“Lex, wake up.” A pair of hands was on his shoulders lightly shaking him awake. With each jolt he woke up more and more until he was able to make out the brunette looking down at him. “Your phone keeps ringing.”
He rubbed his eyes sliding back so he was able to sit up. He wondered who would be calling him this early, but it turns out it was almost noon. There were three missed calls—two from his mom and one from Bristol. He figured that he should call his mom back first who was just checking up on him and when he should be home. She believed that he was a Jack’s, but he figured that he would tell her somehow that he ended up here; he felt bad lying to her.
It was a pretty quick call opening with “hey, mom” and ending with “I love you, too.” Next was to call Bristol back. Alex waited as the phone rang a few times before she answered. Her voice sounded tired like she didn’t sleep well, but she kept up her attitude up.
“Hey, Alex,” she answered. “I was getting a little scared that you wouldn’t call back,” there was a small chuckle from her end.
“I just woke up actually,” he replied with a light tone, “so what’s up? Feeling okay?”
“Yeah, I tried not to drink too much so only a little headache, but hey, want to get something to eat or something?” Bristol asked. Alex ran his fingers through his hair trying his best to organize it in some way.
“Yeah, sounds great,” he answered.
“Cool, um, meet up at DeAno’s on the corner in 30?” Alex agreed before their conversation ended. He recognized the name from the place that he, Jack, and Zack went to yesterday. It took him a moment to realize that he was going to hang out with Bristol. Date? Maybe. He didn’t know whether he should smile or not. He wanted to, but when Margo hopped into the tent in his sweats and t-shirt, he for some reason felt guilt.
“I was wondering who kept ringing,” she said brushing the knots out of her hair.
“Just my mom,” he responded.
Margo nodded her head as a response. Alex yanked his bag over to him digging around for something to change into which happened to be jeans and a simple tee and hoodie. “So, we were talking about getting something to eat. You coming?” Margo turned her head to ask before leaving the tent.
“Uh, I was gonna do something real quick, but I’ll meet up with you after,” Alex replied. He was hoping that Margo wouldn’t get too curious, but she only slowly nodded her head at him. He could tell that she obviously was curious but didn’t want to say anything. Again, he was feeling guilty, but he didn’t even know if he should.
“Promise? Cause I say we prevail our last hours here.”
“Of course. Now skedaddle cause I need to change.” Alex shooed her away with a light smile as she slipped from the tent. There was no reason for him to feel guilty. Was there? His friends would understand and would be if anything happy that he was talking and moving forward with a girl, and why would Margo care? Wouldn’t she be happy for her friend meeting people?
Alex got dressed not thinking about it too much anymore. He left the tent brushing his teeth using a water bottle as a faucet. Walking back in front of the tent, he saw Zack, Cass, and Margo laughing about something that was previously said. They greeted Alex with a simply head nod and “hey”.
“You coming with us?” Zack asked Alex .
“Uh, I was gonna grab something quick and--”
“Meeting up with that blonde?” Cass asked not needing an answer to already know that was the case. She rubbed her lips together in curiosity before her lips formed a small smirked and only made his face feel warm. Margo scrunched her eyebrows in confusion while Zack seemed intrigued as what the answer would be.
“… I’ll see yah later,” Alex awkwardly smiled before turning on his heels which only ended up digging into the sand.
“Wait, Alex!” who he believed was Margo calling, but he acted as if he didn’t hear and continued to walk. He honestly didn’t want to really talk about Bristol until he knew himself what was going on. He was still in the mix of figuring out what was happening and the constant bringing her up didn’t help. He knew they wanted answers, and he would give them those answers when he found them out, too.
He was a few minutes early, but it didn’t take too long for Bristol to show up. She was tired but was trying her best to hide it. Light hair was curly and pulled to the side in a long braid falling down to her waist. Her hands were fiddling with the ends of her long sweater as she walked over.
“Two?” the waiter asked. They both nodded, and the waiter led them to a table by the window. They ordered their drinks and then the waiter was off.
