Hey, Darling.

I had a date. Tonight. With Kennedy Brock. I could feel my heart race as I thought about him: his hands, his lips, and the way he had been so open to admitting his feelings to me.

From the second he said those words, I knew I was done with denial. I liked him too. I like him a lot. Possibly more than I should like him because of his jerky actions. All of my previous anger towards him had already melted away, though.

The happy, butterfly feeling in my stomach resurfaced. It was time for me to have my clichéemoments. Every girl deserved at least one summer romance.

The first thing I did when I got back inside the house (we had made out for a good five minutes, neither of us wanting to say goodbye just yet) was shower. I shaved, moisturized, and exfoliated. I put an extra glob of conditioner in my hair. When I got out of the shower, I covered every inch of my skin with my favorite apple scented lotion and put some curl enhancer in my hair. Then I brushed/flossed/rinsed for about five minutes.

I didn’t see the point in putting my sweats back on, so I stood in the room, wrapped in an extra-large fluffy towel, and debated my possibilities. At first, I looked at a dress. I vetoed that idea because I knew we would probably be walking and doing a lot of stuff, so I wanted to be comfortable. Then I thought about jeans. It took me a brief second to remember how hot I was before, and then I settled on shorts. I settled on a pair of denim shorts, a white embroidered tank top and my favorite vintage buy - a pair of old black sandals.

I let my hair dry in tumbles of curls. When I was done getting dressed, I cleaned the room. Mia had her clothing strung everyone, so I folded it all neatly and places it on her bed. I made my bed, wiped all of the spare power off the top of the vanity, and then I was bored. It wasn’t even one yet. I had no idea what to do.

I spent the next four hours in a blur. I flipped the channels between TLC (Jon & Kate Plus 8), Oxygen (ANTM marathon), and the Foot Network (Foot Network Challenge). I was just coming to my conclusion that Kate was too protective, Bianca was just a provoking bitch, and that The Little Mermaid cake should win when the clock struck five. I had managed to spend five hours sitting on the couch, doing nothing but get up to pee and replace my bowl of microwavable kettle corn. Life was good.

I had forgotten about the nerves and the butterflies that came along with going on a date until I saw the time. Then I promptly shut off the TV, cleaned up all the little half kernels that had found their way down my shirt, and made my way to the hall bathroom to make sure my hair looked okay. It took my about fifteen minutes to decide that I liked my hair, and then my body was itching for the doorbell to ring.

Honestly, it was somewhat pathetic, but honestly, I didn’t give a shit.

I would look at the clock every other minute. The time was passing slowly. I would sit there, staring into space, thinking about the most random things, and think a lot of time would have passed. In reality, it was only like, two minutes.

I jumped when the doorbell rang.

I slipped my bag on my arm, and straightened out my shorts before walking over the door. I answered it cautiously.

Kennedy was standing there, and it was a relief to know that he looked kind of nervous, too. He hadn’t changed from when I last saw him - same v-neck, and same jeans. His hair was slightly disheveled, but it didn’t look bad.

“Hey,” he greeted, smiling.

I nodded and said hello back. I stepped out of the house and shut the door behind me, before I was standing face to face with Kennedy, even closer than before.

“I got you a flower,” he said after a couple seconds of silent staring, and then he handed me a long-stemmed lily from behind his back.

“Thank you,” I blushed, taking it from him. I opened my bag, letting the tip of it surface, before closing it up again.

I leaned closer to him and kissed him on the cheek. I was still blushing like a maniac.

Kennedy looked at me when I pulled away, and he pouted. “You do not have very good aim,” he declared, shaking his head. “You missed.”

I just giggled quietly, before moving around him. “No, I didn’t. Flower get cheek kisses. Now, chocolate, on the other hand, is full on mouth to mouth…”

Kennedy just rolled his eyes, but then his face softened and he was right next to me. He grabbed my hand, locking our fingers together. My stomach flipped. And then flipped some more. I faintly wondered if I was going to throw up from all the nerves, but then thought better of it.

“Where are we going?” I asked him, when we started moving. We took the steps in sync, before walking down the pathway to the sidewalk. I was almost surprised that he didn’t bring a car.

“A lot of places,” he answered vaguely, as we started walking towards the direction that I knew town was to be in.

“Like?”

He wasn’t giving up. “It’s a surprise.”

“I hate surprises.”

“Too bad.”

“Just tell me!” I whined, and then I thought it sounded kind of unattractive, so I straightened up and looked at him. “Please?”

He looked like he was going to crack for a second, but then he shook his head and said nothing.

Two minutes later, he changed the subject. “You look nice.”

I rolled my eyes, still kind of irritated that he didn’t tell me where we were going. Not angry or anything, just kind of…disgruntled.

“You’re only saying that because these shorts are really short. I’m technically breaking my school dress code by about two inches.” My voice didn’t sound angry, just far off and distant.

I could hear Kennedy sigh beside me. I kept my head facing forward, so I didn’t notice when he stopped walking. It jerked my hand.

I looked over to where he was standing, a look I couldn’t really decipher on his face.

“What?” I asked.

He used our connected hands to pull me closer. He wasted no time in connecting our lips. I almost melted, right there, but I attempted to pull myself together.

