Before It Dies | Tratie

x. from mosses to golds

Before I get into this chapter, I want to make it perfectly clear that Miranda's actions are completely, completely justified. She was worried about her sister, who has been making out with a guy for years but still haven't dated. She doesn't know whether or not he loves her and she's afraid that Katie's heart is going to be broken. If my best friend was in such a scenario, I would do the same thing. 

     This was happening.

     Gods I kinda want to crawl in a hole and die because of even admitting it. 

     I, Travis Stoll, am afraid to ask a girl out.

     Here's the thing. I have been on dates before with pretty girls with pretty hair and pretty eyes and girls who are nearly comparable to her. I'm not an insecure person when it comes to my love life. I'm technically an adult. It shouldn't scare me!

     I washed my face maybe seven times this morning because the notion of asking Katie Gardner on a real date, with a restaurant in Manhattan and everything, is pretty terrifying, despite how terrifying it should be. 

     It was so easy the first time with the fireworks, though that didn't go so well. Nothing was between us. There were no worries. There wasn't a daughter of the goddess who was never supposed to have children without Zeus triggering all the guilt I had locked up, nor was there the fact that I had opened up about a part of me I wanted to hide.

     I found her in coming back from the strawberry fields, looking straight forwards, not even a glance towards me. 

     "Katie-Kat!" I called out, trying to regain the confidence I had a week ago. 

     It was funny because I swear she had a moment of contemplation before looking at me. "Hi, Travis."

     No flush, no eye-roll, nothing. Was something off here or was I imagining things? 

     She was the type of person to let out an exasperated sigh, to get more and more an exasperated every time she saw me, or at least a reaction that wasn't so...normal. Katie reacted like a regular person and that was the strangest part when in most cases, she would be way too warped up in annoyance.

     What the hell was I supposed to say now? Usually, she set me up for a bucket of teasing but now, she was just...normal. 

     "Hey, you gonna say anything?"

     "What do you expect me to say?" she asked, serious. Katie was supposed to be louder, more unnerving. Right now, however, she was cold. 

     Cold.

     In a way that made me quite uncomfortable.

     "I don't know, like a sarcastic remark or yelling at me for being an ass, immature, and I don't know,—"

     "Travis, you are an immature ass," she replied.

     I blinked a couple of times, shocked. I thought that she was cold before, but now she was nearly cruel. It was so unlike her to be like that. What had I done? Did I do something?

     Rather the real question was, what had caused her to take this out on me? Though towards me she was quite open about her so-called "hate", I never thought she actually meant it. Katie wasn't someone who was naturally harsh, who said comments like that with such ease. She was kind!

     "Are you feeling ok?"

     "Why wouldn't I be?"

     Knowing very well that I could very possibly be setting her up for another cold comment, I chose wisely to keep my mouth shut.