The 20 Dates Challenge

Four - Date Number Two

Date Number Two

Alex is waiting for me at my locker.

‘You ready?’ he asks as I open my locker.

‘Do I look ready?’ I tease.

‘Yes.’

‘Really?’

‘No.’

I shake my head at him.

‘So what’s today’s date going to be?’

‘You’ll see.’

‘I thought I was allowed to know the day of the date?’

‘Yes, but there are three other girls in this room who are only on date one. I can’t give anything away to them.’

I look around, wondering which three girls he’s talking about.

‘Whatever,’ I shove all my books in my bag and sling it over my shoulder, slamming the locker closed.

I follow him to the bus stop and we wait for the bus with his friends. I usually have Mum pick me up or I walk home so I’ve never caught the bus before. When the bus pulls up, he buys my ticket, scans his go-card and leads me to the back. As the only girl in the group I am allowed the prized middle seat, which I immediately regret taking as it means I am squished between four guys for the entire twenty minute trip.

Alex spends most of the walking home apologising for the guys’ behaviour and saying that next time I can sit in the two-seater in front of them with him. I ask him how he knows there’ll be a next time. He just says he knows because I’m his best friend.

‘Afternoon, kids,’ Alex’s mum says as we walk in the door.

‘Hey, Mum,’ Alex says, dumping his bag by the door and taking his shoes off.

‘Hey, Charlene,’ I say, doing the same as Alex.

Charlene hands me a bag of clothes, denim shorts, a floral-print tank and silver ballet-flats, and I change in the bathroom. When I come out, Alex has changed into a red t-shirt, jeans and runners. Charlene picks up her car keys.

‘Let’s go,’ she says as she leads us out to the car.

The shopping centre is only ten minutes away so the ride is short. Alex sits in the shotgun seat while I take the middle spot in the back. When we get there, he insists on opening the door. Then he takes my hand, says goodbye to his mum and leads me inside. He pulls two pens out of his pocket and a piece of paper. He hands me a pen, a purple gel pen, and reads from the paper.

‘Two, go to a major chain bookstore, and leave notes to future readers in copies of your favourite books,’ he says.

‘I can’t graffiti a book,’ I say quietly.

He just laughs.

‘Don’t think of it as graffiti,’ he says.

‘Then what do I think of it as?’ I ask hurriedly.

‘Think of it as commentary or just mark your favourite page,’ he takes my hand again and leads me into Boarders.

He drags me to the teen section, pulls down a copy of Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli and turns to page eleven. I cried while reading this, he scribbles above the picture in orange pen. Then he hands me the book. He winks at me and gestures to the page. Me too, I write underneath his comment. I grab My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult off the shelf and turn to the last page. Now that you’ve read the book, don’t watch the movie. The wrong sister dies and it sucks. Alex laughs at my comment.

He finds a copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde hidden on a bottom shelf. Why the hell did I read this, he writes. Because it was required to pass English, I add.

I keep looking around, making sure no one catches us writing in the books. Alex doesn’t seem to care if we get caught or not. In fact, he’s snapping pictures of me writing in the books on his camera.

Half an hour later, we leave the store, after buying a few books that are missing from my collection. We meet Charlene at the food court and buy dinner. We go around the rest of the store, just looking at random things. Around eight-thirty, Charlene texts Alex telling us to meet her at the car. We go and find the car and she drops me home. Alex hugs me goodbye before I go in.