Tessa

I stood in front of the full-length mirror in my room and smoothed out my dress. Why was I wearing a dress again? Oh, yeah because I had no clue what to wear on a date, especially a date with Will Herondale.

"Mom," I shouted downstairs. "I need your help!"

My mother came rushing up the stairs and into my room. "What's wrong, honey," she asked out of breath.

"What do you think of this dress?" I turned to face her and she smiled, placing her hand on her chest. Was that a tear in her eye? "Mom?"

"It's perfect, Tess. Will is going to love it." I was wearing a white sundress with an empire waist and that hit me just above the knee. My shoes were strappy sandals that I had only worn once. I had curled my hair and pinned half of it up, instead of my normal ponytail. The girl staring back at me in the mirror was exactly that, a girl. I couldn't say that very often and for the first time, it felt good to feel like a girl. I was constantly trying to prove myself to everyone else. I trained in a sport that was mostly male and I was constantly trying to prove that I could be just as good or better than everyone else.

"Are you sure," I asked checking my hair and making sure everything was in place. "You don't think it's too much?"

"Trust me, you look amazing." She took a step toward me and wrapped her arms around me. "I can't believe this is finally happening."

"Mom, stop." I shook my head and tried to get free from her grasp, but she wouldn't let up.

"I'm serious, Tess. You two were made for each other and even if I didn't want this to happen, I would still see it."

I nodded, knowing she was right. It just took me a little longer to realize my feelings for Will were more than that of a best friend. Just then, the doorbell rang and I knew if I didn't get downstairs, Dad would scare the crap out of Will. I still found it hilarious that he was so scared of my dad I mean the man changed his diapers. He had no reason to be afraid of my dad, but it was kind of fun to watch him sweat.

"I guess we should go downstairs before Dad scares Will away," I said, finally pulling out of Mom's embrace.

"Yeah, he's been acting weird all day," she said with her arm around my shoulder as we walked out of my room. "Maybe we should let them sweat it out for a minute." She smiled an evil smile and I laughed as we hit the top of the stairs. We stood there listening to Dad and Will have an awkward conversation downstairs. I tried not to laugh, but Will was just so cute as he stuttered his answers to Dad's questions. I finally decided to save him and made my way downstairs.

"Hey," I said, interrupting their conversation and snaking my arm around Will's waist. The look of discomfort he felt toward my arm around his waist wasn't left unnoticed.

"Hi," Will said nervously as his eyes darted between my dad and me. "I guess we should get going." I nodded and smiled up at him before hugging my parents and Will followed me, shaking Dad's hand and hugging Mom.

Once we were outside of my parents' view, Will entwined our fingers together. I glanced at him from the corner of my eye and spotted his signature Herondale smirk. They all had it and it had magical powers, which now included making butterflies take flight in my stomach. Will led me to the passenger side of his car and opened the door for me. He jogged around the front of the car and settled into the driver's side, turning the car on.

"So, where are we going," I asked once we were on the road.

"You'll see," he answered elusively.

"Come on, you know I don't like surprises." He was trying not to laugh at me because obviously the night before was a complete surprise and I did like it. A lot. "Just tell me, Will."

"I like surprising you, so get used to it." He reached for my hand, but I yanked it away and crossed my arms over my chest. "Really?" I remained silent and looked out the window. "You're so damn competitive."

"You love it." I smirked, daring him to prove me wrong.

"Oh, babe, you forget that I am even more so competitive than you are."

"Babe?" He glanced over at me with a confused expression. "What is that?"

"You don't like it?" I shook my head trying not to laugh. "I thought I would just try it out."

"Why 'babe,' though? That's so typical." I could tell I was making him uncomfortable, but I wasn't going to back off from my pestering of Will just because he was my boyfriend. His hands tightened on the steering wheel and I placed my hand on his forearm, rubbing it back and forth.

"What do you want me to call you, then?" I moved my hand to the back of his neck and began to rub the tension out of the spot.

"How about my name?" I smiled trying to relive some tension. We had been on our date for five minutes and I had already caused a problem. "Why do you want a nickname for me so badly?"

"I don't know. I've called you 'Tess' my whole life and my whole life I was your best friend. I guess I just wanted to call you something that let people know that you're my girl."

I leaned across the console and kissed his cheek. "That's cute." One more kiss closer to his lips. "Call me something that means something to both of us, okay?" He nodded and stopped at a red light giving me the opportunity to kiss him full on the lips. My position was awkward, but it didn't matter because I had quickly learned that kissing Will was one of my favorite things to do. I jerked back into my seat when the car behind us honked signaling that the light was green. I giggled and reached across the console to take his hand. He lifted our joined hands and kissed the back of mine.

Will pulled up to a nice restaurant that I could remember going to for my mom's birthday. It was so different from our usual choices and I kind of expected him to take me to Taki's, our favorite dive restaurant where you could get the best onion rings known to man. I looked down at my dress and hoped that I was dressed appropriately. Looking over at Will, I finally noticed that he was wearing a nice button down shirt and a tie. When had Will ever worn a tie? However, the boy looked damn good.

Once Will came around to open my door, we headed inside the restaurant hand in hand. I'm not going to lie; the restaurant was beautiful. The tables along the back wall looked out onto the ocean and I could see that the sun was setting, illuminating the sky in pinks and yellows and oranges, much like the night before. I smiled at the memory. The tables were covered in white tablecloths and instead of normal lighting, candles lit the tables and the area around them. It was definitely romantic, but it wasn't us.

