“Dude.  Just do it.  You’ve gotten this far so you might as well seal the deal.” Trace said.

“You’re right.  Well….can’t keep her waiting.”  I had Nat right where I wanted her.  I can’t believe how nervous I was to talk to her before.  She was fairly easy to talk to but I still wanted to get to know her.  She confused me.  Sometimes she was shy and then sometimes she was the complete opposite.  Isn’t that how all women are anyway? 

While carrying the box upstairs, I kept trying to think about what I was gonna say to her once we got to her room.  It was hard to concentrate with her wearing those damn shorts.  Going up the stairs had to be the best part of my day.  If only she’d bend over…

SHIT! Snap out of it Justin.  Focus on the task at hand.

“Where do you want me to put this?”  She walked over to me to get a better look at the box.  She was so close I could smell her.  She smelled like…girl….

“OOO! Those are my pictures.  I’ll take it.” She went to go sit on her bed.  “You wanna see them?”

“Sure.” She motioned for me to sit next to her on her bed.  She looked so excited to show me her pictures.

“Look.  Here’s me when I was in kindergarten.  I was killin em with my pigtails.” Cute kid

“This one is of me and Nikki when we were in fifth grade. We thought we were hot shit.”

“What’s this?!?!” I pulled out a picture of her on the beach in a pink bikini and curly hair.  It was a beautiful picture.

She leaned over, looked, at the picture and snatched it from me.  “You can’t see that picture.” She was cute when she was embarrassed.

“It’s a nice picture. I like your hair like that.” I think I might have to steal it.

“You want it?” The picture or you?

“Yeah.”

“Take it.” I took it and studied it some more.

“You said you have three tattoos.”

“I do.”

“So you have a bikini on in this picture and I can only see one.”

“Like I said before, that’s for me to know and for you to find out.” She said as she patted my cheek.  I sat there in awe.  There was not possible way for her to hide two tattoos in a bikini…or was there…

“Ewww! My prom picture!”  I looked at it.  It looked fine to me.

“What’s wrong with it?”

“My date! Ugh...I hate him!  He’s dumb and ugly!”

“Why?”

“Looooong story. It would take all night for me to explain.” All night…sounds good to me.

“Go for it.”

“Ehh…I don’t feel like talking about it right now.” This was my chance.  Do it Justin.  Do it.

“How about over dinner?” Please don’t say no.

She looked at me with an inquisitive stare and then smiled.  I told you this girl was confusing.

“Maybe.” Maybe?? My own gimmick used against me.  She was good.  “I’m just playing.  I guess dinner would be nice.”

“Okay.  How about tomorrow night at 8?”

“That’s fine.” I could tell she was trying hard not to smile…so was I.

“Sooooo…”

“Yeaaahh…”

“I guess I’ll go now.”

“Ummm…you are NOT gonna leave me up here to unpack all this shit by myself.  You better sit back down.”

I laughed. “Alright I guess I could help you out.”

We spent hours going through Nat’s things.  She was an interesting girl.  She was smart.  She was funny…hilarious even.  Now I see why her and Nikki were such good friends.  On surface they seemed like opposites but after getting to know her, they were almost the same person.

“Okay Nat.  It’s getting kinda late.  I’m gonna go.” I said.

“Well let me walk you down stairs.”  We walked past Nikki’s room.

“Bye Nikki.”

“You’re just now leaving Superstar? Hmmm…see ya!” she said with a smirk on her face.  I’m pretty sure she’d know every detail of what happened today.  “Oh yeah! Trace said he was going to his house and he’d be by your place later. But that was a while ago so he might be at your house now.”

“Okay thanks.” He’s gonna give me the third degree once I get home.

“Alright Justin.  I guess I’ll be seeing you tomorrow.” Nat said.

“8 o’clock.”

“Yup.”

“Okay…bye Nat.”

“Deuces.” She said as I walked out. “HEY!!!” She yelled.  Did I forget something?

“Yeah what happened??”

She mouthed, “I love you.” Then laughed.  Someone’s been watching too much “Martin Lawrence: You So Crazy.”

“You’re crazy Nat. Bye.”  I was smiling all the way to my house.

 -------:::--------

“What are you so happy about?” My mom was in the kitchen.

“Nothing.”

“It doesn’t look like nothing.” She thought for a bit. “You must’ve been with Nat…awww how cute! Trace told me all about you guys!” Note to self, kill Trace tomorrow.

“Nat has nothing to do with me smiling mama.” There I go with the lies again.

