Chapter 6 The Date
Later that night I am sitting with Dylan in my room trying to find something to wear for my date tonight. We decided to double so Dylan and Lindsay would be joining Anna and me. Poor Sam would be the third wheel now if things between Anna and me went well.
"How about this?" Dylan asks as he pulls a blazer out of my closet.
I roll my eyes, "Dude just let me get dressed myself. I feel like a fucking chick when you give me advice on what to wear on a first date."
"So what Matt, you need to look good. But fine just throw something on."
Throwing a football at him I go to my closet. He cringes in pain and I laugh. Instead of spending hours finding something I just grab a shirt and a clean pair of jeans and throw it on. I brush my hair quickly and stand in front of Dyl five minutes later.
"See quick and easy."
"I have to admit you aren't too bad rookie."
"Rookie?"
"You've never been on a real date."
I don't even respond to his comment and glancing down at my bed I squint my eyes, I must be dreaming or high from my meds. Quickly shaking my head and closing my eyes I look down on my pillow again. Nope not dreaming, again I must be high from my meds.
"Dude what is your problem?" Dylan laughs at me.
Taking a deep breath a respond, "Don't freak but I think there's a spider on your head."
Of course he didn't believe me, "Stop messing with me Matt. That dildo at lunch was funny. This is just mean. I hate spiders."
"I'm not joking!" I yell at him. Bad idea on my part for the spider gets agitated and jumps off of his head and crawls down his neck. Dylan begins to hyperventilate and cusses up a storm. Without thinking I rush to Sarah's room and grab her flute.
Rushing back to my room I start to play a tune I'd never heard of before and the spider begins to crawl up to his neck and makes a web over his mouth. Dylan gives me a stern look and I continue to play.
Panicking I pray for the spider to stop it. To my astonishment it jumps off of Dylan and crawls over to me, crawling up my leg and onto my arm. I stop playing the flute and it stays in my hand, only now it looks angry. I put it on the floor and start to play again. Willing the spider to continue to listen to me, I stop and it crawls back into my hand.
"What the hell was that?" Dylan manages to say as he spits remnants of the web out of his mouth.
"I have no clue," I admit.
"And since when have you played flute?" he raises his eyebrow.
I just shrug and grab my jacket as a way to signal the end of the conversation. The spider jumps into my pocket. For some reason I'm torn between killing the damn thing and keeping it. Why the hell would I want either of those? Is it normal to feel a burning passion for a spider. Luckily it crawls off of me and ends up under my bed.
Good I'll deal with that mess later. Just another problem to add to the long list of strangeness that has taken over my life recently.
After receiving a long and tedious lecture from my parents about a curfew and dating and whatnot, which Dylan laughs at me for getting; the two of us grab our skateboards from the garage. We skate to the shopping center kind of place in town.
It's more of a mini city than a shopping center with everything in it. There is a cinema, a park, a middle town square place, stores, restaurants, office buildings, and even apartments and houses around it. Basically it was the place to be besides the mall.
Locking our boards up we walk over to this little Italian restaurant to meet the girls. Honestly, I was actually incredibly stresses out about it. I've never been on a real date before and Anna is hot.
"Hey Matt," she giggles from behind me. Speak of Mr. Tiny. Wait devil, speak of the devil. Man I've been thinking some strange things lately.
"Earth to asshole," I hear Dylan yell at me.
I shake my head, "Sorry I've still been a little out of it since the hospital. I'm on so many meds it's almost as if I'm on a constant high."
"Then let me get beat up and in a coma," Lindsay laughs.
We walk into a restaurant and being the gentleman my Mom has trained me to be I scoot Anna's chair out. She shakes her head at the gesture and I flip her off. Much better same old Anna and not some cheesy version of her.
I end up sitting next to Dylan so that we can sit across from our dates. That was fine by me, less awkward with holding hands and such. We order our drinks and start to talk about nothing in particular. My palms sweat a lot though. Guess first date jitters can do that to you.
"So Matt you never did say why you got called down to the office today," Anna says as she takes a sip of lemonade.
"Oh it was nothing. The bio sub wanted to talk to me."
"Actually Anna," Dylan interjects. "Matt and the sub are secretly banging each other."
Lindsay hits his arm, "Why do I date such a loser?"
We laugh at the familiar bickering between the two. After this entire tome I still had no idea why the hell they were going out. All they ever did was fight; even if it was playful it really wasn't a basis for a relationship. Again neither was dating your teacher who wasn't even the same species as you.
Not knowing where that came from, one of many thoughts that didn't seem to be mine I speak up, "I really was dick. Apparently she wanted to get to know me since I missed a few days."
"That's weird," Anna muses. "She didn't seem like that towards anyone else."
I shrug it off, "I really don't know. She did show me a few of her own frogs though. I swear they had the coolest patterns on them."
"So you're saying you're a whack job too," Dylan states.
I raise my eyebrows, "What do you mean? Madison was saying she was weird too."
"You do have to admit she is a little freaky," Anna says.
"Understatement much," Lindsay scoffs.
