Class seemed like it would never end today. I was having a difficult time trying not to fall asleep. In fact, the only thing keeping me awake was the incredibly handsome guy in front of me. I had known him since second grade, but we had lost touch in junior high. I was thankful I at least got to see him every day still. If only I could find some way to regain that friendship. I'd had a crush on him ever since I had met him back in elementary school, and just talking to him was enough to keep me happy for a long time. Even his name was nice; I've always liked the name Brad. Maybe that's because of him, I don't know. We had been assigned to work in pairs on a history project today, and since I was next to him and I desperately wanted to be alone with him (haven't any of you ever been delusional like that?), I asked if he'd like to work together. Most people would agree to work with me since I had the reputation of being a straight-A student.
The project was due in a few days, so that gave us plenty of time to work on it. We had decided to meet at his house, which wasn't far from mine. I decided to arrive a few minutes early, being a person who would rather be fashionably early than late. I knocked on the door, and was let in by his grandmother.
"Brad's back in his room, just go on back," she said.
"OK, thanks."
I walked back to Brad's room and opened the door. To my surprise, there was Brad, wearing absolutely nothing. He had apparently just gotten out of the shower, which is a look I've always liked. There's just something about a guy who's all wet. I thought maybe I should just walk out, close the door, and knock like nothing had happened when he turned around to get some underwear. As he turned around, he saw me and quickly moved to cover himself.
"What are you doing here?" he yelled.
"Sorry, I got here a few minutes early and your grandmother told me to just come on back."
"OK, well just give me a minute to get dressed, then we can start."
I looked around his room as he got dressed, stealing a glance every now and then. His body had only gotten better since junior high, not that I had seen all that much of it back then. In a couple of minutes, he was dressed. I was impressed at how good he looked even though spending only a couple of minutes getting ready.
We sat down to start the project, and I felt I had to make a comment, jokingly. "Those were pretty small underwear, they were hardly enough to cover anything."
"Yeah, well the girls like it when I wear them, and I'm supposed to go on a date a little later tonight, so I thought I'd save some time."
"Cool, so I guess we should get started since we don't have a whole lot of time," I said, disappointed. It always disappoints me when my crushes talked about girlfriends, even though I should be well aware of the chances of anything happening between us.
We had been working on the project for about two hours when the phone rang. Brad picked it up and I was only able to hear half the conversation.
"Hello?"
"What do you mean you can't go? Can't that wait until later? OK, I won't pressure you since it is a big test. Thanks for calling, bye."
Brad turned to me and said, "I guess I have longer to work on this project than I thought, that was my girlfriend calling to cancel our date. I guess she has some big test to help someone study for before tomorrow."
"That's too bad. If you want to go hang out or something after we get done here, it'd be cool."
"I don't know, I'm not really wanting to go out now."
"OK, that's cool," I said, disappointed again.
We worked almost in silence for the next hour, with only small suggestions and comments about each other's part of the project. It was getting late, so I thought I should get ready to go when Brad said, "Hey, were you serious about going out and doing something?"
Trying to hide my excitement, I said, "Yeah, I mean I have no other plans, and neither do you now."
"OK, let me just change clothes and we'll figure out something to do."
He went into the bathroom to change and I finished putting my things into my bag. A few minutes later, he came out, dressed better than I expected, and I could detect the faint smell of cologne.
"So where are we going?" I asked.
"Well, we've been working all night and haven't had a real dinner, so I thought we could go out."
"OK, so why are you so dressed up?"
"I had reservations at this nice restaurant, might as well use them."
"So you're dressed up and I'm not?"
"Well, we can fix that, I think some of my stuff will fit you. Take off your clothes, and we'll get you into something."
"You want me to strip right here? I don't think so"
"Well, it's not like you're going to be naked or anything, and I'm not gonna be checking you out."
"OK, fine." I reluctantly take off my shirt and pants as he picks some things out of his closet.
"Here, put these on," he says.
"OK," I say as I put the clothes on, "Do I look better now?"
"You look great"
"So we, two guys, are going out to a nice restaurant all dressed up. Don't you think some people will find that a little odd?"
"What does it matter, I don't think it's odd, do you?"
"Well I guess..."
"Great, let's get going then."
At dinner, we caught up on what each other had been doing for the last few years. All the get to know you stuff that two people who already know each other talk about.
As we were getting ready to leave, I started to pull out my wallet. "Hey, don't worry about it, I got you covered," he said.
"Are you sure? I can pay for myself, you don't have to."
"I know I don't have to, I'm still going to, though."
"OK, so what are we doing now?"
"I thought we could go up north of town where there aren't many people, and just talk."
"OK..." I said, a little suspicious of what was going on.
"By the way, you look great tonight."
"I should, they're your clothes," I said smiling.
"No, I meant you look good, you'd look good even without those clothes. I mean, I mean the clothes aren't what makes you look good," he corrected, realizing what he had said.
"Well you know, I think you pull off the look better than I do."
"You mean that?"
"Yeah, I've always admired your fashion sense."
"Thanks, man."
"Well, we're here. I've always liked it out here away from the city."
"Yeah, it is nice. But why did we come up here in the first place?"
"Well, about that. I have something I've been wanting to tell you for a while."
"What is it?"
"Well..."
To Be Continued.