said it was a beauty... This reminds me of that time, a few weeks ago when mom and I got that scammed Uver and got sent to jail. Time sure does fly by fast doesn’t it...

  The moment my cheeks hit the seat, the amazing suede leather caught me off guard. What also caught me off guard was the fact that it’s been sixteen minutes since I woke up. It was now 3:40pm and I was now ten minutes te.

  Hurry up, hurry up! I hope Laura hasn’t been waiting long.

  After I put the keys into the car, I pressed the ‘start engine’ button and the car started rumbling.

  What kind of car is this! I’ve never been in a car, and it rumble like this before.

  What I didn’t realize was that the car was rumbling because of the engine, which I didn’t figure out until ter. I did a quick donut in the half empty parking lot and bolted off, speeding to the meet up pce.

  “WOOHOO! THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT BABY, YEAH!” I was going 90mph on the freeway (the fastest speed I've experienced) and was totally hyped to show up with this expensive ride...

  When I arrived at the meetup pce, it was four in the afternoon.

  I’m surprised I didn’t get pulled over... Not that I'm saying I wanted to or anything...

  We were supposed to meet up at a fountain for some reason. I was her idea though. I looked around for her, but I couldn’t find her. That was until she looked in my direction and started waving. She started running towards me towards me. She greeted me and then looked me up and down and complimented my outfit. When she looked behind me and noticed the car I pulled up in, her jaw dropped in shock. Obviously, I wasn’t going to tell her that I borrowed it from Coach Vance, but I also wasn’t going to bring it up too much because I didn’t want her to expect me to be rich or anything. Because I'm quite the opposite. I then took the keys out from my pocket and locked the car.

  “Did you know that car rumbles like crazy!” I asked Laura.

  “That was probably the engine...” she replied.

  There’s no way I’m that dumb...

  “Anyways, sorry for running te, that was my fault.” I said, “I hope I didn’t make you wait long.” Coach Vance’s Porsche gave me tons of confidence. Either for good or for worse.

  “Umm... No not really.” Laura said, “I’ve only been here for around seven minutes.” Laura said a little embarrassed.

  Oh, that’s good... Well, seven minutes is kinda long but at least it’s not like thirty minutes.

  “That's good to hear...” I said, “You look just as cute as before...”

  “What was that?” Laura seemed to not hear me.

  “Uhh... I mean... um... I meant-” I was too nervous to crify.

  There’s no way I just said that out loud...

  Laura chuckled.

  “So, you think I'm cute?” she asked.

  “W-well... of course, you’re beautiful.”

  “That’s so sweet...” Laura said, heartfeltly.

  I was getting too nervous so I decided to just get on with our date, “W-well... Might as well get going...”

  “Yeah, all right.” Laura giggled.

  Laura and I started walking to the restaurant, seeing all the beautiful scenery along the way–

  “Woah, that’s pretty!” Laura pointed to a bed of colorful flowers. She seemed to be entranced by their captivating nature. And I’m not going to lie, they were nice and all, but seeing Laura get happy and excited for something as simple as flowers made me really happy.

  “Yeah, those are nice...” I replied.

  She gently tugged on my shirt and pointed to a pretty tree, “Oh and that one! It's so nice...” she said in pure awe.

  A few minutes of walking ter, we came upon the restaurant. Even though it was a burger joint, I did my research, and I found that it’s actually the best around. Almost a five-star rating. Though I won’t tell Laura it took me an hour just to find a pce this good. As we entered, we were greeted with stunning decoration and alluring overhead lights.

  “Woah! This pce is fancy...” Laura said, “Are you sure you want to spend your money on me here?”

  “Yeah, don’t worry a single bit. It’ll be worth bringing you here.” I said with a deep voice, to sound more mature.

  “B-but... It looks so expensive... Are you sure?”

  I really want to say no, but it’s for Laura. Normally I’d never come to a pce like this by myself. I’ve had to sve away these past weeks to save up enough money for this. I’m expecting to break the bank once we’re finished.

  “Of course, Laura. Don’t worry, please.” I kept insisting her to not worry about my finances because I just want her to enjoy herself and not worry about me and the prices.

  “Okay, but only if you promise to not spend too much.”

  “Yeah, yeah...” I said pyfully.

  After moments of waiting, the hostess came out and was ready to seat us.

  “Hello... I’d like a table for two please.” I asked the woman. Laura was standing next to me, holding the arm of my sweater.

