I Hate Love Stories Because I'm Never in One.

Me and Matthew arrived outside the restaurant. By now, I was shivering from head to toe...I could see the goosebumps on my arms even in the dim light outside.

I let out a whistle. 'Swanky.'

And swanky was the last place I wanted to be right now. That would be like hitching an instant ride down to 'Anxiety City.' or something.

I was never one for restaurants...I was the sort of girl who sat on a bench in the park, wolfing down a double cheese burger while sauce dripped down my chin. So clearly, restaurants aren't the best place to be when you're half human-half wild animal.

'I know, right?' Matthew agreed, totally oblivious to my immediate discomfort. 'Took me ages to get a reservation for this place.'

I felt guilty in a flash. He'd gone through a lot to get us seats at this place, I mean...he just said it had taken him ages and...wait a second.

'It took you ages?' I questioned him. 'The forgive-me date was only confirmed this Monday, right?'

Matthew looked over to me sheepishly. 'Yeah, well. I was gonna ask you before then...just, I couldn't build up the courage.'

'You didn't throw paint at me as some sort of ploy, did you?'

If he did, then I was ready to whip out my ninja skills on him in the blink of an eye.

He looked stricken. 'God no! Of course I didn't...I'd never do that!'

'Well, I guess that's...' I paused, searching for the right word. 'Better, I suppose.'

Still, the fact that he'd already tried to book seats for us here before I'd even agreed to it was a little hasty, don't you think? Sort of sweet too, in a weird way.

He laughed and moved to the door, holding it open for me. His arm swung out in a grand gesture and at that, I burst out laughing.

As I made my way through the doors, still a little jumpy at having to eat here, my heel got caught in a crack on the pavement. I heard a loud snap and I froze, looking down in sheer horror to my shoe.

The heel had snapped off.

'Oh God, no!'

'Teri? Are you okay?' Matthew asked, clearly worried. I shook my head and stared up at him from my poor, broken shoe. As evidence, I held up the snapped heel.

'No...my heel's broken. How am I meant to walk now?' I groaned, limping unsteadily forward to prove my point. I quickly lost my balance and flew into his chest, I felt his arms wrap around me to hold me up.

'I guess we could cancel...' he mumbled. I could hear the disappointment in his voice and what sort of person would I be if I denied him the chance to make it up to me for lobbing paint at my head?

I sighed, not believing I was about to put myself through this. 'No, Matthew. We'll just carry on the d-date. I know you've gone through a lot of trouble.'

I was sort of proud of myself. I'd managed to get the word 'date' out without the long pause. Still, I did stutter a bit there. I could work on that though.

He chuckled as he arms constricted around me further. 'Thanks Teri!'

'No...problem. Would you mind letting me go now? Air...getting thinner!' I gurgled, earning yet another laugh from him. This kid sure loved to laugh.

'Sorry.' he said, letting me go and once again holding the door for me. 'Ladies first.'

Grinning, I hobbled in before him. At least it was warm in here. Maybe I could learn to love the place?

'What are you doing?' sneered a voice. I looked up to see a waiter there, a look of complete disdain on his face as he eyed my wonky high heels.

Okay, so I wasn't gonna like this place. Period. Might as well get it over with though.

'We have a reservation here?' Matthew said, making it sound like a question. I suppressed a giggle at his uncertainty.

'Name...' the waiter drawled, walking over to a stand and flicking through the pages of a book that was perched there.

'Matthew Jenkins.'

Waiter-guy looked up with a tortured expression. His name must be on there then.

'This way.' And without waiting for us, he practically ran through the restaurant to the farthest side. When we finally caught up with him, he was tapping his foot impatiently.

'I have other customers waiting, please hurry.' he grumbled, shoving a menu into my arms and striding off.

'Yeah, I'm sure they'll absolutely love to have you over there with them.' I muttered angrily.

Matthew was having trouble keeping his laugh down, to no-ones surprise. Still, I smiled back at him as we sat down.

'What's so funny?'

'You.' he said, wiping a tear from his eye.

