Chapter 3: After you part I

Today is the day. The day that Wade Kinsella had a prom date with Zoe Wilkes. It was almost 7.30 and he was nervous as hell. His body was cover by sweat all over again. He woke up at 7 this morning and usually on Saturday, he always woke up late because he wanted to sleep in. He couldn't sleep at night and he was wide awake till morning. He had already showered 3 times today and he thought that he was gonna need another shower. He literally ran upstairs to the bathroom and showered as fast as he could. Then he ran to his room to get ready. He combed his dirty long blond hair and checked his teeth. He started to get dressed in his black suit that had white shirt inside and a black bow tie. Well, he didn't have designer shoes or anything so he just gonna went with his white and black sneakers. He walked downstairs when he heard a knock on the door.

"Shit!" He mumbled to himself and then looked at the clock. It was 7.56. He ran to the door but slow down when he almost got there. He slowly turned the knob and opened it. When he saw her, he almost fell to the ground just seeing her in a strapless black dress with a white ribbon on her waist. She let down her hair and wore a white sky high heels.

"Hey…You ready?" She asked softly. She picked her hair and put it behind her right ear. Her cheeks flushed.

"Yeah…Let's go." He said pushing himself out of the door.

"Waaaadddeeeee…." Some thick southern accent slurred a word behind the almost close door. Wade opened his door again and walked inside his house.

"Earl." He murmured to himself. He turned toward Zoe. "Umm…Do you want to come in? I can make some tea if you want."

"No, thank you. I will for you." Wade then lead her to the living room and let she sat on the couch - his couch.

Wade walked to the kitchen where the voice came from and saw his father, Earl Kinsella also known as Crazy Earl - the town drunk. He observed his father and saw that on the kitchen island where his father was, had bottles scattered all around the table.

"What do you want. Earl?"

"Today is the prom day, right son?"

"Yep….the masquerade ball theme."

"Ooh…Your ma and I had gone to one when we dated in high school. I still have that mask."

Wade only rolled his eyes a little when his father wasn't looking at him. He heard Zoe's voice behind his back.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I kind of have a reservation at the restaurant at 8.30 and it's already 8.13." She whispered quietly beside Wade's left ear.

"Okay." He whispered back then turned his attention to his father. "Earl, I have to go now…" Wade didn't even finish his sentence before his father looked at him and then Zoe back and forth.

"Do you guys have a mask?"

"No, actually I just gonna buy it at the entrance of the gym. The little kids want to sell it instead of cookies." Zoe laughed a little when she said it.

"Nonsense. I have perfect masks for both of you. Just wait here, I'll be right back." Earl stumbled across the room and went upstairs to his room. About a minute later, he came down with a box that looked like a chest. He put it on the counter before the teenagers and opened it. Inside the chest revealed pictures and letters that can be seen which have a name on every envelope and most of them were from Jacqueline Kinsella, Wade's mother and Earl's true love. Earl continued to dig it out and at the bottom of it, it laid two black masked. One with a classic black, and the other one with a crystal trimmed around it and a little of a white feather. He picked those two masks up to his eye level and smiled a little. Zoe could already see that Wade got his smile from his father.

"Here you go! These were Jackie's and mine. You two should have it."

"No, thank you. I don't want to bother you. This is very generous of you but I can't take it."

"Kinsella men are stubborn. And I, for one, will not take no for an answer. Beside who should I give it to? I only have sons. I don't think Wade wants a feather one." Earl laughed hard then coughed slightly.

"You don't have to do this…." Wade said. Wade and Zoe took the masks.

"I want to do this and I know for sure that Jackie loved you since you were a kid. She always said about the doctor Wilkes' daughter was so lovely and she wished that you are her daughter instead of Wade."

"Hey! I'm standing right here." Wade uttered back but Earl didn't even hear and carried on a conversation that he had with Zoe.

"You have grown up so much that I thought you were a lady. A pretty one too. You reminded me of her." Earl smiled at Zoe and sniffled a little. Even though, it almost 2 years that Jacqueline has passed away, but Earl felt like it was yesterday.

"You should really get going. I'm sorry that I keep you guys for so long. Have a good night you two."

"You too. Sleep tight." Zoe spoke politely

"Bye, son. Bye, pretty lady." Earl waved and the teenagers waved back a little. Earl sat in his previous spot and began to pick his best friend up - Jack Daniel's.

Wade lead the way to the front door and opened the door for Zoe to walk outside and began the journey to the restaurant.

"After you."

"Thank you, kind sir….Wade, I just wanna say that I don't have a car today. It's just that my dad has an emergency in Mobile so he has to take the car. You don't mind walking from here, do you?"

"No, not at all…Or maybe do you want to take mine? Well, technically it's not mine, it's my brother's Vespa." Wade said and turned to the garage near his house. When he opened the gate, it revealed a green juniper Vespa sprint 70.

