The Dark Side of the Moon

E L E V E N

We pull up to my house in under ten minutes and I quickly unbuckle my seatbelt and get out of the car. Grayson follows closely and before I make it to the front door my mom opens it for me.

"Hey, mom," I say. She gives me a grateful smile and opens the door even wider to allow me to enter. When she sees Grayson, her smile only seems to grow. Evie begins to cry again, so my mom tells us that she's going to check on her and leaves the two of us alone on the front porch.

"So... I had fun tonight," I say shyly, my voice almost in a whisper. I don't know how it's possible for it to be so easy yet so hard to speak to someone. I felt compelled to tell Grayson about how I felt, but I was also still extremely nervous around him.

"I had fun tonight, too," he smiled at me, and in that moment I completely forgot where I was. I forgot that Evie was crying inside the house. I forgot that my mom was right on the other side of the door. I forgot I was standing on the front porch of my house in the dark with a guy I had only met a couple of times. I forgot all of that, because it didn't really matter. I was here with Grayson, who has somehow become really important to me in the short period of time I have known him for.

"Sorry we didn't get a chance to get dessert." I scratched my head and looked down for a moment before remembering that Grayson doesn't like it when I look down. I tilted my head up and saw his gray eyes fixed on mine. Cue the butterflies.

"It's okay. That just means that we have to go out for dessert another time."

"Another time?" I asked as I fidget with the edge of my dress.

"Yeah. Date number two," he smiled, which caused me to blush even more than before. My cheeks probably looked like two tomatoes at this point. I didn't know it was possible to be this affected by one person. This sucks! I'm probably way more into him than he is into me. I'm already hanging onto every single word he says. I'm scared that now that we'll be going on another date I'll become even more attached and when he figures out that he's bored of me, I'll be heartbroken.

"Hey," Grayson whispers and grabs my hands, his large hands stopping the movement of my own. That's when I realized I had been pressing my fingernails into my palms which had formed crescent marks into my skin. "What's wrong? What are you thinking?" he asked quietly, yet I could still sense some urgency in his words. I opened my mouth to reply when Evie's loud cry sounded even through the front door. 

"I'm sorry, I need to go take care of her." I pulled my hands out from his, unwillingly, and began to walk towards the front door which still remained unlocked. I turned the handle and intended to turn around to say goodbye when I saw Grayson standing right behind me, which caused my to let out a squeal of surprise. "Oh my- What are you doing?"

Grayson placed his hand gently on my shoulder, warming me. "You seem upset. If it's alright with you, I thought I'd come in with you. You can talk to Evie, and then after we can talk. It isn't too late right now. Only if it's okay with you," he finished.

"Yeah, that's okay with me. Let's go in before the neighbors call the cops. It sounds like she's being tortured," I joke. Grayson laughs.

Once we're inside the house, I follow the sound of crying to the living room where Evie is facedown, crying into the rug. "Evie?" I call out in the smallest voice I have. I want her to know I'm in no way mad at her and am trying to coax her into talking to me. Her wailing stops immediately and she lifts her head up to see me kneeling next to her. I bring my hand to her back and gently rub up and down. "Hey, E.  Why are you crying?"

Evie gets up quickly and runs into my arms, which tackles me to the floor in the process. I let out a small "oof" sound as the wind is knocked out of me by a six year old... yeah, not my proudest moment. Especially when my mom AND the guy I just went on a date with both began laughing at me for my lack of strength and balance.