Tyson POV

Alex had tried it again today. Talking to me, that was. She’d tried it numerous times the past couple of days, but I’d always ignored her. I had to admit: there was a part of me that wanted to know what she so desperately needed to say, but the other part of me didn’t even want to look at the girl.

It was too painful.

Every time she would play with the waves in her hair I thought about Devon running his hands through it; every time I gazed into her brown eyes I thought that the last person she saw before she went to sleep and the first one when she awoke was Devon; every time I looked at her small, parted lips I thought about Devon kissing them… I couldn’t get these images out of my head and there were so many more!

Not having Alex around didn’t help either: no matter where I was, no matter what I was doing, I just couldn’t stop thinking of her. I hoped time and distance would cure that.

I hoped and begged for it.

“Tyson, if you did not want to go, why did you ask her out?” A familiar voice queried.

I looked at its source and blinked. It was Angel. But why was he here in my house?

He let out a sigh and went on:

“Is this what you’ll be wearing on the date?” He queried, pointing at my old jeans and black shirt.

Date? Oh, yeah, it was Friday and we both had dates tonight. Mine was with Gloriana and I’d only asked her out because of… Alex. Just like last time I hoped that being with another girl would help me get Alexandra out of my head.

I was desperate for that.

“Yeah, that’s what I’ll be wearing,” I finally replied not having it in me to actually go change.

“Aren’t you going to shave?”

“Why should I?”

“You have a few days of stubble showing on your face.”

“So?”

“Well, it’s not your usual look.”

“I’m trying something new.”

That was a lie. I just couldn’t be bothered to shave. And what was the point anyway? Glory would probably be dtf if I had a beard to rival Santa’s and Alex…

“Devon has a beard and she likes him,” a voice in my head sneered.

“You know, I can always tell Glory that you are sick or something…”

“No, I am doing this,” I stated decidedly. I picked up my leather jacket from one of the chairs and headed for the door.

“Tyson, just look at yourself! You are not thinking straight,” my friend grabbed me by the arm and turned me around to face him. “You obviously don’t want to do this.”

I gazed into his worried blue eyes. He was right: I didn’t want to do this. But I had to.

“I’m getting over Alex, no matter what it takes.”

“So you are going out with the only girl from school that she hates?”

“Hate is a bit of a strong word.”

“But you chose Glory because Alex doesn’t like her?”

“Yeah, that’s why I chose her. Now let’s get going.”

I ripped my arm from his hand and exited the house. Angel reluctantly followed behind and I felt guilty: unlike me, he wanted his date and I was ruining his evening for him. I made a mental note to take the Witch… to take Gloriana away from my friend and the blonde chick he was meeting with tonight. Hopefully he’d have a good time then.

*****

“Why do dates always have to be in the mall?” I whined once we stepped on the escalator.

“They don’t, but while we were arranging to meet you said you didn’t give a damn where it was and the girls wanted the mall so here we are,” Angel explained in the same parental tone he used on his younger siblings.

“Angel!” We heard a loud squeal and a blonde girl bounced our way, not caring about the odd looks the nearby people gave her once she’d shouted.

“Hey, Bells,” my friend greeted her with a smile. “You look great!”

“Thanks!” She beamed, straightening her denim knee-length blue dress.

“Hey, Tyson,” someone purred next to my ear and wrapped their hands around my arm.

Unlike Bella’s choice of casual attire, Glory had gone for a tight, cleavage-revealing strapless top and the shortest skirt imaginable, combined with an expensive looking purse and matching shoes; even her nail polish was the color of her accessories.

“Hi,” I greeted curtly but then I remembered this was a date. “Just do as Angel does,” I mentally ordered and forcing myself to smirk at her, I went on: “You look hot.”

She smiled triumphantly and tightened her grip on me.

“So where exactly are we going?” Angel queried and immediately got a response from the blonde.

