One First Date

My name is Erza and today, May 3, is the day I turn eighteen. My best friend, or girlfriend, or something, Addie, lives in the house next door and she turns eighteen a week from today. We've always been close, so when i wanted our relationship to be more than friends I was confused at first. Addie has drifted apart recently. It makes more sense if I go back to around a month ago when I first told her I had feelings for her.

“Please Ez, please. Don’t tell me,” that’s what Addie said. Right before I was about to gather the courage to tell her, I was fumbling with the right words, all I know is that I like her, I really do, and I had to tell her. So all I said was, “Hey Addie, I, uh, I want to tell you something…I like,” and that’s when she cut me off. 

I can’t call him. I can’t. My parents don’t like Ezra, they never have, and they will never let me date anyone, including Ezra, until i’m at least eighteen. I do have feelings for Ez, but no one can know, especially him. I mean would calling him on his birthday, to wish him a happy birthday, would that mean something? Probably not. I should just call. I should. But I can’t, Mom and Dad will be back from the store any time now and I don’t have a cell phone. If I use the kitchen phone, and they see me, I'll get in trouble, big trouble. 

Screw this, waiting is awful. Dialing Ez’s number is so familiar yet so dreadful at the same time. Ring. Ring. Ring. I have to say something before he says anything.

It’s his mom, oh crap, “Oh hi Addie! You know it’s been so long since we’ve heard from you! Ya’know I’ve been meaning to ask your mom for that recipe, for that one dessert she made, oh you know the one. It was during the fall, something with carrots.” Mrs.Blankenship is my mom’s best friend but that doesn’t mean that I can be friends with Ezra, if I'm totally honest our mom’s have a kind of passive aggressive relationship. 

Well now I can’t hang up, “Hi Mrs.Blankenship, can i talk to Ez, I mean Ezra. I uh, I don’t know what you’re talking about maybe try calling again later, could you just put Ezra on, please.”

“Oh of course sweetie, it’ll be just two shakes of a tail feather,” she has some weird sayings but I don’t mind.

“Um, Hi Addie, is it really you?” Crap again, I wanted to say something first, anything, but it doesn’t matter now. I have to hurry, my parents will be back soon.

“Hi, yeah it’s you, i mean me,” this is not how I wanted this conversation to go. “So I, um, called to wish you a happy birthday,” you heard that right, no explanation mark in my voice, flat as a pancake. 

“I didn’t expect to hear from you, but don’t get me wrong, i’m so glad  to hear from you,” as he finished talking I could feel the nervous butterflies in my stomach beginning to settle down, his voice is so familiar and soothing. “Listen, I think it’s best if we talk in person about… well… what happened. Maybe you could come to the party, and we could talk afterwards.”

“You know i’d love to come but, you know my parents, you know they’d never let me go to your house. Especially after our moms gabbed on the phone about what happened.” We both let out tense laughs but our conversation was starting to ease back into it’s normal rhythm.

“Heads up, parentals spotted. Just around the corner of our block,” I knew i could count on Ezra.

“Thanks Ez, I have to go now. Um maybe tonight we could meet at the tree house? Around 11, my parents will be asleep then,” and I just hung up without waiting for a response, I knew he’d be there.

When Addie hung up the phone I went back to the party but I couldn’t stop wondering about tonight. I can’t tell if she’s leading me on or not. Honestly I wish she was, but she probably isn’t. 

Even if she was, our biggest problem would have to be her parents, I mean Addie is their whole world. I remember once when we were around seven we were still learning how to ride bikes and Addie crashed into a telephone post. They had been secretly watching us from the kitchen window and ran out with a first aid kit, even took her to the emergency room and everything. All that just for a skinned knee. To their credit though they were still kinda new to parenting, my parents already had my two older brothers who were nine and ten years old at the time, only a few years older than us at the time.

The sun is just barely starting to set and my cousins and brothers and I are finishing playing backyard pingpong. Backyard pingpong is basically normal pingpong just instead of the basic table we use a tree trunk that my brother carved. Oh and there are none of the regular rules either. If it bounces twice or whatever as long as you keep playing it it’s in. It’s a fun time but you’d better watch out, my brother’s are sharks. 

