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Things had been different for a while now. Miguel didn’t know when things changed, when the platonic teasing turned into borderline flirting, when his eyes started to dart from you eyes to you lips in the middle of conversations, when you started to look away with an embarrassed smile when he stared at you for too long, when he could barely listen when you talked because all he could think about was how close you were and how easy it would be for him to kiss you right that second and how much he really, really wanted to do it but never did, but he was 100% sure he wasn’t imagining it.
He was aware of the fact that his love-struck teenage brain could be exaggerating everything, but he wasn’t oblivious. He knew something was definitely going on, to the point of getting teased about it to no end by your friends. The newfound tension and the sudden awkwardness were pretty hard to miss.
The thing is: how do you go from there? Miguel has always been pretty straight-forward, even though he didn’t really look like the part, so why was it so hard to find a good moment to ask you out when he was pretty positive that you’d say yes?
Waiting made it far, far worse. He thought maybe he’d give himself time, figure out a way to do it. Hey, maybe you’d end up asking him out first!
You didn’t. Everyday that passed he found himself staring more and more, lost in daydreams of kissing you, making you laugh, kissing you, holding your hand, kissing you.
Was this why you’d been avoiding him the past few days? He wasn’t dumb. It’s not like you were outright taking every opportunity you could to get away from him, but also it’s not like you were exactly taking any opportunities to hang out just the two of you, something you did pretty often after getting close. Was he being too weird? Too pushy? Were you flirting just for fun?
Standing back was not like him at all, and it was not doing him any good. So he went to Sensei for advice.
Johnny was holding a beer can when he opened his door. “What do you want?”
“I really need your help but you can’t make fun of me.”
“Can’t promise that,” he replied with a smile, and made way for Miguel to enter, which he did. “You want a beer?” he asked as Miguel sat down on the couch.
“I’m sixteen.”
“Do you want a beer or not?”
“No, not right now. Thanks.”
Sensei Lawrence just nodded, standing by the kitchen counter. “So what is it? Your mom find your porn or something?”
“What- no! Why is that the first thing you thought of?”
“Happened to me,” Sensei shrugged, nonchalantly.
Miguel made a disgusted face. “Please let’s not talk about that when you’re dating my mom.”
“Jesus, kid, what are you, a nun?” Johnny laughed and took a sip of his beer. “Okay, whatever. What happened?”
“I’m really into this girl.”
“She hot?”
Miguel made a point to ignore the question. “She’s really cool and I think she likes me too.”
“Is she hot?”
“Sensei- yeah. Okay, she’s hot.”
“Nice.”
“Can I go on now?”
“Sure.”
“Okay so we’re friends, right. And we’ve been friends for months now but like I feel like we’ve been flirting? But never really doing anything about it. But I want to.”
“So? Just ask her out.”
“I know! But I don’t know how to.”
“Thought you were more of a ‘just ask’ kind of guy.”
“I- I am! It’s just, I don’t know what it is, it’s easier when you don’t know them that well, you know? Cause like why would she not make a move? Maybe she just wants to stay friends.”
“Then why would she flirt with you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who is it?”
“What, I’m not telling you-”
“Y/n?” He guessed, and Miguel wasn’t fast enough to hide his surprise.
“How’d you know?”
“Guessed. But your face made it pretty obvious, maybe work on that.”
“Okay, what do I do?”
“Okay, you know what you gotta do? You gotta not be a pussy. Make her like a giant poster and ask her out at school, girls love that shit.”
“Um I don’t think she’d like that. Seems pretty embarrassing.”
“It’s not embarrassing if you’re not a pussy about it.”
“Do you have any… less public option?”
“Oh you want a real intimate option?’
“No- oh my God, Sensei.”
Sensei Lawrence laughed. “Just play her a song or some shit. Set the mood. Then ask her out. Chicks dig musicians, kid.”
“But I don’t play anything. Or sing.”
“And what am I supposed to do about that? Now come on I got things to do,” Johnny motioned for him to get up, and he did so.
“You do?”
“Don’t question me!”
Miguel put his arm up in surrender, walking out the door.
