Is This Real... Or Am I Dreaming

After I closed the door and turned towards Justin, he grabbed hold of my hand and pulled me to his Range Rover. I’ve always liked these cars. The Range Rover is my second choice of my dream car. But I got my top choice, a Sport Wrangler Jeep. He opened the passenger door for me and helped me into the car and then walked over to his side of the car to start the ignition and pull out of the driveway.

“You look very beautiful by the way.” He complimented and broke the silence.

“Aw, thank you. Megan did everything though.” I laughed.

Since I was new to the country, province, and city, I had no idea where we were going. Plus it was starting to get dark already, so it was somewhat hard to see where we were. But I knew I was in good hands, so I didn’t fret.

“Just wondering, but what’s the plan for tonight?” I asked.

“You’ll just have to see. Hopefully you’ll like it. Do you like hockey?” he replied.

“Yes! I love hockey! I mean, I don’t play the sport, but it’s my favorite sport to watch besides basketball. Don’t you play?” I said.

“I did, before I got into the music business. But if I have time, I like to go to the rink sometimes.” He explained.

“Cool.” I said nodding my head. I looked out the window once I felt that we were slowing down. Guess we were close. Since it was now dark, and there were no streetlights, I had absolutely no idea where we were. Some parking lot obviously though.

“So we’re here.” Justin announced and got out of the car. I got out too and met him in front of the car where he linked our hands together and pulled me with him. We got to a big building with rows of doors to go into. Justin opened the far right one and once we were inside there was a huge sign indicating that this was an ice rink. And once we were inside I could feel the cool air of the rink.

“Are we watching a hockey game?” I said excitedly.

“Not exactly.” He said laughing. I looked around and saw that the place was completely empty except for us. I took another once over and then saw the Zamboni in the back garage and a guy sitting there reading a newspaper. So other than him, it was just me and Justin.

“What size of shoe do you wear?” Justin asked while pulling me to a bench.

“Six and a half in women’s.” I replied. He then disappeared into the office where they had the rental skates located I assumed. He came back quickly with two pairs of skates and handed me some. I looked at them and looked at how long the laces were and wondered how in the world I would tie them. I’ve never put a pair of skates on in my whole life. If I did skate it was just on my shoes.

“Um, Justin? You’ll probably have to help me tie these. I’ve never skated before so yeah.” I said sheepishly and blushing.

“No problem.” He laughed. He already had his on so he got up from the chair he was sitting in and knelt down beside me and started to tie up the laces on my skates. I was sure to embarrass myself since I’ve never skated before. But oh, well, I knew I was going to have fun. Justin stood up and held out his hands for me to help me up. The skates made us both taller and I liked it.

“Okay, so this is my first time on skates so if I fall just laugh it off with me, promise? I know I’ll make a fool out of myself, but right now I don’t care.” I smiled up at Justin as we were walking towards the door to go out to the ice.

“Promise, River.” He agreed and laughed.

Justin got on the ice first and then pulled me so that I glided with him across the rink. It went like that for a while, but then I insisted on him letting go of my hands so I could try it. I went as far as two steps and fell flat on my back since my legs flew from underneath me. Once I landed on the floor, I was silent for a minute, but then started laughing at myself. Justin quickly skated over and kept on asking me if I was okay, but I reminded him that he promised he would laugh with me if I fell, so then he stopped panicking and laughed while pulling me up from the ground.

“Okay, here. If you bend your knees a little to stable your balance and take little glides at first you should be okay. And then once you get used to it then you can take bigger glides. See if that works.” I did as I was told and soon got the hang of it. Before I knew it I was skating next to him at the same speed. Of course he was better and went slow for me, but at least I was starting to get the hang of it.

“You should show off some of your amazing hockey skills for me!” I said excitedly.

“I don’t have my hockey stick with me or pucks.” He replied.

“Aww. Well sometime then. Okay?”

