Headline: Nervous Girl and Starstruck Boy Go On A Date

After what seemed like three days (when it was actually three hours) of primping, plucking, dressing, redressing, and humiliation at the hands of my best friend, I was ready for my date. My hair was done in a simple style of two strands of hair framing my face with the rest pulled into a loose ponytail at the nape of my neck. My eyes were subtly outlined in a gold colored eye liner (one that accentuated my blue eyes), my lips painted a soft red, and my fingernails french tipped and shiny. The outfit that Kelsey and I had finally decided on was my most favorite velvet top with the flowing lacy sleeves and the daringly low cut neckline, complete with a push up bra that gave me excessive amounts of cleavage. The ensemble was completed by a pair of brand new jeans that dressed down the outfit, but still made it seem like I had decided to dress up. A pair of strappy, low heels adorned my feet, ones that I could wear comfortably for hours and not have my feet kill me the next day. 1

After Kelsey had helped me get ready, I told her to get out of here before Adam showed up and she complied, happily I might add, as I was getting increasingly nervous the closer it came to the time our date was scheduled for. 2

I grabbed my cell phone off the nightstand, stuffed it in my bag and went in search of my wallet. I finally found it where I had left it, in my back pack, and stuffed it into my bag too. 3

The doorbell rang and I jumped so high that I thought my feet actually came off the floor. I ran to get the door and stopped just in time to remember to put my bag down and compose myself. I opened the door and there stood Adam, dressed in nice slacks, a blue button down shirt, and his dirty tennis shoes that he wore every day. I felt ridiculously over dressed, but Adam didn't seem to mind. 4

He looked me up and down, proclaimed that I looked beautiful and then blushed. I laughed slightly at his nervousness and he started to laugh too. 5

"So... can I come in?" Adam asked me after we both stopped laughing.6

"Oh my god, how rude! Of course you can!" I stepped back to let him in, and proceeded to trip over my dog, who had been standing behind me the entire time. But, surprisingly, she hadn't been barking. 7

"Is this your dog? What's her name?" Adam asked me when I picked myself up off the floor, red faced.8

"Yeah. This is Lee Loo. But I don't get it. She would normally be barking her head off right now and wouldn't let you take one more step until she knew that you were welcome here." Then it hit me. Lee Loo wasn't barking because I was nervous and fidgety around Adam, and that made her nervous around him too. I just had to relax and she would be fine. But how to do that when I was so nervous that I had tripped over my own dog when I knew that she was there?9

I knelt down by Lee Loo and wrapped my arms around her neck, and said quietly in her ear,10

"LeeeeeeeeLooooooo. Why aren't you being your usual paranoid self? What's wrong? Don't you like Adam? He's a perfectly nice person. Go say hi." 11

I nudged her over to Adam and she took the hint. She started to sniff him all over, starting with his shoes, then moving upwards until she stuck her nose in places that it really shouldn't have been stuck. Adam jumped back and pushed Lee Loo away while I started laughing again. This time, it was genuine laughter, not the nervous giggle that had been coming out earlier. 12

Suddenly, I had a very vivid mental image of myself in Lee Loo's place and, poof!, just like that, I was nervous and fidgety again. I think Adam could see the change in my behaviour because he dropped to his knees and started to scratch Lee Loo behind the ears and talking to her in a low voice, most likely reassuring her that he wasn't such a bad guy.13

I stood there watching my new boyfriend and my dog getting acquainted and feeling very self conscious. Then I heard a loud bark from behind me and turned to see that it was my other dog, Squire. He ran over, smashing his whip like tail into everything, and shoved Lee Loo out of the way to get to Adam. 14

He (Adam) stood up and reached out a hand to pat Squire when I realized that I should warn-15

"Oh shit." Squire's tail and Adam's vitally tender parts made contact. I flinched. I knew how it felt to get hit in a sensitive area with that tail.16

