Miserably Loving You.

I knew as soon as he mentioned a date, I wanted to take him somewhere fun. Somewhere that would tucker both of us out and make the night we spent together that much more meaningful; but that’s where the problem started arising, where exactly was that? Bowling was weird and I hated wearing other people’s nasty shoes, parks are boring after a while, we’ve already gone to the movies… So where?

This became my every waking thought; I mean… I told Gage I had it all planned out, but honestly I was scrambling to have at least something half decent. I didn’t want to cheap out on him, or make it seem like I threw something together last minute. I really wanted him to see how much I cared about him, and come Friday I was still empty handed.

“What’s that face for?” Violet asked as she came into the kitchen. I’m guessing the hunched over posture and the feverishly rubbing at my face gave away that I was slightly distressed,

“Just can’t think of a date idea.” I say honestly, I mean, I was desperate now. The worst she could do is to just not help.

“Really?” She chuckles before shaking her head. “Take him to the zoo, or the aquarium. He loves animals, and it’s a good way to kill a few hours. Then take him to lunch somewhere nice, not that hard Leighton.” I looked up at her then before scrambling over to her to hug her; something I haven’t done in a very long time it seems and I kind of felt bad for that. We weren’t a touchy family by any mean, but still, she was my baby sister. “What… What are you doing?”

“Hugging you, shut up.” I laugh as I squeeze her a bit tighter. “Thank you Vi, I really really appreciate the help.”

“Oh… Yeah! Any time…” She says, her voice almost sounding ashamed for a second so I pushed her away gently to get a good look at her face. “Don’t look at me like that, I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I never said you did.” I laugh before shaking my head. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing…” She says, obviously lying. “Well, I don’t know, this is going to sound stupid…”

“Can’t be that dumb, I promise.”

“No, it definitely is. I just… I’ve been fighting so hard against you and Gage but helping you just now felt really good. Just guilt setting in more I guess. I don’t know. I’m glad you two are happy.”

“Yeah, we’re really happy.” I say, not wanting to harp too much on the other things she said. “Thank you again Violet. I was at my wits end with this.” She offered me a small smile as a response to that before hugging me again. I knew her and I would get back to this point eventually, and it really did feel nice to just have a sibling moment.

Soon after we broke apart and she went her way off to school, and I went to go retrieve Gage so we could ride to school together. He looked extra cute and excited of course today, so as soon as we got into my car I littered his face with kisses and compliments before driving. I had to get my early morning blush in before I got to school. It was just absolutely necessary.

The day passed by pretty uneventfully. Gage stuck close to my side and Violet made her own plans for the weekend. Her friend actually sat with us at the lunch table so it was kind of nice seeing her be her normal bubbly self while Gage and I exchanged looks and small talk through the meal. Everything just felt right today.

When we got home, Violet hung out with us for a bit before going to pack her things so she could go hang out with her friend Kelly, so Gage and I looked at each other for a brief second before his face turned bright red.

“What’s that look for?” I ask, my hand finding its way into Gage’s hair quickly.

“I don’t know; I think I’m just really excited about tomorrow. This whole surprise thing is pretty romantic.”

“Yeah tomorrow is going to be pretty fun.” I say my tone just as excited as his. “Speaking of which, you should probably go home and get some rest.”

“What?” He asks, his lip jutting out far enough for him to almost be on the verge of looking silly. “I can’t stay the night?”

“No sir, you need to actually get sleep, and I want to look somewhat surprisingly good looking for you tomorrow so you gotta go.”

“Oh come on, you’re always surprisingly good looking. There’s no need for all that.”

“Sure there is.” I chuckle before getting up. “Come on cutie pie, I’ll walk you home.”

“But Leighton…” He whined, grabbing my hand quickly then to try to pull me back down. “Oh that’s just not fair. At least pretend I’m somewhat strong.”

“Nope, not gonna happen tonight.” I chuckle yet again. “I don’t want you to go either, but I don’t want to be rushing out tomorrow morning. I just want this to be a proper date.” He sighed after that and nods.

“Fine… But I can stay over tomorrow night right?” He asks as he stands up, pulling himself closer to me once he’s on his feet.

“Of course you can.” I say before taking his hand in my own and leading him out and back over to his house. Of course we stop a little short of his place so I could smother him with a few kisses, but after that we walked back to his house where I dropped him off. He protested a bit more, but eventually I convinced him it was worth it again and left him there once he got inside.

I had a few picture messages with his little pouting face on my phone once I got back home, so I sent him a picture of me with an empty spot beside me in bed.

Oh that’s just unkind. He responded after that one and I couldn’t help but to laugh.

Good night, baby. I’ll see you in a couple of hours.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning, I woke up bright and early… Or rather, I fell asleep for two hours and then couldn’t get back to sleep after that. So by the time ten am rolled around I had the house clean, I was showered, and dressed in tight fitting black jeans, a maroon shirt, a dark grey zip up hoodie, and a black over coat. My hair ended up doing whatever it wanted so I slipped a dark grey beanie on and called it a day before roaming over to Gage’s house. I didn’t really specify a time, but I figured he would already be ready by now.

Sure enough, the moment I knocked on the door it flew open and my short adorable boyfriend was standing in front of me. I couldn’t help the smile on my face either, I was so excited about taking him to the aquarium today. He deserved something fun and exciting after all the shit we’ve been through. Not only that, but I might have remembered that turtles were one of his favorite animals, so… I may be able to work something out where we can go see at least one large one up close. We’ll see.

