Growing Pains

Chapter Eleven

Courtney

"Where are we going?" I asked Justin as I climbed into his Volvo. The Drama Brothers had just played at Howie's, and now we were off on our mystery date. It was a pretty okay performance, but I still told him it was fantastic just to see him smile.

Duncan had been weird the entire night and it made my stomach feel sick. I wasn't too sure why I even cared, but it didn't matter. Because right now, I was on a date with Justin. I just needed to shove away the constant worries I had about Duncan not approving, and I'd be absolutely fine.

At least, that's what I told myself.

Justin checked himself out in the mirror, fixing his floppy brown hair. "Have some patience," he answered. I fidgeted with my cardigan and looked out the window.

I caught a pair of teal eyes looking back at me, but when I blinked, they were gone. Was I really just imagining Duncan's eyes? I needed to pull it together.

I really did hate surprises. I always needed to have a say in things and help plan events or parties. If I didn't organize things, they typically weren't done very well.

I felt a pang of guilt. I couldn't group Justin into all the other horrendous dates I had been on. He was different, more romantic. I'm sure our date would be absolutely magical.

He started the car, "Alrighty, let's get this show on the road." I smiled at him, thankful the dim light hid my faint blush.

A few seconds later we were on our way to our romantic date. Maybe it was some fancy dinner or a walk on the beach—if he suggested swimming when it was forty degrees out, then I would definitely call the surprise a bust. Whatever it was, I knew it would be absolutely perfect.

You don't know that, a voice that sounded an awful lot like Duncan's whispered in my ear. I went from seeing his eyes to hearing his voice? This night was going great.

Some pop song started whining on the radio, "Can I change it?" I gestured to the station. I needed a change of music, anything to keep Duncan at bay.

Truth be told, I wasn't even sure why I was thinking about him. I mean, he said barely anything to me tonight, and he made his disapproval of Justin rather clear with all his snide comments. If anything, I should be mad at him not thinking about him, right?

"Hm? Oh, yeah. Just don't play any 80's music. I loathe the stuff," Justin said with a scowl. The expression fit his face so well that I was a little taken aback. I mean, he was so pretty. I always assumed pretty people were made to smile, but staring at Justin, I realized he wore his scowl with a deep familiarity. I wasn't sure I liked that.

I shook my head. I was overthinking things. I was looking for a problem. What was wrong with me tonight? I felt all out of sorts.

I brushed off any weird feelings and shot him a wry smile as I said, "Got it. No 80's" I flipped through the stations, until one song caught my attention. It was a Blink-182 song I'd forgotten the name of, but I knew almost all the lyrics.

"Oh!" I turned to him with a big smile, "This is one of Duncan's favorites. He used to play it all the time. Whenever we went to his house, he would turn up his speakers really loud and blast it." I laughed, smiling fondly at the memory, "That was a lot of fun."