What Happens in High School

Bob’s POV

It finally happened. Max and I talked everything out. We finally told each other everything that we’d been keeping inside. It felt really good to tell her what I was feeling. That and kissing her. I pulled her by her wrist and grabbed her around her waist pulling her into me.

She looked a little shocked but I didn’t care, I just couldn’t wait any longer. I pulled her into me and before she had a chance to protest I touched my lips to hers.

I felt her lean in and put her hands up to my chest before moving them to hold my face. Our hands met and we held onto each other. I didn’t want to pull away but it had to end eventually. If I was right about this, there would be plenty more time for this in the future. I finally had the most perfect girlfriend in the world, Max. I couldn’t have asked for anyone better and I was glad that after everything we’d been through, the day had finally come. We were each other’s and nobody could change that.

We walked downstairs to meet up with everyone else. I held onto Max’s hand and she onto mine. Gerard and Mikey had come in through the basement door and Frank had made his presence known before. We looked out into the room and Ray said, “So?” One word. It was all he needed to find out what had happened. But as for us, I don’t think there was just one word to describe what either Max or I felt.

A lot had led up to this moment and to put it into words would be difficult. I had so many different feelings, all good of course, but still I could find no words to express a single one of them. All I knew was that I was the happiest person in the world and that was more than okay with me.

“I’d say everything turned out alright.” Max looked up at me as she said this. She was more than correct. Everything was alright and would only get better. I smiled at my new girlfriend loving the fact that I actually had one and the fact that it was Max. In the short time I’d known her it became clear that she was different than other girls. She was smart and sassy, funny and sweet. It was worth every ounce of effort I had put in up to this point to have her standing by my side, holding my hand. I wouldn’t change a thing.

“Finally…” Gerard said outright. “If you two took any longer I would have set you up myself.”

“Wait you knew?” I asked a little confused.

“Yeah,” Gerard explained. “You both made it pretty obvious. Well to everyone except each other I guess.”

Max blushed a little at this as she looked back up at me. I guess thinking back I kind of knew all along, but that didn’t matter now. No matter how we got here, the result was pretty fantastic and worth all the trouble along the way. We laughed at this and sat with the other guys.

This time as Max sat next to me I closed the distance between us. Last time we were in this position I tried to stay away but now I just couldn’t. I wrapped my arm around her shoulder as Ray started the movie. “Oh no, you guys aren’t going to be one of those couples are you? PDA going crazy and all?” Frank asked from his spot next to Mikey.

We laughed at this and I replied jokingly, “Oh definitely, now that I know it makes you uncomfortable.” Everyone laughed at Frank’s awkwardness and looked back to the movie.

Of course the entire time the movie was on I couldn’t pay attention. All I thought of was Max. Even as zombies claimed their countless victims my only focus was on her. I was still in shock and a little in denial of what actually happened that night. I had my dream girl sitting next to me in my arms. I looked down at her and right on cue she looked back up to me. I smiled at her and she smiled at me. We didn’t have to say anything to know what the other was thinking. For what it’s worth, I’m glad you’re mine.
…

The movie ended without Max falling asleep. According to Ray that was a first for her. Just as Frank and the Ways were no help setting up for a movie, they were also no help cleaning up. In fact Frank was asleep. All the work was left to Max, Ray, and me, but it didn’t take long to clear everything out of the basement. In a matter of ten minutes all was brought back upstairs leaving only a passed out drunk Frank downstairs on the couch. We said our goodbyes to Ray and the Way brothers as Max and I headed out.

“That was fun,” she said as we walked down Ray’s front steps.

I smiled over to her and said, “Yeah it was, even better with you though.” I grabbed her hand and walked with her down the street. The New Jersey night air was cool and breezy. I could see Max was a little cold but since I didn’t have a jacket to give her I draped my arm around her shoulder and pulled her in. She held me around my waist and leaned her head on my chest as we made our way to her house.

Any other time, silence between us would have been awkward but this time we just didn’t need to say anything. Just walking alongside her feeling her leaning into me as I held her against me was enough. As we approached her house she moved away a little, preparing herself to say goodbye. She stood there as we looked into each other’s eyes. “I’m really glad everything turned out the way it did,” she said encompassing my very same thought.

