Along Came Seth

Operation "the teen years"

1. Go to a college party
2. Ride a gurney
3. Eat a big Mac
4. Dye my hair
5. Stop taking moms crap
6. Sing. Out loud
7. Swim in the ocean
8. Dance like no one's watching
9. Illegally download music
10. Go to a club
11. Shamefully flirt...Like Talia does
12. Play spin the bottle
13. Do something irresponsible...even more so than the things on this list

"What are you doing?" Seth asked the next morning bursting into my room.

"Why does no one in this house knock anymore?" I sighed closing my black book and setting it on my lap.

"Get dressed, I'm taking you out" Seth said

"To where?"

"Does it matter?"

"Uhm, yeah. It kinda does" I said putting my hands on my hips.

"Today is day one of operation 'the teen years'"

"You gave it a title" I said flatly.

"Abosuletly! Get dressed" Seth threw my closet open and started rummaging through my neatly folded and hung clothes.

"I can dress myself" I said putting a hand on his shoulder.

"So can I" He said said gesturing at his worn white vneck and black jeans.

"That was code for 'step away from my closet'"

"Wear something comfy" He said stepping away from the cloest and placing himself on my bed.

"Shorts and a tank top. That's fine" I shrugged throwing a pair of military shorts and a cute black tank top on my bed.

"Cool" Seth shrugged. I cleared my throat and he looked up at me clueless.

"Privacy?" I said meekly.

"My bad! Sorry, I wasn't tryna perv on you or anything" Seth jumped off my bed and practically tripped running out of the door.

I quickly threw on my clothes, a pair of sperry's and ran out the door.

"Finally" Seth sighed jumping off the couch as I made my way down the stairs.

"What do you mean 'finally'? I took less time than you did"

"Whatever" He said jingling a pair of keys and heading to the door.

"Where'd you get a car?" I asked noticing the unfamiliarity of the keys.

"My dad let me borrow it" He muttered .

"Oh, he's down here?"

"Are we going to go or what?" He snapped.

"Uhm...yeah" I mumbled following him out the door to a shiny convertible. I decidedly kept my mouth shut and strolled to the passenger seat as Seth got in and started the car.

"I'm sorry I snapped" He said after we had backed out of the driveway.

"It's totally cool"

"No. It's not" Seth quickly looked at me and back at the road, "I'm just so stressed right now. With my dad and Sam and...everything"

"Who's sam?" I asked imagining a younger version of him.

"Sam is~"

"Move, idiot!" A loud honk from behind us cut seth off as we noticed that the car wasn't moving.

"Sorry!" Seth mumbled stepping on the gas and accelerating.

I looked at him and burst into laughter

"What?" He asked eyes on the road.

"Nothing" I tried quieting my laughs but they were uncontainable.

"Seriously, what?" He asked confused.

"Your face! You should've seen it when that guy yelled at you. Priceless"

"I wish i had, I'm insanely handsome at all times" He said knowingly.

"That WASN'T what i was getting at" I rolled my eyes.

"Are you upset?"

"By what?"

"By my attractiveness?" He said stopping at a red light.

"Your honeslty not as hot as you think you are"

"So you think i'm hot?" Seth's lip quirked.

"That's not what i said"

"You said, and I quote, 'Your honestly not as hot as you think you are' which therefore means that you think I'm hot by some stretch" He grinned.

"No, what I meant is that your attractive but definetely not hot" I said as the light changed, "I bet you think girls are always swooning at the very sight of you but they aren't"

"So YOU don't find me insanely beautiful"

"Precisely." I lied.

"I don't make you swoon?"

"Nope"

"We'll see about that" He muttered, "You'de be quite surprised by the amount of girls i pull in with these dimples" he smiled for emphasis.

"I bet you do" I said sarcastically.

"You'r very lucky that Im not easily offended"

"Woopididoo"

"Don't worry, my ego is large enough for the both of us" He said making a sharp turn.

"MCdonalds?" I asked confused.

"Good girl" he patted my thigh with his free hand and i blushed, "You can read"

"What are we doing here?"

"Besides this being my ultimate first date location, I figured that we might as well tackle something fairly easy today" He said cutting the gas and getting out of the car.

