Piece of Work

"Hi," I greeted back, smiling slightly. "I have to say, I didn't expect you to be in the office."

"I wish I could say the same for you," he teased, sitting down in the chair next to me. "Why are you here?"

"Arguing with a teacher," I responded casually. We sounded like we were in a movie or something. "You?"

"Skipping gym."

"I think you win," I declared with my eyebrows raised. "You cut gym?"

"It's just gym," he defended. "I had an excuse for why I missed the first half hour, but he didn't believe me."

"What did you say?"

"Ummm...My locker was on fire." He gave me a cute little half-smirk, and I burst out laughing.

"Are you serious?" I gasped. The older receptionist behind the front desk gave me an annoyed look, so I quieted my laughter to soft giggles. "That's the absolute worst excuse I've ever heard."

"Yeah, I guess that was pretty bad..." he trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck. "Anyway, on a totally different subject, I was wondering..."

My stomach tightened as I waited for him to finish his sentence. I had a feeling where he was going to go with it, but I didn't want to get my hopes up for nothing.

"Do you think you'd want to go out sometime?" His blue eyes locked on me expectantly.

I had to compose myself in my head a little before I finally answered, "Sure. Sounds cool."

"Great!" He smiled at me widely before a secretary came out of the hallway.

"Benjamin Simon?" she called out in a bored voice.

He stood up and followed her, giving me a fast goodbye. I sat in my chair, staring off into space with a goofy-looking grin on my face. I loved the fact that I was on my way to getting a boyfriend right before the summer. No summer fling for me this year. That felt good.

***

"I don't think it's a good idea," Dan told me. We were walking around the center of town, and I had just told him what happened.

"Why?" Okay, I had to admit, I was surprised. I had expected that Dan would be thrilled.

"Because...just think about it, Faye. You guys have bonded at a party and in the principal's office. Not exactly promising."

"What? Those are my main hangouts. It just means that we have stuff in common."

Dan shook his head. "He was in the office for something worse than you."

"But I was drinking at the party while he wasn't," I reminded him. "So we kind of even out a little bit."

He sighed loudly. "Okay, I'm not going to tell you how to run your life. I'm simply starting that I'm not sure it's a great idea."

"We'll see," I allowed. Since Dan was warning me, and I respected his opinion since we'd know each other so long, I decided that I would keep an open mind. "First sign of trouble, I walk."

"First sign?" he confirmed.

"Very first." I took a sip of the smoothie in my hand. I hoped more than anything that I would be the right one in this argument. After all, I usually was.

***

There was a knock at the door at around seven on Friday night. I hurried, trying to shove an earring in my ear that just wasn't cooperating.

"Where are you going?" Mom asked as she was washing the dishes.

"Out. Don't wait up." I pulled the door closed behind me and took one last look at my deep purple dressy top and light-wash jeans paired with a pair of black strappy heels. My hair was loose and curled, flowing below my shoulders.

"You look great," Ben complimented as I opened the door.

"Thanks." I grinned widely and we walked to his car. It was pretty nice, some make of a Mercedes, though I wasn't sure what model it was. "You don't look so horrible yourself."

"I'll take that as a compliment," he smiled.

"You should. So how has your life been since school earlier?" I joked, laughing a little.

His face turned very serious for a second before he smiled. "Eh, it was alright."

"Same. My mom's always on my case about where I go every day. I figured she'd get over it by now, but she hasn't." I rolled my eyes. "So where are we going?"

"You'll see." I looked around and realized that we were in the town next to ours. I knew I lived close to the edge of town, but not that close.

Then, I noticed that the needle of the speedometer was edging around sixty on a thirty mph zone. "Wow, speeding much?" I said sarcastically.

He glanced down at his dashboard for a second before shrugging. "I always drive fast. I could slow down, if you want me to."

"No, it's fine," I responded. Actually, in reality, it felt pretty freeing to be in a car that was going so quickly where it wasn't allowed. There was something exhilarating about not knowing whether or not we'd make it.

I was staring out the window at the quickly-passing scenery before Ben finally announced, "We're here."

We were at a small diner on the edge of a huge lake. "I've never been here before..." I trailed off, almost in awe at the way the lights hit the water.

"Not many people know about it," he answered, nodding toward the restaurant. I barely noticed it though, my eyes still fixed at the lake. Finally, he gave up trying to get my attention and just grabbed my arm to bring me to the door.

"Simon?" Ben offered at the front podium to the host. The restaurant was very nice, dimly lit and expensive looking dinners. I wasn't sure I was totally comfortable with Ben getting me a costly dinner for our first date, but I guess I could see just how much they actually cost when I got a menu.

We got seated and I picked up the menu. "What's good?" I asked, looking over all the different meals. Some of them cost as much as twenty dollars a plate. Yikes.

"It depends on what you like," Ben laughed.

"Okay." When I laid my eyes on the Chicken Parmesan, I knew that was what I wanted, but it was also twelve dollars...

"Don't worry about how much it is," he told me, probably noticing my hesitation.

"Just let me pay for my half," I begged. "I don't want you to spend all this money on me. It's just...not right."

"I said don't worry about it. What do you want?"

I told him, and he plucked the menu from my hands. "Okay, that sounds good. Now just relax. I'm paying."

Opening my mouth to argue, he raised an eyebrow at me to tell me to shut it. So I did, sitting back in my chair with a slight smile on my face.

The rest of the date went really well. It turned out that I could talk to Ben even more easily than I'd originally thought. He was just a sweet guy who could understand my point of view when I talked about my parents' divorce. His parents had been through almost the same thing, except he decided to live with his dad.

I almost swore that some sort of shadow of emotion passed over his face when he mentioned his father, but I couldn't pinpoint it and I wasn't even sure if I actually saw it.

"Thanks for tonight," I thanked as Ben walked me up to my front door. The porch light was kind of bright, making me blink a little too often. How awkward.

"You're welcome. I had a great time." He leaned forward and pecked me on the cheek. "I'll see you at school on Monday, right?"

"Right." With a grin, I disappeared into my house. There was just something about him that made me feel...so incredible. Dan was definitely wrong with this one, thank God.