Important Authors Note At The End! :D

Chapter 28 (Continuation of Chapter 27)

"It was either this or a ballet recital." I muttered as I unbuckled my seat belt.

He laughed. "At least there would've been dancing girls!"

"Did I forget to mention that it was a men's ballet recital?" I retorted. He visibly shivered, covering his mouth with his hand as if holding back vomit. "And you're the one that told me about your never ending love for animals."

He rolled his eyes before getting out of the car at the same time I did. We walked around the front of the car and began walking towards the aquarium as I fished the tickets out of my wallet. Ha-ha, what great wordplay. "Are you excited?"

He nodded. "I've never been here. What kind of animals do they have?"

The building was colossal. It was the only aquarium in our state and they were currently having alligator handlers visit with a gator, which they would wrestle. "A lot, animals that live in the water mainly."

"No, I thought they'd have dessert animals here, thanks for clearing it up." He muttered sarcastically, earning a glare from me.

"Well come on." I demanded as I handed the lady the tickets. When we entered, we were greeted with three options. "What do you want to go see first? Fishes? Sharks? Or turtles?"

He thought for a minute before sighing. "Sharks." We walked towards the shark exhibit and watched as the large creatures swam around in the water, their beady eyes connecting with ours every so often. "They're creepy fellows, aren't they?"

I nodded. "What do you think would happen if I dived into the water?"

Grayson looked at me with raised eyebrows. "Bye Peanut."

I punched his arm, laughing lightly. A hammerhead shark swam a bit too close to the glass for my liking and I wanted to smack the glass and tell him who owns this place but then again, he is a hammerhead and as far as I know, a hammer can break glass. "What's that shark doing?"

I glanced towards where Grayson was pointed. The biggest shark of all swam by the glass, blocking our vision. I turned to Grayson before glancing back at the glass, the gray shark was gone and I could see what he was talking about. A shark was feasting upon another shark. I wrinkled my nose. "Do they feed these things?"

He laughed before shrugging. "I wonder how many people were fed to the sharks after saying that."

"Do they feed them fish?" I asked, scanning the area for any fish bones. The water was pretty clear.

"Fish are friends, not food." I whipped my head over in Grayson's directions and he gave me a sheepish look.

"Can we go see the turtles?" I asked him.

"Sure, I always wondered what happened to the turtles in Finding Nemo." He muttered quietly.

"They died." I deadpanned. He turned to look at me, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Don't you ever say that."

I snorted before walking away. I realized that he wasn't following me. I turned around and saw that he was turned away from me, his arms across his chest. I groaned loudly, stomping over towards him. I walked in front of him but he kept turning, like a mall display. I continuously followed him as he went in circles. Finally, I placed my hands on his shoulders. "Stop, I'm getting dizzy."

"I'm not listening." He told me, placing his hands over his ears. I grabbed his warm hands in my own, pulling them away from his head and towards his sides, holding them there.

"You're overreacting." I told him as he looked away from me. "What'll it take for you to get over this?"

"Apologize." He demanded, not even bothering to look at me.

"Sorry." I offered halfheartedly. He gave me a pointed look, narrowing his eyes. "Fine. I apologize dearly for insulting Finding Nemo. I promise to never do it again."

He turned to look at me, his face straight. "You better not or else I'll snap your neck like a Popsicle stick."

I gaped at him as he walked past me, towards the turtle exhibit. He turned to look at me before quirking an eyebrow. "Are you coming to see Crush and Squirt?"

I jogged over to where he was standing and we walked in silence to the turtle exhibit. When we arrived, I automatically walked over to a group of small baby turtles swimming in circles.

"They're fetus turtles."  I turned to see Grayson staring at them over my shoulder. "Little squirts."

"That sounds like diarrhea." I muttered, causing Grayson to erupt into laughter. I began moving on while he laughed near the little squirts. When I passed by a sign, I furrowed my eyebrows. The alligator show was starting at 7:45 and ends at 8:20. I glanced at my phone. It was 7:37. I quickly jogged over to Grayson.

