The Dating Game

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Juliet

Dad drove us home and a serene silence lapsed between us.

I was grateful he was being calm about all of this and as of yet, he hadn't uttered a word about Justin or declared anything negative about him. Candidly, it seems he was somewhat speechless... unless he was too busy focusing on driving.

It's been a dream of mine to learn how to drive when I turned sixteen, but I never did. Dad thought it was for the best, and ever since, it's dampened my hopes and dreams for the future because now it seems morphed somehow. A part of me hoped that I could be anything I wanted and I'd make some guy's dream come true and be their ideal wife that would send any other woman infatuated, heated with desire.

"Did Justin get you a present?" Dad mused aloud softly. "What is it?"

"It's a bauble," I replied. I lifted it out of the bag and removed the tissue paper. "There's a Christmas tree this side and a present and tag the other side. Justin wrote our names on it so it's from him to me."

I was turning it around slowly as Dad was fleetingly averting his gaze back and forth from the road and bauble. Slipping it back into the paper, concealing it and then gently pushing it into the bag, Dad nodded.

"It's really nice. Did you get him anything? I know you forgot your money but I didn't want to call and be a nag."

"It's fine, Dad. I didn't get him anything, but I have a few more days before Christmas to make it up to him." The bag rested delicately in my lap as the car went through a pothole in the road. I reached out to secure the bauble in place in my lap so it wouldn't abruptly jump out and fall to the floor and God forbid... break.

"You like him," Dad piped up after a moment, flashing a smile in my direction. "And I can tell he likes you, too. There's something between the two of you."

"Dad," I whined slightly, "we're just friends."

"Well, Michelle and Beth have been your friends for years and they've never been able to break you from your shell and cause you to open up anymore, even though they're still your friends now... but you've known Justin a few months and look at you now, sport. You're out of the shell you've been encased in for years and you're opening up more."

Letting Dad's words sink in, he was right. I've never opened up much to Michelle and Beth except for the odd few things like my family history and problems. They know everything now, of course but it took a great deal of mustering all that courage to be able to confide in them and over a course of a year. They'll always be a mutation between a friendship with your best friends and a guy.

It's not a friendship. He wanted to date you. He wants to take you on dates. He wants to show you off to everyone and be proud of you. He's proud of you already and he knows so little... too little.

"He's good for you," he repeated in a murmur.

When we got home, I was bombarded with Christmas decorations in the hallway which Dad was manoeuvring into the lounge where the Christmas tree would go which we haven't bought yet. Dad's only brought down the decorations from the attic and that's it. We're getting the tree tomorrow. But for now, I kept the bauble upstairs in my room. I put the bag on my bedside table and sat on the edge of my bed. Withdrawing my phone from my pocket, I had a text from Justin.

Justin: Sleep well, beautiful.

And as I changed into my pyjamas and washed my makeup off, there was a smile that lingered upon my now-natural lips. How is it that one word could have such a desired effect on the female race? How is it that someone could lift up your spirits by just one mere compliment? It boggles the mind but I was in such a high to speculate it. Instead, I pulled the duvet over me and replied back to the text before falling asleep.