Name of the Game

Chapter 8: Asking Her on a Date

I was spinning, fast, till I was no longer spinning. We both started to go towards the windshield but we were stopped before we went through. We were stopped, but in different ways....

And with that I once again shot up in bed terrified to fall back asleep. I looked at my phone and it read 5:00am, and I also saw a text from an unknown number, it read 'Hey, it's Zayn, I was thinking we could meet at the field at 5:45am. I think that's plenty of time but if you want to meet earlier then that's fine.' I then made a contact for him and replied to him, '5:45 sounds good to me'. I then noticed that he sent his text 2 hours ago, so he either woke up early or went to bed late, and neither of those things are good.

I chose not to think much of it right now and I started to get ready, it only took about 10 minutes for me to get ready which means I still had 35 minutes till I had to be at the field. Well it wasn't gonna do much to just sit on my phone for half an hour so I just decided to grab some food and head to the field.

I arrived at the track and of course there was no one there. So I sat down on the bleachers, changed my shoes, put in my headphones, and started to run a few laps. I was in the middle of one of my laps when I noticed someone enter the field, it was Zayn. I look at the time on my phone and it read 5:30 am. He was here early, I thought to myself. So I ran over to him.
"Good morning," I said pulling out my headphones grabbing my water.
"Morning," he replied a little tired and confused. "How long have you been here?"
"Not long."
"You do know we were only suppose to meet at 5:45 right?"
"Yeah but I woke up and couldn't fall back asleep so I just decided to come early and run a few laps. And speaking of being early, your 15 minutes early, whys that?"
"Oh nothing," he said very unconvincingly.
"Mmmmhhmmmm," I replied squinting my eyes at him with one of my eyebrows lifted.
"It's nothing," he said a little sterner this time.
"Fine it's nothing," I said giving in. "So, do you have any ideas on how to ask her out?"
"I have a few but I don't know if she's the kind of person where I should be upfront about it and just ask her or make a romantic gesture or what."
"Well I can tell you she'd be happy either way but I think she'd like a little of both."
"What do you have in mind?"
"Well you could leave a note in her locker that says something like... 'turn around', and then when she turns around you're there holding a rose and you ask her 'would you like to go out with me'., and then after she says yes you say 'great' with a big smile on your face and then tell her what time you're gonna pick her up."
"That's pretty cute. Do you think she'd actually like it?"
"Yeah, but you can do whatever you want."
" I really like that idea and if you say she'll like it I bet she will. What do you think she'd like to do?"
"Mmmm well I think she'd like to go out to dinner, but nothing too fancy for the first date, go somewhere cute like a diner or something and then take a walk in the park looking at the stars and just talking. Make sure to wear warm clothes tho cause I bet you'll end up giving her your jacket."
We both started laughing.
"Wow you've really thought this out," he replied.
"Yeah well I watched a lot of romantic movies with my mom when I was younger and I'm always thinking of the perfect date and stuff."
"That's cool, it's good to know I can always come to you for help on this stuff," he said chuckling.
"Yup, I'm always here for my services," I said giving a dramatic bow.
We were now both laughing pretty hard.
I then heard some footsteps in the grass and looked to see Harry was coming on the field. It was almost 5:40, why was he here so early?

"What are you guys laughing about," Harry said pretty grumpily.
"Nothing, Emma is just advising me on how to ask out one of her friends," Zayn replied.
"Oh so you're finally gonna ask that chick out? Good for you man. But why do you need to ask her for advice? All ya gotta do is say, 'hey wanna go out with me?' And boom you got a date."
"Well for one I'm a girl, and two I'm pretty sure I know more on what a girl wants than you," I replied kinda sassily.
"Fine enlighten me on what girls want," Harry replies crossing his arms.
"Well for one you don't want to ask like that if you want a 'yes' cause girls will just feel like another check mark in your book. You want to put thought in asking them out or genuinely ask them if you want a sincere yes. And you also don't want the first date to be bad or awkward. If you go to like the movies you have no time to talk to connect and if you go somewhere too fancy then the girl is worried about cost and her looks and how she's looks and acts rather than focusing on her date and connecting with him. You want to go to a dinner where they serve burgers and fries where you can talk and be yourselves and you can wear something casual. You then go on a walk to talk some more and look a scenery and you find some similarities for the next date. The next date you then do something like paintball or a carnival or a hike somewhere you're more out and adventurous and you can eat, be silly, have fun, and also a little romantic. You only do the super romantic dinners on special occasions. And so on and so forth," I said cutting myself off before I went too into depth and lost both of them.
"Wow that's a lot, I'm glad that I can always come to you cause I'd never be able to remember all that," Zayn said chuckling.
"It's not that complicated, you ask, you go out, and if ya like it you keep doing it and if you don't then you stop. Or you go out and then bang her and be done. She's just a hopeless romantic, don't take advice from her," Harry said rolling his eyes off to me.
"Just because I give good advice on how to ask someone out and to keep the relationship going that doesn't mean I'm a hopeless romantic," I said returning the glare to Harry.
"Harry you have to admit that her advice is pretty good, and she does know more since she is a girl," Zayn said trying to cut the tension.
"Well at least she knows more of something since she's a girl," Harry quickly replied back with a devilish smile.
"You wanna say that again," I said getting closer to him.
"Oh I'm sorry, can you not comprehend simple English?" Harry said bending down a little to my height.
I started to curl my fists into a ball, and I was about ready to swing when I felt a tung at my waist, I looked behind me and Zayn was dragging me away from Harry.
"What are you doing?!" I asked a little angry.
"I'm preventing you from doing something stupid," he replied.
"Why? You don't think I could take him?!" I snapped turning around to face him.
"No I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is that this is what he wants, he wants you to get in a fight where you jeopardize your spot on the team. If that happens, he wins. You don't want that do you?"
"No no, that's not what I want, and that makes sense," I replied calmer unclenching my fists.
Zayn looked down and saw how I was no longer in fight mode, and he smiled.
"What don't be a pussy?! Don't let a man tell you what you can and can't do!" Harry yelled over.
Zayn then held my shoulders so I was looking at him, "Don't let him get to you, don't give him what he wants," he then let go of my shoulders cautiously.
I then took my earbuds and put them in my ears and blasted my music and started to run some laps.