Hidden Feelings and Hesitations

[18] Haylie

Nearly two weeks had passed since I'd come out to my family and my sister still wasn't speaking to me. I tried not to let it bother me, but it was hard. She was more vindictive than I remembered being at fifteen.

Frankie and my parents told me she'd come around, but I wasn't sure I believed it. She was barely even acknowledging me, going as far as putting earbuds in whenever she was in the same room as me for longer than ten minutes. I was hoping to take my mind off of it today because Frankie had finally asked me to go on a date. She'd been so busy with practice and games, but she had the weekend off and we were taking full advantage of it.

Though she'd tried to keep as much of the details about the day's events a secret as she could, I knew we were going hiking because she'd told me I'd need to find a pair of boots. Luckily, Annie and I wore the same size shoes and I could borrow hers. Omaha was flatter than a pancake, so I'd never had a need for them before today.

It still wasn't super warm outside all the time, so I pulled a sweatshirt over my head and checked my hair in the mirror. It didn't need to be perfect, but I still wanted to look cute for her. I wanted to see what kind of reaction I could get out of her, even though I wasn't in something fancy.

When Frankie got to my house, she came up to the door and knocked. Gavin ran over from the living room to let her in just as I reached the bottom of the stairs. When I saw her standing behind my little brother, the air rushed out of me and a smile broke out onto my face. I couldn't believe I was finally getting to go on a date with a girl. Sure, I'd hung out with girls by myself, but they'd always been strictly friends and nothing else. There was such a big difference between that and what I was doing today. The whole thing felt so surreal, but it felt so right.

"Hey," she said as she ran her eyes over the hoodie I'd stolen from her the other day at school and my jeans. "You look great." She moved farther into my house and took my hand in a way that a Disney prince would. I wasn't wearing anything remotely close to a dress, but I felt like royalty when she'd done that.

"So do you," I complimented, taking a moment to appreciate how she seemed so at-home in another one of her hoodies and a pair of loose-fitting jeans. That was one of the things that I loved about her. She hardly ever wore "girly" things, but she made them look so much better than they usually did on boys.

"Are you ready to go?" Frankie asked and stepped closer to kiss my cheek. I tapped my lips as soon as she pulled away, signaling that I wanted another, and nodded after she complied.

We called a goodbye to my parents, who were somewhere else in the house, then headed out to her car. "Now will you tell me what else we're doing today?" I requested, giving her my best innocent smile.

"It's still a surprise," she responded and smirked at how I playfully rolled my eyes.

"Fine. I guess I can wait."

"I would certainly hope that you could. Patience is a virtue, you know." I stuck my tongue out at her, but gave up trying to get her to tell me. "Don't be a brat, you'll regret it later."

My heart skipped a beat at what she was insinuating. "Oh really?"

"Don't push me. I'll keep my promise." Her hand moved from where it was resting on the gear stick and found a place on my upper thigh. I took in a big breath of air, trying to slow my racing pulse.