The New KISS High School

Ch 12: Dinner? (Eric S)

I walked down the hall, heart racing. I was gonna do it, I was actually gonna do it, I had spent the entire drive to school hyping myself out and I wasn't gonna let anything stop me. I rounded the corner, finding Tommy standing at his locker, before immediately turning around and walking away, deciding I was absolutely not going to do it and was going to let several things stop me. Heaving a sigh, I walked around further before finally stumbling across the two people I needed to see most, Gene and Bruce. "Hey I need help," I said, drawing to a halt in front of them. They looked up from swapping homework answers. "With what?" Bruce asked.

"Um...so I-I wanna...wanna ask Tommy to go with me to the football game tonight, you know? But I don't know how to do that," I mumbled. "Oh that's easy. Just walk up to him and ask if he's going. If he says yes, tell him you guys should meet up at the game. If he says no, just tell him he should get more school spirit," Bruce said. I let out a sigh. "Well it's not that easy! I can't just do that!" I cried. "Why not?" Gene asked, arching an eyebrow. "B-because I just...I mean come on! You've seen him!" "Yes I have in fact seen Tommy, I've gone to school with him for years. And I also know he's not scary and he'd love to go to the football game with you." "But he's really cute and it intimidates me," I mumbled. 

Bruce gave me a smile, shaking his head. "Just ask him. Don't look at him while you ask if that helps. Or ask him over text!" he said. "Oh! Of course!" I said, giving him a huge smile and pulling out my phone. "Gosh you're so smart." 

Hey u going to the football game tonight?

Tommy: Yeah! We should meet up beforehand and grab dinner! :)

I froze, staring at my phone. "Um...um...h-he asked me t-to get dinner," I stammered, face going red. Bruce and Gene both gave me huge smiles. "Perfect! That's great, you can get dinner with him then go to the game!" Bruce said. "No! Not perfect! I can't get dinner with him! I can barely-" "Aw no, you can't make it to dinner before the game?" Tommy said. I jumped, whirling around to find him behind me, giving me a smile. "I um--" I started, hands starting to shake. "Oh no he was talking about getting dinner with Paul next week on a night he's busy. He's free tonight," Gene said, swooping in to save me like always. 

Tommy's smile got brighter, eyes sparkling. "Oh perfect! I can just grab you from your house and we can just take my car," he said, ruffling my hair. I was two seconds away from dying on the spot as I finally managed to nod, squeaking out an agreement. "Sounds good then, I'll catch you in English and we can work things out more after!" he said, patting me on top of the head and walking off. I turned to Bruce and Gene, giving them a horrified look. "What the hell do I do now?!" "You go to dinner with him and have fun," Gene said with a shrug, and Bruce nodded. "Yeah, just relax and enjoy spending time with him." "Alright well that would be no issue were it not for the fact I have a huge crush on him! Do you have any idea how hard it is to just relax around someone you have a crush on?!" I asked in a whisper-shout. 

Bruce and Gene exchanged pointed glances before giving me a flat look and I nodded. "Oh yeahhhh. Yeah you do know how hard that is. But anyway! Do you really think I should go for dinner? Or-or should I--" Gene cut me off, rising to his feet and putting his hands on my shoulders. "You're going to dinner with him. And you're going to have fun with it," he said, almost as if he wasn't giving me a choice. "Alright fine," I mumbled. The rest of the day passed horrifically slow and way too fast at the same time, and it felt like it had only been a minute since he had asked me to dinner as I watched him pull into my driveway from my bedroom window. There was a pause before he rang the doorbell and I shouted a goodbye to my parents, walking outside and giving him a smile. "Uh, hey."

"Hey! I like the headband a lot. It's school colors," he said, tugging absentmindedly at my maroon and white headband. I nodded, cheeks going pink. "Yeah! That's why I got it!" He gave me a smile, giving me a gentle shove toward his car. "I like your headbands. They look nice on you, and they're really unique. Damn it's funny, I see you in them so often I just subconsciously associate you with bandanas now," he said with a laugh, and my face grew warm as I sat in the passenger seat, fidgeting with the end of my hair. "Well I hope it's a good thing," I mumbled. "It is!" he said cheerfully. "Anyway, what do you wanna do for dinner?" "Oh! You can pick, I don't care," I said. He frowned, mulling it over. "Pizza work for you?" he asked, and I nodded. "Sure!"

He drove to the nearest pizza place, walking inside with me and getting a booth for us. I deflected his question about what kind of pizza I wanted by insisting he pick the toppings and that I didn't care while secretly hoping he wouldn't get anything with olives. I was still on the edge of panicking, just tugging on the ends of my hair to keep myself distracted so I didn't full on melt down into a blubbering bundle of nerves desperately trying to hide how I felt about him. Finally the pizza arrived, providing a welcome distraction, and we quickly dug in. To my surprise, I started to get more and more relaxed as the night went on, probably helped by a large amount of delicious pizza. 

Tommy looked at his phone before doing a double take, eyes going wide. "Oh my gosh Eric, we missed the football game," he said. "We did what?!" I cried, looking at my phone. "Oh my gosh we did!" There was a pause before he gave me a smile. "Do you wanna come back to my place to hang out for a bit then?" he asked. Wishing desperately I had Gene and Bruce to give me a boost of confidence, I took a deep breath and nodded anyway, giving him a smile, feeling surprisingly relaxed and not entirely panicked for once.

"Sure!"