End of Innocence v2.0

By Dixxy

Chapter Two: The Item

I got home as fast as I could that afternoon, leaving the others in the dust. Once the realization that an exceptionally hot girl had shown interest in me hit, I was estatic. I HAD to call her. I HAD to ask her out. Opportunities like that didn't come up everyday! If I was going to have a chance with this girl, I had to act before someone else took the chance.

Once I was home, I saw that I'd beaten the others home. Good. Being home alone would make the phone call all that much easier. I sat down on the couch in the living room, taking in a deep breath. I closed my eyes, trying to relax. I had to act maturely and responsibly, or else I would have blown this chance of a lifetime.

I picked up the phone by the couch and pulled out Sheila's number (which had been relocated to my pocket). I studied the number and began to dial. As soon as the last number was put into the phone, I waited patiently in hopes that Sheila would answer. I bit the bottom of my lip and started to drum my fingers on my thigh.

Three rings later, I heard a slight click and a voice on the other end. "Moshi, moshi?" the voice responded. Judging what I remembered of Sheila, I concluded it wasn't her. Too old, but it was still a female. Must have been a member of her host family, probably her host-mother.

"Is Sheila there?" I asked.

The voice on the other end was silent. "A boy already? She's here a month and she already has a gentleman caller?"

I blushed. "She gave me her number and I thought it would polite to call her," I said. The woman on the other end chuckled and called for Sheila. She then asked for my name and I gave it, explaining that Sheila and I had talked at lunch.

The phone was handed off and I heard Sheila on the other end. "Hi, Cye, I didn't think you'd call so soon," she said.

"It's not proper to leave a lady hanging," I said. Sheila giggled. Now, what to say to her? I had to come up with something or else she'd hang up on me. "So. . . what's new?"

"Oh, you're so sweet!" she said. "Asking what's new when the last time I saw you was just a few hours ago!" Sheila sighed happily on the other end. "Well, I spent the last few hours of school thinking about you."

"You, you did?" I asked, a little surprised. "Me? You were thinking about me? But why me?"

"Yes you, silly- how could I forget about a cutie like you?" she said, giggling. "Hmm. . . tell you what, Cye. Why don't you meet me this Friday night somewhere? Just the two of us. Maybe catch a movie."

My eyes widened in slight shock. "Are you asking me on a date?"

"If you want to call it that," she said. "Where do you want to go?"

I had to think about that one. What was a good place to go when you had a girl as good looking as Sheila with you? "Well. . . there's a nice pizza place downtown. . ." I said.

"Sounds great!" she said. "I'll see you then!"

"Okay," I said. "Eight o'clock?"

"Sounds good to me," said Sheila. "Bye, Cye." With that, she hung up, and I jumped for joy.

I had a date with hottest girl in school!

Friday night came. I flew through my homework and almost immediately began to dig though my closet. I had to find something PERFECT.

"Hey, Cye what are you- HEY! Watch where you're throwing that belt!" I looked up to see Rowen standing in the doorway of the room Kento and I shared. The bearer of Strata now sported a small red welt on his forehead.

"Sorry, Rowen," I said. I sat down the pile of clothing I'd assembled. "I've just never been on a date before."

"You haven't?" asked Rowen, raising an eyebrow.

"No," I said. I sighed heavily. "It figures that I can fight off an evil Dynasty but I can't figure out what to wear on a hot date!"

"You acted on Sheila's phone number?" he said.

I looked over at him. "How stupid do you think I am!"

"Point taken," said Rowen. He knelt down beside me. "Want help?"
"Please," I said. "I'm not sure what to wear."

"Well, that all depends on the message you want to convey to her," said Rowen. He picked up a silky black shirt with a high collar and low neck line. "This makes you look like a stud and you're interested in sleeping with her."

I shook my head. "No, I don't want to do that."

Rowen raised a curious eyebrow. "Really? I'm surprised. I mean, she's hot. Every guy in school is going to want to have a go at her."

