The sun shinning through the curtain was directly in my face when I rolled over, so much for sleeping in. I huff as I reach over to check my phone, it's only eight-thirty. I throw my covers back and slide out of bed thankful that is was carpet in here instead of hard wood or cement. If there was one thing I hated the most about mornings, it was when I have to get up and stand on cold, hard floor. I made my way to the bathroom and began my morning routine, brushing my teeth and hair before slipping on my aunt's robe she left here. When I start to go down stairs I freeze, the smell of bacon has filled the house, but I'm alone. I grab the closest thing to me which is only a fly swat before creeping downstairs. I round the corner to my right and see a guy standing in the kitchen in front of the stove. I lift up the fly swat as I sneak closer, I know it won't do much good, but it's better than nothing.
"I make you breakfast and you're going to attack me with a fly swat. Really?" I hide the fly swat behind my back as my cheeks go bright red, in my still half awake state I completely forgot that Blake was staying here.
"Sorry, I forgot you were here." I mumbled quietly.
"Wow, I didn't think I was that easy to forget." He replied with a chuckle. Blake turned around and set a plate of bacon, eggs, and pancakes on the bar in front of me. I took a moment to actually look at Blake. He had black hair, brown eyes, and a pale complexion. He had a lean build, no bulky muscles, but not too skinny either.
"Thanks for breakfast, I'm just not quite awake yet." My voice was barely above a whisper, I was pretty embarrassed. I almost beat him with a fly swat because I forgot he was here. I could tell already just from how I was feeling from this conversation that my anxiety was bad today. I could hardly form sentences. Most days I have trouble talking to people in general, but days like today were usually awful. Normal people were bad enough, but if I try to talk to anyone cute, forget it, I was going to sounds like an idiot and nothing could stop me. Usually I would stay home when I could on days like this, but sometimes I had class and couldn't skip. Now that I am here though, I don't have anywhere to go so I can stay here today and just look around the house.
"No problem." Blake smiled before taking a huge bite of pancakes. I watched as he could barely close his mouth all the way to chew.
"Sorry-" he mumble through his mouthful of food. He quickly swallowed the giant bite before he continued speaking. "- I usually don't eat with people so I'm a little rusty on my manners." He grinned bashfully. We continued our breakfast in silence until both of us were finished. I placed my plate in the sink like Blake did before he started talking again.
"So I was going to ask you what you wanted to do today, but that was before I got a list from your mom." He handed me his phone to show me the list. Sure enough my mom had a whole itinerary for the day.
"I really don't feel like it today."
"I don't think your mom cares, she has already bought tickets to the opera house tonight, plus a few other things throughout the day."
"Please, I really don't want to go out, just tell her I caught a bug or something." I pleaded. My mom didn't know about my anxiety problems and I wasn't about to tell her now. For some reason she decided to let me go to Italy and if she found out I had something wrong with me, I would be on the next flight home.
"Why? You seem fine, we can get you some coffee to help with the jet lag." He seemed confused by my reluctance but I wasn't going to tell him either.
"I'm just... I just don't want to. I thought I could juts relax and look around the house today." He gave me a weird look before slipping the phone into his pocket and walking towards the stairs.
"Where are you going?" I asked slightly panicked. I don't know what my brain was thinking that had me so panicked, but for some reason I was.
"Relax. I'm going to get ready, and I suggest you do the same or you're going dressed like that." With that he hurried up the stairs to his room before closing the door. There is no way I could get out of this now. I would stay like this but what if he really did make me go out looking like this, I would be mortified. I couldn't knock on his door either, that would be weird, what if he thought it was weird, I would be so embarrassed. I finally gave in and decided to just go with it. I choked back the tears that welled up in my throat at the thought of going out today and headed upstairs to get ready.
I slipped into my favorite pair of dark jeans and an oversized, cream colored sweater. I decided to wear my hair in a bun today, so after five failed attempts at a cute bun I just brushed it out and straightened it instead. I applied some powder, mascara and some lip gloss. I put on my tennis shoes and grabbed my purse before heading downstairs. I take my time to try and prolong the inevitable which was pointless but I felt slightly more prepared for the outing.
"I'm torn, should I say about time or pull a whole cliché movie moment where I stand here in awe and whisper 'beautiful' while you walk down the stairs?" Blake said with a boyish grin. I let out a weird chuckle sound as I hurry down the stairs and out to the door.
"Let's go." I mumble with a huge smile plastered on my face. I hate that when I get embarrassed all I can do is smile like a little kid on Christmas morning.
"The car is still in the garage."
"Right." I whispered quietly as I pulled the door closed and followed Blake to the garage.
"So, first on the itinerary is shopping. Your moms said to use her credit card to buy clothes, she said you will need a whole new wardrobe plus some other little things."
