His lips against mine, kissing me deep and slow as I straddle his waist, gently grinding against him. He pulls back and his lips brush along my jawline, moving down my neck. His breath against my neck and in my ear, as he whispers I want you. He bites my earlobe, gently, sending chills down my spine. His hands are roaming all over my body, one on my lower back and the other unhooking my bra. I can feel him smiling against my neck as he trails kisses towards my chest. In one smooth movement, I’m under him, his warm body pressed against my skin, feeling the layer of sweat breaking out on both of our bodies. My bra is off and he tosses it off the bed. He moves my long hair from my neck and chest as he continues kissing down. His hand moves up, cupping my breast and beginning to knead it slowly, pulling a slight moan from my lips. Just as he’s about flick his tongue over my waiting nipple, my eyes flutter open…

Damn it.

It was just a dream, again.
I’d been having dreams like this ever since the first day at the dorms, and increasingly so since he asked me out two days ago. It was the morning of my date, and when I remembered this, my stomach filled with butterflies. I laughed at myself. What is wrong with me? I was acting like a little kid, going on my first date. I could handle this. It was one date, and it’s not like I’d never done it before. It would be fine.

I got out of bed and went into the bathroom, glancing at the several outfits I had set out to choose from for tonight. I laughed again as I brushed my teeth and washed my face. I really was losing my mind.

It was a few hours later when Kelly arrived at my dorm. She really didn’t have anything to worry about. I had been living in my dorm for less than a week, and she was here every single day.

She was here today, because she insisted on being here to help me get ready for my date tonight. Like I’m not capable of dressing myself.

I was in the bathroom brushing my long dark red hair, making sure each strand was doing what it was supposed to, and wearing only a black lacy bra and panties when Kelly let herself into my room.

“Damn.” She said, walking into the bathroom. I raised an eyebrow. “I wish I was Kyle tonight.”

I laughed. “Oh, shut up. It’s just for under my dress.”

“Riiiiight.” I rolled my eyes at this and, finally done perfecting my hair, moved on to apply mascara to my already extremely long eyelashes.

She went to my closet and looked through the outfits I had to choose from as I did this. She pushed aside a red dress, a purple skirt, and a yellow sundress, muttering things like “too sexy, not sexy enough, and what the hell is this?” I guess she didn’t like my sundress.

Finally, she gasped, and I, thinking she had found a spider or other terrifying creature, ran out. I found her admiring, or planning to steal, the dress I was leaning towards.

It was black and strapless. At the top, it had the form of a corset, form fitting, and then at the waist, it came out, flowing down to just below my knee with tulle. It was classy and simple enough for a dinner in Beverly Hills, but sexy and revealing enough for a first date.

Kelly waggled her eyebrows at me.

“I know,” I said. “It’s perfect, huh?” She nodded excitedly and handed it to me, motioning for me to put it on. I took it off the hanger and slid into it, and then turned so Kelly could zip it for me.

I looked in the mirror and took a deep breath. “Is this good enough, you think?” Kelly stood beside me. “You look perfect. He’s going to love you.” She pulled me to the bed and gave me a worried look. “Why are you so nervous, Emma? You’ve been on tons of dates before.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “I guess it’s just weird being on the first date since Travis…” I trailed off, losing myself in my thoughts. He was my first and last, and I spent the whole summer either being pissed about him and Katrina, or not thinking of him at all, because I was thinking about Kyle. So if I had thought about him all summer, what was the problem? Where was the excitement?

I was afraid that I wouldn’t be good enough for Kyle. Not pretty or nice or funny or sexy enough. Travis made me feel like he settled for me. He preferred someone more like Katrina. Someone who was as raunchy and trampy as he was. Would Kyle like a nice, plain girl like me or need someone more exciting? Deciding I was looking way too far into it, I shook the thoughts from my mind. I stood up to finish getting ready, as I had to leave in ten minutes.

“It’ll be fine. We’ll have fun,” I said this as much to myself as I did to Kelly.

I put my signature light pink leather jacket on over my dress and then slid my matching pink heels on. Kelly hugged me. “You look beautiful. You’re going to have a great time tonight, and Kyle’s eyes are going to pop out of his head when he sees you. You deserve someone like him, not someone like Travis.”

I smiled softly and hugged her back. Finally, it was time to go. “Walk me to the front lawn?” I was meeting Kyle here before we headed to the restaurant.

She nodded and grabbed her things as we headed out the door.

Kyle was waiting by the fountain in front of the school, his back to us. I decided I should go to him on my own, so Kelly and I said goodbye, her wishing me luck again, and I approached him.

