I Won't Say I'm in Love

I was sitting in my bedroom listening to my Pandora station. My insides were churning and I was trying to get my palms to stop sweating by using sheer mental force. It wasn’t working. It was almost six, the time that Nate had said he would be here. I had just gotten off the phone with Konstantina who had given me the run-down on what Nate did every date. I could expect him to give me a single rose plucked out of one of the many bouquets that decorated their house. He would arrive about ten minutes late and then complain about traffic. He’d sneak me into a local club called Psyche where we’d dance until about ten. He’d then take me to a hotel and try to get into my pants and drop me off at home within minutes of my curfew.

“You’re kind of bringing me down. I’m not all that sure I wanna go on this date anymore,” I had whined.

“Hey, you asked, honey. You can probably forget about the hotel part, but other than that, he sticks to a certain routine. I don’t remember one time that he’s ever done anything different.”

So now not only was I nervous about dating a college guy, this college guy had a dating “routine” that he never divulged from. I was almost ready to call and cancel, lie that I had caught a twenty four hour flu, but each time I had started to dial his number, I freaked out and bailed. Simply for something to do, I stood up and walked to my full length mirror.

I was dressed to kill in a hot black halter dress whose hem just made it mid-thigh and a pair of red suede pumps. I had decided it would be best to just leave my hair in it’s natural wavy style. I was wearing dangly red earrings and silver bangles on both arms. My make-up consisted of my best mascara to give my eyelashes a full dramatic look and gray and black smoky eye with vibrant red lipstick. I had finished off the outfit a thick red belt, a red jacket that came to my rib cage and a small red clutch that held my phone, make-up (in case I needed a quick touch up), my wallet and some emergency mints (Calypso's Outfit).

And let’s not forget Miss Marilyn Monroe’s favorite perfume, trusty old Chanel No.5.

As I was deciding whether or not to add tights, there was a knock on the door. I looked over and saw Emily poking her head in. “Nate is here, sweetie,” she announced. I glanced over at my clock on my bedside table and noticed that it was 5:58, two minutes before Nate said he would be here. Huh. I looked over at her, my heart ready to jump out of my mouth as I swallowed and nodded. “You look great,” she assured me. I smiled feebly at her before she winked and headed back downstairs, closing the door behind her.

I gently tugged at the small picture of Marilyn Monroe that was tucked into the frame of my mirror. I kissed it once and said, “Wish me luck,” before returning it to it’s original place. Taking a deep but shaky breath, I walked downstairs where, of course, all the boys—minus Jacob (he had decided to stay home so as to avoid my date)—were seated at the kitchen table, scrutinizing Nate. I saw him leaning against a counter, talking with Sam who looked to be somewhat impressed. As I stepped onto the linoleum floor, the heel of my shoe clicked, drawing Nate’s attention. He looked over from Sam and was breath taken. I couldn’t help but smile at his dreamy expression as he walked over to me.

“Hi,” he greeted breathlessly as he stood before me. I smiled and looked down at the ground before looking at him again.

“Hi,” I replied simply. He was now smiling at me and making my insides churn uncontrollably. He was wearing a chocolate colored button up shirt that, sure enough, matched my eyes, and looked magnificent next to his creamy, sandy brown skin. The sleeves were rolled up, showing off his perfectly toned forearms, covered in soft brown hairs. He had paired it with dark jeans and black dress shoes. “You stuck to your promise,” I said, tugging gently at the hem of his shirt. He took his eyes from my face for a moment to look down at his outfit.

“Oh. Yeah,” he laughed, scratching the back of his head. I smiled at this vulnerable gesture.

“Are those for me?” I asked him, pointing to the bouquet of flowers he had hidden behind his back. He looked at them, and then back at me.

“Oh, no. These are for Jared,” he joked, setting the flowers down in front of Jared who was sitting closest. He put on a mock face and stood up, sniffing the flowers.

“Oh my goodness! Nate! You shouldn’t have!” he teased in a high pitched voice as he playfully hit Nate in the shoulder. Nate laughed.

“Gimme those,” I ordered threateningly while smiling as I took the flowers from Jared's hand. He grinned and sat back down as I returned my attention to Nate. “Thank you,” I murmured. The scent of all the different flowers hit my nose as I lightly sniffed them. There were roses, marigolds, daffodils (my favorite), lilies, violets, daisies and more. Another surprise. I had been expecting a single rose, but instead, I had received a bouquet full of flowers. I wondered if maybe tonight would be different than Konstatina had specified. “I really wanna put these in a vase,” I said aloud.

