Realistic or Modern ｏｎｅ ｘ ｏｎｅ － ｔｅｅｎ ｒｏｌｅｐｌａｙ

[esor]

Sky smiled at his reply then sipped her drink before answering. "I try to put off going home for as long as possible, plus it's nice here. Usually empty, don't have many shirtless teenage guys here." She teased, sipping her drink again. Despite her acting nonchalant about the shirtless thing, as though it didn't bother her, she could not get the image out of her head. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, of course. It was a nice image, just seemed inappropriate for her to be thinking about him like that now.

 

[pudgefudges]

Yeah I can see why you'd want to put off going home, he thought, suddenly having flashbacks of what happened a few months ago. It put a bad taste in his mouth, but the past was in the past and he had to focus on working. "Well I guess you'll have to get used to it." He said, chuckling. He looked at what she was drinking, "any left for me? I gotta stay up late tonight." He asked, motioning towards her coffee.

 

[esor]

Sky nodded, placing her coffee down on the counter. "I'll go make you one now." She said with a smile before going to the backroom, she made him a coffee the way he likes and brought it out a few minutes later. Walking over, she handed it to him. "If you want another feel free to go into the back and make yourself one. I'm not your slave." She joked, waiting for him to sip it so he could tell her it was an alright coffee.

 

[pudgefudges]

( Wanna skip forward a few weeks? Unless you had something in mind )

Zim nodded to her as a thank you and brought the cup to his lips. Taking a sip, his eyes lit up, "Ahh you remembered how I like it." He spoke, grateful that it gave him the memory of the life they shared a few months back. He blushed a bit, and tried to reel his emotions back in. Grabbing his tools and coat, he gave her a nod "thanks again, i'll see you tomorrow." Zim raised his cup to her and walked out the door.

 

[esor]

(Yeah sure!)

Sky waved to him as he left, a little sad that he was leaving for the day.

____


A few weeks went by and Sky was used to seeing Zim almost every day, to the point where she looked forward to it. It was odd, and although she felt bad she was loosing interest in Max more and more but he still dropped by and the went for coffee together sometimes. But she was always clear to him that she wasn't certain about a relationship, and she didn't know how things would go, but he was supportive of that. It was another day after school and Sky was sat at the counter, fixing up a damaged book whilst business was a little slow.

 

[pudgefudges]

Zim was in the bookstore everyday, he hands were working on the ceiling but his mind was almost always on Skylar. He liked talking to her during her shifts and discussing funny topics or things that happened at school, it felt very surface level. He would act like he didn't see when Max would come in to take Skylar out to coffee, but he noticed that they were seeing each other less and less which made Zim happy.

Zim walked into the bookstore, knowing that he was almost finished which meant that his time with Skylar was almost finished. For the past few days he'd been trying to think of different ways he could see her. Maybe her parents needed help on their house? No, wait, they hated him. Feeling out of ideas he just decided to go up to Skylar and see how her day was. "Well hello again, long time no see." He said, cheekily.

 

[esor]

"Oh yeah it's been lots of minutes since that hour ago when I got you a glass of water." She grinned. "Such a long time. Need something?" She asked, looking up at him and resting her head on her hand. She was actually dreading the time he'd finish the work, she even contemplated breaking something just so he could fix it and stay longer. But she knew it would be selfish, there's no way he enjoys spending time here with me, he probably secretly still hates me.

 

[pudgefudges]

He chuckled at her answer before placing both hands on the counter and putting his weight back a little. Before he knew what was happening he start spewing out words, "yeah um.. would you like to-" But he trailed off, fearful of her rejection. "Um I mean i'm almost finished here, so the bookstore will go back to being it's quiet self." He spoke, trying to make a joke out of it. In that moment he just wanted to spew out all of his plans he's been making and hopes and dreams but in a way, Skylar seemed so far from him. Like she had started another life that he felt he couldn't intrude.

 

[esor]

Sky physically felt her hopes get up as he asked if she'd like to do something, but what was it? She was desperate to know. "Yeah, you've done a pretty good job, I guess." She teased. "You know I'm convinced some of our newly frequent elderly lady customers only come in here so often to see you. They'll be sad when you're not working here every day."

 

[pudgefudges]

He laughed at her comment, thinking about when an old lady hit on him last week. He was flattered but of course tried to laugh it off as if the woman was joking. Given that he didn't have anything else to say to her he started to turn away from the counter. Fuck it.... Zim swung back towards her, "So Skylar i've been having trouble annotating the text in lit class. Any chance you'd be able to meet up sometime to help me? Totally fine if you can't. Maybe Cath's Cafe ?" He asked, hoping she'd buy his story. Annotating? He lived for that shit. He should have asked about math or something but it was too late to retract his question.

 

[esor]

"You want my help with annotating?" She raised an eyebrow. "But uh, yeah, sure." She smiled though she was attempting to hide her happiness. "When do you want to meet? I'm pretty much free for the rest of the week, I've worked a lot recently, as you know."

