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"That was pretty good," Aaron declares, pushing his plate towards the middle of the table and downing the rest of his orange juice.

"Yeah, it was," I agree, munching on the last piece of my pancake.

The waiter comes back over, clearing the table. "I hope you both had a nice meal," the waiter says, placing the receipt near me. The mediocre-looking guy winks at me before taking our plates and leaving for a final time.

Okay, ew. I came here for the food, not the service.

I look back over at Aaron, who has an amused smirk plastered on his face. A small giggle leaves his lips when he grabs the receipt and reads it over. And I must say, Aaron's laugh is so light, playful, and beautiful. It reminds me of a wind chime blowing in the breeze.

"This is too great," he laughs, handing me the little slip of paper.

I raise my eyebrow, warily snatching it from his grasp as he watches my every move with a smirk.

I read over the paper, seeing a small message written in blue ink right under the total:

-Your shirt looks great on you, but it would look better on my bedroom floor :) Call me 555-3322 .xxx

My eyes widen in shock as my jaw drops on the floor. Aaron's laugh magnifies at my reaction. He clutches his sides as his giggles completely overcome his better judgement.

"Aaron, stop," I say, trying to contain my own giggles. I just can't believe a college kid used the cheesiest pick-up line in the book on me at 8:30 in the morning.

I crumple up the receipt and throw it at him, laughing harder when it bounces off his forehead.

We both calm down after a while, wiping tears from the corners of our eyes. I glance over at Aaron, who's getting up from his seat to pick up the bill that's still on the ground. I force myself to get up as well and follow him to the front counter to pay.

"Don't worry about the bill, it's on me," he says, pulling out a his leather wallet and shoving a crisp, 20 dollar bill into the cashier's hand.

The female college student takes his money and hands him back the change. I find it reassuring that there's at least one employee here who won't hit on their customers.

We both walk out of IHOP and walk towards Aaron's cute little car. The rain has slowed to a light drizzle, and the earth's releasing the sweet aroma of rain. I blissfully inhale and exhale, enjoying the weather.

"That's my favorite scent," I hear myself say. "The smell of rain, I mean."

"I can't smell rain, but I do smell the perfume you're wearing. And I must say, it smells wonderful," he replies, smirking.

I laugh loudly. "Haha, very funny," I reply, rolling my eyes. "First the waiter and now you. What's in the water around here?"

Aaron lets out another laugh before changing the subject. "Do you mind if we make a quick stop at Barnes & Noble?" he asks, turning into the adjoining parking lot without my confirmation. "I really to find a book for my research paper."

"Oh, I don't mind. I want to find some new books to read, anyway."

Aaron nods and focuses on finding a good parking spot.

I am still having a hard time comprehending that Aaron and I are, in fact, becoming friends now. It wasn't all that long ago that I hated his guts, and now, I'm starting to think that we might become good friends.

Humans are irrational creatures. Sometimes, we are guided by our emotions and intuitions rather that concrete facts. Now, I can say for a fact that Aaron is a genuinely nice person. It was irrational of me to hate him the moment I laid eyes on him, but I guess my intuition was telling me to stay away from those who want to get close.

Aaron rubs me as one of those people who wants to get to know you inside and out. I just don't want him looking too closely because he might not like what he's inevitably going to uncover.

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[A/N] I feel like I'm rushing Ashton and Callie's friendship but holding it off is boring. IDK what else to say, I'm typing this at 1 AM on a Saturday...

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