That night had been even stranger than the first, if that was even possible. Although he'd safely avoided the Axel subject at lunch with Hayner, Pence, and Olette—mostly by acting very preoccupied with his ice cream cone—his attention was constantly derailing. In fact, when he'd finally located his car keys at the end of the school day, he'd found them still in the ignition. He was starting to wonder if the lack of sleep was depleting his brain cells. Great, he was already struggling to conserve those as it was. And it didn't help that the car smelled vaguely of cigarette smoke and…cinnamon? Not to mention that when he'd driven home that day, he'd fully intended to take the normal route home, but somewhere between noticing the fiery red hue of the skyline and taking in a particularly deep breath that flooded his senses with spice and smoke, he'd found himself at the exact same crosswalk from the other day. What was the matter with him?
He lay awake in bed that night with a lot of questions on his mind. Why was he so damn preoccupied with some random stranger? Especially one who probably hadn't given Roxas a second thought. At least, that's what he assumed. There wasn't anything particularly special about Roxas. Sure, he thought of himself as decently attractive, with average grades. But that was just it, he was average. He wasn't great at sports or abnormally likeable like his brother Sora. He was just Roxas, the brooding blond teen that stood perpetually in his older brother's shadow. Axel has probably forgotten all about me by now he decided, turning on his side and putting the ridiculous thoughts to rest. He closed his eyes, satisfied that he could finally settle back into reality.
Shortly after his eyes were closed, images of that teasing smirk wormed their way into his head. He was reminded of the way Axel had winked at him. The way he'd touched his hair.
"Like what you see?"
Roxas's eyes were open in a flash. He flushed slightly at the memory, the embarrassment still fresh in his mind.
"Catch ya later, Roxie!"
Catch him later? Roxas's stomach turned at the notion. Maybe Axel really did want to hear from Roxas again. Maybe, he thought, if he called the number, he could find out that Axel was a convict or a huge asshole—or both! Or he'd possibly come to find that Axel had given him a fake phone number just for fun. At this point, he didn't care. If he called, there was a chance that he could finally put his mind to rest and see that this guy was not worth sweating over. And that he was definitely not worth losing sleep over. God, Roxas missed sleeping.
He'd made up his mind. And with that, he drifted off to sleep. Finally.
The following day he'd felt a little more rested but a lot more nervous. Sure, he'd decided that he was going to call Axel. The problem was, he had no idea how to do it. Was there, like, a waiting period? And what was he supposed to say? Hi, this is Roxas, the guy who gave you a ride. I just wanted to call to say that I can't stop thinking about you, so maybe you could tell me that you're a convict or a racist or something so I can resume my regular life? Thanks. He furrowed his brow. Yeah, that was out. He nibbled sparingly at his lunch as he pondered this, completely zoning out from the conversation his friends were having.
"–Right, Roxas?" Olette asked.
Huh?
"What?"
"I was just saying, it's the guy's job to pay for the first date. It's like, part of the rules of dating."
Hayner laughed. "Don't ask Roxas, he hasn't been on a date since like, the 3rd grade."
"You mean a playdate?" Pence asked, laughing even harder.
"That's not true!" Roxas retorted.
"Oh really? Who? And when?" Hayner asked incredulously.
Roxas hesitated, realizing he'd backed himself into a corner. He really did not want to talk about Naminé right now. He had enough on his mind.
"You know what, nevermind," Roxas muttered.
"Aw come on, Roxas, tell us!" Olette whined.
"Yeah, we won't laugh or anything, we promise!" Pence added.
"Hey—I'm not promising anything," Hayner argued.
"Shut up, Hayner," Olette said, smacking him in the head.
"Ouch! Hey!" Hayner cried.
Olette gave him a look.
"Alright, alright. Fine. I won't say anything," Hayner said, rubbing the back of his head with a wince.
Roxas considered this. He shrugged, guessing it couldn't really hurt anything. And it's not like his friends were about to let this go. They were persistent that way.
"Nmmpné" He mumbled, shielding his flushed face slightly with his jacket sleeve.
"What?" they all said in unison.
"Naminé" he grated out.
"You dated Naminé? When?" Hayner asked in disbelief.
"Wait, really? Cute! Why didn't I know about this?" Olette probed.
