(Vincent's Pov)
-One Week Later-
I was working again before I had to head to Clementine's game in a few hours. I'm not going to Lie I'm a bit nervous about this, I mean Louis and the others are saying it's a date but I honestly don't think it is, and I doubt that is what Clementine meant, she just wants to hang out with her friends and asked if I wanted to go with her, simple. I looked up as I had finish rearranging the instruments from one side to the other, chuck had wanted to change the interior of the building for a few years as he says and I was here to help with that. I then hear the door open and I turn to see the same kids from last week.
"Hey you." One of the teens says and I go up to them.
"Hello, how can I help?" I asked the same line over and over every day.
"You're Vincent Aldon, aren't you?" The teen asked and I looked to him then the rest of the kids and I nod.
"Uh yea, that's me, can I help you?" I asked.
"Dude I fucking told you." One of the other teens says and I look at them.
"What the hell are you doing here?" They asked as they waved around the store so I decided to work a bit as I talked.
"Just wanted to work here nothing wrong with that." I tell them.
"After your band kicked you out?"
"They didn't kick me out I left." I tell them then chuck walks in.
"Hey if you aren't going to buy anything I suggest leaving my employee alone so they can work." He tells them.
"Fine old man." One of the teens says and they all leave and I sighed a bit.
"You good Vincent?" He asked and I nodded.
"Yea I'm doing good, sorry about that." I tell him.
"No need to be sorry, those kids don't know when to shut it when need be." He says and I nod in agreement.
"So, when is that Homecoming?" He asked.
"In a few hours after the game." I tell him.
"Well, the game starts at four and that's in a few minutes, so if you want to leave early I can close up shop." He says.
"No, I can work until Four I told Clem I would be a bit late so she has a ride." I explained.
"Well, I guess I have to be blunt, kid take the rest of the day off, besides I have to set up a day for a meeting anyway and make the new schedule for next month." He says and I nod.
"Are you sure about this?" I asked as I set the rest of the music books on the display shelf.
"Yes, I'm sure, no go on." He says and I nod as I go and throw the ox in recycling and I clock out then head to my car and look in the back seat to see the suit I had just gotten for this event, Clementine only told me that her dress was going to be red so Louis told me I should get the same color suit. I sighed as I drove to the high school and I parked the car and paid to get in. once that was done, I went and grabbed a few waters since Clementine's family was here and I go sit in the bleachers and look around as Duck comes up next to me and I hand him a water.
"Hey man long time no see." He says and I nod.
"Yea sorry about that."
"Hey you have work we understand." He says and I nod and I see Clementine come up to us and I smiled and waved a bit.
"Hey you made it just in time too." She says and I nod.
"Yea chuck basically kicked me out early for this." I tell him.
"He's reasonable when it comes to this stuff." She says and I nod in agreement.
"Yea he is."
"So, you ready for the dance?" Duck asked and I chuckled.
"Oh yea, got my dress ready at the house and everything." Clem tells him.
"What about you Vincent?" She asked and I nod.
"Yea I'm excited." I tell her and she nods. She's then called over and I see AJ run over to us and I hand him a water bottle and he thanks me and gives me a hug and I hug him back.
"Mom and Dad are going to be walking with Clem since she's a senior." He explained when he saw me looking for his parents. I nod as they do the whole thing for the seniors and I watch as they call Clementine up.
"Clementine Everett is a senior who plans on going to College in the field of Sports Medicine and she also want's to be a pro baseball player, she already has a scholarship to any university of her choice and will be attending the college of her choice after this summer." The announcer says and a bunch of people cheer for her and I watch her as she walked up with her parents to the center of the field. Once all the senior players come out and they congratulate them they all head back to their teams' dugouts and then the game starts. Lee and Carly come over and I hand them some waters as well and we all watch the game.it took a good few hours and it looked like the other team was going to win Clementine's team needed to have full plates and a home run in order to win this game but that didn't look like it was going to happen. Though they could be one point ahead if the next batter hit a ball and got two runners to the home plate, but there was only one runner on the field so the batter would have to make a home run in order for this to happen.