We all went inside to eat pizza, and we had mini make our own pizzas so i had my favorite, deep dish with barbeque sauce, red onions, and chicken. Addie’s favorite is deep dish with barbeque sauce, chicken, and pineapple. Man, I have to get her out of my head, at least for a couple of hours. The pizza is amazing, Mom toasted the cheese perfectly. 

As soon as I finish eating I have to start opening gifts because my grandparents hate driving home in the dark. They got me an envelope with a nice card and some cash that I tried to ignore until I finish reading. As always my grandma tells me that i’m handsome and asks if i have any “lady friends.” I’m thinking about telling her no, not yet, like I always do, so she can reply you’ll get ‘em next year, as she always does. But something inside me is holding on to the thought of Addie. So I reply, “Maybe Grandma, I’m not sure.” She just smiles and I can’t help but crack a little bit of a smile. The rest of the night is a blur of presents, and music. Finally it’s time for cake and when they’re all singing that familiar, “happy birthday to you…” I can’t help but realize that my birthday wish is going to be about Addie. The candles go out and after cake everyone goes home. I help clean up some but my mom tells me that I should go have fun. It’s still light out, nowhere close to the time Addie wants to meet, but I go up to the treehouse anyways and let my feet dangle out over the edge while I watch the sunset and listen to music using my new earbuds and mp3 player while I wait. She startles me from a daze hours later when she appears, she’s whispering something I can’t make out and trying to move my feet away from the latter steps that are nailed into the tree. Her voice glows in the dark. When everything else is quiet, too quiet she’s there to put a little life back into the night. 

My heart was racing when the door to the backyard creaked, I knew that should’ve made me but for some reason, it didn’t. So I slid across the brickwork on the side of the house and bolted from there to the treehouse. My whole afternoon I'd been trying to be as normal as possible around my parents. My real normal was running in the dark because it’s exhilarating, and racing in the pool, and having jokes that you had to be there to understand. My parents don’t understand any of it, it’s like they were never teenagers themselves.

As I'm climbing the treehouse in Ezra’s backyard, well both of ours since there’s no fence, I tell Ezra to move over but I just startle him, and after I slide his feet to the side I can pull myself onto the platform.

“Hey Ez,”

“Hey Addie,” his voice cracks, and I giggle. “You think this is funny? Maybe I’d better go then.”

“Hey wait, I didn’t mean it like that,” and before I can even say the words he’s laughing, and I smack him in the arm. “Okay so.”

“So, we need some security for this treehouse, my little brother was up here the other day you know.”

“Oh come on, let him have his fun, we barely ever use it anymore anyways.”

“That’s not true, sometimes I use it to play with dollies.” We both can’t stop laughing and seconds later one of the motion sensor lights in my backyard that i’d been careful to avoid on the way over here turns on. Ez must have seen a shadow in my parents bedroom window because he pulls me farther into the shadow on the inside of the treehouse.

“Addie I like you, like a lot, and I need to know if you like me, if you don’t I’ll drop this whole thing right here right now and we’ll never have to talk about it again.”

“I... I’ve been thinking about what to tell you all day, actually pretty much the whole of last month, and I, I like you Ez. But I can’t date you. My parents would kill me, they said I could date when I turn eighteen but we both know that’s a lie. They are content with our lives and don’t want anything to change.”

“What is it that you want?”

“I want to be with you, but I can’t and I won’t so I really should go,” and with that I got up and climbed down the ladder to leave. 

The next morning was a Saturday, but it’s summer break for seniors anyways. Mom and Dad have the day off from work though so after eating breakfast and getting ready my mom took me to the store. The closest grocery store is still a few blocks away, too far to walk, especially going the way back holding groceries. The outside is run down by age but the inside was just redone and it’s quite nice, although we're not sure where everything is yet. So as my mom is walking down the aisle that used to have cheese and now has laundry detergent, I decide to ask her. 

“Hey Mom, what would you say to me going on a date, I don't know say tomorrow night?”

“Addison, what in lord's name have you got running through that pretty little head of yours? You know the rules, unless we know them through our church, you will not be going anywhere.” She was fierce but quiet in her scolding since we were in public, and I knew not to push it.