I took a deep breath as I felt myself being pulled toward a table. I smiled nervously as Will pulled my chair out for me and I sat down. He smiled at me from his seat across the table and he looked so adorable and I knew he was trying so hard, too hard. Glancing at the menu, I could pronounce three of the items and I had never eaten any of them. I finally just set the menu down and studied Will.

He was studying the menu intently and I could tell by the crease between his eyebrows that he was having trouble pronouncing the items as well. He finally looked up from the menu and gave me a nervous smile.

"So, what are you going to get," he asked, setting down his menu.

"Will, what are we doing here," I ignored his question. "Don't get me wrong. This place is beautiful, but we aren't comfortable here."

"You're right." He placed his head in his hands and I wanted nothing more than to wrap my arms around him. "I'm sorry, but I just wanted to do something we had never done before."

"Will, there are plenty of things we've never done before. Hell, you could have taken me to any restaurant we've ever been too and it would still be something we've never done before because we've never been on a date before." I placed my hand on top of his on the table. "This is new for me, too. I don't necessarily know what to do or how to act, but I think our best bet is to act normally. We wouldn't come here to hang out with James and mess around, so why would we come here alone. One of the cool things about us is that we already have all of these special places that mean a lot to us."

Without another word, Will stood from the table and offered me his hand yanking me up from the table and pulling me from the restaurant. We hurried into his car and he started the engine, backing out of the parking lot quickly. He glanced over at me with a huge smile on his face. I turned the radio up and started singing along to whatever song was playing. We were back to our ridiculous selves and it felt so much better than trying to be some other people in that restaurant. Will pulled up to the In-n-Out drive through and ordered our usual meals. We both got double doubles, animal style with fries and a shake, chocolate for me, vanilla for Will.

After we had our food, Will drove quickly to the drive-in movie theater and we settled in for an old movie while we ate our delicious burgers. We shifted to the backseat and I settled myself into Will's side as he draped his arm around my shoulders.

"Did you know that my parents' first date was at In-n-Out," Will asked as I gulfed down my burger.

"That makes sense, actually," I said around my mouthful of burger.

"It made sense for them and it definitely makes sense for us." He kissed the top of my head. "This feels so much better than being in that restaurant." I finished off my burger and fries before setting the boxes aside, snuggling deeper into Will's side and sucking on my milkshake. "What do you think, will there be a second date?"

I lifted my head from his shoulder to look into his eyes. "There will most definitely be a second date and a third and a fourth and many, many more." He dipped his head to kiss me lightly. What started out as a sweet kiss quickly turned into something more. Will gripped my waist and pulled me onto his lap so I was straddling his hips. I set my empty milkshake cup down on the ground. In true drive-in movie fashion, Will turned us so we were now lying across the backseat of the car with me lying on top of him. His hands found my hips and held me against him. My fingers wove into his hair and held on tight.

Will separated himself from my mouth to trail kisses down my neck and along my collarbone and his hand inched under the hem of my dress to rest on my thigh. We were both gasping for air when I realized that if we didn't stop, there was nothing stopping us and I wasn't ready for that. I knew Will was the one, but I just wasn't ready yet. I pushed myself up so I was sitting up and my hands were on Will's chest.

"Stop," I said breathlessly. "We need to stop."

"You're right," Will said, closing his eyes and tilted his head back against the door of the car. "Apparently the drive-in was how James happened. That was one story I didn't want to hear." He chuckled nervously and I couldn't help but join him. Uncle Jace was always so forthcoming with stories of his youth. Will always complained and said some images just couldn't be erased. "I'm sorry, I got carried away."

"It wasn't your fault. I'm just as much to blame as you." I pushed his hair back from his face so I could see his beautiful green eyes. "We just need to press the brakes a little."

He nodded and sat up with me still on his lap. I shifted off of him and settled back into his side with his arm around me. We watched the rest of the movie snuggled closely together, stealing occasional kisses and enjoying each other's company. When the movie was over, we reluctantly moved back to the front seat of the car.

Will held my hand the entire way to my house and when we pulled into my driveway, I didn't want him to leave. I knew I couldn't ask him to stay the night because we were going to be pushing our luck if we just started staying at each other's houses for no reason. I was still convinced that Jace knew I slept in Will's room the night before, even though he hadn't said anything, well, at least to me. Will walked me to the front door and we stood outside of it for a few minutes before we said anything, effectively ending the night.

"I don't want you to leave," I admitted with a whisper. Will wrapped his arms around me, pulling me to his chest.

"I know," he mumbled into my hair. "I'm pretty sure your dad wouldn't like me staying tonight, but I'll see you tomorrow at the gym and we can hang out at my house after. The beach is calling our names." I smiled and nodded.

"Okay, I guess you should go." I pulled back and looked up into his eyes. He dipped his head to press his lips against mine. I was quick and sweet, but it left me wanting more.

"Goodnight, Angel."

Now that was a name I could approve of. Best first date ever.

Thanks for reading! I'm sorry it's been a few days since i've updated, but I've been sick and writing just hasn't happened. Please forgive me ;) Anyway, I hope you're enjoying the story as much as I'm enjoying writing it! Please feel free to let me know what you think and leave a review! :)