I'll Be There For You

2

My alarm goes off and I roll out of bed. I yell for Lyn-Z to wake up, then go downstairs for breakfast. I go back upstairs and take a quick shower to wake me up. I dress in a pair of ripped jeans and a Princess Bride tshirt, let my hair hang loose, and apply just a bit of eyeliner and mascara. I grab my purse and head to the library.

I check out a new book, In Cold Blood, and head out towards work. When I arrive, my phone alerts me of a text. I open it and read the new message from Brendon. What time for our coffee date? I shake my head, smiling, and reply, My lunch break is from 12-1.

Ethan sees me texting and smiling so he comes over to me and snatches my phone from me.

"Hey!" I protest.

"Ooh, who's Brendon? Is he your booooyfriend?" Ethan teases. I wrestle my phone out of his hands.

"No, he isn't my boyfriend."

"Mmm-hmm, we'll see about that." I get another text from Brendon: great. Meet me at Starbucks at 12:05. I send a response (ok, gtg work), and turn my phone off. When it's time for my lunch break, I start towards the door.

"Have fun on that date with your boyfriend!" Ethan calls to me, mockingly batting his eyelashes. I have the temptation to flip him off, but I don't. I walk across the street to the Starbucks and go inside. I see Brendon sitting at a table, so I wave to him and go sit down next to him.

"Hey Lavender," he says.

"Hello Brendon."

"Coffee?" Brendon asks. I nod and he takes my hand and walks with me to the line. I glance at our intertwined hands and my face turns a dark red. I look down at my shoes while the two of us shuffle through the line, eventually towards the front. We place our orders, then stand to the side to wait. We take our cups of coffee and return to the little table in the corner.

"So, Princess Bride, huh?" Brendon asks, trying to start a conversation.

"Yeah, it's my favorite movie!" I say.

"Cool. I haven't seen it."

"YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE PRINCESS BRIDE?!" I shout, and everybody turns to look at me. I cover my mouth and an embarrassed look washes over my face.

"I mean, you haven't seen the Princess Bride?!" I whisper-shout. Brendon laughs and shakes his head no.

"Well, you should come over tonight and we'll watch it together," I suggest.

"That'd be cool, when do you get off work?"

"Five, so I'm usually home around 5:10."

"Cool, where do you work, I'll meet you outside and we can walk to your house together."

"Right across the street, at the music store," I say, pointing to my place of work. We talk a little bit more, mostly about music, then I say goodbye and go back to work. I anticipate the arrival of five o'clock, for one of the first times in my life. I'm too excited and worried about seeing Brendon that I forget to ask Anthony to help me with learning to play the guitar again. I'll just have to wait till Thursday.

Five o'clock finally comes and I excitedly leave work. Brendon is waiting for me outside and we link elbows. Ethan runs outside, even though he isn't off work for another two hours.

"Awww, Lavender and her boyfriend," Ethan says in a high pitched voice. Brendon and I both turn a dark shade of red, then we start walking towards my house, and I ( of course ) lead the way. We get to my house and I make a dinner of Hamburger Helper and salad. Lyn-Z shouldn't be home for another few hours, so I only set the table for the two of us. We eat dinner and have a conversation about books.

"So you visit the library EVERY day?" Brendon asks in amazement.

"What can I say, I'm a fast reader," I say with a small smirk. Holy crap I haven't even started In Cold Blood yet. Guess that won't be done until tommorow afternoon. Oh well. After dinner, I make a big bowl of popcorn and scoop some chocolate ice cream into two bowls. I bring them into the living room and set them on the couch.

I find the movie and pop it into the player, then dim the lights. I seat myself on the couch next to Brendon, and cover myself with a blanket since it's really cold at night in California. Brendon grabs the blanket and spreads it so it covers both of us, but just barely. I scoot closer to him as the movie starts.

Towards the end of the movie I find myself struggling to stay awake. When the movie ends, I'm leaning against Brendon, half asleep. I try my hardest to stay awake, but hell man, the struggle is real.

"Holy crap, that was a good movie," I hear Brendon whisper right before I give in and my heavy eyes fall shut.