Teach Me Something New (Boyxboy)

Chapter Seven

When Lawson was dismissed from Philosophy on Thursday, he immediately left campus to meet Nathan at a nearby diner. Despite growing up in the area, Lawson had never heard of the place before, but the text he had received from Nathan that morning told him it had good food, and was cheep, which were two things Lawson prefered when it came to restaurants. Another advantage was that it was only a few minutes from campus, which meant he could walk rather than drive, and given the fact that he was running low on gas, this was also preferable.

It didn't take him long to find the place using Nathan's instructions, and he was pleasantly surprised upon entering the establishment. It was small, with only seven or so tables, but it was clean and cute, and the waitress on duty immediately smiled at him when he stepped inside. "Hello," she greeted, eyes bright. "We have a few minute wait on a table if that's alright". Lawson raised his head and looked around, spotting Nathan easily at one of the tables by the window.

"I'm actually coming to meet him," Lawson explained, pointing in the direction of his friend, and the waitress raised her head to look.

"Then by all means, go ahead," she instructed pleasantly before moving away from him in the direction of the back. They seemed busy, Lawson noted as he walked to Nathan's table, but the conversations people were having were soft, and the whole atmosphere of the place was warm.

Nathan looked up when he got close enough to the table, and then gave him a smile that was quite obviously forced. He looked exhausted, Lawson noted, eyes heavy with lack of sleep. It concerned him a bit, so immediately upon sitting down he asked, "Are you alright?"

Nathan's blue eyes blinked at him for a moment, almost curious, and then he shrugged nonchalantly and slid the menu across the table to Lawson. "Decide what you want. I'm starving".

It was clear Nate didn't want to talk about it- which was frustrating to Lawson since that had been the entire point of them meeting up- so he bit his tongue and searched through the menu for a minute before setting it back in the table between them. He pretty much always got the same thing when he went out to eat, permitted that it was on the menu: french toast stix.

They just looked at one another then, and Lawson was about to ask him why the hell they were even there when the waitress came up to take their orders. It was only when she left, taking the menus with her, that Nathan spoke up. "Sorry. I didn't want us to get interrupted".

"What about when they bring out our food?" Lawson inquired, and Nathan shrugged.

"That takes a lot less time than ordering does, and I wasn't going to make you wait that long to learn what happened," Nathan explained, and Lawson hummed. "Besides, after you've been complaining for the past month about me talking your ear off about Glenn, and I wanted to make you suffer now that something happened that you actually want to know about".

"So something did happen?" Lawson was choosing to ignore the last comment. "Glenn didn't end up canceling on you at the last minute?" In all honesty, that was what Lawson had been expecting to happen.

"He tried to, actually. I had just pulled into the parking lot at the restaurant and he called me for the first time in two weeks, and said he wasn't feeling well, and I told him that he couldn't do this to me, and then I kinda yelled at him for treating me like shit over the phone and then he said that he would come," Nathan admitted, and learning that Nathan had actually yelled at Glenn had his eyes growing wide. Nathan sighed at the expression. "I know".

"Was it awkward when he showed up?" Lawson asked, and Nate's eyes left his to stare out the window.

"Yeah, but I'm not sure if that's because of the yelling, or because he was fifteen minutes late, or because he just didn't seem like himself". Nathan paused as the waitress stopped at the table to bring them their drinks, and resumed once she left. "He was really unfocused and stressed... kinda how he was before he had that breakdown last year, remember? And he was trying really hard to ask me questions and appear interested but it was clear it wasn't working and he kinda just kept saying he was sorry and he was getting more and more upset and I just... I knew what I had to do".