'Could You Ask Me Out On a Date?'

Sarah cornered me on the way to the cafeteria right after I got out my favorite class, and I knew from the look on her face that she had some great news to tell me. But I could also tell from that same look on her face that there was something that she was going to tell me that I didn't want to hear.

"Katie, you me, and Devin are going out on a date tomorrow night." She announced. My facial expressions changed rapidly. I smiled at first, happy to know that she and her new boyfriend were hitting it off, but then it turned to an expression of confusion, then to one of horror and anger when I finally realized what she said. "Don't look at me like that; I really need you to do this." She grabbed my shoulders and looked pleadingly into my eyes. "How many favors have I done for you?" She stuck out her lower lip. "I really need this Kates, he wants to meet you and-"

"Fine," I held up a hand. "Fine, but I'm not going to do this ever again." I warned her. "This is a onetime thing, alright?"

"Yes, yes, that's fine!" Sarah squealed as she jumped up and down, clapping her hands together. "Thank you so much, Katie." She paused and tapped a finger against her chin. "Hmm, who are we going to get to go on a date with you?"

"Let me figure that one out for myself," I stated as I gave her a slight stink-eye. "I'm the one that's going on the date, so I get to choose him, alright."

Yeah, that was two hours ago, and I have no idea who my date would be that night. My first thought was to go and ask Dak if he knew anyone that I could 'date'. At first he thought that I was asking him out, but after I quickly reminded him that we were just friends. After clearing that up, he agreed and tried to think of any guy that he knew that would go out on a date with me, and unfortunately I had no luck there.

After a few more hours of thinking, I pretty much had one choice left.

I found James in Starbucks, the exact place that I thought he was going to be. He was buying coffee and was a little startled when he saw me standing next to him, but then he quickly gave me a grin. "Hi Katie, what's up?" He looked at his watch and frowned a little. "Were we supposed to meet up today?"

"Hey James." I said with a quick grin and slid into the chair across from him. "No we didn't have any plans, but I need to talk to you."

"Could I get another one of this?" James asked the barista and handed me the coffee he was holding. I made a face as I took a sip, not really liking coffee at all.

"Thanks." I mumbled before grabbing the creamer and a bunch of packets of sugar. I was going to keep it tasting like chalk somehow. James gave me an odd look as he raised an eyebrow, silently urging me to tell him what was going on. I took a deep breath and pushed my coffee aside, resting my arms on the table and looking at him seriously. "Um, James. I need to ask you of a favor. And I hope you don't think I'm a freak." I told him nervously.

"Yeah," James' eyebrow twitched and he looked slightly amused. "What's up?"

I took a deep breath and blurted the question out before I could stop myself. "Could you ask me on a date?" I wasn't expecting that to come out of my mouth, but it did. And from the look on James's face, he also was not expecting it to come out of my mouth either.

"I've never been asked… to ask someone out on a date." he said with a soft smile.

"I'll buy the dinner and everything." I added quickly. "Just help me, please. And I'll wash your clothes, and even iron them for a month." I sounded more and more pathetic with every passing second. "Even if you have to constantly drive over to the school to drop them off-"

"You really don't have to." James replied. Disappointed, I got up. "Will you go out with me this Friday?" I heard him say when I had turned to walk away.

I practically choked when I turned back around and looked at him. James looked at me curiously and I was sure that my eyes had bugged out of my head. "W-What?" I sputtered as I turned back to face him.

"Will you go out with me?" he repeated with a slight lift to his voice.

"I was…" I sighed and wrung my hands together as I shook my head. "You don't have to pity me. I was just in need of a favor. You don't have to go with it." I mumbled.

"I don't need you to ask for a favor or wash my clothes for me to go on a date with you." James insisted as he stood up, forcing me to look up at him. "I really want to go out with you." He stared right into my eyes.

"It's just; Sarah wants to go out with you and me on a double date." I began to explain. I was refusing to hear what he was saying. "As a favor to her."

"Katie, listen to me." James said, holding my arm.

I looked at him.

