JUST PRESS SEND (On Hold)

TWENTY-TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

BRANDON HYNES

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After dinner, I took Tobias to the park to make up for missing the Valentine's Day event.

It was dark out and a bit chilly but that didn't stop us from walking hand and hand through the park. We weren't the only ones there either. There were a few people who sat on the benches together as they gazed at the stars under the lampposts and there were others, just like us, walking around chatting.

"So how is your first date going so far?" I asked.

He smiled, but he didn't look up at me. He kept his head down. "It's good. I'm still shocked that I'm even on a date."

"Why are you shocked?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. Boys typically don't like me; I guess."

"Or maybe they like you but don't know how to approach you." That got him to look at me. "That's how it was for me."

He was smiling again, but I barely got to see it because he had his head down. It was like he purposely tried to hide his face from me. "What do you even see in me?"

"Huh?"

"Like why me? Why ask me out?"

"Well because you caught my eye. You're cute."

"Cute?"

"Yeah, you're cute." His face scrunched up which made me chuckle. "What? You don't think you're cute or something?"

"Not really. Maybe now I'm cute but normally I'm not."

"Bro, you're crazy! You're one of the cutest boys I have ever met!"

That got him to smile really hard.

"Thank you...Same goes to you."

I swung our threaded hands to get Tobias to laugh, but he didn't. He smiled at me, though, but I could tell he had something else on his mind.

"Something the matter?"

"Are you enjoying this date? Be honest."

"Of course. Being with you, knowing that this is a date and not just two friends hanging out, makes me enjoy this so much more."

He exhaled. "I don't know. I feel like I'm not being a very good date. I'm sure you had better dates than this one."

"I only dated one other guy besides you."

"Oh." He cleared his throat. "I didn't expect that...Were you guys together long?"

"Three years. It was in high school."

"Oh, dang. Can't relate."

We shared a laugh. "I wish I was like you, though. I wish I never dated anyone because dating that guy was one of my biggest regrets. I don't know how I did it, but I did."

"Was he really that bad?"

"Yeah. I mean, don't get me wrong, we had some great memories but there were more bad than good. I didn't realize it at first, but the relationship was just toxic. He constantly made me feel bad about everything I did, so I was constantly apologizing for things I didn't even have to apologize for.
I couldn't hang out with Zach or any boy at that because it made him jealous. I didn't see any issue with it because I was so into him that I did anything to keep him happy so I attempted to cut Zach off but obviously, Zach wasn't having it.