  “Alright, follow me.” the hostess asked us to follow her to our tables, but as she brought the menu’s out from under the counter, Laura took a quick gnce at them.

  “Wait, no please...” Laura said, desperately.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “The prices... they’re too much...”

  “I told you already, I can handle it...”

  She looked down at the floor, “sorry.”

  “Don’t be sorry, it’s not your fault.” I reassured Laura that there was nothing to worry about.

  While we were talking back and forth, the hostess was waiting for us impatiently and gave us a look, “If you guys want to leave then that’s fine with me.”

  “N-no, we’re coming...” I grabbed Laura’s sleeve, and we followed the waiter to our seats. I looked around the room and every st two-person seat was already taken.

  “Here we are...” the waitress stops in front of the seat and pces down our menu’s.

  “I assume you’re sitting us in a booth because they’re the only avaible seats?” I started to caress my chin to look smarter.

  “Well, yeah... If you’d look around, I think anyone could figure that out.”

  All right, what’s with the tone. It was just a question.

  Laura stayed silent and looked at me.

  “Oh yeah, my fault.” I’m not trying to argue with this girl, so I’ll just shut up and sit down.

  When I sat down, the hostess left. A second ter, Laura took a seat right next to me for some reason. This may have been her first date, but surely she’s looked online before. I looked over at her and noticed she was sitting really strictly. Her muscles tensed, her feet close together, and her hands on her p.

  “You do know during a date, you’re supposed to sit on the opposite side of your partner, right?” I asked.

  “Oh yeah, sorry...” she got up and sat down on the opposite side of me. But she was still stitting in the same manner.

  “You don’t have to be so nervous...” I reassured her.

  “What?” she asked, confused.

  “The way you’re sitting...”

  “Oh that? Sorry, I can’t help it... I’ve never been on a date before.”

  Yup, I knew it.

  “Really?” I said, “With how gorgeous you are?” I said charmingly.

  Laura blushed and looked away embarrassingly.

  “What are you getting all red for?” I asked, “Am I just too much to handle...” I said in a goofily seductive voice. Laura giggled before responding, “Despite the st time we met, I actually get really awkward when I’m not at work.” she giggled, but I could see something was weird about it. I decided to put it aside for now and just focus more on getting to talk to Laura.

  “Is that true?”

  “Yeah, sure is...” she replied.

  “Then what about when we were walking here and you grabbing my sweater?” I asked.

  “Well... umm... That was because I love nature...”

  “So, it wasn’t also because I look good.” I said confidently.

  “Go check the mirror... Have you seen your hair?” she giggled. I froze in my words before Laura looked down at the floor. A couple of seconds ter, Laura said, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.” with her head still down.

  “No, it’s okay don’t worry about it. It’s not your fault.” I said.

  Her head was still locked onto the floor, and she was twiddling her fingers and feet.

  “Hey, look up.” The moment she did, my heart dropped.

  “Hey, it’s okay please, stop that.” Laura’s face was twitching like she was about to cry, and her cheeks were red.

  After moments of silence, and us staring at each other, Laura said, “But it is my fault... I can tell you regret meeting me at my shop.”

  “NO!” I yelled, smming my hands against the table, “THAT’S NOT TRUE!” Laura flinched, and the attention of the whole building was on us. Literally less than a second ter, the hostess came back.

  “You two lovers done yet?” she said while giggling.

  I slowly looked towards her, unaware that everyone was looking at us.

  “Y-yeah...” I quickly sat back down, completely embarrassed.

  To my utter surprise, the hostess and holding back ughing, “pff... pff... BAHAHA!” she ughed, “THAT’S SO LAME AND SAD! HAHAH” a little snort exited her nose. Since she was being such a prick, I decided to use her snort against her.

  I gave her a menacing look and said, “OY, HOSTESS!” to grab her attention, “When my eyes turn red, you know you’ve made a mistake... You know you’ve enraged my core.” I carried out the sentence in a chilling manner.

  The hostess snapped back to reality and seemingly broke the ‘tuff girl’ character, “I-I’m sorry...” she said, “Anyways, what would you like to drink tonight?”

  That’s what I thought, bitch...

  “I’ll take a water, please and thank you.”

  Gotta order water so Laura doesn’t think I’m a fatso. Dang, sadly she doesn’t know ‘Mr. 2D Waifu Freak’. I should get her up to date about my ‘adventures’ some of these days.

