(Jewelie Rain, I am in love with Liam a bit too much. So here’s an alternative universe where he is present. Not related at all to your story at all—I just wanted to do it for funsies.👍🏾 )

A glorious red suit and a yellow tie; that’s what you see him in. Somehow, you control yourself enough to not laugh at the sight. Instead you get out of your mother’s car, saying goodbye to her quickly, before walking towards him, hand outstretched.

Faride grins as he grabs your hand. “And here I thought you’d cancel—that’s what your twin said anyway—what made you change your mind?” Faride tilts his head in question, face moving closer for a kiss.

You, on the other hand, are fuming. Your twin, Zac, is always trying to get people away from you. You could never have one friend growing up; it was Zac or nobody.

Going back to the present, you ignore Faride’s question, tilting your head out of his kissing range as well, then sidestep him to look at the front of the restaurant of your first date.

Jone’s Pizza. What in the—

You wip out your phone, so you can type out your complaints. Faride grabs it out of your reach—damn his tallness—and dangles it in the air. Gritting your teeth, you push him in his chest. He laughs instead of retaliating like he would with other people. You stop as you remember that Faride is a violent man, who may or may not be a gang leader, you haven’t proven that yet and Zac always is trying to break your relationships. The Faride you know is a kind one as well—not _now_, of course, but most of the time.

Faride checks the time on your phone, sucking his teeth. “Come on, Liam, hold the complaints for _once_ this time.” He leans forward, brown eyes in yours, widening them slightly. Your body instantly tenses at the eye contact. Ah, his please-just-for-me face. “Pwease? Pweeease? Pwee—“

You push him away, blushing mostly at the warm breath that was on your face and Faride’s eyes on you rather than that horrible display of persuasion. You hear Faride light up behind you as you walk to the door of the late-night pizza place.

Come on, it’s just pizza.

[•••]

You gag, giving Faride a quick glare as he chuckles. **Why the hell would you take me to a place where there’s this shit?** You type into your phone quickly, the robotic voice saying everything for you.

Faride’s holds his hands up in defense. “Well—you see,” his hands go down, and he gives you a sheepish grin, “I don’t really have enough money for anything else.”

You take the opportunity to be away from your food and ask, **You’re using your own money?**

Faride tucks his chin to his chest and fiddles with his fingers on the sticky table, showing a side of him anyone rarely got to saw. Besides you, of course, you saw it a lot, as well as many _other_ moods. “Well, yeah, I wanted this to be special,” he chuckles, “First date and all.”

Instead of typing on your phone, you grab his hands and rub your thumb against the backs of them in circles, eyes down. Faride blushes, dark skin turning ruddy. You think he’s going to take his hands back, but instead he relaxes them, giving you the chance to turn them around to stroke his palms with the tips of your fingers.

You like touch, so much more could be done with touch than voice. Well, at least if it was with Faride.

But then the moment has to be ruined.

“I thought you weren’t coming, Liam.” You and Faride turn to see Zac standing beside the booth. Faride tries to slid his hands from your grip—his face is stormy, so you do the opposite.

“He decided to go, Zachary, now piss off.” Faride’s face is hard and he looks ready to break out into a fight if Zac tries to touch you. You sigh.

_Back off, Zac_, you sign, but your brother isn’t paying any attention to you anymore. He’s quite set on glaring at Faride until he burns alive. You decide to transport yourself into your pocket space to see if you can wait it out, but all your thinking is:

_What a waste of time—I could’ve been drawing and have avoided this._