40. First date

Chapter 40: First date

Kelsey's POV

*****

I woke up on the day of my birthday to the feel of someone planting a soft kiss on my forehead. My eyes fluttered open as I could feel my bed dip, revealing Ethan sitting on my bed, wearing a cute smile.

"Happy birthday baby girl," he said.

"Good morning," I said as I stretched my arms out, wanting to fully wake myself to be able to enjoy my boyfriend's presence.

Boyfriend. That word sounded so foreign, and yet so perfect. I could certainly get used to calling him that way. It was going to have to take me a while to wrap my head around the fact that after going through so much, Ethan and I were finally together.

"I brought you some breakfast," he said, my eyes suddenly travelling to the large tray he was holding in his hands, asking myself how it was possible for me to not notice it earlier.

"You didn't have to," I said with a grin whilst sitting up against my head board properly, giving Ethan the possibility to place the tray on my legs before giving me a quick peck on the lips.

"Anything for my princess," he replied, making my cheeks heat up slightly. I was so used to words like that coming out of Ethan's mouth, but they hit differently knowing that we were actually in a relationship. They sounded more intimate in a way. "We're also going on a date tonight at around seven, wear something comfortable," he winked before he heading out of my room, leaving me with my mouth slightly parted in disbelief at how unpredictable yet amazing he was.

I never thought that I would say it, but I couldn't wait for my date with him. Everything had been so much brighter since we got together, much better than I could have ever imagined it would be. I couldn't quite explain it, but there's always that wonderful feeling you get when someone loves you back, and treats you the way you should be treated-making you feel happier than you ever had. He understood that I didn't want to rush into anything, and even if we were together, he was still giving me the space I needed, something which I admired a lot about him. He made me happy, very happy.

*****

As soon as Meg heard about my date with Ethan, she quickly added Leah to our call and decided that they were taking me to the mall to help me find an outfit to wear. They had already wanted to hang out with me for my birthday, and as soon as Meg heard the word 'date', she instantly decided to spoil me and buy me clothes as a birthday present, Leah quickly following suit. I tried my best to persuade them that I didn't want them buying me anything, but it was to no use.

I didn't need clothes as a birthday present from them, because they had already given me the best one. The fact that Meg decided to give Leah a chance made me truly happy, it felt as if we were all back to how we initially were, and no birthday present from them could ever top that. It took a while for Meg to think about it, but after realising just how hard Leah was trying, she decided to put everything in the past and give her another chance.

What I didn't miss about the two of them together, however, was how obsessed they were with shopping. They would always need to visit every single shop, trying on nearly everything. Two minutes in the first store, and my hands had already been filled with countless outfits which they thought would look good on me.

"Guys, I have lots of clothes, I really don't need any new ones," I whined as they kept dragging me around the store, wanting to see if there was anything else they could find me, as if I didn't already have enough in my arms.

"You need to look pretty," Meg said, making me let out a dramatic sigh.

"Megan, are you saying I'm not usually pretty?" I asked, pretending to be offended, yet unable to put my hand on my heart because of the pile of clothes which nearly reached my chin.

"No, of course you're pretty hun, but this is your first date with Ethan, unless you count that other one time by the lake, and I want him to look at you and be like 'Damn, I'm lucky to have her'," she replied, making me smile slightly.

I may not have enjoyed shopping, but I did feel lucky to have friends like the two of them, who were willing to spend their money on clothes for me instead of on themselves. Meg's words were also really sweet, and I loved how she was always trying to bring out the best of me.

"Okay fine," I replied, "but I'm sure he's already lucky to have me," I smirked, making both girls look at me with their eyes widened, an impressed smile on their faces. Their reaction at my words was certainly not an unexpected one, especially since I nearly talked that way about myself, but something within me had changed, and I allowed myself to feel beautiful, and accept just how great I am.

