Punk Isn't Romantic

Master of Romance

Axel

I glanced over my shoulder as I walked away from the bleachers, cigarette in hand and saw Adam move closer to Dean. It made me happy that I had introduced him to my friends and I was hoping they'd get along, despite the initial awkwardness. Adam was incredibly straight up about his annoyance towards my friends, but I doubted they had really been glaring. Otherwise, I was sure Dean would have said something.

I had walked off with Bones so that I could ask him for some advice. I wasn't really the type of person to go on dates. I'd never been in a real relationship before, so I was pretty clueless as to what I was doing. Bones wasn't exactly the expert, either, but I'm sure we could manage to come up with one competent date idea between our two braincells. 

"So you're like, together?" Bones asked, gesturing to the bleachers around the corner.

I thought about that for a second. Of course we were together; we'd had the talk. So we were an item now. After all, we had been doing all the couple things that come with being 'together'. I was pretty sure it was mutually agreed that Dean and I were a thing now after that talk a week ago. Not to mention, we were going on a date tomorrow and texting constantly; that's pretty much all there is to dating. Plus, the making out and meeting each others friends. 

"Yeah. We're going on a date together tomorrow, but we're already exclusive and all that, I guess." I couldn't stop a shy smile slipping onto my face.

 I liked the idea of Dean and I as a collective.

"Awe, my little man is all grown up! Look, he's in love. Axel is in love, look everyone!" Bones yelled, jumping on me and rustling my hair, much to my protest.

People who were currently doing PE on the field looked our way with a raised eyebrow and I laughed, swatting him away. 

"Shut up. Look, I don't know where to take him for this date. I don't really know what I'm doing other than the kissing part." 

"Well, when a mummy and a daddy love each other very much, something to do with birds and bees and nature happens." Bones teased, "Does he call you daddy?"

I laughed and hit him as a warning at that. 

"Be serious, I don't want to mess this up. He's done a lot so that we can be together; he's come out to his parents and friends, broken up with his girlfriend. I want to make sure he knows it was all worth it." 

"Wow. One week of texting a guy and suddenly you're a wet dishcloth. You're so sappy, it's clear you're whipped." Bones teased me yet again, "But if you want to impress him just do something romantic. Don't be basic with an expensive dinner or something, that's bullshit. Do something meaningful and original, you know?" 

"Useful advice from Bones? This is new." I teased, "Thanks, dude."

"I'll have you know that I'm the master of romance." Bones bragged, pretending to flip his hair.

"Explains why you're single." I rolled my eyes, flicking the bud of my cigarette away. 

We walked back to the bleachers, talking more casually now that the deep stuff was out of the way. I was pondering date ideas; I was quite clueless about where to take him still. I didn't really do much other than hang out with my friends at the Moshes, or chilling in my room. I'd do some last minute pondering tonight. I still had some time. 

As we ducked under the bleachers, the sound of screeching metal sounded out and my eyes flicked across the circle of people, the place where we had left Adam and Dean was noticeably empty. I furrowed my eyebrows; I didn't expect them to leave just because we'd gone for two minutes.

"Did they leave?" Bones voiced my thoughts, dropping to the floor and sprawling out casually.

The group didn't really acknowledge my question, just nodding nonchalantly. 

That deeply confused me. It hurt my feelings that Dean would leave like that ; it would have been nice if he  tried to get to know my friends. I'd message him about it later but right now it would be too stressful and I just wanted to chill. 

Across the field, I could see two figures kicking a ball between them and laughter echoing this way. Squinting against the sun, I could see it was Dean and Adam. I would have called them back over but they seemed to be having a lot more fun kicking a ball around than they were when they were talking to us. Adam seemed visibly annoyed at Bones whenever he opened his mouth and Dean looked wildly uncomfortable in my friends presence. 

Maybe we were too different to be together.