I woke up in the most uncomfortable position I had been in in years. A sharp pain jutted through my shoulder, making me force open my heavy eyelids and realize I was crouched in an awkward position. I had fallen asleep in my car in the walmart parking lot after my shift. How that happened is something I don't know.
My phone buzzed under my pocket and made me jump once more. The annoying sound finally quit when I yanked it out of my back pocket and slid it to answer.
"Hello." I rasped.
"Why haven't you been answering me?"
That was the first time I heard Rhiannon ever sound pissed.
"Hold on,"
I checked my phone and saw that she had been calling me repeatedly for 2 hours.
"Shit, I'm sorry I fell asleep in the car."
"That's ok." Her voice whimpered. She sounded guilty.
"No offense, but why'd you call?"
I pulled out of the parking lot and began my boring route home. I put her on speaker and set mu phone inside of the plastic cup holder.
"I was just wanting to see if you would want to hang out with me and my cousin."
That was a weird thing to ask.
"Uh, sure."
The line cracked and rustled. She must've been moving around or walking somewhere.
"Well I just wanted to say that I am going to go on a date with Garrett. Is that ok with you?"
"Yeah why wouldn't it be."
Did she think the same thing? I felt defeated.
"Oh, uh... I don't know. But anyways, his name is Chandler. He's pretty cool. I'm going on that date tonight, but maybe we could do it tomorrow night?"
I answered shortly before hanging up.
"Sure."
-
After talking to Austin I managed to get an hour of sleep before getting ready for the date. I wasn't that ecstatic, but I was relieved that Austin took it the right way. Not that I knew if he liked me. It was actually more disappointing than I thought it would be to hear that he didn't care.
"Hey I'm going out." I called out to my dad while sweeping through the living room to get keys. He gave a weak smile and turned his head back to the television, the lights flickering off of his eyes. The man looked hypnotized.
I opened the door and saw Garrett perched up at my doorstep with a bouquet of flowers. He brought the tulips up to my arms and I took hold of them, surprised that he was here.
"Thank you." I stuttered.
He smiled shyly and dug his hands into his pockets.
He led me out to his car and opened the shiny doors, signaling for me to go in. I nodded and climbed into the leather seats, sort of embarrassed that he was treating me like such a lady. He got in and turned the knob on the radio up. He let me roll the windows down. Something about the wind blowing sharp gusts into my hair and the music trailing off behind us made me feel so alive.
I hummed the lyrics of New Flesh by Televisions and felt Garrett's eyes look my way. It was really nerve wracking, and I was already sweating down my green muscle shirt.
"Where are we going?" I asked in a lower, manlier seeming tone. I didn't want to seem girly because I was so weirded out by the fact that he was into me.
"Surprise." He responded, a satisfied grin growing on his face.
I pulled my sketchbook out of my bag and began outlining a picture of the streets. My knees kept squirming around in the seat. I tried seeming focused in what I was drawing so I could avoid eye contact with him.
"Are you okay?"
I turned over and glanced at his worried look he gave me. He lifted his hand off of the clutch and rubbed my thigh.
"No, please don't do that." I shoved his hand off of me. The shove was more stern than I intended to be. I instantly felt bad when he turned his eyes back to the road, the concern in his face turning to disappointment.
I turned the radio up almost as loud as it could go and continued drawing.
"You'll think the place were going to is really cool. I thought it was one of the best places to take you."
I nodded and pursed my lips into a fake grin. I don't know what was up with me, I was just super uncomfortable.
After 10 minutes, we pulled up into this old run down building. It had a light up sign that read "Ripley's Arcade" in tall blue and purple letters. It had two windows, one foggy and one cracked. Inside the place was illuminating with multicolored lights that changed color and went off every time you blinked.
"Where'd you find this place?" I dropped my pencil and book and got out of his car, practically running to the entrance.
He licked his lips and grinned.
"I was online looking at cool places around the area when my dad mentioned that he used to go here all the time when he was our age."
