Shining Star (BoyxBoy)

13

Tyler’s POV

Amy and I had gone to Rayden Mall for the day. We had planned to just chill and watch a movie or two.

It’s been 3 weeks since our ‘separation’ as a group. Amy and I were the only ones in the group that still hung out. After what happened in that car, nobody wanted to see anybody. Tris was heartbroken, so was Amy, and Pierce was pissed for some reason.

I just felt confused. Pierce admitted to liking me, but it doesn’t seem like he’s gonna do anything about it.

So, after the incident in the car, we ended the road trip abruptly. Everyone agreed to just…get some room to breathe. I couldn’t do that, because they were the only friends I had.

South Africa’s gonna be lonely, cause I honestly don’t know how to make friends. Am I gonna be that creepy kid that doesn’t talk to anybody? Or am I going to be that kid that just…isn’t visible to anyone.

Rayden Mall was the city’s biggest mall. The front of the mall had a network of roads that led to different parking spots and different entrances. The main entrance had ‘Rayden Mall’ written in a very fancy cursive.  The main entrance also overlooked a more rural part of the city. Well…it wasn’t exactly rural; it just had more vegetation than the rest of the city, with the green of the tall trees accentuating the country-side feel of the view. There were very few buildings as well.

A beautiful view deserved a beautiful picture. I got out my phone, and opened Instagram. I opened the camera to add to my story. Positioning the camera, I made sure to get as much of nature as possible without getting any ‘civilization’ in the photo. I snapped the shot, and posted it the way it was. No filter and no caption. I find that posting pictures like that with no captions or filters is artistic. TAKE THAT ART.

As we walked into the mall, we decided on grabbing a quick bite to eat before actually going around and shopping, and watching a movies. Or maybe we should do that the other way around.

McDonald’s was the obvious choice. I get that a lot of people don’t like McDonald’s (probably because it has the name Donald…Donald Trump) but I fucking love it. It’s some of the best food, and it has the best fries. If you don’t agree with me, let’s fight.

Yeah, some people may think that the bun in the middle of the Big Mac is unnecessary and very weird, but I like it. More carbs to go around. I love carbs.

Amy and I collected our food, and went to go sit down by one of the tables. We sat at a table for two.

Amy had ordered a Double Quarter Pounder, large meal, and I had ordered a McRoyale.

“Jeez, what’s got you in that mood?” I asked, motioning towards her food. She looked down slowly, and looked back up at me with a deadly glare.

I raised my hands defensively, with two fries in my mouth, and mumbled some nonsense. She laughed, and said, “It’s just this thing with Tris and Pierce. It’s been three weeks. You’d think they’d be tired of all the space they’re getting.”

I laughed, and nodded in agreement, swallowing the fries I had in my mouth, “Honestly, I don’t know what to do. I just don’t like this situation at all. Pierce is an asshole…but a hot asshole.”

“Dude, you really need to figure your life out. You clearly like Pierce. I’ve always suspected it, but have never actually confronted you about it,” she said, taking some fries into her mouth.

“I really like him. I just don’t know how to tell him what I want him to do. I wanna date him, and I want us to be boyfriends, but I overthink. What if I tell him and he doesn’t feel the same anymore? Or what if I tell him and scare him away? Or come off as pushy?”

Amy giggled, and said, “You’re overthinking things. Just do it already. We passed high school. All of your anxiety and stressed should have disappeared.

“Whatever. What about Tris? Why don’t you give him a chance?” I asked. Amy shrugged.

“I don’t know honestly. I want to, but what if he’s attracted exclusively to Pierce. It just kinda feels like he won’t like me if I give him a chance,” she said, looking down at her food, then taking a sip of her drink.

“You know, there’s only one way to find out whether he’ll like you or not. Give him a fucking chance. I’m on team Tris!” I screamed so loud that some people started to look at me.

“Whatever man. Shut up and eat your food,” she said, and that’s what we did, until we finished eating. We stood up and threw our rubbish away.

Amy and I decided not to watch any movies. They were all trash anyway. I mean, the Lion King looked good, but it just isn’t the kind of movie that I’d spend an obscene amount of snacks on.

As we were walking inside of H & M, we ran into Alex, and old friend of mine.  

“ALEXX!” I screamed, surprising Amy. She put her hand of her chest as she saw my arms going up.

“TY!!” he screamed. We didn’t hug though. He’s straight (though I have my suspicions) and straight guys don’t like to affectionately hug other guys.

Alex is a really nice guy though, and he’s the best. We were friends in high school (which ended like…a few weeks ago, so what am I even saying?) and I haven’t seen him since graduation.

I won’t lie; Alex is a very attractive person. He always kept his dark hair short (which always baffled me), he had a good advantage in height, and had a nice build. He also had a very pretty smile, and nice eyes.

“Where have you been? Why haven’t you called me?” he asked, puzzled. I usually am the one to call my friends. Yeah, phones for Gen Z are just for texting, but for me, talking to someone is the most authentic type of communication.

“Yeah, I’ve just been busy, and the group sort of had a falling out,” I said, scratching the back of my neck nervously.

I won’t lie, the falling out made me sad. I had hoped that we could resolve our problems sooner, and that we didn’t have to be so mad at each other. Amy also complicated some things by not wanting to date Tris, and I kinda might have made it worse by not voicing my feelings towards Pierce.

“That’s bad,” he said, as if he had just crawled out of his mother’s womb. I giggled at the baby-ish way he responded.

“Oh Alex,” said Amy, beside me.

“So, wanna meet and just chill? Amy you could come too,” he asked.

“Yeah,” Amy and I responded simultaneously, then looked at each other, surprised that we had said the same thing.

“Cool, we’ll meet at Dinner on Monday,” he said, smiling.

“Sorry, but, dinner is reserved. I usually have that with my family,” said Amy, who sounded a bit disappointed.

“No, not dinner. Dinner. You know, the new diner that just opened at the back of the mall. At two,” he said, clearing the confusion, “The diner got the idea from the Amazing World of Gumball. It pretty dumb to name a restaurant something on a cartoon. The food is really good though.”

Amy and I nodded our heads, not really caring about the extra information that he had given us. “Okay, who did you come here with anyway? It’s a pretty big mall to be here all alone,” asked Amy.

“Oh, I’m with Aaron,” he replied, smiling. One thing that I had noticed about Alex was that he looked a lot like his father, but more…attractive. How do I know this you ask? His father taught us Creative Writing.

“Okay, it’s official, you two are dating!” shouted Amy, raising her hands above her head.  Aaron and Alex were always together, and every time the bell at school rang to go home, they were always together.

“We are not!” he said, smiling, then laughing.

Yeah, they’re definitely dating. We waved goodbye, and turned and walked out of the store, continuing our little adventure…