Afterwards

   So what happened afterwards, was it happily ever after? Was it like how you dreamed it would be?

“I don’t know.”

Are you still scared?

“Hee, hell yeah.”

And what are you gonna do?

“I don’t know, try my best and hope it turns out alright I guess, and I hope I can stay with this pretty lady as long as I can.”

Hehe, well seeya then.

“Where are you going?”

Nowhere, have fun. It flew into the air and spiraled around me, after that it disappeared.

“Hey, where are you gonna take me.” Next to me a pretty milk chocolate girl stands next to me. She’s wearing a puffy white jacket today with fur on the outline of the hoodie, and tight jeans. Well that couldn’t be me, I get very ticklish on my neck with any hair. It's quite cold today so she’s dressed right for the occasion.

“Were going to a cool burger restaurant, it’s really good.” Me, well I’m wearing some random black hoodie and sweat pants. I had severely underestimated how cold it was gonna be today and was freezing.

“Ummmm, are you okay?” She asks.

“Huh.”

“You were shivering ever since we met up at the school, and your hands have been in your pockets ever since too.”

“Nah it’s alright, I’m okay, just brought too little to wear.” My goddess! Pray to the lord!

We take the short walk to the mall. Inside I felt the relief of a lifetime with the mall’s heater, it might’ve just saved my first date.I would’ve 100% given her my hoodie if she was cold when we were outside, she’d probably refuse me though.

I took her on quite the long walk to the burger shop where we talked and looked at some shops on the way.

“Which one do you think looks better, the pink or the purple.” Quite the tough choice, perfect vs perfect, what’s my move here! I don’t think she just wants to hear, “you look good in both” hmmm, ah whatever.”

“I’d say in purple, but you’d probably look good in both.”

“Hehe, thank you.” At that moment she had the most charming smile. Then she went to the changing room to try on her clothes while I held on to her stuff.

Man I’m doing pretty good, I felt like barfing before but now I feel pretty good. I came 25 minutes early too sooo, y’know I’m doing pretty good…hopefully.

She came out of the dressing room with a purple top with some cool brand logo, Leromee it said, I never heard of that one before.

“So how do I look?” She did a little twirl when she said that.

10/10, perfect, angel, amazing, “You look really nice in that.”

“Reallly?”

“Yeah, really really.”

“Kay, I guess I’ll get this one.”

“How much is it.”

“9 bucks.” I unconsciously make a face when she says that.

“What.”

“Nah, nothing, it just seems a little expensive.” That’s 3 hours at the pizzeria right there.

“It’s just a little right, so you don’t mind buying it for me?”

“Uhhhhh, nah yeah, I guess I couuld” I said very hesitantly.

“Hehe, I was just joking.”

“Hehe, just a joke.” She nearly scared me half to death.

After that we were back on the journey to the burger shop of legend. We start arriving at the valley of old closed shops.

“Hey, is there really a burger shop down here?”

“Yeah, don’t worry there is.” I use just my memory from the last time I came to get to the mythical burger shop. First past the enclaves of closed clothing stores, then the aracedes, and lastly the row of 4 abandoned 99 cent stores. Then a shimmering light comes into view, an old burger shop with an old Taiwanese guy greets us. The smell of burgers floods through our nostrils. I look at the store sign, Tasty Burger! Very cheap and delicious! It saids.

“Wow it smells really good, I didn’t think it was real. To be honest I thought we might get shot, or you were gonna mug me.”

“Huh, you really thought that.” She starts laughing. Well to be honest I realized half way through that it kinda looked like I lured her here to mug her, just a little bit.

We look at the menu together. “ What should I get?” She asks.

“Uhhh, maybe the chicken burger, my friend said it was really good.”

“What are you gonna get?”

“Uhhh, the special, and some fries to share.”

“Kay.” We head to the front to order.

“Can I get a chicken burger.”

“And can I get a special burger with fries.”

“Do you want to make combo.” The shopkeeper asked in a thick asian accent.

“Uhh, sure.”

“What drink?” I look at the back fridge and point to a particularly eye-catching can.

“I’ll take that one.” The shopkeep took out the drink and gave it to me, and I paid him 2.50 for the burgers, fires, and the cool looking drink. The soda can had a lime coming out of a geyser of water and Chinese characters I can’t read on the front.

“Thank you,” The shopkeep said with a little bow.

“Thank you.” Me and Natalie waited on the side waiting for our orders to be finished, and talked a little.

“You're quite the gentlemen aren't you” she said.

“Yeah, I guess, I felt I should do at least that much.”

“What drink did you get?”

“To be honest I don’t know, I just picked at random. I’m gonna try it now.” I open up the can, and fizzy bubbles came out a little, and then I took a sip.

“Sooo… How is it.”

“It kinda tastes like fizzy lemonade, it taste pretty nice.” Then, just like that our orders were done and the shopkeep called to us.

“Your order is ready.” He yelled.

“I’m gonna go grab it real quick.”

“Okay.”

I grabbed the bags and said thank you, and the shopkeeper replied again with another bow and a thanks. We sat to the side of the shop where there was a little table with two seats there. Not counting that table there wasn’t a single table or seat anywhere near here.

“Woo, I’m so excited they smell so goood! How much was a burger again.” I take out the food out of the bag and hand her a burger.

“Woow, this is super big, how much was it?” She asked.

“I think 75 cents.”

“Whaat, that’s pretty good! And these are massive.”

“I know, it’s a pretty sweet deal.”

We both stuff our faces with burger and fries. The fries were pretty big too, like at least a large size at regular fast food chains. When we were finished I gathered all the trash in a bag and threw it out, luckily the shop had a trashcan to the side. Then I had one more thing planned before the end of this date. I took out my walkman and headphones from out of my hoodie pocket.

“Here, put this on” I handed her my headphones.

“What’s this for?”

“Something cool, just put it on.”

“Okay” She puts on the headphones. Well a girl wore my headphones, not that I have any particular feeling about this, just feel like screaming YEsss, just teeny bit. Another one of my dreams came true today, with a couple others too.

I pulled out one of my favourites out of my brother’s collection. It was a rap R&B album, and it was a little less extreme than the other albums my brother had in his collection. I pressed play and the cassette started to move. I stood next to her as she listened to the album, she looked pretty focused listening to it. Then she pulled of her headphones after a bit

“It’s nice, really nice… y’know thank you for today.”

“Nah, it was nothing” Yesssss.

We walked together as she continued to listen to the album. We walked out of the cask of abandoned shops into the main area, and then through the mall exit.

She pulled off her headphones again “I finished it, it was really good. What’s the name of it?

“It was an album by Bob or something, I think it was called don’t be cruel.”

“Ooh, you should lend it to me sometime.”

“Sure, whenever you want.” Well we'll see what my brother thinks about that. Then we started to stare into each other, and then we shared our first kiss.

We got onto the bus together holding hands till it was your stop. Then I let go of your hand and waved goodbye.

I felt a weird feeling in that moment, like my mind was stuck in the clouds. I stared up into the clouds looking at them as they moved.