anything?”
Oh.
Shit.
There was a reason I hadn’t told him that my birthday was coming, and the reason was that I didn’t want to get him thinking about how old I was. In two days I’d be a legal adult, but he thought I was already nineteen. Now that he knew that my birthday was coming, he was going to assume that I was twenty. I needed to man up already and tell him that Marissa had lied about my age, but dropping the bomb on him after experiencing the best kiss of my life didn’t feel like an opportune time to do it. Scrambling to come up with a reason that I wouldn’t have mentioned it, I blurted the first thing that came to mind.
“I didn’t want to put any pressure on you to feel like you had to celebrate.”
My answer didn’t fly, but at least he wasn’t annoyed.
“Minnie, of course I want to celebrate your birthday. You’re too sweet for your own good sometimes. Mark your calendar honey because Saturday night I’m taking you on our first date where we will also be celebrating your birthday.”
Oh.
My.
Lord.
I’m going on a date with Dillon Cooper! He thinks that I’m beautiful. I wanted to pinch myself to make sure that I wasn’t dreaming, but I knew that would look dorky and totally high school. My next impulse was to do cartwheels off his front porch. Instead, I took the hand he held out and walked into the house with him.
Once he laced up his shoes and grabbed his water bottle we headed out for our jog. I worried that things might feel different or awkward between us now that we had established that we were interested in one another. Fortunately, nothing changed. Being with Dillon was as mindless and easy as it had always been.
We talked about Leah during our warm up time, and I tried to soothe his growing anxiety about her really dramatic behavioral changes. Even though I was telling him that I thought everything would be fine, I had to admit to myself that I’ve been really alarmed by the one-eighty that she’s done.
When we both opened up our gaits and started to run, I had time to think about what had been going on with Leah. Since Marissa’s death, Leah has been really wild. In the last few months we’ve met three different boyfriends and they all registered badly on Dillon’s radar-and mine. Two weeks ago she texted me a dozen times at three in the morning to pick her up from some club in Hollywood because she was too drunk to drive. There was no way that I could get out of my house without my family flipping out, so I had no choice but to call Dillon and tell him that she needed a ride. We both tried to gently talk to her about what she’s been doing the next day when she finally woke up, but she was having none of it. She swears that she’s going to get herself together and she pointed out-loudly- to Dillon that since she had been responsible enough not to drive under the influence, he should cut her some slack because at least she had asked for help.
Dillon reminds me of a little bit of Damien and a lot of Spencer in many ways-fiercely protective but a total pushover when it comes to the people he cares about. He doesn’t have it in him to snap out on Leah (Actually I don’t think he’s got any kind of temper because he never yells) and since she’s an adult I guess it would be a bit of a stretch, but the truth is that right now she might benefit from some tough love. Or maybe she wouldn’t-it’s hard to tell.
Watching Dillon walk on eggshells trying to navigate the situation has given me a new appreciation for my brother Dante and all that he’s done for me. He loves Delilah and me more than anything in the world but he has a line that can’t be crossed and he’s able to be tough on us when he needs to be. One of my biggest fears is that I’ll let him down in some way. What he’s given up for our family overwhelms me, and I never want to do anything that will make him regret his sacrifices. He gets pissed when the rest of us talk about what he gave up for
Oh.
Shit.
There was a reason I hadn’t told him that my birthday was coming, and the reason was that I didn’t want to get him thinking about how old I was. In two days I’d be a legal adult, but he thought I was already nineteen. Now that he knew that my birthday was coming, he was going to assume that I was twenty. I needed to man up already and tell him that Marissa had lied about my age, but dropping the bomb on him after experiencing the best kiss of my life didn’t feel like an opportune time to do it. Scrambling to come up with a reason that I wouldn’t have mentioned it, I blurted the first thing that came to mind.
“I didn’t want to put any pressure on you to feel like you had to celebrate.”
My answer didn’t fly, but at least he wasn’t annoyed.
“Minnie, of course I want to celebrate your birthday. You’re too sweet for your own good sometimes. Mark your calendar honey because Saturday night I’m taking you on our first date where we will also be celebrating your birthday.”
Oh.
My.
Lord.
I’m going on a date with Dillon Cooper! He thinks that I’m beautiful. I wanted to pinch myself to make sure that I wasn’t dreaming, but I knew that would look dorky and totally high school. My next impulse was to do cartwheels off his front porch. Instead, I took the hand he held out and walked into the house with him.
Once he laced up his shoes and grabbed his water bottle we headed out for our jog. I worried that things might feel different or awkward between us now that we had established that we were interested in one another. Fortunately, nothing changed. Being with Dillon was as mindless and easy as it had always been.
We talked about Leah during our warm up time, and I tried to soothe his growing anxiety about her really dramatic behavioral changes. Even though I was telling him that I thought everything would be fine, I had to admit to myself that I’ve been really alarmed by the one-eighty that she’s done.
When we both opened up our gaits and started to run, I had time to think about what had been going on with Leah. Since Marissa’s death, Leah has been really wild. In the last few months we’ve met three different boyfriends and they all registered badly on Dillon’s radar-and mine. Two weeks ago she texted me a dozen times at three in the morning to pick her up from some club in Hollywood because she was too drunk to drive. There was no way that I could get out of my house without my family flipping out, so I had no choice but to call Dillon and tell him that she needed a ride. We both tried to gently talk to her about what she’s been doing the next day when she finally woke up, but she was having none of it. She swears that she’s going to get herself together and she pointed out-loudly- to Dillon that since she had been responsible enough not to drive under the influence, he should cut her some slack because at least she had asked for help.
Dillon reminds me of a little bit of Damien and a lot of Spencer in many ways-fiercely protective but a total pushover when it comes to the people he cares about. He doesn’t have it in him to snap out on Leah (Actually I don’t think he’s got any kind of temper because he never yells) and since she’s an adult I guess it would be a bit of a stretch, but the truth is that right now she might benefit from some tough love. Or maybe she wouldn’t-it’s hard to tell.
Watching Dillon walk on eggshells trying to navigate the situation has given me a new appreciation for my brother Dante and all that he’s done for me. He loves Delilah and me more than anything in the world but he has a line that can’t be crossed and he’s able to be tough on us when he needs to be. One of my biggest fears is that I’ll let him down in some way. What he’s given up for our family overwhelms me, and I never want to do anything that will make him regret his sacrifices. He gets pissed when the rest of us talk about what he gave up for
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