"Wait what? I don't need a new wardrobe, Ally is going to send me my stuff."
"Apparently not. I know a great place with all kinds of stores, we should be able to get everything you need." Blake started driving towards somewhere, I guess it was a town close by. I was a little upset that Ally wasn't going to be sending me my things, all my new stuff I just got was still at home. In my rush to get packed I didn't grab any of my new things except the sweater I was wearing today. At least mom was letting me use their card instead of having to use my own, if I had to pay I wouldn't be getting anything. Blake pulled up outside of a plaza that looked big enough to be an entire town. The whole plaza buzzed with life as people walked in and out of stores, and chatted with each other on benches or at tables outside of a little coffee shop. As Blake and I headed toward the plaza center I wanted to go in almost every store we passed. I don't know much Italian, just some basic greetings and names of some foods, there was no way I could read the names of the stores. Blake suggested that we start where we are and shop the stores along this side going towards the center, then branch of to another section before coming back to the center.
By the third time Blake and I made it back to the center of the plaza, Blake, was exhausted. I was fine, most shopping trips I go on are like this, except I actually have to talk to the cashiers. The first store we went in I acted like I had to use the bathroom so bad I couldn't stand it, so I gave Blake the card and made him check out while I hid. After that, Blake just checked out every time, I think he slightly understood what I wanted, or more like didn't want to do.
"Can we take a break? I can't carry these bags down another side right now."
"Let's get coffee, head down the last strip and then we go back to the house." I gave him a small smile as I grabbed a few bags and headed to the coffee shop. I had offered to carry some of the bags but Blake insisted that he carried all of them.
As we sat down in the shop Blake sat the rest of the bags down before looking at me intently.
"Do you know what you want?"
"I can't read this." I whispered back.
"Well, what do you normally order?"
"Java chip frappe, I like sweet coffee." Blake smirked as he stood up and walked up to the counter to order for us. I heard him speaking fluent Italian to the girl behind the counter who seemed all to infatuated with Blake, I'm surprised she actually heard what he was saying. Blake paid for the coffee before heading back over to the table.
"Did you tell her not to drool in the coffee?" I quipped with a small smile.
"Haha very funny. I think you will like what I ordered though."
"What is it?"
"You'll see." Blake and I got our coffee and headed out to finish our shopping. I do have to admit, my coffee was delicious, it tasted like a caramel macchiato. By the time we finished shopping, it was already three o'clock. I'm pretty sure we missed every other item on mom's itinerary.
"We have missed almost everything on the itinerary for the day except the opera show, and that starts in an hour... in Milan." Blake said sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head.
"Darn, I really wanted to go to that." I laughed as I rolled my eyes. My mom took me to an opera once when I was younger and I hated it. Blake noted the sarcasm in my voice and let out a small chuckle in response. He suggested we just get some dinner at a local place and head back to the house.
"What is this place?" The building wasn't very big but it was cute, it looked old, but so did most of the buildings around here. I loved the way the buildings looked here, everything was so beautiful. Being in Italy really made me realize that our 'culture' in America, kind of sucked. How could anyone want to leave a place like this? I was pulled from my thoughts when Blake spoke.
"This is my favorite place to eat, it is the only place I have found that has food from America and authentic Italian that both taste amazing. Sometimes I come here when I just want a taste of home." Blake and I walked in and the place was even more beautiful on the inside. The hostess showed us to our table and handed us both menus. I rolled my eyes as she walked away, even though this place served American food, everything was in Italian.
"Do you want Italian food or American?"
"I don't know, both sound good. What are you getting?" Blake looked over the menu for a minute before his face lit up.
"I can order a cheese burger for me and some pasta for you, we can split it."
"Sure, that sounds like a great idea! I want fettuccini alfredo , if that's okay with you?" I knew it sounded basic and that there were probably better things on the menu but I like plain things.
"That sounds good, it's my favorite." Blake grinned.
Blake ordered our food and when it arrived he divided it evenly. I do have to admit, this food was amazing. While I was eating, my brain had another one of its moments where it decided to imagine things that won't happen, but still manage to embarrass me. I looked up at Blake and began to imagine what life would be like for me if we started dating. I could feel my cheeks get warm as I looked down at my plate.
"Are you okay?" Blake questioned. He looked at me with a slight smirk on his face, almost like he knew what I was thinking. At that thought I could feel my cheeks go an even darker shade of red. Blake watched me pick at my food for a moment before I came up with the least weird response.
"I'm fine, just tired." I grinned sheepishly as I focused back on my plate. I just had to go and make this whole situation awkward. I knew Blake probably wouldn't find it awkward, he probably hasn't thought about me like that at all. I, on the other hand, am terrible at acting normal. This is going to be a great couple of months now, way to go me!