The next morning arrived and Gavin felt utterly exhausted. At some point in the night, he passed out at his desk and woke up with a blanket wrapped over him. One of his parents must have stopped in before going to bed. Rubbing his eyes, he stood up before gathering clothes and taking a quick shower.
Coming down, he found breakfast already cooked and waiting for him, his favorite. Eggs and waffles awaited him as his parents both left for work. He reheated them quickly and ate before running to catch the bus to Walker High. The usually rambunctious bus was quiet with students trying to get a last-minute cram study in before taking these awful finals.
He found his usual seat next to his best friend Tessa Allesandra. A fellow senior, she was as stressed out about these exams as he was. Her wavy brown hair was a disheveled mess thrown up in a quick bun.
"Hey tessa," Gavin sighed as he sat next to her, pulling out a text book to go over it while he could.
"Hey Gavin," Tessa responded, barely noticing his arrival. "I feel like I'm going to flunk this crap" she said in a grumble, "I mean who uses biology unless they go into a science field for crying outright loud" she asked him in frustration.
Gavin laughed softly, before he hung his head and stared at his textbook. Mentally, he felt all kinds of burnt out after the last couple of weeks cramming and studying nonstop outside of school hours.
Gavin heard his phone go off, pulled it out and saw that he had got a text from Erza. Hey buddy, good luck today. I know you will crush your finals, then I will take you out to celebrate! After he read that text, it put his mind at ease a little bit. At least Erza had faith in him for this week of hell.
With the words from the text in his mind, he powered through the day, and tried to be as upbeat and had a positive attitude as he could. Mentally though, he was exhausted. 4 weeks of hard core cramming, studying and testing had taken its toll on his weary mind.
The final bell rang out, and it was like a train horn going off in his mind. The pen was put down, the test was turned in and a sigh of relief came out of him. Finally, it's done and over with, he thought to himself as he packed up his bag, emptied out his locker and tossed his school books in the recycling to be reused next year for those who couldn't afford brand-new books.
I just finished. I think I may have passed my last few tests today. He sent back a text to Erza, Are you still picking me up from school today? He typed up the quick text and walked his way through the hallways of excited students to finally be on summer break.
"Hey Gavin, now that you passed and graduated, you finally gonna confess to Erza?" A voice from beside him startled him out of his thoughts and made him jump to see it was Tessa who stood there and looked as happy to be done with the exams as he was.
Gavin went beat red in the face as he shoved her shoulder and said "shut up. I don't know what you're talking about."
Tessa grinned and laughed playfully before she responded "Oh please. The entire group knows how you've been head over heels for the girl ever since she started baby sitting you. Half of us have a bet on you asking her out before the week ends, some think before summer is over. " She teased him with a glint of mischief in her hazel brown eyes.
Gavin didn't respond, he knew about the bets and jokes the others gave him. They thought it was weird that he would be crushing on someone who used to babysit him, worse that they were still good friends to this day, even though it'd been years since she last actually babysat for his parents.
He grumbled under his breath as he continued to make his way through the crowd and out the front doors. He looked around the sunny afternoon to try finding a black and red, off-road SUV waiting for him. He hoped she was already there, but sadly he couldn't spot the SUV. All of a sudden, his phone dinged, and he opened it to see a text from her. I'm down the street waiting in line, wanna head my way, and we get out of here?
He typed up a quick response and said his farewells to Tessa. She laughed before getting one last rib off. "Don't forget to shower before you ask her out you idiot."
He went red in the face as he flipped her off as he walked down the street towards his awaiting ride. He opened the door to see a dazzling smile that made his day instantly better. She had on a black t-shirt with some local band design on and a blue pair of jeans. Her long wavy red hair was pulled back out of her face and she had a pair of black sunglasses on.
"So how'd it go?" She asked curiously as she pulled out of the traffic lane and drove away from the high school.
"Oh it sucked and blowed." Gavin responded, "But.. I think I at least passed them all. Final grades won't be posted until Monday they said," he informed her.
"Oh, so you don't even know if you passed, and you want me to take you out tonight. I don't remember that being part of our deal", she teased him playfully, her soft voice filling his ears.
"Oh come on, I'm almost 100% sure I passed. Like 98.9%, doesn't that count?" He argued back.
She thought for a moment, before she gave in, she could never honestly tell him no, even when she baby sat him. "Oh fine I suppose. 1 restaurant and 1 movie night planned and ready to go", she responded with a broad grin stretched across her beautiful features.
Gavin sat there with a small smile on his face. His heart is happy that he gets to have his little "date night" with Erza. He didn't want to admit it, but Tessa was right. After she made the deal last night, he planned to confess to Erza if they went to dinner to celebrate afterward and hoped, just hoped he didn't ruin their friendship.
"So, what's for dinner then?" He asked, curious about what she had planned for them, wondering what restaurant she would take them to.
" hmm. I thought I'd bring you over and treat you to some home cooking. As for that, it's a surprise dude. You have to wait to find out" she responded with a musical laugh.
The rest of the ride was a quiet trip. They chatted about random things, how the rest of the school day went, if he ate enough for lunch, how her "super secret music project" with her friends Aria and Lila was going. Eventually, they arrived at her parents' house. A massive 4-story building with a large yard and a wrap-around porch.
