rewind writing comp 2018!!

blind date | jayeela au

all characters belong to CJ_Adler

thank you chlosaurus for the prompt!!

an AU in which jay and aqueela don't 'meet' by an accidental ice cream spill, but instead a blind date.

"Aqueela, stop it!" Bells scolds, slapping my hand away from my chest, glancing my way to shoot me a glare. She's quick to place her hands back on the steering wheel but little does she know every time she turns and looks the opposite way, I stuff my fingers back into the front of my itchy dress and scratch my chest as quickly as I can. This rough inside-material of the dress was equivalent to the feeling of those cheap, four year-old's Halloween princess costumes.

I cross my arms over my chest, "I don't like this dress. It's itchy," I comment stubbornly. The knee-length, strappy black dress was cute, but way too tight since it was Bells. Her forever slim figure still amazes me to this day. It's like she's been on a juice cleanse since she's popped out.

Bells shakes her head and turns her car into the parking lot of the restaurant where my horrible fate awaits. "Stop it. You look pretty and you're going to nail this. Aqueela, stop itching!"

"True that." Max says from the backseat. He's said nothing the whole drive so his words make me jump. I forgot he was here.

As Bells parks the car, fear eats away at my stomach. I've never been on a date before and I'm only doing this because Bells insisted that my love life was nonexistent. I mean yes, I am a twenty-two year-old woman who's never had any real experience in the 'love-arena', but who cares?

So of course due to that dilemma, I challengingly (and might I add, stupidly) installed Tinder on my phone and swiped right at the first twenty men who came up. Bells of course took advantage of this and made conversation with every single person—thus, this spontaneous blind date.

"You got this, Aqueels," Bells grins at me, her green eyes sparkling. There's a hopeful part of me that lifts at her words but the millions of horrific predictions of this date I've collected over the short drive is enough to pinch out that small fire of belief fluttering in my stomach.

I bury my hands in my head for a couple seconds, thinking over the situation. "I can do this," I mutter unconvincingly as I open the car door and step out into the chilly air. I rush across the pavement before I change my mind. I don't listen to Bells' and Max's extra comments of encouragement—I've already made my decision.

Hands clenched in fists beside me, I storm inside restaurant.

I know for a fact that I'm a couple minutes late. Bells spend way too long having me try on dresses and arguing with me about wearing makeup or not. In the end, I was able to scream at her and threaten her loud enough she finally decided against cosmetics.

Looking around, I see that the restaurant isn't super fancy, but nice enough for a date at least. I was never the one to go out and eat at a nice place for special occasians.

White lights dance across the minimalistic tables and booths with delicious smelling food scattered across the tables. The fresh smell of herbs and dressings fill my nose, making my stomach grumble. People seated all around are laughing an smiling as they enjoy their dinner.

Maybe this won't be so bad after all.

Slowly, I walk towards the hostess and ask if there's anyone waiting on someone. The lady politely directs me to a dimly lit booth with a skinny man in khakis and round glasses on his phone seating upon it.