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Ari's Texts

Audrey's Texts

I woke up the next morning and stretched out my muscles, my joints popping pleasurably. I reached over onto my nightstand to grab my phone, but it wasn't there. After a minor freak out, I searched through my covers and found it near the foot of my bed. There was a few Instagram notifications and a snapchat from Audrey.

It was a picture of her with her thumb resting on her bottom lip that said: You are literally the cutest. My face flushed both from her compliment and how sexy she looked in that picture. Without thinking, I screenshotted it and then took one of myself with bedhead and a sleepy smile that said: I just wanted proof you thought that before I sent one of me in my natural state.

I got out of bed and made my way to the bathroom, hoping she didn't think it was weird that I screenshotted her snap. We hadn't even gone on a date yet and I was already saving her pictures. Jesus, I was a total creep.

I blow dried my hair after I got out of the shower before going back to my room and saw a snap from Audrey as well as a notification she'd followed me on Instagram. I opened her snap and saw a picture of her in glasses with a sleepy smile of her own that said: Nope, still cute.

It was becoming problematic how much I wanted to screenshot her cute selfies. I took one of me sticking my tongue out without a caption this time. I pulled on a big t-shirt and shorts before heading downstairs for breakfast. The house was mysteriously quiet and mom's car wasn't in the driveway so I figured she and Freddie went somewhere.

I made myself an omelet and thought about what color I should paint my nails as I stood at the stove. I was practically bouncing by the time the food was finished and wolfed it down in order to start getting ready. I needed to take a breath and calm down before I embarrassed myself tonight.

It was a little after twelve when I got back upstairs to my phone. She'd sent me another snapchat of her with wet hair and her tongue out this time. She also had a little eyeliner smudged under her eye, but she was still the prettiest girl I'd ever seen.

I sent her a snap back with my lip between my teeth that said: Damn! Maybe I was being a bit forward, but I was in a playful mood this morning. Our date was bound to be interesting if I kept this mindset. I sat my phone on the counter in the bathroom and plugged in my straightener as I started doing my makeup. It would take me a few hours if I took my time and didn't rush like I did to get ready for school.

My phone went off and saw that it was Audrey's turn to take a screenshot this time. The picture I sent her wasn't even that cute, I looked kind of stupid. I didn't have enough time to overthink it because she texted me.

So, I may have said something about our date to my best friend and he might have invited himself and his girlfriend… I'm so sorry!

My heart sank at that, it wasn't just going to be the two of us tonight. I could also tell she really didn't want him to come either. I guess it was just one of those things we'd have to deal with, a hurdle to jump over if you will.

The next date better be just us.

I sent it and went back to putting on my makeup as I danced to the music playing from my phone. I was in the middle of applying my foundation when I got a response from Audrey.

So there's already a second date?

If this one goes well, there may be more than that.

Fingers crossed.

I heard feet pounding up the stairs and figured it was mom and Freddie back from their adventure. When the bathroom door swung open, Freddie shrieked. I guess he wasn't expecting to see me standing there with half a face of makeup on. He got over his fear almost immediately and started peeing, making me groan and leave the bathroom in disgust. It wasn't like there were three other bathrooms in the house or anything…

Mom was putting away groceries in the fridge so I started putting the others in the pantry. She thanked me and went back to what she was doing. A second or two later, she saw what state my face was in and started snorting with laughter.

"Don't laugh at me! Freddie came in and started peeing when I was in the middle of my contour!" I whined, crossing my arms and glaring at her. "I haven't blended everything yet!"

"You'd better go before it sets and you look like that on your date tonight," she laughed, pushing me toward the stairs. "Surely your brother's finished by now."

I made a face at her before going back upstairs to finish getting ready.

At exactly seven, Audrey knocked on my door and my heart started racing. I pushed Freddie out of the way and made it to the door first, calming my breathing before I opened it to greet her. Her lips turned up into a smile the second she saw me, her nerves melting away –she must've been expecting my mom.

"Wow, you look beautiful," she exclaimed, stepping into the house with me and hugging me briefly. "Jesus, so pretty."

My face heated up and I looked down at my feet, unsure of what to say. Luckily, my mom heard her and took control of the situation.

"Thanks, I made her," she said, coming over to stand with us. "Hi, I'm Candace Harvey. It's nice to meet you."

I nearly facepalmed at her dorkiness, but Audrey's laugh made up for it. "Congratulations, you did a good job."

"Oh, my god. We're going to go before this can get any more awkward than it already is," I interrupted, taking Audrey's hand and leading her outside.

"Back by midnight or call!" mom shouted out the door.

Once the door shut, I realized we were alone and I was holding her hand. I was about to drop it when she slid her fingers between mine. I looked over at her and saw she was already smiling over at me reassuringly.

"So, midnight or call her, huh? That's pretty late," she told me as we walked down the driveway to her car.

"Yeah, she figures I can't get pregnant so why bother?" I joked, making her snort. "She also knows I'm pretty responsible, she raised me to be that way."

We'd made it to her car by now and I saw that it was empty, making me furrow my brow in confusion. "I thought you said your friend and his girlfriend were coming, too?"

"We're meeting them at Yonder's," she replied, opening my door for me before going around and getting in herself.

I knew my face was a giant question mark and I saw her smiling as she backed out of my driveway. I didn't ask what that was, I just thought about how much I missed holding her hand instead. Like she'd read my mind, she dropped her free hand down from the wheel and I reached over to take it in mine immediately.

"So, tell me all about you. I want to know everything," I announced as we drove through the quiet town together.

I was watching her face so I saw her smile slip for a couple seconds before she slapped it back in place. There was something she didn't want to talk about, and I wanted to know what it was. I knew this wasn't the right time to ask about it, being our first date and all, but I made a note to ask about it later.

"Nothing too dark, this is our first date after all," I added, watching her shoulders lose their tension.

"Uh, there isn't much to tell that's not dark. I've lived in Lakewood my entire life, I work at Zenith, and I'm an amateur director," she shrugged, signaling as she turned onto a small one way street.

"Oh, I'm dating the next Spielberg and didn't even know it? How fascinating," I exclaimed, squeezing her hand playfully.

I watched her cheeks dust pink and made it my personal goal to see that as many times as possible tonight. "Tell me about you, you're kind of a mystery. You roll into Lakewood on a whim and leave a trail of broken hearts at your feet."

"I don't know about that, but I came from New York. My parents had a pretty nasty divorce," I answered, leaving the gory bits out. "Uhm, I have a younger brother that you met the other day, I'm allergic to cinnamon, and I'm pretty into art."

"Oh, so I'm on a date with the next Picasso?" she asked, her tone matching mine from earlier. "How fascinating."

"Shut up, I'm more Andy Warhol than Picasso," I replied, looking over at her and seeing the sly smirk on her lips. "What's Yonder's?"

"It's one of the staples of Lakewood," she told me, glancing at me with a happy smile. "It's a diner with the best cheese fries in the world."

"I wasn't aware I was on a date with such a fry connoisseur," I giggled. "Lucky me."

She pulled into a diner parking lot and turned to look at me once she took the key out of the ignition. "Noah's kind of intense when you first meet him, I'm just giving you a heads up."

"It's a good thing you're cute," I replied, getting out of the car and bouncing on my toes until she joined me.

She led the way into the diner with my hand held securely in hers. A guy and girl were sitting in a booth beside each other and they smiled when they saw the two of us.

"Show time," Audrey whispered before leading me over to the booth.

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