I TOSS AND TURN ON THE CUSHION. WE'VE been working up until 4:00am so we ultimately decided it was best for me to stay over. Of course, like the gentleman Mason was, he made me sleep on his couch while he went upstairs to bed. I yank the blankets closer to me and roll over so I'm sandwiched in the blankets–or burritoed? I turn again once more and fall straight off the couch, hitting my head against the glass coffee table.
"FINALLY!" A familiar female voice calls from the kitchen, "Look, I always knew you were a heavy sleeper but I didn't know it got this bad!" A slender hand reaches out to me, but since I'm consumed by the amounts of blankets I've rolled in, I'm stuck. She steps closer and I start to realize who she was. Kacey Monica Cantley– found me sleeping over on her son's couch. "You're stuck aren't you?" She sighs and unwraps me out of the blankets, "Long time no see, Alinna." Her hand grabs mine and lifts me up.
"Yeah it's been awhile Moni" I blush knowing it's been years since I've properly come over to their house and this is how they find me. I call her Moni because when I was in the first grade I thought that Moni and 'mommy' were the same. And since she was always over at my house I confused her with my mom and her. Now it's just a habit. Moni never went by Kacey anyways because of "aliteration purposes." Her family's names (middle or first) all started with an 'M'. It went; Mark Cantley–his father, Monica Cantley, Briar Melissa Cantley, and then Mason Cantley. Everyone in the family thinks it's the most embarrassing and cheesiest thing ever, but I think it's cute. It's a bit random but it's also kind of sweet how they're kind of bound together by their names.
"So...It takes you falling off my son's couch and hitting your head against a table to wake you up–noted" she teases. I've seen little glimpses of her here and there. Like at country clubs or at town events that my mom drags me to. But other than that, it's been almost three-ish years since I've really talked to Moni. Her hair used to be shorter, and darker. Now it's at a light-ashy blonde color, down to her ribs, chopped in layers. I'm assuming it's to hide her newly grown grey hairs that she always complained about. She looks over and points to the numerous amounts of cups and popcorn kernels we left last night. "Studying with Mason?"
"Yeah..." I awkwardly scratch my head, not willing to make excuses for the mess. I start picking up the mess and hustle to the sink to wash the dishes. Mason stumbles downstairs with his hair ruffled and his clothes wrinkled.
"Hey Lin–Oh..." His eyes widen when he realizes his mom got home before he could clean up the mess. He scratches his head, "I better go clean that up." As he's picking up the remaining cups he towards the couch. "Has Lina left? Man, she used to sleep until the afternoon." He starts looking around the house, "I swear, nothing could wake that girl up."
"Hey... I woke up! What are you on about?" I argue. His head whips towards me, his face heating up and his eyes widen even more.
"Yeah, after you fell and hit your head against a table" Moni retorts. I glower at her for siding with Mason.
"There it is" He quipped. My silence says it all. It was true I was a heavy sleeper since birth. Alarms, phone calls, yelling, literally nothing could wake me up. I blame it on my father. He sleeps through anything and snores way too loud. Mom must be glad that he's out of the house now, she's always hated his snoring. Mom used to always tell me I was really my father's daughter–from my eyebrows, down to my crooked toenails. Okay, I mean no girl wants to be told that they seriously look like their father, I mean I spend all of my days grooming myself, and to be told I look like a man would actually crush my self-esteem. But I understand it, I really am just like my father. Not sure if that's a blessing or a curse.
"Whatever." I continue to wash down the cups and place them inside the cupboards. We all carry on talking for a while more before Moni interrupts.
"Oh my gosh how could I forget? I made you both breakfast." She shoos us away from the sink and forces us to sit down at the kitchen countertop table. "You know breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Also, Mason take your meds okay? Be careful when you swal-" Moni continues to ramble on and on about the dangers of swallowing pills incorrectly and gives him the daily reminder (that he absolutely dreads) that he needs to take his vitamins. Moni was a sweet mother but she never knew when it was time to stop coddling her son. Sometimes when he doesn't eat fast enough, she'll spoon feed it to him before it gets cold. Or whenever he shows any signs of discomfort she'll put him on bed rest for days.
"Yeah I got it Mom" He grumbles. I don't blame him, I'd be annoyed as hell if I had to hear the same constant reminders every day. But who knows? Maybe I'm just not used to a mother who worries for me. The front doorbell rings and Moni starts rushing to the door. I can't make out who she's talking to since she's blocking my view, but when she finally turns around I realize who it is. I race to the kitchen and instinctively cower under the sink.
