The Trees and the Bramble

[Skraal]

Soren bit down on his lip as he thought of the quiet girl from the writing club. He’d been trying to work up the courage to ask her out for months now, but as of yet hadn’t been able to manage it. Unfortunately, it was looking more and more like he wasn’t going to get his chance before graduation.

He looked down at his plate, not really knowing what to say. He knew his friend wouldn’t have had that problem. He had met a few of Paris’ girlfriends over the years, and, as far as he knew, the guy definitely didn’t have any problems finding dates. He was good looking, charismatic, confident...in other words, the opposite of Soren in that regard.

Despite all that, it wasn’t that Soren was jealous of his friend, exactly. It was just that...well…

Okay, maybe he was a little jealous.

Regardless, he didn’t really feel comfortable talking about girls with Paris, mainly due to the fact that his lack of experience made the conversations more than a little one-sided. Beyond that, he was a little ashamed to admit the situation to his more socially-adept compadre, who would no doubt spring into offering him some possibly useful but nevertheless embarrassing advice.

Still, he couldn’t lie outright either. Even if he was comfortable with the idea in the first place, he knew Paris would see through his deception right away. Hopefully vagueness would save the day and allow him to get out of this with some measure of pride intact.

He let out a quick, “Um, maybe…” before pointing to his friend’s plate.

“So, how’s the...er...Mexican Surprise? It’s really spicy, huh?”

[Cicadan]

Paris had half cleaned his plate by that point, in sharp contrast to whatever was still on Soren's plate. "Yup. Ba-da-da-da-daaa, I'm loving it," Paris smirked to himself as he reiterated that old McDonald's commercial tune.

But Soren hadn't really given a particularly good answer. Paris didn't think it was so good. Didn't really say much or offer much in the way of juicy details, sort of like a badly penned song. Paris tisked and shook his head, 'humphing' a bit as he reflected for a moment on how silly his friend was being.

"Maybe what? I mean, I dunno a girl in the school named Maybe, that'd be a pretty weird name." Paris leaned his face forward, his elbows propping him up against the table. "You should be more specific. Like how Mr. Dolph teaches us, you know?" Soren was like this sometimes, Paris guessed. It was just that this time around Paris was really interested in a proper answer for a change, instead of something vague and uninteresting and unfun. Besides, it'd do Soren good to learn to be more decisive, Paris realized. To learn to be more courageous when it counted, especially when it was juicy sorts of info to be had.

Paris raised an eyebrow expectantly, wondering what was taking Soren so long.

[Skraal]

Shoot, maybe that wasn’t the best way to word things. Soren kicked himself internally as he realized his mistake. He should have just shrugged, or deflected the topic earlier, or anything other than say what he just said.

He poked at his plate, the seconds ticking down as Paris waited for him to answer. He was backed into a corner now. There was no way for him to get out of this.

Soren sighed as he opened his mouth to speak, butterflies filling his stomach. He didn’t want anyone else to hear, but it would be creepy just to whisper. What ended up coming out was a weak tone, halfway between normal conversation and whispering.

“Okay, okay… You know Yumi...Yumi Nunes? I, uh, think she’s in your English class…”

His ears burned as he watched Paris’ face and waited for his reaction. He knew the girl wasn’t exactly his friend’s type, but he still wasn’t sure how he would react. Hopefully they’d be able to move past the subject quickly.

Man, if it was so painful to say that he liked her to his best friend, how was he ever going to be able to actually tell her to her face? The thought made Soren wish the ground would open up right there and swallow him whole.

[Cicadan]

"Oh, yeah. Hey, cool." Paris smiled, nodding slightly.

Paris only vaguely recognized the name. Was she the one with the bangs to the forehead?

Anyways, he dismissed the thoughts of other people and got on with the rest of his day.

"So yeah, dude, good luck with that. Let me know if you need any help, maybe I could do something."

At some point he also remembered that they had to hash out the rest of the trip.

((Paris Ardennes continued in The Land of Shadow))