Not Just Another Cliché

Picture of Emily Hunter^^^

"So where are we going?" I ask Jamie as we continue walking down the beach.

"You'll see. Not much longer now. See that flash?" He asks pointing to a flash in the distance. I nod.

"Yeah well 5 minutes until we reach that and another 3 minutes until we get to the actual date."

The 8 minutes go by quickly and we eventually arrive at a beach restaurant.

I turn and look at Jamie and smile.

"You brought me to Shandals?"

He shrugs as he has his hands in his pockets.

"You really didn't have to do this Jay. Shandals is really expensive. A piece of pie costs 10 bucks for gods sake."

"Yeah well I'd doing anything for our second first date." He says and I chuckle.

"Well what are we waiting for? We have some shandals to shake." I say and as soon as it leaves my mouth, I regret it

I close my eyes as Jamie covers his mouth trying not to laugh.

"Can w- can we forget I ever did that. Please?" I say and he begins to nod while trying to laugh his head off.

"Oh shut up." I say pushing him playfully.

"Hey don't push me. Don't waste our Shandles Shaking time." He teases.

"Stop it. You can't judge me as much as I judge myself right now, okay. I regret it insanely. Leave me alone." I say making my way towards the restaurant.

We make our way into the restaurant, well into the line that was almost down the beach.

"Great. We're gonna be here in line all night." I say sarcastically.

Jamie grabs my hand gently and walks to the top of the line.

"Jamie Dawn." He says confidentially.

"Yes of course, right this way." The smiling hostess says as she guides us to a window booth with a beach view.

We sit down and start looking over the menu.

"How did you do that?" I question.

"Do what?"

"Just get in here. Did you have a reservation? Well you'd wanna make it weeks in advance but you only asked me out yesterday so you must be very cocky." I say more to myself than Jay.

"Emily, my uncle, Matthew Dawn, head chef." Jamie explains.

"Oh."

We go back to reading the menus until the waitress comes over.

"Hi I'm Shauna I'll be you're waitress this evening. What would you like for drinks?" She asks.

"I'll have root beer." Jamie orders.

"And for the lady?" Shauna asks.

"Water. Please." I smile.

"Perfect. Will you be having a starter or going straight into main course?"

Jamie looks at me and I shake my head.

"Just main course." He says.

"Cool. What would you like?"

We go about telling her our orders and then she goes off.

I look out at the window at the beautiful view.

"Beautiful isn't it?" Jamie asks.

"Stunning." I breath out.

"Thank you Jamie. This is amazing. I still can't believe you brought me to Shandles." I scoff.

"It's what I do." He says and I chuckle.

With me and Jamie, there's never a dull awkward moment. We always have something to talk about. And we did until our food arrived.

I begin to dig into my pasta then I look up to see Jamie staring down at me.

I sit up wipe the sides of my mouth and chuckle awkwardly.

"I'm sorry, I know I'm a pig."

"No, I wasn't looking at that. I'm just amazed how you can still look amazing while you shove saucy pasta in your mouth."

"It's a special skill." I joke and he chuckles as we both go back to eating.

We quickly finish and then the waitress comes over asking if we wanted desert.

"I'll have the strawberry cheesecake." Jamie orders.

That's what Casey orders too.

And just like that, my mind is brought back to Casey. Frick.

"Emily, what do you want?"

"Um I'll just have, nothing. Im okay. Thank you." I smile.

"Yeah I'll cancel mine actually. I'll have the check when you're ready." Jamie says to Shauna.

"Are you okay Em? You've gotten very pale." Jamie says as he takes his wallet from his pocket.

"Yeah I'm fine." I force a smile.

"Well okay."

Shauna returns with the check and my eyes go huge when I see the amount of money recorded on it.

"100 bucks for pizza and pasta?"

"And root beer and water."

"Water should be free."

"Not here. It's a dollar fifty."

"Hold on a second. You're pizza was $49 and mine was $45 that's $94 plus my water $1.50 that's $95.50 so you're root beer that costs a dollar in a store costs $4.50 here. I get the food but freaking root beer. I have to pay my share Jamie." I say heading for my purse.

"Emily don't. This is a date. You didn't ask to come here okay, I knew how much it would cost. Don't worry."

we stand up and begin to walk down the beach and my mind can't help but wander to the day me and Casey came down here at 1am and just went free or when we were in freshmen year and I told Casey I didn't know how to surf so he thought me. You can't surf in Texas, there's no waves. You'd be lucky to find a beach half the time. Casey loves this beach and whenever he has the chance, he comes here and I'm always dragged along. I don't mind though.

"You didn't pay?" I cop on.

"Like I said, my uncles head chef. He gets free food."

Cheap skate much?

"Emily are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine. Let's just keep walking."

I notice Jamie reaching for my hand and when he gets it, he intertwined our fingers and smiles down at me.

I'll admit it, Jamie is an amazing guy and you'd be crazy to not date him but when you have a best friend at home just as amazing, maybe better, you don't see the attraction to Jamie.

He pulls me to the side and I'm standing in front of him.

"Emily, I like you. A lot. Thank you for coming out with me tonight."

"Thanks for dinner. It was amazing, pricey, but amazing." I smile lightly.

Jamie begins to lean in and before our lips touch, I turned my head and he collided with my cheek.

"You know what? I don't really feel the best. Can you take me home?"

"Sure." He says and just like that, our 'non-awkward moments' just became insanely awkward.

We make our way to his car and none of us talk the whole journey until he stops in front of my house.

"Thank you, again." I smile.

Jamie nods his head as he continues to stare out the window.

I kiss him on the cheek and get out of the car unlocking my front door.

I walk into the living room to find Casey lying on my sofa with Seth and Holly on the floor playing with Olivia and Megan.

"How'd it go?" Holly asks me as soon as she sees me making Casey throw his head up to see me.

As soon as I see him, my stomach begins to flutter and I smile genuinely.

"Um H-Holls. Can I talk to you in my room for 2 minutes?" I ask.

"Yeah yeah s-sure." She says following me upstairs and once in my room, I throw myself on my bed and groan.

"That bad huh?" Holly asks.

I flip around and sit Indian style.

"No it was great. He brought me to Shandles and didn't pay the $100 bill, but then we went for a walk on the beach and then I remembered Casey and the beach and all the memories."

"Oh Emily. So you got your results?"

I nod, "No matter who I date, I'm always gonna have feelings for Casey. Either I lose Casey as a friend or...."

"Or what?"

"Or I tell him how I feel."

*****
Whoops!
Okay guys I don't know whether it's too early in the story for Emily to admit her feelings but I honestly have no ideas for what to do between the time because this chapter was completely different than what I had planned.

First of all Jamie was supposed to ask Emily out as his girlfriend and Emily would say ask me again in a few days and she's say yes then her and Casey would kiss again and make the whole thing change but now I'm lost. Ugh.

Please let me know what you all think of this chapter.

I'm really annoyed at myself rn.

Anyway,

Vote/comment/follow

~Maddie