1:23 AM Tuesday, 25th October 2011
Nate was alone, standing on the footpath outside of his apartment building, confused and unsure of himself or of the future.
He slowly walked up the three flights of stairs. His confusion was mostly caused by feelings he had never felt before and didn’t know the right names of. Not knowing what to call these strange new feelings was bothering him far more at the moment, than what these feeling might mean.
Deep down in the being he was sure he had made the biggest fool of himself, and screwed up his one and only chance of true happiness. The perfectly messed up ending to a truly crappy day.
Falling out of bed, orange juice on the cereal, coffee in the office shirt, black out, cancer, and now this, the date from hell.
Maybe he would be in luck, maybe Glen would be asleep and he could just sneak in and…
“Nate! Your back!” Glen chirped.
Nate shrugged and slumped down in the couch, there was no way he was getting out of this.
“So… how did the date go?”
“Worst date ever.” Nate mumbled.
Glen frowned. “Oh really? I’ve told you about that guy whose aunt pulled a knife on me?”
Nate nodded. “Okay, maybe not ever. But MY worst date.”
“Nate, don’t take this the wrong way, but you haven’t got a clue what your talking about. Tell me everything.”
The last thing Nate wanted to do.
“Besides,” continued Glen, “I did lend you my ‘lucky’ shirt.”
Nate nodded.
“Well… it all started with your so called lucky shirt didn’t it.”
Glen frowned and raised one eyebrow.
“We meet at the coffee shop. Turns out his name isn’t Brian. So I made a fool out of myself there.”
Glen interrupted. “So what is his name?”
“Er, Lex. Anyway, so I kept getting his name wrong, after about the tenth time he corrected me. So embarrassing. But then he said he didn’t like my shirt. He said something about ‘liking what I had been wearing earlier’.”
Glen smirked. “When you where shirtless?”
Nate frowned. “Oh… that makes a lot more sense.”
Glen shock his head and got up and went into the kitchen and turned on the kettle. “So then what happened?” He shouted out.
“Well. We ordered coffee. He ordered decaf with soy.”
Glen stuck his head out of the kitchen. “Doesn’t mean he’s a stinky hippy.”
Nate nodded and went into the kitchen so he could continue this conversation without having to shout. “Yeah. Well, turns out he’s lactose intolerant. And the waiter got the order wrong. He downed half his coffee before he noticed it was milk and then he ran to the bathroom. I was left sitting there for 25 minutes waiting for him to return.”
Glen made two large mugs of black tee, one in his bright blue mug, the other in Nate’s pink mug. “Sounds like Lex might have had a crap date too then.”
Nate sipped his tea. “That’s the point. The first time we meet and he gets sick. Why would he come back for more?”
Glen lead the way back to the lounge room. “So… this was at what 8? 8:30? Its now 1:30. What have you been up to for the last five hours? Just moping around and feeling sorry for yourself?”
Nate shock his head. “No, Lex walked me to the front door. We’ve been talking and had more coffee and food and walked around a lot.”
“I’ve had relationships that didn’t last that long.”
Nate sipped at his tea slowly.
“So what else did you do wrong?”
Nate frowned. “Criticised his religion, and a few of his other stupid beliefs, his politics, you know… all the subjects to avoid.”
“But he kept talking to you?”
“Well… yeah.”
“And he walked you home?”
Nate nodded.
“The there is only one question that really matters.”
Nate frowned, a little worried about what this question could be.
Glen smiled. “Was the kiss any good?”
Nate blushed deeply at this and just nodded.
Glen smiled more. “Going to see him again?”
Nate shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Glen smirked, a strange little smirk that made him look more like an elf. “Can I have his number then?”
This caught Nate by surprise. “What, no way. No.” He almost yelled. The conviction in his voice surprised himself.
Glen nodded and got up. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. ‘Worst date ever’ my arse! I’m going to bed.” And with that Glen headed off to his room.
Nate sat on the couch and finished his tea. He was still confused.
Nothing had gone right today. He was sure as he sat there in the darkened room and tallied up all the things that had happened.
Fear and anxiety kept rattling around in his head, but so did these new feeling. He still wasn’t sure what they were called. But he had narrowed it down to two labels. It was either love or lust. That just confused him more.
He got up, put his empty tea mug in the sink and fell into his unmade bed.
It had been a bad day. One of the worst. He was sure. Hadn’t it?
Part of my creative writing class. Weekly Assignment 7.