Violet Nights

Chapter 45

Sunday,8:30am--

Keith was late to wake up that morning (than he usually was. Not many people like to wake up at 8:30 on a Sunday unless they went to church.)

His first thought was to check his phone, but then he remembered his conversation from the previous night and left it alone for now. He needed some time to think long and hard about the whole ordeal. Did it really happen? It might've been cliche to assume that it was a dream, but it was evident by the hour or two long phone call in his call history that it was, in fact, true. For once, he was actually feeling happy in the morning and not dreadful with that lingering feeling that he would have to suffer through driving to school and wasted 8 hours of his day being ignored pushed around mentally by other people and their 50-foot wall of judgement around them.

After taking the time to get a shower and put some clothes on, Keith carried his phone into the bathroom with him while he blowdried his hair in the mirror. His eyes still held some dark bags under them-- not like there was anything he could really do about it without coated them in makeup, which he didn't want to do. Today seemed very lazy so far for him, even though it was a Sunday and he would be right back in his normal schedule the next day. He didn't know why, but it seemed very odd this morning; the vibe was very quiet and almost seemed awkward, almost like something huge was about to change in his life-- something already had.

He looked down at his phone screen to see a text from Lance from the previous night. It was just him saying goodnight after their phone call had ended. To be honest, he barely remembered what had happened before they went to sleep. All he remembered were the detailed bits.

And right after that text message was another one from this morning around 8:00.

[Hey man, there's an arcade downtown that my siblings and i used to go to as kids and well, I was wondering if maybe you'd want to stop by this afternoon some time. Just us. Let's call it a date :) What do you say?]

Keith couldn't seem to read that message properly to himself. He went back over it twenty times just to make sure he wasn't mistaken. In those twenty times, he could not comprehend it; his mind wouldn't allow him to. But it was that 21st time he read it that he finally realized what was happening. Once that realization set in in his mind for a good 5 minutes or so, he began to feel oddly hot and shaky. He'd never been asked on a date before-- not even by his asshole of an ex boyfriend-- not once in the 18 years he'd been alive. But now, he was being asked out on a date by one of the cutest men he'd ever seen in his life, someone that was once his rival. People change. He was just now beginning to learn that. It was time he changed too for the better. He needed to stop being so insecure and shut himself away from the world. He would say yes to this date and go into it with full confidence of success-- if only that wasn't easier said than done.

Keith was panicking trying to decide on what to reply to Lance with. Maybe he should just give him a call-- No...no. He would be a stuttering mess if he did. He would just text him back a short, sweet message and tell him yes. Simple.

[I'd love to :)]

That wasn't too bad, was it? Keith thought, actually kind of proud of himself for being so brave-- brave in a fake way, but still the same thing. What kind of things do people even wear to dates? They get all fancy, right? No, wait...he said this was an arcade.

Once his hair was dry, the boy walked into his closet to search for some clothes. They couldn't be too casual or too fancy. Maybe somewhere in between-- just a cute outfit in general.

He came out with a black crop top on under his typical leather jacket he wore a lot. Around his neck was the same black velvet-band choker and he wore ripped black skinny jeans with a pair of red converse sneakers. His hair was pulled up into a high ponytail with a scarlet hair tie and around his wrist were two more hair ties and a bracelet with a symbol on it.