Ah. I haven't even read this over. I'm just tired, and tired of looking at this. Hopefully you'll like this, since I drew it out way too much and got half as much plot done in this chapter as I originally intended anyways... Remember to review! Please be kind, this is still my first story.
Also, just. To say something. The first chapter was based on my own homecoming experience last year. So. A lot of this story may reflect my life.
He didn't want to seem over-excited, so he wanted to wait. But he also didn't want to seem like he didn't care at all, which couldn't be any less true. Ludwig was completely captivated by the boy he met at the homecoming dance. He thought about it for a while, and decided not tcontact him until sunday, homecoming being on friday of course. His phone felt heavy in his pocket as he waited all of saturday, trying to pass the time doing homework and studying and watching some TV. When the soccer game came on, he found himself unable to concentrate as his eyes kept flicking to his grey phone across the room. When it was finally dark out (which was shockingly early nowadays; only 6:00 and the sun was setting), Ludwig stood from the couch and closed the curtains and shutters in the windows.
He climbed into his bed after taking a quick shower. Steam had rolled out of the door when he'd opened it into the hallway, the scalding hot water heating the air until it was uncomfortably hot in the room. His damp bangs clung to his forehead, and he hadn't brushed his hair back.
Blue eyes stared at the ceiling. He hadn't done anything all day. His busy parents had been at work, and he'd wasted the day away sitting on the couch debating whether or not to text his newfound friend. He suddenly snatched his phone up off the nightstand, regretting it. Why hadn't he texted Feliciano? God, he was an idiot. He'd waited too long, Feliciano had probably already forgotten who he even was- 'Hey. This is Ludwig, the guy you met at the homeco-' He stopped himself mid-text and erased the message without sending it. Ugh. That had sounded even dumber. How does somebody even talk to their friends? How do you text them without sounding like a dumb fool?
He somehow managed to get to sleep despite being a little angry with himself over it. He slept dreamlessly until morning, when he woke up disoriented and confused. Light streamed in his window since he'd left the slats of the blinds open, so when the sun rose it would wake him up. He lazily walked into the kitchen (his parents were still asleep from a long night of working) and poured himself a bowl of cereal. It looked to be about 11:00 in the morning, but sometimes the clock on the stove was wrong so he learned not to trust it completely. Ludwig relaxed around the house for a while, until about 1:00 when he went upstairs to change into some actual pants. Sometimes wearing pajama pants around all day made you feel like you didn't do anything useful, even if you did. Ludwig wanted to get a head start on studying for a math test he had that monday, so he felt like he needed to get even partially dressed to make himself feel better.
As the blonde slicked back his hair and looked at himself in the mirror, he suddenly remembered last night. Ugh, he'd been an idiot. At least he hadn't sent that message. Sending a text at 11 PM was almost worse than sending it 3 hours after he'd met the guy.
So he walked over and sat on his bed, picking up the phone. He typed, 'Hello. This is Ludwig'
Yeah, short and sweet. It just got the message across, yeah. He didn't need anything else. That was his style, wasn't it? Short and sweet, huh.
He sent the message.
Begin, the anxiety.
God, what if he sees it and doesn't reply? How will he know? What if he gets it, and ignores it? Does he send another one? What if he ignores that one too? Maybe there was a faulty connection, and the message really didn't send. What if Feliciano gave him the wrong number? Oh, god. Oh oh oh oh god.
His phone vibrated on the bed next to him and he almost jumped out of his skin.
'oh! hey ludwig its good to hear from you' The text didn't have flawless spelling and grammar, what what the heck. What did he expect. Ludwig simply texted like that because he always had; he used proper capitalization when he could as well.
Oh damn. What did he reply next...? It's the dreaded 'hey' 'hey' conversation, where there's no general subject it's just the two of you saying HEY and it just gets really old after the first two texts oh goodness how does he fix this, how does one make friends like this-
'Good to hear from you too. Are you doing alright?' He figured it would be best to cut to the chase. He waited another painful minute and a half, before his phone vibrated again.
'yes. i went home and ate good pasta to cheer up. very ggood!' Ludwig didn't think the double-g's were supposed to be there, but whatever. At least Feliciano was doing better. (He would also soon find out that pasta is a re-occurring thing in Feliciano's life, it would almost always make him feel better.)
'That's good. I'm glad you're better.'
've~ thank you we should sit together at lunch!'
Ludwig smiled at this. He wanted to sit together with him... Another friendship thing. 'Yeah, seems like a really good idea.'
