Lost & Found

The Date

She woke up with a smile playing on her lips, a sensation she was thinking she might have to get used to over the course of the next three weeks, especially every day was like yesterday.

Despite the fact that Jessamine was aware that Cassie and Tyler were much more than friends, the two of them hadn't particularly wanted to advertise this to his parents, so they had played it cool at dinner, ignoring the smirks Jessamine would shoot in their direction every few minutes because she was perfectly aware that the reason they had taken so long to come in from the garage wasn't because Tyler was helping Cassie find an earring she thought she had lost in the car.

If they were suspicious, Justin and his wife said nothing as the five of them drove to the Peters house for family game night, which was everything that Cassie could have hoped for out of a family bonding experience. There was screaming and arguments and a lot of yelling over each other and not really listening and at when the night came to an end, all Cassie could think was that she'd never felt more at home in her entire life. They didn't hold anything back or treat her like a guest and she was held to the same standards for charades as the rest of the Flux children, because they truly considered her part of the family.

Tyler had a similar revelation on the drive home, though it terrified him completely. Once again, Cassie was effortlessly melting into his life, getting along with every member of the extended family to the point where she was making plans to go to the Brewer house at some point over break so that Caroline could teach her how to make tiramisu.

Of course, he understood what was happening. He wanted Cassie to feel at home, especially since he knew she felt as though she'd never really had a family of her own, but it was becoming increasingly clear that whether or not they continued whatever it was that they were doing, Cassie would be in his life for a long time to come. So he better make an effort to get to know her as a person a little more, and that was exactly what he decided to do during their date on Saturday afternoon.

He arrived home from his morning swim training to find that his parents were out for the day running errands and his sister had made plans with other friends, just as he'd asked her to do. Cassie's door was closed when he stepped up onto the second floor, so he assumed she was getting ready and retreated to his own bathroom to wash the ever present stench of chlorine from his body before carefully selecting his outfit of black jeans and a green Arctic Monkeys t-shirt paired with his favorite leather jacket. After slipping his shoes into his desert boots, he stuffed his wallet and phone into the back pocket of his jeans and pulled a black snapback backwards over his still damp mohawk before opening his bedroom door and stepping across the hallway.

Inhaling deeply, he hesitated before he lifted a hand to knock on her door, his lips immediately stretching into a smile when it swung open a few seconds later. "Hey, gorgeous."

It was his standard greeting for her and he made a mental note to tone it down a bit once he noticed how profusely she blushed because he didn't want to scare her off on their first date, especially since he was hoping there would be more.

"Hey," she breathed out softly as she stepped into the hallway, pulling the door shut behind her before reaching down to fiddle nervously with the hem of her lacy white camisole. She'd spent a ridiculous amount of time debating what to wear, only to decide that this date was casual, so she should just wear what she would wear if she were going shopping with Jessamine. Thus, she'd pulled a mint green cardigan over her cami and her favorite knee high riding boots over her jeans and nodded approvingly in the mirror. "Ready to go?"

Nodding towards the stairs, he wondered if it was too early in their date to link his fingers through hers, so to keep from reaching out and doing just that, he shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans until they arrived at his car, at which point he pulled open the passenger side door to allow her to climb inside before walking around to the driver's side, wondering why his heart was racing. He'd been on dates before. In fact, he'd been on many dates before, but he'd never been this nervous and he wondered what it meant the he was so afraid of screwing it up.