Maybe its for the better...

“Hey, I’m here.” I sighed as I sent the text. I prayed that this was the meeting area she meant. Why did that girl have to be so vague about things?

‘You know the place near your house, the one with the good muffins.’ That's what she had said. I mean this place has muffins… I’ve never tried them before though. I thought, pulling out my phone to check if she had read my message yet. There was still no replay. 

This place would have been packed with people during the day but now I only saw the occasional night jogger. I still wasn’t sure why she wouldn’t meet me here during opening hours. Maybe I could buy her a muffin and we just chat like normal teens but this girl always had to complicate things. My phone buzzed after another minute of waiting. ‘Come around to the back entrance ;p’ 

The little winky face set my nerve off. God, what is she planning?

I glanced around before walking through the skinny little ally that led to the back of the building. I saw her then, leaning against the wall and looking at her phone. When she looked up my heart skipped a beat. She just had to be pretty too, that was the worst of it. With the way she smiled at me and the little kiss she pressed into my cheek, she could convince me to do anything with her. 

“Look what I’ve got.” She jingled a pair of keys in my face. “Oh, and what are those for?” I asked with a nervous smile on my face. She grinned “Just come one!”. She motioned me over to the door and put one of the keys in the lock. She turned it but it didn’t work. She scoffed and tried the other one, this time the door creaked open. She looked over at me and raised an eyebrow. “Is it um legal?” I asked not moving from the several feet away where I stood. She rolled her eyes “You're always asking stupid questions Will.” She grumbled. “Where did you even get the keys anyway?” I added softly. “A friend…” She was already walking in. I ran after her, if she was going I wasn’t just gonna leave her. It was probably fine anyway. I jumped as an alarm started to go off. “Jeez calm down I got the code too.” She walked over to the machine and punched in a string of numbers. The alarm stopped and exhaled the breath I had been holding. “Cassie… why did you even wanna come here anyway? I mean it's cool but like…” I muttered, leaning on one of the counters. “Why does it matter? Whatever I just wanted to get some food with you. Isn’t that what you wanted?” She seemed a little set off by my question. “Sorry, I just like. I don’t know Cassie maybe it would have been nicer to come here like when it was open?” I kept my eyes on the floor but I could feel her frown. “If you don’t wanna be here just leave ok.” 

I heard a lighter and glanced up to see her smoking. I wrinkled my nose at the smoke as she exhaled. It was quiet now, I didn’t know what to say to her. I felt kinda bad I mean she just wanted to have fun right? I walked over to the case where they kept the pastries and grabbed two muffins. She watched me carefully, the joint hanging from her fingers loosely. I handed her a muffin and she smiled a little. “Wow, what a little thief, I didn’t know you had it in you Will.” She teased. I snorted and bit into the muffin. She was smiling at me again and maybe that was enough. Maybe I could just ignore the cold night air and silent shop. Maybe I could ignore the nervous jumpy feeling she gave me. Or maybe I liked it? I looked over at her again and she was looking at me too. My heart raced in my chest, she was looking at me with an expression I couldn’t quite name. She had a crumb on the corner of her mouth. I moved my hand to whip it off but before I pulled my hand away she pulled me closer. Her lips were soft and I could taste the weed and muffin on her breath. Her hand moved the back of my neck and I tried to copy her. Her hair was soft despite the number of times she had bleached and dyed it. When she finally pulled away I was aware of the heat in my cheeks. I hadn’t really imagined that this would be how my first kiss would go, but I wasn’t complaining. I didn’t know what to say or do now. I was probably about to say something stupid but I was interrupted by the sound of police sirens. They had been faint background noise of LA before but they were closer now. Cassie rolled her eyes before strolling over to the sink. She stuffed the joint down the drain and scoffed “What a waste if they had just taken like five more minutes right?”. She turned back to me, smiling and crossing her arms. “Cassie we have to go now. Cassie come on!” I was already by the door, peeking out occasionally to see if anyone was coming around back. Cassie's smile dropped and walked slowly over to me she was muttering something under her breath but the pounding in my ears was far too loud for me to hear her. “What? Cassie what are you saying?” I asked grabbing her shoulders to steady her. “You know it's not even that serious, come on Will calm down.” she laughed a little as she pushed past me. “Come on just follow me.” She started towards some dumpsters and climbed onto one. She motioned for me to follow her as she grabbed onto the top of a short wall and pulled herself up it. She glanced over at me before she hopped down the other side. I followed cursing her and myself for coming along. I should have just said I was busy, I shouldn’t have let her unlock that door. God, I opened the glass case to get those muffins what if they found my fingerprints? No, I’m sure they wouldn’t just for some petty crime right? I pulled myself up the wall, struggling a little more than Cassie. I wondered how many times she had done shit like this. She seems so chill like this is just a normal thing for her. I looked over the wall when I was at the top, Cassie was looking at her phone from the bottom, leaning on a light pole. She looked up and called to me “Just jump it's not as far as it looks.” She sounded tired and annoyed, her phone screen casting a pale light on her face. I started down at the concrete below me. It didn’t look very close to me, but I had been sitting up there for too long… what if one of the police officers saw me? That was it, I jumped. My ankle twisted under me as I hit the floor and my foot felt like it was on fire. I ground my teeth together and sat down against the wall to breathe. Cassie walked over to me, her hand over her mouth in concern. As she got closer though the smile wrinkles next her eyes betrayed her. “Are you laughing at me Cassie?” I asked in disbelief “I’m sorry I’m sorry” She said through giggles. She sat down next to me putting her phone back into her pocket. “Look I’m sorry you hurt yourself Will, but at least it was fun.” 

