AN: This is Chapter 8 of No Fear. I want to say that this might be the last chapter for a few days if not a week. I've been feeling kind of sick and I need to catch up on sleep because I am very deprived of it lately. That is why I'm gonna make this chapter a bit longer than what the other chapters have been. I want to thank you all for reading and reviewing this story so far. It's because of all of you that I continue to write these. If you want to check up on when I plan to write or post a new chapter on any of my stories including this one, you can check my profile because I update that relatively. I hope that you all understand my little hiatus after this. Enjoy. P.S. There are a few swear words in here so be warned.

Chapter 8: The Dinner

September 24th, 2012

Little over a few weeks have passed since I said yes to Joe, and I must say, it's not a decision that I've regretted at all so far. My friends have been very happy for me, and the bullies haven't been messing with me at all since Joe is around so often. I feel safe in a sense, knowing that he is around and that I don't have to be bothered by people like the bullies. Today, Joe had asked me something to which I actually was not expecting.

"Hey Dawn, do you mind if I ask you something?" said Joe as he approached me after Pre-Calculus.

"Of course." I said to him.

"Well, I umm, I was wondering if you would like to…have dinner with my mother and I. I know it might be a bit too fast into our relationship to be discussing something like this but…"

"I'd like that. When would you like for me to come over?"

"Well, if you wouldn't mind, how about this weekend, maybe Sunday since I don't work then?"

"Sure." After I said that to him, I gave him a hug and walked off to Art.

As I walked into Art,

"Oh my Dawn, is that your prince?" asked Ella.

"Well not exactly a prince, but he certainly is brave and handsome like one." I said.

"He seems nice. I'm glad that you've been getting to know more people and opening up to them." said Gwen as she was painting on a canvas.

"He asked me to have dinner with him and his mother this Sunday." I said.

"Oh how lovely! That just sounds wonderful!"

"That sounds fun."

"I'm hoping it will be. I think it will be though." I said to both of them as I grabbed a paintbrush. Lunch came very quickly today and when I reached my table,

"Dawn! Ella told me that your boyfriend invited you over for dinner. Is that true?" asked Zoey.

"Yes it is, I was rather hoping I'd be able to tell you, but I'm glad that Ella did." I said.

"That sounds exciting. I bet it'll go great. Remember when you had dinner with my family Zoey?" asked Mike. After he said that, he put on a hat, and with a gasp of air, he became Manitoba Smith.

"I remember, it was out on our front porch, the stars were out, the animals were playing outside, and then this beauty over here came in and crickey, she was a looker this one." said Manitoba. After he had said this, Zoey took the hat off of his head and with another gasp of air, he was Mike again.

"I don't believe that was exactly how it went, but it was close. Manitoba sometimes exaggerates on some details when it comes to being outside." said Zoey.

"Awh, that was Manitoba…geez, well Dawn, basically how it went was, we had dinner outside and no there were no animals, but I will agree with Manitoba that when she arrived, she looked amazing. Like she always does." said Mike. Zoey then gave Mike a kiss on the cheek.

"So Dawn, are you excited?" asked Cameron.

"Yes, I do want to meet his mother, and it'll give me a chance to spend some time with him. Not that I don't like spending time with my own mother, but it'll be nice to spend some time outside of the house." I heard a buzz come from my phone.

"I'm happy for you Dawn. We all are. We all were worried about the effect that those bullies were having on you." B's text read. I gave a smile to B after I read the text.

At Home
September 24th, 2012
7:00 P.M.

"Mother, I need to ask you something." I said to her as she opened the front door.

"Yes Dawn, could you make it quick? I have a painting that I need to work on, and the person who wants it demands it be done by the end of Wednesday." she said as she was about to exit.

"Mother…would you mind if I went over to a friend's house this Sunday?"

"What for Dawn? This couldn't have waited till after Wednesday?" She gave me a curious glance as she suspected that there might be something else going on. I felt like I needed to tell her about Joe then.

"Mother I'm seeing someone." I said. She was quite shocked to hear that come from my mouth.

"Dawn, you mean like a relationship? Like an actual one…with an actual person, not an animal?" she asked.

"Yes mother, believe it or not, I am seeing a boy. His name is Joe. He's a very sweet guy. A bit misunderstood, but sweet."

"Is that the reason that you wanted to have coffee? I knew something was different when you asked me to drive you to a café."

"Yes mother, it was to meet with him. He helped me with a little situation at school. I felt like I owed it to him to be kind and show up. Would you mind if I had dinner with him on Sunday?"

"Well of course, I can presume that he is going to pick you up from here?"

"I believe so yes."

"Well then, I want to meet this Joe. I don't work on Sunday so I'll be able to meet him."

