Catch Me When I Fall [BxB]

Time to Retire from Socialization

(This is chapter 69 btw ehehehehe)

"Uhm... hi... g-good, how about you?" I ask before realizing that wasn't anything near a coherent reply in relation to what the employee asked me.

The employee is probably questioning, but she doesn't show it and just replies, maybe to make the situation less awkward.

"Good. And what would you like to order?" She subtly repeats herself.

"Oh, yeah... that's good. Uhm... so like... the uhm..."

I glance at Tyrone, feeling somewhat lost, but he's too amused to help me and the more I stress about not knowing what to say, the harder it is to actually think of what I'm supposed to say.

"So like... uhm... food that like..."

What am I even saying?

The employee chuckles.

"We wouldn't sell you anything else, except maybe the drinks."

Well, at least I made her customer interaction a little more different and memorable.

In the most embarrassing way ever!

I want to retire from socialization. Am I too young to do that?

I just laugh along with her, a lame attempt at hiding my awkwardness because it's a nervous laugh, and not a subtle one at that.

"Cause it's a restaurant." I add for some reason, even though that was obviously what she meant.

I want to crawl away into a little hole and lock Tyrone in there with me as punishment for making me do this in the first place.

I clear my throat and stare down at the floor for a few seconds.

I can do this. It's just two of the exact same thing.

"Can we get... the... chicken..." Why am I taking such weird pauses? "Artichoke..." That word makes me think of choking to the point I almost do... on nothing. I clear my throat again. "brown rice salad bowl?" I rattle off really quickly.

I glance behind myself at Tyrone, who seems to find this funny.

"Oh uhh... two of them." I add when I realize I've only ordered one. I turn back to Tyrone. "Why did we have to order such a long-named menu item?"

Tyrone just chuckles and nudges me to indicate the employee is looking at me again.

The employee is smiling as she asks,

"Anything else?"

"Ty are you thirsty? I'm kinda thirsty... no, I'm really thirsty. Maybe we should get... maybe..." I study the menu a little longer.

"Didn't think you'd try to make this experience any longer than it needed to be." Tyrone says.

"Shhh don't distract me, and I'm not, this is needed. I will die of parchedness."

"That's... not a word. And we have water."

"Shhh! Ooh, can't go wrong with those electrolyte drinkies."

Yep, I'm just inventing words now.

"I want the cool blue, I am cool. All of that just is what cool people do."

What am I even saying? Maybe I'm just trying to hide that all of that was, in fact, not cool.

"I'll take the red one, it's got the word punch in there and there's a long list of people I wanna do that to." Tyrone says.

I swallow.

"Am I on that list?" I whisper worriedly.

"You could never be." Tyrone says, and I try to tell myself I'm imagining it but it really looks like he has that adoring gaze in his eyes again.