The Pumpkin Patch Of Love

8.

Dani
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As I pull off the road and down a gravel driveway with white fencing on both sides I see several teenagers and parents with their kids walking towards the entrance.

"Man.. we should've left earlier." I make sure no one is behind me before putting the car in reverse.

"I didn't realize it would be so crowded." I hear Julie unbuckling her seatbelt, anxious to get out.

"It's fall and we've never had a spooky corn maze in this town before, it's going to be crowded." I stay on the lookout for an open parking spot.

"There! Go go go!" Julie shouts and points to a tight parking spot in between a jacked up truck and a Chevy Suburban. As soon as I pull in some jerk holds down on his horn while showing me I'm number one with his lovely middle finger.

"Don't you just love small towns? I can't get enough of the southern hospitality around here." I roll my eyes but I can't keep myself from laughing.

"Get used to it, honey. The real world stinks." Dad chuckles as he unbuckles his seatbelt.

Oh how I know that. In the real world Caleb doesn't see anything other than a friendship, but in my fairytale dreamland he's my soulmate and he knows it.

Yep, the real world definitely stinks.

"I don't know about you guys but I'm going to forget about the world and enjoy myself tonight." Julie grabs her little wallet before trying to get out of the tight squeeze between my car and the jacked up truck.

"So am I." My dad agrees as he gets out and stretches.

"Welp, it's not fun being left out so I guess I'm forgetting about the world too." I make sure I'm careful getting out so I don't hit my door against the truck.

Julie's already passing the rows of cars as she makes her way up towards the main entrance of the whole fall farm getup they have going on.

"By the way, who owns this place?" I ask as I notice several students from our school, merely acquaintances.

"I believe Mike Johnson runs the farm. It's been passed down in the family for many generations." My dad thinks for a moment before continuing. "If I recall we went to high school together."

"Johnson.. as in Claire Johnson?" I stopped walking when my dad said the name Johnson. Claire is the last person I want to see tonight.

"Oops," Julie stops walking and turns around to face me, guilt written on her face. "I might've forgotten to mention that tiny little detail."

"Julie!" I run my fingers through my hair in frustration. "You do realize that me and Claire don't exactly fit together, right? We're never going to hold hands and skip along to find a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow!"

"I'm going to go ahead and purchase our tickets before they sell out." Dad cuts in and points in the direction of the ticket booth. I hated to pull my dad into teenage drama so it didn't bother me that he wanted to let us discuss this problem amongst ourselves.

Julie tried to walk away with him but I pull her back by the sleeve of her jacket. "Oh no you don't."

"I didn't think it would be a big deal! There's so many people here so I don't think we'll be running into Claire." She yanks her sleeve out of my grip.

"But she," I stomp my foot on the ground and that gets me some weird looks from passerby's. "Caleb likes her, Julie."

"And why does that have anything to do wit- Oh... oh!" Her eyes widen as she frantically points at me. "You like him! You like Cale-"

I quickly cover her mouth to keep her quiet. After looking around to make sure no one heard anything I glare at her. "Could you get anymore louder?"

She tries to say something but it comes out muffled.

I huff before bringing my hand away from her mouth. "Stay calm. I don't need anyone to start rumors."

"How can I stay calm when you like my brother?!" She hisses and waves her hands frantically.

"I never confirmed it." I cross my arms over my chest as I avoid her gaze.

"Mhm... oh hey big bro!" She says as she looks over my shoulder.

My eyes widen but when I turn around Caleb is no where in sight.

"See? You like him." She smirks and then links her arm with mine.

"Julie you're an absolute dork." I sigh in relief knowing Caleb wasn't standing behind me listening to our conversation.

"So are you!" She giggles as we start walking again towards the entrance.

"What're friends for. I can't let you be a dork without me." I smile a little. If I could forget about Caleb and Claire then tonight might not be so bad.

Or so I thought...