Disclaimer - This story is fictional. I am in no way associated to Hayden Christensen, nor do I claim to know his sexual preference. This story has elements of same sex relationship which may not be suitable to all audiences. My use of Star Wars references are in no way licensed, and is owned by George Lucas and Lucasfilm.
The girl across the street yelled out, "OH MY GOD, it's that guy from that movie!"
Hayden and Tyrone both froze, but oddly enough, the girl wasnt pointing in their direction, she was pointing to another two men who were of African American appearance, one was dressed in a brown seude jacket and jeans, and the other was dressed in a long, black, knee length jacket with a black beret, they were both a little over 6 foot tall. Tyrone and Hayden both tried to get a better look at the man in the beret. They both instantly recognised him as Lawrence Fishburne, from "The Matrix". Hayden looked almost uneasy. Tyrone saw it out of the corner of his eye. Lawrence and his friend jumped into their nearby parked car and took off down the road with the girl looking speechless.
"Oh wow, I forgot they were filming the Matrix in Sydney..." Tyrone stopped himself before he said the word 'aswell'.
"Oh yeah" Hayden said, quickly darting across the street to the restaurant. They both decided to themselves that they wouldn't talk about seeing Lawrence Fishburne incase it lead up to talking about Hayden's movie.
They entered the pizzeria. There were about 15 people having dinner, all engrosed in their own conversations. The restaurant, like most other restaurants was dimly lit by sconces that were on the wall and small candles on the table. Tyrone remembered it being less romantic than this, last time he was here. He made eye contact with one of the waiters. The waiter approached them.
"Table for two?", the waiter said.
"Yes, please." Tyrone replied.
"This way gentlemen". The waiter led them to a two seater table in the middle of the dining room floor. Tyrone looked up at Hayden, who still seemed a little uneasy from the earlier incident in the street.
"Is it OK if we take one of the booths?" he asked, nodding towards one of the booths which was against the side wall of the restaurant.
"Ofcourse sir" the waiter replied. He led them to the booth and handed them each a menu. Tyrone and Hayden took their seats.
"Would you like any drinks to start with?" the waiter asked.
"I'll have a Coke" Tyrone said.
"Make that two please?" nodded Hayden. The waiter left to get their drinks. Tyrone scanned the menu, trying to look like he was interested. He was still much too excited to have an appetite, besides, his stomach was still doing backflips at the thought that he was here with Hayden. Hayden on the other hand was finding it hard to relax, but tried to hide it from Tyrone.
"Thats weird" Hayden said.
"What?"
"They don't have any ashtrays" Hayden said, looking around at the other tables, pulling out a soft pack of cigarettes.
"Uh, you arent actually allowed to smoke INSIDE the restaurants here", Tyrone warned.
"Bummer," Hayden said "if I keep going like this, I'm REALLY going to have to quit"
"Well, you know what they say. Smoking may harm your unborn baby", Tyrone mentally rolled his own eyes at his stupid joke, and sat on his hands to keep them warm and stop them from shivering.
Hayden managed a light chuckle. "So what's good here?" he said, picking up the menu.
"There's this nice one called a Mancini Special" Tyrone said.
Hayden found it on the menu and read it out loud. "Here we go, Mancini Special. Slices of grilled chicken, avocado, sun-dried tomatoes, capsicum, mushrooms and pine nuts, with swiss and mozarella cheese. Oh wow."
"Yeah, we can get that in family size. It will be big enough for the two of us" Tyrone said.
"Great, we'll have that then." Hayden said, trying to make contact with one of the waiters.
The waiter who was serving them earlier came back. "Are you ready to order?" he asked, pulling out a pad and pen.
"Yes, we'll have the family size Mancini Special, thanks", Tyrone answered.
"Would you like any garlic bread to start with at all?" he asked.
Tyrone looked at Hayden. "No, I'm fine", he told Tyrone.
"We'll just have that thanks." Tyrone said.
"Great, I'll have your drinks brought over to you", the waiter said, before turning away.
Hayden picked up the salt shaker and fiddled with it.
"How often do you smoke?" Tyrone asked.
"Ah, I only really do it when I want to relax." Hayden replied.
"Seems like you could do with some down time" Tyrone said.
"Ah no, I think I'll be quite busy for a while. I rarely get time to do stuff of my own. So, you're turning 21 a few days?". Hayden realised where the conversation was heading so he tried to make a smooth switch of topic.
Tyrone sensed it and played along. "Yeah, actually, my Mum and I have arranged this huge party for next Saturday. It's lucky that my birthday falls on that day too. We're going to have it at Star City Hotel, it's going to be a masquerade party. Hey you should come!" Tyrone said, wondering why he hadnt thought of that before.
Hayden smiled. "I dunno, I wasnt invited" he teased.
"Look, if you really want a formal invitation I will get one for you" Tyrone's eyes sparkled at the thought that Hayden would be at his 21st. He was fast falling for Hayden's charming ways.
Hayden thought about his schedule and whether or not he should agree to this since he may be tied up with shooting the movie. He wanted to be at Tyrone's party, but at the same time, he had his commitment to George (Lucas) and the others. "How about you get me that invitation before I decide to RSVP" he said.
"Well I wont be able to give you one unless I see you again?" Tyrone said, slyly.
Hayden wasnt sure when he could commit to seeing Tyrone again either. "How about you leave me the invitation at the hotel sometime tomorrow and I will get it from the desk when I am free or something?"
