The next day, Holly called Hayley up and was surprised that her friend was actually free. Usually on Saturdays, Hayley was now hanging with Chad. But the redhead realized the seriousness of the situation when Holly mentioned the words “date” and “new outfit.” Hayley loved shopping, and was secretly a little girly sometimes, which made this her perfect opportunity.

The girls went to their favorite downtown boutique that morning. It was small place called Eleanor’s, and not a lot of people knew it, which was in their favor. Holly tried on millions of casual dresses and didn’t find anything she liked. She didn’t want anything too fancy, but fancy enough for this “hole-in-the-wall” restaurant.

As the blonde tried on a green bodycon dress, Hayley spoke up: “So … is this date like … public?”

Holly bit down on her lip, not sure what Hayley’s reaction was going to be. Hayley was a great friend for not judging her situation, but she always seemed to want to lecture her on the subject. “Uh … yeah …” She trailed off as she turned around from the mirror to her friend. “But he said it’s this unknown restaurant and not many people go to it.”

“Holl,” the redhead sighed, “you sure you know what you’re doing?”

Holly sat down beside her friend and patted her knee. “Hayles, I know you said you agreed on this and you respect Alex―”

“He’s ‘Alex’ now?”

The blonde groaned. “Not the point,” she muttered. “As I was saying, I know you agreed on this, but you need to stop asking me if I can handle this, because I can. I know it’s hard to believe and that you’re still in shock over my breakup with Brendon―hell, I’m still not over it―but I can perfectly manage to maintain a relationship with our … music teacher.” It almost hurt to speak of him like that, like their authority.

“I know, I know.” Hayley rubbed the bridge of her nose. “I guess I still can’t get over how our lives have changed since your breakup. Their completely flipped and it’s like the world didn’t wait for us to catch up.”

The orange haired girl then sat up straighter and looked to her friend with sorrowful eyes. “Holl?”

Holly glanced at her for a second. “Yeah?”

“I miss Brendon.”

The blonde looked down and wrung out her hands in anxiousness. “Same,” she swallowed down. A moment later, she cleared her throat and stood, twirling in the dress. “So green is probably a no, right?”

---

At the end of the day, Holly had decided on a plain and flow-y black dress. It didn’t have much too it, but Holly liked it and decided it was formal enough. She paired it with a purple belt across her waist and her Doc Martins that held the same color, mostly because she couldn’t stand wearing heels.

Alex texted her that he was on his way as she quickly whipped on black wings on her eyes with her liquid liner and spread out her lashes with her favorite mascara. She then proceeded to dig through all her jewelry boxes to find a nice necklace. She scavenged through the tangled mess of old trinkets and gifts that she would never wear. She finally found something suitable enough―and ironic―which was a silver rose charm on a shiny chain that Brendon had gotten her for Christmas last year. No one would know the story behind it, right? She’d be in the clear.

She looked out her window just in time to see Alex pull up in his old Mustang. She took note of the big dent across the right side of it, remembering that he once told her how bad of a driver he was. This is going to be fun, she snickered in her head.

She ran down the stairs quickly, shouting to her parents as she sprinted out the door, “Going to a party with Hayley! Be back in a couple of hours!” They wouldn’t care anyways.

She dashed down the driveway, seeing Alex leaning against his car as he waited for her, and flung herself at him to surprise him. He laughed as she tangled her arms around his neck and kissed his lips hurriedly before saying, “Quick, we need to go before they see!”

They hopped in the car and he immediately started the ignition, driving away as fast as he could. Once they were far enough away, Holly loudly chuckled and caused Alex to ask, “Why are you laughing?”

“I’m going on a date with my music teacher,” she still giggled. “It’s just new.”

He smirked and laced their fingers together. “I love your laugh.”

---

After passing almost a million winding roads―most of which Alex has pushed on the breaks repeatedly for―Holly still couldn’t calculate where the hell they were. This place must really be discreet, she wondered.

She could tell they were in the borderlines of Baltimore but still relatively near the city itself. She was looking around with narrowed eyes when Alex finally parked the car. Holly turned and glanced at the dark parking lot. There was a tall, dark building in front of the lot and she could just spot a door leading inside.

She turned to Alex slowly as he got out of the car. “This looks very sketchy.”

He just laughed as she jogged over and opened her door for her. “Trust me, you’ll like it.”

She stood from the car and took his arm when he offered it. They walked to the door Holly spotted, Alex holding the door for her as she strutted in. They were invited by a long hallway lit by a very yellow bulb and a green and gold designed carpet. “I’m still feeling the sketchiness,” she whispered in his ear.

“Just wait,” he murmured back as they took a turn into a new room.

The next room was clear that this was a restaurant. The kitchen was exactly to their left and facing the lowly lit dining room. The smell of fresh bread made Holly’s mouth water as they were greeted by a beautiful Italian woman. “Welcome to Meriadoc’s! Just two for this evening?”

Alex smiled. “Yes,” he replied, looking down at Holly, “just two.”

She nodded and looked Holly down. “Damn, I would kill to look as young as you.” She laughed and the couple only chuckled nervously in response.

The woman took them to a secluded booth in the back that Alex had asked for, and handed them their menus. Once she left, Holly smacked down her menu and let out a sigh of relief. “That was close,” she shook her head.

“But the place is still nice, right?” He lifted his brow.

She smirked. “I’ll have to give it to you there.”

Their waitress arrived and took their drink orders before leaving. Holly looked over the menu, deciding through their numerous amounts of choices. She suddenly glanced up over the menu to see Alex staring at her. “What?” She bit back her big grin.

“You look very beautiful tonight,” he smiled.

“So do you, good sir.” She giggled.

The waitress returned with their drinks and took their main order, coming back only fifteen minutes later with their steaming hot plates. Holly made a mental note to come back here again with the service they were receiving. As they enjoyed their meals, they talked on about various topics. They enjoyed that they had the same music genres, except only some of Holly’s were a little modern than some of Alex’s. She admitted that she always wanted to learn guitar, but their old music teacher never fully explained how, so Alex promised on his eighty year old great grandfather that lived in Missouri that he would teach her sometime.

As they went on with their shared TV interests―which happened to be anything involving Doctor Who and Game of Thrones―Holly looked up to see the unlikely view from the entrances of Meriadoc’s.

Standing there and waiting for a table, was good ol’ Brendon Urie and Jasey Rae Bennett.

Holly’s eyes widened. “Holy shit.”

“What?” Alex furrowed his brow and slid to look behind the booth.

“No! Get back!”

“Is that Jasey …?”

Holly gripped the table nervously. “Yes, and Brendon!”

Alex glanced back at her with the same expression. “Fuck.”

“We need to leave.” She hurriedly grabbed her coat and wallet, rushing to get everything on as Alex quickly flipped through his wallet.

He threw on his coat after he smacked down the expected amount of money for the dinner―maybe even a little more?―and took Holly’s hand. They were out of Meriadoc’s as Brendon and Jasey were taken around to be seated.

Their date was ruined.

Notes

Holly's outfit
Whoever is the first to find the book/movie series reference I have in this, I'll put you in as a small character who makes an appearance in one of the upcoming chapters!
UPDATE: Hoodiegirl guessed first and was correct!
And I thought it was appropriate to use lyrics from Blink's First Date for this :3
Subscribe/ comment/ rate :)
Rock on \m/