"COME ON UMPIRE!" I hear someone yell and I looked to the man as he looked pissed and then I looked back to the game as Clementine was up to bat. She got in her stance and swung the bat as the pitcher threw the ball. It looked like a god damn Knuckler ball.
"Cursed ball." I muttered.
"What?" Duck asked and I pointed to the pitcher and Clementine got a strike and the crowd groaned a bit at this.
"Knucklers are what my grandfather called cursed balls, since they don't really work well all the time but if you can pitch it just right, you're golden, they're hard to throw too, think as if you're trying to throw a butterfly into a mailbox." I explained.
"Damn, I never heard anyone explain it like that." He says and I nod as we watched Clementine. There were two more balls to throw and sadly Clementine didn't get to hit any of them due to the Knuckleballers and I see the coach throw their clipboard on the ground as they lost the game and I rubbed my neck a bit as the teams went to congratulate each other on a good game. Then I saw Clementine getting yelled at by the coach as I came up to them.
"HOW COULD YOU MISS THAT?" He yelled and I stood next to Clementine.
"I just wasn't in it today that's all." She explained.
"Whatever double down on the practice or I sit you out next game." He says and leaves and I look to her as she looked to the ground and I think of something to say to her and she sighed as she grabbed her gear and I rubbed my neck.
"The umpire was an ass." I say.
"No, he wasn't I was just not focused enough." She says.
"In all honesty Knuckle balls suck ass." I tell her but she doesn't say anything to me and I sighed a bit as I think of something to say to her.
"Eh, you know what I do after a concert, if I messed up or anything?" I asked.
"What get drunk?" She says pissed and I look to her. I rubbed my neck a bit at this and I saw her looking at me and I took a breath.
"Well, no… I just remember the next one will be better and that mistakes can happen, especially for sports, you aren't always going to hit the ball and people need to realize it's harder than what they expect… hell I would have told your coach that if he didn't make all homeruns then he should be fired if he wants to act like that." I muttered the last part and I hear her giggle a bit at this and I look to her.
"Yea I understand what you are saying… it's just frustrating sometimes you know?" She asked and I nodded at this then Duck came over.
"Hey I'm going to get Gabe and the others, you good with Vincent taking you home?" He asked.
"Oh, yea I'm good, thank you Duck." She says and he hugs her and heads out and I look to her.
"So, you read to go?" I asked and she nods. I grabbed her bag from her and we went to my car and I set them in the trunk and she got in the car. I go in my side and I drive her to her house and she looked in the back seat where my suit and tie were.
"Oh, nice outfit." She says and I nod.
"Yea I got it a few days ago when you told me the color of your dress." I tell her and she nods.
"So, you're ok with going with me?" She asked and I nodded.
"Of course, I am Clementine, you asked and I said yes…. Unless you don't want me to."
"No, no I do want you to come… I'm sorry if I made it seem that way." She says and I nod.
"I'm sorry if I was rude earlier I just… I've practiced a lot and I just thought how today was going to be and I guess I got distracted." She says and I nod.
"It's ok…. I'd get distracted sometimes too, even when I'm at work." I tell her and we finally get to her house. She gets out the car and I grabbed the suit and tie then I grabbed her bag and we both walked in.
"Oh, Clem your dress is ready in your room, Vincent you can change in the bathroom down here." Carly says and I nod as Clementine takes her bag and heads up the stairs and I go to the bathroom and get dressed up. I looked in the mirror a bit and washed my face a bit and sighed as I walked out and was tying my tie.
"You know how to tie a tie?" I hear and look to AJ.
"Yea, it's easy once you find the type of style you like." I say as I tighten it and fix it up a bit.
"Can you teach me?" He asked and I think a bit.
"Well yea sure I can." I tell him and he goes and runs up to his room and I hear Lee Chuckling and I look at him.
"He never wanted to learn how to tie one before… wonder what's gotten into him." He says and I nodded a bit as he offered me a drink and I nod as I grabbed it.
"I'm just surprised Clementine's school is allowing me to go to the dance, considering my age and all." I tell him and he nods at this.
"Yea they have some leeway I think three years older is the max so you're lucky." He says to me and I nod just as AJ came running down the stairs with his tie and I bend down and show him how to do it.
"Now this is how my tie is, but if you don't like it like this-."
