A Tribird’s Love

Chapter 14

Ariah

Tyler holds the door open for me and once I am in he closes it and walks around the car and climbs into the driver seat. As soon as he is settled into his seat, I position myself to face him with my elbow on the armrest and my chin resting in my hand. The expression on my face of curiosity, my eyes are low with a wrinkling forehead, “hmmmm” is the only sound that I have made trying to figure out what question to ask first. I didn’t have to start talking yet as Tyler was the first to break the silence. “Ummm I know you may have a question or more, I am ready to answer whatever it is.” He seemed nervous, and I think it’s kind of cute for someone his size to be nervous around someone like me. I giggle a little just thinking about it and a smile creeps up on my face. I’m sure he’s ready for me to start asking all the questions on the topic of being a werewolf, but I’ll surprise him instead. “We have a whole day planned out, you say, what’s on the agenda? I’m sure food is one of the things, since you told me to bring my appetite and I am STARVING!!! I’m an eater and I’ve always been an eater. Food is life and I was slightly disappointed when you requested I not eat. Though I did steal a piece of bacon or two that my dad was cooking,” Gosh, I’m rambling, but then again, I’m a talker when I’m around people I’m comfortable with. For some strange reason, I feel comfortable around Tyler all of a sudden. “My apologies, I’m rambling. I'll give you a chance to answer a question before I ask a question and just talk.” He chuckled and briefly glanced over at me then focused back on the road. “Well, yes, we do have a whole day planned out, I was thinking about breakfast first, then a walk in the park to enjoy the spring weather we can talk and get to know each other outside of school. Lunch at one of my favorite burger joints, a little arcade fun, we can eat there for dinner and when you’re ready to head home. I’ll take you home. Oh! But given you like to eat, there are some snacks in between.” The cutest smile was on his face when he slid the last part in, that I couldn’t do anything but laugh.

After a short conversation, we pulled into The Jagged Fork and the aroma that filled my nostrils when I stepped outside that car had my stomach growling. Tyler looked over at me with a silly smirk as he opened the restaurant door for me. It was a fifteen minute wait and during that time, we talked a little more. I enjoyed getting to know the basic things about him. The hostess then called his name and led us to our table. I looked over the menu, trying to decide what I wanted. I was kind of disappointed that everything had to be ordered separately. I looked up from the menu and saw Tyler staring at me. I smiled and looked back down at my menu. “I know what I want, given there’s going to be a few things, let me pay the bill.” I don’t think he liked that suggestion very much because he furrowed his eyebrows and shook his head. The waiter came back over to our table to start our order. I started off with getting a London Fog tea and Tyler an orange juice. Now for the meal, I ordered a triple triple omelet, U.G.3 Sampler with a side of fruit and hash browns.Tyler kept it simple with a triple triple skillet and an english muffin. We sat and talked some more until the food arrived, but it was just one question nagging me that I finally decided to ask once our food arrived.

“Why did you wait so long to ask me about prom? You know it is just a little over a month away?” Don’t get me wrong, I honestly didn’t plan on going but my mom is my mom and very adamant about certain things, prom being one of them. I was only going to go to please her. She tried to push me to go with Valtino but I refused and said I'd just go by myself instead.

Tyler did rather respond quicker then I thought he would’ve. “I was deciding if I was going to go or not. Not to mention I was a little nervous about asking you, I wanted to wait and see if anyone was the lucky guy. I also had the advantage of being friends with Nesha to be in the know.” I just smile and shake my head, that darn Nesha of mine, she always has something up her sleeve when it comes to me. She is the reason I have made it through high school with a few associates. She's always been the life of the party, no matter where we go, we are literally opposite. She’s an extrovert and I’m in between extrovert and introvert. We enjoyed the rest of the food and upon the bill touching the table, I hurried and snatched it up. Of course, Tyler wasn’t too happy. We went back and forth for a little while before we came to an agreement. He paid the bill and I left the tip. I guess that was a compromise.

We walked across the street to the family park and walked around the track for a while. Given it is a weekend, the park is packed with all the little ones running around having a good time. There are a few guys on the basketball court and in the field playing football. We continued to walk in comfortable silence until Tyler broke it. “You have asked me many questions but not the questions I had expected you to ask me since this morning. Why not?” I should’ve known he was going to try to figure me out, but I just settled with that wasn’t really important at the moment. “Well, I wanted to get to know you as a person in general, yes I was shocked to sense you’re a werewolf and I do have many questions, but I was saving that for another day…. or date.”

Tyler

Not going to lie, we are halfway through our day enjoying the warm spring weather. I was really curious as to why Ariah had yet asked me about being a werewolf or keeping it away from her that I am one. I wouldn’t say I was keeping it away from her, more so just didn’t acknowledge the fact that I knew she was one. While walking our final round in comfortable silence, I finally decided to ask her why she hadn't mentioned it yet and her response wasn’t what I expected. I thought she was avoiding it and didn’t want to talk about it. But instead she’s saying it for another day, or date. That last part made my day. The fact that she wanted another date with me, filled me with joy. I can not wait to tell my talking buddy. If it wasn’t for her giving me that extra push, I would never have asked Nesha about Ariah. I would still be that classmate pretending just to get her alone. It’s funny because, for the longest, Ariah avoided me, but I knew it was because of Asia and her crew. Once Asia left school, I couldn’t see myself watching her from the shadows any longer. “Both sounds good to me, but another date sounds even better. We can talk about werewolves another day.”

We walked back to my car and I opened the door for her as I was raised to do and once she was settled in I closed the door and climbed in on my side. “Did we walk long enough to get you an appetite again?” from the way she looked at me, it was one of those ‘what you think looks’. “Oh Tyler, one thing you’ll never have to ask me is if I’m hungry because YES I always am.” She giggled and flashed that smile I have always enjoyed seeing. Her smile is what caught my attention when I first laid my eyes on her four years ago. “Fudruckers here we come then.”

Upon pulling up to the restaurant, it was extremely crowded, the lobby full and a line almost to the door. I looked over at Ariah “We can go somewhere else, we don’t have to wait.” I offered. “If you don’t mind eating in your car, we can order, carry out and dine in the car.” That was a better option if you asked me. I walked in and grabbed two menus and went back to the car. We sat in silence looking over the menu. I already knew what I wanted, just waiting to see what Ariah chooses. ”Given it’s a certain taste I’m looking for, I'd go with the burbon burger minus the bleu cheese, add mushrooms and a fried egg. I want a strawberry milkshake and I can’t decide between onion rings or sweet potato fries. Hmmmmm.” she ran down that list pretty fast but I caught everything she said, and since she couldn’t decide on which side, I'd just order her both. I walked back into the restaurant and ordered our food to go, I was given a pager and walked back to the car. When I got in, Ariah was texting on her phone and looked up at me smiling. “What’s the big smile for?” Her smile is contagious, so I couldn’t help but return her smile when I asked. “Nesha just texted me being her silly self, she called a few times but I put my phone on silent and didn’t know she called so I just texted her letting her know what I was doing. Nesha being Nesha was extra with her response.”

We sat in silence, indulged in our phones responding to missed calls or text messages. The buzzer went off indicating our food was ready and I went in and grabbed it. We both moved the seats back to give us more room and sat our meal up on our lap and dashboard. Ariah was happy I made the choice of getting both onion rings and sweet potato fries. Watching her do a little excited food dance when she saw both was adorable. I pulled out my phone and recorded her doing her little wiggle and kicking her feet. After her excitement wore off, she got down to business on her burger. I swear I heard her moan when she bit into it, my wolf ears perked up.