After about two hours of endless shopping, the girls got me four outfits, a bunch of make-up to make up for the fact that I didn't own any, and two pairs of new sneakers. I had tried to at least buy one of the sneakers by myself, but right when I was about to give the sales man my credit card, Meg slipped him cash, resulting in me getting slightly mad at her, despite being grateful for everything that she was doing with me.

Given that we were all tired, we headed towards the food court to get a bite to eat before heading home. As we were sitting on the table, waiting for our Mc Donalds to be ready, I noticed Meg and Leah talking and whispering among themselves before looking at me with cheeky grins and handing me a small gift bag with rose gold balloons decorated on it.

"Open it," Leah said as she noticed my confused face as I looked at the bag and back at them. I shook my head at them, unable to believe that they spent even more money on me, before grabbing the bad and taking out a small, silver box from inside.

I let out a small gasp as my eyes landed on a really beautiful charm bracelet. It was a gold bracelet with six charms already on it, one of a heart, one of a microphone, a drama mask, a music note, a flower, and an infinity sign with our tiny names engraved on it. I got slightly emotional as I thought about how much trouble they probably went through to put it all together. They had chosen charms that represented everything that I loved, and they even got the infinity sign custom made.

"You guys," I said, tears pricking my eyes, "it's beautiful."

No matter how rich the girls were, I still didn't expect them to go above and beyond with my gift. I would have been fine without accepting anything.

"We know that it's nothing compared to what Ethan or your dad got you, but hopefully it's a close third," Leah said.

"Oh, stop that. It's gorgeous," I replied before getting up from my chair and hugging them both, right before our buzzer alerted us that our food was ready, making the three of us laugh.

*****

After having eaten, we were about to exit the mall before a particular store caught my eye, making me pause in my tracks as I thought about something.

"Guys, there's one more thing I have to do," I told Leah and Meg, who seemed confused as to why I had stopped. "I want to surprise Ethan with something."

"But it's not his birthday," Meg said, furrowing her eyebrows quizzically.

"No, it's mine, and I owe him this after all he's done for me, besides it would be something we will both love," I replied, my cheeks feeling as if they were turning pink at the thought of surprising Ethan with what he was least expecting.

Meg took a quick glance at the store I set my eyes on, before looking at me with a grin. Leah seemed lost at Meg and I's small exchange, before shrugging her shoulders and following us in to the store.

*****

I could feel my palms starting to sweat as soon as Meg parked in front of her house and shut off her car. My heart was beating so loudly that I wouldn't have been surprised if either one of the girls was able to hear it. Meg instantly gave me a sympathetic smile as she caught sight of my face, taking my hand in hers and giving it a light, reassuring squeeze before we all got out of the car.

"Don't stress Kels, the date is going to be fine. We can hide his surprise in his room, to make sure that he doesn't find it before you're ready to give it to him," she said as she opened her front door for us to get in, the numerous bags from our shopping trip clutched in our hands.

"Meg, if your parents find that, they'll kill you," I say with widened eyes, not wanting her to get in to trouble because of me.

"Relax, they know you're my best friend, I can tell them that it's yours." I nodded at her reply, the initial stress starting to slowly dissipate.

I had never been as nervous about anything before, and that includes the first time I stepped foot in the Walker residence without knowing anybody except for Ethan, who in my head wanted to make my life miserable. It was funny how quickly the events had turned, making me find myself nervous about my first date with Ethan.

"I really hope he likes it," I nervously said, rubbing my palms on my pants, trying to get rid of the sweat.

"Are you kidding? He's going to love it, and you," Leah winked, making me smile.

"I second that, but now we have to get started with you," Meg said as she walked over to one of our shopping bags and took out one of the outfits before handing it to me.

I nodded, taking the clothes from her outreached hands and walking in to her bathroom to have a quick shower. As I put on the outfit, I smiled in satisfaction, realising that they hadn't done a horrible job when it came to picking the outfit. They got me a crimson red and black plaid skinny skirt which reached mid-thigh, and a black, laced halter top, which fit nicely around the neck. To complete the outfit perfectly, they decided to get me new shoes, both of them agreeing that the five pairs which I already owned were too 'plain' for the outfit, giving them the excuse to get me white sneakers with cute red flower prints on it.

