Chapter 37 | Brunch

Isabella:

I'm met with a flurry of greetings as I clamber into the backseat of Sammy's car.

"Hiii!" I reply as I put on my seatbelt. "I'm so excited for this double date!"

Grace nods beside me. "Me too because me and Isabella are so in love," She adds sarcastically before plopping a kiss on the side of my cheek. "Look at us."

"I just adore Grace's....tallness," I add in a monotonous voice to which Mia spins around from the passenger seat with a frown.

"Hey! It's not my fault I wanted to do a triple date and Aidan bailed and you," she narrows her eyes at me, "don't have a boyfriend."

I roll my eyes. "Why am I getting shouted at for being lonely?"

"You don't need to be lonely! I've tried countless times to try and set you up with-"

"Mia you were setting me up with boys in America when I was in England! How would that bloody work?"

She reaches back and pokes me in the arm. "So are you, that is currently sitting in this car right now which is in the US by the way, not Isabella freaking Quintero? Are you some figment of my imagination? Huh? HUH?"

"Oh shut up Mia."

"No you shut up."

"No you."

"No you."

"No you."

"No you."

"Guys the food in the brunch place is amazing, I can't wait for you to try it." Sammy chuckles from the drivers seat and squeezes Mia's knee, changing the subject from our childish bickering just as I open my mouth to argue back to Mia.

"I'm excited babe," Mia replies, smiling brightly and staring at her boyfriend adoringly just as I lean back in my seat, crossing my arms stubbornly, staring out of the car window.

The rest of the car ride is fairly silent, well from my part anyways. Mia and Sammy continue nattering throughout the car journey and Grace giggles out loud once in a while as she texts Aidan who is stuck in his grandma's house for thanksgiving break.

She finally looks up from her phone when her charge is close to running out, tucking it into the pocket of her jeans. "Isn't brunch something fancy old people do?" Grace asks, her gaze falling on something out of the window. Before anyone can answer her question she's gasping for air and we all stare at her concerningly. "Also is that the fucking place?" She adds, slapping a hand over her mouth.

I lean over Grace and peer up at the building from the window, my mouth falling open as Mia nods her head, answering Grace's question.

"But the building is so posh!" I exclaim, staring at Mia in bewilderment as Sammy pulls into the parking lot.

"Mi I'm not dressed the part!" Grace whines, leaning back and bashing her head on the back of her seat dramatically. "I'm wearing jeans!"

"It's fine." Mia makes a dismissive gesture with her hands. "I wanted to be sophisticated for once, I'm tired of eating at McDonald's."

"Bro a glass of water here is going to cost 60 dollars," I groan quickly looking through my purse to see how much money I had in it.

"Girls it'll be fine," Sammy adds with a smile, not seeming at all bothered by mine and Grace's grumbling. "Brunch is on me!"

I narrow my eyes at him and nag my finger his way. "No way, my mom and grandma would kill me if I let another person pay for my meal! I'll just order something cheap...like a single baked bean."

Mia clambers out of the car and opens the passenger door, signalling for us to get out. "C'mon it's probably not even that fancy on the inside."

As we walk inside the restaurant I realise that Mia is in fact wrong. Very wrong.

The entire place looks like something Blair Waldorf from Gossip Girl would eat at, with fancy, plush carpets and big, fancy floor to ceiling windows and about a trillion fancy chandeliers. Yes, chandeliers.

The waiters are all wearing fancy suits and fancy bow ties and I'm not surprised to see that everyone else at the tables are dressed in fancy, designer clad clothes from head to toe. The girls all have fancy up-does with not a single hair out of place and I subconsciously pat my hair down in return.

I do however, mentally praise myself for wearing something that can kind of be seen as 'classy'.

I'm wearing simple dark green paper bag style trousers, a black silky-ish blouse and have my shoulder length hair straightened. I quickly shake off my denim jacket to make my outfit look a tad less casual as Grace groans beside me.

"Everyone is staring at me because I'm so underdressed!"

I swivel my eyes around the room. "G stop being dramatic, no one is even second glancing you way!"

She ignores me and continues whining. "Why did I wear jeans? Why?"

She shakes my arm in frustration and shuts her eyes closed as I glance down at her body. "It's not that bad!" She was wearing mom jeans with a ribbed, cream sweater top. "You still look gorgeous as always!"

