It was a bit after ten o’clock when I received a text from Thom. Excitement swelled in my chest at the sight of his name and I almost forgot to look at the actual text. I was especially happy since it had only been a day since I’d met him.

‘Hey Florence,’ the text read. ‘I’m free tomorrow. Want to go for a walk in Henry’s local park? We should go with Henry - that’s safer than instantly spending time alone together.’

A walk? Yes; he wanted to spend time with me!

Even if it was with Henry, it was surely a good sign. I mean, I’d worried that in a few days time I’d have to send him a text to remind him of my existence, that he hadn’t actually been sincerely interested in spending time with me. It was an amazing surprise that he’d texted first.

My jokey reply was: ‘You scared of me? :P’

‘Very. Nah, I’m just trying to be sensible. Don’t you know it’s dangerous to hang out with people you don’t know - even if they’re friends of friends?’

‘Yeah, I know. It’s cool you’re being sensible. Can’t think of many guys who would.’

Yeah, it was true. Unfortunately. A lot of guys would just want to hang out with the girl on their own as soon as possible. It usually meant that they could get further.  

It was quite encouraging that Thom was trying to be safe the first time we hung out together. It would be such a dream if he wasn’t a jerk at all. (Well, you have to endure a certain level of jerk-ness in a boy, right? Otherwise, you may just be being idealistic.)

His response to my text was: ‘Yeah - I’m just weird like that. Will you be able to get to the park on your own? What time d’you wanna meet up?’

‘Yeah, sure,’ I replied, not at all fazed that he wasn’t offering to pick me up. It’d be awkward if he arrived out of the blue at my house when my parents hadn’t met him. ‘How about half 11? Then we can grab something to eat for lunch?’

‘Yup, sounds good. See you then, then.’

‘See you.’ It seemed a little awkward just to end on a full stop but I was too shy to put any kisses - plus, it really was too early for that sort of thing.

I remembered with a smile that however many kisses I had put at the end of texts to Henry, he had never put any. I wondered absently if Thom would be the same.

Putting my phone aside, I made myself comfortable and lapsed into a daydream of a perfect day hanging out with gorgeous Thom...

*

There’s nothing else I can really do today, except sit around restlessly, watching DVDs or playing random games on Facebook while listening to music to try and pass the time. I’m near unable to suppress the joy at the thought of seeing Thom and hanging out with him tomorrow. I wonder how it’ll go.

The girl potentially about to live a dream,

Florri. xx  

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Author guidance for This story

Il n'aura pas mon ame: He won't have my soul

New style for me; new genre, new character: the full works.
So... I sort of envisage this as a teen summer read, though its success on this front holds doubts for me. Enjoy what you can of it.
Tianna xx

updated Oct 25 '11 by Tianna