"I'd like for you to."

"Do you have any idea what you're going to wear?"

"Should I dress up? I was planning on wearing what I normally wear."

"Oh no Dawn that will not do. You must dress nicely if you're going to make a good first impression towards his mother." I laughed a little when she said that, but she seemed serious.

"Alright mother, I'll dress nicely for it. I believe I have a dress up in my closet somewhere that I never wear. I could wear that."

"Oh yes, I'd love to see what you look like in that! Now Dawn, I must go or my boss will have my head." My mother said jokingly as she headed out the door.

At Home
September 30th, 2012
5:45 P.M.

"Dawn, are you ready?" my mother asked.

"Just about." I called back. I don't normally ever wear dresses, but my mother did have a point though. I did want to look nice for his mother.

A knock came onto the front door.

"Oh and you must be Joe." My mother said as she opened the door. Joe was dressed very nicely as well. He was in a black suit with a white undershirt and a black tie.

"Yes I am, and you must be Dawn's mother. I can see where she gets her looks from." He said.

"Oh you flatter me, would you like to see Dawn?"

"If that wouldn't be too much trouble."

"Dawn, Joe is here, you can come down now." As she said this, I began to make my way down. I could have sworn that every step I took down the stairs Joe was gaping at me, but then again, he had never seen me in a dress. I had curled my hair and wore a turquoise dress.

"Wow, Dawn you look unbelievable." said a very astonished Joe.

"Thank you, my mother insisted that I put on something nice and do something about my hair, so I did just that. You look rather dashing yourself." I said.

"Why thank you, so do you want to get going?"

"Yes, mother I'll see you later, I'll be sure to be home in about an hour or two." I

"Oh yes, well have fun dear. It was very nice meeting you Dawn." My mother said to him.

"It was nice to meet you too." said Joe. As he said this, he went to shake my mother's hand. After he did this, we began to walk outside.

"So that's your mother huh? She seems really nice."

"Yes she is. She was rather happy when I told her that I was going out with someone. She loves me and wants me to be happy." I said as I began to open the door to his car. It didn't surprise me much to see that his car was also black; he certainly has an affinity to that color. After I said this, he began to drive.

It wasn't a very long drive, but I rather enjoyed it. While on the way to his mother's house, we talked about what it was like to live in Wawanakwa and then we began to joke around, something I didn't do fairly often. About 10 minutes had passed and we arrived at his house. His house was a one story house that looked a little worn out, but certainly nothing bad.

We both began to walk to his front door, which swung open as soon as Joe was about to open the door.

"Oh Joe, when you were telling me about Dawn, I didn't think she looked like this. She's looks amazing!" said his mother. Joe smiled when he heard his mother say this.

"You must be Joe's mother, well in a sense his mother." I said as I reached out to shake her hand.

"Oh yes, I remember when I took in Joe…but I can tell you that when we have dinner, you must be freezing." She said to me. She urged both Joe and I to get inside the house. As I walked into his house, my eye caught a glance of something. It was several trophies in his living room.

"Oh yeah, I do a lot of martial arts, and well I got good at them. I really only took those classes for it so I could deal with you know who." He said. As we continued to walk to the kitchen, I took note of what his house was like. There weren't a lot of things in his living room; there was a TV, a computer and a desk, a few couches, some DVD's, things that you'd normally see in a living room.

When I entered the kitchen, I noticed that the table already had food on it. His mother had made this well before I arrived so that we could eat as soon as I got here.

"Joe, show Dawn to her seat." She said to him.

"Yeah mom, Dawn your seat is right here." He said to me as he pointed to one of the corner seats. His table was a small on that you could only seat four people around, but I could understand why he wouldn't need much space to eat. It was only him and his mother living here.

"Don't worry Dawn, I noticed that you don't eat meat, we have some salad made for you if you do not wish to eat what my mother has made." He said to me. I started to feel bad that his mother went out of his way to make food for me and I couldn't even eat it.

"I feel bad that your mother did all this for me." I said.

"Oh nonsense Dawn, it really is no trouble. We all have our preferences, no one can change that." His mother said as she took her seat at the table. She had made some steak for herself and Joe (which bothered me a little bit, but I pushed that thought out of my head), which left me with some salad.

"So Dawn, tell me a little about yourself." His mother asked as she took a bite out of her steak.

"Well Mrs.…" I said.

"You can call me Ms. Alana or Joyce, either is fine with me." She said.

"Well Ms. Alana, I'm from Ontario, I moved here about a month ago with my mother. I can read auras and I spend most of my time in the woods." I told her.

"Oh that sounds interesting, what's Ontario like?"

"Well it's nice, the people there were ok, though there were a lot of bullies there too. Which is why my mother and I moved."

