fifteen minutes, and she was nowhere near being ready.
The first thing she did was get dressed. It was bad enough that Ashton saw her naked; there was no way that she wanted Brandon to see her that way. She threw on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt, trying to be comfortable. She felt bad that she wasn't dressing up to look nice for Brandon, but she didn't want to encourage him anymore.
She dried her hair quickly, and put on some eyeliner and mascara. Just as she finished, there was a knock at her door. She took a deep breath and prepared to face the night with Brandon. Opening the door, the date began.
A bouquet of wildflowers were presented to her before she could even say hi. She took the flowers out of Brandon's hand. "Hi," she said, trying to sound pleasant and hide her annoyance. He was starting to be overbearing.
"Hello beautiful. Ready for our date?" Brandon asked, stepping into her room. "You look..." He took her body in. "...um, nice?" He seemed a little disappointed.
Kaylee looked down at her clothes and flushed red again. "Sorry, I just like to be comfortable when I go to the movies." Why did she feel the need to apologize for her appearance? She saw that he was wearing a pair of khakis and a polo shirt. He wasn't much more dressed up than she was.
"Well, let's go or we'll be late for the movie," she said. Her voice sounded tense, her words rehearsed. This wasn't starting out well.
Brandon felt the tension but hoped that as the night wore on, he would chisel away at it. He didn't want the whole night to be uncomfortable, even though it was starting out that way.
Outside of the hotel, they hailed a cab and got dropped off at the closest theater. Kaylee picked the movie, a super-sappy chick flick, and Brandon paid for the tickets. They sat together and watched the movie, but they couldn't have been further apart mentally. When Brandon reached over to hold her hand, she let him, but she didn't squeeze back or give any indication that she liked holding hands with him. When he finally let her hand go, she dug into the popcorn in order to have something to do with her hands.
They went through the night with very little conversation. It was apparent to both of them that the date was a mistake. At the end of the night, he dropped her off at her door, but when he leaned in to kiss her, she turned away.
"I told you I wasn't ready for this," Kaylee said apologetically. She looked into Brandon's eyes before bidding him goodnight and disappearing behind the door to her room. She didn't want to hurt Brandon, but he just wouldn't listen to reason.
Not wanting to be alone, Kaylee knocked on the door that joined her room to Noah and Ashton's. When no one answered, she knocked again. She knew that they had the night off, but didn't think they would have gone out already.
A very groggy Ashton answered the door, wearing only a pair of boxers. It was a sight that Kaylee was used to now, and didn't even bat an eyelash at. His normally spiky hair was matted against his head on one side, obviously where it had been resting on his pillow.
"Sorry, didn't mean to wake you," Kaylee said, turning away to leave.
Ashton caught her wrist. "Wait, what's up?"
The touch of his hand made her think about the way he had caught her fall in the tub, and the fact that he had seen her naked. The blush rose in her cheeks and she looked away. "I just wanted to see what you guys were doing," she said, gently trying to break his hold on her wrist.
"Noah isn't here, but you can come in and hang out with me if you want," he offered, pulling her into his room without waiting for an answer. If he noticed she was blushing, he didn't show it. But then again, he was probably too sleepy to notice much of anything. "Wasn't tonight your big date with Brandon?"
Kaylee rolled her eyes. She hadn't intended to talk about it, but something about Ashton asking opened the floodgates. "You know, he was perfectly nice, he even brought me flowers. But the whole night, I was counting the seconds until I could get away from him," she sighed. "I told him that I wasn't ready yet, but he couldn't get