"Yeah, I can do that, my college is basically a few blocks down from the Sheraton, I can have it written out tonight and drop it off after college tomorrow." Tyrone said.
"Great", Hayden said. "So it's a masquerade party huh? How many people are you expecting?"
"Hmmm, at this point anything from 150 to 200." Tyrone said.
"Oh my god! That's not a 21st, that's a wedding reception!"
"No" Tyrone said with a laugh "Look,this is how i figure it, I dont think that I will ever have another chance to have a party like this in the future. You know? I'm never going to have a huge wedding type of celebration thing, so I figure that I should just use my 21st as en excuse to do something similar to that."
"Ah, yeah good idea" Hayden said.
Tyrone's phone rang. He had placed it on the table with his car keys. He jumped, as if he had been woken up rudely from a beautiful dream. He picked it up and looked at the display. It read, "Pauline". He cursed himself silently for not turning it off. He wanted a little privacy for Hayden and himself while they had dinner, plus, it was just good manners to have your mobile phone turned off while you were out having dinner.
"Um, its my friend, do you mind if I take this outside?" he asked Hayden.
"No, go ahead."
"Thanks". Tyrone walked out of the restaurant and pressed the "Answer" button.
"Hello?"
"Hey, so did he call?" Pauline piped from the other end of the phone.
"Yes, we're having dinner at Double Bay at the moment! I have to go, I dont want to be rude to him."
"Oh! Score! Well let me know how it goes!" she said.
"OK, I'll call you later tonight or something" he said.
"OK Bye!"
Tyrone hung up and returned to the table. Hayden looked at him with a smile. "Who was your friend?" he asked.
"Oh, my best friend" Tyrone said.
"A male friend?" Hayden asked, trying to delve.
Tyrone laughed. "No no, she's a girl that I worked with at my old job. We've known each other for ages!" He tried to think of a reason he could tell Hayden as to why she rang, "She just wanted to know if I taped Friends the other night".
Hayden was relieved to find out that his best friend was female. He was really starting to be keen on Tyrone. He didnt realise that he was developing a crush as well.
"Hello!" came a female voice. It was a female waitress, with their drinks. "Two cokes?" she said, half asking, half telling them.
They both thanked her.
"So, you didnt tell me yesterday if you were seeing anyone." Hayden said.
Tyrone's eyes darted from Hayden to his drink. He played with the straw, stirring the ice around in his glass. "Nah, the last guy I was with really fucked me over. We were dating for about a month, and I didnt realise that he was messing around with someone else on the side. That was about... Hmmm... Say, about 18 months ago?"
"Wow, so did you dump him?" Hayden asked, in an interested, yet concerned voice.
"No, actually, he sent me an email saying that he wasnt interested in seeing me anymore" Tyrone said, still looking down at his drink.
The first waiter came back, he was holding the pizza in a tray. Tyrone and Hayden cleared the middle part of the table so he could put this pizza down. "Enjoy your meal" he said politely, before disappearing back towards the kitchen.
"How about you?" Tyrone asked, cutting a slice out of the pizza with his knife.
"Oh, me? I barely have enough time to have a relationship with my family, let alone a boyfriend." Hayden caught himself, and changed the subject again. He had noticed that Tyrone was eating the pizza with his knife and fork. "Hey, you eat your pizza like that?", he said pointing at the knife and fork.
"Yeah, always have! I dont like using my hands when I eat pizza, I just think its less messy this way"
Hayden thought it was cute, but stopped himself from saying so. He simply laughed. "OK, I'll try it". He cut himself a slice of the pizza, placed it on his plate and carved out a piece. He tested it.
"Mmmmmmmm, this is pretty good", he said, almost sounding like an advertisement. He recalled having to repeat a similar line over and over again when he was plugging breakfast cereal in an advertisement back in Toronto when he was younger.
They kept conversation to a minimum while they ate. They were both very aware of how they ate in front of other people and didnt want to do anything stupid like spit out a piece and embarass themselves in front of the other. After they had both finished off their respective pieces they started picking at the left over pieces which were still on the tray with their fingers.
"That was really good" Hayden exclaimed, sipping from his glass.
Tyrone smiled. "I'm glad you liked it."
The waiter saw that they had finished and came back. "Can I get you gentlemen any dessert?"
"I could go for a chocolate peanut sundae, actually" Tyrone said looking at Hayden.
"Can I have a glass of water" Hayden said.
"Ah yes, me too please" said Tyrone.
"Shall I bring two spoons?" the waiter asked.
Tyrone looked at Hayden.
"Sure", Hayden said.
Tyrone was surprised. Hayden was comfortable enough to share a sundae with him from the same dish. He was shocked and pleased at the same time.
Soon enough, the waiter returned with the sundae and water. Tyrone and Hayden dove into it. They each thought to themselves how much like a couple they must have looked and they liked the idea. They had grown even fonder of each other from what they had talked about and done during dinner.
The sundae was scoffed up sooner than they expected. All that was left was the obligatory cherry which they had both politely left for the other to take instead. Thinking that the other wasnt interesting in it, they both reached for the cherry at the same time. Their hands touched each other as they both held the cherry. This was the first time they had made skin contact outside of a handshake. They looked up from the cherry and their gazes met. They looked deep into each other's eyes.
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