I grab her wrist to stop her shaking my arm and Grace finally stops groaning and peeks an eye open. "I do?"

"Of course!"

She sends me a little smile. "Aww thanks babe."

I grab her hand and encase it around mine, swinging it as we walk along, following Mia and Sammy. "You're welcome baby girl."

She giggles at my term of endearment before smirking down at me. "You look great too sweetheart, your ass looks absolutely exquisite in those trousers." She says in a posh accent, making a chefs kiss gesture to emphasise her point.

I giggle a coy smile playing on my lips as I go along with her joke. "Why thank you my darling."

"In fact you look so scrumptious," she begins, taking her hand out of mine and wrapping her arm around my waist. "I think I'd rather eat you for brunch than what this silly, fancy restaurant has to off-"

But Grace trails off and I quickly glance up to see the waiter that was showing us to our table glaring down at us.

He narrows his eyes at Grace who turns beetroot red and I try hard to stifle a laugh.

"Your tables," he says, his mouth curled into a frown as Grace and I take a seat at our respective table, whilst Mia and Sammy take a seat at theirs.

"I will return shortly with your menus," the waiter tells us curtly and saunters off leaving Grace and I spluttering in laughter.

"Why you guys laughing?" Mia asks from her table as I try to compose myself.

"Oh nothing," Grace replies, gasping for breath. "Just couple-y stuff."

We continue giggling like little girls until the waiter returns to our table with the menus.

"I assure you that there are a lot of 'scrumptious' items on this menu that this 'silly fancy' restaurant has to offer," he says in a monotonous voice before walking away.

I hide my laughing behind the menu but immediately stop as I scour my eyes across it, deciding on what to order.

I was right when I was saying how ridiculously over priced the food here was going to be but I finally settle on Belgian waffles seeing as I have enough money to order that.

A different waiter comes back to our table and takes our order. Sammy orders the same thing as I do, Mia gets French toast with turkey bacon on the side and Grace orders a full English breakfast.

"Look at those two," Grace says to me as we're waiting for our food, signalling towards Mia and Sammy.

I sigh wistfully watching at how they both look at each other with adoring eyes. "They're so cute, bless." I frown and play with my cutlery. "I want someone to look at like that!"

Grace exhales before her face lights up. "For our meal don't you worry I'll look at you like that!" She wiggles her eyebrows at me suggestively and sighs I clasp both her hands from across the table.

"Oh mi amor, my dear, my sweetheart, my pookums, I just love you so much my heart can't bare it," I let out a fake sob and Grace squeezes my hand.

"As a profoundness of my love!" Grace exclaims, sitting up straight in her seat, before pulling off the ring from off her middle finger. "Will you my dear, Isabella Quintero, the love of my life and the mother of my children, do the honour of marrying me?"

I bring a hand to my mouth. "Of course my sweet cheeks! I will do the honour of marrying you!"

She gasps and wipes her eyes with the back of her hand dramatically before putting the ring on my finger. "She said yes!" She exclaims and the room erupts in applause.

Well, me and Grace applause ourselves, no one else has seemed to take any notice of our proposal.

I take Grace's hand and squeeze reassuringly. "I-I think this is the perfect time to tell you that I'm pregnant!"

She mock gasps and clutches at her chest with her hand. "I'm going to be a..."

"Yes that's right baby!"

"Wait a second," she narrows her eyes. "How can we be pregnant when I'm a woman!"

"Um..."

"I don't have sperm!" she hisses from the corner of her mouth.

"Err-"

"You puta!" She gasps and lets out a dramatic sob. "You've been cheating on me!"

"No no my dear-"

"I know with who!" She cries. "Your next door neighbour!"

"No-" I begin to reply but I suddenly stop short. The mention of Lucas jogs my memory of the events that had taken place last night.

"Guys!" I exclaim dropping the couple act. I gain Mia and Sammy's attention and continue speaking.

"You'll never guess what happened yesterday!"

I tell them about Ivy cheating on Lucas and how he came drunk to my house. I leave out the bit where we fell asleep cuddling and this mornings encounter in the kitchen and once I'm done the two girls let out an excised squeal.

Both Sammy and I share a look of confusion.