"I'd like to go out with her and have a relationship with her, but. . . I don't think I'm ready to be having sex yet, if that's what you're getting at," I said. "I don't believe in premarital intercourse."

"Ah, I get it," he said. He smiled, placing a hand on my shoulder. "That is a very mature and well thought out decision."

"What are your feelings on it," I asked.

Rowen laughed. "Too late. I had a little too much sake at a party one night and woke up naked with five cheerleaders," he said. "I'm damn lucky that none of them got pregnant and the worst STD I got was-"

"You got an STD?" I asked.

Rowen shrugged. "It wasn't HIV or herpes or something dangerous like that. It was one of those no big whoop ones that if you catch it early enough it's a piece of cake to cure," he said. "Though I will admit that I haven't gone near another drink since then. Despite the fact it was cured easily enough, it wasn't a picnic. My parents were ready to kill me, though it was nice to see them agree on something for once, even if it was after I did something stupid."

"Do you regret that night?" I asked.

Rowen nodded. "Yes. If I could do it all again. . . well, all that wouldn't have happened. I can't guarantee you that I wouldn't have done it some other time, but I wouldn't have done it like that." He cleared his throat. "But since you don't want to do anything like that, let's find something that says I'm interested, but not in THAT way."

"Okay," I said. "And pants?"
"Yes," said Rowen, tossing me a blue button-up shirt I owned. "Probably just a pair of jeans will do. It's the first date, and it's to a pizza place, so you shouldn't show up in a tuxedo."

I smiled, getting out of the old T-shirt I was wearing and putting on the jersey. "Thanks, Rowen," I said. "I needed that."

"Not a problem," he said. "What are friends for?"

I smiled, looking at the time. Then, I frowned. It was getting late, and I was due to meet her at eight (though since she WAS a woman she'd probably be fashionably late, anyways). "I'd better get going," I said.

"Good luck, Cye!" said Rowen, giving me a thumbs up.

"Yeah, go and get her, slugger!" Rowen and I looked over to see Ryo and Kento were both looking into the room, smiling like a couple of fools. Kento had made the comment.

"If you guys keep on acting like that than you'll NEVER get girlfriends," I said.

Ryo and Kento exchanged looks, seeming to visually discuss this. The two nodded at each other and took off, probably to decide if what I'd said held any truth. Rowen shook his head and I left the room.

"Have fun," said Sage as I passed him in the living room.

"Thank you," I said. I grabbed my jacket, waved at my blonde friend, and left.

I found out that, strangely enough, I arrived at precisely eight of clock. Literally. The clock at the pizza parlor struck eight just as I stepped into the door. I grinned at myself, proud of being so punctual.

I took a seat at one of the tables and looked at the overhanging menu, trying to decide what kind of pizza I wanted. I looked over the toppings and thought about several combinations, wondering which ones Sheila might like.

Sheila's arrival was announced by several of the young men in the pizza parlor suddenly stopping what they were doing. I turned my attention to the door and saw that my date was wearing a small black dress with a pink scarf tied around her neck, wearing the same shoes she'd worn when we first met. I gulped, amazed at how dressed up she was. Sheila looked over at me, smiled, and walked over, sliding into the seat across from me. "Hey, Cye. Nice outfit."

"Thanks," I said. I looked up at the menu. "Any idea what you'd like to order?"

"Just cheese," she said. "I'm not big on toppings."

"Cheese it is," I said, mentally reminding myself that the pepper and onion was a lot more tempting (despite the lethal breath I'd get afterwards). I stood up to go and place the order, but Sheila stopped me.

"I'll go and get it," she said. "I brought money."

"I did, too," I said.

Sheila smiled. "That's okay," she said. "I'll handle it." With that, she stood up and walked up to the counter. A few minutes later, she returned with a medium cheese pizza, and I wondered how in the world the two of us would manage to finish it.

"Looks good," I said. The smells of tomato, cheese, and the herbs and spices on the pizza were teasing my nostrils. My stomach rumbled, demanding some of the food be placed into it. "Smells good, too."