"No, I like this." AJ says and I nod as he grabs another tie and tries to mimic what I did. I helped him a bit when he got stuck and Lee would laugh a bit as he helped me untie AJ's tie when he got it in a really good knot.
"Well, aren't you having fun." I hear and look up and then stand up real quick when I see Clementine and I chuckled a bit.
"Well, he wanted to know how to tie a tie and…. Wow." I just look at her as she wore a nice long dress that fit her body just right, it was simple nothing to extravagant at all and I just couldn't help but stare.
"Do I look good?" She asked and I just nod real fast.
"Ye-yea you look really good." I stuttered a bit and she giggled at this.
"Ok, you two head off now." AJ says and we both laughed at this and I look to her.
"Well, you heard the man." I say.
"Oh, wait we need pictures." Carly says and I look to Clementine as she sighed a bit and then smiled as her mom comes out with a camera and takes a few photos of us. It took a good ten minutes before we could leave and I took Clementine to my car and I drove back to the school. We listened to some music while I drove and I looked around a bit before we finally got to the school parking lot. I parked close to the gym where the entrance was into the dance and I turned the car off then went out and opened Clementine's door for her. She got out as I helped her and then I heard a whistle and saw Duck and the others come up to us.
"Hey Clementine, nice dress." Gabe says and I look to him then to Clem.
"Thanks, nice suit." She says and he nods.
"Alright let's head in." Duck says and we all agree and head into the gym. Clementine gave the person our tickets and we walked right in and I heard the band that was playing and saw it was those teens from the shop.
"Well Damn." I muttered.
"What's up?" Clem asked.
"Nothing… uh... so what do we do?" I asked.
"Well, we can dance if you want, or we can go get drinks." She says and I nod to the second one.
"Drink first than dance." I say and she nods and I grabbed two water bottles and paid for them. I gave one to Clementine and she thanks me and we go to the side of the gym and watch as the other students dance. Then Gabe comes over to us and looks to Clementine.
"Hey Clem want to dance?" He asked.
"No not right now, Vincent and I were going to dance when we finished drinking." She tells him.
"Oh, come on just once dance, then you and him can dance." He says and then she looked to me and I shrugged.
"Hey it's up to you if you want to dance or not." I tell her then look at him with a bit of a glare. He looked to me and then back to her as she refused again, he walked away and I look at her.
"One time should be enough for most but he doesn't listen sometimes." She says and I nod as I finish my water and so does, she. I go and throw the bottles away and then take her to the dance floor and ironically a slow song had to play and I groaned a bit as she laughed. She then placed her arms behind my neck and held them and I placed my hands on her hips as the slow song continued to play. I turned as red as my suit as she looked up to me and I turned my head way and she giggles at this as well.
"Come one Vincent it's not that bad." She says and I look at her.
"No, it's not bad at all." I tell her truthfully.
"It's just ironic that a slow song plays when we start to dance." I tell her and she nods at this and we both laughed. After a while we danced and took some breaks here and there then we decided to do one more dance after dancing for almost two hours that is. Again, it was one of those slow songs and I decided to hold her close to me as we danced. She placed her head on my chest a bit as we swayed to the music and I turned red again. I then turn to the side a bit to see Sarah and Mariana taking photos and they wave to me and I nod a bit at this. After the song finished Clementine moved away and we walked away from the dance floor and went over to her friends.
"Well, aren't you two just cute during the slow dances." Mariana says as she shows us the pictures.
"Oh, come on Vincent looks like a full-blown tomato." Gabe says as he shoved me a bit and I look to him.
"Hey, he looks good in red." Clem says and she fixes my tie a bit.
"Yea like a tomato." He says and I shrugged it off. We talked with Duck and the others for a bit then I looked to my watch and then looked to Clementine as I pulled her to the side a bit to talk to her alone.
"Hey do you want to head out?" I asked.
"You have something else planned?" She asked and I nod a bit.
"I mean yea if… well if you want to that is." I suggest and she thinks a bit on it and I look at her.
"Sure, we've spent a lot of time here already." She says and I nod as we go back to her friends.
"Hey Vincent and I are going to head out early." She tells them.
"Yea sure, you tired?" Sarah asked.
