Learning Curves ✔ (bxb)

Chapter 7

Theo^^

Theo's POV

"Well. I'm not sure if your encounter went well or not." Liam sighed, rubbing his neck awkwardly.

"Yeah." I mutter, not feeling up to talking much. Liam seems to pick up on it, and doesn't say anything further.

"Do you really think he's got a special girl, though?" Ethan asks as we walk over to the Japanese restaurant we're going to meet Brie at.

"He said he liked someone." I shrug noncommittally, shoving my hands into my pockets as we open the door to the restaurant.

We greet Brianna and sit down. Ordering relatively quickly, we wait for our food to arrive.

"Hey Brie, how are you doing?" Liam asks with a smile.

"I'm well, actually. Sean's amazing, and classes are okay. The usual. Although, my professors are pretty nice. What's been going on with you guys?"

"Nothing much. We're all still single. Er..." Ethan trails off, looking at me awkwardly.

"That thing with Stephanie is still ongoing, just to please my parents." I sigh, fiddling with the napkin and slouching in my chair.

"What's wrong Theo?" Brianna asks, face full of concern.

"Found a guy I thought was attractive. He regularly comes into the cafe I work at, we talk, he likes my baking. Found out he's crushing on some girl." I shrug, not looking up at them.

"Hey, he didn't say it was a girl, and he never used gender specific pronouns." Ethan argues.

"He didn't deny it was a girl either." I point out.

"From what I know, if I was him, I probably wouldn't either. He doesn't you if you're a homophobe or not, right? It's reasonable." Brianna refutes. I let out a frustrated sigh.

"Can we drop it?" I ask, and they are all quick to nod, not wanting to make me feel any more uncomfortable. Our food comes moments after, thank goodness for the distraction of awkward topics. We quickly dig into our food.

"How's life, Ethan? Liam?" Brie asks.

"Alright I guess. Studying. Lot's of studying. I have to take care of these two." Liam chuckles, looking at Ethan and I.

"Hey! I can take care of myself." Ethan huffs.

"Sure you can." Liam laughs. I let out a small chuckle. I forgot how much I missed having these outings.

-

At the end of the meal, we all split the bill, laughing about something or the other. We all get along really well, it's a shame we can't see Brianna more often.

"Ah, where are we headed to now?" Brie smiles at us.

"Wanna come to the dorm? You haven't seen it yet, right?" Ethan suggests. Brie shakes her head, and we all decide to head over to our dorm.

"Welcome to our humble abode." Ethan bows dramatically at Brianna when he opens the door, causing all of us to laugh.

"Nothing impressive. Sorry we didn't clean up much before you came over." Liam apologizes.

"Oh, no worries Li. We've known each other for years now. Not concerned about you guys being neat freaks." She smiles, nudging Liam playfully.

"There isn't much to see here. Living room, kitchen, washroom, bedrooms. That's it." I shrug as we show her around the dorm.

"It's not bad." Brianna hums thoughtfully.

-

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Brianna leaves around 12am, bidding us a goodbye and hoping to see us again soon. She drives home.

"Damn, that was fun." Ethan chuckles as he flops back onto the couch.

"Yeah, wow I'm tired." I smile as I flop down next to Ethan.

"I'm gonna head to bed. I have part time early tomorrow at the clinic." Liam yawns, sleepily heading to his room.

"Okay. Good night Li." I say, and Ethan tiredly echoes me.

"We should probably head to bed too." I nudge my best friend.

"Mmm." He mumbles, sighing before lazily getting up and dragging himself to his room. I turn off the lights in the living room and kitchen before heading upstairs. Liam's already in bed, and Ethan's getting ready to sleep. I quickly change into pajamas, brush my teeth, have a really quick shower, before sliding under the covers and falling asleep.

-

-

I wake up to sunlight literally blinding me. Groggily, I sit up and look at the clock. Damn, it's already 10:30. I stretch, reluctantly sliding the covers off and exposing myself to the cold air. I trudge to the washroom and get ready for the day before heading downstairs. Liam's already left for his part time job, and I can hear Ethan playing some melody on his keyboard in his room. Eh, some orange juice and an apple should be sufficient until lunch.

I mentally go through my schedule, groaning when I realize I need to head into work and maybe see Michael again.

Checking my phone, I tap the counter in agitation when I see a text from my parents asking me how Stephanie and I are doing. They're a little too obsessed with my relationship. I text them a quick reply, saying we're fine, and busy with classes.

A few secondary school friends whom I knew but weren't extremely used to sent their greetings, and asked how university is going for me. I send them all replies that I'm doing well, and ask how their doing.

I really should be studying, but it's around lunch time and after that I need to head to the bakery. I decide to have a quick salad and sandwich while reviewing some of my course work on my laptop.

"Gonna head out Theo!" Ethan calls from the doorway.

"Okay! Bye!" I yell back. A few moments later I hear the door open and close.

Glancing at the clock, I realize I should get ready to leave for work. I turn off my laptop, clean up my dishes, get dressed, and start walking over to the cafe. It's starting to get colder. I'm going to have to buy winter boots soon if it snows.

I enter the cafe and greet my co-workers, going into the kitchen and starting to bake some bread, cakes, donuts, cookies, etc.

At 5, I look towards the door, but the entrance remains empty. I can't help but feel a little disappointed. Did it really only take that little conversation to scare him off?

At 5:23, the door opens and Michael steps in. He looks a little frazzled, like he ran here.

"H-hi." He's basically gasping for air.

"Hey. Something wrong? You look like you ran here." I raise an eyebrow.

"Uh, I did. I didn't want to be late. This is becoming like a routine now, haha..." He trails off awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. I let out a small chuckle.

"I didn't think you were coming, to be honest." I admit.

"Can you hurry up? I'm going to be late for something." A man dressed in a suit behind Michael snaps at us.

"Uh, sorry, one raisin bread, a caramel macchiato, and a ham and cheese sandwich." Michael blurts out quickly. I punch in his order and he stands to the side while the guy behind him gives me his order of a large black coffee... gross.

Michael waits until the guy leaves, since his order takes less time it's not a long wait. We make some small talk about the weather before he smiles at me and leaves.

I'm so glad he's still coming by.