I stared at her smiling face, her pretty little infuriating smile. “Was it?” I spat the word with more venom than I meant but I didn’t apologize. She could have gotten us both arrested. “Jesus Will, if you weren’t having a good time you could have said so.” She was looking at her shoes, she looked upset. I sighed “Cassie… it was fun to hang out with you and stuff but like we could have got arrested. We broke into a building and stole their food I mean that’s just not my idea of a good time OK.” 

“What do you mean ‘stole their food’? You’re the one that did that, why are you mad at me for it?” 

“I only did that so you would think I was cool Cassie, it's not like I wanted to.”

“Well shit, if I asked you to jump off a bridge would you? Come on Will you’re in control of yourself it’s not like I told you to do that.”

“Yeah, I know I know I just… why couldn’t we just go there during the day I mean why do have to be so crazy all the time Cassie?”

“Ok my bad Will, I thought you genuinely enjoyed hanging out with me and doing shit like this. I mean why else do you come along if you just hate what we always do?”

“I don’t know Cassie you’re pretty, and you’re like fun to hang out with when we’re doing legal things.”

“I’m pretty? That's why you hang out with me? Really Will I thought you weren’t like that.”

“That's not what I said, I was just trying to compliment you I don’t know Cassie. I mean it's not the only reason like when we watched that movie at my house that was nice.”

“Oh my God Will that was your favorite movie and you spent half of it just explaining the stupid plot to me it took like four fucking hours!”

“I thought you liked that movie? You said you thought it was cool at the end!”

“Will come on I just didn’t wanna hurt your feelings ok?”

“What? Why would you just lie to me? I mean if you didn’t like the movie you could have told me.”

“Yeah and you could have told me you didn’t like this date, God you’re such a hypocrite Will!”

“Well, how was I supposed to know that this was the date I mean you’re so vague about things all the time! Not everything has to be some crazy adventure.”

“Sorry, I like to have fun sometimes Will, my bad I’ll just sit on your couch and look pretty while we watch 12 old men talk slowly for hours! Cause clearly that is the only time you actually like me.”

“Ok, that movie is actually really good ok it's not my fault you only like stupid rom-com and girly teen movies.”

“That's the part you take from that? Me insulting that movie? God Will you know you think you’re different but you are just like every other guy at school you know. You like pretty girls and your own hobbies and interests; you never care about anything else.”

“Maybe I would care if I wasn’t busy being scared that might end up in jail! Every date we go on that you plan it's some crazy shit, or you're just high and we sit around and don’t even do anything.”

“Oh come on Will, you said you wanted to just talk and chill so that's what we did! So what are you just mad when we do things but also mad when we don’t do things?”

“Maybe It would be more fun if you were sober.”

“Oh my God Will ‘sober’? You say that like I have some kind of problem, it's not that serious Will.”

“You do have a problem! You aren’t even sober at school come on Cassie you have to realize that at some point.” 

“Whatever Will, maybe you should just go home.”

“Cassie… I don’t want to just-”

“Go home Will! Leave! You clearly hate being with me so just leave!”

“Are we done, Cassie? Are you seriously breaking up with me?”

“God I don’t know Will maybe we should just take a break, I need to… I just need some space to think right now.”

“Fine Cassie, it's fine you can just say it. I know you don’t really care about my feelings.”

But Cassie didn’t say anything after that and was already walking away.

I really wished I hadn’t met up with her that day but I don’t know maybe it was for the better…