"A bit yea." Clementine lies and I just nod at this.
"Alright, we will see you tomorrow?" She asked.
"Yea we can hang out tomorrow." Clementine tells them. We say our byes and head out to my car. I open her door for her and she takes a seat. I get ot my side and I drive to the burger place and I rubbed my neck.
"You want to eat here?" I asked and she nods.
"Haven't been here in a while." She says and we order our usuals. We take a seat in the back as we got our orders and I eat my fries and look at her.
"Sorry if I wasn't that much fun I just… I was never good at dances." I tell her.
"You dance on the stage all the time." She says and I nod.
"Yea but…" I try to say something but I couldn't tell her.
"But?" She asked and I look at her.
"Nothing, just… felt weird and stuff." I mutter and we eat our food.
"I still had a nice night, loved the ironic slow songs that played when we danced." She says and I chuckled at this.
"Yea... that was pretty ironic, five out of thirteen songs." I tell her as she took my fry. I smiled as we finish eating our food and I look to her a bit then I think.
"Would you like to go to my place or the park?" I asked and she looked to me.
"We can go to the park." She says and I nod as we get back to the front and I drive us to the park. It took us a good while as we finally get there then I parked the car and we decided to take a walk. The stars were out tonight, not a single cloud blocking them and I took her over to the bridge and we looked down at the waters to see the reflection of the stars and moon.
"This is really nice." I hear Clementine say and I look to her and I nod. We just looked to the waters and I feel her hand on mine and I look to our hands and I look to her as she had her face away from me. I then move out hands so I could hold it better and she looked to me and I rubbed my neck a bit. I smiled at her a bit and then I felt her move her hands as she grabbed my suit jacket and I looked to her. She looked to me then I saw her eyes move down then back up to look me in the eyes. Then she quickly pulled me in and kissed me. I was a bit shocked at this but I couldn't help but pull her closer to me as I kissed her back. We pulled apart and I looked to her as she looked to me.
"Holy shit." I say and she laughed.
"Well, that's romantic." She jokes and I smiled at this.
"I mean… Holy shit." I tried to say and we both laugh at this. Then we calmed down a bit and I look at her.
"I uh… hope that was, ok?" She asked and I nod.
"Yea… yea that was ok." I say with a smile.
"You know I was freaking out when I asked you to come to the dance with me." She tells me as we walked some more around the park.
"I freaked out too… I called Louis asking what do I do and they all kept saying, 'it's a date' and I just… I thought if I treated it like that than… maybe you wouldn't have wanted to be friends with me anymore." I tell her and she looked at me.
"I Thought the same thing too… I know we talked about the dating stuff and… I don't know." She says and we both laughed at this.
"Look… I want to be truthful with you… I would really like to go on a proper date with you Clementine, I just… I know we've known each other for like a month and a week or so... I can't remember the time but it's been short I know it but… you've been so kind to me since I came here, you weren't like other people who only wanted to hang out with me not because I was in a band or famous…. Kind of famous I want to say… you helped me with the Minerva bullshit and you didn't act like most people saying 'oh yea we're dating' when we weren't… I just… you're so kind, beautiful, and just a wonderful person to hang out with." I tell her truthfully.
"I know you would be worried about that type of situation… and I'm glad I really got to know you in all honesty." She says and I smile down at her. When we finished walking around, the park we got back to my car and I start to drive.
"Do you want to head to my place? If that's ok with you I mean." I asked and she nods.
"Yea we can head there." She says and I drive to my house. Once there I took her inside and we got changed into something more comfortable. I gave her some spare sweatpants and black shirt to wear and I had on just a pair of shorts as we sat in the living room and watched a movie. I held her to me as she placed her head on my chest and her hand as well and I kissed the top of her head as we continued to watch the movie some more.
"This was a fun day." She says and I nod at this.
"Yea… and romantic." I joked and she laughed a bit at this and I take in a deep breath as we watched the movie. I cleared my throat a bit as her hand moves up and down my chest a bit and I look to her a bit as she just watches the TV and so do I. I placed my hand on her back and rubbed it a bit as I lean my head to the side a bit as I tried to relax a bit.
"Would you want to keep this a bit of a… not a secret but you know." I tried to ask.