On monday, Ludwig was already high strung about his math test, and about sitting with Feliciano, so altogether he wasn't in a very pleasant mood. So when he stood in the lunchroom holding a white plastic tray, looking around for his new auburn-haired friend, a scowl showed on his face. Everyone had mostly sat down, except for a few people standing around some tables talking to their friends and a couple others who were also just getting out of the lunch line. He quickly scanned each table for a glimpse of Feliciano, finally spotting him standing on the other side of the huge room with a brown paper bag in his hands. Ludwig let his facial muscles relax, and he smiled a little as he walked over to him. He ended up meeting him halfway, and they faced each other in the center of the lunchroom. "Hey Ludwig!" Feliciano smiled, and his smiling face caught Ludwig off guard. He was actually pretty good-looking for a guy, when his face wasn't red and puffed up from crying. His reddish-brown hair was slightly curly, and he smiled so wide his eyes squinted. His skin was slightly tanned even after the summer months were gone.
"H-hello." Ludwig responded curtly. "We should find a place to sit." Holding his tray with both hands, he glanced around the lunchroom and spied a half-empty table on the side of the room against the wall. He pointed it out to Feliciano and they walked over. The table was cold as it brushed Ludwig's knuckles. He'd always hated lunchroom tables. They seemed so disgusting once you thought about all the people who touched them and all the things they were used for. He looked up from his food and noticed Feliciano had turned around, and was looking out into the center of the lunchroom again at a black-haired kid (an asian kid, ludwig confirmed as he turned around) holding a styrofoam lunchtray. He looked out-of-place, and kept shifting around, first standing by the garbage can, then turning and scanning the tables, presumably for an empty spot. Ludwig watched as Feliciano near leaped up and skipped over to the boy, grabbing his arm and turning the boy toward him. The poor sap nearly jumped out of his skin and looked confused when Feliciano spoke to him, but the auburn-haired boy simply clutched the sleeve of his white dress-shirt and lead him over to where he and Ludwig had sat down. The kid looked bewildered and confused, still not saying anything as his dark brown eyes analyzed Ludwig's pale features.
"Ah. I. T-thank you." He spoke with a heavy accent in a calm tone.
"Ve~ You looked lost over there, so you should sit with us!" Feliciano smiled widely at him. "What's your name?"
"My... name is Honda. Kiku. Kiku Honda." Ludwig noticed him hesitating before he spoke. He was probably still learning english.
"Ooh, cool! My name is Feliciano, and this is Ludwig! We just became friends. You should sit with us and be our friend, too, Kiku!"
He could almost see the gears turning in Kiku's head, processing Feliciano's flurry of speech far too slowly. Ludwig smiled a little and asked, "What country do you come from, Kiku?"
"Ah... I trasferred from Japan. English is my new language so please forgive me."
Ludwig shook his head a bit. "Nah, it's alright! It must be hard moving to such a different place, I don't want to make it harder for you." The three of them talked amongst themselves throughout the rest of the lunch, figuring out more about Kiku. How he transferred here, what his old home was like, answering any questions he had about things in america. They tried their best to help him with his english, since he used a few words incorrectly. When the rest of the kids in the lunchroom started to get up, the trio stood and looked at each other. Ludwig spoke; "Uh, do you want to sit together again tomorrow?"
Both Feliciano and Kiku nodded. "Sure, Ludwig~ Its nice to have someone to sit with at lunch now!" Ludwig wondered where he'd been sitting before.
"Ah. Yes, that would be nice." Kiku bowed his head slightly. "I'm sorry, I must be to my next class now." The two others said their farewells and Kiku left them quickly, walking briskly in the direction of his locker.
"So, I was thinking," Feliciano said, "Does Ludwig want to come to my house tomorrow after school?" Ludwig was a little taken aback. He had just met this boy a few days prior, and now he was invited to his house? He hadn't expected it, but he hadn't really expected anything at all. Friendship was quite a foreign concept to him, as he'd always preferred reading and independant activities to social endeavors. He'd liked sports for a long time, and he'd played soccer in elementary and football in middle school, but now he only used the school's weight room on wednesdays before class, and jogged occasionally. Nothing social involved, anymore.
"Uh. Sure. Do you take the bus?"
"Yeah, Bus T." The bus system at their school was labeled with letters. It was a huge highschool, so there were sometimes even two buses that took the same route.
"Alright. Let's meet on the bus, then. After school tomorrow..." Ludwig was excited. He got to go somewhere, and spend time with this new and interesting person... god, he felt like a loser. He was so worked up about this in the first place, it's probably an everyday thing for someone like Feliciano.
The two of them said their farewells, Feliciano promising to text Ludwig as soon as possible. Ludwig hurried to his next class, which was math. He'd studied for this test, but he found that he wasn't really ready for it. He wasn't really ready for anything at all.
Thanks for reading! The next chapter will hopefully include Lovino.
