“Since you got the movie tickets, I'll get the ice cream,” I told Kate as soon as we entered the ice cream parlor. It was a local chain and was known for having super creamy ice cream and a large variety of toppings. If you were a kid who had grown up in the area, you had definitely begged your parents at least once to take you to Mama and Joe’s Ice Cream. Rumor had it that there had never actually been a ‘Mama,’ but that the original owner, whose name had not been Joe, had thought it made the store sound more wholesome with it in the title. The ‘Joe’ was tacked on for a more blue collar feeling. So basically our little local ice cream parlor was totally fake, but it still had delicious ice cream, so nobody really cared. I’d always felt that it represented current American culture perfectly.
It was not the same place where I’d worked and had had my first kiss with a girl. Things had been too weird after Sarah kissed me, so I had quit and hadn't been back to that ice cream parlor since. There was no way I could take Kate there, or any other girl, for that matter. Mama's had better ice cream anyway.
She argued, but I got my way in the end. We got to the counter and put our orders in, and after I paid, we got a small table against one of the back walls. The ice cream was good, and I tried not to eat too fast, to avoid getting a brain freeze. Also, I didn't want to come across as a pig in front of Kate. I'd been known to spill food now and again, so I tried extra hard to avoid that.
“Are you ready for the exam next week?” I asked in between bites. Kate seemed to be enjoying her food, if the speed at which she was eating was any indication.
After swallowing a spoonful, she said, “There are still a few more concepts I'm having trouble remembering, but I think with a few more study hours I'll be ready. It really helped that we went over some of the more complicated concepts at our study session. Thanks again for taking the time to help me with that.”
I brushed off her thanks. “It wasn’t a problem. History is one of the classes that I actually like. I don’t know if I study more because I like it, or if I like it because I understand it better than my other classes.” I shrugged. “Either way, it helps with my grade.”
After another bite of my ice cream, I asked Kate, “What’s your favorite class? Or at least the one you hate the least,” I joked.
She immediately answered. “Definitely physics. I like all of the science classes I’ve taken so far in school, but physics is my favorite. The theoretical ideas and the practical applications are all so interesting. I know it’ll be hard, but I’m seriously thinking of majoring in it in college,” she revealed excitedly.
I felt myself melting. Not only was she gorgeous and nice and willing to go out with me, but she was smart, too. I considered anybody who liked math or science to be smart, because whoever actually liked those subjects had to have major brainpower to understand what to me was basically an alien language.
“That’s impressive,” I said sincerely. “Your parents must be really proud of you. I think mine would dance for joy if I told them I’d picked my major already, never mind choosing something useful like physics. I see in my future a general humanities degree, and then the next forty years of my life spent in an office processing paperwork for some huge corporation,” I told her with a shrug. “I’ve come to the realization that no big, exciting career awaits me. I’m sort of complacent about my future role as a cog in the machine of the greater international economy.”
“Hey, you sound like you’ve already given up and you’re not even out of high school yet,” she admonished. “What are your dreams, your secret goals? You like history, why not try something with that? I could definitely see you as a professor,” she encouraged.
“Wow, you can take the girl out of cheerleading, but you can’t take the cheerleading out of the girl,” I said flippantly. By the look on her face, I could tell she wasn’t amused. “I’ll think about it,” I capitulated, not wanting to rock the boat too badly on our first date. Otherwise there wouldn’t be a second one, which I was looking forward to. This early into date one, I knew I wanted there to be a date two.
“Good. So what are your dreams?” she asked. I was taken aback by the question. Here I was worrying about prying too much into her life, and she was cutting right through the niceties and getting to the chewy center of my innermost thoughts.
“I don’t know, honestly. I have those that most other people have—visit faraway countries, buy a nice house, get a high-paying job that will pay for the first two, and settle down eventually. Nothing too crazy.” I shrugged. “I went through my doctor/lawyer/firefighter/astronaut phases when I was little, but at this point, none of them really appeal to me. Especially astronaut. I went on one of those simulators at the museum once and felt dizzy and nauseous for the rest of the day.” I shuddered just thinking about that experience.
“Okay, astronaut is off the list, then.” She drew an invisible line through the air. “But you do have dreams, and you can turn those into goals, and goals were made to be achieved. You just have to work hard and never give up. I know you can do anything, Haley,” she said, taking my hand and giving it a squeeze. It felt nice holding her hand, but her words made me feel even better. Hearing someone put that much faith in your abilities was a rush. I wanted to do something big and great so that I could prove her right.
We finished our ice creams (or, more accurately, I saw that Kate had finished hers, took a couple more spoonfuls, and declared myself done) and walked over to the movie theater. Since we already had our tickets, we went straight to the concession stand.
I insisted on buying something, and Kate grudgingly agreed to share a popcorn with me in addition to a couple of sodas. Even though we had just had ice cream, I had a feeling Kate might still be hungry. She probably burned through lots of calories with all the physical activity she did.
Doing my best not to drop anything, I walked with Kate to our theater. We were about fifteen minutes early, but it was a new movie, so the theater was already half full.
