In a lifetime

Chapter 14: Joseph Flores

My brain feels fried, I didn't even do anything exotic I just feel sluggish. I brush my teeth and get a whiff of what smells like pancakes so I head downstairs and to my surprise I find Daniel cooking in the kitchen.

"Ah, you're finally awake," he says happily as he's flipping the pancakes "uh how do you even have time to make pancakes we have school in forty minutes, what time did you wake up?" I respond looking at him confused and he responds like nothing "oh I woke up around six twenty-five ish, I just couldn't sleep" I don't break my confused look but eat his pancakes anyways.

"You know you could always tell me what's keeping you up at night" I say and he smiles gently and says "I'll keep that In mind"

I finish eating and head back upstairs to change for school and Daniel is already waiting in the car, this man is ready to go do things.

The car ride to school I ask Daniel why he woke up so early to do this and responds "I felt bad kinda springing the whole moving in on you so quickly and wanted to pay you back" such a gentleman this guy is "well I didn't know my boyfriend is such a sweetheart" I say smiling at him and he smiles back.

Before heading inside the school Daniel stops me and says "because we're moving a little fast we should slow it down so how about I take you on a second date?" Wow okay um the only thing I do is look at his eyes and then say "I would love that, what day do you have in mind?" He thinks and grabs my hand and says with a flirtatious tone "well we can go on today" and instantly I feel bad because I have plans and I tell him "I can't today I have a lunch date with my best friend Natalie, we can do tomorrow and you should come with me to the lunch date to meet Natalie" as much as I thought it would bring his mood down it only brightens it up more.

"I would like to meet you best friend and it'll give me more time to plan the date," he says gleefully and we head inside and attend our classes.

I had completely forgotten I had plans with Natalie, I feel bad for both her and Daniel just for the smallest amount of annoyance I cause myself.

As each class goes by, the same old same old, lunchtime finally hits and I meet up with everyone. "So everyone has their cap and gowns right?" Veronica says while looking at everyone "yes Veronica we got them all last month" Eli says while finishing his food and I can't help but notice they are both very happy "so what's got you two so happy about?" I ask and Veronica responds that she spent the day with her mom yesterday and Eli better understands his transformation.

They ask the same question to me and I tell them that me and Daniel are going on a date again tomorrow and they are happy with us and with that comes the end of lunch hour.

I of course zone out until school is over and I met up with Daniel at his car to drive to roses. "You know I wouldn't even need a lunch date with Natalie if I didn't shut her out," I say to give him more background and he asks why I would even shut her out and I respond while looking straight ahead "on our eighteenth birthday where the three of us turned into supernaturals I sort of stopped talking to her because I was dealing with all this and now I just want to make things right" he takes a deep breath and says "well you shouldn't blame yourself, it's not like it was a choice and maybe you can tell her about it" I figured he's right but at the same time I can't tell her, I would be putting her in danger as I am with Daniel and I can't have another pay the cost of this supernatural secret.

We arrive at roses and I can already see Natalie sitting in a booth. I take a deep breath and walk-in. I take the seat across from Natalie and Daniel sits next to me. "Hey, Natalie long time no see," I say and I honestly have no idea what to say but she responds with hey and says "don't you ever ghost me again, and who is this cute guy sitting next to you" ah well good to know there aren't any hurt feelings but we're jumping right in "this is Daniel and he is my boyfriend," I say and she just glares at me like she's going to kill me and she dramatically says "you got a boyfriend and didn't tell me, how dare you" we all laugh and catch up with what we both missed out on.

It got too late but before me and Daniel were leaving Natalie asks "so what are you going to do about your parents and your birthday like come on you turned eighteen, there has to be a party" and I give a little smile and say "well I don't plan on talking to my parents again but I'll invite them to graduation and as for the party there are two more people who share the same birthday as me so I'm going to host one on graduation and you, of course, are invited" her smile grows bigger and she hugs Daniel on our way out while saying "Joseph can be a handful so if you ever need advice I'm here" I shake my head at her and she laughs and we drive back to the house, I think it was a success, we got closer and she met Daniel and approves so win-win I guess.

"I really like her," Daniel says and I laugh and say "yeah well just you wait when she becomes territorial" I open the door and I couldn't help but kiss him on our way inside the house and we just put on a show and cuddle.