Okay, Cyrus, you can do this... You can talk to him...

I was trying to convince myself that I could talk to him without panic. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite working. All that I could think was that I was going to say or do something stupid. Despite my anxiety, I walked over to the booth that he had grabbed for us, sliding into the seat across from him and smiling softly.

"Hey, Jonah..!" I greeted, already feeling myself begin to falter in my false confidence as I saw that beautiful smile, his eyes locking onto mine. I managed a shaky smile back, my fingers tracing a random design on the table.

"Cyrus, glad you made it." Jonah greeted, his eyes drifting to my finger tracing along the table. He smiled a bit, giving a chuckle as he watched me.

"You do that a lot, Cy..." He noted, still watching my mindless movements. I raised an eyebrow, taking a minute to realize what he was talking about. I slowly came to a stop, smiling nervously.

"Ah, it's just something I do when I'm nervous... So all the time..." I chuckled, my hand twitching slightly. Internally sighing, I questioned my nervous tics, as I often did when I was around Jonah, who seemed to notice my hand twitch.

"Cy, you don't have to be embarrassed about stuff like that. I get that you're nervous a lot, but that's perfectly 're really cool, quirks and all." Jonah assured me, about to say more when our waitress came over, order already in hand. I raised an eyebrow and cast a glance at Jonah, wondering how she already had our order.

He probably ordered while you took your sweet time getting here... I scolded myself, though there was no apparent reason to do so. Despite my self-scolding and my self-consciousness about my tics, I was extremely grateful that Jonah did the ordering before I got there, saving me the embarrassment of trying to order. Perhaps I needed to be more confident in myself. At least then I would be able to talk to Jonah properly...

"Cyrus..?" Jonah's voice broke me from my thoughts, bringing me back into reality. I looked at him over the table, my finger tracing the table again as my eyes met his. The way they had such a carefree shine to them almost made me lose my focus for a moment, but I remembered what I was doing.

"Uh... Yeah, Jonah..?" I asked, my voice coming out a lot more anxious and quiet than I intended for it to. Despite this, he still directed his eyes towards the food in front of us. I realized that I hadn't even touched it yet, while he was almost halfway finished. Had I really been in my daze for that long..?

"You've barely touched your food... Are you feeling okay..?" He asked, concern flooding his voice. I nodded, maybe a bit too quickly, popping a bite into my mouth and smiling. This, however, didn't seem to convince him, as he just continued to look at me skeptically. I did all I could to nod, stop my hand from tracing, and give off my best fake smile I could. Whether this convinced him or not was hard to determine, but regardless, he finally nodded, flashing me his perfect smile again.

There it is again... That prize winning smile... Dammit, why does he make it so hard to lie to him..? I asked myself, managing a smile back as I popped another bite into my mouth. Jonah glanced at his phone screen, brows furrowing a bit.

"Is something wrong..?" I asked, taking in his expression. My question, however, was answered with a sigh and a shake of the head.

"Hey, Cyrus? Is it possible we can have this guy-time another day..? I've gotta go..." He seemed a bit upset, which was really unusual for him. I opened my mouth to respond, but wasn't sure what I should say...

"Wait, Jonah... What's wrong..?" I asked, silently pleading with him to sit back down. Of course, that wasn't happening, as he simply grabbed his jacket.

"Nothing, Cyrus... I just really need to go home... But I had fun today... We should do it again sometime..." He turned to leave, and I began to feel my nerves working at my core. I quickly reached out, my hand slowly clasping on his. This, for some reason, seemed to stop him in his tracks, his eyes drifting down to my hand, now holding onto his.

"Please... Talk to me." I whispered, nervous tears forming in my eyes.