He was looking directly into my eyes. I had never realized how green his eyes were. They went well with his tall, dark and handsome look and added a factor of mystery. "Katie, go out with me this Friday. I don't care if you came to me first to ask for a favor. I wanted to ask you out actually, but I guess I never had the courage to do so."

"You wanted to go out with me?" I asked back. I was sure that he was going to change his opinion of me because I sounded like an idiot. "Um, yeah." I brushed my hair behind my ears. "I'll go out with you."

"Great." he smiled. "I'll pick you up eight?"

"Yeah, sure."

Ok, I was slightly annoyed, because after I told Sarah that I would be going with James with them on a date, she told me that she and Devin were going to go out later and that it was only a ploy for me to go out with Logan or James. I was annoyed with her at first and then I realized that I actually did want to go on a date with James. And that thought alone caused me to get really nervous for the rest of the week. So much so that everyone noticed that I wasn't being myself.

When Friday rolled around, I had absolutely no idea what to do with my date with James, and I didn't even know if I wanted to tell anyone about it. But I eventually broke down and called Kendall, who expressed how happy he was (which was weird to me) and then got Jo to come over and help me and Sarah pick out what to wear on my date; A pair of jeans, a purple tank top, and a black shrunken blazer with black ballet flats.

A few minutes before the clock on my wall turned to eight, there was a knock at my door and James was standing on the other side. He was wearing dark jeans with a blue button down shirt.

"Hey" He greeted with a grin and short wave.

"Hey," I replied quietly, a small smile on my face. "Wanna go?" I asked and he followed me out the room and together we walked in silence to the small Chinese restaurant close to the campus. After ordering, we fell into silence for a few minutes until we both spoke at the same time. We stopped and laughed at the awkwardness.

"You go first." I stated, feeling kind of shy suddenly.

"You look really beautiful." he told me and I felt my cheeks flame.

"You don't look bad yourself." I told him as we arrived at the restaurant and went inside, quickly getting seated.

The date went by surprisingly well, after we got over the jitters at the beginning we started talking and acting like we normally did, completely comfortable with each other. As we ate we talked about music, movies, classes, and every kind of trouble that we had gotten into when we were at the Palm Woods. Much to his annoyance, I even reminded James that on my first 'date' with a kid named Kyle from the Palm Woods that I had a crush on, and he almost ruined it because he was being overprotective. James quickly defended himself saying that he was looking out for me for Kendall, who was too busy trying to help Carlos get a date. (I didn't believe that for a second, but it was still nice to talk about it.) We continued to reminisce about everything that we went through and it just made things pass by really fast.

Before I knew it we were the only two customers left at the restaurant because it was almost closing time. I hadn't noticed how fast time went by because we were having a lot of fun. When the waiter told us that it was closing time, he asked for the check and when I went for my purse, James gently stopped me.

"I told you I would pay for the dinner." I reminded him.

"And I told you that I didn't want that," James stated as he smiled at me, his eyes flashing with an amusement. "This isn't the date you wanted as a favor. This is a real date and Miss. Knight, I'm paying."

I let him pay and we gathered out stuff and left the restaurant. We started walking back to the campus and I jumped a little when I felt James worm his hand into mine. I smiled at the feeling and when he knew that I wasn't going to let go, James pulled me even closer to him. The weather was rather chillier than usual, and being close to him provided the warmth I needed. In a few minutes, we were standing before my dorm building. It was surprisingly uncrowned despite being a Friday night.

"I had a lot of fun." I told him as I faced him.

Before I could move, James leaned down and planted his lips against mine. It was soft and sweet and I felt sparks all over my body and butterflies in my stomach. When he parted his lips from mine, my eyes remained close, and then he leaned towards my ear.

"Thanks for asking me to ask you out." he whispered softly.

"Thanks for saying yes to asking me out." I told him when I opened my eyes.

A/N: I bet you guys really liked that chapter. It finally got to some of the point. I really enjoyed writing it as well. The next chapter will be updated soon.

Cheers,

-Riley