Dear Diary

Based entirely off the song "Dear Diary" by Britney Spears. Corny, and silly maybe. But it's a great way of getting past writer's block, and I've needed that.

    "Can I have a medium iced coffee, french vanilla with like one shot of skim milk and a whole lot of sugar?" I asked the girl at the counter.
    My best friend laughed briskly. "Jenna, I don't understand why you get skim milk and then a ton of sugar. It just makes no sense."
    I shrugged. "I don't get the skim milk cos it's healthy. I get it cos I don't like the taste of regular milk, and I hate cream." I looked up at the donut case. "Should I get a donut?"
    "No," my friend replied, looking at her phone.
    I smacked her arm gently and looked back up. My eyes drifted toward another part of the store and landed on the most beautiful man I'd ever seen. He had piercing blue eyes and a head full of what looked like the softest black curls ever. He grinned at something the girl making my coffee said, revealing a radiant smile. "Kelly, do you see that boy? He's gorgeous."
    Kelly glanced up from her phone. "He's okay," she said reluctantly.
    "Okay? He's... wow." I was breathless. Almost as if he felt my gaze burning a whole in him, he turned his head in my direction, still smiling. If I was breathless before, I reached a whole new level of being unable to breathe.
    The girl walked back over and rang me out, handing me my coffee and my change, which I promptly put into the tip bowl. She smiled and thanked me, and I walked out with Kelly, trying to catch the boy's eye again. It looked, however, like he'd gone out back because he was nowhere in sight.
    When I got home that night, I still couldn't get the memory of the boy's smile out of my head. I sat down at my desk and opened my diary, something I used much less frequently now that I was 16. I looked around for a pen and started writing...
    Dear Diary...
    Today I saw a boy, and I wondered if he noticed me; he took my breath away. Dear Diary, I can't get him off my mind, and it scares me cos I've never felt this way. No one in this world knows me better than you do, so diary, I'll confide in you...

