Chapter 17

Lexi put on her playlist while I drove us to the restaurant for the first part of our date.

            The restaurant I had picked was a little further out of town, so we had a bit of driving to do, but it was fine. It was still early and, in the end, the important part of a date with Lexi was spending time with her, so a longer car ride was just working in my favour here.

            And Lexi was playing her greatest hits, making sure she could sing as loud as she wanted.

            Right now, Depeche Mode's Enjoy the Silence was playing and we were both shouting the chorus together. We were both awful singers, so neither of us could complain about the other.

But what we lacked in talent we made up in enthusiasm. 

We sang loudly and goofed around and messed up the lyrics and had fun like the two silly teenagers we were.

"Are you going to tell me where we're going to eat now?" Lexi eventually asked between two songs. "Because if you bring us back to that first restaurant you'd faked out last time I'm not going to be happy."

"Why?" I asked, chuckling.

"I'm wearing jeans," she whined, "Also, need I remind you? Tiny portions."

I grinned at her, wanting to pat her head. "I love how consistent you are. It's comforting."

"Stop dodging and answer me."

I liked to tease my girlfriend, but I'd rather have her happy, so I complied with her pressing demand. "I found us a pasta buffet. It's Italian and it's a buffet. So, I can almost sound romantic with the Italian part, but I know you'll be please with the fact that this is a buffet so you'll be able to eat to your heart's content."

She grinned, patting my cheek. "You know me so well."

"Get ready though. This is out first date and it's a beginner one. I'm gonna be bringing you to a super fancy and romantic restaurant at one point," I warned her, my voice teasing.

My Pumpkin scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest, not on board with that idea apparently. "Are you going to bring me to a clothing shop first so you can buy be a fancy dress, because I have nothing that would fit in a fancy restaurant."

"I can do that."

She arrowed her eyes at me. "I was joking."

I grinned back. "I wasn't."

"It's gonna be a pain being your girlfriend," she whined, making me laugh.

"But I have an amazing chest, so it's worth it in the end."

"You're really lucky to have your chest."

"I thank my stars every day for it," I replied dramatically.

A few minutes later, I parked my car in front of the restaurant and we made our way inside.

Lexi was practically jumping up and down on the spot, excited about the prospect of stuffing her face.

We got our table quickly and then headed for the buffet. Lexi almost looked at all the food with more love in her eyes than she did me.

It was fine. I knew my girlfriend.

We both sat down at our table with our overflowing plates and dug in, grinning at each other.

            "So?" I said, after a few minutes of us just stuffing our faces in silence.

            "So?" Lexi replied, hiding her mouth with her hand because it was full.

            I chuckled and then said, "Twenty questions?"

            She rolled her eyes. "Really?"

            "Yeah, we barely asked one the last time."

            "Go ahead, ask away," she motioned for me to do whatever I wanted, before shoving more pasta in her mouth.

            "If me and Tyler are drowning, who do you save first."

            "Tyler," she replied automatically without even looking up from her plate.

            "What? You answer that without even a second of hesitation?"

            "You're a good swimmer."    

            "I'm hurt is what I am."

            "If Josh and I were drowning, who would you save?" she asked me, thinking she was going to win something.

            "You. Josh would drown me with him if I tried to save him."

            "Nice," my Pumpkin chuckled, and then decided to change subject, "Where's your favourite place in the whole wide world?"

            "Oh jeez," I was kind of caught off guard by the serious question. I was good at joking around. Serious questions were a little bit more complicated. "Wait, I have to think about this one... What about you?"

            "My favourite place is the Dump Creek," Lexi started to say, "I like it there. It's just good memories. Most of the places I've travelled to with my family make me feel sad when I think about them now, because of my mom. But she was never at the Creek. It's always been a happy place for me."

            I nodded, agreeing. "The Creek is a nice place. Mine would probably be your bedroom."

            Lexi slapped my arm over the table. "Be serious."   

            I grinned. "I am." She just rolled her eyes, not taking me seriously. "Okay, I guess... then maybe my grandparent's place. Because it feels... like it really feels like home. Our house here, sometimes I don't know. It just doesn't feel like home. I don't know how to explain it right," I said, making a face. I should be better at expressing myself.

            "No, I get it," she nodded, looking at me with kind eyes. "Most of your good memories didn't happen in that house."

            "What's your best memory?" I asked Lexi, to get the spotlight off of me.

            My Pumpkin shrugged. "Oh, I don't think there's just one. But all the trips with my family. And all the times at the Creek. Favourite places are really favourite memories."

            "Right."

            "Did you have pets growing up?" Lexi asked me, changing subject again.

            I shook my head. "No never, we always moved around too much, and it was a responsibility I didn't want to have later on. It was hard enough taking care of myself. You?"

            "We had a dog, a black lab," she smiled at the memory. "He was a really good dog. He was a rescue, and he died when I was nine. We didn't get a dog afterwards because it made me too sad when he died and I said I didn't want to have another dog to see it die again."

            "Makes sense. You're all in when you love something."

            "Yeah, but I think it would have been good for me to learn how to deal with death if I had more pets. It might have made me ready to lose other things."

            "You're never truly ready to lose anything or anyone, whatever you try to do to prepare yourself."

            Lexi looked at me with thoughtful eyes, tilting her head a bit. "Are you worried a lot, about your head?"

            I shrugged, trying not to make a big deal out of it. "Yeah. I try not to think about it too much though. It's kinda useless. Worrying is not going to change anything aside from making my life miserable. So I'm trying to ignore it as much as I can, while also being careful."

            "You'd tell me, right? If anything was happening, or if you weren't feeling well," Lexi asked, sounding a bit worried now.

            I chuckled. "I want to say yes, but I also don't want to worry you."

            Lexi glared at me. "You'd hurt me more if you didn't tell me."

            "But, you don't need to worry too. Just me is enough worrying."

            "You're too stubborn for your own good."

            I smirked at her. "But at least now you know I'm like this, so it shouldn't surprise you."

            "Little bitch."

            "Yep, always yours."

            We went to get more food and then we chatted about nothing and everything as we ate. About something someone did in one of our classes, about a subject we'd found interesting or a teacher we'd found boring. About our favourite weather, and the fact that we both disliked cilantro. 

            After more plates than were reasonable to eat, Lexi finally gave up eating more. We went to the front desk, and I paid before Lexi could even protest.

            When we walked out, Lexi whined, "God, I'm so full I think I'm gonna barf. My pants don't fit anymore."

            The sun was slowly starting to set. The windy air was getting chilly. It felt like a nice night to be out.

            I chuckled, looking at Lexi as we made out way to my car. "Did you starve at one point when you were a kid? Is this why you need to stuff your face like this all the time?"

            "No, it's just... food is so good Blake," she whined, grabbing onto my shirt.

             "You're hilarious," I said, and wrapped my arm around her neck, bringing her closer to me, and pressed a kiss to her temple, "and I really love you."

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Happy Monday my little Pumpkins!

Sorry, this update is late. I fell asleep before midnight and I woke up at like four AM with a jolt realizing my mistake. :')

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I'd ramble more, but I'm typing this on my phone, and I just want to go back to sleep. XD

Byyyyye! Love you guys! See you all next week! <3