 

[pudgefudges]

He nodded, agreeing that they both had been working a lot. "Tonight, like in an hour?" He questioned, hoping it wasn't too soon.

 

[esor]

"Oh, yeah of course." She nodded- it was more sudden than she was expecting but she was excited.

 

[pudgefudges]

"Sweet, thanks... I'm gonna head home now but i'll meet you there soon!" He spoke, turning away to walk out to his car. Great now I have to bring my book and fake asking questions about the book. Secretly, Zim was hoping it would go in another direction. He quickly headed home to take a quick shower and grab the book they'd been working on. He threw on jeans and a white t-shirt, grabbed his jacket, then headed out again.

-----

He made sure he got to Cath's early and grabbed a booth near the front windows, so they'd have a view. When the waitress came he quickly ordered two strawberry milkshakes so they'd be there when she came. The boy felt nervous, like he'd never gone anywhere with Skylar before. It felt strange, yet exciting. When the milkshakes got there he took a sip and then settled back to wait for her.

 

[esor]

Sky arrived soon after, sitting down opposite him. She grinned as she saw the milkshakes, "Nice choice, thank you." She took a sip. "Just as good as the first one we had." She leant forward a little. "Now, are you going to tell me why you actually wanted to meet me here?" Sky knew Zim, and she knew he wouldn't need help with annotating anything.

 

[pudgefudges]

Zim smiled, glad that she liked his milkshake of choice. "Alright you got me... I guess..." he began, not sure how to say it. The boy sighed, "I guess I just wanted to see you, and with me finishing up on the bookstore, I thought I wouldn't see you anymore." He spoke softly, fiddling with his milkshake straw. He felt vulnerable, but he wanted to be honest. Before he was angry at her, and he still had questions about that night, but more than anything he just wanted to be around her again.

 

[esor]

Sky nodded. "Well I'm glad, because I was thinking the same thing. And I wasn't happy about it." She sighed. "I've...missed you. Sorry, if that's not alright to say."

 

[pudgefudges]

Zim perked up, eyes wide, he couldn't believe what she just said. ''You missed me?" He questioned, his whole mindset over the summer just blowing up in his face. "I missed you...." He began, looking into her eyes. "Honestly I thought you hated me and you said yes out of pity." The boy spoke, bluntly.

 

[esor]

"You don't need my pity." She said, smiling at the fact he missed her too. "I would've put money on you hating me, honestly." She sipped her milkshake to try and hide her smile.

 

[pudgefudges]

He laughed, "So this whole time we've just thought we hated each other?" He tried to make a joke of it, but knew there were some serious undertones to the conversation. Zim smiled, happy that he was just sitting here with her. He took another sip of his milkshake, "well what were you up to all summer?" He asked, curious, since he didn't see her at all.

 

[esor]

"Not much, honestly. Lots of studying, avoiding my parents." She decided not to mention Max, she thought it would just make it weird. "Took up running, it's good to get my mind off things, just kinda preparing for college. What about you?"

 

[pudgefudges]

Zim felt himself stiffen at the thought of her parents. He definitely didn't want to bring the fight up, but figured it would come up eventually. "I met a few guys in town, and we took a couple trips up to Seattle. It's really cool up there, i'll take you sometime." He said nonchalantly, also not mentioning all the partying he did. "Other than that I have just been working outside a lot, I use to do construction with a mentor back where I used to live and thought i'd try it out here as a summer job." He took another sip of his milkshake, enjoying the sweet strawberry taste in his mouth. He looked around, realizing that he hadn't been here since their first date. Since they were being honest, he was way more curious about another thing. "So who's that guy thats been hanging around the bookstore?"

 

[esor]

Sky nodded as he spoke, it sounded as though he had a much more exciting summer than she did. Maybe he’s over me. She tried not to wonder what he got up to on those trips, because she could probably guess.

The girl tensed up slightly as he asked about the boy, she figured she may as well be honest. “His name is Max, he kinda just keeps me company at the bookstore sometimes, and we go for coffee every now and again.”

 

[pudgefudges]

"Ahhh, I thought you had a new boyfriend, and he's possibly the most opposite of me you can get." He joked, grinning at her, mostly just grateful that he didn't seem too mean that much to her. He suddenly felt awkward, like that was a weird thing to say. She was the only person who made him flustered like this, he hated it, but also liked it. "Well now that I won't be in the bookstore anymore I guess i'm just going to have to make up different excuses to come and buy books every week." He shrugged, and smiled cheekily.

 

[esor]

Sky grinned, “I guess so. Maybe we’ll have to start selling milkshakes. I’ll be looking forward to seeing you, you know.” She said sincerely.

(How would you feel about a party sort of thing? Like they both go, get kinda drunk and we just see what happens? It could be in a few days or a few weeks or even months honestly, just a suggestion!)