I Hate Everything About You

“So, i’ll come get you from your house around like 5?” Gage asked, a big smile on his face. I returned it eagerly and nodded.

“Sounds great!”

We decided to get going early-ish so that we’d have enough time for whatever we decided on doing. Believe it or not, I was extremely excited for this trip. Not a date.

It wasn’t a date because he hadn’t said it was a date.

Therefore it was not a date.

“You’re going out with Gage!?” Lacey whispered in my ear and interrupting my thoughts. She smiled widely, nodding encouragingly. “He’s great for you!”

“It’s not a date, Lace. He’s just showing me around.” I insisted. She squinted her eyes and looked at me disbelievingly.

“You’ve been here for almost three months already; you need him to show you around?” She raised her eyebrows. “Whatever.” She muttered when I didn’t answer.

She dropped the subject and took another bite of her lunch.



“What am I going to wear!?” I groaned to myself, my closet ripped apart in my urge to find a nice outfit. I didn’t even know where we were going, so I had no idea what I should wear. I imagined dresses and skirts should be out, though, since we’d probably be doing some adventuring and such.

I stomped back into my closet and shoved all the clothes apart, trying to find a shirt that I actually liked. After another ten minutes of pushing tops out of the way I found a maroon colored tank top that I didn’t even know I owned. I peeled off my tee and put this one on instead, instantly deciding that this was the one I wanted to wear. I gave up trying to find the perfect pants to wear and settled with a pair of skinny jeans.

“You’re going out tonight?” My mom interrogated me as I walked down the stairs.

“Yeah, I didn’t tell you?” I racked my brain to try to remember if I told her, but I couldn’t remember. “I’m sorry.” I frowned.

“It’s alright, where are you going?” She filled a cup with her cranberry juice.

I grimaced at the drink she was pouring. “I’m not really sure. This kid from school is showing me around the cool places to go in town.” I shrugged.

“This kid?” She raised her eyebrows.

“His name is Gage, and no it’s not a date.” I sighed.

“Do you want it to be a date?” She asked.

Just then there was a knock on the door. My eyes widened and I touched my face, not done with my makeup yet.

“I’m not ready!” I turned and ran back up the stairs so I could finish and hoped my mom would answer the door.

A put on my eyeliner quickly and applied my foundation the quickest I ever have before I heard my mom yell up the stairs.

“Natalie! Gage is here!”

I checked my hair in the mirror before I put my shoes on and trotted down the stairs, my purse dangling by my side.

“Hey,” He smiled.

“Hi!” I responded. My mom stood next to him awkwardly, and I wondered to myself why he didn’t just text me to let me know he was here.

“Alright, let’s go!” I laughed and gestured for him to follow me. He did so, smiling widely.

“Don’t be too late, it’s a school night!” My mom called before I closed the door. I laughed to myself as Gage led us to the driveway. I rounded the corner and smiled widely.

His truck fit him perfectly.

“This is amazing.” I laughed, jogging up to it. “Can I please have something as perfect as this?”

He walked over and opened the door. I pulled myself up into the truck as he made his way to his side, pulling himself up a lot quicker and skillfully than I did.

“It took a lot to buy this, honestly.” He laughed. “I’m not gonna lie and say we’re not well off, but my parents refused to buy me my first car, and I had to work for it. And I bought it all myself.” He patted the steering wheel proudly.

“That’s great.” My smile matched his. “I still need a job.”

We laughed in sync as he backed out of the driveway.

“So where are we going first?” I asked, peering at the radio.

“You can change the station if you want,” He said when he saw me looking.

I smiled, “No, it’s fine where it is.”

“Well, I thought I’d show you where everyone likes to go on the weekends. But since it’s only Tuesday there won’t be very many people there so you can get a good look around.” He smoothly switched into another lane as he spoke.

“Sounds like fun.” I smiled, pulling out my phone and checking instagram.

“You have an instagram?” He asked, pointing to my phone.

“Hey! Keep your eyes on the road!” I laughed. “And yes, I do.”

He chuckled, looking at me out of the corner of his eye.

“What?” I shrugged. “I’d rather not die today.”

He shook his head, looking back at the road.

“What’s your instagram?” I asked, giggling at his face.

He told me, I typed it in and found him and scrolled through his pictures.

I had to bite my lip to keep from smiling at how cute he looked in every picture he posted of
himself.

“Did you follow me?” He asked, trying to look at my phone. I pulled it to my chest so he couldn’t see. “Eyes on the road!” I demanded again. He chuckled and resumed watching the pavement fly
by.

“And yes I did.” I laughed at the smirk on his face.

“Okay, we’re here.” He called a few minutes later, pulling into the parking lot of a rather large building. There was a large sign at the front door that read “ARCADE” in bright flashy letters. There were only a few cars other than Gage’s truck, so I assumed it wasn’t very crowded, like he had predicted.

He jumped out of his side and came over to open my door, even though I was already attempting to pull the handle open. I smiled when he whipped it open and grinned up at me, his eyes twinkling with happiness.

“Let’s go!” He held his hand out to help me down from the truck and awkwardly let go once I was safely on the ground.

“So, what makes this place so amazing that everyone comes here to hangout?” I asked, trotting up towards the door, the anticipation building inside.

“They make the best funnel cakes on this planet. Like better than the fair’s funnel cakes.” He nodded solemnly. I laughed once and proceeded to open the door and walk inside.

It was two stories tall, games along every inch of wall space and then some. Right now there was only little kids running around and annoyed parents chasing them, but I could easily tell how teenagers would love to hang out here. In the middle of the bottom floor was a huge circle with a bunch of tables for people to sit and eat their famous funnel cakes, and there was a stage on the far back wall that I assumed housed a DJ of some sort on the weekends.

“You wanna play some games?” He asked.

I shrugged, smiling widely. “Why not?”

We played arcade games for a few hours, a lot longer than I had expected to be here. I hadn’t been to an arcade since I was in middle school, and even then I hardly played any games so this was something new and definitely something fun.

Gage bought my tickets for me, pushing my hand away when I attempted to pay for myself.

“You really don’t have to, Gage.” I laughed, shoving my wallet back into my purse.

“That’s okay, it’s no big deal. My treat.” He smiled widely.

Later on he bought a funnel cake for him and a funnel cake for me, without asking if I wanted one. I could tell him and I would get along well, he already knew my weakness for sweets.
We sat and ate our cakes until we realized how late it already was.

“We’re not gonna have time to do anything else, we spent so much time here.” He laughed taking the last bite of his dessert.

“Well that just means we’ll have to do this another night, then?” I pushed his arm lightly as we stood to throw our garbage away. He smirked and raised an eyebrow.

“I guess so.” He held open the door for me as I walked through it, and then did the same with his car door.

The ride home was rather quiet. We listened to the radio and gave each other an occasional smile here and there, but other than that there wasn’t much going on.

He pulled into my driveway and pushed the truck in park, smiling crookedly at me.

“Well that was fun.”

I agreed wholeheartedly, reminding him that we needed to go out another night so he could show me around more.

“Sounds like a plan,” He smiled, leaning over and pulling me into an awkward car hug. “See you at school.”

I nodded as I pulled away, opening the door and making my way to the front door. He waited until

I was inside to pull from the driveway to leave, and I shut off the outside lights as soon as he was gone.

I plopped on my bed once I was in my room, sighing loudly to myself.

I wouldn’t lie, I had fun. But I couldn’t help but think that something was just not what I wanted it to be.