I really don't know why people keep saying that. Sure she seems off, but something about her is calming and familiar. Let alone she is incredibly funny. Not wanting to seem like a loser I just sigh, "True again I'm just on a shitload of meds which is ruining my perception."
They buy my excuse and part of me believes it too. I mean it wasn't as if I somehow knew her or anything, because that would be ridiculous. I quickly change the subject back to something normal like wrestling and ask Lindsay and Anna how their cheer competition was going.
Neither of them cheered for school. Instead they cheered for a competitive travel team. I went to a competition once and they were both actually really good. Not to mention all of the girls looked incredibly sexy in their short skirts.
The waiter came back and asked us what we wanted to order. When he came to me I didn't even hesitate, "Steak tar tat please."
Everyone just stares at me for a moment and we return to our conversation.
Our food comes out and as I take a bite they stare at me as if I had groan a third head. Looking down in embarrassment I ask them why.
Lindsay is the first to answer, "I didn't know you liked raw steak."
"I've never had it," I admit
"Dude you are freaking me out. What are you a zombie who eats dead flesh because that is actually quite sick?"
"I've never had it; I saw a show about it on the Food Network and thought I might as well try it." The second part was a lie. I have no idea why I ordered it. My best guess was that it was the same part of my brain that was remembering strange things lately. Or it was my meds.
"Leave him alone," Anna sighs. "Why does it matter what he eats? Personally I like it when people try new and sometimes different foods."
I smile at her; I knew there was a good reason why I asked her out. Once our food comes everyone stares at me as I cut a piece. Looking down, I attempt to cover my blush. Why is it such a big deal that I'm eating a steak? Okay so it's raw, but big whoop.
As I take a bite I stifle a moan. They stare at me expectantly, "It's good."
"Eew," the girls squeal as I take another bite. Dylan just laughs at me. Seriously they need to shut up; its cow it isn't like I'm eating raw human flesh or anything.
A picture of a man with a fishing net flashes in my head and I shake it away and rejoin the conversation. We pay the bill and head over to the movies.
Neither Anna nor Lindsay was really into the action movie thing and Dylan suggested seeing a Twilight movie, much to my chagrin. So instead of seeing a cool movie we went and saw some lame ass Twilight movie. I buy our tickets and Anna smiles at me as she thanks me. Before tonight I never noticed, but she has a really pretty smile. Nothing at all like a poisonous plant; which is probably the strangest analogy I have ever made.
We sit down with the girls in the middle. The lights dim after a moment and I lean over to Anna, "Is something wrong with the lighting?"
She giggles, "No dummy the lights are going out cause the movies starting? What are you from a third world country without movie theaters or something?"
I fake a laugh, "Never mind I thought I saw something but it was the exit sign."
She nods and relaxes into her chair. My stomach wrenches, I hate lying. And the theater is killing me. For some reason it seems unusually light in here. However I get used to the strange lighting and as soon as there is a god awful I do scene I make the move.
At first I was a little worried that it would seem incredibly awkward, but she moves into my arm. I smile into her hair and cannot concentrate on the rest of the movie. Fine with me, for some reason the movie is bugging me, and not just because it sucks. Something else about it gives me the chills and makes me want to crack out laughing instead of the awes all the girls are saying.
After the movie we walk down the street to go get some ice cream. Anna's hand is in mine and she looks over at me and frowns.
"What?" I ask.
"Nothing, you just seem different is all."
"Anna just because we're holding hands doesn't make me different," I laugh.
"Not that, something about you in the dark is chilling. As if you're a completely different person than you were this morning."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean it's kind of like your eyes glow and you seem all predator like. Kind of like Edward."
I scoff when she relates me to the dumb movie, from behind me I hear Dylan cackle. "I think the movie got to you Anna. I've known you for years, we used to go camping together and you never thought that."
She blushes, "You're right sorry about that."
I frown; I didn't mean to make her feel bad. It was just that I had a feeling I should say something like that. Hell maybe I am still messed up from being in a coma for a few days. Not wanting her to get mad at me I lean down at kiss her on the lips, nothing majorly passionate, but a quick peck. It works and she smiles at me before blushing again.
Dylan starts clapping from behind us, "Wait to go Matt, finally losing your lip virginity."
"Fuck you Dylan."
"I don't swing that way Matt, and I didn't know you did either. Apparently Anna turned you away from girls."
We all laugh despite the fact that he was being a jerk. Gathering in the ice cream parlor we all order our dessert and sit at a table. Licking my cookie dough fudge mint chip I lean over and kiss Anna again just to screw with Dyl. Okay so maybe because I liked it too.
She responds and this time it was more of a real kiss with tongue and all. We pull away and she stares at me, "Damn Matt your teeth are majorly sharp."
"So I wasn't any good."
"Nope," Lindsay and Dylan say together and suddenly I remember why they are dating.
"It was perfect," Anna says and leans in for another kiss.
As I kiss her I peek over her shoulder and see the spider on the next table. Even stranger I could have sworn it winked at me.