“There,” she pointed to one of the nearby cafés and putting her hand in his, she started dragging him in the direction she’s indicated. “It’s like new and has this theme, kind of you know, like fancy chairs and aristocracy stuff and Joey brought this girl here and she was like “oh, this place is awesome, you so have to go” and I was like “I so have to go”…”

Oh, God! Will she be talking like this all night?! I hoped they start making out soon so she’d keep quiet.

We entered the place and my first thought was “way too fancy”. There were heavily ornamented baroque style chairs and tables, thick and long curtains, huge vases and even mirrors. If this was a living room in someone’s mansion I’d approve of it, but in the small space of the mall café all this furniture did was to make the place stuffy and pretentious.

I was feeling out of place as we took our places around one of the tables. Bella sat down first, Angel took the chair to her right, Glory placed herself in front of him and I perched myself on the last available spot – next to my date and opposite the blonde girl. A waiter, not much older than us, immediately came.

“Welcome to ‘Baroque Chic’. May I take your orders?”

‘Baroque Chic’? What kind of lame name was that?

“I’ll have an Espresso Macchiato,” Glory was the first to place her order, not even bothering to look at the waiter.

“I want a Cappuccino… No! A Café Mocha,” Bella piped up.

“A Flat White, thank you,” Angel uttered blandly and then it was my turn.

“Erm… Coffee?”

The waiter boy raised an eyebrow at me.

What? They were the ones using fancy words I wasn’t sure I’d ever heard before and my order was unclear to him?

“No milk or sugar?” The boy queried but before I gave him my answer Angel butted in:

“He’ll have the same as me.”

The waiter nodded in his direction and with a polite “I’ll bring your orders swiftly,” left us on our own.

“Is Mocha your favorite?” My friend asked his date.

“Nah, I don’t really have a favorite, it’s like I order what I feel like drinking and that’s like my favorite at the moment, and then I feel like something else and then that’s like my favorite…”

“If she uses the word ‘like’ one more time my head will explode,” I thought, rubbing my temples. “And hasn’t this girl heard of a pause? It’s as if everything she says is one endless sentence.”

“You are getting a Bella headache, huh?” Glory purred quietly and leaned her body on mine. “I know how that feels. I swear this girl’s so annoying!”

“I thought you two were friends?” I pulled away a bit to take a better look at her face.

“But of course!” She said and gave me a smile but her eyes told me she didn’t harbor any warm feelings towards the blonde.

“If she doesn’t like her, why does she hang around her at school?” I wondered and right away Angel’s question boomed in my head: “Tyson, if you did not want to go, why did you ask her out?”

I knew the answer to that: to get over Alex. Or maybe to get back at Alex. Perhaps Glory had her own surreptitious motives for keeping Bella around.

“Here you go!”

I tilted my head to the owner of that voice and realized waiter boy was back. He placed a small porcelain cup in front of each of us and left. I looked at the piece of china before me: the handle was so tiny. How the hell did they expect a guy to wrap his fingers around it?

I gazed at Angel for support only to find out he had no problem drinking from that thing.

Oh, fuck him and his weeny fingers!

*****

Glory POV

An eternity later I concluded that this was one of the lamest dates ever and I no longer wanted to have a relationship with Tyson Williams. I was still dtf though. He might be boring as hell now but I was sure he’d be great in bed.

“Shame really!,” I thought. “We would’ve looked so good together.”

“How about we get some fresh air?” Tyson’s question was aimed at me only and caught me off guard. He wanted us to be alone?

Finally, he was showing some interest in me!

Perhaps this date would end up well after all…

*****

A/N: Consider the last part with Glory’s POV a sneak peek to the next chapter. Or maybe I should say “chapters” cause next time I’ll be uploading TWO. That’s right, people – TWO CHAPTERS next time:  one in “Here We Go Again” and the second in “Here We Go Again – Restricted”.

Don’t forget to comment and vote!

xo

CatMint5