Okay so I know I marked this book as completed but I saw that this one was almost done in my drafts and decided to add to it and finish it. I might finish others but no promises :)
Some "mature" themes mentioned since they are older but they are not doing anything crazy.
They are 21 because 21 = more fun lol. Also, some minor cursing.
Enjoy.
TJ's POV
My alarm goes off for five a.m. and I grumble as I rub my eyes, trying to wake myself up. I know I have to move and get ready now otherwise the customers will be gone soon. As I get ready, I wonder how my life got to this.
"Let's see TJ. You moved to LA with your boyfriend Reed which seemed to be a good idea at the time. You're doing perfectly fine until you get home to see Reed in bed...naked...with Lester. Out of all people, why the hell would he choose Lester? He admits things were boring so you grab your things, get an apartment of your own and now you're paying way too much for an apartment in a place you don't even want to be in. You have too much pride to call your parents so you're trying to make this work. Since you can't afford college and have a high school degree, many places in LA don't want to hire you. Until something works, you're Ubering people. That's your life TJ."
I inwardly groan and the monologue I think to myself every time I'm in the shower and eventually get ready enough to leave my house. I leave my house at six since everyone is always trying to get to work and tends to need a ride. I turn on my Lyft app and immediately get a request which excites me.
It's going to be a good day
I drive to 2319 Jefferson Drive and wait outside for a guy named Cyrus. I inwardly laugh at the irony. I almost got pretty serious with a guy named Cyrus after Reed and I broke up. Things were going great...really great...until I ghosted him.
I'm dumb. I know already.
Feelings came too strong for me too quickly at once and I handled them poorly. I'd change things if I could but I'm too chicken to reach out and too upset with my life to try to have a good constant in it for once.
As I hear a knock on my window, I glance up and my heart almost stops.
It is Cyrus. The same one I ghosted.
He didn't have a Lyft picture set so I didn't know if it would be him but if we're being honest...
He's never looked better. He got some glasses and was dressed very professionally. I knew he would be successful. He's great.
Damn it...I suck for messing that up. I've got regrets.
As I stare at him in thought, he gives me a look and raises an eyebrow. "Can I...get in? It's cold out here." He asked and I unlocked my doors quickly while nodding. Cyrus quickly gets in and I start the app up again. As I start his ride, I notice he's going 30 minutes away from his house.
30 minutes of awkwardness with the man you ghosted. Awesome. He should hate me. I'm not going to speak unless he does. I don't want to make him uncomfortable. The occasional text message dings go off but I turn that off as we're at a red light a couple of minutes later.
About ten minutes of awkwardness in, Cyrus finally speaks up.
"I see your phone works. Same phone model and all."
and it's starting...
I feel myself just nod and look ahead. I'm scared that no matter what I say, it won't make sense and come out wrong.
"I also see that you can pay your phone bill. Text messages are going off." He says again while looking out the window. I inwardly feel pain but try to lyft (get it?) the mood.
"I see you're observant." I joke but Cyrus doesn't laugh. I guess that was a bad joke but in my defense, I'm feeling way too many emotions right now to think.
"You know TJ, I really liked you. I really f**king liked you." He says bitterly. "I'm used to getting ghosted, but ghosted by someone you talked to every day for almost a year? Now that's new to me." As I approach a stoplight, I glance in my mirror to see Cyrus looking at me.
"Can I- Can I just know why? What'd I do?" He whispered and I almost started crying.
"Cyrus, your last name isn't Goodman for no reason. You're a good man. I'm the one who-" before I could finish, I hear a honk and realize the light is green. I look at the back cars sheepishly and start driving again.
"You suck at driving," Cyrus says and I scoff. "And love and yet here we are. I'm driving you somewhere."
I glance at my phone and see it's been 15 minutes. Halfway there. Halfway there. Maybe if I keep repeating it, this will go by faster.
"Maybe you should consider another job...Perhaps one where being bad at something is actually a good thing." Cyrus says. I glance at him and he smiles sarcastically a bit before deflating.
We get quiet before I finally speak up.
"Cyrus, I'm sorry. I would definitely hate me too. We were going in a great direction and I loved the dates and the laughs we had and how you always knew what to say when I wasn't having a good day."
"Then what was the issue? I liked those exact same things about you. I know we weren't official but we were getting there...right? And I thought you were going to ask me to be your boy-"
"It felt too real okay?! It felt too real." I exclaimed and then sigh. "You made me feel things my last boyfriend didn't even make me feel and I realized it all in a very short timespan and then everything felt too much. My heart raced even more than it usually did around you. Every date felt like I was going to explode because I was scared to mess up. I didn't want to lose you or what we had but I've been burned before."
Cyrus gasps quietly before letting me continue. I glance at my phone and see we are 2 minutes away now. "You know about Reed but you don't know what he did. He cheated on me and our relationship before that...felt like where were going but on a bit of a lesser scale. I didn't want to get hurt again so I ran."
Cyrus gets quiet as I pull up by the office building he requested.
"I wish you would have told me. We could have talked about it Teej" Cyrus whispered and looked at me in the driver mirror. I turned to face him.
"Cyrus...I have regretted not doing that the minute I realized the mistake I made. It just...felt too late." I sighed. Cyrus gets quiet again before responding.
"It's not too late. We'll have to work on communication...obviously" he says joking before continuing "but I have always thought about you. If you'd like to try again..." he says, twiddling his fingers before putting a pinky out.
"Pinky promise you'll talk to me."
"Cyrus...we're 21."
"I'm sorry. When did pinky promises expire? Oh yeah. Never" He said, staring into my eyes.
I have never seen a man so serious about a pinky promise
I promised and he got excited and I gave him my number again before he exited the car. As he took a couple of steps out, I called to him.
"Cyrus...before you go...?"
"Yeah?" He says turning around.
"Please rate me 5 stars on the app. It would really mean a lot." I say with a cheesy smile. Every driver says that. It's true though! I really don't have another job. I could use it.
Might even get a bonus.
"Oh hell no. You're one of those dramatic drivers. I'm downrating you." He jokes with me.
"Hey! I poured my heart out to you man. I don't do that to just anyone!" I cried out.
"And you better not..." Cyrus said with a smile.
"Wouldn't dream of it. Do you need a ride home Cy?" I ask before going to my next ride.
"I do actually. 5PM. You know where to get me. Don't ghost me."
I chuckle a little before responding. "Two things you should know about me...I never make the same mistake twice...and I never break pinky promises"
We both smile at each other before I head to pick up DD at Pizza Hut.
*Two years later*
"Hey Cyrus, I realized something the other day and I wanted to ask you" I said as we held hands by the beach. We decided to celebrate our two year here because Cyrus wanted to make a heart with our initials in the sand today.
I love this man more and more every day.
"Sure. What is it?"
"You saw my picture when you made the Lyft those years ago. Why didn't you cancel if you knew it was me?"
"Teej, my heart wants to say it was cause I knew it was meant to be." He says and kisses my hand before continuing.
"Reality was...I had two Lyft drivers cancel before and if I had canceled on you, I would have been late to work. I needed you." He said laughing and I groan.
Couple. Goals.
|||||||Fin|||||||||
This was so much fun! Made me miss writing them a bit. Hope you enjoyed it! Thank you @JtotheC28 for the hilarious comments and love as well as @ChaoticGoodFryingPan for all the love! They liked basically every one shot and that made my heart so happy. They're the reason I came back on here. <3
But 1,070 likes and don't get me started on the reads! Over 400K! You all are awesomeeee!
Happy Thanksgiving / November 25 :)
-D'Ahna