“Way ahead of you,” Emily said, taking the flowers from my hand and getting ready to cut them so they could go into the vase she had already filled with water.

“You ready to go?” Nate asked as I set the vase in the middle of the table. I nodded excitedly and he smiled at my enthusiasm. “Let’s go then,” he said. He held out an outstretched hand, which I gladly took and received goosebumps as my skin came in contact with his.

“Twelve o’clock curfew,” Sam said from his corner. We both nodded.

“Of course, sir. She’ll be here,” Nate agreed politely. Sam nodded and we walked to the door.

“Night!” I trilled over my shoulder, addressing everyone.

“Good night! Have fun!” they all said back as I walked out the door which Nate was holding open for me. He closed the door behind him and we started up the driveway to his shiny red car when we heard someone behind us shout, “Hey!” We both looked back and saw Paul sticking his head out the window. He tossed something at us and I saw a glint of blue before it landed at our feet. Upon inspection, I realized that it was a condom.

“No glove, no love!” he yelled cheerily with a thumbs up. Nate and I both laughed and I flipped him the bird.

“Up yours, Paul!” I blurted before he winked, closed the window and we walked to Nate’s car, not picking up the condom. He courteously held my door open for me and I slid in, buckling my seatbelt as he walked around the car and got inside. Before putting the key in the igntion, he looked over at me and surveyed my entire outfit, but much slower than he had dared to inside.

“You look…amazing,” he breathed with a smile as his eyes met mine once more. I grinned and tucked a piece of hair behind my head.

“You don’t look so bad yourself,” I complimented before he started the car and began driving. It was an unusually warm night in Forks, Washington, so he had the top of the car rolled down. I cherished the feeling of my long hair flying behind me in the warm breeze. I couldn’t help but feel amazingly beautiful, what with the way Nate was glancing at me every so often as we cruised down the practically empty road to our unknown destination.

“I’m sorry I got you such a big bouquet. I wasn’t sure what kind of flowers you liked,” Nate shouted over the wind and the music.

“Daffodils are my favorite,” I yelled in response.

“Good! I put a lot of those in there, ‘cause I remember you mentioning that your favorite color was yellow,” he explained. I felt my heart get ready to jump for joy as I turned to look at him.

“You remembered?” I screamed. He frowned at me.

“What?” he bellowed over the noise.

“I said ‘you remembered’?”

“I still can’t hear you!” I sighed, but laughed. The situation was funny.

“I said—”

Before I could say anything, Nate turned down the music and began to put the top back up. “Damn wind,” he muttered with a small smirk on his face as the car was complete once again. He looked over at me and opened his mouth to say something, but immediately stopped when he saw me. He looked like he was repressng a laugh. “Um…” he hummed as he looked at me.

“What?” I asked.

“Your…” He pointed to his head with a meaningful look, but I was still lost. I shook my head to let him know I wasn’t understanding. He let out a laugh and then looked back at me. “Er…” he uttered. He reached over to my mirror and pulled it down. I looked at my reflection and saw that my hair was a mess. Little parts were sticking up here and there, making it looked like I had receved an hour long noogie.

“Meh!” I squeaked, immediately trying to get it to look nice. Nate however was cracking up in the driver’s seat. “It’s not funny!” I insisted, giggling.

“It’s cute! You’re fine,” he chuckled. It looked much better, but I knew it wouldn’t look like it did before Nate had started driving. We soon parked in a lot that I did not recognize. Turning off the car and rotating his upper body to look at me, he said, “Okay. Now what were you trying to say before the wind so rudely interrupted?” I laughed.

“I said ‘you remembered’?” I repeated for what felt like the millionth time tonight. “I mean that my favorite color is yellow.” He nodded.

“Well, I mean it’s kind of hard to forget, love. I haven’t met a lot of people whose favorite color is yellow and at first, I thought you were daft. But then you explained why—that yellow stands for optimism and hope—and I thought it was kind of brilliant,” he explained. I smiled, my heart practically bursting with delight.

“What’s your favorite color?” I asked him.

“Brown.”

