《the wallflower》

fixer upper

PARKER AHART 

"God sees your life as a fixer upper." - Mark Simpson 

Parker waited in the Senior Parking Lot for what felt like hours. Since he had no sixth period, he sat in his car, waiting for school to end so he could find Arabella before she left. All he wanted was to tell her that everything was going to be okay, that she was going to make it through this. But he just didn't know how to tell her that yet. 

He could have done something. He could have tried to stop her. But instead, he let her get into that fight with Andi. He could have protected her from the embarrassment of dating his moron of a twin brother. But instead, he kept his mouth shut and didn't say anything and let her heart get broken by him, and never once told her how he felt about her. And how much he wished she felt the same about him. 

Suddenly, he saw her. She was looking down at the ground, obviously distracted as she raced across the parking lot. Parker never got out of a car so fast. 

He chased after her, trying to get closer to her. He saw some kid talking to the druggie, Ryder Andrews across the parking lot, watching as he dragged the poor kid behind the 900s buildings. Usually, Parker would want to help the kid, but he was more concerned about Arabella. "Bella!" 

Arabella didn't stop walking. She continued going to her car, unlocking it and stepping inside. He tried to call her name again, but she wasn't paying attention. She closed her driver side door, starting up the car, and was about to pull out when Parker slammed his hands into his window a more aggressively than he was planning. 

She jumped, making his heart hurt when she stared at him a good few seconds before rolling down her window. "What the hell are you doing?" 

"Sorry, sorry," he said. Arabella just stared at him, not saying anything. "I wanted to talk to you," Arabella took a deep breath, screwing her eyes shut and holding onto the wheel. She looked so broken; all Parker wanted to do was comfort her. 

"Okay," was all that she said. 

"Do you wanna meet up at the ice cream shop we went to Saturday?" He asked. It took a second for her to respond, but she soon nodded. "I'll pay, alright? I'll meet you there," Arabella nodded again, rolling up her window and started pulling out of the parking lot and driving off. He really hoped she was actually going to the ice cream shop, and not home. 

The two had spent the entire weekend together; besides the times that he was working. They met at the ice cream shop and sat there for hours, just talking. Parker wanted to be there for her, so they spent all their time driving around the city, sitting at the lake until sunset, and all things in between. He tried to help her take her mind off what had happened with his brother. 

He was just hoping he was actually doing the right thing. 

Parker drove as fast as possible, making it to the ice cream shop at record speed, pulling in right as Arabella was parking. She looked like she was crying, wiping her eyes quickly when he parked next to her. If there was one thing he knew out of all of this, he hated seeing her cry. She had been crying way to much over the past few days, and he was really hoping he could change that, whatever way possible. 

He stepped out of his car almost within the same second she did, standing there as she slowly closed her door and hugged herself, allowing him to lead the way into the shop. It was an old-fashioned frozen yogurt store, with barber shop poles out front and a 50s looking diner step up in the back. The place was called Mom and Pop's Frozen Yogurt, which was just super original, but the two of them- and his brother when he was being stupid- would go there all the time.