6

                                    

                                          
The rest of the day went slowly. I couldn't quite tell what I was feeling; was it anger, or sadness, or jealousy? It was somewhere in the middle of that venn-diagram. I sat in home EC, working on a straight stitch as I hemmed a pair of jeans. 
Good good, I wish I'd gone to shop class.
I didn't understand why boys were subjected to shop and girls were thrown into this strategically disguised hell. I wanted to create something useful with my life, get my hands dirty. Not just sit around and chainsmoke while I wait on a pie to bake. What I wanted even more was for Dinger to like me, but I kindly told myself to slow down and take baby steps. 
"You alright?" A girl waved her hand in front of my face. When I focused, I saw that it was Maureen. 
"I'm so happy you're in this class." I said, coming back down to Earth. 
"I know, I hate it too. Here, let me see those." Maureen took my hands off of the denim fabric and I let her sit in my chair. I leaned on the table to observe closely. She finished my straight stitch and followed it with a zig-zagged stitch. "To make sure it stays." She said. She did that to the other hem and proceeded to sit at her table. As I sat back down, I made eye contact with her. "Thank you" I mouthed. 
"No problem" she mouthed back. 
•••
The bell that signaled the end of the day was music to my ears. I grabbed my notebooks from my locker and tried my best not to sprint home. I ran up the stairs and into my room, dropping my books at the foot of my bed and running down the hallway to look at myself in the mirror. My makeup, for the most part, had rubbed off and my hair was a frizzy mess. I figured I had time, so I took a shower and tied up my hair. I tied a towel around myself and went back to my room to decide on an outfit. 
Eventually I chose some checkered pants that Mrs. Keller had bought me and an old sweater that a friend back home loaned me years ago. I had told Lainie about my date and she gave me a pair of Doc Martins to wear. Apparently they were a new brand. 
I winded up liking my outfit, so I went downstairs to meet Mrs. Keller. "Mom?" I asked.
"Yes?" 
"Could I talk to you?"
"Of course. I'm in my bedroom."
I spied Mr. Keller in the living room reading and waved hello. He saluted back. I inched into Mrs. Keller's bedroom and saw her at her vanity taking out her curlers. "Hey," I said, "so I may or may not have a... Date tonight." I was going to spare Mrs. Keller the confusion of the situation at hand. 
"Ooh! That's one lucky guy," She said with a smile, "I'll fix your hair. You just sit and do your makeup here."
She motioned to her seat at the vanity, taking the last curler out as she stood up. She went into the adjacent bathroom to retrieve the hairdryer. I sat at the vanity and applied some concealer, powder, muted pink eyeshadow, and mascara. 
"Complementing the stripes on your sweater. I see what you did there." Mrs. Keller chuckled. 
"I read somewhere that pinks and golds bring out blue eyes. I figured I'd give it a shot." I replied, blending the color a bit too much out of pure anxiety. 
Mrs. Keller took about 10 minutes to blow dry my hair, making sure to put the bangs that I dreaded front and center. I don't know if it was the makeup, but tonight I didn't hate them. They looked... cute. 

                          
Without missing a beat, I heard Dinger's voice from the threshold.
"Who's ready to watch slime eat people?!" Dinger cried. I heard his voice crack resonate through the house, not unlike a yodel.  
"I believe that's my queue." I said to Mrs. Keller, giving her a small salute. 
"Thank you for doing my hair." I flipped it slightly as I grabbed my money and put it in my pocket. 
"Any time, doll." She smiled.
I turned toward the door and walked out, facing Dinger Holfield straight on. He wore light blue jeans, pin rolled of course, high-top nikes, and a gray sweater with a white shirt underneath. It was toned down from what I saw him wear normally, but I wasn't complaining. It looked good. 

