Chapter 15

Garrett was in a blazer with a white tee shirt underneath and contacts in his eyes, as opposed to his glasses. He was holding a bouquet of red roses—my favorite—wrapped in brown paper. His eyes were scanning me up and down and a growing smile appeared on his face.

"Wow," he said breathlessly. "You look beautiful."

My cheeks couldn't get more red at the compliment. I always felt awkward accepting compliments, but coming from a good-looking man, I took it with a bright smile. He offered his hand for me to hold and led me to his brand-new looking BMW.

"Have fun you two!" Olive yelled from the front door. "But not too much fun!"

I twisted my body around to shoot daggers at her, but the deeper blush that spread to my cheeks decreased the intimidation level by a thousand percent. Garrett opened the passenger door for me and once he sat next to me, he held his hand out for me on top of the center console.

An unexpected kaleidoscope of butterflies fluttered around in the core of my stomach. Even my palms were beginning to sweat, but him holding the door for me and holding my hand while he drove was all I wanted in a boyfriend.

I only wanted someone who would treat me with respect and with the love I deserved—even if it wasn't Kayden. Shortly after, we arrived at the beach parking lot. It was a beautiful view; with the sun setting, vibrant colors of yellow and orange erupted into the sky.

Garrett told me to stay right here as he got out of the car to open my door for me again. Hand in hand, we walked down the hill together, being kissed on our bare skin by the chilly breezes the evening provided.

While Garrett was paying for our frozen yogurts, I spotted a guy around our age that looked similar to Kayden. I simply shrugged it off and waited for Garrett when I felt a hand on my wrist. Electricity shot every vein and blood cell in my body at the smallest touch. Kayden dragged me outside the shop and slammed me against the wall.

He peppered my neck and shoulder with sloppy kisses, his tongue leaving a moist trail on my skin. My heart was beating so quickly, I feared for my cardiatric health. My hand clutched the back of his shirt and my temperature increased to a dangerously-high number.

Reality reminded me that I was still here with Garrett when he asked me if I was alright. My frozen yogurt was in my hand and the guy that looked like Kayden was sitting in a booth with a young girl.

Well, that was as weird as shit...

-

I hadn't been to the Santa Monica Pier in a long time and I forgot how much fun it was. We'd been stuffing our faces with pizza and cotton candy. We played games at the booths, like the basketball hoop one where Garrett was determined to win me the biggest teddy bear prize.

Once the stars were dotting the sky, we rode the ferris wheel to see the overview of the moon reflecting off the ocean. He took a selfie of us to post on his Instagram and I took a picture of our high view of the park, including the foamy waves crashing against the sand. We ended the night by sitting on the beach, watching the waves hit the sand with my head on his shoulder.

As someone who grew up on the west coast, I loved going to the beach. Half of my birthday parties were thrown there and it was easy to fall in love with the peaceful serenity of the noises of the water. It was like walking home whenever I went to the beach.

"Zach told me that you didn't have the best experiences with relationships in the past. He didn't go into detail. Said it wasn't his place. He said that the only way he would approve of me asking you out is if I promise to treat you right. Would it be a terrible thing to ask you what happened?"

I sighed, using every cell in my body to pull myself together. The last thing I wanted was to cry about my ex during my first date. "Let's just say, without going too much into detail, he was abusive. In more ways than one." A nervous chuckle flew out of my lips, but the mention of that man dampened my mood a little bit.

To keep my thoughts from turning dark, I watched as my hand scooped up the sand and let it spill back on the ground.

"I'm sorry to hear that—and for bringing it up. That was a personal question and I didn't mean to ruin your night."

"You didn't. Don't worry about it. I still had a wonderful time." My hand landed on top of his and I silently thanked him for the wonderful night with a small smile.

"But anyway, since then, obviously, Zach has been overprotective of me." I closed my eyes to focus my hearing on the soothing waves and the distant seagulls. However, my eyes snapped open when I felt a pair of eyes on me and I lifted my head off his shoulder.

"This is a goofy question, but have you and Zach ever... I don't know, been into each other before? I'm sorry, it's just, I've never seen a boy and a girl joined at the hip for so long that they never, at least, thought of getting together."

Zach and I had been asked that too many times since preschool. We go to school together, we go to the beach together, we go to the movies—with or without Kayden. Not once did I carry any romantic feelings toward him. That would be like dating my twin brother.

"I can't speak for Zach, but we'd been best friends since the day we were born. We do almost everything together, but we haven't had those kinds of feelings before."

He nodded. "And Kayden? You three are like the three musketeers. If not Zach, have you ever had feelings for him?"

Yes.

More like I'm in love with him and have been since we were five.

I couldn't tell him that. He said he really liked me and I didn't want to ruin our first date by bringing up my crush on another guy. "No. I've never had a crush before, but... I think my first one is developing now."

