17

Still looking out the window, I see Tom stepping out of the car and walking towards my front door. I run downstairs, get my bag with some necessities (phone, wallet and a packet of tissues), and open the door. I find myself in front of a handsome young man, complete with a pair of short jeans and a tight white t-shirt. I'll admit, with the shirt being white, I could see his chest a little, but I don't say anything.

"Hey, Nerd," he says, his stupid smirk returning to his face. He has brushed his hair, but I honestly preferred it messy and chaotic. I see his eyes travel down my body, and I shiver lightly.

"Hi, Tommy," I say.

"You're beautiful," he notes, and I smile and look down.

"Thanks. You look handsome too." I say.

He looks at me in the eyes, and I see his sparkle. "Shall we go?"

I grin. "Yes, let's go."

We walk towards his car together, and I can feel Karen's stare onto my back. I try not to turn around to look at her: I don't want Tom to know that I needed her help to get ready.

Tom opens the passenger's door for me, and I raise my eyebrows. "Wow. What a gentleman." I joke. Tom doesn't say anything, but smiles. He closes my door and runs to the other side, where he gets in the car and starts the engine. We drive off, but we don't talk. After a few minutes of silence, I speak up. "Where are we going?"

"I thought we could just go to the mall," he says. "Get some coffee, buy some stuff. Just hang out."

I know I had told Karen that we would probably have a simple date, nothing too fancy, but I was actually hoping I was wrong. I want a surprise. Maybe not flowers, an expensive meal and a horseback ride on the beach, but something special. I'm a little disappointed actually.

We arrived at the mall. Tom parked the car and we got out.

"Where do you want to go first?" I ask. I actually have no idea where to go, so I decided to let Tom make the decision.

"I know a good coffee place not far from here," he says as he tucks his hands in his pockets.

"Okay," I say, and we start walking. I get awkward almost immediately, but fortunately, Tom starts up a conversation. "Nice weather today, right?"

I almost laugh out loud. "Seriously? You're asking me about the weather? C'mon. You can do better than that."

Tom smirks. "Fine. You know what I'm going to do to you tonight?" he asks evilly.

My face must be pretty good because he bursts out laughing. "I'm joking, Nerd."

"Ha-ha," I say. "That's not funny."

"It kind of is."

I don't say anything, but Tom continues. "But, really. Let's talk personally." he pauses. "I already know your favorite color, favorite animal, your hobbies, your pets and that you've never had a boyfriend. What about… family?"

"Uh… okay." I say. "My parents are… pretty normal I guess. My father is a good guy, but he gets easily mad. My mother is an angel…" I pause for suspense. "…with my friends. She's a bitch with me."

Tom blinks. "Oh, come on. I'm sure she's not that bad."

"Oh, believe me, she is. She always gives me tons of chores to do, and she gets furious if I forget even one. I can never do my stuff, I always have to put her priorities first." I say.

At that moment I make a discovery about myself: I don't often start talking, but when I do, I say too much. Saying how my mother is a horrible human being is probably something you should say right before he meets her, not on the first date.

"Well, my parents aren't the best either. Once they punished me because I was rea–" he coughs. "I mean because I was five minutes late to bed. They told me that I had to be at home at ten, and I arrived at five past ten. I was grounded for a week." Tom explains as he laughs under his breath.

I chuckle. "Yeah, well. Someway or another, parents are always assholes."

"Agreed."

We have arrived in front of a coffee shop, so we walk in a place our order: a Latte for Tom and a green tea for me. We wait a few minutes when a woman calls out our name. We take our drinks and head out again. While we were waiting, a thought entered my mind, so when we get out I ask Tom a question.

"Why were you smiling yesterday?"

He frowns. "I can't smile?"

"No, I mean," I chuckle before explaining what I meant. "You were smiling like an idiot."

"I don't remember that," he says, then takes a sip of his coffee.

"Yes, you do." I chide. "Yesterday at lunch, I was reading and you approached me and asked me if I was alone. I said I was, because Karen had to go home. Then you said that you would be going to eat with your friends and you told me that you were sorry that you couldn't stay. I said that you shouldn't worry about it. Then you left and I kept reading." I explain. I look over to Tom and see the smile. The same smile that was stamped on his face yesterday.

"There it is!" I point at his face. "That same smile!"

Tom chuckles. "I'm glad you remember it so clearly."

"It was yesterday!" I protest.

He laughs. "Okay, fine." he takes a deep breath. "I smiled yesterday because when you said 'Yeah, don't worry about it', I had the feeling that you were really disappointed that I was leaving," he says. "And that might mean that you want me around, and that means that you like me."

I listen to his theory, but when he speaks the last few words, I freeze. "Uh… yeah, okay… I mean, no… wait, so…" I stutter, so I shake my head and start over. "What? Please." I say. "I was just telling you to not feel bad about leaving. There was no disappointment in my voice. Maybe you were disappointed about leaving."

"Maybe," he says, and I have a hard time understanding what that meant.

"And – by the way – I told you my type," I explain. "You are not my type."

Suddenly, Tom turns and faces me. He's inches away from my face, but I try to keep my cool. I can smell his intoxicating cologne and his minty breath. I take a deep breath, but just so I can inhale as much of his odor as possible.

"Maybe I am your type," he says quietly. "You just don't know it yet."

I don't know what to say, but luckily Tom shifts and moves by my side again. We change the subject to other things: our trips, our likes, our dislikes, and I actually find out that Tom is not a bad guy. He's funny, handsome, sweet, caring… and I don't get why he has such a reputation for being a bad boy.

"Oh, by the way," Tom says at one point. "Can I book you for tutoring again? We have a Math test in two weeks, and I was hoping…"

"Sure," I say. "We can meet next Saturday."

"Great, thanks," he says. "We just started a new topic, and I don't understand a thing."

"What's the topic?" I ask, and the conversation turns into a math lecture. Nevertheless, I surprisingly had a lot of fun. I found out some new stuff about Tom, and I feel closer to him, as a friend (of course, as a friend. What did you expect?).

Tom drives me home and opens the car door for me.

"Today was nice. I hope we'll do this again?"

I smile. "Yes, I'd like that. I had a lot of fun too."

He grins. Then he leans in and gives me a tight hug, which I'm grateful for. I'm not expecting a kiss, and I'm sure I wouldn't be ready for it anyways.

We break apart, but he still has my right hand in his. Like other times, he brings it to his lips, where he places a soft kiss.

"Goodnight, Emma," he says. Only later would I realize that he had called me with my real name.