50 Ways To Spend Your Christmas, Stuck With an Annoyingly Hot Emo Delinquent [17]

Incredibly great banner by xDuckii. Thank you very much~! :3
And PeaceLoveSmile18 gave me four marvelous banners! Thank you! :)

Aaaand this one is made by puckluvr260. :D Thanks for the great banner~!

14) Go out on a date(?!)

"It's a secluded part of town," he explained. "That's why there's not much of a crowd here," he said, motioning around the room. On the outside, the restaurant looked like a normal building with faded yellow paint and a wooden sign with swirly letters, spelling out 'A&J's'.

When you walked into the small building though, it was as if you were stepping into a cosy cabin. The light was yellow-ish and dim, setting a ridiculously romantic mood in the middle of the afternoon. Which, by the way, was freaking me out.

I haven't dated ever since that spaghetti-through-nose dude stole my cab.

And when I looked over towards Nathan, I could see he was date-deprived too. He couldn't stop blushing and fumbling with his words ever since the cabbie mentioned the 'date' part. So I guess, his intention was to bring me out on a date after all!

It was nerve-wrecking.

I seriously thought I was going to hyperventilate.

Nathan...he was so not like him that it made me more nervous for some reason. Where was his smug smile? His smirk? His arrogance? What the hell happened? I blushed harder. "This is..." I trailed off. But when I htought about it again...

I burst out in a giggling fit. "This is stupid," I said. But when I turned to Nathan, he had a horror-stricken look on his face. It was as if he saw a ghost. "No, no! I meant this shy...thingy and everything," I said and grew quiet.

"Haven't done this in years, so you have to excuse me," he mumbled, looking away.

Right. I was so right.

This was sooo not like him.

And I was making him uncomfortable! Somehow that was like an achievement to me. But I didn't want either of us to be in a nervous wreck for the rest of the afternoon, so I changed the subject. "Why'd you pick this place?"

Fuck. What kind of a stupid question was that!?

"I meant, you know..." I trailed off, feeling like I should bang my head on the wall. We sat at an empty table near the window. "Nothing," he finally answered my question after we made a quick order. "I just love the food. Nothing significant happened here," he said, giving me a look that said 'no-seriously-I-mean-it'.

After talking for a while, the food came.

"Your mother know you've arrived yet?" I asked and he nodded silently, his mouth full. When he swallowed, he told me, "But let's not talk about that," he said. He was apprehensive, I could tell. "God knows what she wants from me, now of all times."

* * *

I was not panicking.

"You said it was a house," I said. He laughed, wrapping his arm around me. "Sweetheart, this is a house."

"No it's not. It's...it's..."

A freakishly huge bungalow.

"I'm going to be a surgeon when I grow up," I joked and he raised his eyebrow. "With all the blood and crap you're going to see you'll be better off working as a columnist like you want to."

"When did I told you--?"

Oh wait a minute. I told him once back in NJ that I loved the idea of working as a columnist and probably if I'll be successful, I would run my own magazine. "Is it too late to turn back?" he asked, half-jokingly.

"Nathan!"

"Guess not," he groaned and I stepped on his foot lightly to make him shut up as a blonde woman came running towards us in a pair of 3-inch high heels. She had blue eyes like Nathan and she was quite tall.

The woman was wearing a white suit that made her looked very elegant. "Sorry the guards didn't let you in earlier," she cried out, literally snatching him from me and embracing him tightly. Whatever Nathan was trying to say, it came out as muffled noises.

"And you must be Charlotte!" she said enthusiastically, releasing Nathan and hugging me. I felt uncomfortable since I was not used being hugged by total strangers. "Nathan told me you were coming too!"

"Hey," Nathan snapped harshly. I never heard his voice so rough like that. "Cut the crap. Why the hell did you called me here?" he said, glaring as he shoved his hands into his pockets. His mother pouted. "Why, can't I see my own child after for such a long?"

"You didn't trust me," Nathan pointed out matter-of-factly. "In fact, you kicked me out of the house."

"Nonsense!" his mother cried out. "It was your father who kicked you out."

"...Well...that's a good point."

I shot him a look. "Mrs. Bradley," I started but she cut me off. "No formalities needed! Just call me Jane! You two lovebirds have to tell me everything and stay for the night!"

"But I promised my mom--"

"Now come on in. We'll have coffee together shall we?"

"Mother!" Nathan sighed but she ignored him and dragged us inside anyway.

This was bad. Nathan really looked as if he could kill a dog just by glaring at it. I edged closer to him as we walked further into the house and slipped my fingers in his. I didn't knew if it would help, but I felt as if I just needed to do it.

He gave my hand a gentle squeeze but he was still looking as if he was the devil himself. This was not good. He was pissed off. "Nate," I whispered but he shook his head. "I'm fine," he said tensely. It was a big house with marble-flooring and high celing with murals painted on it.

In fact, it reminded me of a museum.

"Straight to the point," he said when we arrived in the living room. "Oh but I haven't prepared the coffee yet!"

When she left for the kitchen, Nathan let out a sigh of frustration. It was as if he was holding his breath in the whole time. "A-are you okay?" I dared myself to ask and he nodded stiffly. "I'm so sorry I have to drag you into this too."

"That's okay, your mom seems like a nice person," I said. "She's not usually this hyper," he answered. "She's right, anyway. It was my father who decided to just leave me inside that god forsaken place, not her. But never mind about that," he quickly added.

I kissed his cheek and his hand went to the side of my face, bringing me closer. He planted a brief kiss on my lips. "You're not regetting the decision to be with a delinquent now?" he asked, a playful smirk appearing on his face.

"Oddly, not at all."

He brought his face down to kiss me again.

If his mother called him here for a reason than just "to see her own child again", I sincerely hoped that whatever the reason was, it wouldn't hurt Nathan. But it looked as if being there, in that big house was already a painful experience enough for him.

"Thank you," he muttered so softly that I thought I was imagining it.