Chasing Zero

Eighteen

Neither of us let go of the other's hand as we met up with everyone at the food court. Per Sky's control, our hands rocked back and forth with enthusiasm, and a perky smile lingered on his face. After our kissing and nickname naming, I was sure he was resting on a heavenly cloud nine, but I needed him to come down from his high before anyone (mainly Tony) assumed we did something inappropriate. Who knew what young adult couples did when they separated from their group these days?

"Were your shoes on sale?" Gray questioned, oblivious to Sky.

"Yes," I quickly responded and dropped the bag on the table. "They're super comfy. I can't wait to use them at the gym tomorrow."

"Because you need to work out more so you can beat up more idiots, right?" Tony nodded, a smug grin on his face as he lifted his soda in the air, addressing me in a congratulatory well done over beating up Amy's shitty ex.

"Yeah...sure." Arguing would be pointless. It was better to agree with him this time rather than explain how working out made me happy. When it came to Amy's ex, I only did what was expected of me or anyone else who could put him in his place. There was nothing wrong with what I did. He was an asshole who deserved pain after whatever he did to Amy to cause her to be terrified after seeing him.

Gray, ever the great friend that he was, could barely hold in his laughs as he met my eye. He knew how tame I was, physically speaking. It wasn't as though I beat up people for fun. I had to put up with a lot of bullshit from people due to my gender and just from work in general. Working out eliminated stress after a long day. Working in the bookshop helped me to tame my inner anger towards bitchy customers so I could handle fame when it arrived. I'd have to grow a tolerance to people, because once I was published, I'd receive mixed reviews just for being myself. There would be people out there so far along the spectrum from 'wanting to buy my blood on eBay because they're such a huge fan' to 'sending me death threats because I was 'too controversial.'' Fame was quite a special thing.

Tony moved to the other end of the table so Sky and I could sit next to each other. He invested himself in the conversation with everyone while I checked my phone for any emails from Dakota about the recent chapter I sent her. The first date between the two finally arrived. It was the chapter she was looking forward to the most. She'd become so invested in Giselle and Hans's relationship that I was sure they were her one true pairing.

I clicked on the document in the email:

This time was going to be different. This time she wasn't going to be the butt of anyone's joke. There was someone who wanted to date her for all that she was, someone who found her to be beautiful and wanted to get to know her better. When was the last time someone worked so hard to try and get to know her? She couldn't recall a single time.

Exiting the closet, she stared at herself in the mirror. A sheer, white, short sleeved top underneath a black, thin strapped dress. The outfit was dressy but not over the top. After the effort Hans placed into asking her out, she wanted to place the same effort into their date as well. She found it to be only fair. But without any knowledge of what the date would be, she didn't want to risk overdressing and embarrassing herself. She assumed this would be the best outfit for her to wear.

She hoped this would be the perfect outfit for their date. She'd never been given the chance to get dressed up for a date, and she was never given a reason to put an effort into her appearance. But now there was someone who wanted to make her feel special, and she wanted to make him feel special as well. For the first time, there was someone she wanted to get to know in a less than platonic way.

Things seemed to be going fast for her, but she didn't know what was slow to begin to with. She'd only been friends with Hans for well over a month, and she knew she had feelings for him. What those exact feelings happened to be, she wasn't entirely sure. Was it friendship? Romance? Lust? Hopefully their date would clear her feelings up. Hopefully she wouldn't scare him away, because whether they were going to date or not, she wanted him to be her friend.