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    I've always been a charming person, and when I really put my mind to it, no one was immune to my smile. A few days of visiting the coffee shop more frequently and talking to the workers, and I made a few discoveries about the boy that worked there. He was a year older than me, and when school started back up in September, he would be a grade ahead of me in school. He had just moved to the area near the end of June, which is why I'd never seen him before. And he was single. I'd yet to discover his name.
    A week after the first time I'd seen him, I went in to get a coffee and saw a friend from school, Dylan. We hadn't talked much over the summer, and it was nice catching up with him. He was in the middle of a story when the handsome boy came from nowhere and leaned against the counter, his back to me, listening to the story. When Dylan finished telling me how his sister "accidentally" dropped the cat in a bathtub, I started laughing. The boy turned around, also laughing and our eyes locked. He stopped laughing, but continued to smile at me. I turned pink and lowered my eyes shyly. When I looked back up, he was still smiling at me. He must know I've been coming here almost every day for a week just to see him. Maybe I should cool it, I thought. I turned my gaze back to my friend.
    "So what are you doing when you get out today? Maybe we can go get something to eat and catch up," I said.
    "I'd like that," he replied. "Dominic, are you doing anything?" The boy shrugged. "Dominic just moved to the area, and we're all trying to show him around."
    So his name is Dominic. I grinned. "Poor kid," I joked. Picking up my iced coffee, I turned toward the door. "I'll be back around 6:00."
    When 6:00 rolled around, I drove back down to the coffee shop to pick Dylan up, and he stood outside with Dominic. My breath caught in my throat when they hopped in my car. "Dylan, Dominic, long time, no see."
    "Nice to see you again, Jenna," Dylan kidded back with me. He turned to Dominic. "By the way, Dom, this is Jenna. Jen, this is Dom. I'm guessing you've never officially been introduced."
    Dominic's gaze locked with mine again and he smiled. "Not officially," he said enigmatically.
    We spent a few hours hanging out until Dylan had to go home. I dropped him first, and then Dominic gave me directions to his house. When he went to get out, he stopped and said, "Thanks for the ride. I had fun tonight. See you around." I watched him until he shut his front door behind him, then dropped my head onto my steering wheel.
    "I need my diary," I whined, driving home. I immediately darted to my room and opened to a blank page...
    Dear Diary, today I saw that boy. As he walked by, I thought he smiled at me. And I wondered, does he know what's in my heart? I tried to smile, but I could hardly breathe. Should I tell him how I feel or would that scare him away? Diary, tell me what to do... please tell me what to say...
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    A few days after hanging out with Dominic and Dylan, my phone rang close to dinner time. I got up from my computer and picked it up. "Hello?" I answered.
    "Hi, is this Jenna?" asked a vaguely familiar voice.
    "Ummm, it might be. Who's this?"
    There was silence for a couple of seconds. "It's, um, Dominic. Dylan's friend. We hung out the other day."
    I dropped the phone in surprise, and then immediately picked it up, taking a deep breath. "Oh, yeah, hey what's up?" I blurted out in an astonishingly calm voice.
    "Not much," he responded. "Um, I just wondered, um, well I got your number from Dylan. He gave it to me the other day. Um, he wanted me to call and ask if you wanted to hang out today after he gets out of work. But he's at work, so he couldn't call you himself... obviously, which is why I'm, um, calling." He was rambling. It was cute, and I could barely contain my desire to scream in excitement.
    "Dominic," I said, stopping him. "I'd love to. Do you want me to pick you up at your house or at work with Dylan?"
    "My house is fine," he replied.
    I smiled widely. "Okay, then, I'll be there around 6:00. Bye." I hung up and screeched. My mom came running in to see if I was okay, and when she saw the look on my face, she promptly turned around, shutting the door behind her. I could hear her muttering about boys on the way back downstairs, but I couldn't hold in my enthusiasm. I bounded after her. "Mom! You'll never guess what just happened!"
    "Let me guess, some boy called you?" She picked up the laundry basket from her bedroom and walked down to the basement. I trailed closely behind her.
    "Not just any boy! He's the most beautiful person ever! If you could see him, mom!" I sighed dreamily.
    She laughed. "I think he might be a little too young for me."
    Clearly, my mom wasn't going to be very excited for me. Annoyed, I left her to the laundry and went upstairs. It was 5:00, and I was too amped up to sit still for an hour. I'll go for a walk, I thought, grabbing a light sweatshirt and my camera. I shouted my plans to my mother and walked out the front door, heading for the woods behind my house. For an hour, I took pictures of trees and plants, even having the luck to run into a few small animals. My memory card was almost full by the time I headed back toward my house. I'd left my cell phone behind; I didn't like being bothered when I was taking pictures. When I walked into my room and looked at my screen, I saw I had two missed calls, both from Dominic. The first was minutes after I'd left. The second was minutes before I'd come back. I called him back quickly. "Jenna?"
    "Hey, what's up?" I asked breathlessly.
    "Catch you at a bad time?" he asked with a laugh.
    I laughed with him. "Nah, I was outside taking pictures and ran back upstairs really fast cos I thought I was late."
    Silence. "Well, actually Dylan already has plans, and I was, um, wondering if maybe you still wanted to hang out with just... me."
    I waited for the punchline. I waited for him to mention the girlfriend he had but never got brought up. I waited for something to ruin the moment for me. But nothing happened, and Dominic was waiting for a response. "Yeah, I'd love to."
    "Great. Um, I do drive, so if you want me to come pick you up, we can go to the movies or grab dinner or something. Whatever you want to do. I just need your address."
    A ridiculous-looking smile spread across my face, I gave him directions to my house. It would take him about 20 minutes to get here, and I got right to work trying to find the perfect outfit. I finally decided on a breezy white dress and a pair of silver sandals. I wore my bikini underneath it, like I had been all summer, and just as I was finishing up my make up, someone knocked at my door. I ran out of the bathroom and stood at the top of the stairs just in time to see my mother pulling open the door. "Hello, you must be Jenna's sister," Dominic said. I rolled my eyes but my mother bought it entirely, giggling and putting her hand up to her face like a girl my age.
    "Oh, Jenna, there's someone here for you, I think," she called, climbing the stairs. She saw me standing at the top, peeking around the corner. "He's very handsome. Good choice," she said as she walked by.
    I took a deep breath and walked downstairs, where Dominic stood in the entryway, waiting patiently. He smiled at me, and I returned it graciously. "Hi, Dom, how are you?"
    "I'm great, you?" he asked, taking my hand and leading me to his car.
    "Bye mom!" I shouted before shutting the door behind me. "I'm good. Nervous," I admitted shyly.
    Dominic smiled. "Why would you be nervous?"
    A blush rose to my cheeks, and I was glad he was looking in another direction. "Well, I'm sure you noticed me making quite a few trips to Cuppers since the first time I saw you there."
    "I might have, and I might be just about as nervous as you are," he replied.
    I felt like my breath was knocked out of me. "Well, then, at least it isn't just me." After a few seconds of silence, I came up with an idea. "How about the beach? We could just walk around; it usually isn't very busy this time of day."
    "Could you tell me where it is? I'm still not very familiar with the area," he said. I gave him directions, and after we parked, we spent two hours walking up and down the edge of the water, talking about where he moved from, about the school he would be attending and what he wanted to do when he graduated at the end of the year. About halfway through, he reached over to take my hand.
    He brought me home around 8:30, kissing my cheek before driving away. The door wasn't even shut behind me when I saw my mom plug her ears. I leaned back and let a goofy grin show on my face and my mom gave me a suspicious look, waiting for the scream. "Am I safe?" she asked carefully.
    I nodded dreamily. "Mom, it was the greatest night ever. We walked on the beach and talked and he held my hand, and he kissed me on the cheek. It was just amazing."
    "Well, I'm certainly impressed with him. He was very polite when he picked you up, he dropped you back at a decent hour, and I've never seen you smile this much before. I'd recommend keeping him around for a while," she said, walking away.
    I walked upstairs and grabbed my diary, laying across my bed...
    Dear Diary...
    One touch of his hand... now I can't wait to see that boy again. He smiled, and I thought my heart could fly. Diary, do you think that we'll be more than friends? Yeah... I've got a feeling we'll be so much more than friends.