I'm Only Me When I'm With You [part3]

A Story by christina

Sofiee decides to hang out with Tanner for the evening as he tries to create the perfect date for her.

“Oh, she is pretty!” one of the guys said. I smiled awkwardly. “These are my friends: Cameron, Sam, Justin and Aaron.” Tanner said, introducing me to them. “Nice to meet you all.” I said to them. “You two, just the cutest darn thing I’ve ever seen!” Cameron said jokingly. I smiled and looked around in an awkward daze. “So, what are you doing out here?” Tanner asked me. “My parents, brother and I are out shopping.” “Do you maybe wanna hang out?” I looked at him; he was smiling at me. “I would like that, but you’re with friends and I’m with family.” I replied. “My friends can go hang out without me. Maybe if I met your parents, they’d feel more comfortable with us hanging out.” I chuckled and then realized that he wasn’t joking. “If you really want to, they’re next door eating.” “Hey guys, I’m going with Sofiee. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” Tanner put his arm around my shoulder and walked me out to the street. “Do you seriously want to meet my parent?” I asked in a nervous tone. “Yes I do.” We walked into the pizza joint; my stomach nearly in knots. I nudged Tanner’s arm off my shoulder and led him to the table with mom, dad and Alex. “Mom, Dad, this is Tanner. We met at the airport back home.” Mom looked up at Tanner and then at me. “This is the boy you were talking to the whole time?” “Yea, I just ran into him next door.” “Nice to meet you Tanner.” Dad said to him. They shook hands and Tanner said, “Nice to meet you too sir.” “Ready to go?” mom asked. “I was actually gonna ask you if I could hang out with Tanner. We’ll just go across the street to the shops over there.” I said to mom. “Absolutely not. This is our family vacation. Meant to be spent together with the family. Not random boys you meet in airports.” She said sternly. “Mom, seriously? It’s one night.” “Karen, she introduced him to us and they are just going across the street. We’ll be over there anyways. Let her go with him.” Dad said in a convincing tone to mom. “Daniel,” “Mom, please? It’s just for an hour.” I begged. “You can go sweetie. Call us in about an hour.” Dad said. Tanner shook dad’s hand and said, “Thanks sir. Nice to meet you, again.” He smiled at mom and said, “Nice to meet you ma’am.” He started walking towards the entrance; I followed.

We walked down the street in silence for a minute. “So, we’re you expecting to never see me again?” Tanner asked me. I smiled and said, “Yea, actually. I figured our parting at the airport was the last time I would get to talk to you.” “And did that make you happy or sad?” “Honestly, it made me kind of sad. I liked talking to you. You’re interesting and funny.” Tanner smirked and said, “You’re just saying that. I’m boring.” “No you’re not. I find you very interesting.” I replied. He smiled and asked, “Well, where to?” I looked around the street and pointed. “Hot Topic.” “Alright, Hot Topic it is.” We walked down the street to the intersection to cross. Tanner grabbed my hand and led me across the street. I was expecting him to let go after we reached the other side sidewalk, but he didn’t. Instead, he wrapped his fingers between mine and held a tight grip as we walked to Hot Topic. When we reached the store, he let go of my hand and we walked separate ways throughout the store. I went looking at different shirts, belts and wallets. I came across a purple and black wallet that matched my purse well. I picked it up and examined it. Tanner came walking up behind me. “You like that?” he asked. “Yes, but it’s more than I have.” I said, sitting the wallet back on the shelf. I walked over to the jewelry and looked at a couple of rubber bracelets I liked. I’m all for supporting my favorite bands and when I came across a The Ready Set bracelet that was only $6.99, I decided to get it. I walked to the cash register to pay for it when Tanner walked up beside me and sat the wallet I was looking at on the counter. “I don’t have the money for that.” I told him. “I’m buying it for you.” He said. He pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and started to pull money out. I stopped him and said, “No, you really don’t have to. I can come back another day and get it.” “I want to buy it for you.” He pulled out a wad of cash as the cashier rang up the wallet and bracelet. He handed her a $25.00 and she bagged up the stuff. “I’ll pay you back.” I said to Tanner. “No you won’t. I wanted to buy it for you.” He smiled a cheesy smile and threw his arm around my shoulder. I smiled and thanked him.

“I’m kind of thirsty.” I mumbled as we walked out of Hot Topic. “There’s a little café downstairs if you wanna go sit down and get something to drink. “Can we?” I asked. “Of course.” He said, leading me down a flight of stairs. He pulled out a chair from a small table outside of the café. “What would you like to drink?” he asked. “Sprite.” I replied. He walked into the café to order. I pulled my phone out of my purse to check the time. I had a text from Alex which read: going to the movies. call u when we r leavin. I pulled out my old wallet and started to clean it out and transfer things into my new wallet. Tanner came walking out of the café with two drinks in his hands. “Here you go.” He said, sitting mine in front of me. “Thank you.” I continued to transfer things from my old wallet to my new one. Sitting in awkward silence for a few minutes, Tanner interrupted. “So, you like The Ready Set. That’s cool. So you like pop-ish music?” “Yea,” I said. “I like a lot of alternative stuff too.” He smiled and asked, “Who is your favorite band or singer?” “Well, I really like My Chemical Romance, Never Shout Never, Paramore, All Time Low, bands similar to them.” I said. “Hmm. That’s cool. I like more of the rock bands like We Came as Romans, A Day to Remember, Miss May I, Of Mice and Men. Bands like that.” “Awesome,” I said. “Do you play any instruments?” I proceeded to ask. “I play the drums. The guys I was with earlier, we all play different instruments. We kind of have a band. It’s not official or anything though.” He replied. The first thing to come to mind when he said drums was ‘drummers are so hot!’ Of course, I didn’t tell him that. He’d probably think I was creepy. “That’s pretty cool. I always wanted to learn to play drums.” I said. He smiled but didn’t say anything.

We sat in more awkward silence. “Can I ask you a question?” Tanner asked. “You just did.” I said, smiling. He laughed and asked, “Would you consider this a date?” The word ‘date’ always intimidated me. I had never actually been on a one-on-one date but I had gone out on group dates. “I don’t know.” I said. “Oh. I was just wondering. What’s your ideal date?” He pushed, trying to get a yes or no out of me. “Well, I always imagined doing something adventurous or crazy.” I said. “Hmm…what’s adventurous to do in Hollywood at 8:45pm?” I smiled and watched him think aloud. “Come with me.” He said as he stood up and started walking towards some stairs. “Where are we going?” I asked. “For a walk somewhere.” He held his hand out and said, “Come on.” I grabbed his hand and walked with him down the stairs. When we reached the street, I asked, “Are you gonna tell me where we’re going?” “Nope. You’ll see soon.”

We had walked farther than the ‘Walk of Fame’ went on and around the corner. We reached the corner of the next street and approached a large building. “This is my school,” Tanner said. “Hollywood High School.” “Okay…” I said, completely confused. He led me into the gate which divided the street and the school grounds. He walked up to a door on the back of the building hidden behind some tall trees. “They never lock this door.” He said. “Won’t we get in trouble?” I asked. “No. No one is here and I’m cool with one of the janitors anyways so he’ll take the blame if anything goes wrong.” I followed Tanner through the school and up a flight of stairs to a room with large gray doors. “You’re school is huge!” I said. He didn’t say respond. He opened one of the gray doors and led me in the room. “Come here.” He said, walking towards a large drum set. I walked over to him and watched him sit down behind the drums. “What are you doing?” I asked. “I’m gonna teach you how to play.”