"Ahh! Get off!"

Larry pulled of one hair and started yelling out on the street, "Get your free sample of Spiny's hair!"

Well, as if on cue, out of nowhere a blonde girl came up to Larry all giddy and jumpy. "How much is it? How much is it?!"

"$1000."

"I'll take it!" She gave Larry the money and put the hair in her scrapbook. Then she said to me, "Are you giving away free kisses?"

"HUH?"

I could feel Lilia get uncomfortable. "Sorry, no."

"Oh, please! Please!"

"Sorry, no." I put my arm around Lilia. "She's the only one who gets my kisses."

The girl looked disappointed and walked away sad. Then Lilia said to me, "You didn't have to do that?"

"Why not? I had to. You're my girlfriend and I have to be loyal to you." I kissed her on the lips. "Besides that, I love you."

She smiled and blushed. "I love you, too." I turned to Larry. "Why don't we all go get some burgers at Arnold's?"

"Sounds like an idea," said Lilia.

"And a good one, too," said Larry.

While we were there, waiting for our orders, I was telling them about the time that Kathy made me do something unorthodox for a school fundraiser. "She assigned me to a kissing booth," I said.

"Oh, my goodness!" said Larry.

"Really?" said Lilia.

"Yep. And I'm not saying that I didn't enjoy it, but some of the girls had huge eyeglasses, and ponytails, and one even a moustache."

"Oh, lard," Larry said.

"And there were pretty cute ones, too. If you know what I mean."

"Yeah, like donuts."

I stared at him blankly. "What?"

"Donuts are cute. Don't you think so?"

I blinked my eyes at him, then turned to Lilia who was sitting next to me. "I don't know."

"But," I said to Larry. "Lilia here is a completely different kind of girl. Her own category." Lilia put her arm around me and rested her head on my shoulder.

"Yeah, she's a specially bred type," Larry said.

"WHAT?!" we both said.

"Bred? Bred?! BRED?!" I said, getting angrier. Just at that second, the waiter came out and said, "What kind of bread, Your Majesty? We have French bread, pumpernickel bread, white bread, whole wheat, whole grain, honey oats, bagels, biscuits…"

"Shut up and get out of here!"

"Oh…uh, okay." He left back to the kitchen. Then I turned back to Larry. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"I was saying that Lilia is beautiful, smart, has a great sense of humor, she has beautiful eyes, soft hair, she is a great companion, has a great family, is a good student, and is also my best friend."

Larry looked at me suspiciously. "Besides you," I said. "Ahh," he said.

You should've seen Lilia's face. She was blushing so hard that someone else might have thought that she painted her face. "Oh, Spiny, do you really mean all that?"

I leaned my forehead against hers. "Of course I do. It's true."

Anyways, after that we went back home to get some well-deserved rest. I mean, we'd had a pretty busy past few days, especially with the Red Eyes.

But, just like I promised, I took Lilia to the movies Thursday night. The movie was awesome! And it was in 3D! But even better was having my arm around her and her head tilted on my shoulder. On the way back, we went walking home, holding hands.

When we stopped at her front door, she turned to me and said, "Thanks so much for everything."

"Of course. But, I have another surprise for you."

"Really?" she said, excited.

I nodded. "Yup. Close your eyes."

"Why?"

"Just close your eyes and you'll see how good it is to be obedient." She closed her eyes and puckered her lips. Well, a kiss wasn't the surprise. I pushed a gift-wrapped box in her hands. She opened her eyes and looked down. "What is it?"

"Open it!"

She tore at the gift wrap, revealing a large black box. You may think it was jewelry, right? Wrong! She opened the box and, "Oh, Spiny! Your first CD!" Yep. Pretty clever, huh?

"Yeah. It's the first copy. It's going to officially come out next week, but since you're so special, I wanted you to have the very first one. And it's signed, too. Read what the inside cover says."

She opened CD case, and read it out loud. "I dedicate my first musical success to the most beautiful, sweetest, and nicest girl in the whole world, Lilia Woods." She was almost in tears now. She threw her arms around me. "Oh, thank you!"

"You like it?"

"Of course I do!" She looked over the CD case. "Where's the song titles? Oh, here they are! Thirteen songs! Wow! Did you write all of them?"

"Well, yeah, actually."

"Oh, that's nice."

"Yeah."

I looked down at my feet. "Um, well, I have to go now. See you tomorrow, then?"

"Of course." She leaned over and kissed me softly. "I love you."

"I love you, too," I said, caressing her face. Then she went in her house, leaving me alone to my thoughts.

Well, like they say, all ends well. This is just a typical day's work. Well, more than one day, but you get the idea. And no matter what the dangers or the challenges are, I'm always willing to be there to take it.

And that makes it all more worthwhile.