He just finished laughing. "Do you want to see the alligator show?"

His eyes widened as he looked at me. "Alligator?"

I nodded. "Yeah, alligator wrestlers are visiting. I managed to buy tickets on the day they were going to be here."

He bit his lip as he stared at the ground. "Alligators."

"I think we already covered that." I told him before gasping and taking a step back, a bit overdramatically might I add. "You're scared of alligators!"

He looked up, his cheeks tinged pink. "I am not!"

"You are! And it's an irrational fear!" I told him.

He narrowed his eyes. "Says you, you're scared of the dark!"

"That's a common fear. Why are you scared of alligators?" I retorted, walking beside him, trying to lead him in the direction of the show. He absentmindedly followed me, relaying the story as we went.

"Remember when my family went on that trip in the summer of sixth grade? It got me out of going to that stupid camp? Yeah, well, on that trip- we went to a state park and there was a lake. I thought it was a cool lake. As an eleven year old, I still liked Finding Nemo, and I was sitting there, watching a turtle swim around. Suddenly, this dark figure floats above the water, it looked like a log at first, but then it clamped its mouth around the turtle." He told me, sighing as he thought back to the memory.

We were at the main exhibit once he finished the story. He scowled at me when he realized what I did. I led him to the main room where the alligator wrestling was. I even fought us to the front of the crowd. The only things separating us from the alligators were large metal barriers. "You can hold my hand if you're scared."

He rolled his eyes at me so I dropped my hand. The guy came out with long, narrow boxes. "I'm Randy and I'm an alligator wrestler."

He lifted the lid off of one of the boxes, allowing the reptile to crawl out of it. It was smaller but it was quick. It slid out of the box, running to the center of the square. "This is Jessie. She may be small but she's quick and harbors a hard bite."

I was surprised when I felt something touch my hand. Grayson intertwined our hands together, tightly gripping mine as he tried to look away from the alligator. I couldn't help but allow the goofy smile to spread across my lips, distracting me from the fact that a man was currently wrestling an alligator only a mere ten feet away from me. Whenever the alligator snapped it's jaws, Grayson would grip my hand tighter and I'd stifle a laugh, smirking.

"Stop smirking, it's not funny." He muttered once the man paused for a break.

"Oh, but it is." I muttered as I nudged him in the side with my elbow. "You're scared and I'm comforting you."

He rolled his eyes. "And you're doing a great job at that."

"When I was scared, you held me hand! I never complained that it didn't help." I retorted.

He snorted, deciding that it was his turn to smirk. "That was because you didn't want me to let go."

I scowled at him, pulling my hand out of his own and letting it drop to my side. I knew that's what I had to do. I must be coming off as desperate if he's making comments like that. I watched as the guy came back into the ring, prepared to fight another right with the animal. Grayson's hand managed to find its way to mine again and I snorted. "What happened to me not comforting you?"

