Oh, Dakota

29- Breathe

“Are you sure that this is a good idea?”

I shrugged at my brother. “I don’t know, but I’m doing it anyway.”

He rolled his eyes at me and crossed his arms. “Okay, well we’re coming with you.”

It was Saturday- the first time that Owen has talked to me since Tuesday- and I had just finished getting ready to get to the school so that I could meet up with the rest of the dance team so that we could leave for nationals. I had my bag packed and everything for the overnight stay.

“Who’s ‘we’?” I asked him curiously, stuffing my phone charger into my bag as the last thing I needed, so I was completely ready to go. It was pretty early, but our dad was already gone for his day with his friends, which was very fortunate for me because that would make it a lot easier to sneak out. Well, I wouldn’t consider it sneaking out, since I wasn’t being very sneaky, I was just leaving.

“Todd and Braeden and me,” He informed me.

“Why?” I asked him, trotting down the stairs and then into the kitchen.

“Because Todd wants to,” He sighed. “I guess he’s really worried about you or something.”

“Well, you can just tell him that he needs to mind his own business.” I grumbled. “And to stop overreacting about nothing.”

“Yeah, I’ll be sure to run that by him,” Owen nodded jokingly.

“Of course,” I muttered with an eye roll.

“Oh, and one more question before you go,” He informed me as I went to leave through the back door.

“What’s that?”

“Are we good?” He asked curiously, pulling a Hot Pocket out of the freezer.

“You and me?” I clarified, but I didn’t really need an answer, because I knew that’s what he was talking about. “I don’t know. I mean, I emailed Annie last night. I’m not going to stop talking to her.” I informed him truthfully.

“Well I’m not going to stop not being okay with it,” Owen told me, placing his Hot Pocket in the microwave.

“I’m not asking you to be okay with it,” I told him. “I never expected you to be okay with it actually.”

“Right, well we’ll just have to agree to disagree,” He sighed, finally waving the white flag. I mean, not really, but it was a nice enough truce and I was overly ecstatic to accept it.

“Yeah, we will,” I agreed with a nod. “But I really got to go or I’ll be late and then I’d get beheaded.”

“Okay,” He chuckled. “Here, take this Hot Pocket with you for breakfast.”

“No, eat it, Bradford is buying us breakfast,” I lied before hurrying out the door. I assumed that they would just drive up to the hotel where we were performing later today, because we didn’t actually perform for another few hours or so.

When I opened my car door, I was about to get in, but at the last second, I jumped back when I realized that there was a bouquet of flowers sitting on the seat where I was just about to put my butt. Curiously, I picked them up and noticed a small letter poking out from the flowers.

See? I told you I could be romantic. Good luck today
- Braeden

With a small giggle, I sat the flowers on the passenger seat and got in to drive to the school. I was actually really surprised that Braeden had gotten me flowers and creepily found a way to get them in my car that morning. I didn’t think that I had like, led him on or anything, even though I still wasn’t sure if I actually had feelings for him or not. I was 79% over Todd though, so I was sure that it would be okay to admit to myself that I had a crush on Braeden, if I really did. I’ve heard of people loving two people at once and not knowing who to choose, so I think that my situation is better than that, because I don’t love two people simultaneously, I just might like one person without being completely over another.