Forget About Me »

F I V E pt. 1

July 6th, 2009

First date. First date. First date. 

The word continued to run through Alex's mind. Replaying over and over again, sending shivers down his spine each and every time and making his palms even more clammy than he ever thought possible.

Why was this making him so nervous? He had been on other dates before with other girls and none of them had managed to make him as nervous as this one did. Maybe it was the fact he was worried she wasn't going to be interested? Maybe she wasn't going to have a good time? 

The two had hung out plenty of times before this and she laughed at his dumb jokes and made her own back. That had been just as friends though and the idea of adding the pressure of romance to it may have been the culprit behind his nervousness.

Every time he looked at her contact, he was reluctant to press the button to call her. It was a simple act, but each time he looked down at it, he had to look back up to the blank television in front of him. He just had to calm his thumping heart, taking shallow breathes until he was calm enough to repeat the cycle. 

Sighing to himself, he looked down at it for the last time before shaking his head and just pressed it, holding the phone up to his ear. If he didn't do this now he knew that he was going to end up never doing it until Tay was with somebody else and he was stuck lusting after her for the rest of his life. 

The phone rang twice before Alex heard a very chipper "Hey" from the other line, sending goosebumps all down his arms. He just had to ignore it though and get through all of this before he chickened out again. 

"Would you want to go see a movie? Tomorrow." He was suddenly glad he wasn't doing this in person as his tapping leg and lip biting would have been an obvious give that he was nervous. He was glad Tay couldn't see him through the phone. 

The silence immediately made Alex nervous, but it suddenly melted away whenever he heard Tay make a thinking noise followed by an 'Obviously, you doof.' 

He couldn't help but laugh to himself at the nickname, it having been given to him for spilling a drink on himself at the annual Rian Dawson barbecue on July 4th. He didn't hate it like he might have if it had been given to him by someone else, namely Jack.

The two continued to talk with one another, deciding on the time, snacks, and the movie that they both wanted to see. Tay had decided on just getting to the theater and picking a random movie. With what their local theater was usually playing, it was either going to be a long documentary on something neither was going to care about or some Nicholas Sparks movie that had come out years ago. This town wasn't exactly good at keeping up to date.

Yet, even with those two awful options in mind, he honestly couldn't wait to see Tay and sit through whatever movie fate decided to make them watch. 

Alex was swooning in fact. As soon as he made for sure that the phone had hung up, he hummed happily to himself and fell back on the couch, staring up at the swirling ceiling fan above his head.

He just smiled and realized he hadn't been this happy in a long time and he was certainly going to make this feeling last.

----

Today was the day. He could feel that hard beating in his chest with ever breath he took as he began to raid his closet. 

It had apparently slipped his mind to try and buy anything even remotely nice for this, and his only options really were a suit he had worn to his cousin's wedding, which meant he only had the pink tie that went with it, or an old ratty shirt and jeans that he couldn't even remember the last time they had been washed. 

The suit obviously didn't seem appropriate, but he also hadn't set aside enough time for a load of laundry to ensure that he wasn't going to smell like he had just crawled out from under a bridge. 

In the end, he had to just throw on the cleanest smelling shirt he could find, a blue button up, and a pair of jeans with the least amount of holes, two. The converse weren't the best choice, but he had opted for comfort than fancy to go with the look. 

On the drive down to her house, Alex could feel his hands shaking, so much that he was afraid that he was going to accidentally swerve into the cars driving past him. He had too many thoughts running through his head to just focus on one, which included making sure he was being a safe driver. 

He did manage to make it to her house without any damage though, which he was only partially grateful for. The other part wished he had ended up getting into a wreck to get out of this situation that he was currently in because he had no idea why he had let himself do this. 

Why had he called her to ask her on a date? Why couldn't he have just settled with becoming close friends with her? Why had she said yes? 

With all of these thoughts, he hadn't realized he had almost tripped over Tay who was sitting on the porch in front of her house. The laughing is what eventually broke him from his trance and looked down to see her smiling up again. 

Tay stood up, allowing Alex to see she had dressed even more of a slob than she had which was almost a relief to him because he would have hated to see her in some designer dress to go and see a movie at a broken down theater. 

He actually couldn't take his eyes off of her though, smiling at how the outfit fit her perfectly and he wasn't sure if he would have preferred her to wear anything else instead because it wouldn't have seemed to feel like such a 'tay' outfit as this one had. He wasn't even entirely sure what that meant. 

"Watch where you're going, Gaskarth." She teased, making him smile despite the awkward encounter the two had just had on the porch. "Is this your car?" She asked, walking over to beat up truck, one of the doors have a large dent in it so big he was sure that it was probably larger than Tay's own head. 

He wasn't sure the last time he had washed it either, the layer of mud and dirt that coated it making that evident. Tay still looked amazed though as she smiled and ran her hand along the front part of it, leaving a clean streak of where her hand had just been. 

"Yeah. It... used to be my dad's." It hadn't and he wasn't sure why he needed to lie about a car that Tay liked, but he still felt like he needed to prove he could take care of something as simple as a car and not let it get as messed up as it currently was. 

"Maybe I should be going on a date with your dad. His car is sick." The two paused before laughing at the thought of that actually happening. His dad was definitely older, and married so the idea of him agreeing was outrageous, but hilarious. 

"Don't ever tell him I said that."

Alex smiled and shook his head, a secret promise that he wouldn't, and opened the passenger door for her. Sometimes it would manage to get stuck and whoever it was would have to climb in through the driver's side and he was just glad that hadn't been the situation today.

When she had climbed in and buckled her seat belt, Alex slid over the hood of his car, almost falling with his landing and got in his seat as well.

"Smooth. 8/10" Tay smiled and looked over at him, making Alex smile. 

"Do I get a redo? I'm sure I could make it better." Alex said as he started the car, the eingine making a few sounds in protest, but still starting. 

"Of course not." 

The two laughed together, the sound dying out only to be followed by a crude "Let's get this date fucking started!" and a cheer from both.