The One Before The Date

After everything, I can't wrap my head around that this is a date with Iann... Lord, help me.

“So here we are,” I say. “Now get outta my car.”

“Thanks” He replies, leaning over to kiss me. I quickly dodge his lips and kiss him on the cheek. He looked at me with a slightly annoyed face on. But he gave me a quick peck on the lips before very quickly jumping out of my car and running to his doorstep. Before I took off, I bookmarked Ianns address in my Waze, and then left for home. This is Friday night, and he said next Saturday, so does that mean tomorrow, or a week from tomorrow? I shouldn’t text him already to ask him, and besides, I’ll sound stupid, I’ll... go with a week from tomorrow. 

The next week Iann and I made sure not to make eye contact at school, until Friday after school. That day I parked in the back lot of the school which was always deserted, because I wanted to talk to him before Saturday. I was waiting back there, and I texted him to meet me back there, and he came almost immediately.

“I thought you forgot about me.” He said, walking up to me.

“How could I forget the person who stole my first kiss?”

“I didn’t steal, I borrowed, here, I’ll return it.” He said that as he starts kissing me, I kiss back, but not for long. 

“Ok, I didn’t want to meet you back here for that.” I said, taking a step back

“What did you ask me back here for then?”

“To talk, like the text said.”

“Oh, you meant that? most girls just say that.”

“I’ve already established that I’m not most girls.”

“No, you said everyone else.”

“Same difference.”

“What did you want to talk about?”

“I figured out who you are.” I said, smiling.

“What?”

“You, know, who you are as a character from a TV show.”

“I forgot you were a geek.”

“Problem?”

“No, no, just… forgot.”

“Anyways... Your Jess.”

“Jess…”

“You know, Jess from Gilmore Girls?”

“Uhh…”

“Never mind.” I say rolling my eyes.

“Who are you then?” He says pointing at my chest.

“There is no character in the history of the world of screenplays that match the intelligence and originality of my brain.” I say, crossing my arms with a big smile across my face.

“I didn’t know you were a nerd, too.”

“No, I didn’t mean I’m smarter, that meant that the exact grade point average of my grades are not matched with any character. Most characters are either super smart, or super dumb, I like to think I’m in the middle somewhere.”

“oooook.” This time it was Iann who rolled his eyes.

“You need to watch Gilmore Girls, though,” I say after a short pause.

“That sounds like a sad teenage soap opera.”

“No, it’s great, well, in my opinion.”

“You also find Doctor Who and Star Trek Fascinating and Star Wars “too simplistic””

“There is a lot of kissing scenes, too you know.”

“Do you take me as someone who is intrigued by that?”

“Well, maybe it would be cool to see two people kiss, where one of them isn’t you.”

“That seems boring.” He says, leaning in to kiss me, yet again. I return the favor, reaching up to kiss him back. He puts his hands on my waist, and I wrap my arms around his neck, we go at it for a while, actually, I was so glad we didn’t get caught in all that time. I eventually pull away.

“Better save some of that for tomorrow.” I say patting him on the shoulder.

“Will do.” He says, turning around, to walk back to… I don’t even know. When I turned to walk to my car, I saw Nicholas. He was friends with Iann, and despised me almost as much as I did him. My eyes widened, so much so that I thought my eyes would pop out of my head. I froze, and it looked like he did, too. I didn’t know what to do, he was standing right next to my car, and I didn’t want to just pass him and act like, well, him. I slowly grabbed my phone out of my pocket and started texting Iann for help, keeping eye contact with Nic, not letting him out of my sight as if he was a Weeping Angel. Not long after I sent the text, I could hear Iann walking behind me, and then stop. I didn’t want to look back at him, so I continued being paralyzed. I guess Iann worked up the courage to talk, because I heard him talk to Nic behind me.

“Hey, bro, whats up?” He sounded so different from the way he was just talking to me. 

