3:30pm

27: too late to chicken out

           <Could it be someone like you could love someone like me?>

°•°•°•°

Senoriiiitaaaaa
Passing by
Pardon me if I stopped and asked you whyyyy

Senoriiiitaaaaa
Could it be
Someone one like you could love someone like me?

At the start of the instrumental chorus, Stephen looked over at me humming and nodding my head to the tune.

"I didn't know you loved country music," he said, a grin spread out across his lips.

"Blame it on my mom." I smiled. "She made me start and ever since, I vibe to it whenever I can. What about you? Do you like it?"

"Ahh," he drawled, taking a turn into my street, B-street. "Not really. No."

"Something as simple and as peaceful as country music and you don't fancy it?" I raised my eyebrows. "What then do you like? Punk? Rock?"

"UK drill's my preferred. Hip hop too," he said as he rolled the car into the driveway. "You should try it, really. It has the real vibes."

"And you should try country music," I told him.

"Okay." He stopped the car few feet from the garage and turned it off. Slipping the key onto his index finger, he twisted in his seat to face me. "How about we do this. I give you my playlist to listen to and you give me a couple of your country music. At the end of the coming week, we decide whether we're into each other's songs or not."

"Deal?" He stretched out his hand to me, eyes staring expectantly.

With a smile, I took his hand in mine and shook it. "Deal."

"Alright." Releasing my hand, he unstrapped his seat belt at the same time as I did, and together we stepped out of the car. I waited for him to lock up before I walked around to meet him.

Dropping the key into the pocket of his jeans and leaning back onto the hood of the car, he reached out and took my hands, pulling me foward and into him so our bodies were touching, faces barely inches apart. His hands went to settle on my waists, holding me tightly.

"So," he exhaled, smiling, "first date, check."

"Nope. First date, perfect check," I corrected.

He chuckled. "Yeah. Yeah, perfect check."

"And I was thinking we should do it again. You know, some other time, maybe next week? Same place, same time."

"Same place, sure. Next week, not so sure."

My smile was quickly replaced by a mild frown. "Why? What's up?"

"I, uh, might be busy. But, you know what, yeah we can. We can do it again next week."

"No." I shook my head. "I mean, if you have plans then you can—"

Suddenly, he leaned in and cut me off with a kiss. Moments later, he pulled back, a small smile on his lips. "For you, I always got time."

My cheeks heated up in a blush, and shyly, I moved my gaze down from his face, brushing my hair behind my ear.

"I have something for you." His hands left my waists and he straightened up from the hood of the car. I stepped back from him so he had space to reach into his shirt pocket.

Silently, I watched as he got out a silver necklace, with a crescent pendant, and raised it up to me.

I was speechless. The way the pendant glittered under the beam of the moonlight washing directly over us was enough to leave me at a loss for words.