A cigarette pack filled with M&Ms
Kally couldn't believe she let Carli convince her to go on a blind date. Was she really that desperate? 'Yes'. A quiet voice in the back of her head answered.
The voice was right, and she knew it was. She hadn't been on a date in six months, not since her boyfriend of three years. She still didn't even know why they broke up in the first place. One day during work he just walked up to her and said 'I don't love you and I never have' then just walked away, leaving me shell-shocked. Seriously, who does that? Carli hated him she had been telling Kally to get back on her feet ever since, but she hadn't been able to bring herself to it. Until today.
"Why I am doing this?" Kally mumbled as Carli finished her make up.
"Because, you love me," was all the explanation her best friend could give.
"No, I don't! I hate you! I tell you that every day!"
"Yes...But I know that is just your way of saying I love you." Carli teased, kissing the top of her forehead. This was their friendship in a nutshell. They said they hated each other. They meant they loved each other. They insulted each other. This was their way of complementing each other.. They hugged each other and occasionally kissed on heads or cheeks. It wasn't ever in a romantic way, but a fun, affectionate way.
"Whatever, your lucky I love you." Kally mumbled.
"Aw love you too, babe. Now get naked, so I can play dress up." Carli ordered, before leaning on Kally's bed.
"Whatever loser." Kally said, stripping down to her underwear.
"Hmm. Where is that black lacy dress? The one that's strapless?"
"You mean the one you borrowed and never gave back? T have no idea." Kally said sarcastically.
"Oh yeah! Its in my dresser bottom left hand draw. How about the one with the tight black on the top and loose and fluffy white on the bottom?"
Kally went and grabbed the described dress "This one?"
"No, the strapless one. It makes your boobs look big."
"Oh, this one. Bra less, or strapless bra?"
"Strapless. No one looks good bra less. Without plastic surgery, that is." Carli joked.
"True." Kally agreed while changing her clothes.
"Now come here. Did your make up get messed up?" Carli grabbed Kally's face and examined it.
"I don't get it why did you put on my make up before I was dressed?" It made no sense to her..
"Because if you took too long to get dressed you could just throw on the first dress you saw. I need time to do make up. I cant just slap it on you last minute." Carli explained.
"Whatever, your the one who knows this make up stuff." Kally mumbled.
"And I know how boys work and the guy Andrew and I set you up with will love this outfit. Just one addition, a black leather jacket." Andrew was Carli's boyfriend of two years. During high school and early college Carli had a terrible habit of going through boyfriends like she went through black eyeliner. Carli loved heavy black eyeliner. She had met Andrew through a one night stand. The next morning Andrew offered her a coffee date and got her number. Unlike most of her one night stands, he actually called. That was the start of their two year love story.
Kally's ex boyfriend, Kaleb, was her only boyfriend ever. She was never really popular in high school. She had friends, sure, but she wasn't really memorable. Carli was popular with the outcasts. She was the queen of the outcasts, even if she didn't particularly want the crown. Carli couldn't careless about being popular, but people flocked to her. Andrew's best friend happened to be single as well so Carli had the bright idea to put them together.
Kally pulled on her leather jacket "Whatever, is it time to go?" She just wanted to get this over with.
"Yup, I'll drive you." Carli grabbed her keys and they walked to her black Lincoln Town Car. Her car, Nico, was her prized possession. Her dad gave it to her on her 17th birthday and she hadn't parted with it since.
"Oh joy." Kally mumbled as she slipped on her black strappy high heels.
Kally and mystery man were meeting at a lounge called 'Black Cherry'. The plan was they would meet there, have dinner and a few drinks. After everything was over Kally would call Carli to pick her up and drive her home. Unless she went 'back to his house for some more conversation' to quote Carli who winked to imply that the conversation wouldn't just be exchanging pleasantries. To which Kally responded 'I'm not you Carli. I do not put out on the first date.'
Kally walked in the lounge feeling nervous. She might say she didn't care how this went but secretly she hoped it went well. After Kaleb dumped her she was heart broken, this could be her road to recovery. Carli had walked her up tot the lounge door and when Kally walked past her Carli slapped her but and said 'Go get 'em tiger.' with a wink. Carli personally thought that if Kally 'got some' she would be nicer. Kally disagreed.