“Uhh, hey, bro, umm…” Nic responded, usually he is super loud and obnoxious. So hearing him like this was a big surprise to me. He has talked to Iann as he was making out with a girl before, in his normal tone, so why does he act like this to me? Am I special or something? I just stood there, until I felt Iann nudge me in the back. I stumbled forward, and slowly walked past Nic, not making any more eye contact. I got in my car turned on the ignition, and sped off as fast as I could. I later got a text from Iann saying Nic will keep his mouth shut, but not to talk to him ever again, which I didn’t plan on doing anyways. 

The next day, I woke up, and reality hit me in the face like a brick. I am going on a date… with Iann… Iann. If I told my 7th grade self that right now, I would’ve slapped myself across the face because of pure stupidity. Iann… ugh. He is that one kid that every teacher hates, yet almost every student praises. He’s the one kid that never turned in assignments on time, if he turned them in at all. He was… he was my date. I’m such an idiot, why would I say yes to him? Why would I let him take advantage of me in that f*****g closet? Why? Maybe I can tell him I’m sick, my brothers sick, My dad got in a car accident, My mom is having another baby, ugh… In the middle of my freakout, my best friend Patricia texted me.

“Hey, Lovey!” She texted.

“What?”

“Todays the day right? Your date with Iann?” I already told her everything that happened, she is the one person I don’t keep secrets from.

“Yes… but I’m having serious second thoughts.”

“Your thinking back on 7th grade, aren’t you?”

“Yes…”

“Iann teased you, horribly to say the least. But you were 12! You hadn’t gotten serious about skin care, yet, and your face looked like a pepperoni pizza. Even I made fun of you a few times.”

“I thought about how my 7th grade self would’ve slapped me across the face if I told her that I was going out with Iann.”

“Yea… thats probably true, then my 7th grade self would’ve slapped Iann… wait, that would cause a paradox…”

“So would slapping myself. I bet my 7th grade self was planning it, I would rather the world implode then go on a date with Iann.”

“So when is it again?”

“The date? He said eight. I don’t know if I should dress casual, or fancy… ugh, I hope casual.”

“Text him.”

“No! I can’t text him! The date is tonight!”

“I’m gonna go with casual, since he isn’t picking you up, and your driving to his house…”

“Actually, I think I should text him.”

“Ok… change your mind much?”

“I don’t want my first date to be me driving to a boys house!”

“Ok, text him!”

“But I can’t!”

“Then don’t.”

“But I have to!”

“Lady, I will drive down to your house and text Iann on your phone for you!”

“Fine… ok… I will.”

“Good luck!” She texted before I backed out of our conversation, into Iann and mine on my phone. I typed these exact words.

“Hey, I was thinking about tonight, and I thought it would be more romantic if you actually picked me up to go somewhere, and… before eight, so places are still open.” I looked at the text before I sent it, and decided to copy and paste it and send it to Trish so she can read it over before I send it. A while later, she responded.

“Great! But, I thought you didn’t want to go in public?”

“S**t! Thats right! Common Sense, brain, have you heard of it?”

“What if you go sorta outta town?”

“Good idea! Like… Riverside?”

“Thats a drive.”

“Ok, ok, Barstow?”

“Perfect! About twenty minutes away, not too far, not too close.”

“Alright” I say, then I change the text to this,

“Hey, I was thinking about tonight, and I thought it would be more romantic if you actually picked me up to go somewhere, and… before eight, so places are still open. But, so no one finds out, how about we go to Barstow? I don’t think anyone we know will be there.” I once again send it to Trish first so I know I won’t sound stupid, but she gave a positive review, so I was safe to send it. I read over it once more, and finally hit the little send button. I immediately regretted my decision, but it was too late to take it back. I toss my phone on my bed, and start eating a pop tart from my hidden pop tart stash under my bed. That is actually the one thing Trish doesn't know about me, actually, because no one touches my pop tarts! A while later I got a text from Iann, and I think my heart stopped for a second, but then I just had to remind my heart that it was Iann, I said one date, no more, no less.

“I was wondering when you would change your mind. I’ll be there at 6, be prepared for a twenty minute drive.” Why is it he sounds so sentimental in his texts? In real life he always looks like and acts like a total Douchebag, always... until recently… I was starting to think he had split personalities. I realized I should respond to the text.