“Me too, it feels pretty good to be able to say I’m dating the most incredible girl in the world.” She blushed a little at my flattery. “Speaking of, for us to be dating, I need to take you out on a proper date. How does tomorrow sound?”

“Perfect, what are we going to do?”

“You leave that to me. I’ll come get you at, say seven?”

“Okay, I’ll trust you.”

We made our plans for our first date and I was pretty excited about it. I was a little nervous though; even though Max and I were technically together I didn’t want to screw up our first official date. “Good, then I’ll see you tomorrow. That movie must have made you pretty tired. Props for staying up this late.” I joked remembering her normal inability to stay up very late.

She pushed me jokingly and said, “Oh yeah, definitely.” I smiled at her charm and the fact that I was standing with the most incredible girl I’d ever met.

“Can’t wait,” I said back as I took both of her hands in mine. I pulled her closer to me and she stepped forward following my lead. I looked into her eyes a moment before slowly leaning into her. She closed the space between us by standing on her toes. It was now that I realized just how short she was. Our lips met and time stopped just as it had earlier that night. Everything disappeared until all that was left was me and Max. She let go of my hands to bring hers up around my neck pulling us even closer together. I closed the rest of the space by placing my hands around her waist bringing her body flush with mine. I don’t know how long we stayed there but I savored every moment of it.

I never wanted it to end, but eventually we broke it when we heard Andrew burst outside saying, “Mommy! Max is kissing a boy!” We looked over at her younger brother who was giving us a ‘you’re-busted’ look.

Max smiled and said, “When did you get home and what are you still doing up? The monsters are out and they just love little boys like you.” Andrew shuddered at this thought then ran back inside.

Max laughed and looked back at me one last time. I kissed her again before letting her go inside before she got into trouble. I’d hate to have her grounded before our first date. And speaking of being grounded, I would be too if I didn’t get home soon. Our lips parted and I looked at Max then asked, “Tomorrow at seven?”

“Tomorrow at seven.” She confirmed before grabbing my hand and walking back toward her front door. She let go just as she got up to the top step. She turned to me and smiled before going inside, finishing our night. I stood there for a moment and looked up to see her bedroom light turn on behind her red curtains. I turned to go back home still thinking of the night’s events.

Somehow I ended up with the best girlfriend any guy could ever ask for and a date with her the following night. Which led me to think of what we would actually do. I hadn’t actually been out on a date in a long time, and I really wanted Max to have a good time. Then it came to me, I knew exactly what we’d do. I just hoped Max would like it.
…

‘Tomorrow at seven’ came quicker than expected. I showered and pushed all my hair over to the side. I decided at probably the worst possible time that I no longer liked my long hair. I picked up the scissors and went to find my mom. She was sitting in the living room reading some long book and looked up at me when I said, “Could you cut my hair?” Her first reaction was confusion that is until she saw what I was wearing. A black buttoned down shirt tucked into some dark jeans and black sneakers.

“Well don’t you look nice? Where are you going?”

“Somewhere. Can you just cut my hair please? I don’t like it long anymore.” My mom was more than happy to get up and chop off my hair, she hated it long and said I’d look ‘so much more like a gentleman if it was shorter and neat looking.’ She took me into the bathroom and told me to wet my hair. Once it was damp she ran a comb through it and started to cut. Long locks of blonde hair fell to the floor and after about a minute my mom spoke up again.

“So why the sudden change?” she asked me, continuing to focus on making the cuts.

“I just got tired of it being long is all.” Mothers just seemed to know when you’re hiding something. I wasn’t lying but I hadn’t told her the whole truth. To be honest I wanted to look nice for Max. I had kind of outgrown the long hair a little while ago but never cared enough to cut it.

“That’s all?” she knew it was something else so I might as well tell her.

“Well I’m going out tonight and I want to look nice.”

“With a girl?” Like I said, mothers just knew. “Who is it?” My mom had never actually met Max before but I had a feeling that she’d really like her. Who wouldn’t?

“Her name’s Max, she lives down the street. I met her through the guys in the band.” Having a conversation about your date with your mom was awkward for any teenage boy to be having and I was no exception. But I appeased my mother and gave her some information. I didn’t want to jinx anything.

