A/N
I'm on spring break right now, so I should have a lot more time to write than usual! I'm not going anywhere for the break so—
Happy (Late) Easter! If you don't celebrate than Happy Spring! :D
P.S, a mystreet remake is coming out this Saturday! Be sure to watch that!

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Blaze's P.O.V

Well, you know how I said I was going Dottie to go on a date with me tomorrow?

It's been three days since I made that claim, so not much has changed.

Let me be clear, I tried to ask Dottie out. But at the last minute, I kept chickening out, which is totally weird, because I'm not a coward!

But whenever I tried to ask Dottie, my heart started pumping, my head started spinning, and it felt like I couldn't breathe, all beyond my control. I felt like I was going to pass out and someone would need to call 911 or something.

Three days. I've tried to ask out Dottie twenty-seven times in the span of those three days. Yes, I've been counting.

Sometimes, I'd be a little more subtle than other times. I'd look at her, my hands clammy, and ask "Dottie?"

She'd look at me back and say, "Yeah?"

I'd shake my head and say "Never mind."

My Irene, why am I so bad at this?

Dottie seems to have picked up that there's something up by now. She keeps throwing me worried glances and she keeps asking if I'm okay. I don't want to worry her like that, but every time I screw up and decide not to ask her makes her a little more concerned.

This can't go on. I need to pull myself together and ask her.

I know I'm going to be casual about it. No dance mob, no fireworks— I don't want to put our friendship in jeopardy with a big romantic gesture.

Keep it cool, Blaze. Keep it cool.

Dottie's in our room right now, and I'm pacing the floor downstairs, where she can't see me.

Our room. It's only our room by chance, yet it sounds so... personal. Like she chose to share a room with me. Like she chose to be stuck on Love~Love Paradise with me.

I stop my pacing and take a deep breath. I walk over to a window and look outside to see other resort houses with people wearing swimsuits walking by. I see the tall tops of water-slides in the distance, the sun high up in the sky.

I see somewhere I'm not supposed to be, but at the same time, I see paradise.

Wild.

I head to our room to see that Dottie left the door wide open. Still, I knock lightly on the doorway. Dottie looks up at me from the book she's reading on our bed, a smile on her face once she realizes who she's looking at.

She smiles when she looks at me. My heart thumps.

"Hey." I greet.

"Hi, Blaze!" She responds, closing her book but leaving it in her lap, the back-side facing up.

I sit down on edge of the bed, in front of her, since she's sitting on the middle of the bed. "What'cha reading?"

Might as well make some small talk before I ask and hope that I don't chicken out, continuing to talk about anything but a possible date between us two.

She holds up the book, showing me its cover. It's a paperback book and the edges of the cover are torn a little, telling me that this book isn't new. However, it doesn't look trashed either, just a bit worn out from re-reading. It has a beach photo on the cover with bright pink fonts, and I can somehow already tell it's a romance book. It looks like a light read, only about 100 or so pages, AKA, it looks like the perfect example of a beach read.

"This." She waves the book a little around before setting it on the bed next to her. "I read it around... three summers ago, I think? Yeah, three summers ago." Dottie gazes at the book with a dreamy look in her eyes. "Normally I'm not a big reader, but this one stuck with me, y'know? I always get so nostalgic while re-reading it. It's my favorite book and I re-read it once ever summer, but sometimes I read bits and pieces of it over the year."

"What's it about?" I ask, stalking for time.

Dottie giggles before playfully pushing my shoulder. "You wouldn't like it, ya big angry muscle man."

This gets a confused laugh out of me. "Big angry muscle man?" I repeat, amused.

Dottie rolls her eyes. "It's like, all cutesy and romancey and—"

"Cliché?" I finish for her.

"Not cliché, just... you wouldn't like it." Dottie sticks her tongue out at me. "It's like those romance movies I make you watch."

"But I like those romance movies you make me watch." I reply.

Dottie lets out a loud, fake gasp. "He admitted it! You heard that, folks, Blaze actually isn't being held against his will and being forced to watch romance movies with me."

"Shut up." I say playfully, rolling my eyes with a huge grin on my face.

Okay Blaze, now time to change the topic...

I pause for a couple seconds, letting the silence between us be an indicator to Dottie that I'm about to talk about something new and important. "Hey Dottie?"

"Yeah?"

I take a deep breath. "At the boardwalk, you know that building I stopped in front of?"

Dottie giggles. "Yeah, I do. You were staring at it all intensely and stuff. You looked emo."

"I did not—" I start out defending myself, but I cut myself off. Stay on the topic, Blaze.

"Do you remember what it was?" I ask. Dottie shakes her head.

"All I remember was you being emo. We walked by, like, fifty buildings that day." Dottie adds, pulling her legs closer to her body.

I'm in too deep now. I can't stop talking or change the subject, Dottie will know something's up. Besides, it'll make it worse for when I do ask her out. If I chicken out again, she'll know I'm repeating the same thing only to stop talking about it. If I go through with it, she'll know I spent all this time trying.

"It was an arcade." I murmur. My voice is quiet, but it's the best I can manage with the way my blood is pumping. "And I wanted to know if you... wanted to go with me."

"Sure! That sounds fun." Dottie replies.

But the way she replies is too... quick and casual.

Right! I forgot! Blaze, you idiot.

I have to restrain myself from bonking myself in the head. She doesn't think it's a date. I ask her to go to places with me all the time as friends and she does the same thing.

I'm really going to have to say it out loud, huh?

"Like a date." The words rush together. My voice is a great contrast to how it was before, now it's loud, like I can't get it out fast enough. Before it was all soft, filled with murmurs.

Dottie's eyes widen.

She's going to say no.

"I mean... I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up." I ramble. "It's just— No, I mean, I don't know, you don't have to if you don't want to, and you don't want t—"

"Blaze."

I look at Dottie, just now realizing that I was avoiding eye contact with her during my ramble. Her voice is stern, but comforting, like when she found me in the gym, throwing punches, destroying a punching bag with my anger.

She almost looks... amused.

She's going to reject me in the kindest way possible. I know her. I know it.

"Blaze." She repeats.

Oh Irene.

"I would love to go on a date with you."

Oh, Irene.