The 20 Dates Challenge

Six - Date Number Three

Date Number Three

‘I have to wear this?’ I gasp as I hold up the pink sheet in front of myself.

‘Yes,’ he pulls a piece of paper from his pocket, ‘three, have her dressed up as a ghost and you dress up as Pacman. Walk around town holding hands and, whenever anyone sees you two, pretend to be embarrassed and run off screaming “wocka wocka wocka”,’ he laughs.

‘No,’ I say quickly.

‘Come on, Sav,’ he just keeps laughing, ‘I’m dressed like a giant, yellow beach ball,’ he gestures to his big, yellow costume, ‘all you gotta do is wear a pink sheet.’

‘I can’t be seen in this.’

‘Why not?’

‘What if people see me?’

‘That’s sorta the point,’ he laughs again.

‘What about what was said yesterday? I can’t get detention.’

‘We aren’t on school property.’

‘No, but what if a teacher sees us?’

‘We aren’t on school property,’ he says again.

I sigh.

‘Come on,’ he pleads, ‘it’ll be fun.’

I give him a doubtful look.

‘I promise,’ he holds out his hand.

I throw the sheet over my head.

‘Fine,’ I say, placing my hand in his.

An hour later we are heading towards the bay again. Just as we round the corner a young couple walks past us. The pair stops and stares at us. Alex pulls his hand from mine, gives the two a very astonished look and runs off down the street.

‘Wocka wocka wocka,’ he yells as he runs back around the corner.

The young couple laugh and stare at me as they continue on. When they are out of site, Alex runs back around the corner.

‘Wait a second,’ he pulls a camera out from under his costume, ‘hold the sheet up and smile.’

I hold the sheet up around my face and give the biggest, cheesiest smile I can. He snaps a picture.

‘Now sheet down.’

I let the sheet drop back over my face. Alex snaps another picture and then slides his hand around mine again. We continue on down the street. Every time someone sees us, Alex gives them an astonished look before yelling ‘wocka wocka wocka’ while running away.

He snaps pictures when he can and, thankfully, we don’t run into anyone we know. At three he lets me take off the sheet and shove it in my bag. He takes off his Pacman costume but has to carry it home as it’s too big to fit in his bag. We go back to his house. After we have put all our stuff away, Alex grabs a box of cookies from the pantry and leads me out into his backyard. We sit on a bench under the big mango tree.

‘Did you have fun?’ he asks me.

‘Yeah, some of the people’s reactions were just priceless,’ I laugh.

‘I think your reaction when that first couple went past was pretty funny,’ he says.

‘What did I do?’

‘You just froze and then stared at me. It was perfect though.’

I throw a cookie at him. He catches it in his mouth and pokes his tongue out at me. I lean on his shoulder and look up at the branches above us.

‘Hey,’ I say, eyeing an old wooden deck, ‘is that our old tree house?’

He looks up too and smiles.

‘Yeah it is,’ he laughs.

I stand up and walk around the bench to the trunk of the tree. The old ladder is still nailed into the hardwood. I carefully start to climb up.

‘What are you doing?’ Alex asks from below.

‘Seeing if it’s still there,’ I say, climbing through the hole in the deck.

‘Seeing if what’s still there?

‘This,’ I say, ‘get up here.’

I hear him as he climbs up the ladder. He stands behind me to see what I’m looking at. Alex and Savannah, best friends forever, is carved into the trunk.

‘You were eight when you carved that,’ he laughs.

‘You remember?’ I ask.

‘Yeah, it was two minutes before I fell off the edge of this thing and broke my right arm. You wrote the same thing on my cast.’

I smile to myself.

‘Come sit down,’ he takes my hand and leads me to the edge of the deck.

He sits down, dragging me down with him, and rests his arms on the rather short handrail.

‘Sing me a song again,’ I say.

‘Which one?’

‘Catch You.’

I miss you,

Do you miss me?

I didn’t want to be set free.

Now I see you,

Everywhere I look.

It’s just too hard for me.

So on that night,

When I saw you,

On the edge of that wall.

There was no way,

I would ever,

Let you fall.

I’ll always be there,

To catch you.

I can’t go on,

Another minute,

Without you by my side.

And you need me,

Like I need you,

I won’t let you hide.

So on that night,

When I saw you,

On the edge of that wall.

There was no way,

I would ever,

Let you fall.

I’ll always be there,

To catch you.

I’ll always catch you.

We sit in silence for a few seconds.

‘You’re amazing,’ I whisper.

He doesn’t answer so I assume he didn’t hear me. I sigh and sit up.

‘You want to stay for dinner?’ he asks me.

‘Yeah, sure.’

We climb down from the tree house and go inside.