Becoming Kennedy

10- Struck Gold

"I can't believe you're leaving your own party."  Ethan starts his car- not a mustang, or convertible, to my relief, and shrugs, "It was lame anyway.  Brenna can hold down the fort."  ,

Oh that's right.  Brenna.  I had forgotten about her.  I hope she doesn't think I'm rude.

"How do you know Brenna?"  Ethan shakes his head, "Wow, I've known Brenna since I came out of the womb, I think."  He chuckles, and I find myself wanting him to record it, and let me listen to it on repeat for the rest of my life.  I've never met someone with such a nice laugh.  "Our moms grew up together, so as a result, we did too."

"That's so nice.  I wish I had a friend like that."  Ethan looks over at me, and smiles, "They're pretty hard to come by."  I just nod my head, and watch the blurred outlines of the trees pass my window.

"So wanna know something cool about In 'N' Out?"  I feel a smile pull at my lips, and look at Ethan, "Sure."  Ethan's voice becomes animated as if he's talking to a kindergartener, "So it's rumored that there's secret treasure buried under the palm trees planted in an 'X' formation."  I laugh, and lean my head against the headrest, "No!  That's not true.  They plant the palm trees that way because the founder, Harry Snyder's favorite movie is 'It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World'."

Ethan glances over at me, "You're such a nerd!  But keep nerding out, because I still have no clue what that's supposed to mean."  I can feel myself blush a little.  I guess I am a bit of a nerd, but continue nonetheless, "Well, in the film, the main characters find hidden treasure under palm trees shaped like an 'X'."    

Ethan slaps the steering wheel, "That's pretty cool.  I was always told there was real treasure there."  I laugh again, "And you believed it?"  He shrugs, "What can I say?  I'm not as intellectual as you, I guess."  I shake my head, "Nah, I just like facts."

The car falls silent as Ethan stops at a red light, "Facts, huh?"  The light turns green, and we pull into the In 'N' Out parking lot.  I decide to ignore his question, due to the fact that he doesn't press for details, and I'm having a really good night.  I don't want a stupid comment to fuck it up.

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The line was out the door but eventually we made it to the front. I'm just about to order when Ethan leans on the counter and starts ordering for me. "Can we get one double double, two neapolitan shakes, two fries, aaaaannnnnd what do you have in the way of veggie burgers?" He looks at me and smirks and I smack his arm.

The girl behind the counter looks confused, "Well sir we don't have veggie burgers here but we do have a grilled cheese? It's basically a burger without the burger part. We can do that with..." I decide to cut her off before she wastes too much time. "That won't be necessary, two double doubles, please." The poor girl still looks pretty confused, but she shrugs it off.

"That'll be $10.75 please. They'll call the number on your receipt when it's ready." I look over and see Ethan reach for his wallet.  "What are you doing?" I ask, stopping his hand from going any further.  

"I'm paying for our food...that's generally how the exchange of goods and services works."  I can't believe how snarky he is.  I kind of love it.  "But if you pay, that technically makes this a date.  And it's not a date, right?"  we make eye contact for a few seconds before he responds.  "I would like it to be."

His reply throws me off.

A date? With Ethan? I'm not sure how to feel.

I'm lost in my head again when someone taps me on the shoulder.  I turn around and see an impatient old man behind me along with the other five hundred people in line.  "Listen sweetie," he says "I don't care if this is a date or your wedding reception, let the boy pay so we can get some food before we all starve to death!"  I blush and look down at my feet.  This whole situation was unbearably embarrassing.

Ethan pays for the food, and we go sit down and wait.  Neither one of us says anything until our number is finally called.  Ethan goes up to grab it, comes back, and grabs my hand.  He doesn't say anything but he leads me outside, past his car, and stops right in the middle of the 'X' in the palm trees.  "I thought it would be better to eat here than in there where it's loud, and everyone hates us."  He puts on a crooked smile, and I can tell that the awkward silence is over.

"I don't care if it's a date, or your wedding reception," he imitates, in his best old man voice.  I start laughing hysterically.  It's not even that funny, but the way he said it, and the face he made, and the fact that it was nearly one in the morning made it that much funnier.  "So which is it?" I finally catch my breath. "What do you mean?" "Is it a date or our wedding reception?"  I knew it was supposed to be a joke, but my response was important.  Was this a date?  I think I wanted it to be.

Ethan was so cute, and sweet, and honestly being taken to a burger joint at one in the morning was a pretty romantic first date in a weird, quirky kind of way.  Yeah, Luke was a thing too I guess, but he was a confusing thing.  In fact, he might not even be a thing!  Ethan was simple, and with the complicated lie of a life I'm leading, simple is what I need.

"Well, despite the fact that this is any girl's dream wedding reception, I think I would brand this as a date."  Ethan smile grows so wide that it takes up about half his face.  "Well in that case, it feels appropriate to do this."  Before I can process what's happening, Ethan's lips are on mine and we're kissing.

And I just have to say, it was a really nice kiss.

His lips were so soft, and we moved in perfect rhythm with each other.  We were both smiling, and laughing the whole time and he tasted like a milkshake.  This was perfect, he was perfect, I felt perfect.  Everything was just, perfect.

We break apart after a few minutes and Ethan just stares at me, a content look on his face.  "You know, you lied about the treasure being a myth."  I look at him with a confused smile, waiting for him to explain further.  

"Well you said there was no real treasure under here, but I'm pretty sure I just struck gold."  I roll my eyes at how cheesy he is, but I secretly loved it.  "You're the worst!" I groan as I slap his shoulder playfully.  We both laugh, and I take the opportunity to kiss him again.

In this moment I was just Kennedy, and everything was perfect.

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soooo now Ethan is in the picture for real and he's super cute and I honestly don't know who I ship more, it's a struggle. I was thinking about dedicating chapters, so if you want a chapter dedicated to you message me a ship name for Kennedy and Ethan or Kennedy and Luke and whoever has the best one will get a dedication! Thanks guys you da best bye.