Sun-Kissed

As he leaned into the kiss more, I could feel his hand grab mine tighter and tighter. He must have realized what was happening because he suddenly pushed himself off of me.
“What was that?” I asked.
He looked into my eyes once more “I...I’ve got to go.”
Before I knew it, he was out of my room and out of the house. I didn’t know what to do so I just sat in my room and replayed that kiss over and over in my head. It was both everything I ever imagined it would be and completely revolutionary. I didn’t even come out of my room until the next morning when it was time for me to go to work once again. Lorena tried to ask me what happened, but I didn’t want to gossip about something I knew nothing about. He could have just been experimenting or maybe he had an out of body experience or maybe he was possessed by a gay ghost or demon. Who knows.
At The Book Beetle, I was so distracted by the kiss that I could hardly get any work done. All I really did was sit at the counter and montage it in my head. Some customers started to come in around midday and that sort of snapped me out of my daze. That’s when I really started getting to work. I started to do the inventory. I was towards the back of the shop, sitting on the floor, counting Sci-Fi novels with authors whose last names start with G when I heard the bell of the front door to the store. I was about to get up to greet them when Owen came to the aisle I was in. Without saying anything, he walked over and sat next to me. We sat together for a couple of minutes in silence.
“I’m sorry,” he finally said, breaking the silence.
“For what?” I asked earnestly.
“I...shouldn’t have kissed you. You probably don’t even like me like that and I just pushed myself onto you. It was not okay.”
I smiled and put my hand on top of his. “Owen…” He kept his head down in shame. “Owen look at me.” His head slowly moved up to look at me. “Owen, I do like you like that.” I couldn’t believe what I was saying, but it was true. I liked him like that. I liked him like that a lot.
His eyes lit up and he smiled that unbelievable smile of his that sends shocks through my body. “Really?”
“Yes.”
“You would not believe how much I was killing myself over what I did. First I was confused. I’ve never liked a guy before. I didn’t know what to do with those feelings.”
“You’ve never liked a guy before?”
“Never. I guess I first realized that I think I liked you here, at the Beetle. I was asking all those questions and I realized that I really wanted to get to know you. I kind of pushed it away though, or at least I tried. Then, when my friends treated you like shit, I felt so angry inside and I wanted to cuss them out so bad for doing that to you. I realized that there was no hiding it or pushing it away.”
“That was a really quick realization.”
“I guess there was always something in the back of my head that I liked guys just as much as girls, but I guess the fact that I liked girls was enough for me to suppress it. Then I met you and fucked it all up.” He smiled. I melted. He leaned over and gently pressed his lips against mine. “I’ve gotta go. I’m supposed to walk my dog. What time are you off?”
“Six,” I answered.
“Do you want to go out?”
“Owen, are you asking me on a date?”
He laughed. “Yeah, you got a problem with that?”
“Okay,” I answered. “Let’s do it.”
“I’ll pick you up at your place at eight.”
He gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and then ran out of the store. There went any chance that I was going to finish the inventory. Mr. Peters was not going to be happy with me. But I had been doing what I was supposed to for the few weeks I had been working there. That could have given me some brownie points.
The first thing I did when I clocked out of work, I called Robbie. I still hadn’t told him what happened with the kiss last night after watching The Notebook. When I told him, he didn’t really believe me at first, but there was nothing I could really do to prove it to him. He didn’t ask me out over text so there wasn’t any physical proof. I ended up telling Robbie to come to my house at around seven-thirty. That way he would see when Owen showed up at eight. He agreed and we hung up. Then, I hurried home to prepare for our date. When I rushed into the door, Lorena stopped me.
“Hey, what’s the rush. Mom’s feeling better. She wants to have dinner with us.”
“No, I can’t. I have plans.”
“What plans? Mom wants to have dinner. She hasn’t come out of her room in days. She needs us there.”
“Lori, please. I can’t cancel these plans. This is like once in a lifetime shit.”
“Unless you’re about to have dinner with President Obama or Oprah, I think you can cancel your plans.”
