Jackson had spent the past few minutes in the boys bathroom trying to psyche himself up. It wasn't a date, just an outing with a friend. Potential friend. He took a deep breath and walked out of the school and over to the tree where Eric was standing. He gave him a slight smile and waved, "Uh, hey Eric!"
Eric looked up, smiling. "Hey, Jaz!" He said, pulling his hand away from his hair. Okay, so you look like a mess, but he's here, so don't be stupid.
"Are you ready to go?" Jackson grinned over at Eric. He needed to not be stupid or do anything stupid again.
"Yep!" He said, shoving his hands in his pockets so he wouldn't fidget as much. "Lead the way."
Jackson nodded and fidgeted with his strap as he started walking off the school property, "So, uh, how was your day?"
"Pretty good. Yours?" He asked, walking with him. Okay, so far so good…
"Pretty good as well," Jax shot him a quick grin, "So ice cream right?"
Eric nodded, grinning childishly. "Yeah!" He said.
Jackson was a little giddy at the moment, "What's your favorite flavor?"
"Chocolate." He said, adjusting his bag over his shoulder. "What's yours?"
"Shockingly, vanilla," Jackson responded, "Plain and boring, but you can do so much with it."
"Fair enough." He said, shrugging.
Jackson continued walking in silence for a few moments, "So are you apart of any activities at school? Or out of school?"
Eric thought for a moment. "I mean, I play guitar, but I'm not sure if it really counts as an activity. It's really just me covering the Ramones alone in my room."
"Is that a band?" Jackson didn't recognize the name, "And playing the guitar is pretty cool."
"Yeah!" Eric said, a bit excited. "They practically invented the punk sound! I mean they had some issues-" He started rambling, grinning.
Jackson just stayed silent and watched Eric ramble. The other boy was so passionate about this and Jax was enthralled with him.
Eric realized what he was doing suddenly, cutting himself off. "Sorry, you probably don't really care…" He mumbled, looking down.
"No, I do!" Jackson quickly responded, "I mean, it was really interesting Eric."
"Nah, it's fine." Eric said, smiling. "What do you do?"
"I play on the hockey team and I'm in most of the school's choirs," Jackson responded, "No instruments here."
"Well, ya probably sound better than me." He said, laughing slightly.
"What? As a singer?" Jax asked trying to confirm that much.
Eric nodded. "Yeah. I sound like dying cat." No stop you sound really self centered right now you idiot just stop
"You can't be that bad," Jax said thoughtfully, "My experience has told me people who think they are awful at singing, really aren't."