Chapter Twelve
Jared was nervous. Beyond nervous. In fact, he was pretty sure he was about to start hyperventilating.
WHY was it taking so long for Kim to come to the front door?
The rational part of his brain told him it was because he had only knocked three seconds ago. But the more prevalent, ridiculously irrational part of his brain told him it was because she had completely changed her mind and no longer wanted to go out with him. And then suddenly Kim was there pulling the door open, and Jared decided he was going to have to start refusing to listen to all of the second-guessing he'd been doing lately. Seriously, Kim had never given him a reason to doubt her so he didn't know why he kept doing it.
Oh, probably because you know you don't deserve her and you're just waiting for her to come to her senses and realize that, too.
Shutting down that line of thought with a quick shake of his head, Jared refocused his attention on Kim with a wide smile.
"Hey, Kim," Jared said, and even though she smiled back easily, he could tell that she was nervous too. This observation calmed him down immensely; if she was nervous that must mean she wanted things to go well tonight just as much as he did. "You look really pretty."
And she did. Unlike any other time he had ever seen her, she was wearing a dress and, in the back of his mind, Jared couldn't help but start thinking of ways to convince her to wear one more often—completely disregarding the typically cool climate they lived in, how come it had taken him this long to discover she'd been hiding such fabulous legs under the jeans she usually wore? She had also put on makeup, but it didn't look nasty on her like so many other girls who caked it on their faces. Kim's makeup was so subtle that Jared was pretty sure he wouldn't have noticed it was there if he hadn't spent the better part of the past three weeks staring at her, and therefore was well aware of how beautiful she already was without any of the stuff. Tonight, though, her beauty was enhanced.
To Jared's surprise and overwhelming dismay, however, Kim merely grimaced at his compliment. Good grief, she wasn't one of those girls who refused to believe any compliments she was given, was she? Had he really not gotten to know her at all in the past three weeks?
"My mom practically tied me down so that she could put makeup on me," Kim said, her grimace more pronounced as she spoke. "And then she made me promise not to wash it all off because apparently 'it makes my eyes pop.' All I know is you're just lucky she left for work ten minutes ago, otherwise we'd be stuck here forever while she took more pictures of us than she'd ever know what to do with. Oh, and hi, by the way."
Jared simply stared at Kim for a moment before bursting into laughter. Clearly he also needed to stop second-guessing himself when it came to matters concerning Kim.
"I told you she's crazy," Kim said, a blush rising on her cheeks. "Especially when she sets her mind to something, such as the past twenty-four hours we've spent having mother-daughter bonding time at her insistence."
Jared merely shook his head and held out his hand for Kim to take, which she did immediately. He knew that it upset Kim how much her mom had to work and therefore how much time she had to be away from her daughters. And for all that she appeared to be complaining about her mom's recent actions, Jared was almost positive that she was actually quite happy to spend all of that time with her mom. For Kim's sake, Jared hoped this wasn't just a one-time thing and that Katie would be able to make time for each of her daughters from now on.
Jared led Kim over to his truck, only releasing her hand when he moved to open the door for her.
"For you, m'lady," Jared said with a theatrical bow, gesturing for her to get in. He was well aware that he was acting ridiculous, but it was all in the hope that it would get Kim to relax a little bit. Jared was determined to make this date perfect and that wasn't going to happen if she stayed as nervous as she still currently was.
And, sure enough, Kim let out a small giggle as she stepped into the truck. It was music to Jared's ears.
The next hour was spent in near-constant conversation, mostly about Kim's visit to her grandma's the previous day. Jared was determined to learn everything there was to know about Kim—and, by extension, her family. And so, over the course of the car ride, Jared learned about Kim's childhood being raised by her mom and grandma, how devastated Kim was when her grandma decided three years ago to move to the Hoh reservation when the older woman's brother-in-law died so that her sister wasn't alone, how much Kim enjoyed getting to visit her grandma, and the secret ingredient her grandma used to make the world's best chocolate chip cookies.
Jared loved every minute of it—although Kim had been adamant that he never reveal the secret ingredient to anyone on pain of death, while also lamenting that she didn't understand how the long-kept secret had just slipped out so easily. Jared insisted it was because of his boyish charm, but Kim didn't seem quite so convinced.
Before either of them knew it, they were entering Port Angeles and Jared had parked next to the movie theatre.
"So," Jared began nervously, having turned to face Kim after shutting off the ignition, "I have something to confess."
"You're a serial killer, aren't you?" Kim questioned immediately.
Jared's thoughts flickered briefly to his role as a tribal protector…a serial killer of bloodsuckers, maybe. He grinned at Kim, "Well I had been hoping to keep that from you until at least after our fifth date."
For some reason that was not immediately discernible to Jared, Kim's heart seemed to skip a beat after he said that.
"What I need to confess right now, though," Jared continued, "Is that I'm pretty sure we're about to go on the most cliché first date ever."
"Dinner and a movie?" Kim asked knowingly.