“Why?”

He put on a seductive smile and said, “Because it’s the color of your eyes.” I rolled my eyes and scoffed.

“Do you wanna go ahead and get all your corny pick-up lines out of your system before we get out of the car?” I asked. He abandoned his act and laughed.

“That didn’t affect you at all?” he asked, seeming slightly intrigued. I shook my head and he laughed once more.

“Okay. Here we go,” he started. He then looked over at me and put on an Elvis worthy face so that couldn’t help but laugh.

“That's a nice dress. Can I talk you out of it?"

"I wish you were a screen door so I could slam you all day long!"

"There are 206 bones in the human body. How would you like one more?” At this point, I had my hand in my palm looking out the window and I was laughing quietly to myself.

“And of course, my personal favorite. Drumroll please!” he requested. I drummed my hands on the black dashboard while he shook out his hair and pretended to clean his teeth in his mirror as if he were getting ready for a big performance. “My love for you is like diarrhea: I just can't hold it in!” he finished with a dazzling smile. I applauded him and he pretended to bow and blow kisses to an imaginary crowd.

“So what’s your favorite color really?” I asked him again. He looked over at me.

“Dark blue,” he answered seriously.

“Why?”

He sighed as he contemplated his response. “I dunno. Dark blue just feels like it has soul. It’s deep. It gives you a sense of peace, but it also makes you hyperaware of your surroundings. And I know that sounds corny as hell, but…”

So maybe he does have actual interests, I thought to myself. I looked him in his eyes and saw that they seemed to go deeper than I’d realized.

“Why are you staring at me like that?” he asked softly. And he didn’t ask as if he was creeped out, but like he was truly curious.

“Because you may not be a shallow son-of-a-bitch,” I responded, my voice barely above a whisper. He gave me a gentle half smile before he got out of the car.

“Wait here. I have to set something up,” he ordered before shooting me his fantastic smile and closing the door. I heard him grab something out of the trunk before jumping down onto the beach.

The beach?

Looking out my window, I noticed that we were parked at what seemed to be La Push beach. I wondered what on earth we were doing here. It was practically deserted save for the few birds that were flying. I could see the sun setting over the ocean, painting the evening sky a multitude of colors like purple and pink. The sky seemed to be on fire the way that the red and orange and yellow were streaked throughout it.

I fished my cell phone out of my purse and dialed Konstantina’s number. “Yo!” she answered after the first two rings.

“The date isn’t going at all like you said it would,” I told her, getting straight to the point.

“Huh?” she muttered, not all that sure what I was talking about.

“Okay. First off, he showed up at my house at 5:58. Two minutes before he said he’d be there, not ten minutes after,” I started. “Then, he got me not a single rose, but a big ass arrangement of flowers; practically a garden. It looked like a rainbow. And I am telling you all of this in the parking lot of La Push Beach. Not in line for the club ‘Psyche’.” I finished. She didn’t say anything.

“Really?” was all she could manage to utter after all that.

“JK! No, I’m really in the club right now, dancing next to Nate on the dance floor with a giant martini in my free hand. He not only got me one rose, but a wilted one and he showed up at my doorstep in sweatpants and a nasty, grease stained t-shirt at 6:31,” I said sarcastically. She was silent.

“So wait, are you or aren’t you at Psyche?” she asked, playing dumb.

“TINA!” I scolded, calling her by her nickname, not able to help laughing.

“Well, I don’t know what to tell you hun. Enjoy it while it lasts ‘cause only God knows if this is all a dream,” she answered seriously. I soon saw Nate walking back to the car.

“Tina, sweetie, I gotta go,” I whispered quickly.

“Have fun!” I heard her shout as I closed my phone.

“Who was that?” Nate asked, holding my door open for me.

“Emily. She just wanted to know how the date was going,” I lied smoothly as I accepted Nate’s hand and we started toward the beach. He hopped down onto the sand and held his arms out for me. I leaned forward and he caught me, then set me down next to him. “Thanks,” I said, smiling up at him with my hands still on his shoulders.

“You’re welcome,” he replied with a charming smile, his hands resting on my waist. Taking my hand again, we began walking down the beach. In about a minute, I saw a few small lights shining up ahead.

“What’s that?” I asked, squinting to get a better look.

“Wait and see,” he said vaguely, squeezing my hand.