“Kyle?” He turned around when he heard his name and beamed at me.

“Emma! Hi! Wow, you look so amazing.” I smiled shyly, blushing as he kissed me on the cheek.

“Thanks, Kyle. So do you.” He did, too. He wore a dark gray suit, with a white button down underneath and a cute little gray and white striped bowtie around his neck.

“Thank you. So, ready to go?” I nodded, and he led me towards the parking lot and helped me into his car.

A little while later, we pulled up to a park, fully equipped with a playground and all. I looked at him, confused.
“I thought you said we were going out to dinner. At a restaurant. In Beverly Hills.”

He smiled, looking like he knew something I didn’t. “Did I say restaurant? Oh… I meant picnic. In the park. We’re in Beverly Hills though…” He watched my face, waiting to see my reaction to this little change of plans.
I couldn’t help but laughing. “You want to have a picnic in the dark at a creepy park? Dressed like we are?”
He nodded, completely serious and got out of the car. I didn’t know what else to do but do the same. “It’s not dark.” He got a picnic basket out of the back seat and took my hand. Not in a romantic way, just in a leading way. Still, my stomach turned in on itself when I felt his warm skin against mine. I appreciated his hand though, because at this point, I was really confused at the night’s turn of events.

He set the basket down on a grassy area and went over to a street lamp. I was still unsure of what he meant by it not being dark, since it was. The lamp was not on, and the only lights were dim ones coming from the stars and moon. He had something in his hand, a cord, maybe? He plugged it into the street lamp and suddenly, the playground lit up. Twinkling lights were wrapped around trees and the playground equipment. They draped from the slide to the swings and back again, making the whole park look like a beautiful winter wonderland, even though it was mid-August.

“Wow… That is really pretty.” He had made his way back to me and was smiling brightly at my reaction.
“You like it?” He was spreading out a blanket onto the grass and pulling several containers out of the basket.
I nodded and sat carefully on the blanket when he motioned for me to.

“It’s really beautiful out here at night. I still don’t get why you told me to dress up though.”

He laughed, and shrugged as he handed me a plate with what looked like take-out Chinese food. “It’s fun to dress up, don’t you think?”

I couldn’t help laughing with him. We spent the next 2 hours, at least, laughing as we talked and ate. His hand brushed against mine a few times again, and each time, the butterflies returned to my stomach and I couldn’t help but blush.
Despite my being nervous, I felt at ease with him. I didn’t feel like I had to try and be this perfect person. I could laugh and make jokes. He could tease me and I could tease back. It’s like we just clicked. Nothing was as difficult as it was with Travis. It was simple and easy and a lot more fun than anything with him.

After we had put all the take-out containers back into the basket, Kyle stood. He held out his hand to me and I took it curiously, again feeling a zap of electricity from his touch. I instantly got more nervous.

“You’re not going to ask me to dance, are you?”

He laughed. “Well, I was. Should I not?”

I shook my head. “You should not. Unless you want any hope of you actually liking me to vanish, because I cannot dance.” He smiled warmly. “Emma, I already actually like you. Even your bad dancing couldn’t change that.”

My heart fluttered again, like it did that night at the beginning of the summer. He leaned into me, and I almost did the same. Before he could kiss me, I quickly said, “So what could we do instead of dancing?”

He seemed surprised, and maybe a little hurt. He shook it off though and acted fine. “Hmm, well we could go catch a movie, or go drive around. Or if you’re bored, I could just take you home.”

I shook my head quickly, now hating myself for making it seem like I wasn’t having one of the best nights in a while. I had no idea why I had rejected his kiss anyways. I wanted it. I knew I did, and according to my dreams, I wanted a lot more than just his lips against mine.

“I don’t want to go home. I mean, not yet. I’m having fun. What if we just, I don’t know, played?” He looked like he was trying not to laugh, but he raised an eyebrow. “Played?”

“Yeah, like go down the slide, swing, play tag, spin around in circles until we fall.”

This time, he did laugh. But, he looked game. He made his way to the swings and I followed him, plopping down to one right next to him, and started to swing.

We laughed as we swung, seeing who could go higher. He kept winning, but mostly because I didn’t want my dress to fly over my head. When I mentioned this, he said, “Oh, then you should definitely swing higher.”
I laughed. “Don’t be such a guy.” We continued laughing until he suggested we should jump off and see who could go further.

“On the count of three. One…two…three!”

We both jumped and I saw him stick his landing a few feet to my left and I tried to stick mine, but lost my balance as I landed, and fell towards him. He caught me quickly, before I hit the ground and pulled me vertical. We were still laughing, but I was more embarrassed than I let on.

