Alexa's POV:
When I arrived at the park I found Tate sitting on a bench at its edge waiting for me, "Hey."
"Hey," he smiled as he stood and kissed me. "Are you hungry?"
"A little," I shrugged. "What are we having for dinner anyways."
"I can only really afford fast food tonight," Tate admitted as he rubbed the back of his head, tousling his blonde hair.
I gave him a quick kiss, "That's fine with me. Where do you want to go? McDonald's? Burger King? Wendy's?"
"You can pick," he smiled.
"Can we go to Wendy's?" I asked.
"Sure," Tate chuckled. "If that's what you'd like, that's where we'll go."
When we arrived at Wendy's, we ordered our meals. We both got Baconators and we decided to split an order of Baconator fries. I got a large Dr. Pepper with my burger and Tate got a large Coke with his.
"This is really good," Tate said as he swallowed a mouthful of burger, cheese, and bacon.
"Have you never had a Baconator burger before?" I asked.
"No, I haven't," he answered.
"What?" I asked in disbelief.
"I've never had a Baconator before," Tate repeated.
"How?" I asked.
Tate shrugged, "I don't know. I don't get Wendy's very much I guess."
Tate's POV:
After dinner Alexa and I took a long walk to the beach. We watched the sun go down over the water, as the sky went from blue to purple to pink to orange until finally it turned to the black velvet sky of night sprinkled with glittering stars.
Alexa started shivering at one point when the cool ocean breeze reached where we sat on the beach. I gave her my cardigan and started a small bonfire to help warm her back up.
We sat there; Alexa with her head on my shoulder snuggled up close to my side and me with my arm around her shoulders, enjoying each other's company by the warm glow of the fire and the pale white glow of the full moon overhead.
I kissed the top of Alexa's head, "I love you, Alexa."
She angled her face up and kissed my jaw before returning to her previous position, "I love you too, Tate. The ocean looks so pretty sparkling in the moonlight. And the sound of the waves breaking on the sand is so relaxing."
"Yeah," I agreed. "I used to come here a lot. When the world would close in and get so small I couldn't breathe. And I'd look at the ocean and say, 'Yo douchbag! High school counts for jack shit!' Kurt Cobain, Quentin Tarentino, Brando, DeNiro, Pachino. All high school dropouts. I hated high school. So, I'd come here and look at this vast, limitless expanse and it's like, that's your life man. You can do anything. You can be anything. Screw high school, that's just a blip in your timeline. Don't get stuck there."
Alexa looked up at me and I gave her a kiss before she laid her head back down on my shoulder, "High school's the shits."
"Yeah," I agreed. I checked the time on my phone; it was 10:30PM already, "I should probably get you home. It's getting late and you look tired."
Alexa took her phone out of the right-front pocket of her jeans and checked the time herself, "Crap! Is it really ten-thirty-five right now? My curfew is eleven on the weekends and it took us, like, forty-five or so minutes to walk here from Wendy's. My house is farther then Wendy's is from here. We'll never make it to my house in time for curfew if we try walking back. It'll take us at least a little or an hour to reach my house from here on foot."
"What will happen if you're caught breaking curfew?" I asked as I helped Alexa to her feet.
"Knowing my dad, he'll probably ground me for a week and take away my phone and laptop for the duration of my punishment," she answered bitterly.
"He can't do that! If he takes away your phone and laptop, how would we be able to talk to each other? Or plan times to hang out together?" I asked.
"I know," Alexa nodded with a heavy sigh. "I hate to ask you this, Tate, but how much money do you have left after paying for dinner? Do you think you have enough to pay a cab to take us to my house if I were to call one to pick us up?"
I reached into my back-left pocket of my jeans and pulled out my wallet, "Call cab service and find out how much it'd cost to be taken to Murder House from Venice Beach while I count the money I have left in my wallet."
"Okay," Alexa nodded as she typed 'cab service los angeles' into her phone's web browser. She found a company and put her phone to her ear, "Hi. I was wondering, how much it would cost for you to pick me and my boyfriend up at Venice Beach and drop us off at Murder House?"
I briefly looked up from my wallet with a smile at her mention of the word 'boyfriend,' but then went right back to counting my money. "Twenty-five...Thirty...Thirty-two...Thirty-seven...Forty," muttered then turned to Alexa, "I've got forty dollars left."
"You said it'll cost twenty-seven-fifty?" she asked into her phone. "Okay. Great. We'll see you in a few minutes. Thanks. Bye."
"What'd they say? When will they be here to get us?" I asked as I slid my wallet back into the pocket it came out of.
"They said it'll cost twenty-seven-fifty for the ride and that they'll be here in, like, five minutes," Alexa answered as she put her phone away. "We'd better get to the parking lot to wait for him."
"Yeah," I agreed.
Alexa's POV:
Tate looked at me with warm eyes and a content smile.
"What?" I asked with a chuckle.
"What do you mean?" Tate asked as a larger smile played at the corners of his mouth.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked with another chuckle.
"You called me your boyfriend when you were talking to the cab guy on the phone," he answered.
""Yeah?" I chuckled. "Aren't you my boyfriend, Tate? Wasn't this, like, our first official date?"
Tate's POV:
"You want me to be your boyfriend?" I asked.
"Yeah," Alexa nodded as she bit her lower lip and smiled softly up at me. "You're my best friend, Tate. You're the only one that I feel really understands me around here. You're the only I truly trust and the only one I know would never try to hurt me. I love you, Tate." She kissed my cheek.
"I love you too, Alexa," I replied as I hugged her tightly. "C'mon. Let's go to the parking lot to wait for our cab."
"Okay," she nodded and we began walking.
"You should probably call your dad," I said. "You know, tell him you might be a little late coming home?"
"You're right," Alexa sighed as she took her phone back out and called her dad.
On the cab ride back to Alexa's house, she fell asleep with her head resting on my lap and her body curled up into a tight ball to fit on the seat. I leaned down and kissed her exposed temple.
When we arrived at her house, I tried to wake Alexa up to get her to go inside but she wouldn't wake up. I scooped her up in my arms and carried her from the cab to her bedroom, making sure to be as silent as possible to not alert Dr. Pierce of my presence.
I laid Alexa down in her bed, removed her combat boots from her feet, tucked her in under the covers, and kissed her goodnight. "Goodnight Alexa," I whispered in her ear. "Sweet dreams. I love you."
"Goodnight Tate," she grumbled in her sleep. "I love you too."
After that I left her room and the house.