“You ready to go, cutie pie?” I asked as I held my hand out excitedly for him, and he nodded just as excitedly before taking it.

“Yeah! Where are we going?” He asked, and I couldn’t help but to shrug.

“You’ll see!” I say, tugging him along with me to the car. “But I promise you’ll like it.”

“You could take me anywhere, but as long as I’m with you, I’ll like it.”

“You’re too cute, you know that?” I say, opening the door for him before going around to my side.

The car ride was relatively quick, which was nice. The plus side of the aquarium was that it was in town, not that I was trying to be cheap or anything, but the zoo was almost two hours away. This way it was easy enough to confuse him since there were a lot of other things around that area anyways.

Once I pulled into the parking lot, I glanced over at Gage whose mouth was agape and he just couldn’t take his eyes off the building.

“I know it’s not a movie, but I figured this might be pretty fun as well.” I chuckled and he looked over at me, the excitement in his eyes just increasing tenfold as he looked between the me and the building.

“This… Are you sure? I didn’t mean to ask for something like this, this is too much Leighton…” He said, covering his mouth and I just shook my head. The tickets were like twenty bucks and the add on that I saw online for the “petting zoo” type thing was only an additional fifteen so all in all hypothetically it only cost me two days of work with my mom. So it really wasn’t that big of a deal, I’m just glad he was this excited for it.

“Of course I’m sure.” I said as I got out of the car and hurried over to him. “I would have done something else if I wasn’t.” I added on before helping him out and onto his feet. He gave me a pretty huge hug before pulling me into the building.

The date went like a relatively standard date. Gage convinced me to just get food there, I had planned on taking him out after, but he was hungry and didn’t want anything fancier than just quick food since he swore I already spent too much. But I swear it could have been six hundred dollars and these few hours would have been so worth it. I don’t think I ever saw any one so excited and content to just stare at a fish tank. I mean that’s basically all this was. It would be one thing if he were excited about the larger aquatic life, but I swear it was the smaller fish that amazed him more.

When we got to the little fun room with the stingray tanks, starfish tanks, and turtle habitats, Gage looked up at me with wide eyes.

“We… We’re going in there?” He asked, and I nodded.

“Yes sir.” I said, handing him a bracelet that I got at the front desk when I got the tickets I ordered online. “Here’s one for you-“ I said as I slipped it on his wrist. “And one for me!” I said, handing him the mine so he could help me out.

“Leighton… You… You really didn’t have to do all of this.”

“I know I didn’t, but you deserved a special date. We both did. So don’t worry about this and what I should or shouldn’t have done. Just enjoy it, baby.” He nodded at that and popped up on his tippy toes before stealing a quick kiss.

“Well thank you, this is seriously the… Second best day of my life.”

“Second?” I asked, raising my brow. I mean I wasn’t demanding that this be the best, but I wasn’t sure why he needed to specify that there was a day better than this one.

“Yeah, the day you asked me out was definitely and will always be my first.” Another smile cracked on my face when he said that. He was just too damn cute and cheesy that I already started planning our next date. I didn’t know what it would be, but I knew right then and there that it had to top this date, and that I would always strive to top each and every date.

“I love you.” I said simply, wrapping my arm around his waist before escorting him in.

“I love you.” He replied, and after that I think I lost my boyfriend for at least an hour as he explored each and every tank. He was so nervous about touching the stingrays, but eventually I coaxed him into touching them with me. They were slimy and gross, but after we touched them together a few times he went off on his own again. Occasionally looking over at me when something interesting happened, but honestly he was just off in his own little world. So of course I took about a million pictures. I snagged a few of us together, but unlike most days, he just couldn’t contain himself with these animals. Especially around the turtles, so once he was fully distracted with those I made my way over to him and kissed his cheek.

“Hey, I’ll be right back. I need to pee.” I said, and I think I pretty much just got a grunt and a nod since the turtle just nudged his hand. Which was more than fine. It gave me plenty of time to sneak off into the gift shop and find the largest plush turtle I had ever seen. Since I saved a huge chunk of change on lunch, I didn’t mind spending forty bucks on this. I had the extra cash now, so I might as well spoil him with it.

This plush was about the length of my entire leg and was about as wide as Gage and I standing right next to each other. So when I came carrying it back, I made sure to hide somewhat behind it and tap Gage with his little fin thing.

“Well hey there!” I said, trying my best to make a cartoony voice. “I heard you were going to be my new friend!”

“Leighton, you didn’t…”

“Yeah! That’s the guy who said I would be going home with you!” I said, not breaking my turtle character.

“Oh he did? How much did it cost him to free you from your gift shop prison?” He giggled and I made the turtles arms go up.

“Doesn’t matter! You don’t want him to put me back do you? That would make me very sad!”

“Oh goodness, I can’t have that.” He said, the giggle still evident in his voice.

“So you’ll take me home?”

“Of course I will.” He chuckled. “Is Leighton around, I would really like to thank him.” I peeked around the turtle then and smiled.

“Hi baby, I see you met the friend I found you?”

“I did!” He chuckled and shook his head before leaning forward to steal a kiss. “I like him a whole lot.”

“Do you really?” I asked, more rhetorically than anything before turning the turtles head to pretend he was talking in my ear. “Oh! Because I think he really likes you, and would like for you to hold him. You know, to really solidify that he’s coming home with you. He’s really nervous about that. I promised him you would take the best care of him.

Gage blushed then and shook his head once more before taking the large plush and squeezing it against himself.

“I really do love you, Leighton.” He said softly as he held the toy that was nearly three fourths his size.

“And I really do truly love you, Gage.”