The rest of his day was spent desperately trying to learn the chords to some song he’d seen you listen to once, on his mom’s old kulele. It wasn’t going well. He looked at the time, 7:43. It was getting late. He would have to make do. He wasn’t delaying this any longer.
He took about 15 minutes to figure out what hoodie to wear and 10 more to fix his hair. He walked up to your house with the ukulele in hand, feeling nothing short of ridiculous. He wondered if maybe he should have waited until he was a little better at playing. He kept on walking until he reached your front door.
To his luck, you were the one to open it. “Miguel?’
“Hey.”
“Hey. What are you doing here?” It wasn’t rude, just curious. Maybe he should have warned you he was coming.
“Uh I was just- wondering if I could show you something.” He held up the instrument in his hand.
“A song?”
“Well, yeah. If you want.”
“I didn’t know you played.”
“I didn’t. I uh. Picked it up today. Just thought you’d like it.”
“Okay, yeah. Come in.” You were still visibly confused. Maybe he should have planned this better. You made way for him to get in and closed the door behind you when he did. You walked up in front of him. “Come on.” Upstairs? To… your room?
This was already not going like he thought it would. “Aren’t your parents home?”
“They’re at some party or something. I don’t know,” you explained as you lead the way.
You entered your bedroom and sat on the edge of your bed, Miguel hesitantly doing the same, sitting down right beside you.
“Okay. So what are you gonna play?”
“Uh you know that song you like? The one you were listening to when you were training after practice that day? That Hawk was like telling you to skip?”
You laughed at the memory. “I guess.”
“Yeah that’s uh- that’s what I’m gonna play.”
He was feeling way too self-aware now. Maybe coming over to perform a song he was yet to learn correctly was not the best idea. What was he thinking?
“So?” You pushed him out of his thoughts. He cleared his throat. There was no way he could back down now. Shit.
He played the first chords and started singing. It all sounded deeply, extremely wrong, and he knew it. It was terribly bad, pure chicken scratch. If voice cracks had voice cracks, that’s what they’d sound like. He barely got through the first chorus before stopping himself from any further embarrassment. He’d made a point of not looking at you while he played, but finally mustered up the courage to after he stopped.
He couldn’t say you looked too impressed. Just… amused, at best. And not necessarily in a good way.
“I started learning it this afternoon, so…” he tried explaining himself.
“Oh it’s uh- it’s pretty- pretty good for something you learned in just a few hours.”
“You can say it’s terrible, I just wanted to- I just wanted to show you. I picked the song ‘cause you like it so much.”
“It’s not terrible! It’s a great song. And it’s pretty cool that you learned it because of me.”
There was an awkward silence that followed. This moment, right here, right after he finished playing, was when Miguel imagined he would be asking you out. You'd say yes, maybe you’d kiss him if he was lucky. But the Miguel in his head had done a great job with the song. The real him… obviously hadn’t.
“Why did you wanna show it to me? I mean you just learned it.”
He was taken aback by the question. He decided he’s best be honest, now that he knew he officially had no chance with you. He sighed. “Honestly?”
You nodded yes.
“I really, really wanted to ask you out. But I didn’t know how to do it, so I went to Sensei. He said girls like musicians so I thought I'd do something cool and play you a song you liked. It obviously didn't work,” he laughed, defeated.
You were quiet for a moment, processing what he just told you. Hold up, he was gonna ask you out? “You learned a song I liked. To ask me out?”
“I know, it’s dumb, and obviously I ruined the mood with the bad singing, but-”
You kissed him. He was rambling like an idiot and he’d just given you the worst ever serenade of all time and you kissed him. He was even able to react, just looking at you with his eyes wide as you pulled away as quickly as you leaned in. You kissed him, you kissed him, you kissed him, holy shit.
“I thought-”
“You didn’t ruin the mood. Now ask me out!” You said, now sporting a dumb smile he thought was the cutest thing ever. Could you just look at him like that all the time?
Miguel couldn’t help but mirror your excitement, grinning like an idiot. “Do you wanna go out with me?”
“As long as you don’t ever try to serenade me ever again.”
“You said it wasn’t so bad!”
“I was lying,” you laughed.
“Then why’d you kiss me?” He raised his eyebrow, teasing you.
“What, did you not want me to?”
“I don’t know. I think you should do it again.”