Dreams

After we get in the car, Conrad drives with the windows completely rolled and the radio blasting one of Taylor Swift's new songs. Naturally, I already know the lyrics (and apparently so does Conrad) so we spend the first twenty minutes of the car ride belting out whatever song we knew the words to.

At red lights we'd get 'those' glances from people in the cars next to us or parents would frown at the fact you could practically feel the bass of each song vibrate the road beneath us.

Usually, I wouldn't have ever done this with a guy. Instead the drive would be fifteen minutes down the road to an old-fashioned diner that had adequate food for a decent price, dinner would be awkwardly quiet, and the car ride back to my place would be even worse - the tension so thick you could cut through it was a knife.

But with Conrad, everything was different - he was different. We were a couple, but friends, too - an equal balance of each category.

I must have been smiling while I contemplated this because Conrad gave me a funny look, asking, "Why are you smiling?"

I shrug my shoulders nonchalantly and lean my head against his shoulder, "Everything."

"That's a lot to think about," he replies, one of his arms lazily wrapping around me. "You know, whenever someone used to ask me what I was thinking about I would say --."

My ringtone interrupts him and a blush creeps up my face, "I'm sorry. It's probably my," I look at the ID and roll my eyes, "Mom."

Conrad winks at me and turns the radio down a bit as I answer it. "Hello?"

"Hi, honey. How is everything?" My mother's voice was overly cheerful and there was the sound of her vainly searching through her closet, hangers rattling against each other.

"Fine," I reply, "Do you need something?"

"Yes, actually. Do you remember how we were going to have a movie night tonight? Just us?"

I slap a palm to my forehead, just recalling the conversation we had a couple nights ago, "I do, but I don't think I'll be able to make tonight --."

"Me neither," my mother adds quickly, making a disapproving sound as another hanger clashes against the other. "Your father has surprised me by coming home early and we're going to go to dinner in the city tonight. Isn't that great?"

My eyebrows scrunch together in confusion and I nod before remembering she can't exactly see me. "That's fantastic, Mom. It really is."

"Alright, I just wanted to let you know in case you come home and we're not there. We'll probably be out late, but don't stay out incredibly late either, though. I don't want you waltzing in the front door at three o'clock this morning."

I laugh, "I won't be. I'll call you when I get home. Bye, have fun!" But the line was already dead.

*

By the time Conrad had finally stopped the car, I couldn't exactly tell where we were supposed to be. A beach was laid out in front of us, one I've never been to before, the sun setting just below the horizon already.

I stared at it for a moment, taking in the long jetty, an arm stretching into the navy blue water, or the dunes -- their long grasses swaying in the gentle summer breeze. Conrad opened my door for me and bowed, extending his hand for mine.

Laughing, I gently placed my fingers in his before bringing up my hand to brush his lips lightly against the back of it. "Who said chivalry isn't dead?" I ask, linking our arms together.

"Maybe I'm the only surviving chivarlist."

I give Conrad a weird look as the solid ground beneath my feet shifts, grains of sand constantly moving beneath my flip flops, "Chivarlist isn't a word."

He grins at me, "Well it should be."

We approach a blanket, a stereo placed in the sand while rocks held down the corners of it to keep it from flying away. There's a cooler, full of food and water and a guitar leaning against it.

Looking at Conrad, he gives me a shy look, rubbing the back of his neck and glancing at me every few seconds to see how I'll react.

"You did all this?" I ask, astonished.

"Well, no. I have a friend who owns a house further down and I had him set it up just as we left the mall. So it'd be all ready. Do - do...you like it?"

I throw my arms around his neck and whisper, "I love it."

"Really?" He relaxes in my arms before taking my hand and pulling me down next to him on the beach blanket. "I didn't want it to be too much you know? Considering it's really only our first date and all..."

Grinning, I take his hand and follow his life line with the tip of my finger. "It's perfect, really. I wasn't expecting any of this."

Conrad laughs and stretches out his legs while pulling me into his lap. "And also because this is our first date, I thought it would be appropriate to play some Truth."

"Agreed. I'll go first?" I feel him nod before burying this head in the crook of my neck, his breath hot on my skin. "What is your full name?"

"Conrad Michael Hughes."

I smile, "Sara Hughes...I like that."

He laughs, the action causing my entire body to shake in his arms, "I do too." Conrad pauses, "So...my turn. Who was your first kiss?"

"Ohh! Going right for the intense stuff first, huh?"

He kisses my neck and I close my eyes for a second, memorizing the feel of him against me, "Stop stalling and answer the question."

"I was a junior and the kid I had liked for my entire high school career kissed me at some party." I sigh, remembering Tyler and then that night years ago turning into the reunion with him today in the store. "Too bad he turned out to be a douche."

"That's how the world works, doesn't it?" Conrad asks and I nod, "Unfortunately."

"Your turn," he says, laying on his back with me cradled in his side.

"Favorite color?"

"Blue. Favorite movie?"

"Tie between Titanic and Oceans 11. Your birthday?"

"May twenty-seventh. Your full name?"

"Sara Jordan Matthews. First love?"

There was silence when I asked this, Conrad's breathing hitched in his throat for a second before he clears his throat, multiple times, swimming around his head for the right words. "Her name was Helen. We were together since freshman year. Two months before graduation, I find her cheating on me with some man-whore jock. I broke up with her that day and haven't spoken with her since. After that," he pauses for a second, clearing his throat once more, "After that...my parents passed away and...it was a tough time for me."

My eyes widen at the the mention of Helen's name. Could Helen really have cheated on Conrad with my ex? I don't say anything yet and instead whisper ,"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to --."

"It's fine," he replies, taking off my sun glasses and brushing away a strand of hair from my face. "That's why we're going this - to learn this sort of stuff about each other."

I think about what he said for a couple seconds before laying back down in his arms and saying, "Something similar happened to me. The kid, who I first kissed, asked me out. We stayed together through junior and senior year and then, one day, I...caught him in bed with somebody else." I wince slightly before continuing, "Her name was, uh, Helen."

Conrad freezes beneath me and I close my eyes, waiting for him to get up, yelling and cursing - finally allowing the pent up anger to be let loose. "Was...was your boyfriend Tyler?"

I nod slightly, "Yeah. He was."

"It's a small world." His words were short, cut-off. Distant.

"I shouldn't have said anything. I shouldn't have dug this up after all this time. But Tyler visited me today and I was just so reminded of it and --."

"He visited you today? At work?"

"Yeah," I groan at the memory. "He was asking for my forgiveness. He wanted to get back together."

"What did you say?" Conrad's grip around me grew tighter - almost protective.

"I - I told him he had his chance to ask for my forgiveness a long, long time ago. That he broke my heart too much. That I could never be with him like that again."

Conrad quickly pulls me closer to him, his lips brushing against mine. His arms are an anchor around my waist while he kisses me -- as if he couldn't get enough. My hands, as always, got tangled up in his soft curls and he pulls away reluctantly, resting his forehead against mine.

"I'm sorry...I just - I like the way you stood up for yourself." And when his lips brush against my earlobe, he whispers, "And I like how you turned him down for me."

Rolling my eyes, I kiss Conrad's cheek delicately. "I'd always choose you over him."

But by the end of that summer, that wasn't completely true.