The girls both gasped as I came out of the bathroom, their mouths slightly widened. After spending minutes ogling my outfit and saying how amazing I looked, Meg decided to curl my hair in beach waves, completed with a small waterfall braid on the right-hand side of my hair. Leah, on the other hand, went for my make-up, putting on a light pink lipstick and going for a silver-rose gold eye shadow look. I never understood what the fuss on make-up was, I never wanted to hide my natural look with all those chemicals on my face, especially since I knew that it would have probably ended up in me breaking out with numerous spots, much like what had happened to Meg when she started wearing make-up around the age of eleven.

"Oh my, Kels, you look gorgeous!" They both exclaimed as I walked up to the mirror stuck on Meg's wardrobe, the person in front of me barely recognisable. She was beautiful, seemingly confident even. I had never worn skinny skirts like that before, often fearing that they would highlight the fat on my thighs, but even I had to admit that the skirt made me look anything but fat.

"Don't I," I emotionally replied, acknowledging my beauty for the first time in ages.

"Someone has a lot of self-esteem today," Leah chuckled before putting her hands on my shoulders and giving me a small hug from behind.

"It's my birthday, don't I deserve it?" I asked with a small laugh before turning around to face my two fairy godmothers.

"Babe, you deserve it more than just on your birthday," Meg replied, making me blush slightly.

Realising that I still had about a quarter of an hour before Ethan came to pick me up, the girls and I decided to watch a show on netflix, helping me take my mind off the date, which was making me feel jittery.

"Megs, why am I so nervous?" I asked her all of a sudden, making her look at me and letting out a small laugh, making me look at her in confusion, unable to get why my nervousness was so amusing to her.

"It's because you like him. See? I knew you did I just knew it," she triumphantly grinned. "I love when the people I ship actually start dating."

"Well, I'm his girlfriend, I'm supposed to like him," I replied in an obvious tone, my heart still feeling as if it were about to burst every time I referred to myself as his girlfriend.

"But you've liked him way before that, and you know it," she said, making my cheeks burn bright pink as Leah let out a small laugh.

I hated how well Meg knew me, so much that she was often able to tell what I was feeling before I could even realise it myself. She had the kind of gift to know what was going on with me, and I wished that I could have the same talent myself when it came to her.

The doorbell rang soon after, making Meg run downstairs to open it before yelling at me to get my behind downstairs. I couldn't help but shake my head at her embarrassing means of alerting me that someone was at the door for me, and suddenly found myself pitying May for that same reason.

Ethan's eyes widened as soon as he saw me standing in front of him, his Adam's apple bopping up and down as he gulped.

"Hi," I said, allowing my eyes to admire how amazing he looked in his black jeans, white T-shirt and black jean jacket.

"Yes," he breathed out before his eyes widened in realisation. "I mean, hello. Hi, princess," he said finally, his face turning red. He cleared his throat before handing me the small bouquet of flowers he had in his hands. "I know that you don't like these sort of things, but I got you some flowers, not too many, just how you like it."

"How did you know I love violets?" I asked, turning to look at Meg who was looking at me with a grin, exposing herself just by her facial features.

"Shall we?" He asked before grabbing my hand and walking towards his car. "You look gorgeous by the way," he whispered in my ears, his husky voice sending shivers up my spine.

I smiled at him, trying to not show him how much his compliment affected me. "Don't I always?" I winked.

He raised his eyebrows at my words, an impressed grin on his face as he chuckled at me before opening his car door. "Meg was right about your boost of self-esteem today."

"Shush," I said, rolling my eyes at his comment before getting in to the car.

After about half an hour of driving around, I realised that he never told me where it was we were going, and I found myself becoming more curious with every passing moment.

