Remembering Sundays

Zack was nervous. Beyond nervous actually. It was exactly a week since he’s been home and exactly a week since Emma tweeted him mentioning that they should meet up. And between those weeks, they had set up a time and a place so that they could actually meet in person and not just catch glimpses of each other in public or talk on the internet. Meet. As in face to face. As in Zack was actually going to talk to the girl he had been crushing on since he had seen her all those months ago. And he was flipping out.

When he woke up that morning, he had thought it was just a normal day. That was until he got a Tweet from Emma asking if they were still meeting up that day. And that’s when he went into panic mode.

And all the while Ben was watching him pace and freak out with an amused expression for most of the morning. When he had woken up, Zack had found Ben sprawled on his couch flicking through channels and Zack honestly thought that Ben moved only an inch in the four hours he’s been awake. Even so, Ben had been no help at all that day, only really making fun of him and asking why he was freaking out so much even though he already knew.

“Dude you need to chill,” Ben said finally, standing up and stopping Zack from pacing. “Everything’s going to be fine. It’s just Emma, you’ve been talking to her for forever, it’s not like you’ve never met her before. Just calm down, you’ve been waiting for this ever since you started talking to her. Now you’re going mental and not wanting to go.”

“But now I’m actually going and I’m freaking out!”

Ben sighed, “well stop. Everything’s going to be fine. Just take a moment, breathe, and then go get a shower. You smell and you’re going to meet her at the coffee shop in a hour.”

Zack did as was told, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath trying to calm himself down. Ben was right, and even though he couldn’t believe he had just admitted that, he did. This was something he’s wanted to do since he first saw her. This day was going to turn out amazingly. There really wasn’t anything to worry about, everything would be fine. That’s what he needed to keep telling himself until he fully realized it was true. And that probably wouldn’t happen until Em and him were actually face to face and talking and it wouldn’t be as awkward as he thought it was going to be.

When he opened his eyes again, he took one more deep breath as he turned to head toward his bedroom to grab a few things before he went for a shower. He pulled off the pair of sweats he had worn to bed and grabbed a towel before crossing the hall in nothing but his underwear to walk to the bathroom.

Once he was finished, he stood staring at his closet for what seemed like a hour trying to figure out what to wear. He felt like such a girl for doing so but it had been so long since he had been on a date. But was this really considered a date? Meeting a girl to grab a cup of coffee? Didn’t sound much like one, but maybe it was more of what lead to a date. Maybe this was what needed to happen before he actually asked her out. As it was he barely knew her, maybe this was good that they were only grabbing a casual cup of coffee to talk. Maybe then if all went well he would ask her out on a real date.

“You know, you’re clothes aren’t going to magically fly out if you just stand there.” Ben said, making Zack jump.

He had been so lost in his thoughts about the day that he hadn’t even heard Ben come in his room. And Ben was pretty loud. Even a deaf person could hear him. But yet again he was freaking out so much that he didn’t even hear his best friend.

Ben must have picked up further on his nervousness since he gave him a knowing smile and walked over to where he was standing in front of his closet. Zack stepped out of the way as Ben took over, glancing through his closet to find something for him. And at that moment, Zack couldn’t be any more grateful for his best friend.

In a matter of moments, Ben already had a shirt out and was handing it to Zack so he could change. Another few seconds and Ben had a pair of jeans out also handing them to Zack and he pulled them on quickly before heading back to the bathroom to fix his hair. He didn’t have a lot, comparing to Jack and Alex at least, but he did have more than Rian so he had to make sure it didn’t look terrible.

“Ok, I’m going, please don’t burn the house down,” Zack said as he picked up his keys five minutes later.

Ben rolled his eyes, “that was one time and nothing was seriously burned.”

“You’re as bad as Jack whenever it comes to being alone and no one stopping you from going into the kitchen. Let’s just hope Jack’s new girl will help with that now. Maybe we should find you a girl.”

“And maybe you should stop keeping your girl waiting.”

Zack laughed as he gave Ben a quick hug and mumbled a thanks before heading out the door to his car. As he walked down the steps, it finally set in that he was about to meet Emma for the very first time and panic stepped in once more. He was really going to do this. Meet her. The girl he had been crushing over for forever. Reality was setting in and he was getting even more nervous as he continued the drive to the coffee shop.

He kept repeating ‘you can do this’ over and over in his head as the coffee shop came into view and he began to slow the car so he could make a left hand turn into the lot. As he pulled into a parking space, he suddenly felt super calm, reaching for his keys to turn the car off as he put it in park. Suddenly he realized that Ben was right, everything would be fine.

Getting out of the car, he took a deep breath as he locked it and then began to walk towards the door to meet Emma for the very first time ever. Fingers crossed everything would go well…