My Beautiful Mistake

Chapter Seven

It's safe to say that Matt was pissed. Not pissed at me, but more at Evelyn for getting wasted and not being by my side throughout the night. I didn't think it was her fault. I chose to head back to the dance floor even when she told me she was tired. But when I tried to tell Matt this, he completely ignored me and kept yelling at Evelyn.

Evelyn looked helplessly at me for backup, an expression I never thought I would see in her face. Matt didn't seem to care that she was his girlfriend; he was in protective-brother mode overload. I felt bad about causing an issue between them. All Evelyn wanted was a girl's night out.

"Matt." I tugged on his shirtsleeve, but he didn't reply and kept directing his fury at Evelyn. After another attempt, I went for something more drastic.

He stepped back in shock, or more like a temporary surprise as he rubbed his cheek. I had never slapped Matt before, but this time he sure deserved it.

"What the f**k, Brook?" he glared at me angrily.

I crossed my arms. "Would you shut up for a minute and just listen to me?"

He continued to glare at me but stopped yelling. 

"It wasn't Evie's fault. If you wanna blame anyone, blame the guy that couldn't keep his hands to himself. She had nothing to do with it."

My voice trembled as I said this, and realized that I was still not over what had happened. It didn't go unnoticed by Matt and he stepped towards me with concern written all over his face. He placed his hands on my shoulders.

"Brook, I am so sorry that happened to you. I should've been there."

I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts and gave him a fake smile. "It's alright. Besides, someone else took care of it."

"Yea, that's the problem. I should've been there instead. f**k, I should've been there for mom too."

My body stiffened as those words came out of his mouth. When he realized what he had just said, his eyes widened and he immediately let go of me.

We hadn't talked about our family since we escaped from home. In fact, that was the reason that Matt left in the first place. I always thought that I had been the one between the both of us who had been more affected by it. But, seeing him bring her up now just let me know exactly how much he was still hurting.

He quickly turned around and walked back to Evelyn like nothing had just happened and began to apologize for his behavior. The pain was visible in his eyes as much as he tried to play it off by cracking a joke to make her laugh. 

I walked back into the living room and sat down on the couch about to watch tv. Maybe that would clear my mind. But as I picked up the remote, I felt a vibration in my pocket. It was a text from Miles.

Hey.

Hi.

Hru?

Could be better. Hbu

Pretty shitty actually. Misery loves company, so u wanna hang out?

I sighed and stared at my phone for a minute. Should I actually hang out with him? There were so many things on my mind. Yesterday. Aiden. My parents. 

God, I'm a mess. I probably could use a break from all that worrying.

Sure.

Cool, what's your address? I'll pick you up in a few.

I typed in my address and put my phone away before turning on the tv. Actually, I probably should have gotten dressed properly, but with Matt and Evelyn in my room, there was no chance. 

Miles got here twenty minutes later, and it probably was a bad idea to hang out because it was getting kind of late. I took a couple of minutes to get dressed and opted for an off-shoulder sweater and skinny jeans. No makeup because we're just hanging out, right? 

After my doorbell rang for what must've been the third time, I ran to the door. 

"Hey."I greeted him nervously as I really looked at him for the first time. 

He was nothing like Aiden in terms of looks. Not saying he wasn't hot, because he definitely was. He was wearing a plain button-up shirt and jeans. His chest wasn't visibly outlined, so I couldn't tell what his body looked like, but he definitely had some muscles on his arms. His facial hair was neatly trimmed and flaunted his sharp jawline. His hair wasn't as messy and scruffy as Aiden's. And his eyes were the exact opposite of Aiden's too. He was in his own category of hotness. 

Wait, am I checking him out?

Realizing that I was shamelessly eye-raping him for the past couple seconds, I quickly diverted my gaze to my feet and much to my dismay, felt a slight blush creep up on my face.

He chuckled. "It's alright. At least one person thinks I look good today."

One person? Are you kidding? Only a blind person would have to think you're not utterly hot.

He burst out laughing and I was confused for a split second until it hit me. I had just said all that out loud.

I groaned and looked up to see him staring at me with a cocky grin on his face.

"So where are we going?" I asked casually, hoping to play off what just happened. 

He still had that annoying smile on his face and I rolled my eyes at him. 

