Dear N.C. ,

NICE TO MEET YOU

Forcing myself out of bed, I kick off the bed sheets and walk into my bathroom, standing and staring in front of the mirror above the sink. After washing my face and brushing my teeth I walk out of my room and make my way into the kitchen, trying to find something to eat. "Good morning" I hear my dad say as he entered the kitchen. "Good morning" I say nonchalantly as I scanned the fridge with my eyes. "How about we go eat breakfast some place else?" My dad suggests. I'd rather not as it would require me to talk to him but from what was in the fridge I really had no option. "Sure, let me get dressed" I say before heading back into my room and quickly changing into some high waisted light washed boyfriend jeans with a white cotton tank top, tying it in a knot and pairing it with some mustard high top converse.

"Do you like seafood?" My dad asks as we made our way to a local restaurant downtown. "Yeah" I say as I looked out the passenger window of his car, watching the ocean waves reach the shore. "Good, because there's a lot of that here" He says chuckling. "Where are we going to eat?" I ask, turning to look over at him. "It's called the Fish Shack Cafe" He says soon before he drives into the parking lot of the restaurant and parks the car. We walk into the restaurant, finding a table for the both of us and sit down.

"They serve breakfast and lunch at this time so if you don't feel like eating breakfast you can order lunch" My dad tells me as I opened up the menu that sat on the table. "I'll stick to breakfast" I say without looking up.

"Hi, I will be your server today" A young girl says as she hands us some plates and silverware. "My name is Kate and what can I get you guys?" She finishes and brings out her notepad. While my dad orders I catch some boy staring at me. Or maybe I should say the boy who accidentally knocked me over yesterday on the beach. I roll my eyes at him, looking away quickly as I realized it was my turn to order. "Um, I'll take a lemonade and the brunch combo" I say as I handed her my menu. "It'll be right over" Kate says as she walks away.

"Who were you staring at?" My dad asks me as he turns around trying to figure it out himself. "Dad no, stop" I say, looking down at the table not wanting to make eye contact with him now that my dad was making it more obvious. "What? Then why don't you tell me who you were looking at?" He asks, raising an eyebrow at me. "I wasn't staring at anyone!" I say and roll my eyes. "I think it's that boy who's sitting a few tables across from us with his friends?" He asks only making me want to leave now. "No, dad just stop staring at them" I say, glaring at him. "I'll be right back" I say shortly after and walked to the bathrooms at the back of the restaurant.

I washed my hands in the sink before drying them off with paper towels. Second day here and I wasn't having all that fun. I walked out of the bathroom and see him standing there, leaning against the wall. I nearly stopped and I don't know why I did. "I never got your name" I hear him say. "It's Leah" I say as I turned around to face him. "Nathan" He answers back. I nod, not really knowing what else to say. "I've never seen you around so I take it you're either here on vacation or you moved here?" He says standing up from leaning against the wall. "It's kind of like both. I'm only staying here for the summer with my dad" I say, biting on my bottom lip gently. "You should hang out with my friends and I at the boardwalk tonight"  He asks and I shrug. "I'll see if I can" I say knowing my dad wouldn't let me because I knew no one here. "Or you can sneak out if you can't" He says with a smirk causing me to roll my eyes. "Where do you want to meet?" I ask him, crossing my arms over my chest. "The Ferris Wheel at 10" Nathan says before walking away.

I sit back down in the chair, seeing the food had gotten there already. I begin to eat, not mentioning anything to my dad about tonight. Why should I?

"Thanks for taking me out to eat" I tell my dad as we got into his car. "No problem, what did you think of the place?" He asks as he drove away from the restaurant. "It was good" I say, looking down at my phone while I scrolled through Instagram. Everybody seemed to be having fun back home. I sighed, wanting to go back already.

Once back home I went straight to my room, not seeing any reason to hang around my dad after I spent around two solid hours with him. I bring out my phone, pressing on Naomi's contact and clicked on the FaceTime option.

"Hey girl, how's South Carolina" She says as her face appears on the screen. "North Carolina" I say with a chuckle while I made myself comfortable in bed. "Well then how's North Carolina?" She asks. "It's okay so far, nothing exciting has happened and I don't expect anything exciting to happen" I say with a shrug. "What about your dad? How's that going?" Naomi asks. "I don't know why my mom thought this was going to get us to end on good terms. I hardly even talk to him" I say and roll my eyes. Talking with Naomi made me miss California even more. "What about guys? Are there any cute boys there?" She asks, her smirk evident. Of course she would ask me about boys. I shake my head, "No, well not necessarily but this one guy, his name is Nathan, who I've seen around invited me to the boardwalk tonight" I admit, gently biting on my bottom lip. "You're going right?" Naomi says excitedly. "Well yeah, I'm sneaking out actually" I say and shake my head at the thought of it. "You better tell me everything, I actually want to be you right now" She says and laughs, making me chuckle as I looked down at my bed sheets. "I'll talk to you later, love you" I say before hanging up and sighing as I looked up at the ceiling. Who knows what would happen tonight.