“You do know them, not through the church but they go to our church.” This is true but I still feel wrong lying to her.

“Well I’ll allow it then, but you should’ve led with that. What is his name? I want the first and last so I can figure out which one of the mother’s in my church group is his mother.”

“His Mom is in the other women’s church group.” Lies.

“Well fine, but that doesn’t tell me his name.”

“It’s...Ben. Ben Rocksby.” Ben is actually really nice, but shy and awkward. I can’t believe this is working.

“Alright, now that that’s over with, are you excited? I remember my first date with you father like it was yesterday, you know that was my first and last, first date ever.”

It’s the day after my birthday and being eighteen, an adult, I can confidently tell you I feel exactly the same, I didn’t grow five inches over night and I didn’t get married or graduate college, so I feel the same. 

After our well...talk, last night I brainstormed for a few hours before I passed out. The best idea I have is to try and win over her parents. Which is why after I woke up from passing out, with a kink in my neck I decided to bake at three am. I made muffins and snickerdoodles, it took up until around five am but they smelled delicious. So I packaged them, and wrote a note in my finest handwriting on my Mom’s stationary. It was ready. No one would be awake until around nine or ten so i crashed again, setting an alarm for nine so I could hop in the shower too.

I’m holding this basket full of stuff I baked last night, and a letter addressed to Addie. I feel ridiculous. I can’t do this, I already rang the doorbell a few seconds ago but i’m about to turn around and leave. All of a sudden Addie’s Dad catches me by surprise. 

“Hello young man, I assume you're here to,” he puts the next part in air quotes, “hang out,” ugh, “with Addie.”

“Hi Mr.Kingsley, I actually came to ask you something.”

“Well what is it? And what are you holding?”

“First, I’m holding a gift basket for you because I have something important to ask you-” he cuts me off.

“You’re not borrowing my car, I don’t trust teenagers to drive.”

“No, no, that’s not it. Here take the basket, I baked it all last night, and the letter is for Addie. So, I wanted to ask you, may I have your permission to take Addie on a date?”My knees are shaking so much I’m going to fall over.

“Well why didn’t you just come out and ask me?” Not the reaction I had hoped for, but not terrible either. “You know i’m not a fan of yours but, i’ll allow it, you do go to our church, don’t you? And you make her happy?”

“Yes and I think so.”

“Well then what’re you still doing here?”I left without another word and he shut their door swiftly. As soon as it was closed though, I did a happy dance.

Addie left a letter on my doorstep an hour later, she’d meet me by my front door at seven and we were going to go roller skating. So when I was sitting outside my door waiting for her to finish getting ready, I didn’t prepare myself enough for when she came out. She looked beautiful in her in her skater dress with two little rubber bands pulling back pieces of her hair. I’m just about to tell her that she looks beautiful when Addie’s mom comes rushing out of their house.

“Sweetie you forgot this!” She recognises what’s going on almost instantaneously and prepares to recoil immediately. “Why Addie, why would you lie to me!” I can’t imagine what’s going on in Addie;’s head. I have to break in and say something.

“Look Mrs.Kingsley I was totally honest with your husband this morning, if you were misled...just know that it’s not Addie’s fault.”

“Don’t tell me that. Addie you need to come back home right now.”

Addie speaks up and says, “Mom listen, I shouldn’t have lied to you, I know that now, but I also thought that you would’ve never let me go out had I told you the truth.”

“You’re right. I wouldn’t have!”At this point Addie’s Mom is yelling and her Dad comes out of their house.

“Let them go on their date Barb. It won’t hurt anything, that young man and I had a good talk this morning and he knows better than to treat her poorly.” At this point her face is still red, but she’s quiet, “Addie we will talk about this when you get home, Curfew is no later than eleven on the dot.”

It’s been countless months later, dates later, two years later even. I’m getting down on one knee to pop the question, and I tell Addie about the the summer when we eighteen, scared to be adventurous, scared to stand up to our parents, and looking back at how far we’ve come to be standing in Myrtle Beach, by the ocean, states away from where we grew up next door to each other, I know that she’s the one I want to spend the rest of my life with.