Avery's POV
So apparently Dawson was extra as fuck when it came to dates.
He said he didn't do these often so he wanted it to be special. Then something about me deserving the best first date he could possibly create on such short notice while at a cabin somewhat in the middle of nowhere.
I told him I'd be happy just at home watching HGTV but nah he wanted to be cute. Which I did love, but I wasn't lying when I said we could have the best date ever at like Taco Bell.
It was a sappy and cheesy monologue that he gave me after that. It had me blushing the whole time. Which was something that I didn't do often...so I guess we brought out those weird, yet cute, sides of each other.
So here I was, Dawson covering my eyes and slowly maneuvering me through the forest to wherever the hell he had our date planned.
And I'm pretty sure this was the only part he didn't think through completely because I'd tripped two times already and he only happened to catch me once.
"Ya know," I start, feeling myself step on what almost seemed like a boulder and stopping to make sure I didn't fall again. "This would be a lot easier and I don't know, safer, if you just let me have my eyesight back."
I hear a "Pft" come from behind me. "I'm trying to be romantic here Avery."
"And that's sweet. Although I feel like you could begin this whole romance thing when we get there. Unless this is all secretly a plot to push me in the lake at some point." I joke with a hint of slight seriousness in my voice though.
I could almost feel him roll his eyes. "Thanks for the idea for the next date."
"I'd drown you," I tell him feeling the ground begin to feel flatter and less rocky.
"I know."
It got quiet for the next couple minutes. It was a calm and comfortable silence though. The ones where you were just content with one another's company, not needing the add on of conversation.
I'm pretty sure by this point we both began to let our nerves settle in the slightest bit and get to us too. Or maybe I was imaging that and it was all me.
Finally, we stopped. Although it was still pitch black as Dawson's hands didn't leave my face.
"Dawson," I say to try and attempt to knock him back into reality.
"Huh?" He questioned, his voice higher than usual.
"I can't see," I tell him matter of factly.
"Yup."
"Are you gonna move your hands or...?" I ask crossing my arms now. Oh, he was totally nervous now.
"Maybe."
"Dawson, can you please just-" and then he did and holy shit.
I could feel him step away from me ever so slightly and I walked forward a bit more to try and take in the scene in front of me. And still, all I had was holy shit.
I'd been on lots of dates in my life. Not gonna lie, they were pretty shitty and pathetic ones too. High school boys never did care much for romance and cutesy shit. Or maybe they did and I just had terrible taste in guys. Till now anyway.
Cause right in front of me was small clearing, still surrounded by trees, almost like some kind of fort. I could see lights hanging from tree to tree on the inside. Sparkly.
"So I'm hoping it's not too terrible?" Dawson said finally showing up beside me, hands buried deep in his pockets, his head tilted down ever so slightly.
"Are you kidding me?" I ask with a pep in my voice at the fact that he thought this was terrible. "This is like...fucking awesome."
He squinted his eyes at me like he was unsure if I was lying. "Avery if you're lying to me to make me feel better I hope you know I appreciate that." He finally settled on, although still staring at me skeptically.
"Would I lie to you?" I ask leaning in closer to him.
"Yes. I'm pretty sure you have multiple times before." He grabs my hand and walks me over and inside to a picnic blanket that looked oddly comfortable for well, the ground.
And it felt quite weird that we could be on an actual date, holding hands, yet be talking about stupid shit like this. I did love it though. In every possible I loved it.
"I have not," I tell him laughing while elbowing him, lightly of course. Didn't need to end up giving each other bruises. Well, not those kinds of bruises at least...
"What about Callum and your whole arrangement?" He asked with an eyebrow raised.
"Okay, that doesn't count he told you."
"Okay then...what about how you always loved to talk about how the only feelings you had for me were totally platonic?"
"That's-"
"That's what?" He asked smirking at me playfully as we're now seated on the very comfortable blanket. With pillows. Fuck I loved pillows.
"Different." I finally finish, leaning back on my elbows into the fluffiness.
"Mhmm," he mumbled reaching over and grabbing not a small ass picnic basket, but a tub, a literal storage tub, of food.
"Holy fuck," I tell him. Staring at it in awe.
He shrugged at me and moved the box between us. "What? You like food. And I got food. A lot of food..." he pauses looking down at it. "Oh yeah, I have like meal-type shit and snack type shit so take your pick. Also, I have basically everything you like, so yeah. Enjoy."
Was it stupid for me to think that this was would make me wanna marry the guy? Yes. But did it? Also yes as I'm irrational and surprisingly easy to woo.
I stop when my eyes land on a bag of goldfish. "You brought goldfish...?" I ask almost unsurely. I mean it'd be dumb to just eat junk food on a date right? Totally.
He smiled at me. And pulled out not one, but two different kinds. "Original and pretzel cause those are the shit." He tells me tossing me both bags.
Yeah, there was no way this date was being topped. Ever.
***
After Dawson gave me the goldfish and I thought about how this couldn't possibly get better, but guess fucking what? It did.
We watched movies on his phone, he said he wished he could've gotten one of those cheesy projector things but couldn't in this case. But if I was being honest, I think I preferred his phone cause that meant we'd be closer.
So yeah. Basically, we cuddled while watching movies while eating some great ass food and snacks. And maybe we occasionally made out too. And I really fucking loved it and spending time like this with him.
"Hey, Avery?" He asked letting his eyes glance away from his phone to look at me for a second.
"Yeah?" I asked moving the bag of goldfish over to him so he could grab some.
"Is it weird that we know everything about each other but nothing at the same time?" He mumbled to me like he was thinking.
