Our Toxic Love

Chapter Nine

*Ariana's POV*

Nathan is a tall, handsome boy with black hair and grey eyes. He's not bad at all, pretty cute actually. I sit on the bench next to him as we continue to talk.

"So, what are you doing tonight?" he asks me.

I suppress a smile. "Nothing, why?"

He shrugs. "Well, I was thinking we could do something?"

"Like go on a date?"

He pauses and for a moment, red creeps down my neck in embarrassment as I think I got it the wrong way. But he suddenly grins, obviously excited.

"Yeah, that," he says.

The bell rings for class.

"I'll pick you up at seven and we'll go have some dinner then catch a movie, yeah?"

"Sure," I say.

I rush to the bathroom to fangirl about going on my first date for a few seconds before heading to class.
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I'm still new to this dress fashionably and not like a hobo rule so I find difficulty in trying to find what to wear for tonight.

Usually, in movies, boys wear tuxedos and girls wear tight black dresses to dates... but I'm pretty sure that's not the case today.

I decide to wear a somewhat loose red shirt with black leggings. I apply my makeup and wear my dark converse-I'm not ready for heels yet.

Nathan texts me, informing me that he's waiting outside my house already. I use bobby pins to clip a few strands of my hair back, then, when I'm done, I walk past my dad in the sitting room, making my way to the front door.

"Where do you think you're going tonight?" he asks me.

"I'm going out with my friends," I say dryly.

"What friends? Who even allowed you to-?"

"Seriously, dad, you've never cared about me before, I don't see why you're asking these questions now," I snap.

I feel guilt wash over me as he looks at me, completely taken aback what I just said. I wait for him to say something but he's at a complete loss for words. So, I leave the house and climb into the passenger seat of Nathan's car.

"You look nice," he beams.

"So do you," I smile.

We make our way to a diner. Nathan asks for a table for two and we claim our booth, sitting opposite to each other.

After we receive our menus and order our food, we're left with nothing but complete silence between us. Just as I felt myself suffocating from the amount of awkwardness, Nathan says something.

"I know I shouldn't ask," he says, "but what happened in Matt's party?"

I can feel my face grow hot. I kind of prefer the awkwardness over this question.

"Which one?" I ask, though I'm well aware of what he's referring to.

"You know," he says, feeling uncomfortable-good, let him feel that way. Maybe that would teach him not ask something like that on a date. I mean, who the hell does that? Is this what dates are like? "The one a few days ago?"

"Oh," I say, "nothing. Ethan was just being a jerk and he tried to embarrass me. That's all."

"What did he do?" he asks.

Nathan, you're cute, really-but if you don't shut up, I'm going to have to shove a baguette up your ass.

"He just spilled a few secrets," I say.

He stares at me expectantly.

Hah. Does he seriously think I'm going to tell him the secrets that embarrassed me?

"I won't laugh," he says, as if he read my mind.

I shake my head. "Forget about it, really."

He tries to smile. "I really won't make fun or anything."

I take a deep breath. If he's going to be this annoying then I'm probably going to have to tell him. This might just be my first and last date.

"He just made fun of the fact that my dad doesn't really... care about me," I say, trying to keep my voice steady. I look at anything but his face. Hell, I would stare at the ceiling just to avoid meeting his eyes. "And he made a joke about how my mom died while giving birth to me-"

"What was the joke?" he asks.

My temper begins to rise. "Nathan, one more question about this and I swear to God-"

"Okay, okay," he says, holding his hands up and laughing. "I'm sorry. Continue."

I feel embarrassed by my sudden outburst but the feeling quickly dissipates as I think about how he actually deserved that one.

"And he told them that I... uh, I peedmypantswhenIwasfourteen."

He hesitates. "Might wanna go a little slower there?"

"I peed my pants," I gulp nervously, "when I was fourteen. On the school bus. And my nickname was Tinkle Pants after that."

My face is full on red as I finally look at him. He looks like he's really putting an effort into not laughing. I nod at him, giving him permission to let it out. And he does. He laughs for too long before I give him a look. Like, yeah, okay, you can stop now.

"Sorry," he laughs, "it's just... it's sort of funny, you know? But everyone's pretty much making a big deal out of it. They're not that bad when you think about it. It's just something you'd laugh at for a while then forget completely a few days later."

I frown. "I guess so. But that doesn't really explain how Ethan convinced everyone to turn against me."

He reaches for my hand. "Not everyone."

Okay, maybe this isn't so bad after all.

After dinner, we watch a comedy movie only to realize it is the lamest movie of all time. We still laugh at the corny jokes though. We also had fun as we made fun of the scenes we recalled.

Nathan drives me back home. He gets out of the car and opens the door for me, leading me up the steps of my house. I really don't want to go inside and face my father. He probably would've come up with about a hundred hurtful things to say to me by now because of my behavior earlier.

"So," Nathan says. "Tonight was really fun."

"Yeah, it was," I smile. "We should do it again sometime."

"Definitely," he grins.

He leans in, and for a second, I'm confused as to why he's moving so close to my face. I then quickly close my eyes and his lips press to mine and I have my first kiss. It feels gentle as it only lasts for a few seconds. He then pulls away and gives me one last smile before heading to his car.

My first date and my first kiss. Pfft, I'm on a roll tonight.