"Every time I see your house, I always think of how old-fashioned it looks compared to new ones," Gavin commented.
"Well, you know my parents are both obsessed with early 20th century design work. I won't lie, it is a wonderful cozy home." She responded as she parked in the driveway and turned off the SUV.
"Where's the rest of the family," Gavin asked, noticing no other vehicles in the driveway.
"Oh, my parents are gone on a work trip for the weekend, so I'm watching the dog for them, and my eldest brother is away on a summer internship" she responded as she unlocked the door and Gavin followed dutifully.
"Oh so we are alone tonight for dinner?" He asked, a slight blush creeping on his cheeks, thinking of what he was working up the courage to do that night.
"Yup, that means less cooking I have to do" she responded, grinning as he shut the door behind him to the house. As he walked in, he noticed all the photo frames along the walls. They showed, it seemed, every moment of the siblings' lives from birth til now. He was surprised to see a couple of them with him and Erza in it at his sports events and just generally hanging out.
"I didn't expect your parents to hang these up" he said, with surprise in his voice.
She looked over and noticed the ones he saw "Yeah, I had them taken and put up to celebrate your big wins. My parents think of you as one of their own and wanted to show off. You are like a bad fungus that grew on them" she laughed and teased him.
"Hey!" He responded indignantly as he crossed his arms and tried to look offended. Erza turned to face him after she turned on the lights in the kitchen and smiled.
"What? I'm innocent" she said before she turned around to pull ingredients out of the fridge.
"Innocent my ass" he grumbled as he moved into the kitchen to try helping.
"Nuh uh!" She protested, smacking his hands away with her slender hand. "You don't cook. This is your celebration," she said with enthusiasm as she pushed him to sit down at the table.
Gavin surrendered to her orders. He never won any of their fights or arguments against her when her mind was set. "Yes ma'am" he responded dutifully.
"Good boy" she said in a mock tone as she started whipping up home-made batter.
"So what'd you decide to make then?" He asked her, as he watched her whip up the batter mix and pull out a few plates.
"My home-made waffles, eggs and bacon" she said with a cheeky grin. "Your favorite"
Gavin smiled. He didn't have the heart to tell her his parents had done that for him in the morning. Plus, he would never admit it within earshot of his mom, but Erza's is ten times better than his moms cooking, he thought.
He sat there, pleasantly waiting for dinner while he played absentmindedly on his phone. Looking up to watch Erza every few seconds while she chatted away.
"So I've been thinking" he said to draw her attention as she plated the first couple of waffles and flipped the first batch of fried eggs. She looked up and raised an eyebrow as she waited for him to continue, "I think I want to go to school in Alloria to learn magic."
Erza stopped what she was doing, shocked to say the least, the smell of burning eggs pungent in her nose reminded her that she had to remove the eggs off the pan. She paused the cooking and turned around, "Alloria, huh? That's a pretty intense program, it's about 3 weeks away by car?" She said quietly, not looking at Gavin in the eyes.
Gavin looked up from his phone to see her reaction before he continued, "yeah I've wanted to learn magic, and it's the most notorious school to learn from, and I got a letter of entrance to the practical test for admittance last night after you left" he said quietly as Erza walked over to stand beside him, she placed his plate down in front of him before she grabbed her own and sat next to him.
"So you're going to just ditch your old babysitter and look for fresh younger girls there, ain't you" she said in a half-teasing voice.
Gavin dropped his fork and grabbed her hand before he thought better of it. "No never, I never want to part with you. You are my best friend and I..." he stopped before he blurted out the truth. He wanted her to come with him, but didn't dare utter the words.
Erza's soft eyes perked up at the way he stopped, her heart fluttered slightly as a faint blush crept over her cheeks. She'd always known he had a crush on her growing up as she watched him. His dad teased her one day after Gavin was asleep when she went to leave. She didn't think he'd ever say anything about it. "And you what?" She pushed him, curious and slightly afraid to know what he was going to say.
Gavin swallowed hard before he took a deep breath and blurted it out quickly, "I wanted you to come with me, together" holy shit, he said it. He did it. He could feel his cheeks burning red as he looked at her and awaited a response.
She sat there quietly, equally red in the face and shocked. Wow, he finally said something. She thought to herself. "What do you mean by together?" She asked him softly, her voice barely above a whisper as she played around with her food.
" Here everyone's told me I've been obvious all these years. Erza... I like you, I've had a massive crush on you ever since that first day you walked into my house to watch me while my parents worked late that night" he blurted out, as he looked her dead in the eyes before he took a death breath and continued, he felt her hand on his as she squeezed it softly, "when you walked in, I thought the same as I do now," he said as he paused to take a bite of waffles.
"Go on" she urged him on quietly. " What did you think?" She held her breath, anxious for his response as she fidgeted in her chair.
"I thought you were the most beautiful girl alive. The way you walked in, the sun hit your red hair and the way your warm amber eyes just glowed... you captured my heart then and there, and I knew I'd do anything you ever asked, just to put a smile on your face" he answered barely above a whisper, feeling so much heat in his face that he bet he looked like a tomato in the sun.