'Excuse me? If my face is that funny, then I'll just leave...' I growled, starting to stand up. Matthew, shocked, reached across the table to grab my wrist. He pulled me back down and let his hand rest on my wrist a moment longer before pulling away.

'Not your face. The things you say...you're sort of cute when you're mad.'

Okay, so beautiful and cute in the same day? Was this kid after brownie points or something? Still...I was flattered.

'Sort of?' I joked, opening the menu to stare at the complicated list of meals. I was perplexed by the whole thing, most of it was in a language I didn't understand.

'Well...more than sort of. I'm talking major cute.' he said. I peeked over the top of the menu to see him watching me intently. I didn't know whether to swoon or throw up at that comment.

I soldiered on, letting it slide. 'Matthew? I can't figure out any of this stuff.'

'Huh?' he said, grabbing the menu off me and skimming over it himself. I saw his eyes pop open and glaze over. Take it he didn't get it, either.

'You're right. God, why did I book a table at this place?' he groaned. 'You know what? Maybe we should go.'

I was about to heartily agree when the unwanted waiter reappeared again. He was clinging onto a tray that held a few glasses of water.He raised an eyebrow at me and Matthew.

'Anything you like?'

'Actually, we're just about to go. Thanks anyway.' Matthew told him, rising from his chair and indicating for me to follow. The waiter stopped me.

'Tip?' he snarled, looking down at me.

He wanted a tip? How dare he even ask of such a thing when all he's done for us has been rude. The arrogant little-

'Ahem.' he coughed, trying to get my attention again.

That's it. The last straw. 'Look mate, the last thing you deserve is a tip. Why don't you go drag your conceited arse back over to the people who want you.'

The look on his face was priceless. Key word being was. It changed so quickly from utterly shocked to deeply angered that I was confused for a second. Then, just like that, he dropped the tray of water onto my lap.

I jumped up and screamed. 'Oh my God! You complete and utter basta-'

'Whoa!' Matthew interjected. 'We should really go, Teri.'

Then he turned back to the waiter. 'And you'll be hearing from me in a complaint letter!'

As infuriated as I was and as much as I wanted to floor the arrogant moron, Matthew managed to drag me away and out of the restaurant before I could cause some serious damage. So not only was I severely unstable as I wobbled about on my broken heel, now I had a soaking wet front from that idiot waiter!

'Ugh, Matthew!' I hissed, clutching onto his arm for support as we made our way through the streets.

'Matt.' he said calmly.

That made me pause. 'What?'

'Call me Matt.'

'Oh.'

Then we lapsed into an awkward silence. We continued like that, hobbling around the streets at eight O' clock at night in fancy clothes. Then the sky rumbled, deep and loud.

'Oh God no!' I cried, staring up at the sky as rain drops started to fall fast and heavy. 'I know I told you to rain on me some other time...but not now!'

I shivered violently as the rain splashed against my bare arms, as it dripped down my back and drenched my hair. Matthew stopped me and I turned to him to shout how completely insane he'd gone.

Then I realised he was offering me his jacket.

He held it above my head and waited for me to take it from him. Lost for words, I reached up to grab the jacket but my fingers brushed against his hand instead.

'Oh crap, sorry.' I mumbled, moving my hands to the material and clenching my fingers around it tightly.

'It's fine.' he assured me, allowing the rain to soak into his shirt. I had to remind myself several times not to stare but I couldn't help it. Apparently, the dude worked out...a lot.

'Care for a dance?' Matt struck up suddenly.

'B-but there's no music...' I said, dumbfounded.

'No problem.' he grinned. I watched as he pulled out his mobile phone, the light from it casting a glow on his face. Then a song erupted from it. Aerosmith-I Don't Want To Miss A Thing.

'Cheesy enough for you?' he asked, holding out a hand for me to take. I shook my head as I laughed, twining my fingers through his as we started to rotate slowly on the spot.

'Rock fan, I take it?'

'Hell yeah.'

And that was the end of our conversation. Instead, we just spun around and around as we listened to Aerosmith. I didn't even care that I was getting more drenched with each minute and I had no idea why I didn't care.

For such a crappy date, it had been so unbelievably awesome.