My head fell on his shoulder once more and looked up at him with the edges of my lips curved upward. A smile touched his lips and his hand slowly reached up to cradle my cheek. Knots were taking over my stomach and they were getting tighter and tighter as he leaned farther until our foreheads touched.

His warm breaths were intermingling with mine, one of his arms pulling me closer. I took the risk and allowed my lips to kiss his. All my senses were thrown out the window and the twinge in my chest grew tighter as a bigger slew of butterflies was released into my stomach. He was gentle and this kiss was filled with so much passion, my heart exploded with confetti.

Unfortunately, we had to pull away soon and he was the one that increased the space between us. My heart was pounding against my ribs when he opened his eyes again and stared at me with infatuation.

Suddenly, the knots weren't because of him. It was because of guilt. I lied to him about ever having feelings for Kayden. Because of that, I was a bad person and guilt was eating me inside and out.

You're awful.

He's gonna hate you.

This is gonna come back and bite you in the ass. Hard.

Shoving those thoughts out of my head, my hand continued to scoop up grains of sand and drop it back to the ground.

We sat in silence, feeling a calm sensation taking over us as we continued to watch the water and the moonlight.

On the way back to Olive's to pick my car up, the car ride acted like sleep medicine. I laid my head against the window, my hand still managing to hold onto Garrett's the whole time. I was reading Olive's texts she sent me throughout the night to keep myself awake.

Olive:

Have you kissed yet?

How's the date going?

Should I start planning the wedding?

I expect to be asked to be your maid of honor!

Of course you'll ask me. I'm your only female friend.

I know I've said this before but how's the date going?

Come on! Give me the tea! I'm bored!

Did you read that using your phone during the date is disrespectful? Because that's just a myth.

Come on! I'd been watching The Kardashians for hours. I need real-life tea!

I glanced up from my phone when I felt the car slow to a stop and saw that we already arrived. Perhaps getting ready at her house was a mistake because driving home felt like a chore. I thanked Garrett for the ride and for a fun evening, but before I could exit the car, Garrett began to talk.

"Just so you know, my mother raised me to be a gentleman. Even in the smallest ways and especially to a woman. I can assure you that I would never lay a hand on you. Unless it's to hold your hand or drape an arm around you."

He eyed our interlocked fingers and looked at me with pure adoration in his eyes.

The butterflies before made a sudden reappearance and I couldn't keep the corners of my lips from crawling into a small smile. If only Gray was raised the same way. My first impression of a relationship would've been a lot better.

"I would never turn physically violent toward a woman. Girls don't deserve that. Not even ones who treat other girls horribly. Women need to feel safe with a man and I want you to know that you can always feel safe with me. I promise."

If my relationship with Gray taught me anything, it was that not all men present you with flowers, chocolate and compliment how pretty you look.

The unfortunate truth was that evil men who preyed on girls existed. However, those weren't the only kind of men. It was refreshing to learn that, beside my guy friends, there were gentlemen that surrounded us.

"Thank you, Garrett, for saying that. I wholeheartedly agree. Women should never endure pain with a man." I leaned in to peck his cheek and shut the car door. I offered him a small wave and a tired smile tugging on the corners of my lips. I watched him back out of the driveway and waited until his taillights disappeared down the street.

My eyes darted to the upstairs window where I knew Olive had been waiting for me to come back and 'spill the deets' about the date. I had to hurry home. I didn't feel like going over the events that transpired.

And by that, I meant the fact that I lied. I speed-walked to my car, but with my hand on the handle, I heard a familiar voice shouting through the window. I froze. I closed my eyes in frustration and a sigh broke out of my lips. Olive had her arms crossed on the window sill and a devilish grin that the moonlight allowed me to see.

"You're delusional if you think you can go home without telling me everything that happened. Get your skinny ass in the house right now!"

I rolled my eyes and dragged my exhausted feet toward the front door while I was sure Olive was already in the kitchen preparing popcorn. Softly closing the door behind me so I didn't wake up her sister and parents — if she didn't already by yelling at me — I met Olive in the living room.

She was in her fuzzy black pajama set with pumpkins printed all over, her hair was in a high bun with loose strands framing her face and she was wearing black slippers that left her red-painted toenails exposed.

She sat cross-legged with her fingers folded on her lap, waiting patiently for me to open my mouth. The original plan was to tell her everything that went down; how I felt when he held my hand while he was driving and thinking that I saw Kayden at Sally's Sweets where he pinned me against the building and intensely kissed me. However, the guilt that I felt earlier rushed back in full force.

"Olive?"

"What?" A bright smile touched her lips, oblivious to the severe guilt that was gnawing at me.

"I'm a bad person."