I Like Me Better When I'm With You | Ackley Bridge

48|'Yes Or No?'

"Come on, come on, get in." I hurry the girls inside once we're home from school and begin rushing around the front room, looking for something to wear.

"Woah, what's the rush?" Mom speaks up alarmed from where she's slouched on the sofa.

"Yeah, you basically made us run the whole way home." Missy comments, earning a small exaggerated gasp from mum.

"Me feet hurt." Haylee whines, taking her school shoes off and rubbing her feet.

"Oh, don't be so dramatic." I roll my eyes, shifting through a pile of washing on the table that's waiting to be taken upstairs.

"Well?" The three of them ask, and I stop all my movements, sighing in annoyance and defeat, as I pinch the bridge of my nose with one hand and rest the other one on my hip.

"Cory asked to meet up." I mumble, hoping they don't hear me, but they do and instantly start fussing and asking questions.

"Why?"
"When you going?"
"Where's he taking ya?"
"What you doing?"
"What you gonna wear?"

"Stop asking so many questions!" I exclaim, silencing them, and I take a deep breath before answering in order.

"Okay... He said he wanted to meet so he could prove his feelings for me." The three of them begin a chorus of 'awh's, and I subconsciously roll my eyes at them. "He said to meet him down the Rec at five, so I'll leave at five to make him nervous and think I'm not going."

"Hold on, the Rec?" Missy stops me with a judgmental look.

"I thought the Rec and a can of cider was a 'no no'." Haylee recalls my words from the time me and Missy got her ready for her double date.

"I never said nowt about any can of cider, and me and Cory always go to the Rec together, so...." I shrug, earning a few wary looks, but they allow me to carry on anyway. "Um, he didn't say anything about what we were doing other than he was gonna prove it and.... I dunno what to wear!"

"Right, okay!" The three of them start fussing around me, where I collapsed on the floor dramatically.

Missy and Haylee rush around the house, producing different outfit options as I sit on the sofa cross-legged with mum at my side.

Eventually, we settle on a pastel blue, off the shoulder, puffy top, and light-wash jeans paired with my white high-top converse.

"4:58." Haylee says, checking the time on her phone as I stand in the kitchen anxiously fiddling with my rings and Missy fusses over my hair which I simply put in a half-up-half-down style, with a few curls at the bottom.

"Alright, I guess I should get a move on then." I sigh, running a nervous hand down my leg.

"It'll be fine." Missy assures with a smile, handing me my phone and keys which I stuff in the pockets of my jeans.

"Yep." I pop the 'p' with a tight-lipped smile and open the door to leave.

"Good luck!" "Have fun!"

♡♥︎♡

Slowly, I approach Cory from behind where he sat perched on a brick wall with his head in his hands. "For someone that wanted us here so badly, I thought you'd be a bit happier to see us."

His head instantly snaps round to look at me once he hears my voice, and he jumps off the wall with blue flash cards in his hands. "Belly...."

"Hiya Cor." I wave awkwardly.

"I thought you weren't coming." He admits, gulping nervously.

"Oh, I wouldn't miss this." I raise an eyebrow at him and plonk down on the wall he previously sat on. "So... come on then. Amaze me."

"Right, okay, so..." He clears his throat, flicking through his flash cards as I cross my leg over the other, slouching back on my hands. "First of all, I love your face. And I love your hair. But most of all, I love you because of who you are."

My ears perk up at the familiar words, and I slowly sit up straighter once I semi-realize what he's doing. "She gave me my first kiss. She taught me how to dance. She was always talking about these crazy things, and I never understood a word she said. All I understood were that she were the girl I sat up every night thinking about, and when I'm with her, I feel happy to be alive. So that's what I think love is. When I'm better because she's here."

"You're the she, by the way." He says, in case I didn't understand, but I nod with a small chuckle at his words. "Right, um... Every statistic that ya throw at me is gonna be about other people. And I don't care about other people, okay? I care about you and me. If every marriage failed except for one, I gua-rant-ee... guarantee ya that one would be ours. Obviously I'm not asking ya to marry me yet but you know...."

He quickly runs up to me, handing me a picture of a poorly drawn replica of Vincent Van Gogh's 'Starry Night', and I can't help but giggle at his gesture. "Um... Listen, how do you expect me to see good in owt when I feel so bad in here. This is just a painting."

Cory looks at me expectantly, waiting for me to finish continuing the quote, I sigh with a small smile, "This- This is a masterpiece."

"We're a masterpiece. And I don't care what you think right now. We're gonna be together forever, and I know that." His smile widens due to me participating.

I slide off the wall, taking small steps towards him as he continues to read quotes off his flashcards. "I do my thing, and you do your thing. I am I, and you are you. And if in the end we end up together, it's beautiful... But I think you and I should spare ourselves a lot of uncoolness and walk through life together."

"Cory..." I smile and reach out to him, but he stops me as he says his last quote.

"And if I had to dream up the perfect woman, she wouldn't even come close to you." He smiles, and my eyes prick with tears slightly at his gesture. "Would you be my girlfriend?"

Cory cheekily taps his bottom lip, and I roll my eyes playfully, "Of course you'd choose this quote."

"That's not how it goes~" He says in a sing-song voice with a smirk. I shake my head before gripping the back of his head and smashing my lips on his.

I pull away after a few moments, and he chuckles under his breath, "Yes or no? "

Just like it happened in the real scene, I brought his lips back to mine to share another longing kiss with smiles on our faces.

Once again, we pull away, our foreheads rest against each other, and I pull my teeth between my lips with a stupid smile on my face, mirroring Cory. "Boy Meets World? Really?"

"It were a gesture." He shrugs, "Like in those cheesy romance films."

"You're an idiot." I laugh, leaning my head off his with a laugh.

"But I'm your idiot." He leans in for another kiss, but I lean back, placing my hand on his lips.

"Not yet." I shake my head with a smirk, "I never said yes."

"But -" I cut him off with a shake of my head, and I leave his embrace, stepping back up onto the wall, causing him to look up at me. "When will I know your answer?"

"Tomorrow night." I decide. "At the school play."

"But that's not how it happens in the show." Cory protests, approaching the wall I'm standing on and clutches my hand.

"This is real life, we live in Ackley, not Philadelphia." I shrug and walk off, our fingers slipping out of each others hold.

Once I'm a bit further away, I turn around quickly to give Cory one last glance and call out to him, "Oh and Cory?"

His head looks up to me, and I smile at, "Remember 1 for Yes and 2 for No."

"Wha..." I look of realization floods his face as he remembers a saying from our child hood.

With a final blow of a kiss, I turn on my heal and leave the Rec, faintly hearing my best friends laugh, "You're killing me, Isabella Booth!"