I never thought that I’d get stuck in a situation like this. I’ve been on long adrenaline binges, purposely ran across a highway for the thrill, and even ran through red lights just so I could feel my heartbeat racing in my chest like it’s about to explode. And after a few minutes, my body would return to normal; I loved that rush. But just thinking about what’s going to happen is making me get that rush again, but I don’t like it this time. I don’t feel that joy that comes from that thrill: this is nervousness, but much more intense.

The longer I watch the people walking by in front of me, the more I begin to wonder where she is. We agreed to meet in front of the park statue in the middle of town around noon. I got here first a few minutes early, so I decided to just sit on the steps of the statue to pass the time. The sky is a perfect tint of blue with a few small, baby clouds casually floating through. A gentle breeze blows around me, making my thin, black jacket move around a bit.

In the middle of the busy crowd walking by, there’s a girl with dark, orange hair in the middle. The instant I see her, my heart starts racing again all through my chest. Is that the person I’m waiting for? Did she remember where exactly where we agreed to meet? Why am I so worried about her seeing me right now? I was the one who asked for this, so I shouldn’t be the one worrying so much, right?

The girl looks around for a moment, but keeps walking along with the crowd. I guess that wasn’t “her.” I take a deep breath to try and bring my heartbeat back under control. The blood rush in my body made everything feel hot; even my spacious jeans feel a bit tighter from all of the worrying.

“I’m starting to think that this was a bad idea,” I whisper to myself. I run my fingers through my dyed green hair, making sure no strands are sticking out awkwardly. I pull out my phone and look at the screen. There’s no smudges on my face, or my glasses. Subconsciously, I flip through my messages to see if anything new popped up, but the last message I got was from Sam last night.

As I’m reading through the history, I can feel my face heating up; I’m probably blushing by now. “Why the hell did I let this happen…?”

Well, it’s too late now. If I text Sam now and say that I need to cancel, Sam’s going to be upset with me. And I’ll feel bad about it, too. What if I suddenly just get up and walk off somewhere long enough that Same decides to go home from waiting too long? No, that’s even worse. Plus it seems like I’m horrible at prioritizing things.

I let out a sigh and cross my arms under my breasts, contemplating what I should do. While I’m stuck in a deep thought about what I should do, I hear footsteps coming from behind me, but I don’t pay it any mind.

“Damn, I’m losing it here…”

“What are you losing?”

I jump at the sound of hearing a gentle, woman’s voice. I almost fall forward on my face, but I manage to keep my balance. Turning around, I get a look at who tried to sneak up on me.

The sunlight shining from behind her makes everything about her seem brighter than usual. Her dark orange hair glows with radiance, the light brown color of her eyes look like jewels in her head. Her long, yellow and pink spring dress compliments the curves of her body and the plain white sneakers she has on. My heartbeat reaches new speeds.

“S-S-Sam! Jesus, don’t sneak up on me like that!”

Sam’s peach face starts blushing a bit as she give me a small chuckle, “Sorry. I just couldn’t help myself. You looked so vulnerable sitting there for so long.”

She’s starting to pick up some of my habits. It’s cute. Wait, did she just saying “Sitting there for so long?”

Curious, I look at Sam dead in her eyes, “How long were you watching me?”

As soon as I bring it up, Sam starts rambling nonsense and flailing her arms around in a panic. I grab her arms and hold them down just in case she accidentally hits somebody. She finally manages to speak words that make sense.

“I was watching for about five minutes… I-I-It’s not what you think! I was nervous about our date today, so I had to take a minute to get ready and calm down.”

She sounds like me. I thought I was the only person freaking about the date today, but I guess I was wrong; I start laughing at how silly everything turn out.

“What’s so funny?! I was panicking about our date!”

I can’t control my laughter, so all I can do is just wave my hand at her showing that everything was okay.

— Inspired via Daily Prompt: Panic Panic

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