ZackRay Month Day 4 (Week 2) College AU
This part was written by a friend of mine in the Discord server. ❤️ Thank you so much for your contribution!
Zack can’t ask out the girl of his dreams. Poor tol bean.
…
"Why is this so damn hard?!" Zack groaned to himself as he sat alone in a booth in the university café. He continued staring at the young woman that was sitting delicately at a plush chair, sipping her coffee as she read her book, her blonde hair tied neatly into a ponytail. The dark-haired male groaned and lightly hit his head against the table.
Ever since Zack met Rachel Gardner, he’d been memorized. How could he not be? She was beautiful, intelligent, driven; everything he believed he wasn’t. She was the first person to speak to him like a human being. She had no trouble asking him, a freak wrapped in bandages, for a pencil to borrow during calculus class. Even when he tried to intimidate her, Rachel would shrug it off and continue speaking to him as if he hadn’t just threatened to rip her arm off. It was different, to say the least. And when she smiled for the first time, a genuine smile directed at him, he was doomed. Zack couldn’t get Rachel out of his head. Even when the day ended after hanging out for hours, her words and expressions would always be stuck in his mind.
He didn’t know how to deal with stuff like love or affection. But when it came to Ray, he wanted to try. However, there was always one thing that got in his way. He, for all his confidence and brutal honesty, didn’t have the balls to ask his love interest out on a date. He never asked a girl out before; or asked anyone to go anywhere with him, period. And every time he even tried to mention dating to her, his face would heat up and his tongue would tie itself into knots. Eventually, he would just give up and promise himself to try again. But that vicious cycle repeated itself for days on end.
Zack was unaware of how long he’d been staring at Rachel from afar. He was a little lucky for the bandages covering his face, because his cheeks were tomato red as he continued staring, thinking up multiple places where their first date would occur. He knew Ray enjoyed the simple things in life. She didn’t need fancy dinners or expensive jewelry to be content. And the classic dinner and a movie date was just so overdone. Plus, they’d already done that stuff as friends. He wanted a date to actually mean something. He loved seeing her smile. It was more than enough for him if she just smiled at him.
The bandaged young man snapped out of his daydream when he saw the blonde pack up her things and stand up, taking the half-empty coffee cup with her. Zack almost immediately scrambled to gather his own bookbag and bound after her, wanting this to be his chance. He was going to ask her out, damnit! They’d have a magical fucking time and live happily ever after! Determined, Zack marched out of the café.
“Hey, Ray!” he called out, making the girl in question turn from her usual route to face him.
“Hey, Zack,” Rachel greeted back, offering him a warm smile reserved only for him.
All of a sudden, his nerves hiked up to eleven and he couldn’t talk. Her smile was just too goddamn irresistible. She seemed to sparkle in the afternoon sun, a ray of sunshine gently beating down on her to give her an angelic effect. His brain short-circuited, and his tongue couldn’t form proper words. Work, you stupid mouth! Zack was left gaping like a fish while Rachel stared up at him with her deep blue eyes, simply waiting. Her patience knew no bounds. Why?! Why can’t I just ask her out?! “I…Um, ya see… I was…”
“Oh yeah,” Rachel suddenly piped up, causing Zack’s mental panic to cease as all of his attention was immediately on her. At least she saved him from a lifetime of tongue-tied embarrassment in the process. “Do you want to visit that new museum that opened up?” The dark-haired man was ready to groan at the idea—although if she was happy, he’d go along with her—but she continued. “All the exhibits are interactive, so it’ll give you something to do instead of just looking at ‘dusty old objects from even older rich dudes’ as you put it.”
“Yeah,” Zack replied, scratching the back of his head as he relented, ready to give up on asking her out yet again. “We can hang out there if you want.”
“No, Zack,” the blonde immediately countered before taking a casual sip of her coffee. Zack blinked his mismatched eyes at her in confusion. “I don’t mean hang out. I mean a date.”
Zack choked on his spit, his heartbeat going into overdrive. Did she just…?! Don’t just fucking stand there! Say yes, you dunce! “Yeah!” he responded, his voice going a couple octaves higher. He spluttered a little to clear his voice. “Y-yeah. Sure. Saturday sound good?”
Rachel once again smiled at him and Zack could swear her heard an angel sing in the distance. “Yes. Saturday sounds perfect. See you then.” She waved at him and made her way to the building her next class would be held.
Zack stood in place for a few moments, a few students passing by him with odd looks on their faces. He wasn’t aware his jaw had dropped and probably slammed a crater into the ground below. He had a date…with Ray. He had a date with Ray… Holy shit, he had a date with Ray!
“Hell yeah!” he cheered, jumping high from the rush.
