My sweet escape | cb

two

I walk into Applebee's and scan the area. When I spotted my brother waving at me, I smiled.

Every Tuesday around noon, my brother, mom, and I all have lunch at Applebee's.

It's a tradition that I love. I walk over towards them and sit down next to my brother.

"Hey, guys." I smile when I sit down. I might not look like it on the outside, but I'm a big family person.

I love being around family, especially my brother and mom.

My brother, Nolan is two years younger than me but we're best friends. It makes sense though.

We get our usual waiter and he asks if we want our usual. That's how much we come here.

He takes our menus as the three of us look at each other.

"How was your weekend, Ashton?" My mom asked making conversation.

"Good, I made a bunch of tips." I boast. She smiles towards me.

It's not the most ideal job she wants me to have, but she knows I enjoy working with my best friends.

Lunch with the two went amazing. We made conversation and just hang out with each other.

"I was thinking about going to the mall, you wanna come with?" Nolan asked when we finish eating our brunch.

I nodded my head. "I need some new clothes so I'm down." I mess up his hair knowing he hates it.

He shoves me away as I start laughing. We tell my mom bye when we walk out of Applebee's.

"I'll follow you to the mall." I tell my brother. He nods his head while getting into his car. My brother just got his license to be an Emt.

I'm super proud of him knowing he's been talking about being one for years.

I follow him all the way to the mall and park right next to him. I get out of the car and look at my brother.

"I just realized, why aren't you at work?" I ask curiously. He shrugged while looking at me.

"I'm on call so if I rush out the mall that's why." He joked as we walked in together, side by side.

The two of us both have different senses of style. I go for the grungier look while he looks like a frat boy.

I joke about it to him all the time and it pisses him off, every time. We go to American Eagle first.

He gets a couple shirts while I get a pair of jeans that I thought were cute. We then walk to Hot Topic, which is my favorite store.

We went to the band shirts that I didn't have just yet. "That Queen one is pretty dope." Nolan points out.

I scrunch my nose towards him, signaling that I don't like it. "If you want it, you can take it." I tell him to go for it.

As we looked at the shirts, I could feel someone come over to us. "Ashton, right?" I heard a familiar voice say behind me.

I look to see it was Colby, the drunk brunette who flirted with me all night.

I thought I was never going to see him again. "Yeah, hey. How was that hangover?" I ask with a hint of laughter.

He laughed a little while scratching his neck. "Getting home was a blur. I did want to apologize and thank you."

I look at him strangely. He sighed while started to scratch his neck from nerves.

"I wanna thank you for driving me home and I wanted to apologize for the way I acted." It was sweet of him to say that.

I can tell he truly meant it. "It's no problem, I didn't want to leave you on the street and don't worry about it." I shake my head.

I almost forgot that Nolan was here until he cleared his throat. I look at him to see he was looking at me confused.

Confused to who this guy is that I'm talking to. "Oh, Colby this is my younger brother, Nolan. Nolan, this is Colby." I introduced the two together.

The two smiled a little bit and shook each other's hands. "It's nice to meet you dude." Nolan smiled.

"Yeah, you too. I just wanted to thank you." Colby looked back over at me. He looks at the both of us, tells us bye, and walks away.

I look at my brother to see he was giving me a strange look. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?" I ask a little harsh.

He rose his hands in defense towards me. "Nothing, it's just homeboy wanted your number." I rolled my eyes towards him.

"If he wanted my number, he would've asked." I wasn't just telling him, I was telling myself too.

He shrugged like he didn't believe me. "I don't know, he looked pretty nervous." He was always meddling into my love life.

I thought he was going to grow out of it but he's twenty-two and still meddling.

"Yeah, he probably just felt bad for Saturday." He furrows his eyebrows towards me. He asks what happened so I explained it to him.

I tell him how he came to the bar and started flirting with me. I then tell him how when we closed up, he was drunk and sitting on the sidewalk.

When I finished explaining everything, he had to think about it for a moment.

"Well, that's one way to meet someone, I guess." He laughs a little bit.

We spend most of the time at the mall, talking and gossiping. It was nice spending some time with him.

When we got done shopping, we had lunch at the food court. After that, we make our separate ways.

I went to my apartment that I shared with Peyton. I honestly loved living with her.

When I get there, her and Zander were sitting on the couch super close to each other.

They noticed I came in and smiled towards me. "How was lunch with your mum and brother?" Zander asked nicely.

"It went well. You two won't believe who I saw at the mall." They look at me strangely.

"Tom Holland?" Peyton guessed. I laugh a little bit and shook my head.

I sat on the other end of the couch so I could talk. "The guy who flirted with me Saturday night." I speak.

They looked at me shockingly. "The guy you drove home?" I nodded my head to confirm it.

"Is the bloke stalking you now?" Zander asked with a hint of laughter.

"I don't think so. He looked surprised to see me in Hot Topic." I tell the two.

We spend the next thirty minutes talking about it. "Did you get his number?" Peyton gossiped.

I shake my head no towards her. Both of them dropped their jaws.

"I don't want to hear it, Nolan already told me I should've got it." Peyton frowned towards me.

"Well maybe fate will step in again and you'll see this mysterious boy again." That's the thing about Peyton.

She's a big believer in fate and destiny. She believes everything happens for a reason.

Like she believes that it was fate that Zander moved here and got a job with us.

I don't know if I fully believe in it yet but I try to keep an open mind.

"Well, do you know his last name to look him up on socials?" Zander asks as I shake my head.

"Just that his name is Colby. I'm not too worried about it, he seemed like a douche." I shrug it off.

I don't know if it's cause he was drunk, but he seems cocky. Since he is a little mysterious, he was a little intriguing.

Maybe Peyton is right, maybe I will see him again. I don't want to get my hopes up though, just incase I'm right and he is a douche.

I guess we'll see what happens next.