"Why do you always avoid my questions?"
"I'm not, it's just that there's nothing to say. Who would ever want to date someone they can't even talk to? It's not rocket science. My eyes are weird, and people get tired of me eventually. There's your on...
Say hello to our cute and innocent Great Mogul boi :)
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
MATHIAS RAN HIS FINGERS THROUGH his unruly brown hair and shifted his weight, trying hard to keep his eyes down on his sneakers and not on the girl at the counter. He's never seen her before. Perhaps she was new?
The line moved up as one more person headed over to collect their drink at the checkout point, and now Mathias was the third person in line, yet he still hasn't gotten his words straight. His eyes shifted back up, to the girl's face again. She was pretty, with her straight blond hair caught by a blue scrunchie at the back of her head, swishing and bouncing side to side as her large, doe brown eyes danced between customers and the beeping register.
With kind eyes, and nice lips, she was probably out of Mathias's league. No, she wasn't even in his solar system; they billions and trillions of light years divided by an irremediable gap. It was pointless to embarrass himself trying to talk to her.
A fragment of his mother's words from the day before floated back to him.
----
"Mathias, you should get out there more," Marcella said as she walked into the tiny, cluttered room where her son sat shirtless on his bed. His fingers halted against the strings of his guitar and he looked at her, a quizzical look on his face. "You know? Talk to girls."
"I talk to Beckett."
Marcella issued him an unconvinced look. "You know what I mean," she walked over and perched on the bed, the mattress dipping slightly under her lightweight. "We've talked about this, Math. You're at that age where guys normally start thinking and feeling natural things. I think it's full time you brought a nice, pretty girl home."
"Mom!"
Marcella laughed.
"I have my guitar. I don't need ... no, I don't have time for a girlfriend," he fluidly signed as steam wafted off his cheeks, but his mother only continued chuckling to herself, And Mathias huffed in response. He went back to strumming the cords of his guitar in hopes his mother would take the hint and leave him alone. She was always way too invested in his personal life, and it was the epitome of embarrassment for him every time she asked or insinuated something.
Marcella reached up to cup her son's face, forcing him to look at her.
"I need you to run some errands today again, hm? So, while you're at it," her hand slipped to touch his hand on his guitar, stopping him from playing. "put down the guitar, put away the sunglasses and put yourself out there. How 'bout that?"
----
Mathias was one person away from the front, yet he still hadn't found the right words, and in the next second, the next mortifying thing happened.
