For You I'd Count the Salt Under the Sea.

I blinked, hoping that every time I opened my eyes again, the sun would disappear and I could just roll over and sleep again. Unfortunately, lunch shifts at the restaurant would stop me from doing that anyway, so I hopped out of bed and trudged over to the bathroom. I hoped that the hot water would flay the tired skin from my body and I could finally get around to being somewhat active before work, like the times before I turned into a lazy person.
Toasting bread seemed a lot more boring by myself, even with old episodes of Seinfield playing in the background. While I hovered over the toaster, butter on a knife, eagerly waiting to spread the crap out of that butter, my cell phone made awkward vibrating noises. I sauntered over to it and smiled, noticing that it was Vic.
“Hey, you” Vic sounded sleepy, but pretty enthused.
“Morning”, I replied, resuming my stance over the toaster.
“Just calling to let you know that I’ll be picking you up at like 5pm tonight for that date that I coerced you into”
“Oh, yer. Sweet. I finish work at 3pm so I should have enough time. Can I know where we’re going-Oh, fuck!” I yelled, into the phone. I was staring at my toaster, smoke rising from it in delicate tendrils.
“What happened?!” Vic sounded concerned and out of breath, like as if he sprang up from wherever he was sitting or something.
“Oh, it’s okay. I hope. I mean, I just dropped butter into my toaster and it’s smoking like it’s about to catch on fire, but it’s alright. I’ll just unplug it” I said all in one breath, pulling out the toast and yanking out the cord.
“Dude, what the fuck? How on earth did you manage to get butter in your toaster?” Vic started laughing. His laughing made me start laughing.
“I don’t even know. I’ll fill you in later. I gotta clean this shiet up and get ready for work. You can help make my apartment safe later tonight, cool?” I giggled, while moving my toaster as far away from water and electricity as I could.
“Cool. See you at 5pm. Oh, and don’t dress up too much tonight”.
I nodded, realising he couldn’t see me before I hung up.



Work flew by in a hurry. Jimmy told one of the chefs to spit in some old man’s burger.
“He was being a massive dick”, was his justification to Lisa, who overheard Jimmy’s modification to the order. After collecting my last few plates, I ran out of there as soon as I could. I needed to look perfect.
I never really understood how some girls could just throw on anything and look so effortless. Whenever I tried, I thought I looked just as messy as a dishevelled hat rack. After a well deserved shower, I put on a pale gray summer dress, a light blue jeans jacket that had striped material on the elbows, like pretentious college lecturers wear, and black Vans. I made my face look somewhat respectable and less fatigued from a day of work, and paced eagerly around my apartment waiting for the tell tale sign that Vic was here. After pacing around bored me, I flopped on the couch. Just as soon as I got comfortable where I was, the doorbell rang. I sprang up to answer it, smiling like a lunatic when I saw it was Vic.

“Hola Senorita”, I said to him, giggling while tipping an imaginary hat on my head.
“Good evening, Senor”, Vic mirrored my smile and curtsied like a girl, before kissing me on the forehead. “You look perfect”
“Perfect for what? I’m not even dressed up” I shrugged, trying to hide how red I was going at his comment.
“I don’t need you dressed up. You always look perfect”, Vic grinned, obviously seeing the red hue that covered my face. We stood in the doorway awkwardly for some time, me being too embarrassed to respond and Vic enjoying my reaction. The silence was finally broken when Vic checked his watch and hurried us out towards his car.
“We don’t want to be late now, do we?” he questioned, opening the car door for me like a gentleman.
“Where are we even going?” I asked, while fiddling with the hem of my dress and slightly headbanging to the music.
“The beach”



Vic brought a beach blanket and laid it out on the sand for us while the sun was setting. We weren’t all that hungry, so we opted to eat hot ships and watch the sun set, and made fun of random people who were still swimming around the beach. We talked for ages about the most randomest topics, until there was hardly anyone left at the beach. We decided to take a walk along the boardwalk that stretched out towards to the water.
“It’s pretty peaceful here at night, when there aren’t any kids running around”, Vic smiled, reaching out for my hand.
“It’s pretty peaceful anywhere when kids aren’t running around”, I laughed, squeezing his hand a little.
We got to the end of the boardwalk and sat down, dangling our legs over the edge of it.
“I’m pretty excited about this record deal and everything. I wouldn’t have ever have thought something this amazing would happen so quickly”, Vic beamed at me. It was an infectious smile and I couldn’t help but be excited for him as well.
“I’m really happy for you guys. Nobody deserves it more. Plus your music isn’t half bad!” I joked, rocking over to my left, nudging Vic”
“Oh, thanks, Anara” Vic replied, sarcastically, nudging me back. Then he wrapped his arm around me and leaned into the crook of my neck. He kissed the base of my neck before speaking again.
“You know, I’m happy about the band getting signed and all”, he kissed my neck a little higher, “but I think I’m more excited that you decided to go out with me”.
I blushed, and hit his arm slightly, mostly trying to hide how red I was turning.
“I mean it, Anara. You’re beautiful”
“Shut the fuck up and kiss me”, I wrapped my arms around Vic’s neck and pulled him towards me.
This first date was probably the best one I’ve had.