Captive - FourTris

Forty-Nine

SEPTEMBER 6
7 DAYS

Today is our second date. It's only been three days since our first one, but we couldn't wait any longer. I can't get him out of my head. I can't stop thinking of that cute smile, of the way it felt when he told me I'm beautiful, or the way his eyes lit up when I opened the front door and he saw me.

Today we're bowling. I'm a terrible bowler, and by the ninth frame I have a whopping thirty-two points. But we just keep laughing every time I hit a gutter ball, and I can't wipe the grin off my face no matter how many times I miss the pins.

Tobias is good. He left out bowling on his list of hobbies. He played in a kid's league once, I guess. He probably won it all, if he was this good. He's two points shy of two hundred and he just got a strike, so I'm guessing he's going to top that.

I bowl two more gutter balls and then switch back into my street shoes while I watch him get another strike, his arm rolling the ball straight down the middle as if it's effortless. When it's all over, he has a two-forty. Amazing. Is he this good at everything?

I wait for him while he takes off those red and white shoes and switches back into a pair of Vans. He's wearing this dark white button-up thing, and it looks kind of silly on him. I've known him less than a week and I can tell it's not his style. But I also kind of think it's cute, because I'm pretty sure he put it on for me.

I think he saw my house and got all intimidated or something, because his outfit has trying too hard written all over it, in the most adorable way. And I want to tell him not to worry about impressing me, but I know that means pointing out that his outfit is all wrong, so I'm not going to do it. I just keep smiling to myself when he's not looking, and think about him trying on a dozen different shirts.

He holds the door open for me and when we walk across the lot to his truck, he slips his hand into mine. I smile at him when he does it, and try not to let my heart leap when he gives my hand a little squeeze. I have that nervous energy around him again, that adrenaline-charged heart. I don't know how he can have this effect on me, but he does. Seven days after meeting him and I can't stop obsessing over every smile and look and laugh.

He opens the truck door for me and I slide in. Once he's inside, I look over at him and smile, and then it happens. He leans over to me, and before I know what I'm doing, I close my eyes and his lips are on mine, soft, and we're kissing.

We're kissing.

I forget to breathe. When he pulls away, I let out a long sigh and then take a big ragged breath to fill my lungs.

"Sorry. I didn't want to wait and have that awkward front door thing."

I grin at him. "Fine with me. But I still want another at the front door."

He grins back at me and fires up the truck. "I think I can handle that."

I think I can too

"Did you have fun tonight?" he asks.

I chew on my lip to keep the grin from spreading from ear to ear, the grin that gives me away as a silly lovesick girl after only two dates. "Yes. Tons."

"So do you ... do you want to do it again sometime?"

I turn to look at him, and he's staring at the road as if it takes every last ounce of concentration and he can't tear his eyes away to look at me, but I know his heart is probably beating out of control like mine is.

"Yes. Definitely."

And then his lips curl into a smile and he looks over at me. "Sounds good."

And when we get to my house, he walks me to the door and we kiss a few more times, and all I can think of is our next date, when we can do it all again.

For the first time, someone is seeing me, and I want to catch up from a thousand days of being invisible.