Garrett

She's incredible.

I'll admit, at first, I was kinda a jerk. I wouldn't have given me a chance either.

But she did, and now today after school, I get to take the prettiest girl at school to the school dance. And maybe I'll work up the guts to kiss her by then, who knows?

I promised Mr. Scofield that I wouldn't break her heart, and that's absolutely true. I'm telling myself that if I do, I won't be able to look her father in the eye knowing that I hurt her like that. I wouldn't be able to look myself in the eye, for that matter.

I'm at school, sitting by her all day, nervous and anxious that something's going to go wrong. I've worked up a million different situations in my head; what if I forget my tie, my shoes, my jacket. No. I checked and double checked and triple checked my entire bag, and I have that suit ready for the dance for what feels like my entire life.

I'm insanely nervous, walking up to the Scofield's door, and I knock on the door, standing awkwardly in the suit, waiting for someone to answer the door. Shoot. It's Mike, and he doesn't know I'm taking his sister to the dance when he doesn't even have a date. "Man, low blow," Mike says when he opened the door. "My sister?! Why, dude?!" I laugh at him and give him a fist bump. "You do so much as step on her toe and you're not touching my doorstep again," he threatens jokingly, and it's then that Michael walks down the stairs with Faith's arm in his. And I only have one word:

Wow.

She's wearing a lilac maxi dress (what can I say? It's her favorite color) with a pair of white heels that give her an extra inch and a half. Mike must notice me looking, because he gives me a disgusted face. "Don't even think about kissing her, either," Mike says defensively. I roll my eyes and laugh, and I take Faith's hand to get into Michael's car. I open the door for her to slide into the seat, then I get inside myself after her and shut the door behind me. She blushes slightly, and I take her hand in mine again as Michael drives the ten minutes to school.

Tonight is sixth grade only, because each grade has their own night on the last week. I open the door for Faith again to get out, and Michael gets my attention before I shut the door. "Remember what I said," he says with a friendly smile. I return his smile. "Absolutely," I assure him, and he drives away, still smiling as I hold Faith's hand in mine. "Dance floor or food first?" Faith ponders the question for a second. "I don't know," she says, walking into the gym which is decorated just for the dance.

I see Trevor by himself by the punch, and Faith and I walk over to him to see what he's up to. "Yeah, everybody calls me the Breakup Snagger. There are breakups here every year, and they come to the food, so you pick up the girls that just got broken up with. Flawless system, really," Trevor says. I roll my eyes at him. "You're hopeless," I joke. He socks me on the arm. "You got the girl, didn't you," Trevor says. He smiles at me, the stupid grin that I want to slap off his face. That wouldn't be a good example though, now would it? "Yes, I did," I tell him, bringing Faith's hand to my mouth to exaggeratedly kiss her knuckles. She just laughs at me.

All of a sudden, we're standing in the middle of the dance floor next to Maria Sucre when the slow song starts. I look at Faith and she looks to me and smiles, taking my hand and putting her arm around my waist. "I didn't know that you could dance," I say a few seconds in. She's good at it, and it's a feeling I love too. Spinning slow circles in the middle of the dance floor, her looking up at me with her head on my chest and my arm around her waist is the best feeling ever.

One thing I'm thankful for is that I haven't stepped on her toes yet.

"Thank you," she whispers in my ear, and it confuses me for a second. "For what?"

"For everything. For helping me last night, being there today." I look at her and smile as the song ends, but thankfully another slow one comes on. "You don't have to thank me for that, that's just part of my job as your friend," I say jokingly, but part of me wants to see what she'll say. "Well, you friend zoned yourself, not me," she jokes.

I notice that a few people notice that Faith and I are a couple as we dance, because they're whispering and pointing at us. People stop dancing to look at us, but I don't really notice because Faith's hair smells like vanilla and I love it. I could stand like this forever if I could, but then the slow song ends and a faster one comes on this time. "I could really go for a cookie," I suggest, and she follows my lead to the food and drinks. "You're a great dancer," she compliments me as I dip her a cup of punch. "Thanks, but I'm pretty sure that you're better than me. If you factor in the heels, you definitely beat me," I laugh. She grabs a cookie and we go to talk to some of our friends around the gym. "You guys are the cutest," Maria Sucre tells Faith, giving her a hug. "I agree," I tell Maria. Faith blushes and I squeeze her hand.

All too soon, it's time for us to leave, and on the way out, I'm still holding Faith's hand like I have been for almost the past hour and a half. We're standing outside, and I'm looking around for Michael. He's not here yet; that's probably because it's ten minutes before the dance was supposed to end. I'm standing next to her, my fingers still intertwined in hers, when I decide to make a move. "Faith... would it be okay, um, if I..." I trail off. "Spit it out, Cooper," she says playfully, and the look in her eyes tells me that she knows what I'm going to ask. Instead of trying to stumble over that sentence again, I just lean.

For my first kiss, it was pretty phenomenal.

Her soft lips hit mine and it feels like time just stopped. She tastes sweet, almost like sugar. 10 times sugar's sweetness and you've got the idea.

I run my tongue across her bottom lip and she opens them.

Now it's like 25 times the sweetness of sugar.

When we pull apart, I look Faith in her crystal blue eyes, and I'm about to lean in again when Michael pulls up behind us. Crap.

