Love Is Hell

I was nervous.

Not to mention I was also late.

“You’ve got to be kidding me…” I mumbled as I dug through one of my duffle bags. I could not find one decent outfit that I wanted to wear. Finally coming to the bottom of the duffle bag, I threw it aside and quickly opened my last bag, praying that I’d find something.

I rummaged through it quickly until something finally caught my eye. I quickly dug it out from the bottom and laid it out on the couch. It was the dress that Garrett and I stole in Seattle. I grinned as I thought about the memory. Deciding that it would be perfect for our date I quickly undressed and pulled the dress on.

Once I zipped up the dress I looked around the room for the gray sweater that I got as well. Finally finding it under a pile of clothes I quickly slipped it on. I began to dig around for some shoes when there was a knock on the door.

I looked up to see Kennedy peeking his head into the room.

“Wow,” he said as he pushed the door opened wider, “One, you look really pretty. And two, you made a bit of a mess back here.” He laughed.

I glanced around the back lounge for the first time and noticed all my clothes strewn around the room. I sheepishly chuckled, “Sorry, I’ll clean it up.”

I started picking up clothes when Kennedy stopped me.

“Don’t worry about it. Garrett’s ready so you should probably get out there. I can put everything back in your bags.”

He took the clothes out of my hands and started folding them. I smiled, “Thanks Kennedy.”

“No problem,” he replied, “have fun.”

I nodded and began walking towards the front, but Kennedy stopped me.

“Just a suggestion, but you’re outfit would look a lot better with shoes.” He said chuckling.

I glanced down at my bare feet and nodded, laughing, “Good idea.”

Quickly, I searched for my TOMS and put them on. I waved to Kennedy before walking towards the front of the bus. I instantly spotted Garrett, sitting in the front lounge, messing around on his phone.

I walked in front of him and he looked up from his phone and smiled brightly.

He glanced at my dress and smirked, “I like the dress.”

I chuckled softly, “Thanks.”

I glanced down at his outfit. He was dressed up more than usual, wearing a blue button down and nice jeans—without holes—and his usual boots. His hair, while still naturally unruly, wasn’t too out of control and it looked like he might have even attempted to brush it. I smiled at his effort.

“You look nice.”

He smiled and stood up, “Thanks, you too. You ready to go?” he asked.

I nodded and followed him out of the bus. The weather was fairly nice. It wasn’t too hot, but not too cold. There were some dark clouds in the distance, but for now it was nice and sunny.

“So, unfortunately we don’t have a regular car with us so we’re going to have to walk. I hope that’s ok. Besides, the restaurant isn’t that far from here.” Garrett explained.

I shrugged, “Walking is fine. It’s nice out anyways.”

Garrett agreed and we began walking down the street, away from the bus. As we walked we made comfortable conversation. I was beginning to realize just how easy it was to talk to Garrett. There was just something about him that made me want to tell him everything and to just trust him. That’s probably why I opened up to him about my parents so quickly. While it was nice to have someone like that, it did scare me a bit though. I was never one for trusting someone so easily, so it was definitely a new thing for me. Either way, for now I was just trying to enjoy it.

We walked for about ten minutes before we reached what looked like a nice Italian restaurant. We entered the restaurant and I quickly blinked my eyes, trying to adjust to the low lighting. Soft Italian music was playing in the background and you could hear the distinct sound of glass and expensive cutlery clinking together. I glanced over at Garrett, a bit surprised because I never really pictured him as an expensive restaurant type kind of guy.

“Name?” The young hostess asked as we walked up to the small podium.

“What?” Garrett asked, leaning in a bit closer to hear her.

“Reservation please.” She responded in a dull voice.

“Oh,” Garrett shook his head, “I didn’t make one, but can we get a table for two?”

The hostess gave him a tight lipped smile, “Sorry sir, we take reservations only.”

I looked up at Garrett who furrowed his eyebrows, “Are you serious?” he asked.

She just stared.

“You seriously just can’t give us a table? No one’s here!” He exclaimed as he gestured his hands around to the nearly empty restaurant. Apparently not everyone ate dinner at five o’clock like us.

“I’m sorry sir,” the hostess responded, not sounding sympathetic at all, “but you can make a reservation for tomorrow if you would like.”

