REALLY ✓

6: The Ride Along

"Good evening, Mr. Harrison. Your table is ready for you," a waiter appeared out of nowhere and he gestured to a table right by the ocean, surrounded with white flowers and little candles.

"Wow," I gasped and he just grinned at me, leading me towards our table.

Well daaamn, Blake Harrison could do a mean first date.

We sat across each other on this little table by the ocean. There was no one else around, it was just us.

"Is it normally this quiet here?"

"No, not really. I actually booked the whole place to ourselves," he smiled brightly.

I didn't know if I should be surprised or intimidated. Or both.

Our dinner was unbelievably great. The night breeze was lovely and the food was amazing. We even shared a molten chocolate cake for dessert. We talked about everything from school, to families, and even about our future.

For as long as he could remember, Blake's dad always wanted him to go to an Ivy League school. Blake's got his eyes set on Princeton as of late, to study business or law. He'd be visiting the campus early next year for an interview.

When he asked me where do I want to go for college, I told him that I didn't know yet, that I was still keeping my options open. He suggested a few places that I might like, and they were all out-of-state colleges. Blake was really excited about going to college and his excitement was contagious. "There's a brand new world out there waiting for us," he beamed.

"Hey, I got this really big book filled with all the information on colleges in the country. I'll bring it over for you sometime. I could help you look?" he offered sweetly and I couldn't nod my head fast enough.

*

We drove back home after dinner, with our hands clasped together and we listened to the songs in his car. 

"You wanna pick the next song?" he asked, giving me his phone.

I took it and started going through his Spotify playlist, when suddenly, there was a text notification from Viviane.

"Um, you got a text. From Viviane," I said shortly.

"Just leave it. I'll answer it later,"

"Why's Viviane texting you?"

"Ah, you know, she just always does that," he shrugged.

"...And you replied?"

"Well, I'm just being polite,"

I could be the cool and levelheaded person and just drop it, but somehow this didn't sit well with me.

"Were you guys ever a thing?" I pressed on.

"Yeah... in the past. We fooled around once or twice. But, I don't like her like that. I tried to tell her, but she's just not getting the hint, you know," he was starting to look uncomfortable. "Can we talk about something else, please?" he said again.

"So, am I just... another Viviane to you?" I wasn't ready to drop the subject just yet.

"What?" his eyes shot up.

"I'm just trying to understand what we are... Are we just friends? Are we dating?"

"Oh, I—uh, I mean, we're not exclusive or anything yet... but, I really do like you—" he stammered.