Same Experiences

Chapter Five

George

I was staring into the coffee like it'll have answers to questions. Questions about the really sweet dream I had just before waking up.

So, what happened in the dream was, that Dave and I were in the and we were in the park, going towards the lake.  He cracked some joke, we laughed real, real hard. We reached the lake, kept laughing and at some point in the dream, he wrapped his arms around my waist and we just kept laughing. When we stopped laughing, we noticed that he was hugging me from behind and then... I don't know we just kinda looked at each other and I think we were going to kiss when Lucy hit me with a pillow to wake me up.

At first, I was disappointed that I couldn't finish the dream. But then, I was confused as to what it meant. These few months have been weird, at least for me. I've been noticing the smallest things about him. How his eyes cloud over when he talks about something he loves, how they light up when he sees that the price of a book he wanted is low, how he fiddles with his bracelets when he's thinking hard, how his lips tilt up in the smallest of smiles when Bertha's name comes up to tease him.

Plus I get kinda irritated about Bertha sometimes.

Actually, yeah. What's that about?

"Are you gonna drink that or just stare at it till it gets cold? Plus, no it won't tell you the meaning of life," Brent said. I stuck my tongue out at him and drank my coffee.

I brought my sketchbook and opened it, looking through it. I stopped at the drawing of Dave. It was a side profile of him looking at the lake. I stared at it. It was good, but it didn't do him justice. I'd tried to capture the beauty. The peace on his face while he just stood there. The wind caught in his hair. But what I actually couldn't capture was his smile. His smile could light up the whole of New York. It's mostly the main reason I hated seeing him sad and frowning.

"Stop analyzing it," Lucy said sternly. I looked at her with a confused expression. She was looking at me with a frown. "The drawing's gorgeous. Period."

Sometime later, Dave came over after doing his homework. He'd messaged that he had an announcement to make in our friends' messaging group.

Lucy, Brent and Linda sat down on the couch, while Luke and I sat down on the floor. He exhaled deeply and said, "Ok guys, I've decided to ask Bertha out for prom."

All of us gaped at him. Brent was the first to say, "You know that she literally ghosted you after the study stuff right?"

We all nodded in agreement. Dave frowned at us. "She's just been busy. Like the rest of us."

"It's been months, Dave. She'd find the time if she actually wanted to talk." Linda said. Dave threw his arms up and said, "You know what, you guys are just discouraging me. I'll do it myself, forget it."

"No, no, no," I said. He stopped and looked at me. "Okay. Ask her out for prom, but like in a small way, don't put up a big show and attract people. And we want told you so rights in case it goes south."

Dave smiled and I swear the house got brighter. "Deal," he said. "Ok, anyways, I've called her at six in the evening, I want you guys there."

We all nodded. I felt weird. Kinda sad? I don't know. I went inside my room as Lucy departed for her job at the bookstore. I sat down on my bed to figure out my feelings.

It didn't make sense. Why did I feel sad that Dave was gonna take Bertha to prom? Why was I drooling over his smile as Lucy did with Tom Cruise? Why did I want to make his laugh my alarm ringtone? Why do I always keep thinking about that time on the beach when he was playing volleyball and he was sweaty and there was this one drop of sweat just going down his Adam's apple and inside his shirt?