Red

Chapter Sixteen

Veronica POV:

I'm at Mac's house at exactly six, anxious to see Chandler. I make my way up the driveway towards the guest house where she's staying. Why do I feel like she didn't tell me something? That it's more than just getting kicked out? I've never met her family, and I feel like there's a reason for that.

I approach the door of the guest house, knocking lightly. I immediately hear Chandler's voice from within.

"Give me a minute!" she calls. "I'll be right there!"

I stand awkwardly, digging the toe of my heel into the ground. I've been on plenty of dates with her by now, but I feel the need to impress her more than usual tonight. To get her mind off of things.

I can hear her moving around inside of the house, and she walks out looking amazing as always. She has her hair in waves like it always is, and she wears a red blouse with a black jacket covering it, a black mini-skirt, black tights, and black boots. It's rare to see her in anything other than her typical red blazer and plaid, navy-blue skirt, but she looks gorgeous.

"Hi," I say finally.

"Hey, Sawyer," she replies, giving me a smile. "You look pretty. It's a nice dress on you."

"Oh, thanks," I say, smiling back. I'm wearing a dress that I hardly ever wear: it's blue and lace, and it has a scoop neckline. I'd straightened my hair for the look, too. The Grove is a pretty nice restaurant, and I wanted to look the part. The only thing that truly matters to me is that it impressed Chandler, though.

"You ready?" she asks.

"What, you're driving?" I question. "I said I was picking you up."

"If you're paying, then I'm driving," she replies, as though it should have been obvious.

Before I can protest, she's walking down the driveway towards her car. I follow behind, a smile on my face.

"Chandler-" I begin, still wanting to drive her.

"We're coming back here afterwards, anyway," she says, and she turns. I nearly bump into her with how abruptly she stops. She takes a step closer, and my breath hitches in my throat. I'm taller than her, probably by a good inch, but I can nonetheless feel the blush in my cheeks, and she seems to notice, giving me a sly smile. "We are coming back afterwards, right?" she asks softly.

"Uh... y-yeah," I manage. How does she still make me nervous? We're dating! Actually dating! We have been for a good month and a half now.

"Fantastic," she says, and with that, she turns again and walks towards her car again. I follow behind, hoping the red in my cheeks will die down before Chandler can make a comment about it.

***

There's hardly anyone at the restaurant when we get there. 

Maybe it's because we're early, but this place is usually swarming with people, and right now, it's just... not. Chandler takes my hand and leads me to our usual booth right by the only window in the entire place. I slide in on my side, and she slides across from me. She really does look stunning tonight, and I guess she catches me staring, because she smiles at me.

"What?" she asks with a laugh.

"You just... look really pretty," I say, blushing for the second time tonight. 

"So do you," she says. She looks down at the menu, but I swear I can see a slight blush in her cheeks, too. I've never seen her blush before. Did I make her blush? 

Our waitress approaches, notebook in hand and pen poised above the paper. She has a bright smile on her face. "What can I get you ladies to drink?" she asks, a friendliness to her voice.

"I'll have water," Chandler replies. "Oh, and a, uh..." she looks down at the menu again, "a virgin Shirley Temple."

"I'll have the same thing," I say, never having tried a Shirley Temple before, virgin or otherwise.

"Alright, that'll be right out!" the waitress says brightly, nodding to us before walking away. 

I look across the table at Chandler, who seems to be a bit out of sorts. Then again, who wouldn't be after just having been kicked out of their house? I feel like I should say something, but I don't know what I would say. 'How'd it go?' Not well, obviously. 'What'd you do today?' She got kicked out of her house, that's what. God, why am I so-

"Duke apologized," she says suddenly. 

"Oh," is all I can think of to say. Duke's been pretty bad to Chandler for these past few months. It's weird to me that she would apologize. She thought she had Chandler in the palm of her hand.

"She didn't realize that Ra-" She stops. I see her catch herself as she's about to say his name, and I feel a part of me break for her. She's been through so much. I feel hopeless to help her, but I want to help. I want to help her so badly. She swallows hard before continuing. "That I didn't consent to him."

"Oh," I say again. "What'd you say to her?"

"Well, we can't go back to being best friends right away," she tells me. "Not after all the shit she did. Not after all of those texts... I guess I never showed those to you."

"No, you didn't," I reply. "You don't have to. If you want to, you can, but don't feel pressured to, I mean."

"I don't feel pressured," she says. "I'll show you later if you still want to see them."

"Okay," I say. "So, she apologized. That's... That's good, right?"

"I guess so," she responds. 

I look down at the table. I'm not sure what to ask now. I sort of want to ask how it went with her parents besides the part where she got kicked out. I have a bad feeling about them. I want her to feel like she can open up with me. I want to be the person she goes to when she feels like she has no one. She seems to sense the topic I want to discuss, and she clears her throat. I look up at her again.

"It really went fine with my mom, Veronica," she says. "There was just, uh... There was a lot of yelling. She thinks I'm some sort of disgrace." Her face falls as she says it. I feel like she's still not telling me something, but I don't push her. If she's not telling me, then it's clearly too personal, and I'm not one to push when it's personal.

"You know you can come over whenever you want to, right?" I tell her. "If you get lonely or if you just want to hang out and watch movies. We could even go to Martha's house again."

"She probably doesn't like me," Chandler replies. "I sort of ran out on you two when we first hung out. I wasn't exactly polite about it, either."

"You didn't owe it to her or to me to be polite about it," I say. "You were upset. She knew that."

"Thanks, Sawyer," she says.

"No problem," I reply, and I smile at her. I'm so glad that it's her sitting across from me at the table. I'm so glad she decided to take a chance on me.

***

A/N:

Sorry for the late update today, guys! I hope you like it. I know it isn't as interesting as some of my other chapters, but the next one will be interesting, I promise. ;) Anyway, I hope you're all doing well. I have to retake my driver's test tomorrow (please murder me), so I hope I don't fail it again. I hope you enjoyed the chapter! As always, don't forget to vote and comment if you feel so inclined!

Thanks for reading!

-LittleMissBlitz

P.S.

If you have not seen Jessica Keenan Wynn's cover of Somebody To Love, please look it up. It made me considerably more gay for her than I was previous. Also, look up Barrett Wilbert Weed singing I Push Up My Glasses because it's REALLY CUTE and VERY VERY GAY and also SORT OF SAD BUT IT'S OKAY BECAUSE IT'S CUTE AND GAY! Also there's this interview with Jessica Keenan Wynn where the interviewer pretends to bump into her on the street and somewhere near the end she's like, "Who knows? Maybe I'll go to the next block and meet a hot chef who's looking for some... some ginger to put in his, um... soup." AND I LOVE HER SO MUCH.

Okay, have a great day/night!