troye with an E

I love shopping. Always have, for as long as I can remember. But my friends and I had been shopping all day and it was getting a little tiring.

I say "friends" but it was more a double date with me like a third(or fifth?) wheel. Zoe and Alfie, a couple, were visiting LA from England so Hannah and Ingrid, another couple, insisted on us all having a fun day together. I don't actually live in LA, I live in Perth, Australia, but I'm always here for work.

Anyway, I just felt like the annoying single one and like I was tagging along, so I decided to sit out for a little bit while they went to a couple more stores in the other end of the huge mall.

I sat on a random bench next to a Starbucks and a Forever 21, munching on little cinnamon pretzels, contemplating my impending doom of dying alone.

Then, as if god had heard me, I look up from the floor to see a somewhat cute guy walking towards me. I run my fingers through my brown curls and put down my pretzels to replace them with a fresh piece of mint gum.

I examine him as he makes his way towards me, he's pretty cute I guess, probably a few inches shorter than me, and has blonde hair styled up in a quiff. He's wearing a cute grey hoodie and skinny jeans.

He sits down next to me(a bit uncomfortably close in my opinion but it's whatever) and extends his hand for me to shake.

"Hi!" he says in the perkiest cheeriest (gayest) voice I've probably ever heard, "I'm Tyler!" I shake his hand and reply warily, "Troye, with an e." His over-enthusiasm was a little intimidating if I'm being honest.

Pulling his hand away and placing it on my knee(!?!?!?), he starts getting a bit more creepy than cute. "Your accent is so hot! Where you from, twink?" Starting to get extremely uncomfortable, I try to scoot away a little. "Australia..." I reply.

"That's soooo hot," he gushes, practically drooling. By now he's basically sitting on my lap.

I try to muster a reply, but only an "Um... th- thank you?" comes out. My mind is spinning trying to come up with an excuse to run away from him. It's not even just him being enthusiastic, he's just giving off this vibe. I don't know how to describe it other than "get the fuck away!"

"Uh, I have t- to go," I try to stutter out, but something's telling me he won't let me. I try again, "My fr- friends, they're w- waiting for-" I get cut off by him interrupting me.

"Your lips keep moving, but I wonder what else they do," he says, and he starts leaning even closer which I didn't realize was possible until now.

Just when I think I'm toast and I might as well start the therapy now, some random boy I'd never seen before in my life runs up to us. "Babe, what's wrong? Is this guy trying to hurt you or something?" Confused why some stranger would call me babe, I stutter trying to reply, but there's no need.

Tyler starts to back off and stands up, so I finally have a chance to look at my mysterious savior, and HOLY SHIT HE'S CUTE! "I'll kick your ass," he says to Tyler. Tyler just stammers something about not knowing I had a boyfriend and runs off.

I mean, I don't blame him this mysterious stranger definitely worked out. Like, seriously whoa.

The guy takes a deep breath and lets it back out in a laugh. The cutest laugh ever. 'Contain your heart-eyes,' I think to myself, and sit up from my almost laying-position Tyler had forced me into.

He sits down next to me, not creepily close like Tyler had, but just right. "I could tell you were uncomfortable, it happens to my friend Trevor all the time."

"Thank you," I say to him, "I'm Troye by the way, Troye with an e." He chuckles and replies, "Well, Troye with an e, I'm Connor." I manage a laugh back.

He sighs and looks around, trying to break the awkwardness I'd guess. His green eyes land on Starbucks, and he asks me, "Wanna go get a coffee?" I nod my head, and we walk there together.

The girl at the register asks me, "What would you like today, sir?" I think about it for a second, and reply, "Hmm, how about an iced vanilla hazelnut latte?" Connor adds, "Make that two please." I laugh at how gentlemanly polite he is.

We grab our lattes and I let him lead us to a small table next to the Starbucks. All I can think is how amazing his ass looks in those skinny jeans.

We sit and talk about anything and everything, from his big family back in Minnesota, to my love for singing but fear to pursue it. We actually have a lot in common. Eventually we make our way back to the incident with Tyler, and he asks if I'm okay again. I giggle and look down at my feet. He's so caring it gives me butterflies.

"For like the hundredth time, yes I'm okay. It was just uncomfortable, but I'm fine." He laughs and says, "Okay good. No wonder you were uncomfortable..." and he trails off so I can barely hear him as he says, "You're probably not even gay..."

I laugh at this and reach for his hand and make him look me in the eye when I say, "Con, I hope it's okay I call you that by the way, but Con, I am very gay."

He shyly giggles and looks back down as he says, "I guess that's just one more thing we have in common then." In my head, I'm screaming and jumping for joy. But in real life, I'm looking into his beautiful eyes and leaning closer and closer across the table until-

"Ahem." I jump out of my seat to see my friend Zoe standing there, shopping bags on both arms, the biggest grin I've ever seen on her face.

Connor's face turns a deep shade of red as I try to come up with some explanation. She just laughs and looks back at Alfie, Hannah and Ingrid, who are holding back laughs too.

In her cute little British accent, she asks me warily, "Trooooyyee.... who's this?" I laugh and wipe my sweaty palms on my thighs and say, "Zoe, this is Connor. Connor, Zoe." They look at each other awkwardly for a second.

"Umm, I think I have to go now, but Troye, this has been fun," Connor spits out, standing up and throwing away his empty coffee cup. I almost think he's gonna leave me hanging, until he turns back around and gives me his phone to enter my number.

He's already added the contact name: "Troye with an e". I giggle because of his adorableness and enter my number. When I pass his phone back to him, he stands up straight(and a little on his tip-toes, even more adorable), and leans in to kiss me on the cheek.

"Bye Connor," I say with red cheeks. With equally red cheeks, he replies, "Bye... Troye with an e." And walks away.