Very badass Alinna. Hiding under a sink, well done.
"Hey Mace! I've got somethin' to ask you", Aurora makes her way through the door with a huge poster behind her back. Before I can read what it says, she flips it around and reveals it to him. "Be my basket date?" There was this annual pre-Valentines Day town event for buying baskets. Basically, people would anonymously make and decorate baskets with food in them. Whoever buys the basket scores a date with whoever made it. People were supposed to buy ones that look the best or seemed the most appetizing. But now people just go around town and ask people to buy their basket for a date with them. They would hint at obvious details so their potential date could be the only one to know and buy it. Before Mason could answer, Moni finds me under the sink.
"Allina what are you doin'? You're gonna dirty yourself if you stay under that sink!" She scolds. The whole room goes completely pen-drop silent. Moni yanks me up from the floor. Lo and behold, Aurora is seen shooting lasers at me. Lasers, daggers, knives, swords, bullets, nukes, anything deadly and lethal to be exact. Instead of saying anything, I do what any scared teenager would do–run. Not exactly run, more like speed-walk. I speed-walked out the doors and then ran to my house. I make it to my car and witness the sight across from me. A mini fight breaks out in front of the doorway. Before Aurora leaves, Mason grabs her hand and says words I can only assume were along the lines of stay because she does. Assuming he said yes to her proposal, she wraps her arms around his neck and tackles him. I can't bear to see this anymore.
I so need a date.
Badly.
I step on the gas and head to the nearest craft supply store to pick up supplies for my basket. The drive was short and sweet, I hit the breaks and parked. Stepping inside the store, I wheel in a shopping cart and start pushing it to my favorite aisle–the ribbon and glitter aisle. God's greatest creation next to women was glitter and ribbons. I don't think the world would continue to spin if ribbons and glitter suddenly disappeared. The closest thing to world peace right now is ribbons and glitter. Pink glitter and ribbons especially. Like the hog I am, I shove all of the pink glitters in my cart and start stacking various assortments of pink ribbons. Before I push my cart away, a voice makes me stop in my tracks.
"Awh Dyl... Look! There's no more fuschia ribbon!" My head slowly turns around and there I see. Dylan Santoro and his kid sister shopping right behind me. I look into my cart and eye the 4 rolls of fuschia ribbon. My conscious was telling me,
Just give it to her, she clearly needs it. Don't be selfish.
But the idiot side of my brain is saying,
But it's pink ribbon...
My thoughts clash together. I know it should be an easy choice, give the poor girl some ribbon. But I have no idea how to approach Dylan or his sister. Like, "Hey! Sorry I hogged all of the ribbon!" or "Sorry the last time I saw you was when I accidentally blew you off! Here's some ribbon." Dylan's voice pulls me out of my thoughts.
"Alinna? Is that you?" I squeeze my eyes shut and fully spin around to face him and his sister. My left eye occasionally peeking open to see if they're actually there or if I'm hallucinating. After a few blinks, I finally respond.
"Yup–Um yes it's me!" I squeak. His little sister eyes me up and down. A part of me is slightly intimidated by this middle-schooler, but why am I?
Are you actually scared of a thirteen-year-old child?
Yes, I am.
"I see your shopping for a..." He steps out to look into my cart "seven year old girl's birthday party?" I can feel my face heating up, this was mortifying–the fact that this is how we meet again, and the fact that he thinks my decor is for a seven-year-old girl.
"It's actually for my basket" I explain. I turn back and rummage through my cart. I pull out two rolls of fuchsia ribbon and bend down, handing it to the little girl. I was much taller compared to her since she stood about five feet tall. Whereas I was 5'8 and three quarters. "You still need these?"
Her face immediately brightens up, she takes it out of my hand and places it in her shopping cart. Dylan lightly nudges her, "What do we say Charlotte?"
"Thank you?" He nods his head towards me and her face whips around, "Thank you!" She turns back and faces Dylan, he gives her a small pat on the head and smiles.
"So..." My eyes wander around the aisle, refusing to make eye contact with him.
"So" Dylan takes another step towards me, leaving his sister to examine the shelves. "How are you?" He cocks his head.