“I’m not a very patient person,” I confessed in a whining voice.

“Well you should learn then, shouldn’t you love?” he teased in a low voice as he pressed his forehead against mine while we were still walking. I scrunched up my nose and giggled before parting my face from his. Soon, I recognized just what Nate had gone to “set up.” He had arranged for us a romantic moonlit dinner on the beach. There was a red and white checkered cloth spread smoothly on the soft sand, just a few yards away from the edge of the tide that lapped gently at the shore. A golden candelabra was sitting on the cloth, the orange and yellow fire perched on top of the tall, white wax candles, twinkling merrily in the night. A large platter of spaghetti could soon be seen sitting in the middle of the cloth accompanied by two silver forks and two champagne glasses that were filled to the brim with a bubbly, amber colored liquid.

My jaw dropped at the sight of all this and Nate merely chuckled next to me. I sat down on the sand, still marveling at the elaborate dinner and he sat across from me, on the other side of the tablecloth. “So whaddya think?” he asked. I looked up at him in astonishment and couldn’t help but laugh.

“It’s…amazing!” I breathed, returning my gaze once more to the lovely picnic. “And what made you decide on spaghetti?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow at him. He threw his hands in the air and smiled at me.

“It’s the age old romantic dinner! It’s priceless! Unoriginal, but priceless nonetheless,” he explained slyly. I nodded as I laughed in agreement and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear after I removed my hat from my head, setting it down behind me.

“True, true,” I agreed without argument.

Nate lifted his champagne glass in the air and said, “To the most uncreative, but romantic first date ever.” I threw my head back and laughed, the warm breeze catching my hair and causing it to lightly whip around my face as I looked back at Nate.

“To the most uncreative, but romantic first date ever,” I toasted, raising my glass in the air as well. He smiled his brilliantly white smile at me, I doing the same, before we clinked the tops of our glasses together.

“Let’s eat!” Nate said, picking up his fork. I smiled and began to eat the spaghetti along with him. After he took a bite, he made a face and pouted.

“What?” I asked him. I thought the spaghetti was delicious.

“I forgot the cheese,” he whined apologetically. I laughed.

“It’s really okay. The food is really yummy,” I assured him, already twisting my fork in the noodles before I took another bite.

“Did you just say ‘yummy’?’ he asked me, raising and eyebrow. I laughed and nodded.

“Yeah, you got a problem with it?” I questioned. He shook his head and put hs hands up in the air as if in surrender.

“Nope. No problem.”

“Well good!” He laughed.

“Really? You think it tastes okay?” he inquired. I nodded as I chewed.

“Totally. Did you make this?” I asked him I set down my fork, replacing it with my glass of sparkling cider. He shrugged.

“Yeah,” he admitted as if he didn’t really want to. “I threw it together kind of last minute.”

“It’s really good,” I told him, kicking off my heels and laying on my side, propping my head up in my hand. He took off his shoes as well and leaned back on his arms, looking out at the water.

“Hm.”

He had a contemplative look on his face, so I asked him, “Are you okay?” He looked over at me and nodded.

“Yeah! Yeah, totally,” he promised. He then sighed as he rolled over onto his side to face me. “There’s just something I want to tell you, but I don’t know how you’ll take it.” I frowned, seriously thinking about what could be so bad.

“You’re not gay, are you?” I asked him cautiously. He burst out laughing hysterically. Slightly taken aback by this sudden outburst, I jumped, and then watched as his face turned red and his shoulders shook. After a few seconds, he wiped a tear from his eye and turned back to look at me.

“No. That’s not it at all,” he said, smiling at me. His face slowly became solemn again as he contemplated the fact that he still had yet to tell me what was so horrifying. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and said,

“I want to be a gourmet chef when I grow up.” He then opened his eyes and looked at me.

I blinked at him before I burst out laughing. His face flushed and he looked away bashfully. “That’s it?” I asked hysterically. He frowned at me, confused by my acceptance of this statement. “I mean, I’m sitting here thinking that you’re a serial killer or a dad or computer hacker, but you just want to be a chef?” I explained through my laughter. Nate smirked, obviously embarrassed by his melodramatics and shrugged.

“Nate, that’s great!” I exclaimed. “Do you know where you’re gonna go to school?”

