Never Fall in Love with the Fisher Boys

9- I Get It

The next night, just like I promised, I was going to dinner with Will. It wasn’t a date. At least, that was what I kept telling myself as I was getting ready. I was only wearing a dress because I wanted to look nice for my first real outing in the town. The only other times that I’d left the house was to go to the soccer tryouts and to the store with Carter when I had first gotten there.

I hadn’t actually been into town at all so I just wanted to look nice. But it wasn’t a date. Maybe on some level, I kind of wanted it to be a date but my common sense told me that I wasn’t ready for a romantic relationship. I knew that I wasn’t ready for something like that with everything else going on in my life so I had to just keep telling myself that it wasn’t a date.

It wasn’t even a fancy dress- just a floral sundress and a light tan cardigan and sandals. My hair stayed down around my shoulders and the only makeup I wore was eyeliner, mascara, and foundation.

It wasn’t a date.

Looking at the time, I saw that I had five minutes before I was supposed to meet Will in the living room so I grabbed my black fringe bag before leaving my room and going down the stairs to the large living room.

Will was already there and luckily, nobody else was around at all because if they were, I was sure that they’d try to tease us about going on a date (cough Andy cough) and I didn’t want to hear any of that.

“Hey,” He greeted me with a warm smile. “You look nice.”

“Thanks,” I sighed, feeling my cheeks blush just a little bit. “I figured that it’d been a while since I’ve really dressed up so I might as well get out one of my dresses. Anyway, where are we going?”

“Downtown,” Will said. “There’s a really good Mexican place there. Do you like Mexican?”

“Sure, that sounds good,” I confirmed, getting in the passenger seat of his car before he took off out of the driveway and down the rocky road that led to town. “So, how was your day?”

“Pretty much the same as it is everyday- more hockey practice. What about yours?”

“I had a riveting Netflix marathon with myself,” I told him sarcastically. “I really need to start getting out of that house more.”

“Well, you will when soccer practices start up soon,” He reminded me. “And then you’ll wish that you really enjoyed all of your free time to be lazy.”

“That’s only if I get on the team,” I told him.

“You’ll get on the team,” He said confidently. “Andy told me that you were really awesome out there.”

“Andy doesn’t know anything about soccer, he’s just saying that,” I muttered shyly. “But if I do get on the team, I don’t think that I’d wish for this free time. I like being active and having something to do. I rarely ever just sat around my house back home, there was always something to do.”

I forgot to mention that the only reason that there was always something for me to do was because I never wanted to go home so I would always find something to do even when there was nothing. I’d hang out with the potheads behind the school and suffocate in their secondhand smoke, I’d apply for jobs even though they never hired me, and I even just drove around the city aimlessly for hours just so that I wouldn’t have to go home. Especially so ever since Gerard came into my mom’s life and he was there all of the time.

“Once you get used to things around here, I’m sure you’ll find more to do,” He assured me. “You’re still just getting your bearings, just give it some time though.”