One Of The Girls

Chapter 10: Beatrix

​My dad says he actually needs to meet Alex before he can trust him to drive me to school every morning, so I bring him over. I'm nervous, of course, because I don't want my parents to scare him away. I can't imagine them ever doing that, but the fear still stands.

​I think I'm over Josh now. Alex is proof of that. I like Alex, he gives me butterflies, and he is proof that I don't need Josh to be happy. I need Alex around. With him around, I don't feel that gross unrequited love that I used to feel. When Alex is around, my chest feels light.

​My dad invites him into the kitchen, and he takes a seat at the kitchen table while my dad is whipping up some sort of smoothie. Dad talks to him about the usual topic: sports. My dad likes sports. Classic father. He doesn't go too excessive into it, though. He's more interested in the strategy behind games,
and less in the hype. My dad is real smart, so he likes to have smart and lengthy conversations. I pray that Alex can handle it. I don't know him all that well, but he doesn't seem very smart.

​He tells my father about being quarterback, and how it's his second year being a starter on varsity. Dad gets bored quick and switches the topic to hobbies.

​"I actually play the guitar," Alex reveals.

​"Oh you do?" muses my Dad.

​"Yeah. I picked it up when I was still a kid."

​"You must be pretty good," Dad says, pouring the smoothie into cups for him and Alex. I'm a bit irritated he didn't make any for me.

​"I don't want to brag, haha," laughs Alex. "I'm teaching my younger sister right now, actually. She's in middle school."

​"I didn't know you had a little sister," I say, running my finger along the inside of the blender and then popping it in my mouth. The smoothie tastes good, and now I'm more irritated that dad didn't make any for me.

​"Yeah, her name is Ashley," he says, "She's a dork, but I love her." I try to imagine Alex teaching his dorky younger sister to play the guitar, and the thought alone is really adorable.

​ He breezes through the rest of the conversation with my father, to my surprise, and we go upstairs to hang out in my bedroom when they finish the smoothies.

​"Keep the bedroom door open!" shouts my mom from downstairs.

​She never told me to do that with Josh.

​Alex lies down on my bed, looking perfectly at home. I am shook by how much of the bed he takes up. I sit on the desk chair at my desk and swivel around to look at him. He's so lazy looking, like a big friendly dog. I fold my knees up and rest my chin on them. He looks so cute.

​"So, what do you do for fun?" he asks me.

​"I play softball at school," I tell him.

​"No kidding. Varsity?"

​"Yeah."

​"Wow, Trixie. You're such a jock," he laughs. I hope he doesn't notice my Taylor Swift poster. "What else? Like other than school?"

​He's trying to get to know me! "Oh, uh," should I lie? I don't know if he'll still want to date the real me. "I play a lot of video games, I guess."

​"You do?" he asks, sounding surprised. I nod at him, embarrassed. It would have been better for him to notice the poster, "Like what kind?"

​"Uh," I hesitate to tell him, but he's my boyfriend. I shouldn't be afraid to tell him things, "Like first person shooters."

​"You're such a nerd, Trixie."

​"What, you don't play video games?" I ask him curious.

​"They don't really interest me, you know? I get bored of them pretty quick. I'd rather be out actually doing something," he says, "Oh, no offense, though. I think it's cute that you're a gamer girl."

​He likes that I play games? Could this guy get any better? I'm a bit disappointed that he doesn't like video games, though. It would have been fun to play together. We don't have to have everything in common, though, just because we are dating. 

​But I'd still like to have some things in common. So, I start trying to find them.

​I keep asking questions for the rest of the evening until dinner. We eat the chicken parme my mom makes, and dinner is great. He chats with my dad and my mom, and I think he's completely won them over by the time dinner is over. He says goodbye to my parents.

​I walk him out the front door, closing it behind us, and down the steps to his car. Finally, I build up the courage to ask, "Why did you ask me out?"

​I mean I'm not pretty. I'm not the best at anything. I can be sort of funny sometimes, but I'm a nerd who plays videogames and I like wearing socks and sliders. So, what is a guy like Alex doing, asking out a girl like me? I'm a nobody.

​"Isn't that normally what one does when they want someone to be their girlfriend?" he smiles at me, and he pulls me into a hug. The hug feels warm.

​"Yeah, but why did you want me? I mean we only had one date."

​"That was enough," he says, "You're pretty awesome, Trixie. It doesn't take too long to realize that."

​Then he leans back a little and I look up at him. He swoops in, and in the blink of an eye his lips are on mine. This is my first kiss, and I feel weak at the knees. I'm 18 years old, far too old to be experiencing my first kiss, but this is my first kiss nonetheless. I have dreamed of this day. I have wondered what it could possibly feel like for years. It feels warm, and soft, and like a hundred hugs packed into one single action. It's bliss.

​"Goodnight, Tricks," he says, and then he lets me go and gets into his car.

​I drag my feet down the walkway and up the steps and into the hallway, and I close the front door and lean against it. My head feels like it's full of air. My heart is beating so fast it feels like somebody let a humming bird loose inside it. I bring my fingers to my lips, and they're still tingling. I can feel his lips on mine again if I think hard enough.

​He makes me happy. That's enough, right?