Chapter 24

I was in my room getting ready for my date with Carson. It was my first date and I was so nervous. This was the first time in two weeks that we were going to be hanging out together; just the two of us, and I didn’t want to put my expectations up to high.

Best case scenario: everything goes great and we go out again

Worst case scenario: it’s incredibly awkward and nothing else happens

It was right then that I realized I really wanted this to work out for the better. He was the first guy I truly liked in my sixteen years of life. I knew him well and I trusted him – who knows when another guy like that would come along for me?  I needed to make a good impression tonight because I knew the type that Carson usually went for… and I wasn’t it. His normal type was slutty perfect Barbie dolls who were regular class A bitches… I was just me.

I turned around to look in the mirror that was hanging on my closet door. I had long brown hair, plain brown eyes and a regular body. I didn’t know what Carson saw in me but I hope he wasn’t playing around. I knew that if I put everything into this relationship, I would probably end up falling for him, and he was to break my heart, it would definitely hurt.

I shook all those thoughts out of my head right away. This was our first date and I didn’t need to be thinking about falling in love with him. Yeah, I liked him right now and that’s all that mattered.

I opened my closet up to find something cute to wear on my date. I had already taken a shower when I got home from school and straightened my hair, adding a few small curls here and there to make it look a bit more unique then it usually did. Now all I had to do was pick a cute outfit and do my makeup before Carson came over in half an hour.

I shuffled through all the clothes in my closet and finally came across a cute strapless Aztec romper. The base was light pink with different patterns of hot pink, yellow and orange all over and a braided brown belt attached to it. I found a grey long sleeve cardigan and a pair of brown gladiators to complete my outfit.

Once I was dressed, I ventured back into my en-suite to apply a little makeup. I put on my usual blush and mascara but changed my lip gloss to a more reddish colour.

When I was done, I took a step back and looked in the mirror to see how I looked. In my opinion, I looked cute. It was still me but just a bit dolled up and I actually liked it.

I was just putting my phone, my keys and my wallet into a small purse when the doorbell rang and a smile appeared on my face.

Nobody else was home since mom had gone out somewhere and Jaxon had already left for his double date so I quickly through my purse over my head and rushed downstairs to get the door

I opened the door to see, unsurprisingly, Carson, standing there with his hands in his pockets and his head down. I guess he noticed that I was standing there because his eyes snapped up to meet mine and he smiled at me.

I raised an eyebrow and crossed my arms across my stomach. “You know you don’t have to ring the doorbell right?” I asked. “You’ve been walking into this house for the last 8 years and you choose now to start using the doorbell?”

He shrugged slightly and swiped some hair out of his face. “I figured I’d be a guest tonight and not just your brother’s best friend.” he replied and my smile grew.

“Well, I definitely found it sweet.” I said.

His smile grew slightly as he replied, “well that’s what I was going for. By the way,” he said, “you look great Lex.”

I smiled shyly at him. That was a real compliment from him and nobody got those often. Usually they were witty jokes or obnoxious comments but what he said actually sounded genuine. “Thanks.” I replied.

“You look great too.” I said once I actually took in what he was wearing. He had on a pair of dark blue jeans that looked amazing on him and a light green button up shirt, which was undone with a white undershirt underneath. In plain English; Carson looked hot!

“Well, I suppose we make a good match then.” he said jokingly.

I shook my head smiling slightly as I closed the door behind me. “I suppose we do,” I replied, “are you ready to go?”

He nodded. “Yup, come on my fair lady, the night is still young.” he answered in a funny English accent.

I laughed lightly and followed him to his car.

I slowed down slightly when I noticed that he was heading towards the passenger side instead of the driver’s side. I was about to ask what he was doing when he opened the passenger door and turned back to me. “Are you not getting in?” he asked, with a smirk appearing on his face and a crooked eyebrow.

I kept walking, my smile growing slightly (which seemed to be happening a lot more lately). “Aren’t you the gentlemen?” I asked teasingly, getting into the car. “Special occasion?” I asked before he closed my door and jogged slightly to the driver’s side.

