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Chapter 6: The Date

Once everyone else had left, Jordan, Katherine, Greyson, and I stepped out onto the front porch to talk. They gave Katherine and me the rockers and they both jumped up on the banister to sit.

"You gonna tell her?" Katherine asked, looking at Jordan.

"Ind, me and Kat are gonna go on a date!"

"Aww! No way? When? Where?" I had heard they had been hanging out through some other friends, but I didn't know it was anything more than friendship.

"It's a surprise! He won't tell me!"

"Wait, are you getting your license back, Jordan?"

"Yupp! I get them back on Thursday and we go out on Friday!"

"Aw! Yay! You'll have to tell me all about it, Kat."

"Unless they're too busy if ya know what I'm saying," Greyson winked.

"Shut up Greyson!" Kat kicked at him.

~ ~ ~

That Thursday, Jordan was finally able to get his license back. He was a free man to go where he wanted, whenever he wanted- as long as it wasn't more than fifty miles from his house and past midnight (probation rules). On Friday, he picked Katherine up from her house for their first date. Jordan took Katherine to Grove City just over the state line. They ate at a restaurant near the Tennessee River. It was more expensive than he could afford but he had just gotten paid for the first time at his new job as Hotel Manager of an Inn in Lovejoy. After they ate, they walked around downtown Grove City for a few hours. They walked across the long wooden bridge that stretched over the river and onto the North Shore. They ended their date with ice cream.

When Jordan dropped her off at her house, Katherine made sure the first thing she did was text our girls group message.

Kat: OH MY GOD! It was perfect. He was a perfect gentleman and so thoughtful and funny and weird in all the right ways and I don't know how he did it but he left a letter on my bed and some chocolate.

Love was in the air. 

~ ~ ~

The first weekend of the Summer, all of us decided a bonfire would be our best way to kick it off. Adrian and I spent all day on Saturday picking up sticks from the woods around the house and throwing them onto the fire ring. "I think you have enough wood!" Dad called from the porch. Adrian and I paid no attention to him and kept collecting what wood we could find scattered around the forest. We knew we would have enough when the pile was taller than us. Everyone started showing up around six. Miles was the first one there.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you," Adrian said, "Miles's gonna stay the night. I brought my TV from home and we're gonna set up our Xboxes in the living room and set the TV up and do a game night."