Chương 537: A date

Nine sighed and shook his head as he heard Lulu's excited giggle on the other side of the line. He had to admit that he out of everyone spoilt her the most. She knew that she could always count on him and although he was happy that she did, that still did not stop her from taking advantage of his fondness for her.

"Anyway, on to more important things, you know that the party is in less than a week, and you need a date to accompany you." said Lulu.

"I doubt that's necessary." replied Nine as he sipped his tea.

"Oh but it is, do you have someone you're going to go with then?" asked Lulu.

"I'll go with Charlie." said Nine as Lulu burst into laughter.

"No you can't, I mean a real date, like a woman, anyway, I doubt that Charlie's even going to go with you, he asked me to set him up with one of my friends yet again." said Lulu as Nine sighed.

"Doesn't that man ever get tired of being rejected?" asked Nine with clear annoyance.

"Well no, don't say that, it isn't his fault that most women can't see how sweet and nice he is, besides, I support him, he should keep putting himself out there, how else is he going to find someone he likes who also likes him back?" asked Lulu in Charlie's defence.

"Whatever you say, anyway, will you go with me?" asked Nine as Lulu laughed.

"Sorry no, you're too late, I'm going with Ben, even though he refuses to share his burrito with me." she shouted so Benjamin would hear her loud and clear to which he just scoffed.

"Nine you need an actual date, I mean an actual person not someone from the family, not a dude but a woman and I know it's a bit difficult since you usually went with Lia to these things but you have to accept that she's no longer wanted anywhere around us." said Lulu with a frown.

"I'm not thinking about Lia, it's just that how am I supposed to find a date on such short notice, besides, there's nothing wrong with going with a family member." said Nine as Lulu chuckled.

"Get a real date Nine, see you later and don't forget my lipstick." said Lulu as Nine shook his head and ended the call.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting." said Jennifer as she walked to the table where he was and sat down across him.

"No, you did not keep me waiting at all." said Nine as he smiled.

"Thank you for inviting me to lunch once again." said Jennifer with a smile.

"Thank you for accepting my invitation." replied Nine as Jenny laughed.

"You don't have to thank me for that, the other times you asked me out to lunch I just couldn't make it, but you're in luck today was an early day at school." said Jenny as she smiled and ate her lunch.

"You're right I was in luck." said Nine as he smiled. He didn't know how he and Jenny had gotten close over time, but it first started with her inviting him out camping and from there they saw each other more frequently and then he decided that it was better to start seeing each other outside camping and school alone.

Jenny laughed as Nine received a notification on his phone and checked it causing him to shake his head.

"Is something wrong?" asked Jenny as Nine shook his head.

"No, not at all, it's just my little sister, she needs me to do her a favour." said Nine with a sigh.

"You don't seem too pleased about that." said Jennifer as she ate.

"It's not that, I'm just annoyed because she asked me to get her some coral pink lipstick." said Nine in annoyance as Jennifer could not help but laugh.

"Ahh I see, another lipstick shopping adventure, didn't we meet in the mall the last time because you needed to get her lipstick?" asked Jennifer as she laughed.

"Yes and she's sending me on that adventure again." said Nine as Jennifer could not stop laughing.

"Can't she send someone else? Or at least go herself?" asked Jennifer.

"No, you don't know Lulu, she is very relentless with what she wants so the others avoid her requests and don't make the mistake of saying yes, I on the other hand do." said Nine as he sighed.

"How come?" asked Jennifer in genuine curiosity.

"Because she's my little sister and whether I like it or not she knows that I love her and I want her to be happy." said Nine as he looked down.

"That's so sweet of you." said Jennifer as she smiled at him brightly.

"Yeah... but that won't stop me from feeling embarrassed when I walk into the makeup aisle." he scoffed.

"If it makes you uncomfortable to go to the makeup aisle alone, I could go with you..." said Jennifer as Nine looked at her in surprise.

"Really? You would?" asked Nine as he was surprised.

"Yes I would... if you don't mind I mean..." said Jennifer.

"No... I don't mind but... won't it be too much trouble? I don't want to bother you, I'm sure that you're very busy and you have much more better things to do than to accompany me to buy my sister some lipstick." said Nine as Jennifer smiled.

"It's not bother to me at all. Since you expressed your discomfort with going alone I don't think you should go alone, besides, you caught me on a very lucky day, I really have nothing else that's really serious to do and once I leave I will just be going home, there's no reason why I can't accompany you... except you don't want me to." said Jennifer.

"No, no, that's not it at all, I want you to..." replied Nine instantly as he realized that his response had been too quick causing him to shy away.

"Alright then it's settled we will get miss Lulu some lipstick." said Jennifer as she giggled and sipped her tea as Nine smiled at her, she was the most thoughtful person that he knew.

"We can go once you're done." he replied.

"No need, we can go right now, I'll take this to go." said Jennifer as she called for the waitress and Nine nodded.

...

Nine looked at his phone as he and Jennifer walked to the store. How convenient it was that the restaurant they had lunch in was in the mall already, so it would not take them a long time to find the store that they needed to go to.

"You keep on checking your phone, is there somewhere else you need to be?" asked Jennifer as Nine turned to look at her, she had been observing him for quite some time now.

"No, I'm off today, it's just that Charlie keeps on texting me." said Nine in annoyance as Jennifer laughed.

"You say that like it's not a good thing." said Jennifer as they walked side by side.

"Knowing Charlie, it's not a good thing, he always starts of conversations with unimportant things and then finally he'll say what he wants to tell me." said Nine.

"You seem like you have a guess on what he wants to tell you already." she replied.

"He just wants to rub some nonsense that I could not care less about in my face." said Nine as Jennifer laughed.

"From everything you told me about Charlie he seems to love you a lot and hence why he bugs you, my sister is the exact same way." she said.

"No, I doubt that, he just likes bugging people, me especially." said Nine.

"Everyone complains of his mischievous nature, the only person who doesn't is Lulu and that's because they do nonsense together. Those two are to be feared when they are hanging out together, you never know what will happen." said Nine as he and Jennifer walked into the store.

"Your family sounds really fun, you have so many siblings, it's only me and my sister sometimes and it can get boring, but you all always bring something new to the table. That's why I admire your family, and I love hearing you tell me funny stories about them. It makes me laugh" said Jennifer as she smiled.

"I love to hear you laugh." said Nine as he avoided looking at her when he said that causing Jennifer to smile.

"I love that you make me laugh." she responded as they set off to find the makeup aisle.

"It's good to laugh." he replied.

"And yet I don't see you laugh often why is that?" asked Jennifer.

"I don't usually have a reason to laugh." he replied sincerely as Jennifer bent down and picked up the toy for a child that was seated in the shopping cart who giggled at her and she smiled.

"That's sad, how come? I believe that there's always a reason to laugh even in really tough situations." said Jennifer as she caught up to him.

"Maybe some people find that easy, but some don't." he replied with a shrug as Jennifer looked at him with confusion and worry but she decided not to delve into it too much.