I heard Garrett scoff.

“You know what I would like? I would like it if you—”

I grabbed his arm, cutting him off. “Garrett, don’t worry about it, let’s just go.” I said before pulling him towards the door.

We exited the restaurant and Garrett let out a frustrated groan.

“Bitch,” he muttered under his breath.

I chuckled and he glanced over at me, “So I had no idea that they only took reservations. Honestly, if I did I would have made one.” He ran his hands through his hair messily and tugged at the ends, clearly frustrated.

I shook my head, “It’s fine Garrett. We’ll just go somewhere else.”

We both glanced around the street, looking for another restaurant. From what I could see, there weren't many options at all. We stood there for about two minutes, just looking around before Garrett grabbed my hand, “Come on.”

He led me down the sidewalk and we walked in silence. I noticed that we started walking further away from town; the small shops and the hustle and bustle of people slowly starting to fade away. We continued walking and eventually the stores were replaced with a long opened desert highway and the occasional tree or shrub.

“So where are we going?” I finally asked. We were now completely out of town and were still walking down the highway that seemed to lead to the middle of nowhere.

“I’m not really sure,” Garrett replied.

I looked over at him and he looked back at me and shrugged, “Obviously things aren’t working out for me when I try to plan them, so I decided to just go with the flow and see where it takes me.”

He smiled at me and glanced back at the road in front of us. I couldn’t help but admire that about him. Looking at him, right now, it didn’t seem like he had a care in the world. He was just ‘going with the flow’ and I couldn’t help but envy him for that quality. I always needed some sort of plan. I could never just throw caution to the wind and jump. That just wasn’t who I was and I hated that about me. But, thanks to him, I was learning.

Eventually, in the distance, I could make out a big, bright yellow M.

Garrett tugged my hand and pulled me to walk a little faster, “How do you feel about McDonald’s?” he asked sheepishly.

I internally grimaced as I thought about the greasy fast food and how many calories there were in one single fry. I probably unintentionally made a face because Garrett stopped walking and frowned.

“I know it’s nothing fancy at all, but there’s nothing else around. I mean really, if you don’t want to go there we don’t have to. I don’t know where else we’d go, but we could continue walking and see if there’s anything else—”

“Garrett!” I interrupted his rambling, “It’s fine. Really.”

He still looked at me unsurely.

I sighed, “It’s just I’ve never been there before.” I shrugged.

He looked at me in disbelief, “You’ve never been to Mickey D’s?” He sputtered out.

I shrugged, “I was never allowed to go to any sort of fast food restaurant.”

Garrett shook his head, “You, my friend, have been deprived. Come on.” He once again grabbed my hand and tugged me towards McDonald’s.

When we finally reached it, Garrett opened the door for me and followed me inside. Surprisingly, it was a bit crowded with children, teens, and tourists. I suddenly felt extremely overdressed as we weaved our way through tourists wearing shorts, t-shirts, and fanny packs and made our way to the counter. There were a few people in line in front of us which gave us time to look at the menu.

“What are you getting?” I asked him as I looked over the menu. I couldn’t help but notice that nothing looked appealing at all.

“A Big Mac with a large fries and a strawberry shake. You?” he asked.

I bit my lip as I quickly scanned the menu, “Maybe a Caesar salad…” I said, quickly trying to pick the thing that looked like it had the least amount of calories and fat.

Garrett groaned beside me, “Oh come on Lorraine! You can’t come to Mickey D’s for the first time and just get a salad! You have to try their burger.”

This time I really did grimace and Garrett laughed at me.

“Can I help you?” the young cashier asked, interrupting us.

Garrett turned back around to face him, “Yeah, can we get two Big Macs with large fries and two strawberry shakes to go please?” he ordered.

Before I could protest the cashier typed the order in and Garrett paid. I gave him an unamused look. He just rolled his eyes at me and gently pushed me over to the side so we could wait for our order. Five minutes later a worker came over with our bag of food and shakes and handed everything to Garrett. He thanked the guy and then grabbed a handful of packs of ketchup and led us back outside.

When we got outside I looked around, trying to figure out where he was planning on going, but he called my name and motioned for me to follow him as he started walking down the road. I sighed and decided I couldn’t do anything but follow him.