Blocked Away | A TMF Fan-Fiction

Chapter Twelve

Zander's P.O.V.

Zander continued to walk away from the leaf pile, until he realized Luke wasn't following him. He turned around to see Luke still sitting in the leaves, with a look of both confusement and sorrow on his face.

"Luke. Are you coming?"

"Uh, yeah," Luke responded, slowly getting up from the pile, seeming to be partially in place of his own. He got himself up soon enough though, and followed Zander back to the table.

They were both seated on opposite ends of the table like before, and sipped their coffee in awkward silence. Zander felt a tinge of guilt, worried he had somehow offended Luke by quickly leaving the pile. It wasn't like they were actually doing anything, but Zander had still seemed to have cut off what was a sweet moment between the two.

"Hey, uh, sorry about quickly getting up, and yeah..." Zander mumbled, reluctantly apologizing.

"Oh no, you're fine. It's just, uh, yeah..." Luke said, also slightly mumbling.

Neither of them had actually and properly said anything in their statements. Tagging the word "yeah" at the end of their sentences seemed to just be their way of implying what they didn't even know they were trying to say.

Despite his small apology, Zander still felt at fault for the awkward silence between him and Luke, and decided it was up to him to try to pick up the conversation. He just tried to think of something, any good topic of conversation, to discuss. He briefly thought about bringing up the band competition, but knew that would probably just lead to meaningless small talk, of them saying things like, "Let's hope it all works out!" Why is it so hard to think of just one thing to talk about? Zander thought to himself. We usually have no problem with stuff like this, so why is it so difficult right now? A couple more ideas popped into Zander's head, but all of them were bad. That was until one thing came to mind. It wasn't amazing, but it was the best idea he had had yet. Stacy.

"So, uh...Stacy?" Zander awkwardly spat out. Luke had been staring down into his drink up until now, but his head popped up.

"Huh?"

"The girl you like?"

"Oh. Yeah..." Luke went back to looking down into his cup of coffee. Zander wasn't enjoying whatever this was, so he decided to just directly address the topic.

"Why are you so..." Zander started asking Luke. He was trying to think of the right word he wanted to use, "down?" Yeah, that wasn't the best word to describe the vibe Luke was radiating, but a better word didn't come to Zander's head in time.

"Uh...just general love stuff getting me down."

For some reason Zander hadn't fully made the connection that Luke didn't just like Stacy, but was actually in love with her. The more he thought about it, he was pretty sure he could remember Luke saying something about love directly, but that seemed to go over his head. Zander was mostly surprised how all of this had happened without him knowing anything about it until yesterday.

"You know, it wouldn't hurt to tell her how you feel," Zander suggested, trying to give advice to his mopey friend.

Luke just chuckled with a melancholy tone in response to Zander's suggestion. But a small smile then spread across his face, and his mood seemed to lift up a bit. He looked up at Zander, "Is that what you would do if you were me? If you were me, you would tell the person you love how you really feel?"

"Yeah. Probably," Zander responded.

Luke gave an even warmer smile toward Zander. Luke still had a solemn vibe, but he seemed happier now. Zander looked at Luke for a bit, before realizing that Luke was staring at him. Except it didn't really feel like staring. It was more like a gaze. Luke's expression then changed. He was no longer looking at Zander, and instead looked like he was maybe considering something. Zander's best guess was that he was considering something along the lines of what to do about Stacy. Zander saw a little blush spread across Luke's face. Yeah, he's definitely thinking about Stacy... Zander was waiting for Luke to say something, but it had been at least thirty seconds since either of them had said anything, so Zander decided to tag something along to his original comment.

"Hey, Zander. I-"

"I mean, I'd probably say something. I wouldn't live by my advice though. It's not like I've ever been in love before." Zander just realized he had cut off Luke from talking. His brain had already told him to start talking before he heard Luke. "I'm sorry, Luke. I cut you off. What were you going to say?"

Luke's expression resumed the sad one it had before, "Nothing." With the way Luke had spoken, it didn't feel like it was going to be nothing, but Zander didn't see any use poking at the topic.

Crap. Now it's an even more depressing feeling than before. Luke then sighed, and Zander wasn't one hundred percent why he went to do this, but he spontaneously went and flicked Luke's forehead.

"Ow," Luke somewhat quietly exclaimed, "What the heck?" Luke didn't speak in a tone of anger, but more so just in genuine confusement.

"We came here to have fun, and for some reason, you're now being all mopey," Zander paused a bit, realizing this wasn't entirely Luke's fault, "That's probably partially on me for bringing up the girl you like, but come on."

Luke's face brightened a little, "You're right. We came here to have fun."

Things lightened up after that. There was no more awkward silence, or depressing feelings in the air. They just had fun. Normal things like general chit-chat, and talking. Luke had said something funny, and now the both of them were laughing.

While Zander was laughing, he decided to bring up another topic, "Oh yeah," he continued to chuckle, "What even was that before with the whole brother thing earlier?"

"Oh, I don't know," Luke laughed, "I just panicked, and was being weird. I'm not a great socializer."

Okay. That's just a straight up lie. Zander thought to himself. It was true that Luke could definitely be shy at times, and he didn't go seeking out groups of people to talk with, but he was great at talking with others. He was charming, and could even be considered popular. Before Jake joined, he was definitely the most popular member in the club. Zander was enjoying himself though, so he decided not to pry at the statement.

Zander then picked up his phone to quickly check the time, "Crap. It's almost 4:30. We should really get going. We do still have that math homework." Zander started to get up from his seat, but Luke grabbed his hand, which startled Zander a little. Usually whenever Luke tried to get Zander's attention, he would grab at his wrist. Not his hand. It felt like this may have been startling Zander a little more than it should have. He almost felt a tad frazzled.

"It's been a bit since we did something like this," Luke said, "We should do it again soon. Maybe Saturday?" As Luke finished his statement, he let go of Zander's hand.

"Sure," Zander agreed, "What about eleven? A.m., not p.m."

"On Saturday, right?"

"Yeah," Zander confirmed.

"Cool! I'll look forward to it." Luke then also got up from his seat, "Bye, Zander."

"Bye, Luke."

Luke and Zander's paths home were different from the coffee shop, so they walked off in opposite directions. But as Zander walked away, he couldn't help but be left with a lingering feeling.

Author's Note: Thank you for reading chapter twelve of Blocked Away!  Well this chapter was a lot shorter that the last one.  Sorry about that (side note, I was lazy and did not proof read or edit this chapter, so sorry about any mistake there are).  On another note, a planned a lot more of the, and right now Blocked Away is projected to have eighteen chapters, plus an Epilogue, although that number could change a little if I feel one chapter is too long and needs to be split in half, or two chapters are too short and I combine them.  I won't say too much more though, because I don't wanna spoil anything (all I'll say is get ready for some emotion near the end).  Well, as usual, thank you so much for reading, and I hope you enjoyed!