Give me Envy, Give me Malice, Give me Attention

The following week life almost went back to normal. Brendon seemed to be avoiding Bliss, which I was definitely not in the position to complain about. My parents had Brendon and Ryan over for dinner on Wednesday as usual. The only thing different about my life was Damien.

Damien was, if nothing else, charming. He held doors open for me, he made me laugh, he was smart and he was very, very kind. Damien was everything a girl dreamed of, but I wasn’t interested. I knew why, but I didn’t want to admit it to myself.

Currently we were packing up after a fun class of biology. The subject wasn’t fun but the company was. Damien and I joked around the whole time.

“So I was wondering what you were doing this weekend,” Damien started.

“Oh were you now?” I tried to play it off as a joke, knowing the unavoidable was about to happen.

“Yes I was. How would you like to go dinner with me tonight?”

“Ah I already have plans with Brendon and Ryan,” I lied. Technically it wasn’t a lie; I always had plans with them.

“Maybe some other time then?”

“Yeah maybe,” I said knowing he was disappointed. The bell rang and I went my next period class with Brendon. He was sitting in his seat looking at his hands. I could tell he was upset. Spencer was absent so I took his seat beside Brendon.

“What’s wrong?”

“What? Oh nothing! I’m fine.”

“Okay,” I said hesitantly, but I decided to change the subject. “So what are we doing tonight?”

“Um… well… we aren’t doing actually. I have plans.”

I raised my eyebrows, “Plans?”

“Yes, plans.”

“With?”

Brendon bit his bottom and sighed.

“Bliss.”

“I didn’t know you guys were still—uh—talking.”

“Surprise,” Brendon said weakly, knowing I could probably get really mad. But I didn’t. I couldn’t control him, and I didn’t want to. He could have plans of his own any time. Just because we usually hung out doesn’t mean we have to… right? I decided that not answering was the best response because right now my pride was a little wounded. I got over it though and we went on like nothing happened.

When school was over I saw Brendon walking Bliss to her car and I scowled. I was about to go to my car when I saw Damien walking to his. I dialed his number without thinking twice and walked towards him.

“Hello?”

“Hey Damien!”

“Uh… hi…”

“Guess who,” I said after I realized I hadn’t given him my number yet.

“Erm…”

“Aw come on! It’s really not that difficult. Actually if you turn around you’ll see me walking towards you.”

He flipped around and saw me. We both grinned at the same time and closed our phones.

“Now what do I owe this pleasure?”

“I was wondering if your offer was still open for tonight,” I blurted out. He looked surprised but pleased.

“It most definitely is.”

“Well I think I’ll take you up on it.”

“Great! I’ll pick you up at seven!” He said and then he walked me to my car, giving me a hug as a goodbye. I drove home feeling guilty. I shouldn’t have agreed to go out with him if I didn’t like him.

Too late now.

When I got home I sent Ryan a text saying:

d8 2nite wanna help w/ outfit?? :P :]

I giggled at the fact that Ryan would help me pick out an outfit, if I really wanted him to. He might not pick the actual outfit out for me, but he’d tell me what he thought of my choices truthfully.

I started to make a snack for us when he texted me back:

ill b ovr soon do u have food??

I laughed and replied:

of course xD

I knew he’d be on his way after that so I didn’t expect a reply. I went up to my room and walked in my closet looking around for an outfit. I sighed to myself. I wasn’t good at the whole date thing. I didn’t like getting dressed up, or trying to be impressive and flirty. I sighed and changed into something I thought was presentable. I walked out of my closet and I found Ryan sitting on my bed.

“What do you think?”

He raised his eyebrows, “You would wear that on a date with Brendon?”

I snorted. If only.

“I’m not going on a date with Brendon. He has his own plans tonight.”

“What? BOTH of you have plans? And I don’t? Great.”

“Aw Ryan I’m sorry! I’ll cancel mine and we’ll do something together!”

“Don’t be ridiculous, it’s about time you had a date. Who’s the lucky guy?”

“Damien Stevens.”

“Damien Stevens… as in Bliss Stevens’ twin brother?” Ryan said sounding stunned.

“That’s the one.”

“Since when do you like him? I thought you had it bad for,” Ryan started and then stopped abruptly.

“I still do,” I whispered and the pain in my voice was even evident to me.

“Oh okay then. Don’t wear that, it’s not really you.”

I smiled thankfully at the subject change and went to go look for another outfit.
------------------------------------------------------

When seven o’clock rolled around Ryan had already left to go hang out with Spencer and Brent. I paced around my kitchen nervously until I heard a knock at the door. I said goodbye to my parents and walked out seeing him there grinning.

“You look great, Aspen.”

“Why thank you. You look quite dashing yourself. Now where are you taking me this fine Friday night?”

“Have you ever been to Jake’s?”

“I think everyone in Vegas has been to Jake’s,” I laughed. Ironically enough it was Brendon’s favorite restaurant. I decided not to mention that. He held the passenger side car door open for me and I got in. He closed the door and I cringed. He had it bad.

“Oh well do you want to go somewhere else? I don’t mind,” Damien offered when he got in the car.

“No! Jake’s is great! I love it there.”

“Alright then, Jake’s it is.”

The ride to the restaurant was actually fun. Damien was really easy to talk to and really, really funny. He had me laughing the whole time.

When we arrived at the small diner Damien once again got out of the car and opened the door for me. As we walked in Jake smiled at me and waved. Jake was a middle aged guy who reminded me of Luke from Gilmore Girls. Only Jake was a lot less harsh than Luke could be at times, and he shaved a lot more often. He wore the baseball cap/ plaid attire which were completely unlike the usual dress stylings of the inhabitants found in Las Vegas. I pointed that out to him once and he told me he grew up in a small town in Colorado. He didn’t seem to get the reference.

When we sat down Jake came over to take our orders.

“Hey there Aspen how are you?” He asked and without waiting for my response he continued, “I was so surprised to see Brendon here without you or Ryan and now you’re here! That’s so crazy!”

I was shocked when I looked up at him. I scanned the small diner until my green eyes locked with his brown ones. He grinned at me and Bliss turned around. When she noticed who I was with her eyes almost literally popped out of her head. She immediately walked over to our table in a huff.

“What are you doing with her?”

Brendon followed her over and put a hand on the small of her back. I couldn’t help but feel jealous and a little betrayed.

“Bliss just cool it okay?” Damien said to his twin.

“Whatever, let’s go Brendon,” Bliss ordered. Brendon made eye contact with me and gave me a weak smile and left with her. I watched them go and I sighed.

“Look we can just go if you want. My sister can be a real bitch and I don’t want you to have to put up with it on our first date,” Damien offered. He really was a great guy.

“Let’s just stay. We already ordered our food and I think Brendon will keep her busy enough so she won’t say anything to me. If she does then we can bail,” I said with a half smile on my face. Brendon would have seen right through it, and we would have left. Damien accepted it and we had our date as planned. Brendon didn’t look at me once.