Best Friends

Chapter 8

I'm at my house right now.

I decided to wear skinny jeans, a blue sweatshirt, sunglasses, and bright blue converse. I put my hair in a ponytail and grab my bag.

I heard Braden's car pull in front of my house. My parents hadn't come home yet. It's been two weeks. I'm worried but didn't know what to do. I'm afraid to call the police because they might think my parents can't take care of me.

"Hey," I say, smiling and walking outside.

"Hi, beautiful," Braden smiled back at me and opened the car door for me.

"Thanks," I couldn't help but smiling.

"How's a movie then park sound?" He asked me, starting the car again.

"Sounds great," I tell him honestly.

Braden started driving and we hit the movie theaters. "What do you want to see?"

We looked at the movie choices once we were in there. "Anything is fine. What do you like?" I blushed, realizing how I sounded.

In the end, we decided on watching Echo.

After it was over, we go to the park and walk around. About two thirty in the afternoon, we have a picnic. Braden knows what I like to eat from a cute and cheesy survey he gave me.

There was coca-cola, chicken sandwiches, and sauces. We laughed, talked, and ate.

My heart had stopped hurting when I started dating Braden. I felt amazing again. I didn't have to pretend to be different. I realized it never would've worked with Jack anyways, we were too different. Jack was popular and I wasn't. Jack always wore nice, fancy, cool clothes. I wore whatever I liked. Braden wore whatever fit his style, and didn't try to fit in. I tried to fit in, for Jack. I realized I like standing out. And I like Braden. Braden and I have more in common than Jack and I do. Jack is a player, but I never noticed. Braden isn't. He's different than others.

"Hey." Braden laughed and waved a hand in front of my face.

"Yeah?" I was brought back to reality. But it wasn't different. It was great.

"You were off in space." He smiled.

"I was just thinking." I smiled back at him.

"Wanna swing?" Braden asked, teasing.

"Sure." I laughed and we put away the food and went to swing.

We talked about the movie, school, ourselves, music, books, pretty much anything. It continued that way for a few hours.

Braden's phone beeped. He looked at it, reading the message. "Hey, I've got to go. My mom needs my help with who knows what. I can still take you home, through."

"Are you sure? I can walk home."

"I couldn't let you do that. You could get hurt." Braden said, jumping off the swing. I jumped off and landed next to him.

I laughed lightly. "Go help your mom. I'll be fine." Braden took my hand and we walked to the picnic basket and he kisses me. I wasn't expecting that at all. Braden and I haven't kissed before. It was soft and sweet. It put butterflies in my stomach. I kissed him back. We only kiss for about a few minutes before we broke apart, taking a breath.

We stared at each other. I lifted our hands. "I'll see you later," I smile at him and lean up to kiss his cheek.

"See you," Braden says breathlessly, before kissing my forehead and we both walked away, stupid smiles etched on our faces.