“So was everything okay last night?” Bristol started.
“Yeah, boyfriend problems,” Alex didn’t realize what he said until she scrunched her eyes and cocked her head as a reply. “My friend, had boyfriend problems…not me. I mean I was helping her with her with it…yeah I’m gonna stop talking.”
Bristol giggled, “Well, she’s definitely lucky to have you to help with that. Everything okay with her” Alex was a little surprised that she asked about Margo, but the wondering concern made happy for some reason. It was as if there was another thing to add to list of great things about her.
“Yeah, they ended up fixing things last night,” Alex said. “How was the rest of the party last night?”
She shrugged her shoulders, “Okay, I guess. I’m not from here, and I came with pretty much the only friend I have here, so I was seeing a lot of new faces.”
“You’re not from here?” the waiter sat their cups of coffee in front of them, and before Bristol was able to answer, they gave their orders to the man.
“I live about an hour away in Teller. I come down here to visit my dad sometimes on weekends,” she took a sip from her coffee quickly placing it back down to let it cool.
Teller was a more upbeat community that was about fifteen to twenty minutes away from where Ale lived. He has been there only a few times, but it was like one of those little towns that always had something going on whether it be a fundraiser or a small block party of some sort. It was easily described as a family-friendly suburbs community. “Teller? I live like twenty minutes away from there. I’m from Langston,” Alex told her.
“Really? No way, that’s awesome,” Bristol grinned. While Teller was a happy little town, Langston was more calm and in a way empty. There weren’t many places to walk needing a car to get most places. Neighborhoods were scattered around, but the place mostly consisted of busy streets and lack of hang out places. If you kept going you would find a few more little neighborhoods along the way. If you wanted to go anywhere like the mall or to get something to eat, you would most likely need a car, unless you were willing to take an hour plus walk.
“Not much to do in Langston, though,” he admitted tasting his coffee.
“Teller can get a little...I don’t know. Nothing out of the ordinary?” She shrugged her shoulders twirling the spoon in her coffee mug.
“Well, you can come and have a taste of Langston life whenever you’d like,” he said bringing a smile to her face. The waiter came back with their food, and the conversation didn’t die down. They talked about school life, which they both dreaded, some trips down memory lane, and more. He was surprised by how much he learned about her and how much more he actually liked her. It struck him how much he didn’t get from a first impression.
Two o’clock rolled around faster than they thought, so Alex paid and Bristol thanked him. He held the door open for her as she stepped outside. “Thank you. I really enjoyed it,” she said. They were walking down the sidewalk with no destination in mind.
“No problem. I did, too,” he shoved his hands in his pocket. “So, how long you here for?”
“My dad’s birthday is tomorrow, so probably until Tuesday morning or so. You?”
“Sometime tonight,” he replied. “But come back soon, so maybe we can go out again.”
“Nah, I don’t think I want to…” Bristol held a straight face watching for Alex’s expression which was a little off-guard, but she soon giggled wrapping her arms around his bicep. “I’m kidding. I would love to go out again.”
The town seemed to have a nice Sunday feel with people preparing the finishing touches on their Halloween décor. Alex and Bristol had their arms linked walking up and down the blocks starting and finishing conversations and laughs. He walked her home finishing the evening with a kiss from Bristol before hopping inside. Of course, he let the smile come to his face while turning on his heels.
He enjoyed it, a lot. It was different, but the only thing he could think about was if was a type of different he wanted to get used to. He knew he liked Bristol, but there was something inside of him asking What are you getting yourself into? Throughout the date, he couldn’t let the thought of Margo slip from his mind. Whether she was in the back of it or a reminder of her came up, she was just there. She didn’t even have to do anything to have such an effect on him. Maybe moving further with Bristol would end this. Margo was happy with someone else, so maybe Alex should be too.

Notes

So there's going to be more of Bristol... Good? Bad? Liking her?
Comment, subscribe, vote, please!

-Gii xxx