His parents knew about this?
The sick feeling of embarrassment returned to my stomach. We walked in to face the lights of machines with cool graphics on them. They were old school arcade games, pinball and air hockey being lined up in the corner of the place. The machines rang and dinged like casino games. The sounds of others laughing and talking were muffled and echoing off the walls.
Inside of the Arcade everything seemed so full of color and life, same with everyone in it. Outside the windows you could see the dark streets, empty and deserted. This place was lovely for being put in a ghost town.
Garrett took my hand and led me to pinball. I raised one eyebrow and crossed my arms.
"Pinball? Really kid?"
He was taken back by my lack of impressment. He parted his lips and let out a confident laugh, leaning an elbow against the machine and mimicking my raised eyebrow.
"Well, what were you thinking then?"
I tilted my head back to the air hockey machine.
"Ohh, so you think you're better than I am at air hockey?"
"Of course I am, princess."
His fingers gripped a wrinkled 1 dollar bill from his jean pocket. He trailed behind me to the machine, kneeling down and sliding the dollar in before rushing over to his side.
He took the puck out of his side and hit it over to me. I hit it back and instantly it went into his side. The machine lit up and erupted the sounds of a fake crowd cheering for my side.
"That was lucky."
"Sure." I responded, grinning up at him for a moment. While I was distracted he hit the puck into my side. I slouched in playful anger.
"Damn you."
I eventually beat him 7-4, but he was still trying to shake off the fact that I won.
We moved on to a couple of other games and had random conversations. I eventually shook off the fact that I was nervous. I even forgot it was a date because I was actually having a really good time.
Most of the people who were there were children or grandparents of children, so we kinda stuck out. Garrett would talk to some of the kids and stop to watch them play games. He would high five them if they won and give out some of our game tokens. He knew I wouldn't care of course.
"So Austin's pissed at me." He randomly brought up in the middle of playing a game where you shot aliens.
"About what?" I moved on to the game right next to us and grabbed hold of the greasy plastic handgun.
"Taking you here." He chuckled. It was stupid. He didn't sound so angry when I called and asked about it.
He faded to acting more serious. He lost the expedition on the game we were playing together, so he came up to watch what I was playing.
"What the hell- why does he have to act that way? Getting pissed about fucking nothing." I was getting heated up, and apparently that helped me shoot better. I was killing all of the 3D-animated dinosaurs in Jurassic Park with one perfect shot each.
"Calm down dude. I get it, it's alright. I'm not really mad at him back."
I was getting the vibe he brought up, but I tried to change the subject and avoid it. I couldn't think of anything to talk about, so it was just awkward tension. The only thing we focused on was me shooting more dinosaurs.
He came closer to the game and leaned down beside me. He looked me in the eyes but I avoided it.
"You know he likes you, right?"
I threw down the gun in annoyance. It accidentally slid off of the machine and dropped to the floor. The gun dangled off of its neon orange chord and hovered over the carpet. My fingernails scratched at my lip.
"I guess I do now."
His eyes didn't break off contact from mine. He continued to stare longer and quickly furrowed his brows into anger.
"Well do you like him back?" He said, disgusted.
"No. What the hell? No. Why can't people just be friends and nothing more?"
I knew in the back of my mind I secretly meant 'Why can't WE be just friends?'. It set me off that he was getting mad that Austin liked me. So what if I liked him back? I'm not his property, I can like whoever the hell I please.
His bicep reached to rub the back of his neck.
"I'm sorry... that was a dick move."
His eyes trailed off to some of the kids that were running past us to another game.
"It's fine."
I tried letting my anger go by seeming more cheerful. I giggled at a lot of what he said and tried to push away the thought that both him and Austin liked me. I already knew that, but now it was finalized. That made it 10 times weirder. Like I doubted my old beliefs to find out that I was unfortunately right.
I liked both of them as people. They're so fun to be around and amazing listeners. Did I have to choose? I think my answer was already official because we were on a date.
