The Harper Brothers (Wattpad Version)

A special date

Leokadia

All week long, I tried to ask Val about our date. He wouldn't tell me. All he told me was to dress in jeans and a hoodie. My friends offered suggestions, but I went with my gut.

On Friday, I came home from school and went upstairs to drop off my bag. I opened the door to find my bedroom filled with red roses. I dropped my bag onto the floor.

"Damn. Val knows romance," Marty said.

"That's a lot of flowers," I said.

"Oh, wait," Rafe said.

I glanced at Marty and Rafe. The doorbell chimed.

"You want to answer the door," Rafe told me.

I ran out of my bedroom and down the stairs. I opened the door to find Val dressed. "Why did you ring the doorbell?"

"Because I'm here to pick you up for our date." Val smiled.

"But you live here."

"Yes, but a girl should have an amazing first date." Val held out his arm. "Shall we?"

I looped my arm around his arm as we left for our date. Val drove us to his uncle's restaurant. We got out of the car.

"It surprises me that you brought me to your uncle's restaurant."

"I figured we could have dinner with a familiar place."

I smiled. Val slid his hand into mine and led me into the restaurant. His uncle Gabe showed us to a table and handed us menus. It didn't take me long to figure out what I wanted. We ordered our food, then talked.

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For being kind to me. You spend years avoiding people because of how they treat you. Getting shuffled to different foster homes makes it difficult to establish a connection to people."

"It doesn't mean it has to stay that way. It means that you hadn't found the right people in your life."

"So, what about you?"

"What about me?"

"How come you don't have a girlfriend? It's not like you're ugly."

Val chuckled.

"I didn't mean it like that."

Val leaned on the table. "I didn't want to settle. Girls would play games. I didn't want to give my heart to someone and have them mess with it."

"Well, I'm not into playing games unless it involves cards or a board game. I want to know there's an outcome."

Val snickered. "You have an innocence about you."

"People call it naivety."

"I call it refreshing."

I couldn't help but smile. Gabe returned with our food. I ate my chicken strips as Val ate his steak.

"How are your chicken strips?"

"Delicious. I prefer simple. What you see is what you get with them."

"Like you."

"It works." I shrugged.

Val smiled as we ate our dinner. We finished, and he paid the bill. Then we headed to the movies. Val let me choose the film. I picked a comedy.

Before going into the screening room, we stopped and got concessions. Then we found our seats. I found a button on the theater seat and pressed it. The seat moved. Val watched me as I played with the chair.