I know you probably hate me after reading this and, trust me, I understand how you feel. I'm sorry about what I did. I know my reasons aren't forgiveable, but I'm sorry for using you the way I did. I hope you forgive me, but I also won't blame you if you hate me forever.
Sincerely,
You Know Who It Is.
The next day, when Bella got to school and spotted Beau in the hallway, she walked up to him and hugged him for the first time.
He seemed surprised at first, but eventually wrapped his arms around her. The hug was warm, a deviation from the cool morning, and Bella shut her eyes for a few seconds and enjoyed the warmth of the embrace.
When she pulled away, she smiled. "Hi."
Beau returned the smile. "Hi."
They stood there, smiling at each other, not knowing what to say for a while.
What are you doing? You have a date in less than ten hours... and not with the boy you're having googly eyes for right now.
Bella felt a bit sad at the thought and really looked at Beau. She seemed to notice everything about him at that moment; the way his hair was swept back, away from his brown eyes, the way his lips were curled up in that smile she loved, the way he looked at her.
What was she doing? Why did she accept to go out with Travon when she couldn't stop feeling this way about Beau?
He finally broke the silence. "I have something for you."
"Really, what?"
He took his backpack off, then unzipped it. Bella watched silently as he reached into it, wondering what he had for her. When he retrieved his hand, she laughed.
"Happy Halloween," he said, holding up a HalloWiener ticket.
"Wow! I never even thought about getting a ticket." She took it from him and held it close to her chest, swaying from left to right like a kid. "Thank you."
He playfully flicked her nose and, though it was such a simple gesture, it did something to her. "You're welcome. So what are you dressing up as? I guess we're back to being six again."
Her costume was supposed to be a cowgirl one, but that was unlikely now since her and Viola weren't exactly friends at the moment. She pretended to zip her lips shut. "It's a secret."
"Oh?"
"Yeah."
"Well, I can't wait to see what it is. I'll pick you up Halloween night."
"You say what?" she heard from her mouth, and immediately slammed both of her palms over it, minding the ticket she already cherished.
Beau laughed at her quirkiness, then elaborated, "Will you be my date to HalloWiener, Bella?"
"Oh my God," she mumbled beneath her hand, not able to control her mouth, or her excitement.
Beau watched her, his eyes glinting with amusement, and she nodded, scared she'd say something embarrassing. She wasn't sure why she was acting like she was just proposed to, but she blamed it on the suddenness of his question. She had never gone to the Halloween festival as a plus one since it launched two years ago, and she was still hoping to go single for a few more years.
Beau gave her a lopsided grin. "Awesome," he said softly.
Bella stared up at him, a smile forming beneath her hands, and he slowly pulled them away, holding onto them, afterwards.
"You're such a dork sometimes, you know."
"You caught me by surprise. It's your fault."
"Let me guessâyou planned on going single?"
"It wasn't exactly a plan, it was expected."
"Trust me to bend fate." He played with her fingers, and she let him. "Come on, I'll walk you to homeroom."
Something had changed and Bella could feel it. Maybe Beau could feel it, too, but even though there was no way she could be sure he did, it was there, lingering between them. Probably, two days away from each other was what they needed to feel this stronger connectionâto realize that they were more important to each other than they thought.
As Beau walked her to homeroom and they chatted happily, Bella's thoughts drifted to two days before, and she couldn't come up with one reason why he didn't reply to her texts.
* * *
Bella let Pietra Tiorano's latest video play on her laptop as she got ready for her date with Travon. Now that she had developed a liking for the girl, she actually saw how awesome she was. She sang like nothing else in the world mattered, and danced like it was no one's business. And her face paint was gorgeous.
Somehow, Bella felt euphoric after pushing the guilt she felt from her date out of her mind. She stood in front of her full-length mirror, tucking her pink top into her black and white checkered skirt. She wasn't sure how the color fit for a first date, but she went with it, reminding herself that she didn't want to look good for Travon.
