Page 21 of Meet Cute

“Me neither. So you… you’re like… hah… it’s stupid. You’re special to me. I-I know we’ve only known each other for like… two weeks, but… my life is a lot b-brighter with you in it.”

He’s right, and that’s nearly unfathomable to me. Someone I’ve only just started to know seems to understand me better than people I spent every waking hour with. How does that work? How is it fair, either?

Why did I have to spend so much time suffering and masking only to finally meet someone who gets it when I’m on the verge of giving up entirely? I want to see how this ends, but I don’t know if I have the energy to do so.

I don’t know if I have the energy to do anything anymore. Being with Finn is refreshing in a way I never thought possible, but it’s not a magical cure that fixes my fucked up life. Some geeky little cashier isn’t going to save me. Nobody is going to save me.

Not even myself.

“I’ve always wanted… to have a friend like this,” Finn continues while angling himself to wrap an arm around me. It’s not nearly as suffocating as I always imagined it would be. “Someone special. S-Someone… like you. Er, I don’t know. Maybe that’s c-cheesy, sorry. I just… I-I really…” His breathing hastens, becoming uneven and panicked. “I really—”

“Hey.” My soft voice sounds unfamiliar leaving my lips. When was the last time I spoke to anyone about things like this? I never had any reason to be gentle. It was always screaming and arguing at my house. “It’s fine. It was sweet, Finn. Thank you.”

Without so much as a peep he pulls me into a tighter—but still not suffocating—hug. “You’re so amazing, Duncan.”

“I’m really not.”

“To me, you are.”

It’s so strangely reassuring that I let my eyes fall shut. Finn is warm and I’ve been tired since I woke up. We don’t have to talk. We don’t need words. Just being in his embrace is enough for now. Whatever this is, we can talk about it in the morning.

SIXTEEN

“No, no, no…” Finn’s distraught voice pulls me out of the wonderful beach dream I was having. My body feels extra light, and if it wasn’t for the rustling of whatever the hell he’s doing I’d probably already have fallen back asleep. “Crap…”

“Finn.” My voice is hoarse but not unkind. “What are you doing?”

The black blob that makes up my friend stills in the darkness. “It’s… I have work. I’m going to be late. God…” Even without seeing him it’s obvious that he’s two seconds away from ripping his hair out. “I-I had a really nice time last night, but I shouldn’t… Ugh… I don’t even have any fresh clothes. I s-sweat all through this shirt. My boss is gonna think I’m disgusting…!”

“Don’t panic. You can borrow something of mine.” The little switch on my lamp clicks before the room is bathed in a pale yellow. “Sit down, and I’ll go grab you a shirt from my bedroom. You guys have spare shirts there, right?”

Finn sniffles, and only now that the room is lit up do I realize he was crying. “Y-Yeah… Thank you, Duncan.”

“It’s the least I can do after falling asleep on you.” Leaving it at that, I slip into my room. Chalupa is sleeping on the corner of the bed, or at least he was sleeping until the door clicks and he slowly opens his eyes to glare at me. “Yeah, hi to you too.”

Making haste to my closet, I rummage through my stuff until I find the perfect thing: my oversized college sweatshirt. It’s a horrible shade of blue with the emblem of a school I went to for approximately five months before dropping out.

God, I really forgot how pathetic my life has been up until this point. With a frown on my face I snatch the sweatshirt and return back to the living room, only to find Finn sitting with his knees up on the couch and his body slumped across the arm.

Poor guy is so sleepy, and I really hate the fact that I have to wake him up. “Hey,” I gently nudge him, “Finn. You gotta get up.”

He groans so softly, hazel eyes fluttering open to find my face. “S-Sorry… I… I didn’t really sleep that much. I was nervous, with you on top of me…”

“Sorry,” I frown. Am I really that damn selfish? “I got you this sweatshirt. You were worried about what your boss would say, right?”

Nodding, Finn takes it and weakly smiles. “Thank you. I… Now I feel extra bad. I’ll take good care of it, okay?”

“Don’t even worry about it.” I say while standing up straight, stretching my tired limbs. “It usually sits in the back of my closet anyway.”

Without speaking, he shoots off the couch and pulls me into a tight hug. “Thank you, Duncan. Thank you so much! I’m gonna get going now… I-I think I’ll just barely make it.”

I want to tell him to have a good day, but that feels weird for some reason. The words sit on my tongue while he slips on his shoes, waves at me, and then disappears out the front door. It takes a minute, but Chalupa meows his way into the living room once he realizes that he’s gone.

“Hey,” I say as though the cat gives a fuck. It feels so much emptier without him, like a light has been turned off that I can’t reach all on my own. How did I become so dependent on other people to be happy?

Oh crap. Did I ever respond to Haley?

im sorry. ive been busy. I started hanging out more with gas station guy