"Oh my god! I am so sorry! I should have warned you about his tail! Oh my god! Are you okay?" I was trying my hardest to not burst into hysterical laughter again, but I was semi failing. 17

"No, no, it's okay, really. He didn't hit me that hard, I just wasn't expecting it. You don't have to apologize." He said.18

"I know, I know. It's just that I usually remember to tell people about that tail, but for some reason, I forgot today. Sorry." 19

"Stop saying "sorry" I know you are, I can see it on your face. Besides, you're nervous. I can tell."20

"Am I that obvious?"21

"Well... considering the fact that you only laugh like that when you talk to me, and it sounds like a nervous laugh, I would have to assume that you're nervous around me. But don't feel bad. I am too."22

"I'm not sure if I like being that predictable, but I feel better knowing that I'm not the only one who's slightly uncomfortable here."23

"So, do you want to stand around in the front hall all day? Or are we going to go see our movie?"24

"Oh! Yeah. Lemme grab my bag and we'll go. Um... who's car do you want to take?"25

"Do you have music in yours?"26

"You mean like, a radio music," he nodded, "or... okay, yeah I do."27

"Okay... then let's take your car. My stereo got jacked last week and it's kinda boring without music."28

"Okay! Then let me find my keys and we'll go then."29

He nodded again, then smiled at me. This was probably not a very good idea on his part as I tend to go weak at the knees and get slightly manic when I see that beautiful smile. 30

"Okaaaaaaaaay... Where the hell did I leave mis llaves? Woah there, Spanish moment." I was muttering to myself, and wandering around looking for my keys when I remembered that I had a guest in my house and shouldn't have ignored him. Oh well... I found my keys where I had left them (on the kitchen counter) and then turned around to go back to the front hall when I saw my dad deep in conversation with Adam. Shit.31

"Hey Dad." I said when I had walked back over to them. "Hope you're not embarrassing me too much!"32

"Actually I was asking Adam how the two of you met. He was telling me that you two sit next to each other in history class." He said33

"Yep. So..." I turned to Adam. "Do you want to go now?"34

"Wait a minute! We're not done getting acquainted yet." My dad said before I could do anything. "So..." He turned back to Adam, "I want you to have her home by midnight. Understood?" My dad had that look on his face. The one that says, 'do anything to her and die.' Adam nodded.35

"Um... Dad?" I said.36

"I'm driving."37

"Oh... okay then. Make sure you're home by midnight." The look on his face all but disappeared when I told him this. 38

"Okay, I will. Bye." I started to walk to the door, but my dad called me back.39

"Here." He handed me a hundred dollars. "Go have fun."40

I stared at the money for a second, then smiled and ran up to hug him. 41

"Thanks Dad."42

"No problem, spend it wisely."43

"Okay! Bye."44

"Bye Mr. Quinn." Adam said. 45

"You two go have fun." 46

I smiled at my dad one last time and walked out the door with Adam. He looked kind of dazed, so I asked him, 47

"So, how was it talking to my dad for the first time?"48

"Intimidating. He's huge!" 49

"I know. He has that effect on people. But you get used to it. He's just over protective." I smiled at him. 50

We both laughed and got in the car. I adjusted the drivers seat until it was the right height and then moved the mirrors to where I liked them. Adam looked over at me, and upon seeing just how far forward I was, said, 51

"Um.... Do you really have to be that far forward? It looks like your knees are touching the dash board."52

"I can reach the pedals here. And yes, they do almost touch the dash board. But that's okay, I'm short."53

"You're just the right height." He smiled at me and I was very glad that I was sitting down.54

"Okay... Let's go!"55

I put the car in drive and pulled out of the drive way. After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, I turned to Adam and said, 56

"Do you want to put some music on?"57

"Sure... What do you want to listen to?" He opened the center console to look at the Cd's that I had put there earlier and pulled out my Sugarcult CD.58

