Dying and Everything in between

13| Like any other date

─── ･｡•̩̩͙˚｡✧: *. .*:✧•̩̩͙･ﾟ｡───

The date felt like any other date.

They went to the cinema like every other couple their age. The two of them took their seat in the theatre and watched some film about a zombie apocalypse that Lucas could honestly care less about, but the glow of interest in Veronica's eyes gave him some willpower to get through it.

When the movie finished, they went over to the arcade, talked a bit, and Lucas watched himself get brutally destroyed at every game. His weak muscle mass and poor stamina did not do him any good, and as irritating as it was, he hid his frustration behind a forced smile.

As they went about, Veronica ended up telling him about herself. She was a college student working part-time in that restaurant. She had a younger sister, and her parents were very supportive of her dream of being a professional chef one day.

She had this dreamy look to her, and every time she spoke of her passions, Lucas could feel the dedication oozing out of her little hand gestures. She stumbled over a few words out of nervousness and giggled them off, but damn, was she captivating.

However, Veronica chipped away at his ego when she won him something. It was a cute little duck plushy, and she told him it reminded her of him.

Pretty sweet, if you asked him. Maybe that tickled his heart just a little. Other than that, nothing else really excited him.

Oh, and yeah— they held hands. He guessed he had to do something romantic, seeing that people probably thought he was some charity case being guided around by his sweet older sister.

It was a misunderstanding he wasn't keen on keeping up. Besides the potential incest scare, holding her hand wasn't too bad. Although, he felt a bit ridiculous. Kind of like a preteen getting all flustered over minimal skin-on-skin contact.

Maybe flustered wasn't a good word. It just felt odd. His hand was bigger than hers, and unlike his touch, her hand was warm. Very, very warm. It was a breeding ground for sweat, and Lucas wasn't sure whether to let go and wipe his palm on his jeans or endure the pain.

He decided to proceed with the latter. He didn't want to hurt her feelings, seeing that this was already a pretty bad date. So bad it was obvious he hadn't felt the touch of a woman in many moons.

It had been a while; that was for sure. The last time he did something romantic was a few years ago. By now, he was as inexperienced as a middle schooler— talk about a dent in ego.

His stomach was like a messy stack of building blocks, and every time her petite shoulder brushed against his or she gave their intertwined, damp hands a light squeeze, his little tower of dignity crumbled.

Lucas was dying inside. Every second that ticked away felt like ripping a bandage slowly until the stinging drove him insane. It wasn't her fault, oh no. Veronica was sweet. Almost perfect.

Something was wrong with him.

Maybe she was too sweet. Yeah, probably. She never got mad, and she was rarely impatient.

Even when Lucas would make a snarky remark or aggressively smack the controls of a game machine, she would smile at him like he performed some poetic love sonnet and hadn't just crudely insulted the claw machine for being a lousy, bitchface money stealer.

She treated him too nicely. She laughed too sweetly. She spoke like a goddamn Disney princess. He was finding all of the reasons why she was too good for him as if they were Easter eggs and he was the Easter bunny.