She just wanted to have ice cream while the weather still allowed it and draw a boundary for her and Travon's friendship. That simple.
"Way to take charge, Bella," she said to her reflection, and smiled, then finished her appearance with body spray.
She accidentally sprayed her face, barely missing her eyes, and she coughed, wheezing at the end.
You're such a dork sometimes, you know.
She smiled in between coughs, nodding in agreement to Beau's voice in her head. "Definitely a dork."
Immediately she talked to herself, a knock sounded on her door.
"Uh," she glanced at it, "it's open."
The door opened to reveal her brother, whose eyes widened immediately he saw her.
"Don't be so overdramatic, I don't look that bad," she teased, knowing he looked like that because of the amount of body spray in the air.
Cody waved a hand around his face as if trying to get rid of a really bad smell. "Wow! Didn't know you were fumigating in here. This is just heavy."
"Sorry, my thumb slipped," she simply answered, fussing with her ponytail.
When she announced to her mom and brother that she was going out with Travon, after she got back from school, Cody choked on his Gatorade and her mom's brows furrowed in slight confusion.
Cody had looked comically confused and she knew her mom was just trying to remember who Travon was without risking being called old or, even worse, aged.
Mrs. Quincy eventually agreed, telling her to return by seven, but Cody didn't seem to like it one bit.
Cody leaned against her doorframe and silently watched her check herself out in the mirror. "You look great," he said.
Bella glanced at him. "Thanks."
"Be careful tonight, Bella."
"Of course. Careful's my middle name."
"Nah. Kimberly is your middle name. And I don't know if I should trust someone who jumped out of a window just so she could go to a lame gig."
She rolled her eyes. "It wasn't lame. You're just jealous because you're musically challenged."
"At least I have better rhythm."
"Whatever. And relax, it's just ice cream. I'll be back by sevenâthat's barely two hours away. Stop being a mom, I'll be fine."
He chuckled. "You have to keep your promise now."
"Whatever."
The sound of the doorbell ringing reached them upstairs. One last glance in the mirror confirmed her fearâshe looked like a complicated lollipop, with the pink sparkly high tops, checkered skirt and flashy top.
Putting her unsteadiness away, she rushed out of her room, and Cody followed her downstairs.
When she opened the front door, Travon was standing there, looking nice in a simple shirt and jeans. At that moment, she couldn't help but think about how easy it would be to be a boy. At least they didn't have to worry about color combinations or looking like crayons.
"Hey," she said, smiling, surprised her heartbeat was normal.
"Hey, gorgeous." He looked down at her feet. "Cute shoes."
She wiggled her toes in the shoes and, before she could say anything, Cody interrupted. "Sevenâthat's when you're bringing her back. And don't overfeed her, she's delicate. Two ice cream cones at most and that's it. Understood, Justice?"
Bella rolled her eyes, and Travon said, "Sir, yes sir."
"Good."
He looked at Bella. "So are you ready?" Then he stretched a hand to her.
"Definitely." She took his hand and stepped away from the door. "Bye, Mom," she said to Cody.
"Oh, we'll see about that," Cody called behind them, and Bella giggled.
The drive was fun. They both talked about several thingsâice cream flavors, a funny video Travon watched that had to do with a skateboarding mishap, and even shoes.
When they got to the ice cream place, Bella ordered a vanilla sundae with whipped cream and sprinkles, getting to business almost immediately. Travon laughed at how "ravenous" she looked, and she stuck her sweetened tongue out at him.
He ordered a vanilla cone and she stole several licks of it when he was distracted by paying.
"Hey, that's a criminal offense," he said when he caught her, feigning seriousness, and she giggled.
The lady behind the counterâEmma, according to her name tagâsmiled at them. "Would you two be interested in writing your couple name on the store's love wall?"