Wade's big brother, Jesse Kinsella. Jesse was like Wade, his hair color, his nose, and his eyes that didn't twinkle as his younger brother. And absolutely had not had a cute grin with braces like Wade had. Jesse was 4 years older than Wade, and when he reached 18 years old, he left Bluebell to become a soldier. Since then, he never came back to Bluebell, to his family, to Wade. When they were younger, there were so close together but after their mother passed away, the Kinsella family never been the same. Earl always got drunk and cried over everything he saw that reminded him of his love. Jesse couldn't accept that his father was a drunk that he had to escape from the reality and chose the coward way. He left Wade behind. Wade didn't just lose his mother, he lost his father over alcohol, he lost his brother over selfishness, he lost his family.

"Wow…I have never been on one before. Is it safe?" Wade snapped back from those hurtful memories and resumed the talk that he left off.

"I know how to ride it. I think you are safe with me. Do you trust me?" He put a key into the engine and ignited it.

"I trust you." He stretched out his right hand toward her waiting for her to grab it.

"Let's go on a ride, shall we?" She only let out a giggle and reached for his hand. When she held his hand for a bit longer. Wade's heart almost jumped out of his chest.

Wade hopped on the Vespa and Zoe followed him. She circled her arms around his waist and leaned her head against his strong back, and Wade swore to himself that he was gonna fly. He could feel butterflies danced around in his stomach. Wade started to drive out of the driveway on the way to the town square.

"So…Where exactly that you have a reservation at?"

"I got it at the Rammer Jammer."

"Wait…The Rammer Jammer doesn't do a reservation!"

"I know. I just have an insider and he or she may or may not reserve it for us."

"I thought that you wanna go to Fancy or the Butter Stick."

"Well, right now I'm craving for a good hamburger that only the Rammer Jammer can provide it for me." She gave a half-suppressed laugh.

They rode to the restaurant and bar in silent but both of them have a goofy smile on their face. Wade parked the Vespa in front of the diner and killed the ignition. Zoe hopped out of the Vespa and walked to the entrance of this establishment and greeted the owner of this place, Wally Maynard.

"Hi! , Do you still have an available table?"

"Unfortunately, no. I try to save it for you, but today is very busy and people have been coming in and out all dinner rush. But I do have one place left. It is highchair at the bar counter if that's okay with you."

"Anywhere is fine, thank you very much ."

"Please, call me Wally." He smiled at her and walked away to greet with other customers.

"Come on Wade, I'm hungry." She turned into the direction of Wade and grabbed his hand before dragged him behind her the the counter at the bar. The waiter came to them and gave them a menu. Zoe sat there and didn't even open the menu.

"The usual please, thank you Mr. Mercy." Leon Mercy, the waiter at the Rammer Jammer for a long time and his fiancé was also a waitress, Debbie soon-to-be-Mercy. When they will get married, the Mercy couple will resign from this place, and opened their own shop for a fisherman.

"Same as always, miss Wilkes." Even though, Leon had always said to Zoe that just called him Leon. She was such a sweet girl.

"Umm…Same as her." Wade said after he had been silent for so long.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Why not? If you like it, maybe I will like it too." She just smiled at him and swirled around the chair to meet with Leon again.

"Thank you, . I think that will only be our dishes." Leon just wrote on his note.

"Okay. If you need anything just holler." He said and back away to the kitchen.

Wade and Zoe just sat in a comfortable silence with the sound of people around the diner is a background voice. They didn't wait for long before their dishes were placed before them.

"Your usual are just cheese hamburger with onion rings on the side." Wade said surprisingly.

"Don't forget the Pepsi." She picked up the glass of Pepsi and shook it a little that it made a sound of the ice hitting the glass. She just chortled at his face and started to devour her food. He guffawed back and gulped down his food afterward.

While they were in the middle of snatching each other onion rings, Dash Dewitt - the owner of the town website called Dash Dewitt's blog - came to them.

"Well, well, well, look what we have here. The sweetheart girl, miss Wilkes, and the youngest son of the Kinsella family. Are you two on a date?" Dash asked enthusiasm and pulling out his recorder, ready for them to say and wrote it for the article. Zoe and Wade sat there and looked at Dash with wide eyes.

"Umm…" Wade blushed hard by now. He didn't want to say anything and he totally didn't want to say yes when she probably didn't think it was a date.

"You could say that. We just want to grab dinner before we join the prom." Zoe said confidently and her face flushed.

"And how.." Before Dash even finished his sentence, Dalton McDaniel came.

"Dash Dewitt, you leave those lovebirds alone. Let them enjoy themselves." Dalton said from his seat across the diner. Dalton was Dash's neighbor and these two did not fond of each other.

"Ah. Dalton McDaniel, yesterday you cut my trees down…." Those two started to argue whatever they had been going on and their voices started to face away.

When they are finished, Wade insisted that he should pay but of course, Zoe was stubborn as a mule and wouldn't let pay for her. Both of them just stared at each other like they were having a staring competition.

"Umm…I don't want to interrupt you guys but it's already been covered." Out of nowhere, Debbie came into their view and said it. Zoe stopped looking at Wade's gorgeous eyes before asked Debbie.

"Who would that be…"

"It's on the house." Wally came into the view too and smiled at the teenagers. "Don't worry about it, you two should really get going if y'all wanna made it to the prom."

The teens said thank you to him and walked out of the door to the parking lot.

"Ah…young love." Dash Dewitt said to Wally.

"Yeah. I can see those two for a long haul."