by J. L. Monro
I rolled my eyes at Saz and continued to make my bed up for the night “There aren’t any details. I bumped into Mitchell. He asked me to dance. I said no and then we bumped into each other again and you thought it was a good idea to pimp my ass out.”
“And what a beautiful ass it is.” Mills chipped in.
“Can it you, Silent Betty!” I scowled at Mills, “You’re usually my back up against Saz’s antics and all you did was stand there with Joe and laugh. His ass is mine on Monday as well, so you can text him and let him know right now he’s dead meat.”
“I noticed several guys asked you to dance Mills and one by one you shot them down. Some of them were pedigree material.” Saz occasionally needled Mills to actually entertain the notion of having a boyfriend but we always got the same reaction. Mills was blushing and averted both of our looks. We knew she was a virgin. There’s no way she wouldn’t tell both of us if she had had sex. Mills was tall at five foot ten, with auburn hair that she always kept perfect coiffed in whatever style she put in. She was curvy in a man’s sexual fantasy kind of way. Next to her I felt like the dwarf from Lord of The Rings beside a super model. She was humble about her looks even though she was aware of them and had the kindest heart of anyone I knew. I decided I wasn’t going to give her any hassle about whether she was interested in anyone. She yawned and all three of us got ready for bed. While I settled myself on the futon I felt butterflies in my stomach every time I thought about my date tomorrow with Mitchell. It was possible that I hadn’t given him a chance tonight but in my defense I was having a girls night out and I genuinely wasn’t looking for a date. Yeah, piss poor defense but I’m sticking with it so there.
CHAPTER TWO
I couldn’t believe I was putting in so much effort into my date with Mitchell. After getting home in the late afternoon, I made my way to the bathroom and began my beautifying routine. My face was washed, exfoliated, cleansed and toned. I even put on a face mask while I tackled my body hair. As soon as I’m able to afford it I am paying a beautician to deal with my werewolf genes. Shaving takes absolutely ages but again in my defense, during the winter the layer of hair/fur provides an excellent way of keeping warm.
Once I’d finished in the bathroom I made my way to my room that I shared with Lana. Tara needed her own room because she was always studying and Lana was a distraction and Mara….no one wanted to share with Mara. If she heard you breathe then you could guarantee you were pissing her off.
Lana was sat on her bed doing work, which was a shock in itself. Lana had excellent taste in all things related to fashion and make-up, so it made sense to ask her what to wear for tonight. She had a knack of winding me up something rotten but all in all she was a good sister and would revel in dressing me up like the Barbie’s she used to own.
“Lana?”
“Whaddup?”
“I’ve got a date tonight and I don’t know what to wear.”
Lana’s head snapped up and she shut her laptop almost immediately. Yes. Nice Lana was on board for this.
“Details. I can’t put together a good outfit if I don’t know details.”
I explained last night to Lana and added that secretly I wanted Mitchell to find me attractive tonight even though I was pretty certain that I didn’t even want to go on this date with him. Lana quickly stubbed out that notion.
“Dana you don’t ever do anything you don’t want to and the same in reverse. If you want to do something you’ll do it. Clearly there’s something about this guy that attracts you to him and you want him to notice you or you would have told Saz to shut the fuck up last night and still told Mitchell you’re not interested.”
I fucking hate when she’s right. I sometimes wondered if in her spare time Lana took the time to study us as closely as possible without us noticing so that she could use the information to her advantage at a later date. Then I would remember she generally had the attention span of a goldfish and if the topic wasn’t based solely on the world of fashion then she wasn’t that much interested. Lana picked out my best pair of black jeans and pulled out her favourite strappy pink top and black jacket to go with it. She applied some basic make-up for me, a little eye-liner and some clear lip gloss. I brushed my hair and was ready to go.
“I’ll give you a lift to Saz’s. I’m meeting Karl later anyway and it’s on my way there.
“Thanks Lana.”
“No worries. Make sure your phone is charged and call me if you need to escape.” She smirked. Lana and her friends always had an escape plan for dates which ranged from them randomly dropping in on the dates physically to timed phone calls so they could pretend there was an emergency and make their excuses. Judging by the scum I’d seen Lana and her friends occasionally date, I’d say those escape plans were well and truly needed.
I looked in the mirror on our way out and smiled at Lana. She was real good at dressing people up. She played to your strengths and highlighted them. I was certain she could make even Susan Boyle look like a Greek goddess if she put her mind to it.
“Yeah. I’m that good. Now get in the car before we’re both late.”
Lana dropped me off at Saz’s and left for Karl’s. Saz opened the door and absolutely beamed when she saw me. I took that as approval and walked inside. It was 6:30 and I had 30 minutes before Mitchell was due, not that I was clock watching or anything.
“Soooooooo…are you nervous?”
“A little. Happy now? I don’t want him to turn up and think I looked better in a poor lighted room or something like that. I don’t think there’s much more of an insult than being rejected by the guy you didn’t even want to go out with anyway.”
“Babe, if I swung that way I would totally think about doing you. You look perfect. You have absolutely nothing to worry about.”
