The Boy Down the Street // Blake Gray

3

Steph's POV
"So I didn't formally introduce myself earlier." Blake says as we walk down the steps of his house. "That makes two of us." I say. "I'm Blake." He says sticking his hand out. "I'm Stephanie." I say extending my hand to shake his. "Have any nicknames?" He asks. "Steph." I reply. "So Steph, tell me about yourself." He says. I scratch my head. What am I supposed to say? Wait, why am I so tense around him? He's only Blake Gray. He's no Harry Styles or anything. "Hello? Earth to Steph?!?" Blake says. "Oh right. Sorry" I say. "My full name is Anabeth Stephanie Lake. Anabeth is my mom and Grandma's name so I'm kinda like Anabeth the third I guess..." He chuckles at that part. "Anyways, my real name is Anabeth but I go by my middle name. I have an older brother named Trent who is 17 and my dad's name is Derek. I play on a triple A hockey team and I'm a defender. In my spare time I like to play bass and draw race cars. So umm yeah." I finish. "That's really cool." He says. "So tell me about yourself." I ask. "Sure, but I'm not that interesting." He goes on. "Ummm so I'm Blake Gray. I like to penny board and play basketball cause I'm a #baller. And I'm 15 years old and 5'10, but hopefully I grow to be over 6'." He says. " Oh so you're a year older than me." I say. I just turned in July.

"So Blake, our first stop of the tour is the park." I say leading him to the big open grass. There are plants and trees here, and a playground as well. "Wanna chill here for a bit. It's not busy at all." He suggests. I nod and we sit on some big rocks. "Can I ask you something?" I ask Blake. "Go for it." He replies. "So what's it like being internet famous and all? Like, do you enjoy it?" I ask.
"Well, being Internet famous has its ups and downs. Being famous is super cool because I can travel the world and make people happy with what I do. And the support I get is beyond unreal. I've gotten to tour the world with some of my idols and meet some of my best supporters. But the bad thing is that there is so much hate towards me. But the bad thing is that I get so much hate, and people don't really get to see the real me."
"Wow Blake, I never really thought of it that way."
"No one does."
We sit in silence for a while, Blake is filming things for his snap story. "Hey Steph?"
"Yeah?" "If you don't mind, can I feature you in my snap story?" He asks. "Yeah, sure no problem." I say. We get up from the rocks and make our way to the next part of this tour. "You hungry?" I ask. "Yeah, I could go for food." He replies. "I know where to go for food." I smirk. "What?" Blake asks, questioning my facial expression. "Follow me." I say taking his hand.

"We're here." I say. He looks at the place and his face lights up like a traffic light. "Oh my gosh" he says "how did you know I'd like this type of food?" He asks. "Someone told me..." I say. The place we are at is called Wilfred's and it has really healthy foods. I knew he liked healthy food since Liz told me a while ago. We go in and wait in line to order our food. "So what are you gonna get?" I ask trying to make small talk. "Hmmmm, that Burrito looks good." He says pointing at the name of the burrito- Wilfred's classic. "Oh hey I always get that when I come here." I say. We get our burritos and take a seat. We don't talk at first, since we're both really hungry and we just wanna eat. It's silent for five minutes until he stops eating and begins to say something. "So have you ever had a boyfriend?" I almost choke after he says that. "Ummm...." I manage to say. "Oh, um sorry." He says blushing in embarrassment. "No no, it's cool." I finally say. We stay quiet until we finish our food and then we leave.

We catch a bus back to our neighbourhood and by then it's 6:10. We reach Blake's house and then we stop to say some final words to each other. "Hey Steph, I had are ally fun time today." Blake says with a smile. "Me too." I say kinda blushing. It's a good thing it gets dark really early because I don't want him to see me blushing. "Hey, can I give you my number?" He asks. "Yeah." He leans in and I turn on my phone. The first thing we see is this on my notifications:
Alexa💸-Hey guys did you get hurt at all today?
Syd👑- Nah fam
Sam💎-I did
Alexa-💸-WHATTT??????
Liz💯-HOW?!?
Sam💎-I hurt my eyes from watching Blake Gray musical.lys😂😂
Syd👑-bahahahahahahahhah
Alexa💸-oh thank goodness I thought you were actually hurt

I look at Blake. He looks like he's trying to keep in his emotions but I'd hiding how he really feels. He just looks at my phone one last time and looks at me. "Look I'm really sorr-" "bye Stephanie." He says cutting me off. He gives me my phone back and walks inside. "AH FUCK!!!" I yell once he goes inside. No one can hear me. I just ruined my relationship with a new friend. What have I done