When my mom finished chopping off my hair I looked in the mirror too see all of my hair cut to a short, uniform length. Even though she was no hairdresser, my mom was pretty kick-ass with a pair of scissors. My long hair was gone and I was left with a basic crew cut. It looked pretty good but it would take me some time to get used to it. “Thanks mom, I should probably get going. See you later.”

“Okay, have fun. Don’t get home too late.” I walked down stairs and just as I was about to leave my mom called out, “Bob, one second.” She came up behind me and I turned around to see her holding the car keys. “Take my car.” I smiled and took the keys from her as she fixed the collar of my shirt.

“Thanks, Mom.” And with that I turned and left.

Even though Max only lived a few houses down, I was taking her somewhere a little farther away. I pulled up to her house and gave myself one final look in the mirror. I checked out my sweet new haircut and opened the door. I walked up to her front door and paused a second before knocking.A moment later Max came out. She looked as beautiful as ever, maybe even more so. She wore a plain while lace dress with a red sweater and black ballet shoes. Her hair rested on her shoulder in a loose braid and she was wearing glasses. “Cute specs.” I said as she stepped out.

She laughed a little and replied, “I know it looks weird but my contacts were bothering my eyes.” She pushed the black rimmed glasses a little farther up her nose and I grabbed her hand.

“No, I like them. You look good in anything.” She blushed a little and I felt my cheeks heat up too. She finally looked up after a beat and said, “Nice haircut. When did you do that?”

I brought a hand up to run through my now short hair. “Oh you know, like ten minutes ago.” She laughed lightly as did I. “Well I like it, now I can see your eyes better.” She looked into my eyes as she said this and I suddenly became nervous. She was just so beautiful and I still couldn’t believe I was with her.

“So,” I said a little uneasily. “Are you ready?” She nodded her head and we walked over to my mom’s car. I opened the passenger side door for her. After she got in I went around to the driver’s side and started the car.

“You look really pretty.” I said as I pulled out of her driveway and onto the road.

“Thank you, you look really nice too.” It was quiet for a moment as we drove until she spoke up again. “So, where are we going?” I found this little spot when I had first moved here nearly three months ago. I was walking in the park one day and found this little path that led to this opening where you could see all of Jersey. I had only seen it during the day and could only imagine how it would look at night.

“You’ll see,” I said as we pulled into the edge of the park. I’m sure she was a little curious as to what we’d be doing here.

“You’re not going to, like, kidnap me are you?” she said as we got out of the car.

I laughed a little at this and replied, “Yeah, that’s exactly what I was planning. No, but I do want to show you something.” I held out my hand for her to take and she did. She laced her fingers with mine and I led her to the edge of the park.

When we got to the path she looked in between the trees saying. “Whoa, I’ve lived in Jersey all my life, I’ve taken Andy to this park a hundred times, and I’ve never seen this before.” She was being serious, this was new to her and I was glad that I was going to be the one to show her. We walked down the path for a while hand-in-hand as we talked about little things like school or music.

It was getting darker and I could tell Max was getting a bit nervous. “Are you sure this is safe, Bob?”

“Of course, I wouldn’t let anything happen to you.” She smiled up at me and leaned in a little closer. When we were just about to get to the opening I stopped her. “Okay, close your eyes.” I said as she looked at me tentatively.

“Okay?” she said a little questioningly as I stood behind her with my hands on her shoulders and led her forward into the clearing.

When I was sure the view was perfect I told Max, “Okay, open.”

As she did, I saw her look out into the city. There were lights and stars and a full moon. You could see all of New Jersey at once, it looked like the scene from a movie. She looked up at me and said, “Bob, this is amazing. I’ve never seen Jersey like this before. How did you find this place?” I told her of my first day in Jersey, how I was upset with my parents for moving me so far away from my friends and how I need to blow off steam so I took a walk. This was where I ended up.

“But I guess in the end, moving wasn’t such a bad thing. After all, I did get to meet you.” She continued to look into my eyes but this time I didn’t feel weird about it. It was just me and Max, no one else there but us. No Frank to come running in, no Andy to call out to his mom, just me and Max.

The moment was perfect. The moon light fell on her perfectly making her eyes sparkle behind her glasses. Her hair had loosened a little and was now falling slightly and framing her face. She must have had the same thought as me because without warning she walked over to me and put her fingers through my belt loops.

