Picnic in the... Pool?

{I've personally never been on a date with a gay girl (multiple with straight girls I don't wanna talk about it) but I would love a stay at home date night}

I've been texting Elle all morning. She is helping me plan my date with Jessie today. I'm taking her to a lighthouse and then for a picnic at the beach. Somewhat cliche and also something I've done with Casey, but my mom won't be making the food, I will. I'm not making the food alone though, Elle is going to come help me. I can't cook to save my life. I drove Jessie to her grandparent's house this morning so Elle and I could cook without her knowing. I'm going to pick her up around noon for our date. We didn't talk about the date today. I almost made it seem like I forgot about asking her. Elle comes over around 10.

"Ok girlie, did you buy everything I told you to this morning?" She asks.

I forgot to mention I also went to the grocery store. "Yes I did"

"Perfect. I'm going to have you be my sous chef." I look at her like she is crazy. I have no idea what she is talking about. "A sous chef is essentially an assistant chef" She adds.

"That makes sense now."

"First I'm gonna have you cut the strawberries. Just cut the tops off and cut them in half and drizzle some lemon juice on them, I don't know why but it sounds fancy" She says.

I start doing as told and she starts grabbing the wraps I got this morning along with various other ingredients.

Once I am done with the strawberries she has me start cutting vegetables for a salad. It was honestly just your classic garden salad. She tells me to wait to put the salad dressing on until we get there. Once she is done with the wraps she helps me with the salad.

Now that a decent bulk of the food is done she tells me it is time for dessert. She gave me full control over picking that out, so I decided on brownies. Jessie loves chocolate. My backup was going to be chocolate chip cookies.

The brownies take about 45 minutes and we are starting to run out of time. We make the boxed batter and put them in as quickly as possible. The oven wasn't even done preheating yet.

"Is that what you're wearing?" She asks looking me and my stained shirt up and down.

"No," I say.

"Go change," She says and points up toward my room.

I change into a blue and white striped tank top with white shorts. I call Elle upstairs while I do some light makeup.

"That's what you're wearing? You could have dressed up a little more" Elle says when she sees me.

"Jessie isn't dressing up any more than I am plus I can wear pajamas and she wouldn't care"

"Just that alone makes her better than Casey," She says.

I do this all the time but I almost hated her comparing Jessie to Casey. Jessie doesn't even compare to that creepy, jealous boy.

Once I'm done with my makeup we head downstairs. The timer for the brownies starts going off. Perfect timing. Elle takes them out and checks them. She put them right into the freezer with a pot holder underneath. I have 10 minutes, hopefully, they are cool enough.

We both start packing the basket. Mom had one lying around. She loves to get all her students a treat on the last day and sit in the field with them while they eat. Elle puts in everything we made as well as some hummus and pretzels to dip it in.

"Alright. You are all set."

"Thank you," I say.

"No problem. I had fun cooking with you" She says.

I grab the basket and we start heading outside.

"Invite me over more often. I've seen you three times this summer" She pauses for a second. "Oh and send me minute-by-minute updates"

"Maybe not every minute but every hour," I say.

"Half hour"

"Deal," I say.

We both get to our cars and I put the basket in the backseat.

"Bye El. Thank you again"

I don't think she heard me but she waves and gets into her car.

It takes me less than 5 minutes to get to her grandparent's house. Once I am there I text her that I am outside. She comes running outside and sits in the passenger seat. I see Levi waving from the window so I wave back.

"Hi love" I say.

"Hi" She says. I grab her hand. The kid won't see. "Where are we going?" She asks looking back at the basket.

"Picnic on the beach," I say.

She doesn't respond for a moment which slightly confuses me.

"Could we maybe do a picnic at home in your backyard?" She asks. I can tell she is nervous to ask.

"Wait that's a great idea. I can show you my old tree house." I say.

I honestly couldn't care less about the beach. Once you've gone up the lighthouse you never need to do it again honestly. Plus I've never done an at-home date with Casey.

"You have a tree house?" She questions.

"Dad needed something to do," I say.

I head back to the house. She grabs the basket from the back seat and we head back in. I look at the kitchen counter and the blanket is still sitting there so I guess I'm glad we came back.

I move some stuff around in the fridge to make room for the basket and leave it in there. I grab a broom from the garage. I honestly can't tell you the last time I went up there.

We head to the back of the property and head up the later. Treehouse was a generous term. It was more so a free-standing room with a tree next to it.

"Aw it's cute up here," she says looking around the walls with the abandoned drawings I made at 7 years old and the decaying toys.

"It's ancient," I say.

The pink paint on the walls is fading. There are chairs made for 3-year-olds that have seen better days. The floor was also dirty.

I start sweeping the dirt and debris (and a few dead bugs) out the door. After about 10 minutes it was good enough. We head back inside and I grab the basket from the fridge while she carries out the blanket.

I lay the blanket out and we waste no time busting open the food.

"So we're constantly sneaking around our parents to be together and you never thought to mention you have a tree house" She questions.

"That would be so sus. I haven't been up here since I was 12"

"Maybe I'll have to meet you up here at 3 am one night" She winks.

I couldn't take it anymore. I just needed to kiss her right here right now. I scoot over, plant a small kiss on her lips, and pull away for a second. She kisses me longer and deeper this time. Her one hand is cupping my cheek softly. The other is holding on to the arm I am using to prop myself up. She keeps squeezing me. My other hand is on her side.

She starts leaning back, not breaking the kiss. I reposition slightly while we take a second to breathe so I am comfortably on top of her. I'm using my arms to prop myself up and her hands are exploring my back.

I don't want to stop, I want to go further but she breaks it up. "I would love to keep this going but losing my virginity in your childhood treehouse isn't exactly what I have in mind"

I can't argue with that. Neither of us are hungry anymore. We decide to wrap it back up and save it for dinner. As we head back down I get a somewhat evil idea.

"Hey Jess, wanna see something cool?" I ask.

"Sure" She says.

"It's over here," I say.

I go over to the edge of the deep end and she follows. She's so gullible. "It's right here," I say and push her into the water.

I drop the food basket on the concrete and jump in after her. "Harper, I am going to kill you," She says in between laughs. At least she enjoyed it.

"You could never," I say and swim towards her.

"I just might have to. I like being dry" She says.

Yeah, she walked into that one. "Oh yeah?" I question.

She laughs. "Shut up."

I lean in for a kiss but she rejects me and lifts herself out of the water on the edge.

"Gonna have to catch me," She runs full speed toward the back door.

"That's not fair you had a head start" I whine.

"Too bad" She is over half way to the door now.

I get out of the pool and start running after her. Mom is gonna kill us for running around the house wet. She runs up the stairs to the guest room and locks me out.

"Jessie let me in. Locking doors isn't apart of the rules" I say while knocking repeatedly.

"Who says?" She says.

"Me"

"As the creator of this game, I make the rules." She says.

"Just let me in"

I hear her unlock the door and she opens it slightly. I open the door fully. I start walking toward her

"You still haven't caught me" She teases.

I corner her into her bed. There is nowhere left for her to go. I start pushing her onto the bed. I lean over her, my face is an inch from her face.

"Still haven't caught me yet" She whispers and I kiss her.

She pulls away. "You got my bed all wet"

"Guess you'll have to sleep in mine tonight"