“Thanks. It’s just that I know nothing about it him and I hate walking into situations blind.”
There was a knock at the door. Saz secretly peeped out of her curtains to see if it was Mitchell. Saz had told Mitchell to pick me up from her house because her mum wouldn’t be home to ask any questions. More importantly although Ma and Pops were not against my sisters and I dating, I didn’t really want an inquisition over a date with someone I had no intention of seeing again after tonight. If Mitchell had picked me up from my house there would have been questions for me about him. Which would have been bad because all I knew about him was that his name was Mitchell and he was Joe’s cousin. The fact that he was Joe’s cousin would have bought him some points because Ma and Pops loved Joe to pieces but not many. In addition Mitchell would have been dragged into the house to be asked several questions surrounding his intentions towards me and again, I didn’t know the answer to that question either.
I answered the door and was taken back by what I saw in front of me. Mitchell looked damn good. He was dressed in dark blue jeans and a black shirt that had the top button undone. He had black shoes on that were smart without being pretentious. His gaze raked me from head to toe and back again, then he smiled. This smile was different from the other times he’d smiled at me. This one had undertones of promise as in “I promise you that I will see what underwear you’ve got on and I will be removing them from your body, with my teeth if you give me an opening. Where there had been a few butterflies fluttering around, there was now a horde and to be honest they were making me feel a bit sick. His arm came from behind his back and he presented a beautiful long stemmed red rose.
“Good Evening, Miss Daniels. You look amazing this evening.”
‘Hi Mitchell. Thank you for the rose. You really didn’t need to. Um, how do you know my surname?”
Mitchell smiled. “I asked Joe. Perks of staying with your cousin when you’re going on date with someone from his town. You can grill him on the girl in question.”
I was really going to have words with Joe in the morning while I kicked the shit out of him.
“But the rose seems a bit redundant now. Against your beauty it pales in comparison.”
GAG!
He went too far with that one. However the over dramatic sigh behind me indicated that someone didn’t agree. Traitorous bitch!
“Saz, I’ll see you tomorrow morning ok.”
“Bye you crazy kids. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t which of course doesn’t leave much to the imagination but I know you’re creative when under pressure Dana.”
I turned to give Saz my meanest daggers but she had already smartly closed her door. Mitchell led me down to his car, a midnight blue Ford Fiesta, boy racer car, and opened up the passenger side for me to get in. Once I was comfortable in the seat he shut the door and got in on the drivers side. We shortly pulled up at Barry’s Bar, which was quite busy but we found a booth in the corner and took a seat. Mitchell waited for me to take my seat before he sat. I had to concede, he was a gentleman. He asked what I’d like to drink and I ordered my usual Southern Comfort with lemonade. I was glad he was going up to get the drinks as I was still underage and although most of the time it was easy to get served, I would have hated for this to be the one time I get asked for my I.D. The word embarrassing would not cover it. He came back shortly after with my drink and his which was just a coke as he was driving.
Mitchell asked me lots of questions and was surprisingly attentive. He wanted to know what I was studying and what I wanted to do after I finished school. These were questions I already had the answers set in concrete to. I was going to finish my studies in Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics and English and study International Business Management in a US university of my choice and find a good firm to become a Senior Management Consultant earning mega bucks. He laughed but said it was refreshing to be on a date with someone who knew what they wanted. I had three older sisters but none of them were stupid and I was no exception. We had lots in common, the same music, the same types of films and the same opinions on a lot of stuff and Mitchell was funny. He had me laughing so hard at one stage I thought someone might come over to tell me to shut up. At some point he’d moved to my side of the booth and had me relaxing into his body while we talked. It felt natural and it definitely felt good. It turned out Mitchell was twenty and he was surprised to hear I was sixteen. He’d thought I was older. The age gap felt like it didn’t exist to me. He worked full time as an insurance account manager and had worked his way up through the company since he was seventeen. We continued to talk for another hour until Mitchell abruptly stated, “Well, this is the end of the date.”
“Oh.” Was all I could get out. I thought the date was going well. I actually had done a complete turn around in my thoughts and wanted to be on the date with him.
“I just wanted to spend some time with you alone and get to know you. I’ve got work in the morning and you’ve got classes. It’s 10:30pm and I need to turn in. Are you free next Saturday for another date?”
“Um, yeah. Ok. I’m working until 6pm but I could go out after 8pm. That gives me a chance to get home and get myself sorted.”
“Great. I’ll give you a call during the week to let you know what we’re doing.”
Mitchell dropped me back home and I turned to tell him that I’d had a really good time and thanked him. His gaze dropped to my lips and the butterflies that had disappeared during the date came back full force.
“Dana, do you mind if I kiss you?”