“I’m thinking about this one culinary arts school in London. It’s at Le Cordon Bleu International. I’m applying this year so that by the end of my sabbatical, I’ll know what the hell to do with my mess of a life,” he informed me. I nodded as I took another bite of the delicious food. Nate did so as well.

For the remainder of the meal, we just talked about us. Who we were, first date stuff. I noticed that both he—and I—avoided talk about our previous families until we had finished off all the spaghetti. We packed everything up, put the basket in the trunk of the car and began to walk along the moonlit beach, hand-in-hand.

The sand had a supernatural glow to it. It was whitish and the pebbles and rocks shined mysteriously. And although the water was dark, it looked inviting as the white froth on the crest of the waves peeked up to say hello to the moon before crashing on the shore. Then I asked the dreaded question.

“How did you become an orphan?”

There was silence. I was afraid I had said the wrong thing, ruined the whole night. But then Nate took a deep breath and said:

“My parents were killed in a fire when I was five. They were at work and I was at school. I’ll never forget the day it happened. It was September 19, 1996. My kindergarten teacher, Ms. Grey, was writing on the blackboard. She was teaching us about addition. I was sitting in between Katie Franklin and John Parker. A man in a black police suit and hat came in and whispered something to Ms. Grey. She turned around and looked at me. Said that the man needed to see me. All the kids watched as I stood and followed the officer out of the room.

“My hands and knees were shaking. I had thought he had found out about the mean note I had written to Kelly Pickler because she wouldn’t let me play House. Or maybe he had found out that I had taken some pipe cleaners from the class so that I would have some at home to play with. But what he told me was much worse. The man walked outside with me and leaned against a railing. I was almost crying by this point, but I refused to. I wanted to look tough if I got busted for stealing pipe cleaners.

“‘You’re Nate Henley, yes? Child of Penelope and Kevin Henley?’ he asked me. I nodded defiantly, ready to fess up to stealing those red and yellow and pink and orange pipe cleaners. The man sighed and shook his head. He looked down at me and I noticed that his wide brown eyes didn’t look scary and menacing, but sad and serene. ‘You’re so little…’ he whispered. Then, leaning down so that his face was level with mine. He told me that my parents were dead. That they had died in a fire that had been started at work. Some idiot had set his cigarette on a wooden desk before leaving to go to the bathroom. My parents were one of the few casualties of the accident.

“I didn’t say anything. I didn’t feel anything. I didn’t know what to do. I felt empty. Although the sun was shining, it was cold. I just stared at the man’s face, the only thing I was capable of doing was listing out his body parts like Ms. Grey told us. Chin…hair…ear…nose…eyes…. The man reached out his arms and pulled me into him. Setting me on his lap, he held me close and that’s when I started crying. I started crying and I couldn’t stop. I was sniveling all over this man I had never seen before, let alone met, and he was letting me. He was letting me cry all over his nice, ironed police suit and was holding me like I was his own kid.

“After a few minutes, he picked me up in his arms and, with me still crying, took me out of school. We went for a ride in his police car and, when I wouldn’t stop crying, he asked me if I wanted to turn the sirens on. I looked up at him, sniffing my nose, tears still leaking out of my eyes, but no longer sobbing hysterically. I nodded my head yes and climbed over onto his lap. He steered the car around me and I flicked a switch. Suddenly, the car was filled with piercing, screeching sounds. I knew that on top of the car, white and blue lights would be going off.

“The man laughed at my excited face when the noise started and he sped past stop lights and through traffic because, as a police car, he could do that. I laughed and bounced up and down making the police officer laugh too. We stopped by a diner and we ate and talked. Later on, the man took me to the station and all the people on the force thought I was amazing. All the women couldn’t stop holding me and feeding me things and Nikolas—that was the man’s name—said that I was a ladies’ man.”

I snorted. “No kidding,” I muttered. He laughed and then continued with his story.

“Nikolas and his wife, Katerina, adopted me and I met their daughter Konstantina. I later learned that the family was Greek and were in London for a few years, helping Katerina's widowed sister for a while. When they moved back to Greece, they took me with them, and I lived there from the time I was seven. We grew up together, a much happier family than should ever be acceptable.” I laughed at this. “But it happened again,” he said serenely. “Only this time, I was at home with Konstantina. We were watching the telly while playing a game of Scrabble when the doorbell rang. Tina ran to get it; our parents were supposed to have been home hours ago. I remember her scared voice when she appeared in the living room again, a policeman behind her, telling me an officer was here to see us.