"Yeah, I'm starving!" she said, licking her lips and rubbing her stomach. "Let's dig in already!"

That was the first of several dates. Sheila and I had a good time that night, catching a late movie after finishing our pizza. We'd had some nice discussions, watched a great film, and sat in the park to watch the stars for a little while.

During our relationship, I only found one this unusual. Sheila refused to let me pay for anything. She wouldn't accept flowers or candy from me, chose most of our dates, and, at the first school dance ( it was in late October), led ME instead of me leading her. I wasn't sure if she just didn't like tradition or felt that since she was older and had a few relationships under her belt that she should take the dominant role until I got the hand of it.

After the first week or so and people began to realize we were an "item", I was suddenly the center of attention, though not all of it positive. About half of the male population at our school minus my friends, teachers, and homosexuals were jealous of me. After all, Sheila was a grade ahead of me- junior girls just didn't date sophomore boys. It was like we were breaking some law of physics.

One of the ones who didn't hate me was Kojiro, the guy that we'd met on the first day of school. He was a sophomore like Ryo, Rowen, and Sheila, but the two of us somehow ended up in the same art class.

That was something that puzzled me. Kojiro should have by all means been in a more advanced art class than I was. I could barely draw a stick figure. Kojiro, on the other hand, was getting commissions to portraits of some of the staff and students. He was GOOD. He was VERY GOOD. We were assigned to work together on a rather large project (some sort of a small mural) and the two of us got to know each other.

"How is it that you're in this level of art and not a more advanced level?" I said, pointing at the part he was working on (some sort of a bird, I think).

"I wanted to get required stuff, like P.E. and computers out of the way, first," said Kojiro. "I'm taking all art courses outside of my main subjects this year. I'm going to be an artist if it kills me." He added some more detail to his drawing, shook his head, and erased it. "It's a gift, I tell you. I draw all the time."

"What kind of an artist do you want to be?" I asked, frowning at my pathetic attempt at a bear.

"Probably an illustrator," he said. "I like kids."

"You do?" I said.

"Yeah, I always wanted a little brother or sister, but I never got one. My parents stopped after they had me," he said. Kojiro sighed heavily, looking over the picture again. His mind seemed to be on something else, though. "Actually, that might be my back-up plan if I don't make it. Day care. Little kids like to paint and it'll pay the bills, you know?"

I almost laughed at the thought. Sure, Kojiro was a very nice guy and all, but it's never easy to picture a man running a day care center. "You would be awesome at teaching the children to draw," I quipped. "If you have the patience for it."

"Yes, my little Rembrats," he said. Kojiro snorted. "The Rembrat School of Early Art. They'll all grow up and beat the snot out of Van Go, Da Vinci, and hell, maybe even Rembrant himself! I'm telling you Cye, they'll be artistic geniuses! Prodigies! All thanks to me. Think I can do it?"

I laughed. "Yeah, right, Kojiro. Little kids don't have the motor skills to create works of art. You'll have to be happy with poorly colored coloring book pages. There's just no way there's enough kids with that much raw talent for you to base an entire day care off of."

"Not if I teach them!" he said. "They can recreate the Mona Lisa with macaroni, for starters. I'll have a big cardboard outline of it, we can dye all the noodles, and start gluing them on. It'll be a big, sticky mess for them to enjoy. Little kids LOVE glue and dried pasta. I'll be a hit!"

"I'm sure you will, Kojiro," I said. "You've got the kind of personality that works well with small children."

"Really?" he said. I nodded. "Well, I guess I am-"

"Mouri. . . Tomae. . ."

Kojiro and I exchanged looks, gulped, and went back to work again. We'd gotten so caught up in our conversation that we'd stopped working and it was time to start getting more done before the teacher (who was a real shrew) got on our case again.

"I saw we make sure that the water buffalo's rear has a startling resemblance to her, what do you say?" Kojiro whispered. I snickered, thinking the idea was grand. "Of course it shouldn't be TOO obvious, or else we'll fail the project."

"Ah, good point."