Jared nodded. "Is that…okay?" He asked hesitantly. Please say yes. Please say yes.
"Well," Kim said slowly, "I suppose it depends…now that I know how you're planning to end our fifth date, will it at least be the most fantastic date ever up until your big confession? Because if we don't have a great fifth date, I might just have to cut my losses now."
Jared immediately scoffed, "It's going to be the best fifth date ever. Obviously I had to get the cliché date out of the way first before we could get to the good ones. So, what do you say? Are you ready for this?"
"Ready as I'll ever be," Kim replied with a shrug.
Well Jared was going to take that as a good sign. It didn't appear as if her nerves were getting the best of her any longer, though he wasn't quite sure the same could be said for him. The night was still young and there were plenty of things that could still go wrong, no matter how perfectly he wanted the date to go. But worrying so much wasn't going to do him much good; he needed to focus on making sure Kim had a good-no, great time with him.
After helping Kim out of the truck, Jared casually slipped his hand into Kim's. He was beyond pleased to note that her only reaction was to thread her fingers through his. This was definitely progress. He might not have too much to worry about after all.
"So," Jared began as they approached the ticket booth, "I thought we could see Fever Pitch. It got pretty decent reviews and it's a romantic comedy about baseball, and even if it's not about the Mariners, there's bound to be something we both like about it, right?"
Jared promptly cut off his own rambling as he looked nervously at Kim. He really hoped he wasn't completely missing the mark on this one—that would be an awful start to their actual date. But judging from Kim's unreadable expression, Jared might have something to at least be slightly concerned about.
"Or…" Kim said slowly, glancing at the list of movie times, "We could go see Batman Begins. Because you're a teenage boy and I doubt you want to see a romantic comedy even if it does have baseball in it."
"But what if you do?" Jared pressed, because honestly, he would probably be happy with any movie if Kim wanted to see it. And girls liked romantic movies, right?
"But what if I don't?" Kim stated.
Jared narrowed his eyes at her slightly. Well she appeared to be serious and not just saying that in an attempt to make him happy. Because really, he would rather do anything other than sit through a romantic comedy, even if Kim was there with him.
"You're sure?" Jared asked hesitantly.
"I'm clearly going to have to show you my comic book collection sometime soon," Kim replied with a grin. "Yes, I'm sure I want to go see Batman Begins. Plus, we don't want too many clichés."
"Oh, thank god," Jared said with a relieved sigh. "I don't even like baseball that much when it is about the Mariners. Two for Batman it is."
Kim let out a short giggle that set Jared's heart racing as he pulled her up to the ticket booth with him. And he couldn't help but think that maybe this date would be even more perfect if it didn't go exactly as he had planned…
One superhero origin story, dinner at Kim's favorite Mexican restaurant, and several hours later found Kim and Jared back where they had started the night: standing on her front porch.
"Your mom's not back from work in time to take some end-of-date pictures, is she?" Jared questioned, only slightly concerned, his eyes flickering briefly to the dark house before him before returning to staring into Kim's beautiful brown eyes.
Kim laughed lightly. "She won't be home for another hour or two, probably."
"Oh good," Jared said, "This way I'll be able to prep myself for some picture-taking and make sure I'm as photogenic as possible before our next date."
"Will there be a next date?" Kim asked, followed immediately by the appearance of that adorable blush across her cheeks.
"Well," Jared said slowly, fighting not to worry that she was asking because she had decided she didn't want to date him after tonight. "Unless you're about to kick me to the curb and declare you never want to see my ugly face again, I'd say yeah, there's definitely going to be a next date. I had a really good time with you tonight, Kim."
"Well good," Kim replied, and Jared could tell she was valiantly attempting—and failing—to fight back her still-present blush. "I had a really nice time with you, too, Jared; clichés and all."
"Well good," Jared echoed Kim teasingly and, to his secret delight, her blush darkened. However, she also smiled at him now and he couldn't help it as his gaze immediately lowered to her lips.
Truthfully, this had been the part of the night that he had been most nervous about. But now that the moment was here, he found that his nerves had disappeared. Because this was Kim and they had just had a really nice night together and, even before that, things had been pretty good between them.
And so before he could second-guess things, he bent down slightly and pressed his lips gently against Kim's in a brief kiss.
"I'll see you tomorrow," Jared said with a small smile, regretting that he had to pull away from Kim's soft lips, but not wanting to overwhelm her. "We'll hang out…maybe we can go to the beach."
Kim merely nodded, her entire face bright red, though there was a smile on her face.
"I can come over around eleven?" Jared questioned, naming the most socially-acceptable time of morning he could think of to show up at someone's house for a visit.
Kim nodded once more and Jared grinned. Clearly his kiss had rendered her speechless, because Kim also had a slightly dazed expression on her face.
"Perfect," Jared said, before swooping down once more, this time to peck Kim quickly on the cheek. Straightening up, he immediately began backing down her front steps, still speaking as he went. "I had a really good time tonight," He repeated, "I'll see you tomorrow."
And finally Kim faintly replied, "It's a date."