"To be quite honest, I wrote that specific item onto my bucket list in the eighth grade when I was a loser...or more of a loser than I am now" I shrugged getting out of the car.

"You'r not a loser" He said abruptly staring down at me as i came up beside me.

"I'm kidding. I know" I mumbled walking ahead of him. I heard his intake of breath before he followed.

"ALRIGHT female" He stage whispered, "Take your pick"

I rolled my eyes.

"No, seriously get anything you want. I've got a twenty with your name on it, bleu"

"I have my own money, Mackenzie" I sneered.

"Good for you" He grinned getting in line.

"NEXT" A high voice yelled. I followed Seth up to the counter where a bored red head stood.

"Hey" Seth smiled .

"Hello" I instantly saw the red head perk up. Her chest seemed to grow two sizes and her eyes practically glazed over at the sight of Seth, "I'm hazel"

"Hazel for a redhead with green eyes?" the tone in Seth's voice changed and I instantly recognized the signs of flirtation.

"Most people don't notice my eye color on the first try, They usually guess blue" She purred slightly.

"I'm a very attentive guy"

"Are you, now" She smiled revealing a perfect row of white teeth.

"MAybe you should be the judge..."Seth said leaving his sentence hanging.

Hazel giggled, "suave"

"Well, it's not everyday that a hot redhead serves me" Seth placed one hand on the counter and leaned in. God, how I wished that counter had the remnants of a nine year olds lunch on it.

"I'll take a big mac" I blurted looking up at Seth with dull eyes. They both looked at me suddenly, Seth grinning and Hazel confused.

"Oh, is this your..."

"I'm his friend...Not even his friend, really" I said catching on to her line of thought.

"Oh" Hazel's mouth formed a perfect red O.

"So, Hazel" Seth said turning back to her, "How can a lowley guy like me get in contact with a beautiful woman like yourself?"

"HAZEL!!! WE"RE PILING UP HERE" A large woman yelled coming up to Hazel's register.

"Sorry Marg" Hazel said flustered.

"Well, good afternoon" The woman beamed at Seth and Seth grinned back. I watched as she walked with a new found pep in her step back to the drive thru area.

"See anything you like?" Hazel tilted her head to the side and motioned at the menu.

"I've got my eye on something" he muttered .

"Buddy, if your done undressing the server with your eyes, I'de like to grab lunch" A burly guy barked from behind us. I hid a smile .

"Me and my not-really friend will take two big mac combo's" Seth laughed lightly.

"Coming right up" Hazel winked, "That'll be 19.65"

Seth pulled out a twenty and handed it to Hazel who MADE sure her hand brushed Seth's. She went around to the back and began assembling our orders.

Seth looked down at me and cocked his head, "What was that about girls not swooning?"

"Yeah Yeah, you flirted with the McDonald's server, you sly dog" I said sarcastically.

"Here you go" Hazel handed us our tray.

"Thanks" Seth's eyes lingered on her before taking the tray and handing me one of the empty cups.

"That was cute" I nodded as we made our way to the soft drinks, "But it proves nothing. You flirted it up with nothing to show for it"

"Don't be so sure" Seth smiled lifting up his cup. Sure enough Hazel's number was written neatly along the bottom.

"She didn't even know your name!" I grumbled as he pressed the button for sprite and began making his way to an empty booth. I quickly got ice tea and trailed behind him.

He set the tray down and sat on one side while i sat on the other.

"You could be a serial killer with a weird passion for macrame dolls and she would never even know"

Seth cocked his head slightly, "macrame?"

"Yeah it's like~"

"I KNOW what macrame is." Seth rolled his eyes popping a fry into his mouth.

"Go ahead, eat it" Seth grinned pointing at a fry that lay on the tray.

"Can you imagine how unhealthy that one piece of almost potato is, Seth?" I whispered.

"Yes I can but I don't care" he shrugged, "comes with the badassery"

"I'm not eating that filth" I shook my head and readjusted my bangs.

"Yeah. Yeah you are" Seth said sternly.

"You sound like my mom"

"Your mom sounds like Barry White?"

"You DONT sound like Barry white." I grinned.