“Where do you like to sit?” Kate asked me in a whisper. Looking around, I noticed two seats next to each other about three quarters of the way up. I pointed them out to her, and she agreed to sit there.
Once we were settled in our seats and snacking on our food and drinks, she leaned closer to me and whispered again, “Good choice. I was worried you were one of those people who liked to sit in the front row. Although I would have suffered through two hours of a sore neck for you, so keep that in mind for the future.”
My breath caught when she mentioned the future. That second date was looking like a sure thing now. But there was still time for me to screw things up if I wasn’t careful.
I whispered back, “Do I look like a crazy person to you? The only time I’ve sat in the front was when I showed up to a movie after it had started and those were the only seats left. I have vowed never to let that happen again.”
“And I assume you’ve kept your vow?” she asked.
“Definitely. Once I’ve made a vow, I keep it for life,” I assured her.
“Then you’ll make some girl very lucky in the future,” she said before leaning away from me and properly back into her seat. I sat looking at her profile for a few extra seconds before I turned away.
When our fingers touched as we went for the popcorn bag at the same time, I was proud that I didn’t get flustered. I was making progress. It was amazing that I felt as comfortable with Kate as I did, since we’d spent a relatively short amount of time together.
As the lights went down, I remembered to pull out my phone and silence it. I saw Kate do the same, and just as the previews were starting, a few more groups of people trickled in. Some stayed below us while others went up to the seats at the top.
The movie was pretty good. A few people kept on whispering, but the sound effects were so loud that they drowned everything else out. At a few of the cheesier parts, which these big action movies always added in to make those few minutes between explosions try and seem interesting, Kate and I shared an eye roll or a disbelieving look.
In the end, the hero got the girl and saved the dog, while the thousands of deaths that had to have happened amid all the buildings being destroyed went unmentioned. So basically your standard Hollywood movie ending.
As we waited for people to file down the aisles, Kate and I agreed that the special effects were great, the story was less than mediocre, and the acting was absolutely horrible. We sat there so long discussing the movie that the credits had finished running and the lights were back on. As we got up to leave, I happened to glance at the back rows and did a double take. Sitting side by side and making a pathetic attempt to hide behind some soda cups were our respective best friends.
“Not cool!” I shouted the first thing that popped into my head as I pointed accusingly at them. Kate turned around at my exclamation and gasped. She stood with her hands on her hips and shook her head in disgust.
I moved to the aisle and marched up to where Marie and Jenny were sitting. Kate was right behind me. We stood at the end of the aisle and waited for them to explain themselves.
After some silence and avoidance of our gazes on their part, Kate got fed up with waiting. “What a coincidence that you two are at the movies together. I didn’t know you were friends. What a great surprise,” she said sarcastically. “And, Jenny”—Jenny seemed to shrink further into her seat—“I thought you couldn’t make it today. At least, that’s what you told me when you canceled after I bought the tickets.”
“You know, things change,” Jenny responded weakly. Marie was staring determinedly down at her soda cup. If we were going to get answers, that was where they would come from. The girl who couldn’t lie.
“Marie,” I said quietly. Her head shot up and she looked at me. I looked back. Once I raised an eyebrow at her, she broke.
“Fine!” she relented. “I came here to see what you two were doing. I just wanted to take a peek and make sure everything was going okay. But then I ran into Jenny in the lobby, and I asked her what she was doing and she asked me what I was doing, and we started talking and ended up buying a couple of tickets and here we are,” she explained forlornly.
“Don’t you bring me down with you,” Jenny warned Marie. She looked at Kate. “I don’t know what she’s talking about. I came here looking for you! My thing got canceled and I wanted to surprise you. She followed me in here and sat down next to me for no reason.” She cupped her hand around her mouth. “Confidentially, I think she’s a little off,” she whispered, but we all still heard her.
“Hey!” Marie said, but Kate waved her away.
“Don’t worry, I know she’s full of it.” She gave Jenny a glare. “Now please stop lying and tell me why you you canceled on me and then showed up here today,” she ordered. I had to admit, if only to myself, that it was pretty hot.
“Fine,” Jenny relented. “You kept on talking about how awesome you thought that one was”—here she pointed at me—“and you were nervous about visiting when she was babysitting, and honestly I still have no idea what you see in her, but never mind that. I thought that if I gave up my ticket, then you’d be smart enough to invite her, and then you could see how awful she is and never want to go out with her again, and then I would never have to listen to you say how great Haley is or how funny and smart she is for the rest of my life,” she concluded.
I looked at Kate. “You think I’m funny and smart?” I asked with a goofy grin.
Kate quickly responded with, “Yes, but there’s more I want to know first.” It seemed like she hadn’t finished with her interrogation of Jenny yet. “And what about Marie? Did you two plan to spy on us together?” she asked.
“I said that already,” Marie interrupted. “We didn’t plan on it, but we both had the same idea of coming down here to see how you two were getting along. Really, you both should feel lucky to have such great best friends who care enough to go through all this trouble to make sure your date is going smoothly. It’s a compliment, really.” But I wasn’t having any of that.
“Uh huh. Well next time, both of you just stay at home like normal people and don’t go around snooping on other people’s dates. It’s rude and creepy,” I said sternly.