He rolled his eyes from beside me while we watched in anticipation, my hand being squeezed occasionally.

~~~

Several remarks from me and retorts from Grayson, we were soon exiting the aquarium, preparing for the drive back home. It was only half past eight, so we'd be home in time for ice cream. "What are we doing now?"

I looked at Grayson. "You mean you don't want to go home?" I asked him, slightly surprised. I thought the date went well but I assumed he'd want to be home the moment we got back into town.  I wouldn't have blamed him either, after all of the times that I dissed Finding Nemo. Even after he found a shorter route home for us, which I was grateful for, it'd meant that we'd be able to spend a bit more time together- as if we don't already.

"Our date is going to end at nine o'clock? The nights still young! Don't tell me you don't have any other plans!" He told me as I drove us down the road.

"We could always go out for ice cream." I told him.

"Can we park in the beach's parking lot?" He asked me and I shrugged, nodding as if saying 'yes.' "Good because I want to toss your ice cream cone out of the window this time."

"Sure." I muttered, holding back a goofy grin. This was going really good so far. "Just know that if you get strawberry ice cream, I'm leaving you at the ice cream place."

He rolled his eyes at me, turning on the music and singing along as we drove towards the ice cream shop. I couldn't ask for a better date. Grayson was singing happily and I was grinning goofily now, stealing glances at Grayson every so often, trying to be as discreet as possible- but I most likely failed. If he asked, I was just trying to make sure that he was having a good time.

"I'm ordering strawberry ice cream." He told me, a smirk threatening to appear on his lips as I slammed my car door. The lady in the shop was serving customers and I wanted to grin when I realized that they were open until ten on Saturdays. Thankfully, or else we'd have to find somewhere else to go. Glancing at my phone, I realized that it was 9:07 PM and we were getting ice cream. It wasn't the warmest weather, either, forty degrees to be exact, but with the wind chills- it seems to be about 20.

I sighed and shook my head, getting ready to run. "Not if I order for you first." I sprinted towards the door, entering the shop as Grayson realized what I was doing.

"May I have two vanilla ice cream cones, one with chocolate sprinkles and the other with rainbow?" I asked, watching as Grayson opened the door to the shop.

"Coming right up." The only barista quickly grabbed two cones and placed them under individual vanilla ice cream machines. The ice cream poured into each cone slowly but soon enough, they were full.

"I hate you." Grayson muttered.

I smirked as she handed them to me and accepted Grayson's cash as he slid it across the counter. We walked out towards the car and I turned to Grayson. "Which one do you want?"

Much to my dismay, he grabbed the chocolate sprinkles. But since I ordered vanilla for him instead of strawberry, I thought it was only fair for him to have a choice. I obviously thought wrong. Grumbling as I got into the car, I sighed when I realized that I couldn't hold my ice cream and drive at the same time. I looked over at Grayson. "Can you hold this for me? And don't eat it."

He rolled his eyes before taking it in his hands. "I don't even want to eat my own."

I continued glancing at him as I drove us towards the beach, parking in the familiar gravel parking lot.  After turning off the car, I turned towards Grayson and took my ice cream, slowly eating it as I stared at the stars. I was hoping a bit more talking would take place but I'm not complaining. He's here. I'm here. I can't ask for anything else.

"So did you have fun?" He asked me.

I nodded, avoiding smiling goofily, knowing that he'd comment on it. "Yeah, did you?"

He nodded. "I like the aquarium. We should go back at some point."

I nodded. "I like it, I also like the zoo."

"I've never been to our town's zoo." I gaped at him.

"Seriously?" He nodded. "Why not?"

He shrugged. "As a kid, I didn't care much for animals. When I started to like them, there wasn't anyone for me to go with; I was too old to go with my parents."

"Me!" I exclaimed. "I love the zoo! It's so cool!"

He smirked at me. "You just want to go on another date with me." He told me.  

I snorted. "When pigs fly."

He rolled his eyes, glancing up at the sky from the car's front window. "I have to ask you a question."

I turned to look at him, my eyebrows furrowed together. "What?"

"Do you, you know, like Sebastian?" He asked me,

"Well, sure, he's my friend." I told Grayson, shrugging my shoulders.

He looked at me, shaking his head and sighing. "No, I mean, like him."

"As a boyfriend?" I asked Grayson, wrinkling my nose. He nodded in response, earning a headshake from me. "No, he's my friend; he's not even close to becoming my boyfriend."

"Oh, okay." He replied, leaning back in his seat.

