When we were Wallflowers

Chapter 2: Double date

Red shirt or blue shirt? Maybe the black one? The red one hugged his body more which... he wasn't entirely comfortable with but he'd received quite a few compliments in it. The blue one was baggier and he was much more comfortable in it, but it was a slobby t-shirt made for a day of lounging around. The black one was nice but very formal looking.

Ugh. Why was he even thinking so hard about having dinner at a pizza place on the verge of shutting down? He didn't even know Finley well enough that he felt required to make some sort of effort to dress well for him. The only person who was going to be there was Ezra who had seen him in many of his worst moments, so he wasn't fussed about impressing him either. There was definitely something though, that was compelling Brent to put a little bit of care into tonight.

Perhaps it was the excitement on Finley's face when Brent had agreed to dinner.

He decided to go with the blue shirt, in the end, he just wasn't comfortable enough around Finley to dress with much extravagance.

"Brent!" His mom called from downstairs. "Ezra's here!"

Brent hurried downstairs, he didn't want to leave Ezra waiting after all.

"Sorry for the wait." Brent apologised.

"I arrived like two seconds ago, I've barely waited." How did he always do that? Ezra had an unconscious habit of always looking effortlessly perfect. From the natural ruffle of his blonde hair to the clothes he wears being simple, yet practically made to be worn by him, he was blessed by whatever god was out there.

Today, Ezra was wearing his black faded jeans with a white t-shirt and a camouflage jacket on top. He also had the fake army dog tags around his neck hanging from a chain.

Brent was sure that if he was to wear that very outfit that he would look like some military reject.

"Still, I am sorry for taking so long." Brent apologised once more. It was definitely a nervous habit that he had failed to shake off as he grew up, rather, he had come to apologise more the older he got. Of course, this was due to him growing to a stupid height and having ridiculously long limbs that he hardly knew what to do with half the time; he had bashed and hit people accidentally more times than he could remember, and thus an apology was always on the tip of his tongue.

"No harm done." Perhaps Ezra had realised after being friends with Brent for a couple years now that he may as well just accept Brent's apology as there was no way to convince him that he hadn't actually done anything wrong.

Ezra drove them to the pizzeria that Finley had agreed to meet them at. Something great must have happened to Ezra on Monday because he had been buzzing with energy since —though his mood had certainly dampened this evening. It took a lot of coaxing and patience before Ezra divulged any information about his home life.

"It was a fight with my dad, it's nothing new."

"Are you sure you're up for tonight?" Asked Brent. "We can head back to mine and I can tell Finley that I'm not feeling well or something."

"Nah, it's fine. If my dad wants to be a dick then he can be, but I'm not going to let it ruin my day."

"Why was he angry this time? If you don't mind me asking, that is." Did he sound too nosey?

"It was dumb." Ezra sighed. "I got lower in that math test than he had wanted, and he just fired off. I wasn't that surprised, he's been tense for a while, so no doubt he was waiting for a slip up from me as an excuse to vent."

Brent didn't really know how to respond, he still couldn't comprehend how somebody's own parent could treat them only as a punching bag and nothing else. He shouldn't have invited Ezra out to dinner without checking if he was okay first, could he be a worse friend.