"What do you mean?" I asked although I had a pretty good idea of what he did mean. I just didn't plan on looking that stupid on this date. Hopefully.
"I mean Aves, that I know your life story, I know the ins and outs of your personality, I know all that deep and personal shit about you and you the same for me, but I also don't know your favorite color. Or where you wanna live when you're older. All those details and dreams and aspirations. And I wanna. I wanna know everything about you." He said wrapping an arm around my waist and scooting me closer to him.
And that...that right there is how to make a girl swoon.
"You're so fucking cute," I tell him smiling in his direction.
"Yeah, whatever." He mumbled blushing, looking away from me and down at one of the grey and fuzzy pillows he had his arms on as we were both laying on our stomachs.
"Yellow. I like yellow."
"You don't seem like a yellow type person," he tells me, now laying on his side more so than his stomach, although his hand didn't move from my waist.
"Yeah, I know. It's just like such a happy color. And as much as it can hurt my eyes it's also a color you can't hate. It's a smiley color or some shit like that."
"What about you?" I ask him back as I try and recover from that sappy explanation about yellow. The hell even is a smiley color?
"I like blue." He tells me keeping direct eye contact which I usually hated but right now really wasn't so bad. "Like that soft grey-blue kinda one."
Part of me wanted to think he was talking about the color similar to my eyes but the other part of me said I needed to lose the damn ego. So I did and decided it was a big ass coincidence.
"Where do you see yourself in 10 years?" I asked him after nodding. I guess it was just a question that covered all aspects of what you wanted in life and I was really curious as to what Dawson wanted.
"You sound like a job interviewer." He told me snorting a little.
"Don't ruin the mood, King," I tell him flicking his hand that was on my side. He surprisingly didn't move it though which made me happier than it should've.
"I'd never." He said leaning in with a cocky ass grin.
Why was his face so beautiful? Like this wasn't even fair. That should be illegal honestly. No one should be that hot. Just saying.
"But...since you're so curious and really wanna know if I see myself with you in 10 years, I'll answer." He said still not letting that shit-eating grin leave his lips.
I didn't say anything back because what he said was 100% true. And maybe I was curious for more than one reason...which he just had to point out.
"I'm pretty sure I'd be out of college by then and have a career down for the most part so hopefully married by then. Maybe a kid. A house. All that basic adult shit. But I guess no one ever knows what's gonna happen and only time can tell, maybe psychics, but mostly time. What about you Aves?"
I turned to look up at the open sky and let my eyes wander over the constellations. Or what I think were constellations. They all looked like the same blobs to me.
"I mean...I don't know. I guess I don't like to think too much about the future. If somethings meant to happen I think it'll happen. And wishing for things to happen or hoping others don't, isn't gonna make much of a difference. Everything happens for a reason and at the right time so I'll be happy wherever life takes me. Unless it's Alabama." I say with a grimace. Dawson just laughed. "Also your future sounds like the life of a white soccer mom."
"You didn't know? That's the life Aves. Pretty soon I'll be asking for the manager." He joked letting that fucking grin come back.
I just shook my head at him, not bothering to respond but just laughing at his dumbass self too. His very cute dumbass self.
"What's the craziest thing you've ever done?" He asked me, moving on and now making me widen my eyes and wince back. I had some...stories.
"Um...Dawson if you've already forgotten I had a 'party' phase of whatever. So the question should be more what haven't I done."
He rolled his eyes and laid flat on his back to look up at the stars with me now too. "Okay fine, what's the craziest thing you haven't done."
I sit and think for a minute. Which apparently was a super long minute. "Fuck what the hell did you used to get up to Aves?" He asked snickering a bit.
"I'm thinking!" I say defensively but still laughing at the sad fact that I had to actually think about it.
"That's not a good thing."
"Shut up."
"Never."
"Okay gimme a list of things and I'll tell you what I haven't done cause I'm too dumb and full to think with logic right now," I tell him squinting my eyes as the stars began to get more blurry the longer I stared at them.
"Gotten arrested?" He asked way too enthusiastically for such a question.
"Okay not like charged just...held...overnight. So if that counts."
"Skinny dipping." He moved on like my short story didn't impact him at all, which I found quite funny.
"Okay yeah, I actually haven't done that," I admit letting my head fall to the side, Dawson's following the motion soon after.
"You wanna?" He asked smirking at me and wiggling his eyebrows. And it's right then I remember the lake, not too far from us. And maybe he meant it as a joke, maybe he didn't. But I did something dumb, as I usually do.
And I personally blame the slight buzz of adrenaline I felt and my impulsive decision making, but I got up, I smiled almost mischievously, and shouted "Race you" before running off to the lake.
***
(Please read the whole a/n cause that would be cool)
Someone said they thought they would go skinny dipping a while back and I remember like a couple weeks before that I planned for it to happen, so whoever said that you were spot on lmao
Also, guys, we got a freaking million reads. Like holy shit that's a big number. But I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who's read and commented or voted like it all means a lot to me and I still can't believe any of this and I love youuuu
I also read all the comments about the names (they're all awesome btw) and a lot of them I had picked out or are being used for other characters in 1 of my 38 drafts that I will probably never finish lmao but it was cool to just be like HEY THEY'RE IN MY OTHER BOOK
Okay and one more thing (sorry for the longer than usual authors note, I just have a lot to say) but anyways basically I was thinking about doing like a Q&A maybe cause I see those sometimes and I'm like okay that looks awesome. So like if anyone has any questions about the characters, or the book, or me, or writing, or literally anything at all maybe leave it here cause like I'm curious?