Jaune morosely picked at his lunch, grimacing as what couldn't be described as food so much as a pile of mush laid on his plate. Which was appropriate, considering he felt about as well as this meal looked.
"Come on, Jaune, it really couldn't have been that bad." Nora said, bumping her shoulder against his as she sat down, Ren taking the other side of the table in the cafeteria. "So your date didn't go so well, who hasn't a bad first date before?"
I knew it was a bad idea to say anything at all, Jaune thought. He had just told the bare minimum about how things didn't go as he expected – because who would expect that? – but Nora was determined to get an answer out of him.
"You weren't there, it was probably the most painful night of my life." Jaune said.
"Wow, TMI." A voice called, and Jaune groaned as Yang and Ruby came walking up, the blonde sitting next to Ren while Ruby took to Jaune's other side.
"It wasn't like that, Yang." Jaune muttered, but Ruby was almost bouncing in her seat.
"So you said yes to the date? How'd it go? Did you have fun?" she asked, and Jaune glanced at her earnest, eager face – and he folded like paper.
"I went out but…." Jaune started, wondering how he could phrase it, before realizing there was no way to make it sound good. "It was a disaster. The guy took me to meet his family for a dinner, on the first date, and if that wasn't bad enough, he left me sitting by myself and practically ignored me the whole evening talking to his mother. I honestly would've had Nora call me except Cinder was glaring at me the rest of the evening and I was too scared of the mother to do anything."
"Wow, that sucks, man." Yang said casually. Jaune rolled his eyes.
"Yang!" Ruby scolded her sister, before looking at Jaune sympathetically. "That, uh, does sound kinda…overwhelming."
"It was a disaster." Jaune reiterated bluntly.
"At least he didn't make you walk home," Ren said, but paused, "did he?"
"No, once everyone was finished eating and cleaned the table up we left." The blond relayed.
Nora hummed, and then she smiled brightly. "So when's the second date?" she asked abruptly, and Jaune sputtered, cheeks flushing.
Ren sighed. "Nora, where in all that did you get thinking there'd be another date?"
"Well if Jaune had such a bad time on the first date, clearly the second is a chance for a do-over, silly." Nora said as though it were obvious.
Everyone else at the table turned to look at Jaune, who's cheeks flushed a deeper red before he hung in his head embarrassment, saying, "We're going out again next weekend."