Hey Sunshine

I Have A Tall Spider Where I Live

DRESS CASUAL.

Wylan stared at the simple two words on his phone with slight disbelief before 180° straight back around and heading for his closet. Deftly avoiding the spider that was currently gracing his presence, he opened the shelves and began rummaging through the clothing he had acquired over the years, trying to find something nice but...not.

"What does dress casual even mean?" Wylan asked the spider. "Is this Jesper's way of taking me out to a date he never told me the actual date of?" The spider crawled away and Wylan made a face at it.

His phone beeped again, and Wylan had it out in an instant.

I'm picking you up at 7

Wylan looked at the current time at the top of his phone and cursed again. "Fuck," he muttered. "It's like, six thirty right now. Six thirty is not enough time to go out on an unplanned date. What happened to cordiality?"

What happened to cordiality? he quickly punched out the text and sent it to Jesper. A few moments later, he got his response.

It got replaced with romantic mystery

He cracked a grin at that. That sounds more like a book genre, he sent back in response.

Well it'd be a damn good book. Now get ready - I'm picking you up exactly at 7

Wylan looked at the time again and realized a minute had passed. Fuck.

Quickly wrestling on a simple pair of jeans and a t-shirt, he stared at it for a while before diving back into his closet, tugging out drawers and choosing a different outfit. Staring at his mirror, he made a face and switched it out again. What did 'casual' even mean? he thought desperately. Nice-casual? Bad-casual? Did bad-casual even exist during a date?

Finally he settled for a simple pair of jeans and forest green flannel he had always been told had brought out his eyes, before looking hesitantly at a scarf. He wrapped it around his neck before making a face and quickly taking it off, musing that Jesper would look far better in it than he would. Checking the time again - 6:52 - he went to his shoe collection and pulled out a pair of worn down sneakers that were immediately rejected. A pair of UGGS quickly joined that list, followed by sandals and crocs he hadn't even known he had. After that, black and white converse were his only remaining option.

He checked his phone again. 6:59.

Not too bad, he thought to himself contently. He looked at the mirror before immediately running a panicked hand down his hair. Crap, he thought to himself. I resemble a used mop.

As his phone finally turned the last digit, the doorbell rang immediately after that and Wylan hurried to open the door, realizing that he had never actually told Jesper where he lived.

He swung the ridiculously creaky door open with his question in his mind. Jesper was on the other side of the door and Wylan's heart stopped as he stared at the much taller (much more handsome) boy, his head partly eclipsed by the doorframe. Jesper shot Wylan a cheeky grin, as if conscious of Wylan's gaping.

"Hello merchling," he said calmly. Wylan floundered for a response for a while, cursing mentally as he probably resembled a tomato once again. The phrases how do you know where I live and I have a spider in my house and finally you're so tall floated around his head before he finally blurted something out.

"I have a tall spider where I live," he finally managed. Jesper sent a smirk to Wylan as he tried to fix his sentence. He flushed, running an absent-minded hand through his hair. "I have a spider in my house," he finally chose. "And you're really tall. Also how do you know where I live?"
Jesper blinked, probably not expected the barrage of statements. Wylan sent him a half-hearted grin, trying to save the conversation. "Well it's probably a good thing I don't have arachnophobia for all my future visits to your house," he replied with a grace that should not be legal. "Also, if you think I'm tall, you should meet my mother. And I asked Kaz, who knows a scary amount of information on anybody and everything, though I half suspect it comes from Inej first." He sent Wylan a bold grin, and Wylan finally got himself together.