He hopped in his side and put the keys into the ignition. “Yeah,” he nodded, “I am taking a special girl out because I seem to like hanging around in her presence.” he said, making a blush appear across my cheeks as I threw a smile in his direction.

I turned my head towards my passenger window and looked out it as Carson backed out of his drive way and starting driving in the opposite direction then the downtown area. “Wait, where are we going?” I asked him, noticing that we weren’t turning around anytime soon.

He smirked in my direction. “Secret.”

I rolled my eyes but accepted his answer and continued to look out the window. Unlike most girls, I liked surprises because they kept you guessing until the time that they arrived.

“I will tell you one thing though…” he said, looking over at me quickly before putting his eyes back to the road.

“And what’s that?” I asked, raising an eyebrow questioningly.

“It’s a stereotypical date, just a little embellished.” he said, smiling.

‘A stereotypical date but embellished’ I thought. Now what did he mean by that?

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After a 20 minute ride, we stopped at the edge of a forest near the edge of town. I got out of the truck at the same time as Carson and walked over to his side, where he was waiting for me. “Umm… where exactly are we?” I asked, crossing my arms over my stomach because I was getting an eerie feeling about this place.

He smiled at me. “Well, I wanted to take you out to eat somewhere that you would definitely remember.” he replied.

I stood by his side looking at the forest in front of us. “I’m sorry Mr. Roberts, but I don’t see any food around here. Can you possibly tell me the punch line of this joke so I can understand it and laugh.” I said mockingly.

He rolled his eyes. “We have to walk a bit to get to our destination, thank you very much Lieutenant Sarcasm.” he said. “But, you are wrong about one thing, there is food around here.”

I was utterly confused. “Huh?” I asked as he started walking towards the back of his truck, “I don’t see any……”

I trailed off as Carson opened the back of his truck and pulled out an oversized thermal blanket and a picnic basket. He also grabbed two of his hoodies he had stored back there before closing the door and walking back to my side.

“Now,” he stated, “what was this you were saying about there being no food around here?” he said mockingly, shaking the picnic basket in front of my face.

I laughed pushing the picnic basket away from my face and grabbing his free hand that was closest to me. “Yea, yea, and where are we supposed to eat genius?” I said as we started walking into the forest, where there seemed to be a trail leading somewhere.

“Well, we follow this trail for a couple minutes and then I’ll show you.” he replied, smiling in my direction and squeezing my hand before focusing back on the trail that was leading us to an unknown  destination.

After what felt like five minutes of walking around trees, roots and bushes, we came to a clearing that looked like an abandoned football field. It was a huge patch of grass without any stumps or trees and it was completely surrounded by more forest. It was so private and cute that I felt a smile slip onto my face.

“How in the world did you find this place?” I asked as we walked closer to the middle of the clearing and Carson started to lay the blanket down on the ground.

He shrugged. “I came across it a couple of years ago with Jaxon when he and I were biking around down here. We saw the trail and decided to follow it and we came here. It didn’t seem like much back then but yesterday I remembered it and I decided to take you here.” he replied. “I mean it’s not that I didn’t want to take you out in public, believe me I do, it’s just, umm… I wanted to make tonight special, and I thought, uh, that maybe somewhere private would be better. If you don’t like it, umm, I guess we could leave and go somewhere…” he said, starting to ramble on when I placed a small kiss of his cheek.

I gave him a reassuring smile. “It’s fine Carson, really. I think it’s really sweet that you took me here so don’t second guess yourself okay.” I said.

He looked relieved as he sat down on the blanket and started taking out various food from the picnic basket. He turned to look at me as I was standing awkwardly beside the blanket not knowing what I was supposed to do. He patted the blanket beside him and chuckled. “You can sit down you know, it’s not like I’m going to bite you or something.”

I smiled and sat down beside him, close, but no too close. Just close enough so that if I leaned slightly are shoulders would be touching. “So,” I said, “what’s for dinner?”

He laughed slightly and shook his head turning towards me. “Well, since I know that you love my cooking, so I decided that I’d make some things and we could just have a variety of food.” he said.