“I don’t have time for this.”
“Don’t have time for your family? Listen, Daniel, you’re being a little shit. Now go and cancel any other plans you have and help me make dinner for mom. Anyway, you don’t have any friends besides Robbie. It can’t be that important.”
Her comment stung deep and it almost made me cry, but I was too mad for that. Her face fell, knowing she had gone too far with her comment. Instead of responding, I turned around and went to my room. I started to look through my clothes. Suddenly, I felt like I had no good clothes to wear. My next thought was that I didn’t know where Owen would be taking me, so I didn’t know how I should dress. Was he taking me to a fancy dinner? I don’t have any fancy dinner shirts. Was he taking me to a regular dinner? Or maybe to a movie? Or maybe to both? What do I wear? I picked up the phone and called the only other person I knew who had been on enough dates to give me advice, my brother Victor. I had to be careful to not let slip that my date was with a guy, though.
“Victor, what do I wear to a date?”
“Holy shit, my baby bro’s got a date?”
“Yeah, yeah...just answer the question.”
“Who’s the lucky girl? Is she hot?”
“It’s no one. Just like, what do I wear?”
“I don’t know. Where are you taking her?”
I’d have to come with something on the spot. He couldn’t know that I was the one being taken out because he’d start asking more questions. “I don’t know yet. I was gonna wing it.”
“Winging it is not a good idea, bro. You need to have a plan.” He paused and I said nothing. “Look, it’s supposed to be a nice night out. So if you really don’t know what to do, maybe take her to the pier. A Ferris wheel at night is always a hit with the ladies. They eat that shit up.”
“Okay, but that still doesn’t answer my question.”
“Shit, right. Well if you’re going to do something outdoors and short sleep button-up and some jeans should work well. And none of that baggy shit. Girls like more fitted stuff and it looks cleaner for a date.”
“Thanks, man, that helps a lot.” It didn’t, but he tried.
“Good luck bro. Tell me how it went.”
“I will.”
Even though Victor’s help didn't actually help, I kind of decided to go with what he suggested. After I showered and shaved and put on my best cologne, I put on a short sleeved button down shirt and my best fitting jeans. I don’t really have nice shoes so I just picked a pair of Converse that looked less beat up than the other shoes that I own. While I was making sure that none of my clothes were wrinkling in the floor length mirror on the other side of my door, I heard the doorbell ring. I looked at my alarm clock on my nightstand: seven-thirty-three. It was Robbie. When I got to the door, Lorena was already talking to Robbie.
“Sorry Robbie, I know you and Danny have plans, but our mother is feeling much better and she wants to have dinner with us. We need some family time.”
He looked passed Lorena and at me. “Oh so did you cancel your date with Owen?”
“Date with Owen?!” Lorena repeated in shock. “Is that what you have planned?”
“Lori, can you say that louder so mom can hear?”
“Sorry, but I’m just in shock.”
“He asked me out today at The Book Beetle.”
She squealed. “Oh my god! Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Would it have changed your mind?”
Her face fell. “No. Honestly, Danny, we need to be there for mom. Owen seemed like a nice guy. I’m sure he’ll understand.”
“I’m dressed already. He’ll be here any minute. I can’t cancel on him now.”
She had a look on her face like she was trying to figure out a solution. “Why don’t you have your date here? Ask him to have dinner with us.”
“Oh yeah, Lori, like you ever wanted your first date with the guy of your dreams to be a dinner with your mom and sister.”
“I don’t have a sister,” said Lori.
“Guy of your dreams?” It was Owen.
I looked over and Owen was standing right behind Robbie in the doorway. I could feel my face get super hot. Robbie, being the amazing best friend that he is, turned around and introduced himself to Owen.
“I’m Robbie, Danny’s best friend.”
“Oh...cool. I’m Owen.”
“I know,” said Robbie. Robbie put his hand on Owen’s shoulder and leaned in. He whispered to him as if he didn’t want me to hear, but I could. “You hurt my best friend...I’ll cut your balls off, and feed them to my cat.”
