Darling, Let's Run From it All

♧ Chapter 5 ♧

Travis sat on the edge of his bed, leg bouncing anxiously as he stared at his phone on the nightstand. He had been waiting since getting home from school for Sal to text him about their project, but he hadn't reached out yet.

To be honest, he didn't quite understand why he cared about this so much. Maybe a part of him was finally starting to accept that he didn't truly hate Sal, but he didn't want to acknowledge that possibility.

With a sigh, he stood up and- as soon as doing so- his phone buzzed with a notification. He scrambled to pick it up to read the message:

Unknown: hey travis it's sal

Unknown: what time do you want to come over saturday?

Travis' fingers hovered over the keyboard as he thought over what to say. He couldn't even remember the last time he had actually texted someone, and now he had to hold a conversation with Sal, of all people.

First, he typed, "Hello." Then, "Hello!" Then, "Hi!" Then "hey."

He deleted every single message he typed. Eventually, he decided to just answer the question: "Whenever."

He paced back in forth in his bedroom as he waited for Sal's response. He didn't know why he was so nervous about this simple talk.

Unknown: ok well how about like noonish

This time, Travis only wrote and deleted two messages before answering with a simple: "Okay."

He couldn't bring himself to try and continue the conversation. And hell, even if he wanted to keep this going, he had no clue how to.

Unknown: cool cool, see you then

Unkown: apartment 402 btw

After a handful of minutes went by and Travis didn't respond to the message, Sal sent another.

Unknown: so do you have any ideas on the project so far?

While trying to think of a response to the question- even though he hadn't given the project a single thought since the teacher had announced it, and his answer should be obvious- he updated Sal's name in his phone to "Sal."

After another moment's thought, Travis responded to the message honestly: "No. Do you?"

Sal: nah

Sal: we can figure stuff out tomorrow then

"Okay," was the only answer Travis could muster. Holding this conversation over text was bad enough; how was he going to manage having to talk to Sal in-person on Saturday?

Sal: sooooo

Sal: how are you doing

Travis cursed inwardly, frustrated that Sal seemed to be so dead set on continuing their talk.

"Fine." He answered simply. He gnawed on his bottom lip as he sent the next message: "How about you?"