"It's wonderful how much you've opened up to me, Eli." Miss Emily told me. It had been two weeks into our sessions so far. I had gone twice a week – Mondays and Thursdays. I had gotten used to hearing her pen tap tapping on her notepad, and her eyes glancing up at me, her glasses sliding down her nose, and then seeing her quickly push them up again and write something else down. It had become a usual thing to hear her laugh softly at something I'd say that was slightly funny, and watch her expression change when things weren't so funny. "It's kind of like you're telling me your childhood love story. Hearing about your first date and such."

"No, no, Miss Emily. That was not our first date." I corrected with a small smile. "That was definitely not our first date." Miss Emily raised her eyebrows.

"And what was your first date, Eli?" she asked. I let out a laugh. "Our first date. Well it started out not our first date – the two of us weren't even a couple until the last day of school…"

…

"Okay, I don't get it." A boy said, waving his hands around at Julia and I. "You two hang around like you're dating. But you're not." He waved his hands one more time, and turned on his heels walking away from us. I swallowed and glanced over at Julia who wasn't paying attention, painting her nails with sharpie. I quickly grabbed the sharpie from her and smiled.

"I'm pretty sure I told you this was bad for you." I said as I noticed a smile curl up on her lips.

"And I'm pretty sure I told you I didn't care." She replied as we both smiled at each other. If we had been dating, and we were truly a couple, I would've done everything in my power to crash my lips against hers and kiss her to my hearts consent. It was a cute little moment, the two of us mildly flirting with each other, or at least our eyes were. A few other kids were staring at us, including the boy from minutes before.

"You're lying, you're fucking lying. You two are dating. You're dating!" they yelled.

"We're not." I corrected, as I gulped for a second, before I shook my head. Julia had taken the sharpie from my hand again and began to draw on her fingernails.

"I'm not going to believe it." The one boy said. "And if you are, you do a bad job at pretending you're not."

"They do a terrible job." Another said

"Seriously – I'd think you two were dating in a second." A few others said.

"You know what!" I said finally, as I stood up from the small lunch table Julia and I were sitting at. I quickly stood up onto the seat of the lunch table, then onto the table itself and threw my arms out wide towards everyone. "We are. Julia Moore and I are a couple." I heard her sharpie rolling around on the pavement. I couldn't look at her. "I like Julia Moore a lot, and I hope she likes me just as much as I do. We're a couple and you can all leave us alone now!" I heard a few kids mutter that they knew it, that it was obvious, but they all began to walk away.

"So." I heard Julia mutter as I sat back down beside her, the moment growing awkwarder and awkwarder. "We're a couple now?" she asked, I saw her head turn towards me and she lightly smiled.

"Yes…" I whispered.

"Well, you better take me out on a proper date, Goldsworthy." Julia said as I noticed her stand up from her seat at the table. "I'll be at your house at seven." I knew she was walking away. Shit. Shit. I had a date with Julia Moore. Shit. Shit. What do you do on a date? Bullfrog had to work overtime at the radio station, so once the bell had finally rang I practically sprinted home. And once I had made it home, it was just my luck that the front door was locked. It's not like I had forever to come up with the perfect date idea. I had never been on a date before – I didn't know what a date what supposed to be like. I figured I'd Google it.

I hopped over the fence to the back door – also locked I looked around for an open window. Not the kitchen – not the living room – not the bathroom, but there up another story high was my bedroom window which I had left open for the black cat that seemed to wander in and out on occasion. I climbed up the side of the building, careful of my footing. I had never done this before. Today was a day for doing things I had never done before. And hopefully I could do all of them right.

"Perfect first date ideas." I quickly typed into my old computer. About 52,200,000 results (0.19 seconds) the screen read – so I wasn't the only one clueless. Ideas popped up, fancy dinners, roller skating, movie dates, Wonderland? All seemed too expensive. Then there was one. Star Gazing. Though that was the corniest, cheesy, typical date idea in the book, that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to be the kind of guy that could be romantic if he tried. I'd grab a couple blankets – and we'd go lie on the roof and stare up at the sky. And before I knew it, it was almost seven.

"M-m-mom?" I stuttered, walking down the staircase, hearing the stairs creak under my feet.

"Yes dear?" CeCe asked, her head popping out of the kitchen.

"I'm going to be having a friend over…" she raised her eyebrows. "A…girlfriend."

"Oh!" she gasped, rushing over towards me. "My baby boy has a girlfriend?"

"Yes mom…"

"I need to take a picture of this moment!" she cried, dragging me into the kitchen and began searching for her digital camera. "Smile!" she flashed the camera, taking several snapshots of me.

"Mom…stop…" I nervously argued.

"What's her name? How old is she? Is she pretty?"

"Mom – please, stop." I begged.

"I should make a big dinner! And tell Bullfrog to wear a tie, oh, it has been so long since Bullfrog wore a tie."

