Sodium ━ Land Of Stories

14 | a healthy dose of poor communication

Apparently, she'd been dropping hints that she actually wanted to officially date him—according to Conner, who was dumb as a rock so Alex assumed Bree had to have been laying it on thick to get through—and Conner decided to grow a pair and do it today.

"I was walking her halfway home yesterday, and I swear she said 'I'm tired of waiting' under her breath and I was like 'what?' but she was like 'hmm?', so I might be making stuff up but then she hugged me like 2 seconds longer than usual," Conner had rambled when they'd first got on the call. "Now call me crazy, but I think she's into me."

Alex sighed as presently, she watched Conner dig around in the pocket of his sweater. He eventually fished out two thin sheets of paper and flashed them to her. "So I bought these tickets to the showing at the drive-in on Friday, and I know it's kinda basic and cheesey and all, but I thought it suited, well, us. Regular movie theatres are all about being quiet and holding hands in silence, but at least in drive-ins it's more. . . cinematic. I really hope she says yes."

"I gathered," Alex replied, but she smiled at how passionate her brother was explaining things.

Conner glared at her. "Any other pearls of wisdom?"

She straightened her headband as she spoke to her brother. "As repetitive as it sounds, you have to be yourself. I know I hate how much you ramble and walk into things and can't form sentences, but that's part of why Bree likes you—something I'll never understand. But don't make this big massive gesture about it because that's probably not her thing. You guys know each other." Conner was listening intently, more intent than Alex had seen him. She struggled for a moment, wondering how to phrase the next part. "This isn't you asking out some random girl from English class, right? She's seen you kidnap people and lie and mess up. And nobody ever sees much of her, but she's comfortable with you. Don't screw that up."

Conner nodded to himself. "Okay, okay," He murmured, letting the words resonate in his head. Alex was right, after all. They were comfortable with each other already. You take that away, and she's just a stranger again.

He was about to say something more, but when he looked back to Alex, her face had changed. She was staring at the bottom of her mirror, face contorted into urgency. "Oh, Conner, gotta go! Greattalkingtoyoubye!"

Then she was gone.

Conner sighed, smoothing the tickets out and carefully putting them back in his pocket. He really hoped his sister was right.

—⁂—

"UGH, THAT WAS such a close call. I just got off with him, you know."

Bree swished the toothpaste around in her mouth and spit it out as fast as she could. "Reawy?" She gargled, wiping her mouth and then speaking again. "What'd he say?"

Alex didn't want to spoil her brother's reply, so she just shrugged. "Nothing much. Why, you curious?" She wiggled her brows a bit.

Bree, though not visibly flustered, looked away for a moment. "No it's not that, I just. . ." She bit her lip, sighing. "I think I'm going to ask him on a date."

Alex was hit with a strange sense of déjà vu. "Pardon?"

"Yeah, I'm done with this whole grounding thing. My parents can suck it if they want. They don't pay attention to me anyways, so what the don't know won't hurt them." She ran her lashes with a bit of mascara as she talked to the small chip of her mirror propped on her bathroom sink. "So, there's this new bookstore downtown that's opening up, and that might sound lame to you but Conner's really excited about it cause they've got a whole section dedicated to comic books and two floors worth of other stuff."