audacity // kryoz

fourteen

"So, are you gonna tell me now?"

Through a mouthful of food I answer, "Yeah, let me swallow first,"

"That's what she said," Joy, mumbled.

I started to laugh but instead started chocking on the noodles in my mouth.

***

"Holy shit," Joy says as I finish telling her what I remember from last night.

I give her a shrug and continue shoveling noodles into my mouth. They were lukewarm now but still good.

Thinking about it now, last night and this morning were wild. My life is really mundane so this is exciting to experience. I could get used to this feeling. I kind of like how fast-paced yesterday felt. Although it was nerve-racking at times, it was so different and I think I'm starting to like different.

Quietly, a dark thought entered my mind. It whispered that this 'difference' in my life was a product of John. Unfortunately, it kept talking. It kept saying that, I shouldn't get attached because it was a matter of time before he left. Slowly, I began to agree. I'm sure he has his own life and his own problems. Nothing is making him stay, so he probably won't. Suddenly, my thoughts began to war.

I knew that he was going to leave just like everyone else but who says I shouldn't make that short experience fun. Even though, I know barely anything about the tall man, I want to know more. For some odd reason, I want to be around him. I'm having a hard time rationalizing it but a part of me was telling me that I didn't need to. I'm so used to having an answer for everything, maybe this is something I don't need to solve. I have no idea. I mentally shrugged, letting my thoughts simmer in the back of my mind.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see her staring at me. She looks almost perplexed. I wanted to figure out what was wrong but I was in no mood to dissect anyone's feelings, even my own. I suddenly remembered my dead phone. Shit. I need to go plug it in. I threw the box in my hands back onto the coffee table but before I could fully stand Joy, speaks.

"Don't worry, I already plugged it in,"

I look over at her thankful, "Thank god, someone remembered," I say before sinking back into the couch. I went to reach for the box again but Joy stood up interrupting my motion. I look up at her, silently asking her why she stood up.

She looks at me with a weird look on her face that I've never seen before, "I've gotta go,"

"Um, ok. Bye," I say quickly,

I watch her silently collect her stuff and walk out my door. Well, that was odd. Was it something I said? It has to be something I did. If I lose her as a friend, I don't know what I would do with myself. I hit myself on the forehead with my palm, trying to tell my mind to shut up. I need to find something to distract myself with. I make a quick sweep of the room with my eyes before remembering my phone. I walk into my room and flop onto my bed. I reach up and grab my phone from my nightstand. I power it on and wait for my home screen to pop up. Multiple notifications pop up. I started skimming through them and deleting the ones I don't care about. One piqued my interest a little. It was a text from an unknown number. I quickly realized that it was from John as it read, 'hey anna, it's john'. I quickly save the number under 'john'.

I roll onto my stomach to think about to say. I should probably keep it simple, shouldn't I? I quickly type 'hey what u up to?' and send it immediately to prevent overthinking.

To distract me from constantly thinking about the sent message, I open Instagram and scroll through a few pictures. After only a few minutes I get a text back from the blonde man. As fast as I could, I opened the notification to see a text that read, 'nothing much'.

Suddenly, an idea popped into my head. Would I even have the balls to pull this off? No, I don't but it wouldn't hurt to think about it. I quickly glanced at the time. It was 12:43. It's still technically lunchtime. What if I invited him to have lunch? I'm a fair cook and I still want to spend some time with the tall man, even though I still have no reason why.

Oh my days, I sound so stupid right now. What am I even doing?

I rub my face with my hands. I want to do this. As much as I wanted to do this, the 'what if,' questions kept my fingers from typing. All I'm doing is inviting a friend over for lunch. It's no big deal so why does my stomach feel so weird. I want to scream. I need to push through this barrier. I want to do this so why the hell shouldn't I? With new-found courage that I could feel dwindling, my fingers fly across the screen, typing 'so, idk if u've eaten yet but do u wanna come over for lunch?'

I sigh before hitting send.

I throw my phone to the other side of my bed, scared to even touch it. Holy hell, I feel so much like a teenager again. I hate it but at the same time, I love it more than I could ever imagine.

A/N

thx sm for 4k reads. it feels like only yesterday we hit 1k. i wanted this chapter to be longer but trust me the next chapter will make up for it. until next time. love u.