I chuckled quietly. “So basically, you made a feast.” I stated.

He nodded sheepishly. “Yea, I made feast.”

I nodded and smiled as he kept unloading the picnic basket. Once it was completely empty, there must have been enough food for about five extra people. There was a bowl of salad that looked delicious, a bowl of pasta baked with sauce and extra cheese, along with pizza sticks, ten chicken wings, a bottle of strawberry/peach juice and two vanilla cupcakes with blue happy faces on them.

“Wow, this must have taken you forever to make, you didn’t have to do all this.” I said, shaking my head.

He took my hand in his and I turned to look at him. “It’s okay Lex, once I got home, I just started cooking and it only took a little over an hour to make all this stuff. The pasta stayed in the oven until I packed it so it should still be warm and everything else is fresh. I wanted to do this for you because I like you Lexi, it’s wasn’t a problem at all.” he replied.

My breath was caught in my throat for a second. Carson was being so sweet and I couldn’t believe that we were actually out on a date. This was actually really romantic and I’m glad Carson thought of something this special for our first date.

I shook my head, leaning my head on his shoulder. “It’s perfect.” I said, as I watched a grin break out on his gorgeous face.

“Well, let’s not let all this delicious food go to waste shall we.” he said as he took out two plates, and started filling mine with a bit of everything.

As we started eating, a peaceful silence was placed upon us, it wasn’t awkward or anything… and it didn’t last long because after five minutes of silence, Carson broke it.

“So, I know I’ve known you forever but there are still some things I want to know.” he said.

I swallowed the bit of pasta I had in my mouth before answering.  “Sure, what’d you want to know?”

“Well,” he said, leaning back on his arms, “what’s your favourite thing do to besides hanging around me?” he asked jokingly, but at the same time serious.

“Umm…” I said, hesitant to answer. Only Kylie and my mom knew that I had a passion for art and I had talent. I hadn’t shown them anything in the last couple of months because I was starting to lose confidence in my ability.

“You know, whatever it is, I’m sure it’s awesome and you can trust me.” Carson said, looking over at me with a curious gaze.

I knew I could trust him, so I took a small breath and answered his question quietly. “I like art.”

“What, I’m sorry, I just didn’t hear you.” he said.

I looked over at him and smiled slightly. “It’s alright, and I said, umm... I like art.”

His eyes grew slightly in size as he stared at me. “Really?” he asked and I nodded. “Well, that’s cool. How come nobody has ever told me about this, you must be really good if I haven’t managed to figure this out.”

I shook my head. “Only my mom and Kylie know, and well know you do, but I don’t like parading it around. If I am good then I accept it but drawing and painting it’s just a hobby of mine and I don’t like showing it off or anything.” I answered shrugging, finishing the last of the food on my plate.

“Hmm, well maybe you could show me sometime. I would really like to see some of the things you could do with art.” he said, wrapping an arm around my shoulder and pulling me down onto the blanket so that he was lying on his back and I had my head rested on his shoulder.

“I don’t know,” I mumbled, “nobody has ever really seen my drawing, but maybe in the future sometime. Maybe.”

He nodded, and got the hint to drop the conversation.

After a couple of minutes of pure silence and serenity, Carson broke it once again. “So, all we have left is our cupcakes and I wanted to show you something before the night is over.” he said, grabbing my hand and pulling me up to stand on my feet.

“I thought we were having a picnic?” I asked, raising an eyebrow questioningly.

“We are, but know, this part of the night is over while the other part is just beginning.” he stated as he started to pack up the half empty containers of food into the picnic basket.

All I could think was… ‘What else could he have possibly planned for tonight?’

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I have had a busy week so I am sorry that this chapter is so late being uploaded. I was going to write the full date in this chapter but I couldn’t write anymore write now so this is where I cut it off

The dedication for the date idea that continues into the next chapter goes to Imprincess, but I change it slightly.

Next Chapter: finishing Carson/Lexi date and maybe the double date between Zayn/Kylie/Jaxon/Cassidy

Next Update: Sunday? If not, within the next week

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