I was progressing a bit further along than I imagined after a week of tutoring. It was nice getting to see Luke more often. Since we've been in college, we rarely saw or spoke to each other.

We used to be so close. I don't know what happened. I had intentions of catching up with him every day. But, it quickly fell to the wayside. I was so engrossed in classes, dates, and extracurriculars to call my best friend. It feels like we're two strangers passing in the night.

A few days later, Luke called me to ask if I could pretend to be his girlfriend again. I was ready to say no. But, it dawned on me that this could be an opportunity to get our friendship back on track. And I can spend some more time with him outside of tutoring.

It was a double date with his friend Dustin and his girlfriend Laurel. Damn, that means I have to go shopping again. I only have one dress and it's not really date attire, especially for the restaurant that we're going to.

Luke still keeps in contact with some of the people from the country club where he worked at. They hooked him up and got him reservations to one of the most exclusive restaurants in town, they even had the meals paid for. Since a bunch of broke college students could never afford to eat there.

I'm in the middle of putting on my stockings and garters when I get a text from Luke that he was outside. I smooth down my dress and walked outside.

Even though I have been to plenty of fancy restaurants I still get fascinated that I'm able to eat at a place like this. At heart, I still feel like that poor little Colombian kid.

Luke led me inside by the small of my back. I see a short red-haired woman standing next to a dark-haired man that was only a few inches taller. It looks like Luke to the only tall one out of all of us. What a weird conclusion that I've come to.

"Hello, you must be Michelle. I'm Laurel." I shook her hand and I moved to shake her boyfriend's hand as well.

"I'm Dustin. It's so nice to meet you. Luke has told us so much about you." Luke pulls out the chair for me.

"It's so nice to meet you both as well." Before we could speak anymore, the server came by to get our drink orders.

"Wait, tell it again." Laurel was giggling, while Dustin smiled in amusement.

"Okay, we wanted to impress a girl that lived in our neighborhood. She had a lemonade stand. So, Luke got the bright idea to drive one of our parents' cars to show her how cool we were. We weren't even tall enough to touch the gas pedal. So one of us took turns pressing it while one of us turned the steering wheel." I look to Luke to tell the rest of the story.

"We drove a few blocks down the street and we took turns driving past her saying hi. We thought she would be fascinated that we had our own car and could drive. But, she just looked at us with the most bewildered look on her face. She was not impressed, more confused than anything." Laurel and Dustin were cracking up. I don't know if it was from the story or from how tipsy they were.

By the time dinner ended I was drunk. I didn't intend to get drunk at all. When I'm in a social setting I tend to drink more than I should. I was surprised that Luke was sober.

"It was nice meeting your friends tonight." Luke put my arm around his shoulder and his arms around my waist as we walked out of the restaurant.

"Yeah, they liked you. They don't usually warm up to other people outside our friend group." It made me happy to hear that. These days I'm finding it harder to gel with others. Some think that I talk too much, or that I'm too serious, or intimidating to be around. I'm too needy and that it wasn't an attractive quality that they wanted in a friend or a romantic partner.

"Wow, really? Someone actually likes me. The people that I've met so far haven't liked me one bit. Some even went as far as to be cruel to me just to show me how much they dislike me. I'm surprised they liked me. I thought I was being way too talkative. I thought it would turn them off." I'm really honest when I get drunk.

I looked over to see that he was upset. Oh, man I didn't mean to upset him. The valet handed Luke his keys and he helped me into the car.

I fell asleep, I always sleep easier in the car than my bed. It reminds me of riding in the taxi with mom