  Laura follows along and orders a drink as well, “Could I get water as well, please?”

  “Alright, two water coming right up!” She gave us an annoyed smirk and went off to fetch our waters.

  I looked at Laura sitting across from me, who seemed to forget about my outburst a second ago. She still seemed tense though. I thought about when she was sitting next to me and how comfy and happy she looked. I decided to ask her a question, “Do you want to sit there?” I asked, “Forget about what I said earlier. If you’re not comfortable in that seat, you can come sit next to me.”

  She nodded and stood up. When she sat next to me, I felt her body warmth projecting onto me. She smelled so good too. Now, subconscious of myself, I pointed to the open kitchen and told Laura that some guy was cooking a burger right there. When she listened and looked, I used that time to stick my hand inside my shirt and swipe it along my armpit. Once that was finished, I brought my finger up to my nose and took a good, long whiff.

  A little pungent but nothing a girl couldn't get accustomed to.

  “Ooh! That was a big fme!” her eyes sparkled and glimmered while looking at the chef cooking. I think what I said to the hostess may have broken the ice.

  I clearly didn’t hear what she said because I was too focused on myself, “Hey, Laura, tell me how this smells...” I said as I was thinking about myself. I brought the finger that I had smelled myself up to her nose.

  “Okay, sure!” She was obviously not ready for the whipsh my musty odor would cause her. I knew she would have to endure pure hell for around ten seconds, but after that, it would be all good.

  She took a long, drawn-out whiff... Her head sprang backwards, and the recoil was crazy. Laura’s head forcefully hit the back of the seat from the instinctive survival reflex. Her nose kept going crazy, it was like I was witnessing her have a full-on seizure. Once she was able to compose herself, she asked, “D-did you wipe that finger on your ass or something?” she kept coughing continuously.

  “N-no... not at all...” I said, “Just being in your presence alone is making me sweat from the nervousness...”

  “O-okay??” she giggled a little bit.

  “Do you have a spare deodorant?” I asked in desperate need of some protection.

  “Uhh... Well, I always keep a backup, but.... I-I kind of used it, already... sorry...” she said.

  “Okay, that’s fine... It’ll work...” I said.

  “Uhh... no thanks, sorry” she said sadly.

  “Damn, okay... Sorry if that was a little weird...” I said, now conscious of how she thinks about me.

  I shouldn’t have said that... Only freaks would ask to use a girl’s deodorant.

  I heard a strange, unfamiliar voice speaking to me. It sounded like an old man said, “Hey kid, we’ve all been there before, don’t worry...” he said, “I always bring a spare for the next guy... Here take it...”

  “Umm... okay, thanks??” I was very confused. This random old man is giving me his spare deodorant. Like who just brings a spare with them?

  I asked Laura to take it from the man's hand and give it to me. I held it in my hand and said, “The holy grail! Come to papa!” then I used it on my armpits and boom. The stench. It was almost completely gone. But I took a closer look and realized the deodorant was old spice. A brand that I was allergic to. But I decided not to say anything about it.

  I looked back at Laura and said, “Sorry about that...”

  “No, it’s okay...” she said, reassuringly.

  “A man needs to protect their true power at any cost... Even if that means using a random old man’s deodorant...” I said goofily.

  Laura started to giggle, “Hai-Chi, you’re so funny.” she said, “I never expected that I would be sitting here, on a date with one of my customers from a while back...”

  Well, that makes it sound nefarious.

  “And here are you’re drinks...” the hostess came up and pced our drinks down. Speaking of the hostess, is this pce out of waiters?

  “Oh, thank you.” Laura said.

  “Yeah, thanks as well.”

  I see the hostess has had a change of heart...

  “Are you guys ready to order?” she asked, politely.

  This can’t be the same woman from before, she’s too nice.

  I looked at Laura and asked if she was ready, to which she confirmed she was. I took one more look at the menu before ordering, “I think I’ll get the meat mountain burger, please.”

  “The one with twelve patties... Are you serious?” the hostess said, astonished.

  “Yup, that’s the one!” I clicked my tongue at the idea of so much meat in mouth.

  “Are you sure? I’ll ask you once st time.” she said, concerned.

  “Yes, ma’am, that’s the entree I’d like.” I said.

  “And your side?” she said.