“He asked us what I remember Nikolas asking me. ‘Are you Konstantina and Nate Katsaros?’ But he slipped up on the next question. Instead of saying, ‘Are your parents Nikolas and Katarina Katsaros, he asked us ‘Were your parents Nikolas and Katerina Katsaros.’ I could see something register in Tina’s face and I felt it register in mine as well. All I could think was, not again.

“‘What do you mean were?’ she asked shrilly. ‘They are our parents,’ she insisted. I stayed quiet. My eyes trained on the stranger who was standing in our living room. He sounded sorry. But I could tell by his face he didn’t give a damn. ‘I’m afraid not anymore, miss,’ he said in haughty, know-it-all voice. He told us of how they had been killed in a tragic car accident a couple of hours ago. He gave us no more details. Tina was still in the background shouting ‘THEY ARE! THEY ARE!’ the whole time. But the man had simply continued, just wanting to get this finished so that he could go home. To his family. ‘I’m so sorry,’ he lied. I wanted to punch him in his smug face and throw him out our window. I was getting ready to do so when Tina threw herself into my lap and began wailing uncontrollably. I wrapped my arms around her and rubbed her back as she sobbed into my shirt. I had never in my life seen her so vulnerable.

“‘Do you have anybody that you can stay with?’ the jerk asked uninterestedly.

"‘Our uncle in Forks, Washington, U.S.A’ I said coldly. ‘He is—was—our mom’s brother,’ I choked out. When I said ‘was,’ Tina had looked up at me abruptly. She looked at me as though I had betrayed her by admitting, by accepting the fact that our parents were dead.

"‘If you give me the number, I can make the arrangements,’ the stranger said, getting ready to write it down. He did so, bid us good night and left. Tina sat and cried in my arms all night, muttering ‘They are…they are…’

“A few weeks later, we found ourselves on the doorstep of our uncle’s house. He let us in and treated us kindly. He became a friend to us and Tina and I realized that it could have been much worse. He could have been a hateful person who didn’t like children. So we sucked it up and tried—try—to go on with our lives as best we can.” He had finally finished his story and by this point, I was sure we had walked at least half a mile.

My blood had run cold. These things should never happen to someone in real life. These were things that existed in horror movies and fables with morals like “Never steal pipe cleaners or all your beloved will die.” But this was real. It was happening to someone I directly knew. Two people I directly knew. This wasn’t an idea conjured up by Nate’s imagination. This was the story of his life.

“I'm so sorry,” I whispered to him. And I truly was.

“I’m not,” he said with a quick squeeze of my hand, surprising me.

“Why not?” I asked him.

“Because I would have never met you,” he said, a slight smile on his face.

“Is that another one of your pickup lines?” I asked him.

“No,” he whispered.

And that was when I realized he was beautiful.

In order to dilute the very significant moment, I reached over into the water and splashed some on his face. In his shock, he stumbled backwards a few steps, letting go of my hand. I stood up and smiled at him as he wiped the water from his face. Standing where the water kept lapping around my ankles, I cocked my head to the side, waiting for his response.

“You shouldn’t have done that…” he warned playfully, a mischievous smile on his face. Once he began racing toward me, I shrieked and ran farther into the water, giggling. Soon, the hem of my dress was sitting in the ocean. I then turned around to face him and splashed some more water on him. He was only a few feet away from me and this stopped him for a moment before he retaliated with a splash of his own. The cool water hit my face and I closed my eyes against it. Without looking back at him, I turned my head and splashed water in his general direction. He was splashing me and laughing as well and after a while, I decided to run in the other direction.

“You can’t run away you prat!” he shouted through his laughter.

“Did you just call me a prat?” I giggled, looking over my shoulder at him as I kept running deeper and deeper into the water. I saw that he was catching up with me and so I tried to run faster.

“Yes, I did just call you a prat!” he chuckled. Looking back over my shoulder, I realized that he was just moments from catching me. In a desperate attempt to evade capture, I dived down underwater and began swimming. I heard a splash and looked behind me. Sure enough, Nate had come under too. Smiling, I tried to swim away, but he caught my ankle. I twisted around and tried to pull it free, but he used it as a means to pull himself closer to me. Soon enough, he had grabbed my hand and we swam out as far as we could before our lungs were about to burst. We both surfaced, gasping for air.