I couldn’t speak so I just nodded. Did I want him to kiss me? Clearly I did because I’d already nodded before the actual question had popped in my head. His eyes darkened and his palm came up to cup my cheek. He moved in with a painfully slow pace towards my lips and gently nipped my bottom lip before moving in fully. He licked the seam of my lips and he took advantage of my small gasp by pushing his tongue in past my lips. I got over my initial shyness and remembered that this was not my first time kissing a guy. Once I turned fourteen, I put all the practice that Saz, Mills and I had put in our knees and arms to good use. I mustered everything I’d learned and kissed Mitchell back. I heard him groan. Boosh! Take that! Mental fist pump. I broke the kiss first and gave him a look that I could only hope suggested that there was more where that came from and from the way his hands were twitching like he wanted to place them all over me, I’d succeeded. Mitchell made his way round to my side of the car and opened the door for me, offering his hand as I got out. I smiled at him and it was a genuine smile. I officially liked Mitchell….Hold on, I don’t even know his last name.
“Mitchell what’s your last name?”
“Grayson.”
I officially like Mitchell Grayson.
“Goodnight Mitchell.”
“Goodnight Dana.”
I walked to my door and opened it up, taking one last look back in Mitchell’s direction to find him watching me. No doubt the gentleman in him wanted to be sure that I got inside safely before he left. I closed the door, leant against it and sighed. I now understand why the ladies in the films sigh with such dramatic effect, because sometimes there are no words.
CHAPTER THREE
It seemed that on Monday after my date with Mitchell that Saz had a death wish. I hadn’t had a chance to catch her up on my date the night before so she had the decided the best way to try and plug me for information was to pass me notes in English. It took almost getting caught by Mr. Kennedy three times before she finally accepted that she was going to have to wait until lunch to get the details.
I’d barely got into my seat at lunch before Saz and Mills joined me. This time it was Mills that asked what happened.
“Come on, spill. I had Saz texting me nonstop last night and this morning asking if you had given me details. I want to know if your date was worth me not getting any sleep or peace.”
Mills was eating her customary salad with no sauce and an extra helping of celery while Saz and I had burgers and chips in front of us. She’d put down her carrot stick and was watching me intently. Clearly she’d picked up the ‘I will not stop staring at you until you answer me’ interrogation technique from Saz. I described the whole date to both of them. They both agreed that him stating the date was over after he’d got the information he wanted from me was weird, but the kiss at the end of the night more than compensated for that small blip in his behavior.
Just as we were clearing our lunch trays and getting ready to go back to class I got a text message from Mitchell.
“Hey Dana, I had a really great time last night. Do you fancy going to the cinema Sat night?”
I think my fingers went into shock at how fast I texted him back.
“I had a great time too. Sat night is cool with me. x”
“I’ll pick you up at 8:30”
I turned to Saz and Mills, relayed the messages and squealed. They squealed back at me, which is what any true friends would do. The combined noise earned us a few looks but who cares. I had another date booked in with Mitchell Grayson.
Throughout the week we kept texting each other several times during the day asking each other questions and finding more and more about each other. Mitchell was looking for somewhere to live in Morne Valley as he liked the place and it was an easy commute to the city where he worked. I could barely contain my excitement. By Thursday I had already mapped out our relationship. We’d continue to date until I finished school, then we would both move out to the US while I studied. I had decided when I was picking my A Levels that I wanted to do my degree in the US to get away from the bad weather and to meet some hot American. The only change would be that I would now be bringing my hot boyfriend with me. He more than likely could get a transfer out there with work. Two years after I’d graduated and got a job we’d get married and twelve months after that we’d start trying for a baby. I want five kids. Three boys and two girls. Most people who had as many sisters as I did probably wouldn’t want as many kids as that, but although my sisters and I were all very different we were still close and I wouldn’t trade them for the world. However I do think if we’d had brothers it would have balanced us out a bit better.
After our second date Mitchell asked me to come over to his new h
ouse. “Dana, I’m not asking you to come over for sex. I genuinely want you to come and see my new place. Other than Joe and Mills, I haven’t got any family here so it would be nice to share it with someone. I’m not going to lie and say I don’t think you’re sexy as hell because I do. I really do.” He said whilst waggling his eyebrows and there was that sexy smile again. “I’m not going to pressure you into anything that you don’t want to do. I promise.”
I’m sure if anyone else had said this I would have laughed in their face and said “yeah, right” but I believed in the gentleman that Mitchell had shown me.
“Ok. I want to see your place. Let’s go.”
Mitchell kissed the back of my hand before letting go to put both hands back on the steering wheel. We arrived at his house within ten minutes. It was a small terraced house with a little front garden accessed by a black front gate that squeaked as you opened it.
Mitchell went in first and turned the lights on and I tentatively followed inside. The house was just as cute as it looked on the outside. Mara would probably have been able to tell me exactly when the house was built and describe every feature. She was studying architecture at university and her knowledge of buildings was immense. I didn’t care for such information. What I liked about the house was that it was cosy. It had a decent sized living room which had a plain black leather sofa in and a TV that had a Playstation plugged in and games scattered around it. The kitchen was small but nicely fitted with everything you would need. I absolutely hated when it was my turn to do the dishes at home. Whenever I got my own house I was going to have a large dishwasher. Upstairs was two double bedrooms. One had boxes in that I guess were Mitchell’s stuff that he hadn’t got round to unpacking and the other was his room. There was a bed and a wardrobe and nothing else. I pictured Mitchell lying on his bed with his sheets barely reaching the middle of his lean, hard chest.