Dear Neighbor Boy,

Second Double Dates Are No Better Than the First (Part 1)

"Whatever." They all said in monotone unison.

~~~~~~~

I ran outside with my mini backpack all packed when I heard Caleb's car honk.

"Hey, babe." He said in a smooth voice as I hopped in the car.

"Hi, Caleb." I strapped my seat belt on. I didn't know why, but it felt weird to call him babe, so I didn't.

"What podcast do you wanna listen to?" He asked as he searched on his phone.

I nervously fidgeted with my fingers. "Um, what if we listened to music instead."

He looked at me weirdly. "Sure, I guess."

I got excited. "Ooh, can we listen to Panic! at the Disco or Cavetown or Conan Gray or something?!!"

"Who are they? Wait, aren't they those emo guys?" He cocker his eyebrow.

"I mean, no. They're just kinda alternative, I guess. One of them used to be emo but that was in the 2000s. Now they're- er he I guess classifies as pop. The other two are like alt-indie I think?"

He looked at me as if I grew three extra heads. "Let's just listen to what's on the radio."

We ended up listening to some random rappers on a hip-hop station. Don't get me wrong, I liked rap... if it was Twenty One Pilots.

We shortly arrived at the ice rink and spotted Asher and Sheyla.

"Hey, Hazel, Caleb." Asher said, looking between us.

"Hey." We said back.

We stood there until it got so awkward that we forced ourselves inside. We got our skates and sat at the bench right outside the rink to put them on. We all got them on and waddled into the rink. Right when I stepped onto the ice, I slipped.

Yes I'd been ice skating before. No I couldn't ice skate.

I could see in the corner in my eye when Asher rushed over to help me up, but Caleb got to me first. He grabbed my hand and pulled me up.

"Hehe, thanks." I laughed awkwardly.

"Try not to fall too much. I want to be able to skate without having to monitor anyone." Caleb said it in a playful tone, but it made me feel bad.

I fell a few more times and I could see Caleb and even Sheyla getting even more annoyed as time went on. So I said I had to go to the bathroom and stepped out of the rink.

I sat down on the bench and looked at all the little kids playing in the arcade. I smiled and took off my skates to put on my converse. Playing in the arcade would be way more fun than ice skating!

~~~~~~~

"No, I don't care, Jimmy. I won. Now you better pay up. Come on." I held my hand out for him.

Jimmy-a nine year old boy I met at the arcade- pulled the arcade currency out of his pocket. "Man, you hustled me." We were playing air hockey.

"You know it!" I said as he placed the bag of skittles in the palm of my hand.

"Hazel?"

I turned around to find Asher looking at me like I was insane. "Oh, hi..."

"Are you taking candy from little kids?" He looked shocked but, I knew he wanted to join in.

~~~~~~~

"For the last time, Timmy, I won fair and square!" Asher said as he snatched the sour patch kids out of the kid's hands.