  “Just whatever... Fries would be fine, I guess...”

  “Alright... give me a minute.” she went in the back and got a waiver that I had to sign.

  “You’ll have to sign this before ordering the meat mountain.”

  “What’s this?” I asked.

  “It’s a waiver...” she rolled her eyes.

  “Nuh uh... I’m not doing alt...” I said, refusing the idea of putting my signature on a piece of paper.

  “You have to, sir...” she said.

  “Fine, fine...” I said. The hostess gave me the waiver and I signed my signature on the line.

  So much for the water, I guess.

  “And you ma’am?” she looked at Laura, waiting for her response.

  “Hmm... let me think...” she said, in thought, “I don’t think I’ll get anything...”

  “What? Really?” I said.

  “I’ll just share with you...” she said, “I don’t want you to spend too much on me and plus, you realize that’s a twelve-patty burger you got right? You can’t finish all that on your own...”

  “I guess, you're right” I said.

  “That’ll be all, ma’am.” I told the hostess. She responded back, “All right, that’ll be out shortly.”

  “Oh wait... before you go, could you smell this for me...” I leant my finger out to the hostess’s nose and look at Laura. We both formed a devious smile right before she took a sniff.

  “WHAT THE HELL!!” she wouldn’t stop coughing, just like Laura. She was vigorously moving her head side to side, nonstop, “WHAT IS THIS!!” she quickly ran to the bathroom. While she was in there, me and Laura kept hearing screams coming from inside the stalls.

  Around fifteen minutes or so, a real waiter came out and served us our food, “Here you go, your one meat mountain with a side of fries.” the male waiter carefully gave us our food.

  “What happened to the woman?” I asked. The waiter replied with, “Sorry, but she’s out of commission for the meantime. Apparently, someone made her sniff something real bad... That devious monster will get payback, whoever did it.” he said with pure vengeance.

  “Oh man, that sounds bad...” I said. Laura started to giggle and then quietly ughed under her breath.

  “Well thanks...” I said, “Oh also, I’ll keep a look out for anyone who looks suspicious.”

  “Thanks, that’d be really appreciated... Anyways, enjoy!” the waiter says before leaving Laura and I alone.

  “Dang, this thing is huge!” I said, stunning by the mass of this burger. There has been no time in my life where I’ve seen meat piled on top of each other so elegantly. I was the first to take a bite.

  “Mmm... this is good. Definitely worth the money, I’ll say that for sure.”

  Next came Laura. And she took a bite in the same, direct pce I did.

  “Mmm... yummy!” she said with food on her cheek, looking at me with a huge, happy smile. It really does seem like she’s enjoying herself right now.

  Wait, did she just have an indirect kiss with me... no way, I thought as my heart raced, and my face started to blush.

  Laura started to tug on my sleeve, like earlier, and said, “Hai-Chi, we should start coming here more often... please!”

  “Of course, If that’s what you’d like to-” I stopped in my tracks and realized what this meant.

  Wait! Is she saying that we’ll probably have another date? Oh, please say yes, I’m so excited!

  “What’s wrong?” Laura asked, concerned. She was probably wondering why I froze.

  “Oh nothing, don’t worry.”

  “Are you sure?”

  I nodded and said, “Hmhmm...”

  “Well, oaky!” she said, “If you say so.”

  She continued eating the burger, and I was devising a pn. The idea was that I would do the same thing that I did with the finger. But instead of making her sniff my musty armpit, I would put my arm around her shoulders before she could look. A great pn if I do say so myself. Now I just need to wait for the perfect moment.

  The second one of the chefs started a big fme like st time, my pn was in action.

  “Hey Laura, look!” I said, “The fme is huge!” I pointed towards the kitchen in the same way as st time.

  Shit, why did I do it the exact same way as before... That’s so stupid of me.

  Laura looked at me and said, “You better not make me sniff your finger again, silly.”

  “Don’t worry, I won’t... But just look!” Laura took one final gnce at me before watching the fme in awe. I then swiftly tried to slip my arm around her shoulders. Everything was going according to pn. That was until Laura turned around too quickly and saw what I was doing. I immediately took my arm back, trying not to ruin the moment. I didn’t want her to think I was a creep trying to get all touchy feely. But to my surprise, Laura, without thinking, made the move and grabbed my arm and pced it on her shoulders.

  She looked at me, with a cutely embarrassed expression and stayed silent...