Kally sat on a chair in the corner of the lounge as Carli had instructed her to, her blind date was supposed to go straight to the corner when he arrived. She sat there, checking her phone every few minutes. After about twenty minutes she got up and checked the other corners of the lounge in case one of them misunderstood. Nope he wasn't there either, so she went back to her couch. After another ten minutes she left to get some air. She went around back to avoid the people in the front and leaned against a wall.
She started frowning, wondering why he stood her up. He didn't even know her and apparently didn't want to get to know her. Had she done something wrong? No she couldn't have. She didn't even have an opportunity to do something wrong. What if he came in and started walking towards her but once he saw what she looked like he turned around and left. He probably was expecting a pretty, thin girl with huge boobs and bleach blond hair. Or maybe he wanted a curvy rocker chick with a pixie cut and a nose ring with hair dyed wild color and covered in tattoos. All he knew about her was that she was Carli's friend. Carli had black chin length hair that was shorter in the back than it was in the front and had different colored stripes in it every week. Carli had a lip ring and a million earrings. Carli had several tattoos and drew intense eyeliner around her eyes. Carli wore ripped leather skin tight pants with black corsets or ripped black skinny jeans and shirts with obscure metal bands on them. Carli was curvy in the right places and was tall and was sarcastic and inappropriate at times. Carli got in physical fights with bullies. Carli was nice to every one and was smart. Carli was what everyone wanted to be and she didn't even realize it.
Kally was almost the opposite of Carli. Or at least, she didn't look like the type of girl to be Carli's best friend since fourth grade. Kally had shoulder length brown curly hair that was always a mess. She had flat brown eyes compared to Carli's twinkling green ones. Her only piercings were her ears, where we had one hole each. She had no tattoos and rarely wore make up. She wore graphic tees and sweat pants. She was curvy in all the wrong places, She was short and mean and disagreeable. She had never been in a fight and was awkward around bullies, hers or others. She wasn't nice to everyone and wasn't the smartest person. Kally wasn't what anyone wanted to be.
"Penny for your thoughts" a voice said causing Kally to jump/ She turned and there was a man. He was about six feet tall, so he towered over her, and lean and muscular. He was wearing a shirt with a metal band she had seen on Carli's shirts and black skinny jeans that looked great on him. From what Kally could see he also had tattoo sleeves. Not usually the type of guy who talked to Kally.
"Nope I'll sell them for a dollar."
The man pulled a dollar bill from his pocket "Here you go, now tell me all your thoughts."
Kally took the dollar bill hesitantly "Why do you care?"
The man smirked "I don't usually meet lonely, pretty girls behind bars. Now what is a pretty girl like you doing back here alone."
Kally sighed "I got stood up on a blind date. I waited for him for 40 minutes and he never came." why do I care if I got stood up by a stranger and why am I telling a different stranger this? She asked herself.
The man frowned "Aw, sugar. He must've been an idiot. I got stood up to, you know."
Kally laughed, "Please who would stand you up?" she said sarcastically.
He shrugged "I don't know, I waited here for an hour but she never came. It was some chick my best friend set me up with. He said he thought if I got a girlfriend I would be more friendly." He pulled a out a box of cigarettes and put one between his lips, before offering one to her.
Kally tried not to cringe, "No thanks I don't smoke. Any way my best friend set me up too. She said almost the exactly the same thing about me needing a boyfriend." She despised smoking. Carli did it but not . Carli preferred weed, but Andrew smoked a lot. Kally didn't complain because she liked Andrew, he made Carli smile and settle down instead sleeping with everything that had legs. Carli was bisexual which made it even worse. Every night a different girl or boy even the night when Kally was supposed to stay over. Carli was worth more than one night stands and Andrew got that. Even though Andrew looked like a bad guy he treated Carli like a princess. She treated him like a prince. They also both agreed that they didn't want to get married until they were old. They were perfect together , Kally was hoping for her own Andrew.
The stranger smiled "I guess our friends are pretty similar. Now what's your name, Pretty Girl?" he asked.
"Kally."
"Hello Kally I'm Brenden." He held out his hand or her to shake.
"Hello Brenden nice to meet you even under the unfortunate circumstances." Kally went out of her way to be polite except her close friends.
"Nice to meet you too, even under the unfortunate circumstances. So you dont smoke? A bet you have a friend who does."
"What makes you figure?"
