Remember

Chapter 18

Where are you going?" Gerry asks as I'm about to leave.

"Hal's" I say, trying to leave as quickly as possible.

"Really?" He sniffs my head. "You smell really good."

"Thanks, bye." I say quickly, trying to slide out the door.

"Wait, let me come with you, in pretty hungry." Gerry says

"No!" I say loudly

Gerry freezes, then laughs a little. "Why not?"

"Uh, I have a date. Bye!" I quickly shut the door and run down the sidewalk.

"With who?" Gerry calls after me.

Once I'm a safe distance away, I slow down to a walk, Hal's is half a mile from my house. I walk past the high school, signaling that I'm almost there.

I walk in, and find Alan already at a booth.

I sit down awkwardly. "So..."

"So..." He says, equally awkward.

"You've got to say something because I've never been on a date before." I tell Alan.

"Wait. This is your first date, ever?" He asks in disbelief.

"Well yeah, can you remember any of my previous boyfriends?" I ask

"I remember a Willy." He says

"That was second grade." I laugh

" I find it hard to believe that a girl as pretty as you had never been on a date before." Alan says, shaking his head.

"It's Gerry's fault." I say, stirring the lemonade that the waiter brought me. All the waiters knew that my favorite drink was lemonade. "He scares everyone off."

Alan laughs. "Great"

The waiter comes and takes our orders.

"So, how did he react when you told him you had a date?" Alan asks.

"Well, I almost made it without telling him, but he caught me at the door. He tried to come with me, so I had to tell him. Then I ran out the door." I say.

Alan takes a sip of his drink. "Well I think he'll be fairly surprised."

The waiter brings Alan his burger, and me my plate of fries.

"That's really all you're eating?" Alan asks in disbelief.

"Do you really want to watch me eat a burger?" I ask flatly. "My mouth is so tiny, I have a hard time biting into apples."

Alan laughs. "That's a really good point."

I munch casually on my fries, while Alan eats his burger.

Suddenly, his eyes widen and he almost chokes on his burger.

"What is it?" I ask, turning to see what he's looking at. I whirl back around when I see Gerry and Ray, standing with their hands on their hips, examining the restaurant.

"Oh shit we're screwed now." I say

Alan doesn't even react to my cursing, probably because he's thinking the same thing.

"The windows!" I exclaim. I turn to open one, only to find that they don't open. "Damn."

"They're coming this way!" Alan says.

I look around for a place to hide, and end up ducking my head down and covering it with my hands.

"Carrie?" Gerry asks.

I slowly look up. "Oh! Hey Gerry!" I say cheerily.

Gerry turns to Alan. "Alan?"

Alan waves meekly.

"What's going on?" Gerry asks us , leaning on the table. I grab a handful of fries and shove them in my mouth, so that Alan is stuck answering his question.

"Uh, well-" Alan stutters

"Alan, did you ask out Carrie?" Ray asks in disbelief

"Uh, well-" Alan starts

"I can't believe you!" Ray yells loudly.

The restaurant goes silent, and everyone turns to look

Hal comes over. "Boys, I'm going to have to ask you to take this outside."

"Sorry Hal." I call after him.

"Come on." Ray says, grabbing Alan and dragging him outside. I grab the rest of the fries and follow them out.

"Alan, I can't believe you." Ray says angrily.

"Ray, what's gotten into you?" I ask. "Gerry's not that pissed."

"I'm kinda happy for them." Gerry shrugs

"Alan, we had a deal!" Ray continues. "You knew that I liked Carrie!"

Plot twist for me, huh.

"Hey man, you didn't do anything about it, so I asked her out, what's the big deal?" Alan says calmly.

Ray balls up his fist and hits Alan right in the jaw.

"Hey!" I scream. Gerry grabs Ray, and pulls him away, and I pull Alan off to the side to make sure nothing is broken.

I run into Hal's to get an ice bag and come back to Gerry yelling at Ray.

"Carrie, look, give me a chance." Ray says to me as I walk by.

"Piss off." I sneer in reply. I walk back over to Alan and gently hold the ice bag to his face.

"I'm fine." He assured me. "I'll just have a bruise."

"That was so not cool." I say under my breath.

Ray storms away down the sidewalk, and Gerry walks over to Alan and I. He stares down at me, and we stare up at him in fear.

A smile slowly creeps across his face, giving me such a sense of relief that I wanted to cry.

"My little sister an my best friend! Oh boy, how exciting!" Gerry cheers, hugging us both.