"Mom! Enough" I yelled. CeCe became quiet. "I'm taking her up on the roof, we're going star gazing."

"Oh baby boy, your first date. You'll take her upon the roof and…and…"

"Mom, you're disgusting." I turned on my heels and ran up the stairs, hearing CeCe squeal from downstairs.

I stared at myself in the mirror in front of me. Oh God, what if I looked bad? What if I looked like a tool? I grabbed Bullfrog's old Clash shirt and pulled it over my head. I looked at myself again. I looked okay. I grabbed my leather jacket and slugged it over my shoulders. I looked better.

"Elijah!" I heard CeCe call. "Julia's here." Shit – it was already seven? I grabbed two blankets and started to run out the hallway, skidding to a stop before I would fall completely down the stairs. I sat up on the banister and began to slide down like I usually would, landing right in front of Julia.

"Hi." I whispered quietly to her. CeCe squealed and grabbed her camera.

"Smile, you two!" she yelled, pushing us together. I gently put my hand around her waist as I felt her body shiver. Was that because of my touch? We both smiled and stood for the pictures.

"Can we go now?" I asked. She waved us away.

"Yes, yes!" CeCe cried. "Go, now!" I took Julia's hand and started to walk up the stairs, seeing flashes from behind us, knowing CeCe was snapping pictures of us from behind.

"Ignore her." I whispered to Julia, hearing her giggle from behind me as we walked up. "So do you like heights? Or do they scare you to death?"

"Heights?" Julia questioned. "They're okay."

"Good." I said, my voice cracked. We headed for the bathroom, and she raised her eyebrows. "Trust me." I said as I opened the window to the bathroom and stared to climb in the windowsill and out, grasping the piping of the side of the house and lifting myself up. Once I was securely onto the roof I reached my arms down to her. "Hand me the blankets first." I said as the two blankets were delivered into my hands. I spread out the blankets onto the slanted roof and looked up for a moment, noticing how many stars were in the sky tonight…dozens.

"Well?" I heard Julia say, her voice soft and fragile. I smirked, bringing both hands down to help her up.

"Careful of your footing." I cautioned, as her hands moved into mine and I pulled her up. It was easy – she pushed, I pulled and the two of us were soon up onto the roof. "Piece of cake." I snapped my finger with a laugh once we were both up.

"So what are we doing?" Julia asked.

"Star gazing." I replied, sitting upon the blankets.

"Star gazing?" Julia questioned. "That's not cheesy at all." She sat down beside me.

"Cheesy good or cheesy bad?" I asked nervously.

"We'll see." She smiled a little as we both leaned back against the blanket. "What if we get cold?"

"Then we have this." I said pulling the other blanket over the two of us.

"What if we get tired?"

"Then you can sleep on me." I said quietly.

"You won't have a pillow." She replied with worry in her voice.

"Julia…" I said sternly. "Don't worry about me." She shivered a bit and moved closer to me, making my heart skip a beat. "Cold?" I stammered, Julia nodded. "I'll change that." I mumbled, sliding my hand underneath her, wrapping one of my hands around her waist to pull her closer.

"I like you, Eli." She whispered. "I really like you. You've been my best friend."

"You've been mine."

"I…" she stopped mid-sentence.

"What?"

"Nothing. Let's just watch the stars." So we did. And it felt like we had been there for house. Neither of us ever seemed to speak to each other, maybe a few "Did you see that star?" or a "Those stars look like a…" but beside that, there were no other words between us. It was as if neither of us really ever needed to talk to each other. Her head was gently laid upon my chest, and my hand around her waist. And when I'd breath in, I'd feel her head moving up and down on my chest And I could hear her sigh every few moments, and then she finally spoke.

"I feel so safe with you." She whispered. My heart practically melted. That's what I wanted. I wanted her to feel safe with me. I wanted her to trust me. I wanted to be her knight in shining armor, her protector. I wanted to be her best friend. And I suppose I had gotten what I wanted.

…

"That's all I can really say for today…" I said quietly as I stood from the leather chair. My heart was heavy, very heavy. Thinking about Julia usually did that to me. Thinking about Julia would usually cause me to fall into a sickly depression in which Adam would have to take care of me instead of being out at University – but things were much worse when I'd think about…

"That's quite all right, Eli." Miss Emily smiled, standing up from her seat to shake my hand graciously. "I'll see you next week, Eli, all right?"

"Yeah," I mumbled. "See you Monday." I put my hand on the doorknob to the hallway and sighed. This talking about Julia never seemed to be such a downer until now. I brought my hand to my pocket, taking out my cell phone and pressing it to my ear after pressing five – the speed dial for Adam. "Hey, Adam, could you come pick me up?" I asked. "I don't think it's such a good idea that I drive myself home tonight."