and here we are.
back to pretending.
shane smiled as he poured a cup of coffee and sat himself across from sara rubin, a friend from work.
ryan had insisted he spent time away from the office, and away from just sitting at home, so now this is where he had landed.
they sat in a quaint coffee shop of which so indie, he had never heard of. the food was good, he thought.
"so, sara." he began. "how has it been going?"
he watched as sara's pleasant mood had instantly reversed, and she now sat with a frown and furrowed eyebrows as she took a sip of her coffee.
"fine. i think." she added, shrugging.
shane sighed, knowing how this was going to be a long morning. why, why didn't he just stay at home? why must ryan be so persistent?
"you don't look so fine." he responded, a frown similar to hers now on his lips.
"yeah, well, i lied. i feel like shit."
he took a bite from his eggs.
too runny.
"yeah, yes, i think i can see that," he laughed, quite awkwardly. "but really, you look like you haven't slept in days."
sara opened her mouth, about to reply to his opinion, when shane's phone rang and buzzed from his pocket.
he gave her an apologetic look, and pulled his phone from his pocket and took a glance at who had been calling.
zach
slightly surprised, his eyes almost widened. giving sara another sorry look, he answered it and sank a bit behind his seat, feeling embarassed.
"hello?"
the voice on the other end was choppy, the cell signal was bad.
"hey. shane madej?"
"uh, yes. what's up?"
"can you do me a favor? i know we aren't close or anything, but please."
he sighed. another thing to do.
"what's it, zach?"
"is sara with you?"
from his eyes, who were glazing down out the window at the ongoing city life, they snapped back to sara, who suddenly became aware that he was watching her.
"yeah, yes, she is. why, what's wrong?"
"nothing, it's just she hasn't been answering anyone and been off the radar for like, five days."
"okay, okay. she's okay, but um, do you need to speak to her or," he stammered. "what?"
"no, no. it's good. just tell her to please be more online. we're all worried."
"yeah, yes, okay, i will." he assured.
he hung up and turned to look at sara again who was looking down at her food.
"zach rang. why aren't you talking to anyone?"
"i had a really bad, like, anxiety. so bad that i didn't want to speak to anyone. hence why you haven't heard from me for so long."
even though shane couldn't care less for sara's problems, sometimes he still sympathized with her, made him feel awful about how he was using her, even.
"please don't do that, sara. you're making everyone who cares about you fear that something might've happened to you and all of us, we don't know anything."
he sounded almost genuine. even the way his voice cracked toward the end of his sentence.
"i'm sorry." she mumbled. "you know what? i'm taking up way too much of your time. you get back to the office, when? tomorrow, right? go. get some rest."
shane nodded, and within half an hour, he was back at the apartment, on the bed he shared with ryan.
ryan was at work, probably working his ass off since he had to do what shane was supposed to be doing until he decided to take half a week off.
he felt only the least bit bad about this as he kicked off his shoes, laid back on the bed, and watched a movie on netflix.
