Wherever You Are [COMPLETED]

XV: The Date

“Hey Abby,” Dylan said from behind me. I recognized his voice and instinctively started to get up and leave my seat. “Wait! Can we talk? About,” he paused and lowered his voice before he continued, “the date?” I stopped in my tracks and sat back down. Heaving a sigh of relief, Dylan sat down next to me.

“What about it?” I asked with a little too much attitude in my voice.

“Well, when are you free?” he asked cautiously. “I’m free this Friday. Are you?”

“Nope.”

“What?” he asked a little too shocked.

“Is there a problem with me having plans on Friday? Is it surprising for the nerd to actually have plans?” I ranted.

“No! What- no! I didn’t say that! Jeez, Abby…” he sighed. “So what are you doing on Friday?”

“I’m not obliged to tell you that, but I’m going to a wrestling match.”

“A what?” He had a look of pure confusion on his face.

“Wrestling? Do you only know football? You know, there’s other sports like wrestling, golf, tennis, baseball…”

“I know, Abby,” he said while giving me a flat look. “Why though?”

“Because I want to? Or should I say, I want to show school spirit?” I suggested sarcastically.

“Hey sexy thang! … and other thang?” Gabriel greeted us. “What’s he doing here?” he whispered not so discreetly.

“Talking about our date,” Dylan said. “Who’s this?”

“My friend,” I explained shortly. “Is Saturday good for you?”

“Yeah I’m free-”

“Great. Let’s go Gabriel,” I said as I pulled Gabriel away.

Saturday.

“Where are we going exactly?” I asked as I stepped into the passenger seat of Dylan’s car.

“The aquarium.”

“The what?” I asked disapprovingly.

“Look. I didn’t pick the place. Maggie did, okay? We have to deal with it. If you want, we could just get this over with and take a picture if you hate me so much-”

“I don’t hate you,” I muttered.

“What?”

“Nothing. Onward.”

“Uh, okay.”

We decided that we’d pick an appropriate place to take the picture and enjoy the scenery of the aquarium. This wasn’t one of those $5 aquariums like the one we went to before. This one was a legit one with the overhead tanks and all. It was pretty crowded, a little too crowded for my liking.

What added to my problem was that Dylan was practically dragging me by the wrist to where we were going. We finally arrived in front of the biggest part of the aquarium, the shark tanks. I gasped in awe at the sight before me. Vicious sharks roamed the waters behind the glass walls. You could feel their charisma seeping through the waters. I spotted a basking shark on the far end of the tank. Spotting the same one, Dylan pointed it out.

“Look a-”

“Basking shark,” I finished for him. He simply nodded and continued watching the sharks. Our placement reminded me of the summer we spent together and our trip to the aquarium. We were reliving that scene. Except, instead of being alone, we were surrounded by many others. We let the pressure cave in on us and separate us. What we had together alone was only achieved when we were alone. We didn’t realize that with the addition of everything else, we would change so much back into what we were before.

After a moment of silence under the murmur of the crowd, I decided to break the silence. “You know, even if it is a basking shark, he’s just as vicious as the others.” Dylan looked at me incredulously and I continued before he could start. “He’s still a shark. He just preys on different things for food. While one may be eating at other fishes, this one’s rampaging the lower territory of zooplankton. It’s just as vicious.”

“Abby, I-”

“Let’s go take that picture. I want to go home,” I announced and he nodded as he followed me out of the aquarium.

“Do you want to get ice cream?” I asked upon seeing the soft serve stand at the gate of the aquarium.

“Sure. My treat,” he suggested. I refused politely and he added, “You paid for me last time.” I nodded understandingly at the memory and accepted the ice cream cone.

We sat on a bench in front of the aquarium and silently ate the ice cream. Then remembering the task, I asked, “Can I have your phone?”

“Uh sure?” he said as he handed me his phone. I opened the camera application and started choosing a filter. “You know, Abby, I’m really sorry.” My jaw locked at his apology. “I’m really really sorry. I want to go back to before, but I can’t. I just can’t. I really liked you, Abby-” I stuck the remains of my ice cream cone into the front side of his head, making him a unicorn, and snapped the picture. He looked dumbstruck and confused as droplets of vanilla ice cream slid down his cheeks. I tried to hand his phone back to him, but he was frozen from shock. I stuck the phone into his pocket instead, my skin tickle when I grazed his skin with my own. Onlookers gasped and some cheered as I walked away valiantly to the bus stop.

‘Sorry’ my ass. 

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