“Okay, thank you, Robbie! Lori, can I please go?”
She sighed. “Alright, you might as well. He’s here. Maybe I’ll call Victor and he and Becca can come over.”
“That sounds great!”
I moved past Robbie and Lorena, took Owen by the arm and led him to his car. When we got in, we sat there for a moment. I caught him looking at me. He quickly looked away.
“I think you’re allowed to look at me if we’re on a date, Owen.”
He blushed. “It’s just…”
“What?”
“You look amazing.”
I looked at him. He had a light blue button-up shirt on that was long sleeved, but his sleeves were folded up to his elbows. He had on dark blue jeans that fit him perfectly. His hair was pushed back in a quaff.
“So do you…” I responded.
“Can I kiss you?” He asked, nervously.
“Please do,” I answered.
He leaned over and was about to kiss me when there was a tap on the window. We both jumped. I turned around. It was Lorena. Owen rolled down the passenger side window.
“Hey Owen, can you please have my brother back by midnight?”
“Who am I Cinderella?”
“No, but you are my little brother, a minor.”
Owen smiled. “No problem, Lorena.”
“Thank you,” she said with a smile.
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” she called as she turned around to walk away.

Owen brought me to a restaurant that had tables on the beach. The host led us to a table that was kind of far from people next to an outdoor heater. There were candles on the table and actual cloth napkins. I felt a little underdressed.
“I would have dressed nicer if I knew you were going to bring me here,” I said.
“You look perfect,” said Owen. He took my hand and then got a worried look on his face. “So, this probably isn’t a great first date conversation, but I have to ask about Robbie.”
“Man, I’m so sorry he said that to you.”
“It sounded a bit territorial like he was jealous.”
“Ha! Robbie? No. We’ve known each other since we were like seven. He’s like a brother to me.”
He still looked worried. “Are you sure?”
“He’s totally straight. He’s just protective of me, like an older brother would be, even though we’re the same age.”
“Okay.”
“There’s one more thing,” he added. “I like you, I do, but I want you to know that I’m not going to tell anyone about us. I’m just not ready for anyone to know, especially not the team.”
What he told me stung a little. It kind of felt like he was ashamed of me. I knew better in my head because I knew what it was like to not want anyone to know your deepest darkest secret. But in my heart, I wanted to shout from the rooftops how much we liked each other and I didn’t understand why he wouldn’t. I slipped my hand from under his. That’s when the waiter came to take our order and I realized something really important.
“Um, Owen…”
“Yeah?”
“I can’t afford anything on this menu.”
“Don’t worry, man. I asked you out. I’m paying. I have my allowance saved up from when I was like ten.”
“Holy crap, I dunno, Owen. This is expensive.”
“I wanted to bring you someplace nice. Get whatever you want.”
I ended up ordering chicken because it was the cheapest thing on the menu. After we ordered, a sudden wave of guilt enveloped me. It wasn’t because of the price of the food, but because of my mother. I realized that Owen probably would have understood that my mom wanted to spend time with me and that I probably shouldn’t have blown off my own mother, who was depressed, for a date.
“Is everything okay?” Owen asked.
“Yeah, I just have some things on my mind.”
“Maybe I can help,” he offered.
I wasn’t sure that I wanted to bring up my mom. What if it made Owen feel guilty? I didn’t want to ruin the date, but something told me that Owen doesn’t give up.
“It’s just my mom.”
“How is she doing?”
“I think she’s doing better. She hasn’t really been out of her room besides to use the bathroom in about a week. Lori had to call her job for her or else they would have fired her. It’s a good thing they understood.” I paused. “Anyway, apparently she came out today and talked to Lori and wanted to have dinner with me and her.”
“Oh, that’s nice. When does she want to have dinner.”
“Oh, it was tonight, but I told Lori I couldn’t make it because I was going out with you.” Owen’s face got sad. “What’s wrong?”
“What if your family hates me now?”