"Eth, where are we going?" I asked.

"See, I know you're not like any other girl I've ever went out with, you don't like fancy things or a whole bouquet of flowers, and that's what I like most about you," he said, his words not quite answering my question.

"What? That I don't make you spend a lot of money on me?" I teased, making him roll his eyes.

"I like how different you are, I like how I can just hang out with you and not feel stressed to make everything expensive or fancy, I love how perfect everything just is with you," he replied, his words making me smile like an idiot, so much that my cheeks started hurting.

"That doesn't quite reply to the question I asked about where we're going though," I laughed.

He kept his eyes on the road, a crooked smile on his lips, still not answering my question. "First, you'll find out when we get there, second, I just wanted to put all of that out there, to let you know how unique you are to me."

If he was going to keep hitting me with words like that, my heart was most likely to end up stopping at some point in the night. I questioned whether I would ever become immune to how sweet he was to me.

"Anyways, we're here," he said stopping the car behind dozens of others, making me look at him with a grin.

"A drive-in?" I asked in excitement, unable to believe that we were actually there.

Drive-ins weren't common in our town, and so I never got the chance to ever get to see a movie from a drive-thru. My father barely had time to drive long distances to one, and after Meg got her license, we were bombarded with a bunch of school work, never giving us the time to attend one.

"I heard you've always wanted to go to one," he said as he turned off the ignition and turned to look at me.

"Wow, you did a lot of research," I chuckled, impressed at the fact that he asked so many questions about me just so he could plan the perfect date.

"Only the best for my princess," he said before taking my hand in his and kissing it, making me smile as the butterflies in my stomach returned.

My eyebrows scrunched in confusion as he opened the door to his car and getting out, coming over to open my own door.

"Come on, get out," he said.

"Erm, I know I've never been to one of these, but I'm pretty sure you're supposed to stay in the car," I said, despite accepting his outreached hand nonetheless.

"I know but what's the fun in that?" He replied as he jogged to the back and took out a blanket and some pillows, tossing them on top of his car. "Let's climb," he grinned, taking my hand in his.

"You sure are crazy," I laughed as we got on top of the car.

"I know," he winked.

I had to admit that the atmosphere up there was much better than inside the car. The gentle breeze giving the air a nice feel, the moon and the stars illuminating our surroundings. I smiled what seemed like the hundredth smile that day as soon as Ethan handed me a pack of sour gummy worms and a can of green pringles, a dimpled smile on his face. He had made sure to include all of my favourite things in that date, and I was truly impressed.

"What movie are we watching?" I curiously asked, popping in a pineapple flavoured gummy worm in my mouth, wincing slightly as soon as the sour taste hit me.

"A sad movie," he said, making me snap my head at him quicker than I popped open the can of pringles.

I was not a fan of sad movies, especially since I always ended up looking like a mess by the end of it. I hated feeling sad, even if it was just because of fictitious characters. Meg loved to watch sad movies whenever she was going through a break up, or whenever things felt like they were going wrong for her, I, on the other hand, never got the point of that. When I feel like crying, I like watching things that would help me laugh until it hurt, and not things which would make me feel like crying even more.

"You're kidding right?" I replied, raising my eyebrows as he chuckled.

"Yes, I am actually. We're watching a comedy," he said, slinging his arm around me before giving me a peck on the cheek.

"Oh thank God," I sighed, making him laugh.

I couldn't get myself to shift my gaze away from his beautiful laugh, the way his chest vibrated up and down, and his nose crinkled cutely. It was going to be hard for me to believe that someone like that could even remotely be interested in me, but I was glad that he was.

"So, erm, are you cold?" he asked, removing his arm from around me and rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

"I know you're trying to be romantic, but it's summer, and it's kind of very hot," I said, making Ethan softly mutter out a curse before looking back up at me with one of the most adorable looks I had ever seen.

"Well, there goes my attempt," he chuckled, his eyes meeting mine.