“Will do.” Was it obvious I was making fun of him? I realized there was a smile on my face. One date, no more, no less… I had to remind myself, over and over and over, until, the doorbell rang. I ran to the door, and realized I wasn’t dressed until after I half opened the door. But luckily, it was Trish!

“You, my friend, are so lucky that I am not Iann, What are you wearing?” She said as soon as she saw my face.

“Well…”

“You are lucky you have me.” She says as she barges in and walks straight into my room. How did we ever become friends? We are polar opposites. Whatever, I need help, bad. I walk into my room to see dresses and makeup covering my bed, She's crazy, and I also saw Trish looking at me with a scary grin, she's really crazy. About a half an hour later, I looked in the mirror and saw how Mulan felt at the beginning of her movie. 

“Don’t you think this makeup is a little much?” I say, staring at myself in the mirror.

“Nope.” Trish says, looking very pleased with herself.

“My hair?”

“Beautiful.”

“I don’t like it up.”

“Well, I like it up.”

“Ok, I’ll make you a deal, you decide which goes, these shoes, or this hair tie.”

“Come on!”

“Make up your mind or their both coming off.”

“I paid good money for those shoes, so I guess you can wear that sloppy hair of yours down.”

“Thank you.” I say pleased that I don't feel like my hair is one light tug away from all getting ripped off of my head. I look in the mirror once more, feeling slightly better, but I still have ten pounds of makeup on my face. So when Trish wasn’t looking, I rubbed that stupid lip gloss off, and the stupid eyebrows. Of course she noticed but we were too lazy to fight so we just sat there, on my bed for a while waiting for Iann. I felt another anxiety attack coming on, and I guess Trish read my mind, and threw the water she was drinking in my face before I could start panicking. 

“Thank you.” I said, while grabbing a towel.

“Anytime.”

“It’s just…”

“No.”

“But…”

“No.”

“I…”

“No! Your not getting out of this, you have been a lonely little b***h for too long.”

“… But it’s Iann.”

“Yes, and I feel like your head is going to explode if you think about it again.”

“Iann was my first kiss.”

“Yes he was.”

“I don’t want him to be any other firsts.”

“It’s up to the future you. What if you have a fun time tonight?”

“I don’t want him to be another first.”

“He might.”

“When someone asks me who all of my firsts were, I don’t want it to be, Oh, Iann, Iann, Iann, Iann, and oh, yea, Iann”

“I feel like your slowly turning more and more into Rory from Gilmore Girls.”

“Hey, thats funny, I made a reference to that to Iann.”

“Don’t tell me you told him what character he is.”

“… I did…”

“God d****t. You said Jess didn’t you? Jess was your favorite character on that show.”

“Iann just reminded me of him…”

“I swear soon I’m gonna turn into Lane, but with a way cooler mom and not Korean… Not trying to be racist.”

“Good save,” I say as I plop on my bed once more. “You know? He’s going to be my first date. First date, first kiss…”

“Shut up and eat a pop tart.”

“How’d you know about that?”

“I’ve known for 5 years. It better be the only secret your trying to hide from me.”

“Do you think we will eat?”

“You mean You and Iann?”

“Yea…”

“I think you should save room, and I’ll prepare Top Ramen While your gone Just in case.”

“Your awesome.” I say. She tries to hug me but I dodge it, I don't like hugging… but apparently I like making out… ugh. A while later the door bell rings, and this time I took a peek outside my window to make sure it was Iann. When I looked out, my eyes widened, and I think I fell paralyzed once again.

“What are you looking at?” Trish says as she walks over to the window, “Oh, my God…” She fell paralyzed, too. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I snapped out of it, and ran to the door. I and paused before opening it… I can’t believe he did this… What the hell is he thinking? Once again, the thought that this is Iann comes to mind… But I push it aside… and I open the door, theres no going back now.

Author's Note

Please don't spam me for cussing, you can leave if you don't want that, but other than that comment anything, grammar problems, misspelling, etc. but most importantly, tell me what you thought of the story!