Bella coughed when she asked, earning a worried look from Travon. "Sorry, but we're not really aâ" she started to say, but he interrupted.
"We'd love to."
"Great!" Emma beamed at them, then reached into the glass bowl beside the cash register for a red permanent marker. She handed it to Travon, who was smiling, then pointed to the wall by her left.
Travon took Bella's hand, and they walked side by side to the wall.
"Travon, what are you doing?" she asked, smiling because it seemed right.
"Writing our ship name on the love wall," he answered like he was introducing himself.
Bella watched him write beside a nameâSamdyâand almost passed out when she saw what he wrote. Travella.
Travella? We're Travella? What does that mean? And what happened to my boundary-drawing plan?
"Relax," he said, making her wonder if she said all that out loud. "You look like I just told you ice cream has been banned." His smile widened. "Friends can have ship names, too. There's even a ship in friendship."
She silently let out a breath, a relieved smile going up her face. "Yeah. Sorry, I deal horribly with surprises."
"You think I haven't noticed?"
She laughed again, like, I know, right?
"Speaking of which," he placed the cap of the marker back over the tip, "I heard you fell in the pool."
"About that..." She stressed the word 'that', and Travon laughed.
"I saw the video, actually." Bella's mind screamed Amparo almost immediately he mentioned it. "You don't know how to swim," he stated, rather than asked.
"No. I only attended one swimming lesson when I was three, I think. The water was intimidating."
He looked severely amused. "I could teach you sometime."
"Maybe," she said, blushing after the word was out of her mouth. "Look, your ice cream's melting."
Travon looked down at his hand and watched the ice cream drip down the napkin around the cone. "So is yours."
Emma thanked them when they went back to return the marker, then they found a booth to finish their ice cream in.
Travon was a good conversationalist and Bella admitted she had a lot of fun hanging out with him.
When his car stopped in front of her house at exactly seven, she got a bit nervous, wondering what was next.
"Thanks for the ice cream," she said.
"No problem. I hope you're not overfedâCody would kill me."
"Trust me, he's harmless. He was just in Big Brother mode."
He laughed. "Don't be so quick to judge. He might surprise you."
They sat in silence for a while, and Bella traced a pattern on her skirt, praying for a good opportunity to come so they would say their goodbyes.
"Today was fun, don't you think?"
She looked at Travon. "Very. Thanks."
"You're welcome."
She gave him a smile, finally finding her opportunity, then reached for the door handle. But his voice stopped her.
"Wait."
Bella paused, before slowly turning to him. "Yeah?"
"There's one more thing."
She held her breath as he leaned in, and almost passed out againâthis time because of the oxygen shortage.
But, instead of what she was expecting, he wrapped an arm around her. The breath she was holding came out slowly and she hugged him back.
Even though she didn't exactly tell him what she was expecting of their... friendship, she was happy he didn't go too farâthe couple name excluded.
She was expecting a million questions to be thrown at her by her brother as she walked into the house, but Cody barely acknowledged her. He only gave her a chin nod, which she awkwardly returned, then turned back to what sounded like an action movie on his phone.
"Bella, is that you?" her mom asked, somewhere upstairs.
"Yeah, Mom."
"How was your date?"
"It was good. I had ice cream."
Her mom appeared at the top of the stairs. "Sorry I wasn't home to see him earlier. I got an important call."
"No worries. Cody did your job just fine." She frowned a little when he didn't even glance at her, and her mom laughed.
"Adele called. She said she's been trying your phone and I told her what happened to it. She wants to talk to you over videochat, so expect her call."
"Okay." Bella glanced at Cody, who seemed to be ignoring her, then made her way to the kitchen for some water.
That night, as she waited for Adele's video-call, she scrolled through her Instagram feed, absentmindedly liking posts after checking a few stories, then she came across a post that had her straightening in her desk chair.
It was a photo of her and Travon standing in front of the counter at the ice cream place, and the caption read: @bellarina is such a player!