I sat there for a second, just looking at him and thanking the lucky stars for allowing me to be there with him on that perfect night. Before I could stop myself, I planted a soft kiss on his cheek, making him look at me in shock.

"Thank you Ethan," I said.

"For what?" He asked, sending me an adorable smile.

"For giving me the best birthday ever, the best present ever, and the best date ever," I said, causing his face to go red before he looked down at his lap.

"You're really special to me Kelsey, this is nothing compared to what you are to me, but I wanted to give you some of the happiness you give me," he said, hugging me. I snuggled my head in the crook of his neck, basking in his familiar scent.

"You're really beautiful, you know that?" He said after a while, his perfect chocolate brown eyes meeting mine.

"Thanks," I replied, awkwardly, not quite knowing how I was supposed to reply to his numerous compliments anymore.

"No, Kels, you're honestly so beautiful, you can't even tell how beautiful you are, I can't understand how you don't see that. Gosh, I honestly love you so much," he said, his emotions seemingly being let out in just that one sentence.

"I love you too," I replied, the affect of those words on me never ceasing to make me happy. I loved how his eyes shined every time I told him that I loved him, and how his lips twitched upwards in a near smile.

"I'm dying to kiss you right now," he whispered, taking my hand in his and intertwining our fingers together.

"Then do it," I replied before his lips met mine in the same passion with which they had the previous day.

I haven't had a lot of first dates, but that was beyond than perfect, giving me an even more perfect birthday than I could have ever even wished for.

A/N: Hey guys, I'm sorry for going all cheesy on you but no matter how cheesy it may be I'm sure that that's what is really sad by some couples so I wanted to do something cute besides they've been together for like a day let's let them be in love.

Anywho, for those who don't know the first chapters of my new books are out so feel free to check them out and tell me what you think, I know they're not great because it's only the first chapter and I did the first chapters prologue-ish but yeah.

In other news I wanted to have a little chat with you guys about something important, we're about to go a little deep over here so for those of you who aren't interested feel free to escape but I'd like it if you spared me 2 minutes to tell you about something important. But please don't hate me for this okay? I just thought I had to get it out there..Please don't be mad.

So lots of things have been happening lately and I just want to tell you guys that no matter how bad life may seem at the moment it gets better. I know that sometimes it's hard, sometimes things happen that forbid you to be happy but it will get better eventually. Maybe it won't be better tomorrow or the day after that but at some point in life it will be. I just want to tell you guys to not give up and to keep going strong no matter what's being thrown at you and I also want you to know that I care about all of you even those who never comment or anything I care about each and everyone of you and if you guys ever need something or need to open up to someone to like feel better or anything I'll always be willing to listen and as I know that it's hard to open up to someone you don't know I'm just going to give you some advice in advance to use either if you're feeling upset about something now or will feel upset about something in the future.

The best thing to do is to just do something you love, it doesn't fix anything I know but most of the time it could make you feel slightly better. You can write a story if you love to write or read or watch your favorite movie or your favorite you tuber, you can simply just dance if you like to dance or sing or draw or anything but just always stay strong. There's always somewhere out there who cares about you and who wants to see you happy.

I hate writing depressing stuff like this but for some reason I got the feeling that I have to write it, that it's important for someone for me to write this so here I am, telling you that I believe in each and everyone of you and that I care about you all. I hope you guys aren't mad at me for touching a topic like this but yeah I don't know why I felt the need to write t.  That's why I try to make my stories and author's notes as funny as I can just so I can brighten up someone's day, I'm here to make people happy and make them smile and well yeah.

Enough with the depressing stuff, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter and I'll see you guys on Wednesday....Or Thursday because like I have prom on Wednesday and don't know if I'll be able to make it but I promise you I'll try.

So here's a song from my bae, Shawn Mendes telling you everything I want to tell you guys, it would be great if you took the time to listen to it. Yeah.

Stay perfect just the way you are

Love,

~M