We went into the line to get pepsis when I glanced at the electric clock. 8:42.
"Woah we've been here for 2 hours."
He made our order before answering to my response. He took my hand and walked me to the side while we waited. His body protectively stayed close to mine.
"Damn, are you bored yet?"
I shook my head no and pointed over to the jukebox.
"Do you want to play something ridiculously awful?"
"Isn't the music they're playing already awful?" He laughed, referring to the modern country music playing in the background. We've both established in a conversation that we don't like country. I respect it, but I had to laugh along with his joke.
I grabbed his warm hand and made him choose a song.
The green and pink lights from the jukebox washed over his complexion, turning his face the shadows of neon. He flipped through several song choices before deciding on Electric Feel by MGMT.
"I said a terrible song dammit not a good one."
He swiveled around and pressed his forehead to mine, sticking his tongue out like a kid. He ducked away and ran to grab our drinks. The whole line of people were staring at us. I tried to play it off cool and turn back to the jukebox.
The ice sloshed around in the styrofoam cups while they shook in his grip. We went over to a table and sipped at the drinks quickly until we were left with nothing but ice. He popped the plastic lid off of the drink and tilted his head back. All of the ice slid down at once and hit his mouth.
"Aww." I made fun of him.
"This is going a lot better than I thought it would." He admitted, slamming the cup back to the table and moving the ice around with his straw.
"I agree."
"That thing I said over the phone was really fucking stupid. Trust me, I regretted it as soon as I said it... but I hope it didn't make you too uncomfortable." He looked up for a minute shyly. I tried to make him feel better about it.
"I mean I was, but it's all good now."
The corners of his lips turned into a smile.
"Good."
We threw our drinks out and walked back into the parking lot. This time he let me open the door for myself. I think he knew me a little better by then.
He didn't start up the car quickly like I expected. We settled into our seats and sat there in silence.
I kept rambling on about what all papers I had due and how most of our teachers are assholes.
He interrupted me in one of my sentences.
"Can I kiss you?"
I lifted my head up towards him and shrugged awkwardly. His thumb and his index finger took my chin and he pressed his lips against mine. I wrapped my arms around his neck and eased further into it.
He pulled back and started the car, blushing in his cheeks.
"That was cool." He muttered.
I rested back into the seat with the tulips in my lap. My fingers played with the plastic. I was much more comfortable with him now.
Before we kissed I really didn't think I had any feelings for him in that way. Now that the chance was given, I was beginning to like him a lot. It was that typical girly fluttering in my stomach.
We arrived and pulled into my driveway. I didn't want to leave him. I wanted to stay and sit and talk about nothing until 3 am.
"Thank you so much." I said, stepping out of the car. I wasn't expecting him to do the same.
He ran over to my side and hugged me. With the tulips still in my hand, I hugged him back.
"I like you." He whispered in my ear.
I couldn't help but laugh. We were so young, so clueless and dumb sounding. I hate sounding idiotic. He knew it sounded dumb, but I was glad he didn't throw love around.
"I like you too." I whispered back into his ear.
I walked up into my house and back to my room. From my window I could see his car pull out of my driveway and his bright headlights slowly move further away.
I sat at my desk and messed with the petals on the tulips. It occurred to me then that I left my sketchbook in his car.
I texted him really quick and told him. He said he'd just bring them by tomorrow.
I turned the bouquet over on its other side and saw a note taped onto the packaging. I turned on my lamp,ripped off the note and flipped it over.
"Wherever this goes I'll go with you."
On the back was a drawing of the tulips.
It was odd, the note wasn't as long as the other ones. The drawing wasn't as detailed, the style was really different too. It was Garrett who was sending them, I know now.
I didn't know how to feel because some part of me hoped it would be Austin.
-
So I finally am writing better chapters! (Hopefully you think the same). The reason I am marking certain chapters with '* *' from now on is because I think they are eventful chapters:).