"You don't...like someone, do you?" I asked him, wincing at the sound of my voice. It wasn't desperate but it didn't sound confident either.

He shrugged, opening one eye and peeking at me, a smirk lifting the corners of his mouth upward. "Maybe, maybe not; why do you ask?"

"Well, it's only fair! You asked me a question so I asked you one in return. Am I not allowed to do that, Gracie?" I asked him, quirking an eyebrow.

He laughed, opening both of his eyes now. "You can ask me whatever you want."

I scoffed. "That doesn't mean you'll answer it though."

"You're a smart one, Darling." He told me, patting my head. I scowled at him, whacking his hand away from me.

We both sat back in our seats, thinking about whatever it was we were thinking. I personally was thinking about making Grayson my boyfriend. That'd be cool, right? I mean, at first I was a bit skeptical about even making him my boyfriend if he (magically) asked, but now- I think I'd say yes if he did happen to ask. That's even if he'd ask, which I doubt he would. I think he might like me a little bit, I mean, why would he have said yes to this date? I mean, of course he's mean but I doubt he'd lead me on this far. Right?

"What are you thinking about?" I turned to look at him, my lips lightly parted. I quickly shook my head, pursing my lips.

"Ah, nothing of importance." I told him, shrugging my shoulders. "What about you?"

He smirked, scrutinizing my red face. "Nothing, really." He drawled, his eyes narrowing in suspicion before I turned away.

I awkwardly turned on the music as he stared at me. I became cautious of my every move, trying hard not to embarrass myself. I hummed along to the music as I finished my ice cream. Grayson was singing along, his eyes now off of me. Instead, they were resting on the ice cream in front of him. It was half-finished and his nose was wrinkled. "I hate vanilla ice cream."

I gasped before glaring at him. I snatched the cone from his hand and started on the half-finished cone. "You know I bit that right?"

I shrugged. "I'm aware." That makes it all the better. "I'm not letting an ice cream cone go to waste."

He rolled his eyes. "Yet you tossed my strawberry ice cream cone out of the window."

"Don't stress on things of the past. It happened, get over it." I muttered, shaking my head. "If you want, we'll go back to the ice cream shop and get you a stupid strawberry ice cream cone. I'll even buy it."

He nodded, his eyes wide and boyish. I sighed and started the car as I finished off his ice cream cone.  We arrived just in time to get a new cone. Grayson began listing off all of the things he wanted on his ice cream cone: sprinkles, chocolate fudge, caramel, walnuts, and everything else the menu had to offer. The lady nodded in response as I took out a ten dollar bill. That should cover the eight dollar cone.

"You can always have some." He told me, smirking in satisfaction as the lady handed me the change. Grayson was admiring the ice cream cone that I had the urge to throw on the floor and stomp on it with all of my strength. That'd be a waste of eight dollars, though, so I controlled my urge to bludgeon Grayson's ice cream cone. I held open the door for him as he exited the restaurant, eating the ice cream cone slowly, as if memorizing each bite so he can go back and reminisce as soon as he's finished.

"Are you going to make out with it?" I snorted as I started the car again, driving to our houses.

He nodded and pressed his lips to the ice cream cone, making a mess of the cone on his face. I wrinkled my nose. Although he somehow managed to look attractive while kissing an ice cream cone, I was cringing at how messy his face and hands would be. "You're disgusting."

"Hey! You suggested it!" He told me once he looked at me, his face covered in the pink ice cream. He stuffed the last bit of the cone in his mouth.

I shook my head, wrinkling my nose as I pulled up to his house. He looked over at me and smiled. I decided to speak, starting the last conversation of the day. "I had fun."

He nodded. "I did, too, we should definitely do it again."

I shrugged, pursing my lips. I tapped my chin with my forefinger and looked up to the sky. "Maybe, if my schedule is empty- which it rarely is."

"You know you want to." He laughed, wriggling his eyebrows playfully.

"You're way too confident." I told him.

"You can always be confident like me, too." He offered.

I snorted. "And how will I get that confidence?"

"I'll have to transfer it to you." He told me.

"Via PayPal?" I asked him.

He snorted, shaking his head. "No, silly, like this." A second later, his lips were on mine and they tasted like strawberry ice cream, the most disgusting thing in the world. But it wasn't so disgusting now. They left as soon as they came, and he was smiling at me genuinely. I sat there, red faced and overall confused. "Well, I have to go. I had fun."

He got out of the car and walked up the path to his house, offering me a wave as he entered the house. Maybe strawberry ice cream isn't so bad.