The boy was singing on the street. And he was great.
My friends had been coming to this spot, where this guy sings every night, for the past week. They'd told me to come, and I'd just been too busy. But now they'd finally gotten me here, listening to this guy sing, and he was just really good.
He sat on the steps of a theatre, here in Stratford, Ontario, Canada. He was playing his guitar, and singing these really sweet lyrics; it was no wonder why all these people came to see him. There were a lot of girls here, I noticed, but also other people of all different ages.
"He is really good," I whispered to my friend, Camilla. I was watching the guy, and as I said this, he caught my eye. He smiled at me while he sang, and I blushed and looked down.
"I told you!" Camilla whispered back. "Hey, he was checking you out, Tessa!"
"What? No, he wasn't. He just smiled."
Camilla gave me a look. I ignored her and just watched the guy sing. He actually was really good looking. He kept flipping his hair out of his soft brown eyes, as he looked at everyone in his audience. And his t-shirt fit him nicely on the shoulders, which were broad. He looked about my age, maybe fifteen, or sixteen.
I wondered why I hadn't seen him before. "Does he go to our school?" I asked my other friend, Heather.
"No, I've never seen him there before. Maybe he's homeschooled or something."
"Oh," I said softly. I wondered if he'd written the songs he was singing. The one he was singing right now seemed to be called One Time. It was just his sweet voice and his guitar, and it was beautiful.
The song ended, as it was getting dark. People moved from where they'd been standing or sitting and went to put some money in his guitar case. My friends did it too, as I took my purse out and began rummaging for a bill or two.
Most people had gone by the time I'd pulled out a ten. Camilla and Heather waited for me off to the side, talking. I went up to the boy, who had stood up and was packing up his stuff.
"Um, excuse me." I said. He turned, and I felt my heart thudding against my chest as I became very shy.
Really, you wouldn't blame me; this guy was super attractive, and even more so up close.
"Hey," he said softly with a smile. I guess he remembered my face from the audience. I forgot what I meant to say, he had smiled and I felt like I might collapse.
I guess I swayed a bit, because I saw his arm reach out and held me still. "You okay?" he asked, sounding concerned.
I came back to Earth, from planet Hot-Guy-Who-Can-Really-Sing.
"Yeah. Yeah, sorry." I shook my head, and smiled shyly. "I just came over to give you this." I probably looked like a complete idiot. I had totally spaced out, but I handed him my ten dollar bill.
He didn't take it. "Oh, don't worry about it. I play for fun. The money is just an extra bonus." He grinned at me.
"You should take it." I insisted. "You were really good." I tried to put it in his hand.
"No, really." He said. "I don't accept money from beautiful girls." He gave me a smile.
It took me a moment to process that. Then I started to blush fiercely.
At a loss for words, I put my ten back into my pocket, knowing he wouldn't take it. As he turned around to pick up his guitar and sling it over his shoulder, I was still in a daze.
Then he turned back and stuck his hand out to me. "I'm Justin," he said, taking my hand as he looked into my eyes.
I shook his warm hand, and tried to introduce myself. "I-I'm—"
"Hey, Tessa! Are you coming or what?" Heather interrupted. They'd been waiting for me, and it was getting pretty dark out. After Heather had said it, I saw Justin mouth the word 'Tessa' to himself.
"Yeah..." I said breathlessly, looking at Justin. My hand was still lightly placed in his. I decided I would bring him over to meet my friends.
I gripped his hand more tightly, and signalled him to follow me. When we reached my friends, they had looks of surprise and excitement as I brought this totally hot guy over to meet them.
"Guys," I said. "This is Justin. Justin, these are my friends Camilla and Heather."
As Justin shook both their hands, I watched them each give him a flirty smile. They had always been better with boys than I had ever been.
"Nice to meet you," Justin said politely. "Would you guys mind if I walked Tessa home tonight?" he asked.
I was shocked. He wanted to walk me home? I exchanged a look of excitement with my friends over Justin's shoulder.
"Umm, sure. Just as long as you're not some creepy stalker or anything." Camilla joked.
I glared at her. She smiled back. "I'm sure he isn't," I said dryly.
"I swear, I'm not." Justin grinned.
"Okay then, I guess we'll see you tomorrow, Tessa?"