"It was the fifth grade. Didn't really…work out." He mumbled disinterestedly, picking at his food.
"Wow. We didn't think you'd ever really dated anyone. We were beginning to wonder if you were gay or something," Hayner joked.
Roxas winced. Even though Roxas didn't think he was gay, he couldn't help but feel slightly offended by the remark. His face flushed again and he slid both his hands over his face, hoping they wouldn't notice his embarrassment.
"Hayner!" Olette cried, smacking him in the head again.
"Ow! Geez, Olette. I was just joking. You know that, right, Roxas?" he said, frogging him again in the arm.
"Yeah," Roxas said. He frogged Hayner back with all the bite of a cotton ball.
"You still hit like a girl though," Hayner added, quickly dodging Olette's smack this time. He grinned victoriously and stuck out his tongue at her.
Olette rolled her eyes.
Roxas was back in his thoughts about the phone call. Hi this is Roxas, I graciously provided you with transportation once. Now could you please say something incredibly offensive so that I can never think about you again? He frowned. He thought about what Olette said about the rules of dating. No, he was not thinking about this as a dating situation. But maybe Olette could shed some light on his own situation. It was worth a shot.
"Hey, Olette?" Roxas asked. "Hypothetically, how long should a guy wait to call a— err— someone. You know, after they give you their phone number?"
Olette's eyes widened a little bit and she dropped her spoon on the floor.
Roxas gulped, preparing himself for the epic noise pollution that was teenage girl excitement.
"Roxas! Roxas, does this mean what I think it means?" She squealed excitedly. "Who gave you their number?"
Roxas winced at Olette's piercing voice. It was so shrill when she got excited. Roxas couldn't help but compare it to Axel's smooth, rich voice—the one that resonated like a hum on his lips. Roxas blanched at his own thoughts. Those were not my thoughts. That did not just happen. What the hell, brain?
"No one," Roxas said, shaking his head. "I was just wondering," he added, stirring his food around in aimless circles.
Her eyes widened. "Is it Naminé?"
Roxas internally groaned. He immediately regretted telling Olette about the whole dating Naminé thing. It was so long ago—it hardly counted as dating and was far from relevant.
"Has our Roxas finally got himself a girlfriend?" Hayner asked, elbowing Roxas with a look of both surprise and pride on his face.
Roxas shrugged nonchalantly, trying to downplay the mess he'd started as much as possible.
"Okaaay, weeell, if not Naminé gave you her number, I think you should call not Naminé around, I don't know, two days later? Make her think you're busy and a little unattainable—you know, girls like the chase." She winked. "But if you wait too long, she'll probably think you're not interested."
"Alright, thanks, Olette. I'll catch you guys later," he said, standing up and clearing his tray quickly. That was awkward. Hopefully the whole Naminé topic would blow over sooner rather than later.
"Good luck with not Naminé!" Olette called behind him, looking very pleased.
Roxas frowned.
Or not.
Roxas let out a deep breath, looking at the two items before him with unease. He was sitting on his bed, his cell phone and the crumpled piece of paper sitting before him. Olette had told him that two days was a good amount of time to wait before calling Axel (or, in her words, not Naminé). He'd encountered the blazing-haired pedestrian the day before yesterday, so that would make tonight the night to do it. Of course, he could wait longer. According to Olette, if Roxas continued to wait then Axel would think that he's not interested. Yep, that's the idea. But Roxas was going to go crazy if he kept putting this off. He just wanted his life to return to normal. Rip off the bandage. Be done with it.
God, he was nervous. He still had absolutely no idea what he was going to say. Even more frightening, he had even less of an inclination of what Axel was going to say. Somehow he hoped the redhead wouldn't answer the phone at all.
His antsiness growing as the minutes ticked by, he decided he was just going to bite the bullet. With sweaty palms, he picked up the phone and began dialing in the numbers one by one. He bit his lip, listening to the sound of the periodic dialing noises. On the fourth one, he heard a click. All of the breath went out of his body and his muscles tensed. There was a rustling sound, then silence, followed by the familiar voice he had heard just two days ago. It was as smooth and melodic as ever, and Roxas could somehow doubtlessly hear the sound of Axel's grin as he spoke.
"Hey."