"I'm good" I can't take this awkward small talk anymore. Is this how the conversation will continue? Are we just gonna ask how we're both doing and leave? Will this how we're going to be from now on?
"Let's skip the small talk, who's the lucky guy buying your basket?" Well isn't this embarrassing. How am I going to say I'm absolutely dateless? And that I'm just decorating a basket for funsies in hope that some decent guy buys it?
"Err...I don't really have one?" I see Dylans' eyes look behind me, I follow his gaze and realize he's looking into my cart. His eyes fixate on all of the items inside. We begin to talk about our lives, and what's going on at the moment. Sure, the conversation topics weren't interesting, but it didn't feel like small talk anymore. It felt...fun. I find myself becoming more immersed in what he's going to do over the weekend and wanted to learn more about Charlotte. So far I've learned she was actually fourteen years old and she has a huge crush on a kid from her math class, and the reason she's here is to decorate her own basket. She's apart of the dance team, and she loves to hike. Which is what she and Dylan are going to do over the weekend. The conversation begins to dial down after Charlotte pulls on his sleeve, begging him to go to a different aisle.
"Can we leave now? We've been in this aisle for like thirty minutes!" She pulls even harder, making Dylan stumble backward.
"I think you have to go now Dylan" I giggle. It's honestly a bit funny to see a ten-year-old drag a D1 baseball player. Before he goes, he takes another look into my cart.
"I'll keep an eye out for pink glitter and ribbons." Dylan walks off into a different aisle, his sister dragging him along. A thought pops into my head and suddenly, I chase after him.
"Wait!" Dylan's head jerks back obviously caught off guard. "Do you wanna redo?" Confusion is written all over his face. "I mean, I am truly sorry for blowing you off last time, it honestly slipped my mind. I want a redo"
"You do?" He questions. I take another step closer and grab his phone. "Hey! What are you doing?" I ignore him and add a new contact, putting my number on his phone.
"I'm not really gonna take 'no' for an answer, sorry" I hand the phone back to him and walk back to my cart. "I'll text you the details later." Dylan stands there dumbfounded before Charlotte swoops him away again. I pay for all of the supplies at self-checkout and leave the store. I look in my bags and check to see if I was missing anything, and then it clicks. I was missing the most important thing of the entire basket, food. It should be easy right? Get to the grocery store and make your food?
Wrong.
I can't cook. I just can't. It would be easier to just buy pre-packaged food and advertise it as my own but where's the fun in that? I decide to call Amira. Amira knows how to cook everything, she's always precise about the temperatures and measurements so that must be why. Lukas can surprisingly cook as well, except he doesn't use any measurements, but instead uses his intuition or whatever that means. When Amira hears about my dilemma, she instantly agrees to help.
"Yeah no, I would love to help!" I hear lots of clatter in the background, making me grow curious.
"Who else is with you?" I ask.
"Lukas. Also speaking of Lukas, can he tag along?" I settle into my car and start it up.
"Yeah sure, just drop by." I hang up and start driving home. I have absolutely no clue what I'm gonna make. Cakes? Cookies? The thoughts of food take over my mind. Indecisiveness was never a good trait of mine. I decided that it'd be best for Amira to take the lead when we get there. I park outside my driveway and head inside my room to drop off my bags. A few minutes go by, and the door swings open. Amira and Lukas come in and take their shoes off.
"I've got ideas for what we should make. I'm thinking we do–"
"If you're thinking of anything fancy, don't bother." I take Amira's shopping bags out of her hands and place them on the kitchen island. "No one's gonna believe I made squash risotto with toasted pepitas all by myself."
"Awh boo! What do you want to make? A grilled cheese and some M&M's?" She whines.
"That's much more believable than..." I look inside the grocery bags she brought, "lobster tails? Seriously?" After much deliberation, we decide on making stir-fry noodles, carrot cake, and pink lemonade. While it was a very random bunch of foods, I hope Dylan likes it. We decided to make the noodles vegetarian since we all had no clue if he eats meat or not. We wrap it up and leave the foods in the fridge for two days, so now it was up to decorating. My phone dings in my back pocket. And there it was–a text from Dylan.
>>>so details???
>>>next saturday. dress nice. ill pick u up at 7pm :)
Amira peers over my shoulder "Is that Dylan?" Her amused smile says it all, she was now totally invested in what happens between me and him.
I guess the secret's sorta out now.
authors note: i hate this chapter so frickin much.