"Oh my God! I love this CD! Let's listen to this!" He cried when he found it.59

"Okay. Pop it in." I said. 60

He did so and turned it to track number eight, Pretty Girl. 61

... Pretty girl is suffering62

While he confesses everything63

Pretty soon she'll figure out64

What his intentions were about...65

The lyrics filled the car and Adam and I both started singing along. 66

"This is my favorite song that they've done!" I said over the music.67

"Mine too!" He said. 68

We listened to the CD on the way to the movie theater and it was only when I put the car in park in the parking lot that I had to turn it off.69

We headed into the movie theater and paid for our tickets to the 7:30 showing of The Hitchhikers' Guide To The Galaxy. After that we took the escalator to the concession stand and bought our popcorn and soda. Adam insisted on paying for all of this, but I felt bad because it was like a $40 bill already, and my dad had given me a hundred dollars on top of the $130 that I had saved from my last three paychecks. So all in all, I had $230 to spend that night, but he insisted, so I let him. 70

We found seats in the middle of the theater, the rocking kind, and made ourselves comfortable. The before show entertainment was playing and I was occupying myself with trying to answer the trivia questions, but Adam seemed more content to just watch me get frustrated when the screen didn't move fast enough. 71

After a few minutes, I felt his hand brush the hair out of my face and he said in my ear, 72

"You're so pretty when you get angry. All flushed and sexy looking." 73

I had to smile at that one. 74

"Well, you're pretty sexy yourself mister!" And he was!75

"Thanks..." He smiled at me. One of those smiles that can make you get all itchy; and, boy did it ever! I crossed my legs in a tailors seat on the chair and put the pop corn between my legs. The saltiness of the popcorn was making me thirsty so I grabbed my soda and sucked down about half of it. 76

"Hey! Stop sucking down all the soda! I only have a limited budget!" Adam said when he looked at me. 77

"Sorry..." My face flushed and I felt embarrassed. "But this popcorn's making me thirsty. Want some?" 78

"Sure." He reached over to grab some and I realized that he was going to have to reach between my legs to get some popcorn. Um... awkward! 79

"Here," I handed him the bag, "Why don't you take what you want and then give it back to me?" I said.80

"Okay... I figured I could just eat out of the bag instead of wasting a napkin. But whatever." 81

"Okay, I don't care. Here, I'll take it back." He handed it to me and I wedged it between my legs again. Then we proceeded to munch on the popcorn while other people filed into the theater. 82

"So, tell me something." Adam said after a while. 83

"Okay... Did you know that you are made up of mostly empty space? Like, ninety percent of your mass is just nothing." I said.84

He started laughing. Then grabbed some popcorn and said, 85

"Nooooo... I meant about yourself!"86

"Oh! Ha ha! Um... okay. Did you know that I'm in the flute choir at school?"87

"Yeah. You told me the other day when you were ranting about how bad a rehearsal went."88

"Oh. Well... never mind then."89

"So, what else?"90

"Um... I like to write music."91

"Really? You mean like lyrics? Or the actual notes and chord and stuff?"92

"Well... Both, actually. I usually write the lyrics and then set them to music. Right now I'm working on a piece for flute choir."93

"Can you sing some of it?" 94

"There's no lyrics, but I can whistle it for you."95

"Okay!"96

I started to whistle the song, a haunting melody that was meant to raise the hairs on the back of your neck. Apparently it worked, because Adam closed his eyes and leaned towards me as I was whistling. When I finished, he opened his eyes and looked directly into mine and said, 97

"That was beautiful. I would love to hear you play it on the flute."98

"Okay. Maybe I can play it for you during lunch on Monday?"99

"Okay... sure. Where do you want to meet?"100

"How about the stage in the "A" building?"101

"Okay. We'll meet there and you can play that for me."102

The movie started and we both shut up so we could watch. 103

During the movie, about halfway through, Adam moved the armrest between us and pulled me over to him. I relaxed against him and went back to watching the movie.104