“Yeah right.  I didn’t notice anything before but when Trace told me it all made sense!  She’s so cute.  Her mom told me about how smart she is and all that.  You picked a good one.”

“I guess.”

“So…are you guys gonna go out or anything?”

“If you must know…yes.  We’re going out tomorrow.”

“Awww…I’m so happy.  You better not ruin her either like those other girls.  I like her.” 

“I wouldn’t do that to her mom.” Okay so maybe I haven’t had such a good track record with girls but Nat wasn’t like other girls I’ve dated before.  I wouldn’t want to mess her up.  My mom would probably kill me if I did.

“Good because if you ruin this, I’ll kill you.” See?

“Where’s Trace?”

“In your room.  Speaking of your room, I’m gonna need for you to clean it up.  You just got here and already it looks like shit.”

“Yes mother.  I promise I will clean up.”  I walked up the stairs slowly.  I know as soon as I open my door, Trace is gonna be digging in my ass for details.

“J!! My man!”

“I’m assuming you want me to tell you what happened? Oh and thanks for giving my mom the details.”

“Damn right.  Spill it.”

“Well…we talked, laughed, and tomorrow we’re going out on a date.”

“That’s my boy!  See I told you once you stopped acting like a bitch, it would be easy.”

“Yeah I guess you were right.  She’s actually really cool.”

“So now that that’s out of the way, can we discuss the shorts because DAMN! If you weren’t my boy…”

“Don’t talk about her like that.” I said smiling to myself. “But I gotta admit those shorts were the highlight of my day.  She has three tattoos.”

“Three?  I didn’t see three.  I only saw the—OOOOOOOO!!!!!”

“Exactly.” I said as we high-fived each other. “She’s bad man.  Look at this picture she gave me.” I showed him the picture that she gave me earlier.

“Damn…you always get the good ones.” I did, didn’t I?

“You should try talking to Nikki though.  She’s cute.”

“Yeah and a little crazy too.”

“She’s more like you than you think.”

“NIKKKAAAAAYYYY!!!” I said running back up the stairs.

“I know you got something juicy so lemme hear it.” I swear Nikki lived for shit like this.

“We’re going on a date tomorrow!”

“Awww….my wittle baby is going on a date.” She said pinching my cheeks.

“Shut up!”

“So tell me everything.  You know I need all the details so I can visualize it in my head.”

“Okay, so we were in my room going through my pictures and stuff and we got to my prom picture-OH! I gave him a picture of me. But yeah we got to my prom picture and--”

“Hold up.  You gave him one of your pictures?  Which one?”

“One of the ones from when we went on Spring Break.” I said nonchalantly.

“WHAT?!  Lemme find out my Nat grew some WINGS!”

“I mean…he was dying over it so I told him to take it and he did.”

Nikki just smiled at me, “I’ve taught you well grasshopper.”

“Shut up and let me finish my story.”

“Okay okay go ahead.  I’m cool now.”

“So when I got to my prom picture I said I hated it because…well you know and he asked why.  I told him I didn’t wanna talk about it and then he said how about at dinner and I said maybe but took it back and said yes and now we’re going on a date!” I bet I sounded like an excited little kid.

“Awww…I’m happy for you!” she said hugging me. “Now we gotta figure out what you’re gonna wear.  You gotta look like a bad BITCH!”

“You’re right.  What am I gonna wear?”

“I know exactly what you should wear.” She said as she got up and walked towards my room.  She pulled out a black long sleeved, knee length dress that dipped low in the back.

“Don’t you think this is a bit much?”

“Not at all. You gotta do it big.  He’s never seen you dressed up.”

“But what if he’s not that dressed up?”

“When he comes to get you, I’ll answer the door and see what he’s wearing and then we can tweak your outfit. Easy.”

“So then we have to pick two outfits?”

“Yup.” Tonight was gonna be a long night.

To say I was nervous would be an understatement.  It’s only 9AM.  How do you wake up nervous?  I need to do something to calm myself down.  Maybe I could get my nails done or something. Lemme go see what Nikki’s doing.

I knocked on her door and heard her mumble.  She was probably asleep. 

“Nikki wake up.” she didn’t budge.  I know she heard me though. “Nikki get up.”

“No.” she mumbled into her pillow.

“But I need you.  I’m nervous about tonight.”

“Its early as fuck.  Your date isn’t until tonight.  Come back in an hour.”

“Okay, I’ll wait.” I sat on the side of her bed.  I knew she’d get up soon.  Within 5 minutes…

“FINE! I’LL GET UP!!” she said as she stormed to the bathroom.

“Yay! We can get our nails done today!”

“Yeah whatever.”