“Yes, another time I will. Let’s get something to eat.” He pulled me by the hand again and led me off the ice. We sat down at the bench and took off our skates to replace our regular shoes. When Justin was putting our skates away the Zamboni came out of the garage and started to clean off the ice making it all nice and smooth once again. I stood up and walked over to the wall of the rink and looked through the Plexiglas. I felt someone’s presence to the right of me and looked over to see Justin holding a plate with a Jumbo pretzel and cheese on it with a two cans of soda.

“Mmm, pretzel with cheese.” I said licking my lips. We walked over to the bleachers and started to eat the pretzel.

“Not much, but it’s good.” Justin said.

“Mhmm!” I said nodding. We quickly finished it off and I got up to throw away the garbage. I have to say, this was a really great date. It was casual and fun, which is exactly what I like.

“So was this the best date you’ve ever been on?” Justin joked with his charming smile.

“It was the best first date.” I said.

“Wait, this was your first date? Ever?” he asked. I nodded.

“I wasn’t necessarily liked back home, I guess you could say. My best friend Micah and I were the overly quiet shy girls of our school or another way of putting it, loners.” I admitted.

“I don’t believe that.”

“It’s true. I only had one friend there, Micah. And we never talked to anyone but each other. But when I found out I was moving here, I wanted a new beginning and didn’t want to be the quiet girl anymore. The way I act around you and everyone else at school is the way I act when I’m around with Micah. She was the only one who knew my real personality back in Alaska. And since I moved here, I thought this was a perfect time to show the real me. Instead of regretting later in life of being quiet and shy.” I explained.

“Wow. Well I’m glad I got to know the real you. You’re an amazing person, River. I don’t know why you’d ever want to hide yourself.” Justin whispered. I then scooted closer to him so we touching sides and leaned my head on his left shoulder and looked out on the smooth ice rink.

“I don’t know either. I just, I’ve never been confident in myself and maybe I was scared. But I’m glad I got a chance to show the real me. I’m glad I got to meet amazing people like you. And now I’m happy that I actually moved, even though I miss Micah a lot. She was there for me since kindergarten. She was a true best friend. But Megan is almost like her and I’m glad I have her, too.” I confessed. “By the way, thanks for letting me vent out. It’s nice to tell someone this.”

“Yeah, no problem.” He set his head on top of mine and we just sat in silence for a few minutes. “I, uh, should probably bring you home now, since it’s now nine o’ clock and we have school in the morning.”

“Oh, okay. Thanks so much for tonight. It was the best first date anyone could ask for. I really enjoyed myself.” I said linking our hands together.

“Good, I enjoyed myself too.” He smiled and did his hair flip. He helped me in the Range Rover once again and then started going back to my house. The whole ride was in silence, but comfortable silence not awkward. And soon enough we were in front of my house and walking up to the entryway. I saw my mom’s car in the driveway next to my Jeep, but no lights on in the house, so she was probably asleep. I turned towards Justin, and we were actually the same height at the moment since he was standing on the second stair of the staircase and I was at the top.

“Thanks again for tonight, Justin.” I leaned in and gave him a hug and once I pulled back he placed a gentle kiss on my cheek. “You missed.” I whispered. He looked confused at first and then soon realized what I meant and leaned in again pressing his soft lips to mine. The kiss lasted for a few seconds or so, but it was all around perfect. His hands were gripping my waist and my arms were around his neck with my fingers playing with his hair on the back of his neck. When we pulled away, we were both gasping for air and staring into each other’s eyes. He pecked his lips against mine for one last quick kiss and then whispered a ‘goodnight’ into my left ear and then pulled away from me to go to his car.

That was the best first date and first kiss anyone could ever experience in their lifetime. And I was lucky that it was with Justin Bieber. This still all feels like a dream, as if I should be waking up from this perfect fairytale soon. But I knew that it wasn’t a dream, but reality, and I was joyful that I was living my perfect fairytale like every teenage girl wishes.