I open the door for Faith, and I slide in next to her and close the door. "Did you have fun?" Faith and I share a look and nod to Michael. I slide my arm around her waist and this time, she gladly accepts it and holds my hand too. Mike's going to be disappointed in me, but I don't care. It was worth anything he can throw at me. Faith and I sit beside each other, her head resting on my shoulder as we look out the car window. Michael steals a quick look in the rear view mirror to see what we're doing, and once he's decided that it's okay, looks away and grins.

He drops me off at my house all too soon. "Thank you," I tell Michael, and he nods. "Thank you for letting her have fun," he says back, and I smile as he drives away.

"Mom! I'm back."

I go up the stairs to see a picture on my phone that Faith sent me of us kissing on the sidewalk.

Where did that come from???

Maria took it for me, she told me that she couldn't resist it because of how cute it was ;)

I save it to my photos and then another one comes through, this one of us dancing. That one's going in my photos too.

Mike texts me and asks if he can come over since we only live three houses down. I mean, how convenient for me. My best friend and now my girlfriend both live three blocks down. How lucky can you get?

Mike comes in the door and we go into my room to play video games. "So, Gare, did you keep your hands and lips off?" I look at him and smile. "I don't know, you tell me." I put a smug grin on my face and he looks at me. "Don't day that you..." At this point, he looks absolutely disgusted. "Eww." I laugh and finish setting up the game.

•••

An hour later, Faith walks in on our game, and I fight the urge to go kiss her again. The smile on her face says what I'm thinking too; the sidewalk was far too enjoyable for that to be the last time. It will not be the last.

Mike goes home around sunset, and Faith takes his place beside me on my bed. "What did you-" I cut her off with a kiss that was kind of unprecedented and uncalled for, but when she kisses me back it's worth it. She smiles when we break apart. "Well, that answered my question," she says with a laugh.

I decide to take her out to my favorite spot in my backyard; the middle, where there are no trees to block your view of the stars. I lay a blanket out on the yard right after the sun sets, and Faith comes to join me. "This is my favorite thing to do at night. Just lay in the yard and look at the stars, but honestly, I've never done it with anyone," I confess, and Faith looks at me and grins. "I think we've made a lot of firsts this week. My first friend, my first day of school, first dance, first kiss..." she trails off, looking up at the stars. "We're going on vacation for a week tomorrow, and my dad said that I could bring a friend, so I was wondering if you'd come with us?" Faith is asking me to go on vacation...? "Uh, duh! Absolutely!" She smiles and looks back up to the stars. "This is the first time I've ever seen the stars."

Faith looks at me, a serious look on her face. "I've gotta go get the plane in," she checks her watch, "two hours. I'm your personal pilot to Baja." I do a double take. "Baja, Mexico?" That's pretty far. "Yeah..." she answers. "But I enjoy flying. You and Mike can take turns as copilots if you want." I lay flat on the ground and fold my hands behind my head. "Happy birthday," I tell her, seeing that it's midnight on her watch. "What?" I chuckle at her. "It's your birthday today. It's midnight," I tell her. She moves her hand on top of mine and we lay on the blanket, staring up at the stars. "Holy crap, it gets cold at night," Faith says. I debate it for a second. "Here," I tell her, pulling my sweatshirt over my head and handing it to her, leaving me in my t-shirt and shorts. She pulls the gray Nike sweatshirt over her head, and it's a few inches long but it looks really cute. "So, Garrett, how do you want to spend the two hours?" I'm looking at the stars and I smile. "I know that you'll take a bullet for your family, but I don't know your favorite food." She laughs at me. "Not that I've eaten many foods, but my favorite so far is tacos. They're the best."

We spend the next two hours asking each other questions like that, our favorites, stuff like that. "I gotta go, but I'll be back at Chicago-O'Hare anywhere between noon and 2 o'clock today. Remember that, I'll text you or dad or somebody if something will take longer. I'll send someone a text when I get to LA and when I leave, and if you don't hear from me by six am, something's wrong," Faith tells me, and I grab her by the hand before she leaves. "Please. Be careful. I'll miss you," I tell her, pulling her into a hug and giving her a kiss on the forehead. "I'll miss you too. Remember what I said: if no one hears from me before six, then I'm in trouble." I tighter my hug around her, and she starts laughing. "Garrett Cooper, if you don't let me go, you're not coming," she tells me jokingly. I laugh and her and let her go.

I watch her run back home, and it's 2:15 in the morning. I walk back inside, slightly shivering, starting to worry. But I shouldn't; she's the bravest and strongest person I know.

I lay in bed for the next few hours, checking my phone and texting Mike. He's still up, thank God, and told me that the hangar is a mile from out house in our direction. I'll get to see her run by.

As he said, a few minutes later, she runs by my house on her way to the hangar. I wave to her, and she waves back, trying to get to the plane as fast as she can.

I can't help but worry as I walk back to bed, laying there with no intention to sleep. I won't be able to until I get the text that she made it. I don't know what I'll do if she doesn't make it back home, gets, heck, stuck in a line at the hangar and is a little late. The few minutes she's late will feel like an eternity. But, her favorite saying, "Just have a little faith" pops into my head. I have plenty of it, and there's nothing that makes me lose it. "Just have a little faith," I whisper to myself, looking out my top floor bedroom window at the stars we just looked at.

I use the wooden windowsill as a foothold to climb into the roof, and I decide to just sit there for a little bit. Think about the past few days and how much I've enjoyed them, what they mean. I have all the faith in the world that she can do it.

She'll make it.

She has to.