After a few minutes of Darry trying to stop me from leaving the house because of how short my skirt was, he let us go. Dally grabbed me by the wrist and walked me down the driveway to his car. Feeling how damp his palm was and the awkward placement of his hand made me think that he'd never held a girls hand before. I thought back to what I knew of his previous romantic entanglements and remembered that I never saw him with the same girl for more than a couple of days. I smiled, knowing that he was putting such an effort into our first date. I turned my arm so he would release his grip and I laced our fingers together. I glanced over at him and saw that he had a small grin playing on his lips, which made my smile grow wider.
We reached the car and we released each others hands. I crawled into the passenger side of Buck's T-Bird and he into the drivers seat. The ride to the Dingo was pretty quiet, except for when my favorite song, "Yes" by Merry Clayton, came on the radio and I had to blast it and sing really loudly. Dally laughed in response to my horrendous singing, "I think my ears are bleeding!"
"Oh, hush! I'm not that bad." I playfully shoved him a little. He caught my hand and intertwined our fingers. My breath caught in my throat. He rubbed small circles on my hand.
"It really was. I hope you weren't going into singing professionally." He grinned at me.
I blushed and put my other hand on my forehead, "I'm sorry I made you go through that."
He squeezed my hand slightly, "Don't be sorry. It was cute. Maybe a little quieter next time."
"No promises!" I laughed as we pulled into the Dingo parking lot.
We both stepped out of the car and I walked around the front. He extended his hand to me and I graciously took it, both of us smiling. He led me into the dimly lit diner and to a booth. We sat down on opposite sides of the table, and ordered our food from the middle-aged women who was waiting on us.
"So, how ya liking our date?" Dally asked, almost nervously.
"I like it just fine!" I replied smiling as wide as I could manage. I had just given him the biggest understatement of the century. He replied with a slight laugh and the waitress came back with our burgers and fries. We ate mostly in silence. It was only interrupted when we would catch each other staring at the other and we would both laugh at ourselves.
As I was finishing off my fries he asked, "You wanna get outta here?"
"Well, that would be the next logical step. Since we don't want to sit here all night." I replied, being a smart-ass.
He shot me a look and threw a couple bills on the table, "You wanna hit up the Nightly Double?"
"Sure, what are they playing?" I asked.
"Some girly, romance movies I think." He grimaced slightly. "We don't have to go. We could wait until they have something better or-"
I clapped my hands together, "Sounds great!" I grabbed his hand and ran out of the diner to Buck's T-Bird.
On the way to the drive-in, I asked Dally about what his family was like. He replied with a couple witty remarks about how he didn't need a family, and the gang was all he needed.
I looked him in the eye, "Really, you can tell me."
"Are you sure? Because no offense, but you've kinda been weird tonight." He admitted.
I looked at me hands, "Sorry, I'm just nervous."
He looked confused, "Why are you confused. We've known each other for almost 10 years! We should be comfortable around each other."
"Yeah, but it's different now. Now we're 'together' and people will expect things from us." I said, using air-quotes.
"That doesn't even make sense, Jill. Nothing has to change. We can have the exact same relationship that we had before, only now we can make-out and make people sick with our love!"
"Yeah, I guess you're right." I looked down again, not believing him.
We had pulled into our spot at the Nightly Double by now, and he pulled my chin up so I would look at him. "Hey, I liked you before we had any of this date stuff going on. That's proof that we don't have to change just because we're in a relationship. I just want you." He leaned over so our faces almost touched. I could feel his breath on my face. It smelled like cigarettes and mint gum, a scent I would come to love. "I just want you," He repeated, slower this time. Stopping between each word. He closed the gap between our lips and they moved in sync with each other. His hands found my hips and he pulled my body across the middle seat of the T-Bird. My fingers snaked through his hair. I don't know how long we stayed like that, kissing in Dally's borrowed car while a mindless teeny-bopper movie played in the background. He pulled away from my lips and rested his forehead against mine, trying to catch his breath.
"It's times like this that it comes in handy to not be just friends." He whispered. I giggled inaudibly, and he planted a soft kiss on the tip of my nose. I turned to face the movie screen for the first time since we'd gotten there and leaned my head on Dally's shoulder. He put his arm around my shoulder and kissed the top of my head before watching the movie himself. We watched a Soc girl walk away from a very attractive boy while he yelled her name to get her back. In the end I knew they would be together, all these kind of movies were predictable. They all had the same plot. Boy meets girl. Boy falls for girl; girl falls for boy. One of them screws up, and they fight. But they always end up together in the end. It never fails.
