My Perfectly Normal and Completely Natural High School romance

Lilacs

Vince

Mia had never been hard to read. She was a straightforward sort of person most of the time. She spent more time doing than she spent thinking. If she felt something, it showed on her face. If she thought something, it was more than likely she'd talk about it.

So I had no idea who I was on a date with right now.

What did 'caught off guard' mean? Had she really liked the flowers? Why had she even talked about what I was wearing? Why was she looking so intensely at her iced tea? And why wasn't she just chatting away like usual?

This, and not what I should actually be doing or saying next, was what was going through my head as I sipped my long-since cold latte.

Fifteen minutes in, and we'd barely said three sentences to each other.

Really, we hadn't talked much at all. That is to say, both of us had been completely silent since we sat down.

This was not what I had meant when I told Mia two weeks ago when we were practicing for a math test together that I would appreciate if she could be quiet for maybe fifteen minutes.

Maybe the flowers really had been too much. Yuhui had said they'd be a good idea... I shouldn't have gotten excited. I should have remembered this was all part of the bet. I mean, at this rate, I could even win.

Somehow, I didn't like the idea of that.

I might never admit it to Michael, but I had gotten a little attached to the idea of actually getting Mia to like being my not-quite-girlfriend. I had wanted the bet to end in a draw.

So this was not a desirable development.

Perhaps I had been too enthusiastic. Too out of character? She never complained when I brought muffins, or homemade cookies, or popsicles, or whatever else I could think of, when we hung out on the weekends. This was the same thing, right?

It wasn't like I ever ate any of what I brought her. It was all just for her.

Was food different?

Should I have gone for chocolate after all?

Was Mia maybe too much of a dunce to realize that the flowers weren't completely arbitrary?

She knew I didn't do things by halves, but maybe she didn't have the awareness to think I'd picked lilacs for a reason.

She would have known if they were roses.

Roses don't have anything to hide.

Well, perhaps she wouldn't have known for sure if they weren't red... but then, were red roses too overrated? Would carnations be better? Maybe—

"So... what do you want to do today?"

I blinked. Oh yeah, I was still on a date with Mia.

"Well..." I started without a plan for what I was going to say after that.

"Well?"

"Uh..." I racked my brain, "I think there's a cool new exhibit about marine life in the natural history museum?"

Oh yeah, great idea Vince, go to the exhibit about marine life when you're right next to the beach. At least it was a lake and not the sea, that would be really embarrassing.

"I've been wanting to go there!"

Well, perhaps not really such a bad idea after all.

"I am also wearing swimming shorts under my pants though," I amended, "since we were going to be near the beach."

"Yeah, I'm wearing a swimsuit, too," she grinned, then tapped the backpack slung across her chair, "I brought towels and sunscreen because I knew you'd forget them."

I couldn't argue with that. But at least we'd switched back to talking like normal.

"Maybe..." I said, a plan forming in my mind, "we can go to the beach first, get tired some, eat lunch, and then hit the museum?"

"Can we get ice cream after?"

"What is it with you and ice cream?"

"I just like ice cream, okay? We're getting ice cream after."

And that was that.