A Berry Good Knight

A Knight to Remember (TWO)

At 10:00 the following morning, I decided to dial the number scrawled on that slip of paper. A woman who I guessed to be Brooke's mother answered, and proceeded to ask me fifty-seven questions about who I was before she put her daughter on the phone. The first thing Brooke did when she came to the phone was to apologize for her mother's behavior.

"It's cool. She was only being cautious."

"Uh huh. Wasn't thinking. Should have given you my cell number to avoid that. So, have you changed your mind about the movie?"

I lay across my bed on my stomach while playing with the little white tag attached to my pillow. "I never said no."

"You never said yes either," she sounded amused.

"Yes."

"You'll go?"

"Yes."

"You maybe wanna go to the Cineplex in the mall around 1:00? Then we can decide what to watch. Afterward, we can get something to eat."

"Cool."

Brooke laughed. "You're back to one word replies, Coop."

"Sorry. It's a habit. Should I meet you?"

"Not necessary. I'll pick you up." She paused, and I surmised that she must have been searching for paper and something to write with because when she spoke again, she asked me for my address. We discovered that we only lived a mile and a half apart. This pleased me, but I didn't tell her that.

"I'll be at your house at 12:30, okay?"

"Okay. See you then, Brooke."

Our trip to the theater turned out to be much more eventful than what I had imagined. Sitting toward the back of the uncrowded movie house, each of us had our own soda, but we shared a tub of buttery popcorn. Each time we simultaneously reached into the tub our fingers would graze, sending tingles up and down my spine. After a while I started to cheat, raising my hand to enter the tub when hers lifted from the armrest. However, on some of those occasions she was only moving her hand to take a drink of soda or tuck a lock of dark hair behind an ear.

The large tub was half empty when the both of us had our fill. Brooke put the remaining popcorn on the floor and before I could blink again our palms were pressed together, our fingers intertwined. I glanced toward our hands and then up to Brooke. Her eyes were glued to the screen, so I gazed at her for a moment longer wondering why she had initiated the hand holding. I didn't remove my hand as I looked toward the screen. When the credits rolled, I couldn't have fairly given someone my opinion of the movie because I hadn't concentrated on it. I couldn't remember one piece of dialogue, but I remembered all too well the feeling of Brooke's hand in mine.

After lunch, which she insisted on paying for, we ambled through the mall talking and window-shopping. Though we didn't hold hands, I felt a growing connection between us. I couldn't explain it, but it was apparent. It was close to 5:30 when Brooke pulled up to the curb in front of my house. I asked her if she wanted to come inside, but she said that she had to go home. However, she did walk me to the door, which I thought was quite sweet. I thought the chaste kiss she gave me on the lips was even sweeter. Pleasantly surprised, I didn't take my eyes off of her until her black sports car headed down the street. Since she honked, I waved before heading inside.

We saw each other the next day, and the next day after that, and the next--well, I'm certain that my drift has been caught. I still hadn't figured out why she had taken an interest in me, but I was enjoying her company immensely. The closest we were to intimacy was holding hands and a brief kiss just before we separated, but I thought every part of it was perfect. That was until three days before school started when I discovered what perfect truly was.