“You are such a klutz,” he said between laughs.

“Hey!” I acted offended, but laughed with him. Finally the laughter died down. “Thanks for catching me.” I said in a breathy voice.

He smiled and nodded. “Anytime.” This time, I was the one to lean into him, but he was the one to stop it. I understood the hurt look on his face earlier when he did this, and he looked apologetic and almost said something. Before he could do that, I quickly patted his shoulder, yelling “You’re it!” and running in the opposite direction from him as fast as I could. It took a few seconds before he understood what was happening and started running after me. He finally caught up to me and tapped me gently on the shoulder and turning around and running from me. We did this several times until I slowed down, completely out of breath. He jogged up to me.

“I… need… a break.” He laughed as I panted, sitting back down on the blanket as I tried to catch my breath. He unplugged the twinkling lights and sat next to me as the darkness around us set it.

We lay back on the blanket, staring up at the speckles of silver in the sky. His hand brushed against mine and I held my breath as he took it and laced his fingers with mine. We stared at the stars in a peaceful silence for a long time. There was no need for words. Eventually though, I was afraid he may have fallen asleep.

I let go of his hand and turned onto my side facing him to see the frown forming on his face. I gave a small laugh and took his hand again. His charming grin returned and he looked back at the sky. I, however, kept my eyes on him.

“You know this was, like, the cheesiest date ever, right?”

He laughed and nodded and then turned onto his side as well. “Was it that bad?”

“It would’ve been, if I didn’t like cheesy.”

“You like cheesy? So the whole picnic and twinkly lights and star-gazing, you’re good with that?” I nodded and he looked like he was considering this. He finally spoke.

“Point for Kyle.” He said simply. I laughed and lay back down, as did he.

“Why didn’t you let me kiss you?” He said suddenly, after a few moments of silence.

I didn’t know what to say. “Why didn’t you let me kiss you?” I said in return.

He chuckled. “I usually go by the rule, ‘I asked you first,’ but I’m willing to make an exception. When you turned away the first time, I thought you didn’t want to. And when you tried to, I thought it was just because you felt bad about rejecting me. Not because you really wanted to.”

He was quiet again and then finally nudged me. “Your turn.”

I smiled. “I thought I didn’t want to, too. Then I realized I did, and I was just scared. So I tried to, and you rejected me. So I thought you realized you didn’t want to.”

He laughed softly and sat up. “Why wouldn’t I want to kiss you? I just thought maybe you weren’t ready, and I didn’t want to push it.”

I sat up, as well. I bit my lip, a bad habit I couldn’t help, and held my breath.
“If I try to kiss you right now, will you let me?” He asked, nervously.

I nodded silently and he began to lean towards me. This time, I didn’t pull back. I met him halfway and finally, our lips pressed together.

His soft and warm lips moved gently against mine as his arms slid around my waist. My hands were placed on his chest, running my fingertips down slowly. The kiss deepened, and he was gently laying my back against the blanket, his warm body moving over mine. He put his arms on either side of my body, holding himself up so he didn’t put too much weight on me. I wrapped my arms around his back, pulling him down even though I knew he wouldn’t put more weight on me. I wanted this though; to feel his body pressed against mine.

Our kiss continued, getting deeper and more passionate, still. I slid my tongue over his bottom lip slowly and was met with his tongue touching mine. I slipped my tongue into his mouth and he let out a soft groan.

I finally pulled back to breath, but he wouldn’t let our lips part completely. He touched his forehead to mine, our lips just barely brushing together as he breathed steadily against my lips, and I tried to catch my breath.

His gaze moved to meet mine and he whispered against my lips, “You are so beautiful.” I smiled shyly, blushing again, which he responded to by smoothing his thumb over my reddening cheek softly.

His other hand moved down my side and over my stomach. “And this dress… I’m surprised it’s still on. As much as you look absolutely amazing in it, I really wanted it off.”

I laughed softly and he smiled and then kissed me again, this time softer, savoring the feel of our lips pressed together. He finally broke it and moved off of me, offering me his hand again. Once we were both standing and had composed ourselves, we were packing up our picnic, and heading back to the car.

On the way back to campus, he held my hand in his as he drove and we talked about completely random, unimportant things. He walked me all the way back to my dorm-room and kissed me, softly again.

“Would you want to do this again, maybe?” He asked anxiously.

I smiled and nodded. “I would really love to.”

He responded to that like he didn’t expect it, and kissed me once more, and then said goodnight.

“Goodnight, Kyle.”

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