“Well that was fun,” he said, still panting.

“But now we’re both really wet,” I pointed out. He cocked an eyebrow at me to let me know that what I just said could be easily misunderstood. Laughing, I dunked his head underwater and kept him there for a couple of seconds. Eventually, he broke free and resurfaced, laughing.

“C’mon. I see a cove somewhere over there,” he said. We both swam for about a minute until we came to a sheer rock face in which there was a small cove just a few feet above the water. Nate climbed up first and then reached a hand down to help me. I joined him and we both crawled as far back as we could, which was only a few feet. We could see the water through the small opening, but nobody and nothing would be able to see us. He laid down and I laid on top of him and we both just watched the water and talked for a good hour or so until we dried off. By the time it was eleven thirty, Nate and I figured we had to start leaving. Nate climbed down and, once he got his feet firmly planted on a rock, he helped me out of the cove.

Then, to avoid getting wet again, he helped me across a small path of rocks that seemed to have been formed millions of years ago just for this specific moment. One time, I had almost tripped and went flying forward. My arms caught Nate around his neck and I felt my cheek press against his chest as his arms encircled my waist. Without moving my face, I looked up at him with my eyes only. “Are you okay?” he asked while smiling down at me. One of my feet was placed on a rock about two feet behind me while the other was dangling in the water. I moved them so that I was standing on the same rock as he was, my butt sticking up in the air, and then straightened up to face him. The rock we were sharing was so small that our bodies were pressed close together.

“Yeah,” I whispered, my nose touching his. I couldn’t help but stare at his lips and wonder how they would feel on mine…

“Um…we should get to the car…” he murmured quietly after swallowing. I could feel his skin heat up next to mine and I so wanted to kiss him and hold him and never let him go. But he took my hand and helped lead me back to the blanket. We gathered up our things and headed to the car. On the ride home, we stayed silent and listened to music. But it wasn’t an awkward silence. It was a chosen one. One where you don’t mind not saying anything as long as you’re with the right person. All too soon, we had arrived back home and, after getting my shoes out of the trunk and putting them on, we walked to the front door, just because it was a longer ways away.

“Here we are. At your house,” Nate said as we faced each other on the porch under the small yellow light that resided above the doorway.

“Yup,” I said, not quite sure what else to say. Nate chuckled and looked at the ground, obviously amused by my lack of skill.

“Um, I had a really great time tonight, Calypso. Really. It was, by far, the best date I have ever had,” he told me, stepping just a bit closer.

“Same. I really enjoyed it,” I agreed as he moved even closer.

“That’s good,” he nodded, now less than an inch from me.

“Too bad we didn’t catch the same noodle. We could’ve kissed,” I said jokingly, trying lighten the mood. Nate wasn’t having it this time though.

“Whoever said you need a noodle to kiss?”

Then, placing both of his hands on my waist, he slowly pulled me into him and craned his head until his lips were touching mine and I was gone.

Sighing, I placed one hand on the back of his neck and the other on his shoulder, trying to press my body as close to him as I possibly could and then closer. I was in utter bliss as his lips moved with mine, and his tongue explored my mouth. I ran my hands up and down his chest and arms and when he gently sucked on my bottom lip, I couldn’t help thinking, Wow. He’s really good at this.

We stayed like that for some time, intertwined in one another’s arms until I’m sure it was twelve o’ clock. My phone began ringing in my back pocket and, without removing my lips from his, I pulled out my phone with one hand and looked at who was calling over Nate’s shoulder with one eye. Still kissing him, I saw that it was Sam. Unsure what to do, I stared at it for a few seconds until Nate, who still hadn’t stopped kissing me or opened his eyes, calmly reached behind his head, took my phone and chucked it behind him into the bushes. I giggled and closed my eyes as he intertwined his fingers with mine and let our hands rest on his shoulder. I wrapped my other arm around his neck and we stayed like that for a while. We never stopped for breath because, after a while, it felt unnecessary. I would much rather die of suffocation from kissing Nate for too long than stop kissing him; I was sure he felt the same way too.

