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twenty-two • vienna

☂ twenty-two: vienna

I was officially horrible at coming up with date ideas. I felt like I had the creativity of a robot and my perfectionist tendencies didn't help much with the whole situation either. After spending so much time together on our particular "terms", the line between a hangout and a real date had become blurred. I wanted our first official date to be perfect, especially after everything we went through, but nothing seemed to be special enough.

When I felt like I was in a slump, I desperately asked my friends for help on where to take him. After all, I didn't have much time before we were supposed to go on our date.

I soon exasperated all of them, though, when I didn't take their suggestions. I felt bad, because they weren't bad suggestions, but Carter and I had already done most of them. Also, most of the places just weren't that special. The movies, the diner, The Brew - they were all somewhere we visited too often.

The day before our date, however, an idea hit me as I was racking my brain once more for special moments I've had with Carter. As soon as it did, I knew exactly where to take Carter. All I would need is a blanket, a basket, and a few other provisions.

I quickly texted Carter minimal details, telling him to meet me at my house the next evening and to dress comfortably. He, of course, replied back with a bunch of questions about where we'd be going. He didn't forget to tease me about having to make the perfect date either. I simply ignored him. Why not let the boy suffer waiting for a reply that wasn't coming if he was going to relentlessly tease me? It's not like he had to do anything for our first date. All he had to do was show up and look pretty.

I spent the rest of the day prepping for our date and figuring out the last few details. There wasn't that much to the date, but I hoped that sentiment and just being in each other's company would be enough.

The next day, I decided to start getting ready a few hours before Carter was supposed to meet me. I took a quick shower to freshen up before doing my hair or makeup. I decided to keep the makeup light, partially because I was feeling lazy and partially because Carter was used to seeing me with no makeup anyways. I remembered Carter saying, one night when we were watching movies together, that he liked it when I didn't wear much makeup. I also remembered him insisting shortly after that I was free to wear as much or as little makeup as I wanted, though.

As for my outfit, I made sure to stay comfortable, like I told Carter to do. I pulled on a pair of cutoffs and knotted an oversized dark gray tee. After pulling my hair into different styles, I gave up and decided to just leave it down and natural.

Thanks to my lazy decisions about hair and makeup, I was done way too early. I sat on my bed, bouncing my leg nervously in anticipation of Carter ringing the doorbell. I didn't stay seated long, however, before I got up to stuff my keys, phone, and money in my bag. Hopefully Carter was punctual, because I was already ready too early. Him being late would only make me have to wait anxiously even longer.

After fidgeting around for a while, I heard my mom call me downstairs. Figuring that there was nothing better for me to do, other than wait around, I got up to go to her. When I left my room, however, a loud yell from the right side of my ear scared me half to death. I jumped, clutching my heart, and turned to see Carter there, laughing like crazy.

"I hope you know that you're early. And that it's impolite to break into people's houses. And that I hate you," I told him, walking away from him and down the stairs.

"Yes, because that's why we're going on a date right now," Carter said as he followed me. I could feel him rolling his eyes from behind me.

When I got downstairs, I found my mom at the kitchen table, typing away on her laptop. "Hey Mom."