Hah, the duo in the previous chapter made the mistake of being douches.
Hmmm, mistakes…let’s see~
Nothing immediately comes to mind :/
Guess I’ll come back to this in an hour.
*thirty seconds pass*
That was sooner than I expected…
…
Waiting at the corner of the hallway Rio always traveled through to reach her third class, Braeden nervously shook.
Well, not visibly. Only his legs shook, but his baggy jeans covered that up pretty well.
“Calm down; you’ve rehearsed the lines over three-hundred times. You can do this.” He tried comforting himself, to no avail. Really, when did self-comforting ever work?
Click, clack, click, clack…
“Those are her heels! She’s almost here! Three, two, one…”
“Ah, hey Braeden.” Rio appeared around the corner, sunlight catching her face at just the right angle and making her smile more dazzling. “Lately, it’s been too hot to hang out outside, don’t ya think?”
Making Braeden’s plans easier, Rio even brought up exactly what he needed! The only step left now was…
“Oh, yeah, you’re right. I usually can’t be bothered to wear sunscreen, but the weather has made me think of reconsidering…” He managed to get out.
“Damn it! What am I doing?! Just ask her to the restaurant!” Braeden raged inwardly.
“Really? Even the blockhead Braeden might finally take my advice to protect himself from skin cancer?” Rio giggled, filling Braeden with butterflies.
“Well, when you put it like that, I don’t want to lose my honored status as ‘blockhead’ and will not be wearing sunscreen!” Braeden joked back.
Again, the boy managed to avoid bringing up the restaurant in fear of embarrassment. In fact, his legs were shaking harder than ever before!
“Anyway, we gotta hurry. Bell’s about to ring. See ya at lunch!” Waving goodbye, Rio gracefully strolled away.
“You idiot! I can’t ask her at lunch because we have mutual friends there! I’ll have to hope that I catch her alone after school…”
Rightfully beating himself up, Braeden glumly trudged to his third class. He’d practiced the lines so many times, even rehearsing them in the mirror, but couldn’t muster the necessary courage.
“Well, even if she went to the restaurant with me, who’s to say that she’d agree to date? What if she feels pressured by the atmosphere and says she’s not ready for that? Or worse…that she doesn’t feel the same.”
But alas, Braeden only succeeded in further fooling himself with his doubts. What would ever get done if anyone only worried about the consequences of their actions?! One must take risks to reap rewards!
Yet, Braeden knew none of that, and went about his day as normal.
When classes finally ended, the boy ran with all his might, ignoring fellow students and angry teachers alike as he bolted, on his way to Rio. He could still catch her alone on her way home!
However, when he saw her leave the school, it was with a guy he didn’t know…a tall and handsome guy that he didn’t know. At first, Braeden told himself that the guy must have been a friend of Rio whom he never met…until he asked Rio out.
Braeden was in such a position next to a tree that he could see and hear them, but Rio had no idea he was there…or that his heart broke at her response.
He left the new couple, taking a different path home so as to avoid Rio. His heart couldn’t take another glance at her beautiful face.
“Rio…” He mumbled, a tear forming in his eye.
“Rio?” A voice somewhere to his left responded. “Rio Schultheis? Did something happen with her? Judging by the tear, there’s drama to be had! Spill it! She’s too squeaky clean to have drama!”
Braeden turned around, wiping the tear and feeling that he had nothing to hide anymore. “My best friend; she just accepted somebody’s confession outside the school, just when I planned on asking her out.”
The girl tilted her head in a questioning manner. “Best friend? Are you Braeden?”
“Yeah. How’d you know?”
As the realization dawned on the girl, her eyes went wide. “You, you’re the… Wow, you must have stood her up for a long time for her to go out with someone else, because I specifically remember her saying she was waiting for a ‘Braeden’ to ask her out.”