"The look on your face when I reached for the box. You recongnized the movement. And when I blew out the smoke, you didnt turn away, you knew I would. Both those signs show that your used to smokers. That either means you frequent the back of seedy clubs, but you seem classier than a hooker so the other option is that you have a friend who smokes, or a boyfriend, but since your here on a blind date that is unlikely. You dont seem like the cheating type."
"Interesting observation. Do you always pay attention to the actions and reactions of strangers? Or am I special?"
"I only pay extra close attention to the pretty ones." He gave her a wink and a smirk.
"Thanks. How many pretty ones have you examined so far?" She raised an eyebrow.
"Not too many, sweetheart. Don't worry, you're special." He smiled at her.
"I bet you say that to all the girls you meet around the back of lounges who refuse your cigarettes."
"No girl has ever refused my cigarettes. So you were the first and the all so your statement is correct."
"So you've never met a non smoker girl? I find that hard to believe."
He laughed "Oh I've met non smoker girls but they always accept my cigarettes." He gave me a wink.
"Smoking's a bad habit, you know."
"I'm a bad man." He smirked.
"What makes you think that?"
"I try to give poor innocent girls like you cigarettes knowing their bad for good girls."
"They're not just bad for good girls. They're bad for bad girls... and bad boys to." She looked at him.
"So you agree I'm a bad boy," he raised an eyebrow.
"Sure, if you say so."
"Well, do you like bad boys? You seem like the type to want to turn a bad boy good." He smirked.
"I've tried that before, didn't work." Kaleb was a bad boy. She knew how that ended.
"Why don't you try with a better bad boy? I know a guy." He turned and stood in front of her while she stayed leaning against the wall.
"Oh really?" she smiled.
"Really. Funny coincidence that we both get stood up on a blind date set up by our best friends on the same night. What was your best friend's name?"
"Carli Lightwood... Wait." A look of recognition crossed his face at Carli's name. Could hhe have been her blind date? "What was your best friend's name?"
"Andrew Herondale. I think we were meant as each other's date. Or as I prefer to say Meant to be." He gave her a wink.
"How did we manage so stand up each other? Where did Andrew tell you to meet me?" Maybe miscommunication was their problem.
"I was supposed to meet you at the bar. Where were you supposed to meet me?"
"I was supposed to meet you in the corner of the lounge. It seems we have a misunderstanding."
He smiled "It seems we do. I brought something for you... Andrew said you like stickers and candy, so..." He pulled what looked like a cigarette box covered in puppy stickers out of his pocket and handed it to Kally. She looked at the object, confused. "Open it." he said before putting the cigarette back to his lips.
She ran her thumb nail through the stickers holding the box closed, ripping them. She opened the box and giggled at the contents. "M and M's?" she raised an eyebrow.
"Carli said they were your favorite. Sorry I didn't have anything else to put them in but I tried to make it look pretty." He blushed and bit his lip, looking more like a shy little boy than a rocker who doesn't care about anything.
"They are my favorite and it is very cute. Thank you."
He grinned proudly, still looking like a little boy "Yay! I was hoping you would think so. But I have an admission to make..."
"What?"
"Andrew showed me a picture of you... It wasn't a blind date for me."
Kally was confused, "Why didn't you tell me?"
He looked at his feet, still very close to her "I was too shy to. I didn't know how to admit it."
"I forgive you cause your hot."
"Good." His bad boy exterior came back at the first chance. "Can I get a reward for the present? Please?" He leaned in so his lips were barely a breath's length away from hers. He had dropped and stubbed out the cigarette already.
"Yes, you were a good boy, Mr. Bad Boy." She leaned in so her lips barely brushed his then leaned back. "There, that was your present."
He growled "Good Girls shouldn't tease. That is a bad girl's job."
"Maybe a little of your badness has rubbed off."
"Bad girls get punished." He kissed her roughly against the wall, his lips moving against hers in the best way possible.
"I liked that punishment." She smirked while she caught her breath.
"Good. Now let's get you home so you can eat your candy, put on your pink onesie and giggle with Carli about your hot date." He grabbed her hand and led her to his black Cadillac.
When they got to her apartment, he walked her to her door and pressed her against it, "I expect a second date." he gave her a quick kiss on the lips.
"And I expect more M and M's" She gave her another kiss then went inside and did exactly what he said she would do. PJs, candy and gossip.