Chapter 31. The First Date

Start from the beginning
                                    

"It's not gonna happen again. I won't let it."

We get out of the car and notice our surroundings. A park. We're at a park.

Over on the grass is a red and white checkered blanket with a picnic basket laid on top. Next to it is a frisbee, a soccer ball, and Hunter's For The Love Of Music guitar.

We exchange glances before walking over to the creation our friends have made.

I sit down and so does he. We sit in silence for a few moments just taking it all in.

The sun is setting and the wind is blowing just enough to move the tree tops, but nit enough to make it chilly. The green grass is perfectly groomed, and for a public park, it is really well kept.

"Are you hungry?" Hunter says bringing me back to earth.

"Yeah. Sure," I say.

He opens the picnic basket and inside a container of pasta, 2 chicken Cesar salad wraps and chocolate cake. The pasta is still warm, so our friends must have not been far behind us.

"They planned literally everything," I said. I take out the containers and place them on the blanket.

"Yeah, and recently because I had my guitar an hour ago,".

We look around. They could still be here. It wouldn't surprise me if they were. They've been setting us up for so long that they are bound to see if their master plan had worked.

"Do you think they're here?" He asks.

"Wouldn't surprise me,".

"I hope not," Hunter says. "I want to spend time with you without someone looking over our shoulder,".

"Me too,".

The bushes next to us rustled an out pops none other than Katherine... With Sam and Matt trailing not far behind her.

"Don't mind us..." Katherine said as she speeded away

"We were just leaving," Sam continued.

Hunter rubbed his head with his hand in frustration. "You better be leaving,".

"Aww you two want your privacy," Katherine cooed.

"YES. KINDA," I snapped back. Her and the two band members walked away back to their car. We didn't resume our conversation until they drove away.

"Now that they're gone we can actually talk," I say. I take a giant bite of my wrap, forgetting that there is a 4 time grammy nominee sitting across from me.

"Ok. Well I still don't know a ton about you so.." He paused for a moment, "What's your favorite color,".

"Turquoise. You?"

"Green. Favorite subject?"

"English. You?"

"Music. Favorite food?"

"Ice cream. You?"

"Gumbo. Favorite place,"

It went on like this for 20 minutes. We were just learning about each other. O found out that his favorite cookies are Oreos and much more.

It's not a deep conversation, but it's a fun one. We sat there eating our food while we were just hitting each other with the questions.

"Get up, Hayes," I say. I stand up and kick off my wedges.

"What are we doing?" He stands up next to me and I go and grab the soccer ball.

"You, my friend, are going to learn how to play soccer,".

"Laurel," Hunter began, "I'm not athletic,".

"Neither am I so we're gonna work through this together," I laughed and kicked the ball towards him.

"Deal?".

"Deal,".
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Hunter's POV

Never again. Never again will I play soccer with Laurel. She kinda forgot to mention that her dad is a soccer coach and her brothers were state all stars.

That would have been useful information. Maybe I wouldn't have been humiliated by my lack of soccer skills.

Laurel was totally cool about it though. She tried to help me and she's a good teacher, but I'm a horrible student. Baseball, maybe. Hockey, if there's no ice. I can shoot a puck, but soccer apparently isn't my thing.

I should probably stick to music. I have no future career as a professional athlete. God, I hope I can do this job forever. I can't do anything else.

We sat back down on the picnic blanket and sat there for a moment. It's a first date. It's gonna be awkward.

"Well since we got this," I said as I reached across the blanket for my guitar. ", I might as well play you something,"

Her eyes lit up as I said this. I would've never imagined that those eyes could have ever harbored such hatred towards herself.

"What are you gonna play," She asked eagerly. She reminded me of a kid on Christmas morning. She leaned forward in anticipation.

Then I remembered something: The Divergent Song. I figured out the music earlier. She would love this.

I began to strum the chords and looked in her eyes. She didn't know the song, so she was a little confused until I started singing:

"The world
Used to be cold
No light
would ever get through
There you stood
Close to me
Letting go of your hope and light
And giving it to me"

She recognized that this was indeed her song and looked stunned. I sang the rest of it and then she asked, "How do you know that?".

"Diary," I replied simply.

"But-but the music,"

"For you,".

She blushed and said, "Why do you like me so much? People ship you with Selena Gomez and you're here talking to me,".

"Because even when you didn't know who I was you liked me. Because everything you wrote in that diary had meaning that I could connect to. You drew me in without me even seeing you. I can't explain love .,".

She ignored the fact that I said love and I was glad because it just slipped out. Maybe I do love her, but we've only been dating for a day. I can't actually love her, right?

"So you're leaving tomorrow..." She said. She turned her head and looked down.

"I have to, but I'm going to call you, text you, video chat with you every chance I get,".

"You better, Hayes. Because I don't know what I'm going to do without you,".

"Same. But I'll always be here,". She looked up at me and her face was only inches away from mine.

"I know. You were always here,".

I kissed her.

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Hellooo!! HAPPY STORYLINE DAY!!!! How are y'all? What did you think of the chapter?

Hearts and Rockets,

Julia

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