"Well, it's a surprise." 

When we arrived at the parking lot, I was expecting to have to get into a car, but then I remembered that he owned a bike. And behold, there it was parked in the parking space. I mean, it wasn't a bad-looking bike. It was red, black, and sleek. 

He pulled out a helmet and offered it to me. "You ready?"

Uh, hell no.

I had done so many new things over the course of the past months, but riding a death trap wasn't about to be one of them. There was a reason I tended to avoid ridiculously high roller coasters at theme parks.

"Come on, it won't be so bad. Trust me." he chuckled as he saw my hesitation before taking the helmet.

The helmet looked ridiculous. But, safety comes first, I guess. 

I took it from him and he helped me strap in the buckle under my chin. After it was on, I stood there unsure of what to do. 

"Uhm, how do I get on?" he broke out in laughter again.

I swear, it was like I was a joke to this guy. He laughed at every single thing.

"Here." he swung his left over the bike and got on, and I followed suit. 

I had seen enough romance movies to know how to hold on. I bit my lip nervously as I wrapped my arms around his abdomen. 

"You gotta hold on tighter, beautiful. I don't want you getting hurt." 

Of course. As if the death trap wasn't bad enough.

"You know, you really gotta stop saying your thoughts out loud. And I should be offended that you don't wanna hold on to me." 

Fudge.

"Let's just go." I sighed exasperatedly, causing him to laugh lightly and rev the engine.

And off we went. I was never one for thrill rides, but this bike was my new fascination. It felt like I was flying, or the closest thing to flying anyways. The lights and clouds rushed by us as we zoomed past it all.

The moon was visible because it was dark out by now and it suddenly felt like I was the star of a cheesy romance movie with my Prince Charming on a sexy bike. I half expected some random background characters to run into the middle of the streets and start singing. 

"How you doing back there?" I barely heard him ask over the loud thoughts of my romance movie fantasy.

"This is amazing!" I grinned widely and closed my eyes just to feel the breeze rushing against my body.

Alas, my fantasy was short-lived as we arrived at the 'surprise' a couple minutes later.

I looked around at my surroundings confused as I pulled the helmet off. "A park?"

He grinned at me knowingly and did the same. "What were you expecting, a fancy restaurant? This isn't a date, you know."

Of course not. 

He caught me off-guard with that. "Yea, no it's not. I just wasn't expecting us to be at a park."

He smiled and grabbed my hand. "Come on, At night, all the kids are gone."

Oh, he meant like an actual park.

Soon enough, he brought me to a small playground with a couple of slides and about three swingsets. 

What started off as a weird idea soon turned into one that I really enjoyed. We were running around the playground in a weird sort of tag game like teenagers again and going up and down the slides like five-year-olds. 

It got pretty late though, and we found ourselves sitting on the swings side by side all tired out.

"So, did you have a good time, beautiful?"

I don't know why, but this time hearing him call me that caused my cheeks to heat up. Thankfully, it was dark out.

"I really did. Honestly, at first, I didn't think I would, but it was a lot of fun." I admitted.

"Well, if I'm gonna be honest, too, I was hoping this would be a date." 

Oh.

I wasn't sure if I thought of him like that. We had only hung out one time, well two if you would consider the club our first meeting. Even with Miles here basically telling me that he liked me, I couldn't get Aiden out of my head.

"Oh." was all I could say.

"I mean, there's no rush. I understand if you're still upset by what happened the other day." he quickly corrected himself.

"No, its not that." I took a deep breath and cleared my head. 

Come on, Brook. He's been nothing but nice to you and here you are about to reject him. 

I decided to give him a chance. He did save me the other night anyways.

"If you wanna consider this a date, fine by me. Only on one condition." 

I couldn't see his face, but I knew he probably had a huge grin on his face.

"I get to choose the next one." 

He sprung up from his seat so excited that I was starting to think maybe he was actually a five-year-old at heart. He pulled me up and drew me in for a warm hug.

I can't get you out of my damn mind. And up until today, we didn't even know each other's names!

I quickly pulled away. Where did that come from? Why am I thinking of Aiden now, when I'm on a date with someone else? 

Miles looked very confused.

"We should be going. It's kind of late." I told him.

He just nodded and we walked back to his bike. 

God, I'm hopeless.