@obnoxchase !
Derek was nervous -- about the date, about his father, about being in public with another boy that was someone other than one of his friends. He wanted to be calm about the whole situation, but honestly there wasn’t a way that he could relax. He trusted that Tilly would do her job and keep his father away because she hadn’t failed him yet. She could have told Tripp about Derek, but she hadn’t and that meant something to him, even if it didn’t to her. Derek knew that she was a lot softer than she wanted people to know. Still it didn’t make him feel any better, especially not since people in town talked and this wasn’t something he could hide very well -- or at all. Of course, he could just lie and say it wasn’t a date and just say it was a school thing. Though he didn’t want to do that. All he wanted was not to have to make this anymore complicated than it already was, but of course it was complicated.
Dairy’s loomed ahead of him and the nervous feeling amplified just looking at the diner. Derek tried not to think about how it might just be easier if Chase just didn’t show up. At least he’d feel sad rather than nervous and at least being sad was a relatively normal emotion for him. He didn’t know what he should be doing. If he should head inside and grab a booth or wait by the door or if both of those were wrong. Maybe he should just text the other boy and call this off. But he really wanted this to work out. So he nervously opened the door to the diner and seated himself in one of the booths and pulled out his phone to surf the internet until it was time for the date.