When Kennedy pulled away, he just looked at me. “No fighting today? Please? I want today to be perfect. I need to make up all of my dickness to you today. I know you hate surprises, but you’ll like this one, I promise.”

I sighed, before nodding, and then I untangled our hands. He had this scared look on his face for a second - like he was afraid I was just going to walk away and then we’d get into one of our stupid little fights - but I just wrapped my arms around him and pressed my face into his chest. He held me really tightly, resting his face in my hair.

“Let’s go,” I told him seconds later. “I’m anxious now.”

He only smiled and then we continued walking. We walked for about fifteen minutes, and by then we were in the middle of town. We had just passed a Starbucks and the infamous Safeway when we made a sharp left turn. The shops down the rode we entered reminded me a lot like the ones Downtown, but I knew we weren’t there.

There was just a lone alleyway, with doors decorating each side heavily. We passed two, before we stood in front of a third one. The door was a bright red, with the word “Heartless” written in curly script. I thought there was a faint indention that looked like a cupcake, but Kennedy opened the door before I could really see.

It must have been a cupcake, because we were definitely inside a bakery. There were large, plush chairs seated around round tables, and in the middle of the room there were a couple of display cases and a large board with words written in chalk.

I looked up at the board, and at the very top, it read, “Heartless: Tempe’s First Vegan Bakery, because we aren’t heartless…”. I distracted myself from looking at the cupcakes to look over at Kennedy.

He was staring at me anxiously.

I just smiled at him. “You really are planning on making it up to me, aren’t you?”

He laughed, but nodded. “Yup. Is this a good start?”

I laughed and lent over to peck his lips. “Mmmhmm.”

We ordered two cupcakes. I got a carrot cake one with “cream cheese” frosting and Kennedy asked for Brooklyn Brownie. I ordered a water, and Kennedy got this mocha-type coffee thing.

“You’re going to have water to wash down your cupcake?” He asked me incredulously as we sat down at one of the tables in a corner.

I nodded. “The cupcake’s gonna be like, four hundred calories, so I figured this might balance is out a little.”

I was shrugging and Kennedy looked like he wanted to yell at me. Instead, he said gently, “You don’t need to watch your weight. Trust me.”

I shifted uncomfortably, flashbacks already coming back from earlier in the week. Bathing suits. Dressing rooms.

Why did we always have to resort back to those memories?

“Okay.” Was all I said in return.

Kennedy looked at me, skeptical for just a second, but then he just pulled the paper lining away from his cupcake and took a big bite.

He looked surprised. He said something with his mouth full, but I couldn’t understand him. He finished chewing, and then he explained.

“This is really good,” he said. I just nodded, before taking a small bite of my own cupcake. He sat there in silence a few minutes, silently enjoying our snacks.

I broke the silence. “Why were you with Bonnie?”

It was the first thing that popped out of my mouth, and I wanted to take it back the second I said it, but I couldn’t.

Kennedy looked uncomfortable. “What?”

I shook my head frantically. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked. We were doing so well! Just forget I ever even said anything.”

Kennedy looked like he wanted to say something, but he didn’t.

“I wanted to make you jealous.”

I looked up, surprised at all that he had even said anything, and even more so by his words.

“Why would you want to make me jealous?” I wondered.

“You didn’t like me. Or, I thought you didn’t like me. So when John told me that we were all going out, I figured that might as well try to get a response out of you. I call Bonnie, thinking she’d just be a one day thing, but she was really persistent.”

Even as he was explaining it, I thought his reasoning was stupid. Sure, Bonnie made me jealous, but she also made me mad.

“That’s stupid.” I said.

“I know,” Kennedy really did look like he knew. “But I couldn’t help it. I didn’t want to be with her. I liked you. I was always drunk around you, and fucking things up.”

“Do you drink a lot?” I gnawed on my lip as he thought over my question.

“Not usually, no. I bet that’s hard for you to believe, because I think I’ve talked to you more times drunk than sober, but it’s true. I was just so pissed off that my plan wasn’t working, so I got a drink, and then the ones after that just kept on coming.”

“So you’re not usually like…how you’ve been?”

Kennedy shook his head. “Not at all. That’s not Kenny. The guys were getting so pissed that I was acting like that. I swear, once Garrett punched me I thought they were all going to.”

I felt bad, once he said Garrett’s name. Garrett had been really nice to me. He had socked someone for me. But, we were just friends. I didn’t like Garrett like that. Garrett had to know that.

“I’m sorry I caused trouble between you and your friend.” I apologized. Kennedy just shook his head.

“It’s over now. Has been for a while. I think he’s just happy that I stopped acting like such a douche. And Pat’s really glad that I’m on this date right now.”

“Why’s Pat so glad?” I briefly remembered Pat, but I couldn’t see all of him in my mind.

“He knows I like you. And I think he thinks you’ll be good for me.” Kennedy was looking at me differently as he said this, like really looking at me. It reminded me of the diner, or when we got drunk off of wine and Malibu that first night.

“Do you think I’ll be good for you?” It was another one of those questions that just kind of slips out.

Kennedy nodded, and then he smiled. “Really, really good.”