━━━ 𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐘

𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐨𝐧𝐞, 𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐞 𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭

It was Saturday and I was patiently waiting for Louis at my house. Okay, scratch that, more like very restlessly. I’d agreed to take him all around town and after what Joaquin said to me, I guess it’s true. I like him, like really really like him. And I really didn’t want to mess this up.

I found myself re-doing my hair multiple times, checking my outfit again and again and spraying on some extra perfume half an hour before the time we’d scheduled. I looked at the clock and sighed.

To avoid overthinking all of it, I decided it would be best for me to distract myself. So, I went outside to the field surrounding our house to where Aiden and Austin, my brothers always were.

And today, with no surprise whatsoever, they, with their happily carefree eight year old smiles, were there.

I sat under the tree which they were running around in, and the two of them sat beside me. They had dirty-blonde hair like mine, but mostly dirty with sand since they were always playing in it. Which, by the way, drove our aunt out of her mind, she was a clean freak.

They had blue eyes, unlike mine, which I assumed they got from our father. I, on the other hand, had brown ones, from my mother.

It always struck me as sad that neither of my two baby-toothed brothers ever got to know either of their parents. Our father died just weeks before they were born and my mother during childbirth. I remembered them, though vaguely.

“Where are you going?” asked Austin while twirling something in his hand, it was a lilac flower. Aunt Abigail loved flowers, and she taught us all about them, where each could be found, what they meant, if you could eat them or not.

I smiled at the Lilac in my little brother’s hands, symbolizing childhood and innocence.

I answered. “You remember Louis?,” he nodded his head. “I’m showing him around town.”

“Oh, like a date?” asked Aiden, furring his eyebrows in a way so cute that I wanted to pinch his cheeks.

I flushed at his comment. “No, not like a date.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course!” Well…

We were quiet for a while, comfortably quiet.

“Do you wanna play tag?” Asked Aiden.

It had been a while since I’d played with them, so i figured why not?

And for the remaining time, the field was filled with laughter and shrieking and I felt a warmth in my heart that I hadn’t felt in some time now.

Unfortunately for me, I seemed to have done too good of a job at keeping myself distracted for the next thing I knew was Austin pointing to our house sayong “Betty, look!”

It was Louis. I looked at myself, my hair a mess, and my clothes with specks of sand here and there.

He came up to us laughing. “Having some quality family time, I see.”

I flushed once again.

“Your aunt let me in,” he explained. “Said, you’d probably be here.”

“Are you here to take Betty on a date?” Aiden asked.

What!? I may have involuntarily gasped and probably turned into a deeper shade of red than my aunt’s cherry filling. I glared at my little brother as he smiled cheekily and Louis laughed.

Louis bent down and ruffled Austin’s hair. “I am, actually.”

I’m sorry, what?

I could hear Aiden’s ‘oohs’ from behind me, but I stared in disbelief for a second. He is

“Well, I suppose it’s best if you get going then. Betty can’t wait.”

I took a mental note to have a very stern talk with my brothers after this.

“I suppose we should.” replied Louis

So we headed out, and neither one of us could stop smiling.