His Number One : The Sequel to Chemistry

Chapter 4

There was a cringing feeling in the pit of Tyler's stomach, as if he were preparing to perform in front of a crowd for the first time, while he made his way towards Powlo's Pizza later that day. Despite Lauren only being one person, Tyler still became as nervous as he would if there were a whole audience in front of him. But he tried to push his nerves behind him as he watched his feet take turns hitting the pavement, and repeated in his head exactly what would be said to Lauren; telling himself he wouldn't settle for nothing less than a break up.

He pushed the door of the pizza place open with his eyes scanning the restaurant for any sign of her. After concluding that she wasn't there, he chose a booth near the back of the restaurant and sat in it.

A waitress came to his assistance almost immediately, "Good afternoon," she smiled warmly with a small pad and pen in her hands. "Can I take your order?"

"Not just yet," Tyler answered. "I'm waiting for my friend," he added with a stammer. The waitress nodded and turned to leave.

As Tyler sat there, nervous as ever, he fought the temptation to pick up his phone and call Kaylin. She always knew what to say to calm him down. At one point he reached down into his pocket for it, paused, then hesitantly placed his hand back on the table. He was going to fight this one by himself, for himself.

He scoped out his environment for the sake of a distraction, even though he's been there a million times before and could draw out the whole floor plan if he wanted to.

There were only about three other groups of people in the restaurant. That's how it generally was on the weekdays. Which was okay, because the restaurant mainly got their business from teenagers after Friday night football games, late night Saturday parties, and for small get-togethers on Sunday afternoons. It was the hang out spot for teenagers even outside of DeKalb County.

Tyler's eyes went from the plastered, burnt orange walls, to the dangling, green ceiling lights, to the clear glass door; which at this moment was being pulled open by none other than Lauren Miller.

Tyler's eyes bulged after even the slightest glance at her. She wore a black dress that stopped just above her knees and fit along her petite body in absolute perfection, and her dirty blonde hair fell past her shoulders in flawless, loose curls. This was the best Tyler has seen her in awhile. He instantly felt bad about coming in just a shirt and jeans, but he did stress that this wasn't a date.

He almost forgot how beautiful she was.

'She did this sh*t on purpose'.

She gave him a sad smile as she made her way over, and Tyler did the same.

"Hi," she greeted shamefully, sitting down in front of him.

"Hi."

Lauren placed her black clutch purse on the table beside her and settled in the chair of the booth with a unsatisfied sigh.

"So...," Tyler started. "there's something we need to talk about."

"Okay, but can I say something first?" she asked.

"Go ahead." The fact that Lauren wanted to speak first relieved him, because he sure didn't know where to start.

She stared down at her mint green painted nails and sighed "Well," she began sadly. "I'm not in love with you, Tyler."

"-Obviously."

"-I mean, I love you and I care about you a lot. But I'm just not in love with you. And I know you're not in love with me. Am I right?"

Tyler slowly nodded his head, afraid of where she was going with this.

"At the beginning of our relationship, everything was going so great, and I was actually falling for you."