"Oh I see. Well Joe had that same problem with bullies, until he took up boxing and martial arts, and now the bullies are afraid of him. Have you ever considered martial arts?"

"Mom." said a weary Joe. He then began to smile as he looked down at his steak.

"No, I would never condone violence to be a answer to solving problems." I said very straightforwardly.

"Mom, why don't you tell her about how you came to be my mother?"

"Oh yes of course, well as you might know, I was one of his mother's closest friends. It was a tragedy to hear about her death. She never married that asshole." She said with a weary and agitated voice.

"His father…raped his mother?" I asked. I felt like I was asking a bit too personal of a question, but his mother responded.

"Yes he did, and I was so disgusted to hear about it. He did this and 9 months later, Joe was brought into this world. Unfortunately she had to raise him by herself because her family was slightly poor. His family could have helped because they were rich but…I'm letting my anger get the better of me." His mother said.

"Let me finish the story mom, well she loved me very much from what my mother has told me, but when she died, her family refused to take me because I was a bastard child. Well my dad took me in, but that lead to abuse for 7 years. After he was caught, neither of my families wanted me, so then Joyce came in and took me in, and that's where I've been ever since." Joe said as he finished his steak.

"He's been a godsend for me. I never married but I always wanted to have a child, and when Joe didn't have a place to go, I remembered how much of a kind woman his mother was, so I offered to take him in. He's been such a good boy, and I'm glad that he's getting to meet people like you." She said. Hearing her say that made me smile a little bit.

"Mother, do you mind if I spend some time with Dawn outside on the patio?"

"Oh yes of course, I can wash the dishes, you go and enjoy yourself." His mother said. He took my hand and then led me outside.

His patio looked very nice. It had an outdoor table, several flower pots surrounding the entire patio. There also happened to be a fire pit in the middle of the patio with what seemed like torches surrounding the outside of the patio. There were also a few chairs surrounding the fire pit as well.

"You have a very beautiful patio." I said to him.

"Why thank you Dawn. I like spending time out here; you know whenever I get done practicing my martial arts or whenever I have a stressful day of work. It's very relaxing." He then pulled out what looked like a radio from behind one of the chairs.

"What is that?" I asked.

"It's a radio, I was wondering…would you like to have a dance?"

"Oh well, I've never actually danced with someone before, I don't know if I'd be any good at it." I said to him.

"Don't worry, I never have either, so…this could be a learning experience for both of us." He said to me.

"Ok, I'll dance with you." I said. He then clicked on the play button and music began to play on it. I was able to recognize the song very quickly.

"This is ABBA…Fernando I believe. You never struck me as someone who'd listen to this." I said to him.

"Well my mother was the one who suggested it, she said that this was very romantic, so I listened to this song a little bit, and I have to say, I agree." He said to me. I then got closer to him and wrapped my hands around his neck. He then put his arms around my waist and brought himself closer to me. We started to dance (which seemed more so just us walking around in circles because neither of us knew how to, but we didn't mind) and we continued to bring ourselves closer to each other until it got to the point where my head was resting on his chest. I had never felt this close to a boy before, and even if I did, I never went to his house, had dinner with his family, and then danced in his backyard with him.

As the song started to go into the chorus, I started to look up at him, to which he began to look at me.

"Dawn…I love you." He whispered to me as we continued to dance to the music. I had never a guy tell me this, and I didn't know how to react at first. I could feel my heart racing and my face began to blush heavily upon hearing that. I felt something that I had never felt for another person before. Love.

"I love you too Joe." I whispered to him. As I said this, we both began to lean in closer and closer to each other. We continued to lean in forward until my lips touched his. This was a feeling that I had never felt before. To have a boy's lips touch mine in a passionate display of affection like this was unbelievable. I had never felt what a kiss was like until that day. If I had to imagine what would be the most romantic way to have a first kiss, it would be here.

As we kissed, the music continued to play, the stars were out, and nothing could go wrong with this night. It felt like that night would never end, but to be honest, I didn't want it to end.

"What a wonderful night" was the only thing I could think of in my head.

AN: And that was Chapter 8. So Joe and Dawn had a romantic moment and shared their first kiss. I apologize to everybody for the hiatus on the last time I updated this story. I love writing this story a lot and I'll try not to have long breaks after this next one. I want to thank everybody who has commented and viewed this story. It's because of you guys that I continue to write these. I hope that you all understand why I'm taking a break after this, but when I get over sleep deprivation and this sick feeling, I'll be sure to come back and write more chapters! Lastly, I chose "Fernando" by ABBA because ABBA happens to be one of my favorite bands and I was listening to this song recently, so I thought why not. I do not own the characters used in this story nor the song either.

Defan777