                          
Not only was I taking a moment to observe him, but he was looking at me as well.
"Ready?" I said out of awkwardness with a sprinkle of body insecurity. He cleared his throat, snapping out of his trance.
"Yeah... yeah." He said, smiling calmly.
"Good, because I've been craving popcorn all day." I said, grinning as I clutched his arm and led him out of the house and down the sidewalk. 
•••
"Two for The Blob." I said to the acne-spotted boy at the ticket counter. I felt bad. That probably sucked.
he ripped up the tickets. "Seven forty." He said groggily. I handed him a twenty. He slid me the tickets and my change. "Next!" He yelled.
"So what are we thinking? Slushies? No, they look too much like the slime. My vote is on popcorn and coke. I'm just keeping it classy." I said. 
"I don't know, I usually go for gummy worms or something weird like that." He responded, running his index finger along his chin I thought. 
"I'll pay." I offered.
"You get what you want, I'll cover it." He responded.
"I mean, sounds good to me."
I got a medium popcorn and a Coke, Dinger got gummy worms and an Icee. 
"I do admit, your food is far more colorful than mine. Appealing, I wouldnt say, but colorful? Sure." I clutched my food against my stomach, careful not to drop them. Dinger handed the ticket guy our passes.
"Third on the left."
Dinner turned to me. "I like colors, don't blame me for being risky."
you don't know half of the risks that were taken today. This whole idea was a big ass risk.
We sat in the top center, a.k.a. the best possible place. No one kicking your seat, no craning your neck, and you get the best surround sound. That and we could make out in the middle of the movie and no one would care. It was obvious that we were totally here for the sound system.
•••
It was a shitty movie, there was no doubting that. It wasn't even a good idea to begin with, but someone in a big seat in that production company shot up some heroin and spent millions on this shitstorm. 
It was about halfway through the movie, and I could tell Dinger was bored. All of his gummy worms we're gone and he was forced to bore himself to death with this mess. I decided to have a little fun.
I raised the arm rest between us and moved closer, moving his arm behind me and resting on his side. He chuckled. "Smooth." Was all he said. 
"Damn right." I said, smirking. We made eye contact, him staring at me with a semi-admiring stare. I was staring at all of the features of his face. 
"Do you want to get out of here?" He proposed. 
"For the love of God, yes." We grabbed our stuff and ran out, throwing away our empty food containers in the trash can outside. We started down the sidewalk, knowing we had time.
"So tell me about yourself, I feel like I've read a file on you or something, I don't feel like I really know you, ya know?" He asked.
"Well, I was born in nash-" 
"Don't give me that, tell me about you. Not where you're from, who raised you, none of that. Tell me what you're passionate about, what makes you happy or sad, the important stuff."
"I love to paint. I used to paint in the art classroom at school all of the time. I also love upcycling clothes with dyes and patches. I have redone many, many pairs of jeans for spare cash. I love old photos and music, there's a book store near where I used to live that sold vintage postcards and I used to look at them for hours. Other than that I love to read and write, I write a lot of poetry and short stories. As far as things that make me sad, I would say kill shelters, HIV, and my family."
"You're a very passionate person indeed." He said, staring at the ground with his hands in his pockets. "So, what happened with your family anyways?" 
I sighed. "Basically, my dad was a serial killer. He cheated on my mom a lot, on top of raping, stealing, and killing people. He was caught after a long time, mom and I lived in fear of him. I caught him covered in blood once and he beat me with a board. It was a truly difficult way to live. Then, when he was caught, my mom was overwhelmed. She developed a severe addiction to cocaine, which led CPS to putting me in the foster system. I don't know if you've heard of my father, his name was Richard Ramirez."
Dinger stopped for a second and just looked at the ground. Then he looked up at me, worry in his eyes, and hugged me. As he held me near, I felt myself starting to cry. Usually things like this never happen, I never cry, but I felt so at home in this moment. It was a feeling I had longed for for years. I brought my hands up and wrapped them around his neck, bringing me as close as I could. I wished I could have stayed there forever. 
"We should do this more often." I said in between sniffs. I felt him chuckle slightly. 
"I'm all for it." He said.
"So you're not freaked out," I stepped back, "youre not afraid that being around me is going to get you hurt in any way? You don't think that I'm some sort of bad omen or something?" I asked, thinking back to the few people I had told my story to.
"Never. In fact, we are going on a date that will be ten times better than this one, next week on this very day."
"A date, huh?" I said, stepping towards him.
"Damn straight." He smiled.
                          
AUTHORS NOTE
holy crap this was a riot... Holy shit I'm having a moment right now I'm so - im freaking out this is too adorable. 
                          
Anyways, thank you so much to everyone who sent me update messages and to everyone who actually reads this, you guys mean a LOT to me. 
                          
abrazos!!
-L