There was an “excuse me” from the front of the theater. The four of us looked down at a theater employee standing awkwardly in the aisle with a broom and dustpan.
“Sorry to interrupt, but I have to clean up before the next showing. So if you could just…” He trailed off as he gestured to the exit.
We trudged our way down the steps and out of the theater. In the lobby, we stood silently until Kate said, “Since you two are here, do you want to go get something to eat with us? If that’s okay with you, Haley?” she added hastily.
I was a bit bummed that Kate’s and my date had been hijacked, but looking at the two guilty faces of our best friends, I couldn’t stay mad.
“Sure, let’s go get a pizza. But you two are buying,” I warned the interlopers. They were smart and kept their mouths shut, though Jenny gave me a glare, which I was more than used to by now.
We all got along surprisingly well at dinner, as long as Jenny and I did not interact. Marie and Kate liked the same television shows with pretty people doing stupid things, and Jenny was actually funny when not trying to make my life miserable. The one time we talked, she called me an idiot, and I was ready to stab her with my plastic fork. Kate had to admonish us, and after that we just ignored each other.
The four of us parted in the parking lot. I reassured Marie that I wasn’t mad and that I would call her later. I heard Kate say something in a low voice to Jenny, which she followed up with a hug. Jenny looked relieved and grateful. We all said our good-byes, and then Kate and I walked to her car.
After we got in and Kate maneuvered us out of the parking lot and back on the road, she opened up about how she really felt about our unexpected companions.
“Can you believe those two? I mean, who does that, spy on someone else’s date? Why would they think that was an okay thing to do? I am so confused about their thought processes.” She glared through the windshield at the oncoming road.
“I don’t know what they were thinking,” I responded. “I’d like to say that Marie isn’t the type to do that sort of thing, but actually she is exactly that type. I’ve just never been on a date before, so I had nothing to base her reaction on.”
That got Kate’s attention. “You’ve never been on a date before?” she asked incredulously.
I immediately regretted letting that slip out. But rather than trying to backtrack and make up an excuse that would be transparent, I went with the truth. “No, I haven’t. It never came up in the past. I wasn’t out, and I didn’t want to date some boy just for appearances. There was this one girl, but it was a quick thing and we never actually went out,” I explained, hoping I had not revealed too much information.
“Oh,” she responded. That was it. One word and then silence. It was not very encouraging.
Right when I was going to start apologizing (even though I wasn’t sure what I would be apologizing for), Kate spoke up.
“That’s fine. That makes a lot of sense. I can see where you’re coming from,” she said. She continued after a slight pause. “I dated guys. You might have known that from seeing us around the school, but if you didn’t, I wanted to tell you. I’ve also been with a couple of girls.” She chanced a glance at me, and then her eyes widened. “Not all the way being with girls. More like the making out way. I haven’t been with anyone yet, male or female, in that way. I’m still a virgin,” she hurriedly announced.
I had not been expecting the conversation to go in that direction. It appeared neither had she.
“Oh my god, I can’t believe I just said that,” she said out loud to herself and, by extension, me and the universe at large.
At a loss for what to say, I mumbled out something that sounded like “Yeah, that’s cool,” which didn’t seem to be the right thing.
Kate suddenly swerved the car into the first parking lot on our right. It belonged to a big box store. She drove a bit too fast to a corner of the lot where there were no other cars and stopped. After putting the car into park, she turned to me with a bit of panic.
“I didn’t mean to say that,” she announced with a slashing motion of her arms. “It is way too early to be talking about those sort of things. We've had only one real date, and you’re great and awesome, but we haven’t even kissed yet, so we should definitely not be talking about more advanced things.”
I don’t know what prompted the next words to come out of my mouth. “You mean sex, right?” I asked with the absolute stupidest voice I had ever heard come out of a human, let alone myself. It was like the majority of my brain had turned off and the only sliver that was still working was dysfunctional. At least both of us were embarrassed now.
“I’m sorry,” I started at the same time she said, “You can call it that,” and that just made me more confused.
“What else would I call it?” Another A+ question from me. Would it be too distracting if I just kept my mouth taped shut for the rest of my life?
“Yes, I'm talking about”—she cleared her throat before continuing—“sex.” It was very obvious that Kate was uncomfortable talking about this particular subject. I tried to hurry the conversation along, though at this point I had no idea where it might have been heading in the first place.
“Listen, we don’t have to talk about this now. Like you said, we’ve only been on one date. And now we know each other’s romantic history, so we’re on the same page there. We can take things at whatever speed we both need,” I tried to reassure her. It seemed to work.
“Great,” she exhaled. Her shoulders dropped as if a weight had been lifted with my words. I liked the idea of taking her burdens from her.
She looked so relieved, and her hair was a little messy from being loose all day, and she had a smudge on the side of her chin. She looked absolutely beautiful. With a surge of confidence that seemingly came out of nowhere, I was able to ask her the question I had never thought I would ask her in real life.
“Can I kiss you?” It came out a little needier than I’d intended, but it was out. She looked at me and just nodded.
And that was the how, where, and why of my first kiss with Kate.