"Okay fine, Liam neeson?"

"Nope" I shook my head .

"C'mon, toss me a bone here "

"You've got a nice voice but it's not Barry white deep" I said sober.

"You don't find me attractive but you like my voice?" Seth tapped his chin, "interesting"

"Your the reason backhanded compliments were invented" I rolled my eyes.

"Eat a fry and I'll learn to take compliments graciously"

"You? Gracious?" I asked shocked.

"Bad joke" he scoffed eating another fry.

"I'm not eating it. I guess you wasted your money" I said mentally adding up the calories in one box of fries.

"Your doing it, aren't you?" Seth asked suspiciously.

"What?"

"Adding up the calories in your head" Seth shook his head.

"How..how did you know?"

"I've had more girlfriends than you've had pencils....I don't whether that's something to be proud of or ashamed of" he said looking off into the distance.

"Ashamed of. Definitely ashamed of" I nodded.

"Listen, I didn't haul myself up here just to have you resist the greasy temptation that is the fry. You will eat it and you will enjoy it" Seth said, his voice gaining an air of authority.

"Okay, now you REALLY sound like my mom"

"Trish, try it. It isn't laced with formaldehyde or acid...I hope" Seth joked.

"It's not that big of a deal" I noted when I saw the pleading look in his eyes, "I'm just not feeling it"

"It IS a big deal. Try something new, Trish. Do something out of the box so I feel like I accomplished something other than being a total babe magnet" I stared into his green eyes and felt a tug.

"Fine." I rolled my eyes and picked up the greasy floppy fry. I stared it down willing it to turn into a carrot but when that proved useless, I popped it into my mouth and slowly chewed.

"The verdict...."

"It's alright" I mumbled chasing the fry with my drink.

"Now the burger"

I rolled my eyes and popped the top of the box. I carefully took the burger out and did the unthinkable. I bit into it.

"Once again, it's alright"

"Alright?" Seth asked shocked, " you aren't infatuated with the grease?"

"Your disgusting" I sighed as he quickly checked his phone.

"Great, the old man needs the chick mobile" Seth got up and picked up his, now empty fry box and placed it onto my tray and proceeding to take my fries and burger.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"You totally wasted my money so your on garbage duty....plus I get your burger" Seth shrugged. 

I begrudgingly took the tray to the garbage and dumped the napkins and empty container. Once I was done I followed Seth out to the car.

"So now we can check eat mcdonalds off the list" I laughed standing at the hood of the car.

"That was a fail. Eating is far more than what you did in there" he said grimly standing beside me.

"That's so not fair! I tried it, that was all I agreed to do"

"Trish you looked like you were scared that the fry would become you"

"No I didn't" I hissed offended. I didn't say I wanted to actually eat the entire thing.

"Im kidding" his voice lowered a couple octaves as he turned to me, "you got out of your comfort zone. That's all I really asked"

"Really? You aren't underwhelmed?"

"Underwhelmed? By you?" He asked shocked, "your the complete opposite"

"Thanks" I scoffed looking away

"That's not what I meant" I felt his warm hand under my chin as he tilted it up until I was looking straight at him. My heart seized beating and my insides were jelly.

"What did you mean?" I asked breathless. His eyes seemed to darken and he looked at me and smiled slightly.

"I mean~"

"HEY WAIT UP!" A high pitched voice had me jumping away from Seth as if his hand was made of ice.

"Hazel, hey" Seth muttered absolutely flustered. I watched as the red head bounced over.

"You saw my little message?"

"Uh,..yeah" he said looking dazed.

"I was hoping that we could maybe hang out later on?" Hazel twirled her curly hair.

Seth looked at me from the corner of his eye, "uh.. Me and Trish kinda have this project thing."

Hazels face seemed to deflate in an instant.

"We could always move it forward a little, right?" I jumped in

"Huh?" Seth looked at me and I smiled.

"You and Hazel should totally hang out" hazel beamed and Seth looked at me curiously before I walked to the passenger side and got in, leaving them to talk.

"Thank you" I saw Hazel mouth to me when Seth wasn't looking.

That was me; Good old Trish, always helping others. Even when all I wanted to do was help myself.