“It’s okay, Lori got over it and I’m not even out to my mom so Lori probably told her I went out with Robbie or something.”
“I don’t want to keep you from spending time with your mom, but...I’m glad we’re here too.”
When our food came and I finally got to taste the most expensive chicken I had ever ordered, I could see why it was so expensive. It was probably the most delicious chicken I have ever had. Owen must have seen how much I was enjoying my food because he had the biggest smile on his face. When we were done and he paid for the whole thing, I was still a little uncomfortable letting him pay for such an expensive meal. After dinner, he took me to the pier. I hadn’t been to the pier after dark in years. When I went with family or Robbie it was always during the day. We didn’t hold hands as I had pictured in my head, but it was still amazing. All of the lights and the smell of salt and sugar in the air made it a perfect night. The first place he took me was the arcade.
“Okay, so know you’re not great at video games, but I brought you here because I kind of look at this place in a special way because it’s the place that was kind of like our unofficial first date.”
I smiled. “How sweet. This is perfect.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
Before we started to play anything, Owen declared that he wanted to win me something from the claw machine. It was kind of a cliche machismo thing for him to want to do. Was I suddenly the “girl” on this date? I guess my first hint should have been that he paid for the dinner, but his explanation that he asked me so he wanted to pay seemed to throw me off. I didn’t think he meant to weird me out by it, so I just went with the flow. I was actually having a good time at the arcade again, which didn’t even happen when I was with Robbie at the arcade. I always begged him to hurry up.
It was basically the perfect date, until what happened next ruined it. Owen and I were playing Tekken 4 when he got tapped on the shoulder. It was Owen’s friend Cody. It was hard to forget that curly blond hair. He seemed a lot bigger up close. He was definitely a football player because he had the broadest shoulders I’d ever seen on someone besides my dad. I could tell Owen was not happy to see him and I think maybe Cody could tell as well.
“What the fuck, man? I thought you said you were going to stay in tonight?” Cody asked Owen not even acknowledging that I was present.
“Yeah...I was, but I decided not to last minute,” Owen answered.
“So why didn’t you call us? You knew we were going out.”
“Well, I wanted to come to the pier and I didn’t know what you guys were gonna do.”
“Dude, you know we always come to the pier before partying at Hannah’s beach house.”
“How did you even know I was here?”
“Dude, we were walking past and I saw you. You’re lucky I was the only one. Come on let’s go party. We’re going to Hannah’s.”
“Naw, I’m good man.”
“What the fuck, man? You’re ditching us for this guy? He looks like a fucking fag.”
I could see Owen’s face get bright red, but he wasn’t embarrassed. He was mad. I don’t know how I knew, but I could just tell. Cody gave up begging and turned around. He was about to walk away, but Owen grabbed his shoulder, spun him back around and punched him across the face. It happened so fast that I barely had enough time to process. Cody was knocked to the ground.
For the first time the entire night, Owen took my hand, but it wasn’t to hold it. He pulled me and we ran out of the arcade and as far away as we could so Cody couldn’t follow us. When Owen was satisfied that Cody wouldn’t be able to find us, he stopped running. We happened to stop in front of a gelato place so he pulled us in.
“Let’s get some dessert,” he said.
When we ordered, I told him that I wanted to pay. He didn’t seem happy, but he agreed. I got chocolate hazelnut and he got caramel.
“Is your caramel good?” I asked.
“Yup. Wanna taste?” He smiled.
“Sure.”
In retrospect, I should have seen this coming. We did just watch The Notebook and there is a moment in the movie where Allie offers Noah ice cream and then smashes it into his face so she can kiss it off. Owen sticks out his gelato cone so I can try it and I go in, but of course, he smashes the gelato all over my mouth. He smiles and looks around before kissing me to lick it all off my face. It was a welcome kiss. It was the first time we were able to kiss this entire night. It was only because the shop worker wasn’t even paying attention and there was no one else in the shop. Finally, the shop worker got up and walked over to us.
“Guys, I’m sorry, but we’re closing so you got to leave.”