I was feeling excited as my grandma packed up a lunch. Her, my grandpa, me, Courtney, Leo, and his best friend, Tobey were going to have a picnic. It was this place with a kids playground, a lot of space to walk, and a lake. We were loading up the car when Leo came over with Tobey. Courtney playfully nudged me, since I had told her about kissing Leo the night before. She tucked her hair behind her ear, smoothing her shirt out before we went up to them.
"Hey, this is my best friend, Tobey," Leo introduced.
"Hi, it's nice to meet you," I managed to say, feeling honored to meet one of his closest friends.
"It's nice to meet you too," Tobey replied, looking at Courtney as she introduced herself.
"I'm Courtney, Fern's best friend," she explained, him producing a small smile before we had to get into the vehicle. I was disappointed, since I had to sit in the middle seat between the driver and passenger ones. Between all of us I was the smallest and it was a pretty cramped space. I kept glancing at the rearview mirror to see Courtney sandwiched between Tobey and Leo. I knew Leo wasn't interested in her, but it was still weird for me. I forced a smile when he caught my eye, but his smile was genuine as he lit up. When we arrived at the right location I was relieved getting out of the cramped car. Leo came right up to me, intertwining our fingers as he gave my hand a squeeze.
"You do alright up there," he lightly chuckled.
"Yeah, it's not my favorite place to sit in the car, but I'm glad we're here now," I confessed. I noticed the parking lot was partially full, other families having the same idea of eating here. We eventually found an empty picnic table, my grandma brushing off some of the remaining crumbs with her hand.
"What did your grandma pack," Leo asked me as we all got settled.
"I packed a variety of sandwiches," she answered directly. "We have peanut butter and jelly, ham salad, jelly and cream cheese, and sliced turkey."
"I'll have a turkey. Is there mayonnaise," I wondered.
"Yeah, I brought a bunch of packets from restaurants." She gave me the right type of food before serving everyone else. We all shared the potato chips even with such different tastes.
"Is there any dessert," Leo spoke up, closing his mouth when he realized it was full. He swallowed as my grandmother fondly rolled her eyes.
"I can always count on you to ask about dessert. I just made some dirt pudding. It's chocolate pudding with crumbled Oreo cookies on top with gummy worms. I thought it was an appropriate picnic food."
"I fucking love those. Oh shit, sorry," Leo apologized, Courtney and I giggling when we looked at each other.
"I knew you couldn't be perfect. Don't worry about it. He used to curse all the time when we were young." She gestured to my grandfather who had just taken a big bite of his ham salad.
"What? All of my friends did it too," he defending, causing her to smile as she hugged him from the side for a moment.
"It was never a deal breaker for me. You don't need to defend yourself."
My attention focused on the playground as kids squealed and ran around. It was such a lovely afternoon with a decent breeze and lower humidity than previous days.
"I love this type of dessert so much. I've only had it in grade school before," I admitted when the sweets were handed out.
"What do you eat first? Do you eat the Oreo on top, the gummy worms, or just sort of mix it all together," Courtney raised the question to everyone.
"I just dig in and eat whatever gets on my spoon," my grandma responded.
"Definitely the gummy worms first. It's just what has to be done. I mean, you can't get them on your spoon easily," Tobey remarked.