"If you would like to keep it to ourselves, I don't mind it at all." She says and I nod at this.
"But if you want to talk about us, I won't mind at all." I tell her and she looked up to me.
"Would you really be ok with that?" She asked and I nod a bit at this.
"Yea… how about we tell our friends and family first." I tell her.
"Ok… yea we can do that." She says and I nod at this. We relaxed a bit more and we moved so I was laying on the couch and she was on top of me and I rubbed her back a bit and I look to her to see that she had fallen asleep. I turned the TV off and I moved a bit as I rubbed her back some more and I looked up at the ceiling as I could hear her breathing a bit. I felt happy but at the same time I was a bit scared, mostly of other people, and I didn't want to hear anything from Minerva either, I haven't heard anything from her in a while though I barely check my phone on social media only time I'm on it is when I talk to Clementine or to order something online that I can't get from store here. I kept rubbing Clementine's back as I think more and more, I could feel my heart race at all the bad things my mind was thinking at this moment and I felt scared for what might happen. Hell, I was scared that her parents wouldn't like the idea of their daughter dating me, I can't give her no kids, well not yet but that could be years from now before I could, I mean we could adopt I don't think Clementine would mind that at all. I look to her a bit more and it had been a while since she had fallen asleep so I get up a bit and lay her on the couch fully. I grabbed a blanket and a pillow for her and I made her comfortable as can be, I then grabbed my phone and walked outside as I called Brody.
"Vincent? What's wrong you don't call this late." She says and I think a bit.
"I uh… I'm… scared." I tell her.
"Scared? Vincent, are you ok?" She asked.
"I uh… Clementine and I… we kissed and-."
"That's great though." She says.
"I know... I know but I mean… I'm freaking myself out right now by thinking bad things." I tell her.
"Bad things… Like what?" She asked.
"Like every relationship… how people will act to us being together, I know fuck what other people think but I can't… then for some reason I was thinking about a family but I can't think like that right now… then her parents I'm not sure how they world react to us, it's just foolish things I know but... I just need to take my mind off it." I tell her.
"Alright, let's talk about you visiting your grandma." She says and I nod as I sit in the chair outside and I start up a fire. I look into the house to check on Clementine a bit then I would look back to the fire.
"So, what are you going to do first when you meet your family?" She asked.
"My cousin is having a birthday party…. So, I can spend some time thinking about what to get her… though she is a teenage girl so I don't know what to get her." I muttered.
"Well make-up is a good idea."
"You know my aunt isn't a fan of that… calls anyone wearing it a hussy." I muttered a bit.
"That's true, your aunt Karen is truly living to her name." She joked and we both laughed at this.
"What about your grandma?" She asked.
"She might make her homemade cookies I love… oh maybe we can go to the park like we did with my grandfather… I know my dad asked if I wanted to go fishing too." I rant off many things to keep my mind away from the negative thinking I had going on earlier.
"You feeling better?" She asked.
"Yea… I am sorry for waking you up though." I tell her.
"It's ok, you helped me with my panic attacks, least I can do to repay you." She says and I nod.
"How have you been handling them?" I asked.
"Well medication for one and Marlon helps me." She says and I nod.
"That's good." I say.
"How was the dance?" she asked and I explained all that happened to her.
"It seems Gabe still has feelings for her." She says.
"Yea well she doesn't have feeling for him… I don't think so… no she doesn't." I muttered.
"Sorry I shouldn't have brought that up." She says.
"No, it's ok… but I took her to our favorite drive-in restaurant, and then I took her to the park." I rant and Brody laughed at the comment I made when Clementine kissed me.
"Hey that's a bit better than what Ruby said Aasim told her." She says.
"Didn't he thank her?" I asked and we laughed a bit at this.
"Yea, he did it was funny." She says and I nod.
"I'll let you go, I'm sorry for waking you up."
"No, it's all good, you have a good night, Vincent." She says and I nod.
"Night Brody… thank you." I tell her,
"Anytime." She says and I hang up the phone and I looked to the fire a bit. I then put the fire out and I go inside the house and sit in the recliner grabbing the handle on the side as I recline it back and I close my eyes so I could sleep for a bit.