Took You Long Enough

One

"Reo?"

Hearing his name took Reo off guard. He'd been stuck in his own head. He'd been there a lot lately. Running on autopilot. Not that he minded, really, because what he was mulling over in his head most of the time was his new dream, the world cup. Everything else had just been background noise.

When he turned away from his locker, he found Miki standing there. He knew the girl fairly well; she'd been his classmate since junior high, and they'd always been friendly. More recently, she'd asked him for help with math and English, two areas in which he excelled, and he'd obliged, happy to help. They hadn't spoken in a while, though. Not since other things had taken precedence.

"Hey, Miki," he said, swinging his bag over his shoulder an closing his locker back up. "What's up?"

"Well, you know," she started. She seemed nervous. "We've started that new unit in math. Statistics and probability. I don't get it. Like, at all. And since you were so good at teaching me trigonometry, I was wondering if you might want to help me out again? Sometime after school?"

Reo paused, long enough to feel bad. He wanted to help. He was pretty sure, anyways. But he also didn't want to. He had other priorities now, and after school was sacred time. He may have felt a little bad, but not bad enough not to be selfish about it.

"I wish I could, Miki," he told her. He sounded sincere. "But ever since joining the soccer team, we train pretty much every day. I just don't know if I'll have time."

The girl looked disappointed, and started picking at her cuticles.

"But, if you're really struggling, you should go to the student center," Reo continued, hoping this counted as helping. "They have really great tutors there. I'm sure someone will be able to help you!"

Reo took a step back, hoping the conversation was coming to a close. Lunch was about to start, and he was going to meet Nagi, like he'd been doing since they'd started training together, to make sure the boy actually ate. He'd never met someone who considered eating such a pain that he'd rather not, but when Reo bought, carried, and fed him his lunch, he didn't mind so much, so that's what he did.

"Yeah, I guess," Miki said, but there was pause in her voice instead of closure. Reo paused too, not wanting to be rude, waiting for her to speak again. She looked up at him. "Maybe we could do something else, then? Some other time when you're free?"

Reo didn't understand what it was that she was asking him. He just kind of looked at her, trying to piece together what she was saying. With the math help, it was straight forward. But this ominous something else to be done some other time didn't make sense to him, and he didn't want to accept if he didn't know what it was he was agreeing to.

"Uh," Reo started, trying to find words. "Like what?"

"I don't know," Miki said, shrugging a little, smiling. She looked away from him. "Dinner, maybe? Or we could see a movie? I think there's some good ones playing at the vintage theater down by the park and the playschool?"

Oh.

Reo was not so dense that these requests were lost on him. Miki was asking him out. On a date.

And he had no idea what to say.

He liked Miki fine, but he wasn't sure if he liked her like that. She was nice, and she was pretty, and he knew she came from a great family with enough money and enough of a reputation that he could all but see his dad smacking him on the back approvingly and telling him good job son if they ever became something serious. But when drowning all of the logistics out, he didn't really know how he felt about her. And he wasn't really sure if he wanted to go. If he had some free time, maybe, but not if it took place of his dream or something else he found important.

He knew that he didn't want to be rude, though.

"Yeah, maybe," he told her, smiling at her. He decided the best move was just to keep it open ended. "I'm not lying about being busy, I'm really not. But I have your number, so if I have some free time this weekend, I'll call you, yeah?"

Miki's face lit up. Whether he was successful at keeping it open ended, he wasn't sure. This reaction had him questioning it. "Yeah! Okay. That sounds great. Talk to you this weekend!"

"Maybe," Reo found himself reminding her, hoping he was gentle about it.

"Yeah," she said, nodding, still beaming. She winked, like it was some type of private joke they shared. "Maybe."

With that, she turned and left, and Reo had the distinct feeling that he'd made a mistake.

But he didn't have time to consider that any longer. The bell rang, indicating lunch was starting, and he needed to get down to the cafeteria.

As he got into line, he could see that Nagi was already sitting at the table they'd taken to sharing, leaned over and staring into his phone. Reo sighed a breath of relief, grabbed two trays, and entered the line.

It took a bit of juggling, but he'd gotten used to it. He'd learned all the foods Nagi liked, and the ones he'd tolerate, and the ones that were easiest to feed him, so that's what made up one tray. One the other were just things he enjoyed well enough and could eat either one handed, or quickly.

Th cashier smiled at him when he got up to the front. He had to place both trays down to reach for his card, which took up the entire counter space. She pondered both trays, adding up the value amounts, and then pointed at Nagi's tray.

"Let me guess, Mikage," she said. "This ones for your friend?"

"Uh huh," Reo answered with a smile.

The lady smiled back, showing him his total, motioning towards the card machine. "You're a good boy."

"Uh," Reo said, swiping his card down the side of the machine before shoving it back into his pocket. "Thanks."

It flashed approved, and he grabbed both trays, setting off towards the table.

Nagi didn't even look up when he arrived. He hummed a type of hello as Reo settled into the chair next to him, placing the trays and the items on top of them strategically.

"Whatcha playing?" Reo asked. "Same one?"

If he was being honest, Reo didn't care one way or another about video games, but because Nagi cared so much about them, he tried to make an effort to show interest. Last time he'd checked, he was playing some type of shooter war game. A lot of the game was about being fast and sneaky and shooting, but then there was a whole aspect where you had to collect coins and trinkets and exchange them for other coins or weapons or information. He'd understood the latter aspect much more than the former, but he still didn't remember the name.

Nagi shook his head, tilting his phone enough to let Reo see what it displayed. Reo's throat and chest had an odd response. He recognized the background immediately. It was a soccer field. And Nagi's thumbs were controlling a little player, who currently had the ball.

"I thought it might help," Nagi offered by means of explanation.

"Well," Reo said, trying to fight off his ridiculous grin. "Look who's coming around."