Chapter Ten:

We ended up walking to this shop. It was about a 20-minute walk. After we walked out the door he was still holding my hand, but it didn’t bother me that much. Well, up until the public started seeing it. “Oh what an adorable couple!” I heard one woman say. “They are just the cutest! I hear a man say. “We’re not dating,” I said under my breath. “Never wanted to.” Or did I? I mean, I just met Jesse a few days ago. That’s way too early to fall in love with someone. “Uh, Jesse?” I ask. “What?” He says. “Can we stop holding hands? People are starting to think that we’re…well, you know…” “Dating?” He answers. “Yeah, and it’s kind of awkward because we’re not dating.” I emphasize on the word ‘not’. “Well, we have hugged a few times,” He says. “I don’t see anything wrong with holding hands as friends.” I sighed and then say “Jesse, when we hugged, it was out of support, not out of love.” He comes back saying “Sure, but maybe some people hug other people for both reasons.” Is that person you?, I thought. No, it can’t be. He only knows my past and so do I about his. He knows nothing about my interests, likes, or dislikes. I could say the same about him. This shows that, as of right now, we have zero compatibility. “Can we please go to the store and also stop holding hands!?” I yell. It wasn’t my full capability of yelling, but it was enough for him to let go. We finally arrive at this shop and I immediately go to the women’s section. I start looking for anything, anything that’s a dark color. I hate any colors that are light like pink or purple or…well, you get the point. I look over and I see Jesse looking at dark colors as well. That’s one thing we have in common, I thought. I end up finding a black tank top and some grey leggings. I also found some nice exercising shoes. The best part is that I could buy this under 30 dollars. I believe Jesse got it for the same price too. We exit the shop and then he turns toward me and says “Hey, I’m sorry about the whole holding-hands thing earlier. I should’ve just let go earlier so that you didn’t get so embarrassed.” I sigh. “Jesse, it’s not your fault. It’s mine. There’s nothing wrong with holding hands with someone as friends. I just felt uncomfortable when I heard people calling us a couple and stuff like that.” He puts his lips together in a tight line. Then says “I know this is an off-topic question, but what’s your favorite place to eat?” I thought about this for a moment. As skinny as I am, I eat very unhealthily. “I usually like burger joints or something like that,” I say. “Me too!” He says a little too cheerfully. Was he trying to get to know me better so we could hold hands less awkwardly next time? Did I care about that? No, no I didn’t. “Well then,” I said. “Let’s go.” He smirks and says “It’s a race.” “Oh, it’s on.” I counter. We end up racing to the nearest place with hamburgers, McDonald’s. I obviously won the race. Jesse tripped on a rock and fell. I laughed a little and so did he, but I helped him up and still won the race. I ordered a Big Mac and Jesse was surprised I ordered that, along with a large french fry and a Coke. Jesse ordered a Jr. Big Mac with a side of fries and water. We sat down at a table and ate our food. He continued asking me questions, simple ones like: “What’s your favorite color?”,”What’s your middle name?”, “What’s your favorite sport?” He actually did ask me all of those questions. But he didn’t ask them all at once. “My favorite color is black.”, “My middle name is Lillian.”, “My favorite sport is wrestling.”. “Okay,” I say. “Now it’s my turn to ask all the questions.” He chuckles and says “Alright, shoot.” I think for a moment. Wait, why am I thinking? “What’s your favorite color?” I ask. He answers saying “Dark blue.”“What about your middle name?” He answers again saying “Luke.” Man, this is some good info right here. We’re both learning little but a lot about each other. “Okay then, what’s your favorite thing about me?” He pauses, looks at me like I asked something too personal. “Jesse?” I say.

Here it is folks! The big ten! It has been super fun writing this story and I can’t wait to continue writing it. But for now, I’m going to take a break. After all, I wrote ten chapters in about two weeks. Wish you all a great weekend and the rest of the day. 👋💙✌️