Before I knew what was going on, she pulled my hips to meet hers and pressed her lips to mine. I was taken a little by surprise but quickly shook off the shock. I brought my hands up to hold her face and leaned in closer to her. This kiss was different from our previous ones. It said something else. It was harder and deeper but not lustful. I grazed her bottom lip asking her permission and she granted it. Our tongues met and the kiss was intensified. She was tentative at first but as I ran my tongue against hers she seemed to fall into a pretty easy rhythm. Neither of us fought for dominance and even though we were pretty much making out at this point, it was still somehow kept innocent.

It must have been at least a few minutes before she pulled away. I looked down at her to make sure she was okay. I didn’t want that kiss to have ended and I wondered if there was something wrong. Maybe I was moving too fast for her.

“I’m sorry, we can slow down if you want.”

She smiled and shook her head and replied, “No, it’s not that; you’re not going too fast. It’s just…” Oh no, what did I do? “Just?” I questioned her hoping she’d clear things up. She looked into my eyes and a serious look washed over her face. She looked almost scared which made me worry what was wrong.

“Come on, Max. You can tell me.”

She sighed before responding with a bombshell, “I think I’m in love with you.”

I sure wasn’t expecting that. She thought she was in love with me. I was just as surprised to hear this as she must have been to have said it. I didn’t know what to say. But I did have one question.

“Why?” she looked a little confused. I couldn’t blame her though, she just told me she loved me and I was questioning her.

“Because, you’re just amazing. I knew you were special from the moment I first saw you. The first thing to strike me of course were your good looks. And then, as we got to know each other, you only seemed to get better and better. You’re nice and funny, and a total gentleman. I just love everything about you. But don’t feel like you have to say it too, I just wanted you to know.” That last part sent me over. If I wasn’t in love with her before I definitely was now.

It was amazing how someone could tell you they loved you and not expect it back. She poured her heart out and expected nothing in return. She didn’t want to pressure me and that was so awesome of her. I knew then exactly how I felt. I pulled her in for another kiss, this one different from any of our other ones. Different from any kiss I’d ever given in my life. It wasn’t friendly and innocent but it wasn’t lustful or greedy either. I pulled away and looked deep into her eyes and said, “I think I’m in love with you too.”

She smiled and pulled me in for a hug leaning her head against my chest. She could probably hear my heart beating a million miles a minute. I had never told anyone that I loved them before, not like this. We hadn’t known each other long but I think that’s what made it real, genuine. We didn’t need to have spent years together to know that what we had was special. After all we’d gone through since we met we could still be here with each other knowing our feelings were mutual.

We stayed in each other’s embrace for a few more minutes before it started to really get dark. “I think we should start heading back.” I said leaning my chin on the top of her head. She loosened the hug just enough to look up at me and replied, “Yeah, it’s getting kind of dark.” I took her hand and we headed back to the car.

“This will always be our special spot.” She looked out the window one last time until the park was out of view.

I pulled into her driveway and got out of the car. I went around the other side and opened the door for Max. She stepped out and took my hand as I walked her to her door. The date went perfectly, maybe even better if that was possible. We got to her door and just stood there a moment. I didn’t want the night to end but eventually it had to. That was alright though, we’d have plenty more like this one.

“Thanks for taking me out tonight; I had a really great time.”

“So did I, hope we can do it again soon.”

She stepped closer placing her lips gently on mine before pulling away and saying,“Definitely.” I smiled and looked down at her. It was late and I was tired but still I could have stayed outside there with Max forever. I hugged her one more time before turning back to the car to go home.

Just as she was about to enter her house I turned around and said, “This doesn’t bother you, does it?” I asked pointing to my lip ring. I’d had it so long that I never really gave much thought to it, but after all the lip action I’d had with Max tonight it occurred to me that it might be cumbersome for her.

“Like I said, I love everything about you.” And with that she went inside leaving me to watch her go again, and wanting so bad to get her back already.

Notes

Yay! First date!! So corny!! and long... sorry, anyways, hope you enjoyed the update, still more chapters to come!! leave a comment if you want to, message me, do whatever (just be safe :) and I'll see ya next week!! :D ^.^