"Okay it's so sad that Lucas got cheated on," Grace begins with a large smile. "But you know what this means!"

"What-"

"Omg I'm so EXCITED! Yay Lucas!" Mia bounces in her seat and for the second time I furrow my eyebrows.

"What are you excited about?" I ask. "Also I thought you were mad at Lucas?"

"Yes I am," Mia nods. "But it doesn't mean I still can't be excited."

"Excited about what?"

The two girls look at each other with knowing smiles but before they can answer the waiter comes back with our food.

"So tell me, what are you guys excited about?" I repeat once everyone has begun to tuck into their food, I fiddle with the fork in my hand that has a piece of waffle on it.

I thought the waffle would be relatively small but it's not, its as big as the plate and adorned with strawberries that are cut into identical slices with a sprinkle of powdered sugar and a side of silky chocolate syrup. I don't know how I'll manage to finish it, or even if I'll be able to stomach it at all.

Ignoring my question, Grace sticks out her fork. "You've got to try these hash browns," she moans, waving the fork in front of my face.

I scrunch my face up and shake my head. "No thanks," I say, causing her to shoot me a look.

"Are you sure, it's really yummy."

"Yep, I'm sure."

Her eyes scour my face and after a while as if being able to read my doubted thoughts, sighs.

"Hey look Bella it's ok, you're allowed to treat yourself from time to time remember?" She says softly. "Also I know the waffle is quite big but try and eat as much as you can, if there are left overs its ok, at least you managed to eat something, even if it's one piece." She pauses to smile brightly. "Think about your end goal pookums," she adds in a posh, motivational voice. "Take it one step at a time! Never give up! You're almost there-"

"Okay, okay, I get the memo," I chuckles, shaking my head. I take a bite of the waffle as she giggles. "Altho shtop changing the shubject," I tell her, my mouth full as I chew.

"What subject?"

"Why are you guys excited?"

From my peripheral vision I see Mia smirk.

"You." I turn and point at her with my fork. "Tell me why you two are bloody excited!"

She shrugs her shoulders. "You'll just have to wait and see when the plan takes action!"

I groan. "What plan!"

"So many questions," Grace tuts, a coy smile playing on her lips. "You're pulling a Lucas with all of these inquiries."

That shuts me up and I press my lips into a thin line.

"Fine I'll be patient," I grumble taking another bite of the waffle.

***

After we finish eating, we each pay our bill and mine comes to a whopping $25. I've also surprisingly managed to eat most of the waffle, there is only a little bit of it left on the plate which I couldn't stomach because the sweetness was getting too overwhelming overall, but I am proud of myself for eating more than I expected to.

With the guilt of spending money on overpriced food clenching around my heart, we all head back into Sammy's car. He drops us all home, me being the first seeing as how my house is closest to the brunch place.

"Bye!" I smile, shutting the car door once we pull up into my driveway and thank Sammy before waving goodbye to the girls.

We would've all hung out for a bit longer but Grace needed to get ready because she was visiting her aunt and I needed to urgently get home to finish doing my homework for tomorrow, so instead, we had scheduled another day later on in the week to hang out.

My mom opens the door for me and reminds me that I have to pick her out an outfit for her first day of work tomorrow and I promise that I'll do it after I finish my homework.

After I freshen up, I pull out my school bag and dumps the contents out onto my bed, sighing at the number of worksheets and essays I have to complete.

God damn this is going to take a while, maybe I shouldn't have left it all till last minute dammit.

I decide to begin with my History homework and take a seat at my desk, switching off my phone and shoving it into my drawer to eliminate any distractions but after a while I find my gaze drifting off to outside of the window and towards Lucas' room.

I can see that his TV is on and as I take a closer look I realise that he is watching the notebook, aka one of my most favourite romance movies ever. I cry every time I watch it.

Damn, he really is in his feels.

I quickly shake myself out of the daze before I start reminiscing the plot and begin weeping like a baby and promptly remind myself of the amount of work I have to complete and with an internal groan, I get back to writing my essay on the causes of the Cold war 1947-1991.

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AUTHORS NOTE:

Omg we are almost at 15k reads that is amazing!!!!! I'm literally combusting right now, thank you so much everybody it means so much to me 🥺