A few minutes later, I could hear my phone ringing again and knew that Sam was worrying inside the house, pacing the way he always does when he’s anxious. Reluctantly prying my lips from Nate’s, I murmured, “I really think I should get going now.” He groaned and put both arms around my waist to pull me tighter to him.

“He can wait for just a few more minutes,” Nate complained into my lips before he began fervently kissing me again. I was getting ready to protest again before his tongue slipped into my mouth, making my brain turn into mush. I let my fingers become entwined in his hair as he rubbed my back. The best part of the kiss wasn’t the actual kissing, but the feel of his heart beating against mine. It was surreal, but believable; foreign but familiar; strange but…

Perfect.

Sure enough a few minutes later, my phone rang again. Nate groaned, making me smile and he straightened up. I turned so that I was leaning against the door. I grinned up at him as I twirled my keys around on my finger. “Sweet dreams, love,” he said, smiling down at me.

“Sweet dreams,” I said, grinning at an inside joke. I remembered when Kyle had said the same thing and I had no idea what to say. Now I was prepared. Thank you, Kyle, I thought smugly to myself. I turned and opened the door and stepped inside. I turned to close it, but Nate stuck his foot in before I could. He opened the door wider so that I could poke my face through the opening. He leaned down and kissed me gently and it was good that I was leaning on the doorknob or I was sure I would’ve collapsed. He then pulled back just enough so that his lips were still grazing mine, but he could talk.

“When will I see you again?” he whispered. I pecked him once more on the mouth.

“I dunno.” Peck. “What about—” Peck. “Tomorrow?” Long, soft kiss.

“I guess I can—” Peck. “See you when I—” Peck. “Drop Tina—GET OUT HERE!” he growled playfully. I giggled as he pulled me onto the porch once more before holding me in his arms and we started kissing again. I pulled the door shut behind me and he pushed me against it. He braced his arms against the wall so that I could feel his weight, but it wasn’t crushing me. We kissed for another minute before he pulled away just slightly so that he could talk. I stroked the back of his neck as he played with my hair, looking me in the eyes. “So I’ll see you tomorrow?” he asked me. I nodded. “Hm…and you’re sure I can’t sleep over?” I laughed.

“I’m sure.” I then pulled his face down to mine and began kissing him once more before I heard my phone ringing again. Frowning, Nate and I parted. “Grr…” I growled. He laughed and pecked me once more on the lips.

“I’ll see you later.” I reluctantly watched him walk to his car, get in, wave and drive away. I smiled and floated dreamily back into the house. Sam hung up when he saw me come in and I could see that he was angry and I did want to care, but I couldn’t. I was still too giddy from my date.

“Where have you been?” Sam demanded as I sat down at the kitchen table and rested my head on my arms, still smiling. I realized that Jake was here, but I didn’t pay him any attention. He, however, was staring at me quite strangely.

“On the back porch. We were here on time. We just stayed out there for about twenty minutes,” I said in a weird, absentminded voice.

“Doing what?” Jacob yelled. All I could was peek over my arm at him, giggle and bite my bottom lip. I knew that if I saw myself right now, I would puke at the girlyness I was exuding, but I was so hopelessly gone, I couldn’t care less. Jake just rolled his eyes and frowned at the toaster.

“So I’m guessing you had a good time?” Emily laughed. At least she was happy for me. I nodded contentedly with a small, peaceful smile on my face and buried my head in my arms.

“I am so happy…” I said slowly. Emily laughed, but Sam and Jacob just snorted.

“So what did you guys do?” Emily asked. This sentence seemed to fill me with a jolt of energy because I hopped up from my chair and looked at her wide eyed.

“OH MY GOD! Emily, it was better than I could have EVER imagined! First we ate a dinner of spaghetti on the beach and talked! Then we took a moonlit walk and talked! Then we had a splash fight and then we swam to a cove and cuddled and talked! Then we walked back to the car and drove home! Then we kissed, and kissed, and kissed, and kissed, and kissed, and KISSED and—NYAH!” I slumped back into my chair and closed my eyes, resting my head on the table. “Mmmmm…” I moaned gleefully.

“So you guys talked a lot?” Jacob said bitterly after a few moments of silence. I laughed strangely. Slowly, I stood and sighed.

“I'm going to bed. I shall see you all tomorrow!” I said before skipping happily up the stairs and humming to myself.