Million Dollar Smile

Chapter 5: Friday Night

Then I shook it off – and it all went away.

After one hundred minutes of green substances, massive goggles with scratches, Mark’s inner ramblings about the ‘hot Nina McFarland’, who is Andy’s best friend, Landon basically writing the whole of our science report, our teacher talking about an exam we had coming soon and yet again Landon talking about how his mother makes the best Shepherd’s Pie, we were finally free. As I walked out into the hallway, I saw Andy, which to my disbelief, was walking up to me. I looked around for Mark or Landon, just to prove my point, but they had already left.

“Chase, hi”, she said, as she held her book over her chest, guarding herself.

“Andy, hey!” I said, too over-excited. Surprised that we actually skipped the Smalltalk, she dived right in herself.

“Listen, you know how I told you I wasn’t free on Thursday night because I had something planned with Jacob?” She tucked a lock behind her ear and looked at her feet as she spoke.

“Yeah?”

“Well, I wanted to know if you were still free that night”.

“Oh, did you change the day of your plans?” I asked, trying not to sound too happy. My heart beat was racing so quickly that I didn’t even feel it when I put my hand on my chest.

“Well, not really. Jacob is no more”. She laughed at this stage, which made me think different things to myself.

“Oh, you mean as in, you guys are…

“Yeah, we broke up. Mutual decision”. It was like Christmas to my ears, and I had no hesitation in telling those who told me otherwise.  And by ‘those’ I mean Mark and Landon. This was my time to shine.

“Well, no, I can’t do Thursday night anymore, since I have prom shopping with Ros-”, I quickly cut myself off, “But I-I can do the Friday night, i-if that works with you?"

And so Friday night it was.

It came as quickly as school holidays ended, or a work shift to finish (note my sarcasm). I had absolutely no idea what to wear, or where to take her for that matter, but I then decided that we would go bowling. I wasn’t into all that ‘sit down for ages and talk at a restaurant’ for the first date. I wanted it to be different and fun. So I dressed nice enough for a bite to eat and for a few bowls, and drove to the address Andy gave me.

Her house was huge. Compared to mine, or Rosaline’s, it was like a mansion. It was Hilton Manor. I waited for her at the door when her mother Gabriella answered, and told me she would be down in a few minutes. She invited me in while I had to wait, and I walked down the hallway where I saw copious amount of photos of Andy in her youth, in frames all over the walls.

As Mrs. Hilton yapped on about how excited Andy was for this date, which by the way, was wonderful news, I couldn’t help but start to wonder if there was any one else in Andy’s family. As the phone rang, and Mrs. Hilton took a minute to put down her cup of tea and answer it, it left me the time I needed to do some investigating.

Before Andy came down, I finally learned that it was only her mother and herself. There was no father – I couldn’t figure out if he died or left or anything else possible, but either way, that was something I’d have to wait for Andy to tell me herself when she felt the time was right. Andy was also an only child, and from what I could see she was pretty close to her mother. Before I could discover anything else I heard her footsteps from upstairs, and she walked down with one hand on the banister.

She was wearing a grey skirt with a small pink top and a jean jacket. She didn’t look too casual or too dressed up, based solemnly as one of the ‘it girls’, but she looked beautiful either way.