a date!!

this boy

this is such a mess sorry but bare with me

tetsuo stuck his hands into his pockets. his antsy fingers played with the chip crumbs that resided there. behind him, kaneda sat with his legs on his desk. the boy stared at the ceiling and almost looked like he'd fall asleep.

the classroom was half full of teenagers' voices and the smell of secret cigarettes. tetsuo breathed in in order to suck up some nerve before standing and removing his hands. he began to climb over desks, papers, and makeshift cigarettes that were mid-rolled before ending up resting next to kaneda.

tetsuo stared forward, still nervous. it was a bitter nervousness. he didn't want to feel so anxious around kaneda, it was as if kaneda had won some sort of challenge.

kaneda moved his eyes from the ceiling to tetsuo. tetsuo didn't move, just looked around nonchalantly. he flinched as a paper airplane zipped past his face.

then, with a hand, kaneda gently shoved him on the arm. tetsuo looked at him.

"what's up?" kaneda asked. he moved his arm back behind his head.

"what are you doing?"

kaneda scratched at his face sleepily and shrugged. "today's not my day." tetsuo's face softened and he breathed in to offer some sort of joke or comfort. "hell if last night wasn't my night, though."

tetsuo's inhale came out as a laugh. the boy rested to kaneda's level and turned his head to look at him. "what happened?"

"me and this girl fucked around all night." kaneda wiped his nose with his palm and looked at tetsuo with raised eyebrows. "i think she likes me."

tetsuo shifted uncomfortably. "well, d'you like her?"

kaneda scoffed and looked away, again. "what are we, girls?"

tetsuo furrowed his eyebrows and decided to look away, too. his hands moved back to ruffle around in his pockets.

kaneda suddenly put a hand on his arm. "hey," he said, "what's up."

"nothing."

"why'd you come over here?" his hand was still on tetsuo's arm.

"i was bored. what, do you want me to leave?"

"nah." kaneda finally lifted his hand.

tetsuo subtly gazed at kaneda from the corner of his eye. then, he shifted his hands from his pockets and sighed. "you busy tonight?" he felt himself sweat.

kaneda's eyes were closed. "no. why, you got plans?"

"i was just wondering if you wanted to hang out."

kaneda opened an eye. "with who?"

tetsuo looked at him. "just us."

the other boy stared at him for a while and broke a small grin. "sounds like a date to me, tetsuo."

"hell no! you don't have to make everything weird!" he angrily looked at his shoes.

next to him, kaneda shifted around. tetsuo forced an eye on him. "where'd you wanna go?"

tetsuo swallowed. "i don't actually know."

kaneda was used to deciding things. "i've been wanting to hang at the arcade. but, y'know, not really play anything. just loiter."

tetsuo bit his cheek. "that sounds boring."

"behind the arcade." tetsuo felt eyes on him. "it's more quiet there." tetsuo turned and squinted at him. "we can share a smoke. one cigarette. have you ever done that before?"