The Snow Ball

After that rough weekend, life started to get back to some kind of normalcy.

I still wasn't totally sure where Brad and I stood, especially after all of that. I'd known that other girls wanted to date him... he was always pretty cocky of that fact. I'd just never really had to watch it.

Anyway, a church that was affiliated with mine was having a Christmas dance. I knew Brad loved dancing and was always going to his church dances. I decided to ask him to this one, hoping to see if this whole dating thing was real or just all in my head. He was excited about it. It was our first real date. The kind that you shop for the perfect outfit for... dancing, dinner, friends, and no parents. Ok, well, we only had our permits at this point, so my dad had to drop us off. And yes, the dance had chaperones. But other than that, we were free. :)

Brad showed up at my mom's house to "pick me up", even though my dad was taking us. He was wearing corduroy greenish khaki pants, a white button up shirt, and a tie. His hair still looked like it hadn't seen a brush since he was four, but that's the way I liked it. I was upstairs doing some last minute fixes to my hair. I could hear him talking to my mom downstairs. She was beside herself excited, camera in hand.

I walked down the stairs, and as soon as Brad saw me, his eyes lit up and he said, "Wow..." (sidenote: we'd never really seen eachother all dressed up before. our normal outfits consisted of jeans and tshirts.)
I wore a floor-length, deep red dress. It had a sheath style layering and folded over together at the bustline. For the first time ever with him, I felt pretty.

My mom got in as many pictures as possible before my dad came to pick us up. We were a little early (the curse of having a super punctual dad). Finally, my stepsister Sarah and friends Josh and Ashley showed up. While I talked to them, Brad went over and became buds with the DJ. More people showed up. My friends got to meet him for the first time, which was fun. We started dancing. I'm not much of a dancer, but I did what I could. :)
The DJ switched to a slow song, Edwin McCain's "I Could Not Ask For More". I was used to slow dancing the old safe way where the girls arms are on his shoulders, and he just puts his hands on your waist.
Nope, not Brad. He danced the real slow dance, complete with steps and everything. Leave it to him to do things differently. I felt so special having all his attention. He softly sang the words to me. He's not much of a singer, but it was still sweet. At the end of it, he kissed my hand.

I soon learned Brad's purpose of talking to the DJ earlier. A familiar Vanilla Ice beat started playing. He handed me his tie and nice shirt to hold. The DJ asked for everyone to clear some space, that Brad was going to breakdance for us.

He was incredible. We're talking windmills and head spins. A total show-off.

All that dancing made him hot, so we went outside. We sat down and he asked me if I was having fun. Then he asked, "Did you ever think we'd be here when you first met me?" The DJ had obviously decided to take a break, because he found Brad and wanted to talk to him. He asked what kinds of bands he liked, how old he was, and then he asked if I was his girlfriend. Brad looked confused (as if this was the first time this had dawned on him), and he answered, "Well, yeah. Sorta... why?" He replied, "Oh no, dude, I have a girlfriend of my own." Brad smiled and said, "No, I meant why did you ask all those questions?" He said that Brad seemed to know alot about music for his age and was going to offer him a DJ job, but he wasn't old enough.
He noticed I was shivering, so we went back in. We found a table, and my bff Kelly took a picture of us together. We decided to dance a little more. Savage Garden's "Truly, Madly, Deeply" song came on and we danced the last half of it. After that, "I Do" by 98 degrees came on (nice blasts from the past, huh?). During this song, he looked around the room at all my other friends who were slow dancing, then turned to me and said, "I think I'd like to try dancing your way." I just smiled and said ok. Since this put us a little closer, I was totally cool with it. He told me he loved me and sang the words to me. Then as it was ending, he twirled me, took both my hands, knelt down in front of me, and started singing! I was mortified and flattered at the same time.
During the next slow one, he put his cheek against mine. Had there not been any chaperones, I'm sure he would've kissed me. Then he leaned over and whispered, "I can't kiss you here." I thought that was a little strange, but I just said "I know." He twirled me, and on the way back, he placed his hand on my shoulder and ran it down my arm to my waist again. He laughed a little at himself and said, "I'm slick, aren't I?" I laughed and said, "Too slick."

After the dance was over, we all decided to go to IHOP for dinner. The fun part about skipping a grade was that all of my friends could drive already. We rode with my friend Stephanie, her sister Allison, and Kelly.

I finally felt like his girlfriend. While we rode in the car, he put his arm around me and drank a Sprite like it was nothing. I remember looking up at him and thinking how incredibly happy I was. I'd waited a REALLY long time for all of this. As we were riding, he leaned over and whispered, "So what about Andres?"

CRAP!
I hadn't exactly told the guy I'd been seeing that it was over. I'd never broken up with anyone before, and I was scared to hurt his feelings.
I just sighed and looked away. So that's why he answered "Sorta" to the DJ. It wasn't him being afraid of commitment. It was me not being completely available!

I think he saw I felt bad, so he changed the subject. "Has any guy ever treated you like this before?" He knew the answer to that. I shook my head no. He smiled his cocky smile and said, "This is just the beginning..."

We got to IHOP and Brad and I sat at our own table. We talked some, and he mostly just asked questions about my friends. We went to one of the big tables where alot of my friends were. As I was talking to Kelly, it turns out Brad had managed to get the attention of some of my friends. She pointed for me to look behind me, and he was making one of the tables laugh. That was a good sign. My friends seemed to like him.

After we ate, Brad and I took a walk outside. Looking back, I can see how stupid and dangerous this was. Oh well. We're fine now.

We walked to the Holiday Inn located right behind the IHOP. We just walked around and talked some. We made our way up the stairs to the 2nd level. We stopped and looked at the stars, then went to the elevator to go back down. On the way down, Brad said he was freezing (he forgot a jacket). Since he was cold, he wrapped his arms around me inside my coat I was wearing (I was so naive. How did I not see this coming?). He held me while we road down, then when the doors opened, he didn't let go of me. He pushed the button to make the doors close again.
In mid kiss, he moved me over to where I was leaning against the wall (ew, gross... I'd never do that now! how many germs do you think were crawling in there?). We kept kissing. We soon decided it would be a good idea to get out of there, since people were probably going to notice we went missing.

When we got back to IHOP, people were starting to leave. We found my friends. One of them, Philip L, asked where we'd been in an almost dad-like way. I told him just walking around. He said, "Yeah, I bet" and looked away. I just shrugged it off. Like he had any room to say anything.
My dad soon came to get us. Kelly came with us to spend the night with me.
I told her about my elevator incident, and she teased me mercilessly. That's ok. She was interested in one of my friends Justin, so it was even.