The Story of Us

Chapter 6

That night I slept soundlessly, my dreams were giddy and girly. When I woke up that morning I almost forgot about what had happened the night before. I walk down the stairs groggy. Jay and a couple of his friends are in out living room and mockingly whistle as my bed head and dead eyes show around the corner. I look at them and roll my eyes, "You wish." They hoot and holler and Jay growls at them to shut up.

I walk into the kitchen, my mom is at the stove cooking me a ham, cheese, and pepper omelette. My dad is at the table eating his reading something on his phone. I glance at him and he looks at me warily. My internal conflict fights and I hug my dad, not necessarily warmly, but hopefully he's not expecting a verbal apology. "Morning Mom, Dad."

My mom smiles and when she thinks I'm not looking she mouths "I told you so," to my dad. I try not to laugh or make any indication that I saw. I sit down and my mom brings me the omelette with a cup of mango juice. "Thanks Mom." Slowly I eat my food, my dad leaves for his work and my brother and his friends eventually leave too. It's just me and mom left and she's eating and I'm just finishing mine up.

"So, how was your little 3 o'clock adventure?" my face gets red. Most teenagers would have played it off cool like tell their parents they must've been dreaming or that they were hearing things, but I'm not normal, at least you could say that. I struggle for a moment an dumbly reply, "It was nice." She smirks at me, and I look at the table swirling what's left of the juice around in the cup. "Uh... Does Dad know too?" I look up for a millisecond and she's amused.

"No, but if you want him to-" I interject her sentence.

"No!" I say too eager then try and back track my words, "I mean uh, nah, he doesn't have I know... Ya know a good ole mother daughter secret...." I trail off and she nods.

"We really should have more of those," she laughs quietly then tells me to come help do the dishes.

As we work we talk about stuff that we don't normally talk about, like I usually talk about school or books or writing and she tells me all about how she can't stand some of the other moms on Jay's baseball team. Today, though, we talk about Ryan. She asks me all sorts of questions.

"What high school does he go to?"

"He goes to Saint Augustine's Catholic High School, he's on the soccer team, he's in my grade too."

"When did he move to the city?"

"A little while ago, at the end of the school year."

She would nod and ask more, like his plans for college and his hobbies. I don't know some of the answers, but others I know, like his favorite color is green and he likes sloppy joes and beaches.

As we finish up I tell my mom about our date that's tonight. She explains Jay is going to be out almost all day and that he doesn't have baseball. (I told you, my parents' lives revolve around my brother.)

My mom tells me to go get dressed because she wants to get our nails done. Originally I had planned on staying home to finish a poem I was writing for church, but I figured that it could wait...at least for a little while.

I get in the passenger side door of the typical "soccer mom" (or baseball) van. We drive out of our suburb and talk about college on the drive. "So Cassie," even my parents didn't call me "Cas", "we should probably talk about college, colleges really look at you Jr. Year the most."

She was trying to be a responsible parent, but I'm pretty sure she was hoping I didn't care. I do care, but I know that she is a bit scared sending me off to college. My parents first priority is naturally my brother, at least I assume, but they love and worry about me. My brother is there pride and joy and I'm the other one.

I'm not sour about it, it's legit everyone has favorites no matter what they say.

Back to college, so my mom was trying to get me to talk about college and stuff, but I knew she didn't want to so I saved her the reality of me going to college and told her that we should wait until we can talk all together with Dad. She's understanding, but I can see that wave of relief wash over her face. We get to the nail salon and walk in.

Earlier after my mom told me she knew about my little rendezvous,she didn't know about the kiss, I told her that Ryan was wanting to take me to dinner tonight, and she seemed pleased. I picked out a pinkish orange color that my mom suggested, and let the small, skinny eyed woman get to work.

We didn't talk much during, we ended up getting lunch at Buffy's, then we went home. It was a relaxing afternoon.

I sat out on the porch until 5:00 when I got a call, caller I.D. told me it was Ryan calling. With a slow breath I picked up the phone, "Hi Ryan," I said casually waiting for his smooth voice to come over the other end of the line.

"Hi Cassie, we still on for our date?" I could sense the hesitation over using the word "date" but I smiled into the phone, not that he could see.

I nodded, another quirky thing I did on the phone, and replied remembering he couldn't see social cues over a piece of metal. "You bet, I wouldn't miss it." My mom told me I always talked like I was 5 years older than my age and finally I understood what she meant. I thought about changing it, and relating myself with a simple "Ya," answer, but he chuckled and went on.

"Good, I was hoping you remembered our little meeting last night," I could hear the smirk in his words, man Ryan was always up to something.

I smiled again and thought over my words before I spoke them this time, "I-ya- uh what should you wear? I mean what are you wearing so I should wear too, I mean how should I dress!" I could've died from embarrassment. Too much over thinking of the words meant that I would get jumbled up, but not enough and I sounded like a 30 year old house wife.

His laugh was sweet and I could visualize his green eyes scrunching up in amusement. "Well, I'll be wearing clothes, but that doesn't mean you have to too..." I giggled and he continued, "Well were going out for diner, then somewhere else, but since you asked I would say wear something nice but casual." What that meant on a boy compared to on a girl, I don't know, but I had an idea of what I could wear.

"O-okay sounds great," I was smiling like a giddy little girl again, I never thought that someone could make me so happy! "I should go get ready then, see you in a-uh- bit." I tend to stammer a little whenever I talked to people, because of my shyness.

"Okay Cas, I'm really excited and don't worry about last night," I nod again. "Tonight's gonna be great, see you later." He hung up the phone and I eventually did too, after I had flopped back in the grass and squealed a little.
•••
I look through my closet searching for the outfit that I knew would catch his eye. If we are being honest then I wouldn't usually where the outfit because it's not me, but Ryan would like it, it's what a girl that went on a date with him, SHOULD be wearing. Not my usually drab clothes.

I grab the ripped skinny capris and grab the lace backed crop top. No doubt the outfit was cute, but as I put it on nervous qualms about my appearance were reprimanded with the politically correct ideas of a preppy boy's date. I look at myself and force a smile. Hour and a half until he is here and I haven't even touched my hair or thought about trying makeup, I get nervous and turn on the hair curler.

((HEY GUYS! Thought I should update this, but do you guys think I should just start a new chapter for the date or finish it on this one and make it extra long? Comment ideas, and keep voting! Almost 200 reads, that's crazy! Love u guys. -Mel))