The Broken Girl and The Golden Boy

Ian - Romance Guru

Chapter 28: Justin

After Piper said yes, I was determined to make this the best date possible. It was really weird for me, since I'd never actually cared all that much before. First dates were just typical dinner-and-a-movie things. No extra effort needed. But with Piper, I wanted to impress her - completely sweep her off her feet.

But as Saturday drew closer and closer... I came to the realization that I have no idea how to do that. So I called Ian. He'd won Lindsey over somehow and since she'd started off hating him, I figured he must know something. I thought about calling up Andy as well, but because I wanted a relationship with Piper as opposed to... whatever it was that Andy did... I ended up deciding against it.

"What's up, Justin?" Lindsey chirped into the phone.

"What the hell, Linds?" I exclaimed, "It's seven A.M.! Why are you answering Ian's phone?"

"Oh, Justie," she teased, "I think even you can put that together. You see, we've been in a relationship for three and a half years. We're teenagers and we've got these things called hormones that make it so we want to ha-."

"Stop!" I practically shouted, "I don't want to hear it."

"Hear what?" she asked, feigning innocence, "I was just going to say hang out all the time. What did you think I was going to say? Have tons of sex? Honestly, you're such a pervert, Justin."

"Just... nevermind, Lindsey," I groaned in annoyance, "Could you just hand the phone to Ian?"

"Just a minute," she said. In a more muffled voice, I heard her say, "Ian, Justin wants to talk to you. Hey, by the way, do you remember where you threw my bra last night? I can't seem to find it." Then she laughed, which meant she'd left the speaker uncovered on purpose.

"Oh my god..." I mumbled to myself. I was two seconds away from hanging up the phone when Ian finally came on the other end.

"Sorry about that, Justin," he muttered, sounding as embarrassed as I felt.

"No big deal," I said.

"So what's up?"

"I called to ask for some help," I answered.

"With what?" he asked.

"Well... you know how I have a date with Piper tonight?" I started.

"No, dude," he groaned, "You didn't."

"What?"

"You don't have anything set up and you waited until the last minute to call me to help you figure something out," he said, point-blank.

"Well... yeah, kind of," I mumbled.

"Man, you suck," he said. With a sigh, he added, "But I've got your back."

"Thanks, Ian," I said, feeling relieved, "What do I have to do?"

"Okay, first thing first," he said, "What do you know about Piper?"

"Uh, what do you mean?" He wasn't talking about the stuff with her family, right? He couldn't know about that... could he?

"What kinds of things does she like?" he clarified. I was sure he was making his what's-your-problem face at that moment.

"Oh," I said, feeling kind of stupid. Of course that's what he meant, "She likes my homemade spaghetti, and blueberry cake donuts, orange, dogs, underappreciated holidays, Coldplay, English, art, and... my singing."

"You still sing?" Ian said, sounding surprised, "I thought your dad made you give that up when we were in fourth grade."

"Yeah, I still sing," I muttered, "I took up guitar a while back too."