"Yeah. Bye guys." As they left, I turned to Justin. The streetlight above us made his face glow. "You really want to walk me home?" I asked.
"Well, yeah. I'm not going to just leave you here, am I?"
I laughed. "I hope not."
I felt my shyness fade away as we joked around. We passed all the cute little shops in our town on the way to my house. As I talked to him, I realized Justin was a really nice person, which was really great because it went nicely with his perfectly natural, drop-dead good looks.
"So, why did you decide you wanted to walk with me?" I asked, curious.
"Well, I guess I decided I wanted to get to know you when I spotted that pretty girl in the audience, so I jumped at it when I had the chance."
"Wait. What?" I asked, confused.
"You," he said softly.
Oh, he was talking about me. Wow, he was talking about me!
I turned away, facing front instead of him. "You think I'm pretty?" I blurted.
Justin laughed. "Yes." I could feel his gaze burning into the side of my face, trying to get me to look at him. "Didn't I say you were beautiful earlier?"
"I guess you did. But I thought you were just kidding or something..." I trailed off, finally facing him.
"I wasn't." He said kindly, with a smile.
I returned his smile, as I began to shiver. It was early fall, so I wasn't dressed that warmly yet. I had on a white spaghetti strap top with jeans. Plus, I hadn't meant to stay for too long.
"God, it's so cold." I said. Glancing at Justin, I saw he was only wearing a t-shirt as well.
"I'm not that cold," he said. "But we can stop in a store for a bit if you want to warm up."
"No, it's okay. I think I can manage a bit more." I replied. "But thanks."
We walked a couple more blocks, before it started to rain. The rain picked up, and then it was pouring.
"Shit," I muttered, pulling my arms tighter across my chest.
Justin noticed my awkwardness as I tried to cover up my now see-through top. "How much farther is your house?" He asked, keeping his eyes on my face.
"A few more blocks," I answered. I was going to freeze if we kept walking.
"Oh. We're right near my street, and if you want to we could go to my house for a bit until the rain stops." Justin offered.
I could go, I thought. I would just tell my mom that it started pouring and she'd understand. "Okay. That would be great," I said.
"Follow me," Justin said, and began jogging down the street we were on, looking back to see if I was coming.
"Hey, wait up!" I shouted. It was hard to run with your arms crossed, and I was getting pretty annoyed with it. "Oh, screw it." I muttered to myself, letting my arms free, and my bra in the view of the world.
When I caught up to Justin, he was grinning at me. "I love the rain," he said.
I turned my face up to the clouds. "It is really nice." I agreed. Justin's hair was sticking to his face, and I had this urge to move it out of his eyes.
He began to slow down. "What?" He asked. "Is there something on my face?"
I laughed. "No," I took a step closer to him and moved his hair to the side using my hand. "Sorry," I said when I took my hand back. "It was in your eyes." I explained.
"Oh," he said. Then he gestured to the house coming up. "There it is."
It looked really cozy. "I like it," I smiled at the house.
We walked up on to the porch, both breathing deeply from running. I looked at Justin, and burst out laughing. He soon joined me.
"Why are you laughing?"He asked grinning.
"I don't even know." I said. "That was fun." I looked out onto the street watching the raindrops ricocheting up as they hit the pavement.
"Yeah," I saw his eyes land on my thoroughly soaked, transparent top. I didn't try to cover up; he was bound to look at some point. I kept my eyes on his face.
"Can we go inside?" I asked.
Justin's eyes snapped up. "Oh, right. Yeah, after you." He unlocked his door and held it open for me.
"Thank you."
His home was as cozy in the inside as it looked on the outside. Family pictures scattered the walls, a well used couch sat in the middle of the living room.
"This is home." Justin said.
"It's really cute." I commented.
He kicked off his shoes. "Just like you."
As he brushed past me, I felt him squeeze my leg.
"Justin!" I hissed. He turned. "Are you your parents home?" I whispered.
If that had been concern on his face, it now switched to amusement.
He shook his head. "Nope, we're free to do whatever we like." He winked and then went further into his house.
I knew I should have been annoyed with his sexual taunting—I had just met this guy, after all—but I couldn't help but feel attracted to him. I shook my head at myself, stepped out of my wet shoes, and followed him.
He was in the kitchen, standing at the fridge and downing a can of coke. He looked me over as he drank.
"You want some dry clothes?