"Remember, be home by 11:30," my father said. I nodded.

"I will. I promise," I said. I grabbed my red leather clutch purse from off the kitchen counter just as the doorbell rang. He was here. I took a deep breath before opening the door. My father walked up behind me. And there he was, standing in all his gorgeous intense beauty: Derek Thomas.

"You're Derek I suppose?" my father asked.

"Yes, sir. It's nice to meet you, sir," Derek answered. The autumn sun shined behind him. He looked absolutely amazing in an emerald green shirt, black skinny tie, and straight black dress pants.

"We'll see about that. Come inside. I want a few words," he said. I groaned internally. This was why I never had a boyfriend. "She has to be home by 11:30. If I find out she was drinking, I'll blame you first. No funny business. I'll find out somehow. Are we clear?" he asked Derek sternly. Unflinchingly, Derek nodded.

"I wouldn't dare hurt your daughter, sir. I'll have her home before 11:30," Derek replied calmly.

"Good. Well...you can go now. Have...fun...." my father said, looking at me with a stern look, as if trying to tell me I'd better be careful and that I was warned.

"Thanks, Dad. I'll see you at 11:30," I said, grabbing Derek by the wrist and leading him outside. My father stood at the door and watched as I got into Derek's car, an orange 2011 Mustang. Once we were in the car, I spoke.

"I'm so sorry. He's just...over-protective," I apologized. Derek shook his head.

"It's no big deal. He cares about you," he replied, his eyes on the road. "You look really nice, by the way," he said, still not looking at me. I blushed wildly at the compliment.

"Thanks," I managed to let out.

"So we're meeting up with the rest of the team and their dates at the Bay," he said. I nodded, knowing this already. We didn't talk very much the rest of the way there. We were going to take pictures at Virginia Bay and then go to dinner and then from there, we would go to the dance. He pulled into a parking spot when we got there. There were already a number of cars parked, of increasing price ranges. In the distance by the water, we could see the forms of people all dressed up. Derek got out of the car and before I could open my door, he had held it open for me. I stepped out, thanking him. He smiled his small smile at me and we made our way to the water's edge where all of our friends were. I saw Alisha giddily talking to Jason and his friends. I saw Leah, her arm linked through Kyle's, who seemed bored to say the least. Marianna and Jessie were with their boys, flirting relentlessly. There were a few others there; the whole soccer team and their dates.

"Mila!" I heard Alisha shout. I turned around and saw my beautiful friend running towards me awkwardly in her heels. "You look fabulous!" she cried, hugging me.

"Thanks! So do you! That dress looks amazing on you," I commented. She grinned a wide smile at me.

"Your date looks like a total hottie, too," she whispered in my ear. I pinched her side lightly and we giggled. For the next 45 minutes or so we took pictures: couple pictures, group pictures, all girl pictures, all boy pictures, silly pictures. It was pretty crazy and when we were done, all I could see were the blue boxes from the camera's flashes.

"We have to hurry! They'll give our reservations away!" Leah called as she got into Kyle's shiny black H3 Hummer. I rolled my eyes at the car and got into Derek's.

"I'm half blind right now. I apologize if  I accidentally kill you," Derek muttered. I chuckled.

"I am, too. So I won't blame you," I said. He shot me his signature small smile and put the car in drive. Dinner was pretty uneventful. The girls looked like they were trying too hard. The boys looked like they didn't even notice the girls. Kyle was especially ignoring Leah the whole time. Instead, which shocked me, he kept trying to make conversation with me. Derek was quiet the whole time, texting on his phone or something. Alisha and Jason kept cracking jokes, making the rest of us laugh. At about 8, we all paid and then left for the dance. Derek and I were both quiet in the car ride to school. I didn't know how to start a conversation with him. It seemed like whenever we were together, we wouldn't talk. We would just sit in silence, our minds and thoughts elsewhere. It was calming, but at the same time extremely frustrating.

"Mila?" Derek spoke up. The way he said my name made my stomach flip.

"Mmm?" I asked, turning from the window to him. He looked at me with his electric green eyes that stood out prominently thanks to his emerald green shirt.

"You wouldn't be opposed to leaving the dance early, would you?" he asked, looking back at the road.

"I'm actually really relieved that you asked that. I'd be thrilled if we left early," I replied. His eyebrows were arched, as if he were stressed about something.

"Good. I plan on staying unti 10 and then leaving," he said. I nodded.

"That's fine with me," I said. On one hand, I was really glad that we'd be leaving early. On the other, I wanted to spend time with him and now I only had 2 hours.

We got to school. The parking lot was full of cars. He opened the passenger door for me once again and we walked to the Great Hall, where the dance was happening, in silence. We could hear music blasting through the thick mahogany doors and vibrating off the sparkling marble floors. We got to the door and gave our tickets and then walked in. The music and heat hit us hard. It was SO loud. There were people everywhere, already on the dance floor. Girls were grinding up on guys and guys were dirty dancing with girls. It was disgusting. I glanced around to look for teachers. They were mostly sitting down, looking bored. I tried to make out the song that was playing. It was OMG by Usher. People were fist pumping and singing along as if they were in a concert.

"Wow," I said to myself.

"I know. It's ridiculous. Give teenagers a chance to act on their hormones and..." the rest of Derek's sentence was drowned in the noise.

"I don't want to dance just yet," I shouted. He nodded, scanning the crowd. He pointed towards the middle right edge of the Great Hall. I couldn't see who he was pointing at because I was so short. He took my wrist and led the way. We emerged on the other side, after dodging numerous sweaty and dancing bodies, to our group of friends. Or well, half of them. Leah was standing, glaring at Kyle, who was snickering with Matt and Gordon about something on his phone. Marianna and Jessie looked equally annoyed. I guess they didn't like their dates. I went up to Leah.

"Hey, where's Alisha?" I shouted over the noise.

"What?" she shouted back.

"A-lish-a!" I cried back.

"Oh! She's dancing with Jason!" Leah shouted back, pointing to the dance floor. Sure enough, Alisha and Jason were out on the dance floor. They weren't grinding on each other like the other couples. More like, they were doing silly dances to annoy everyone around them. When Alisha looked over my way, she gestured for me to come join her. I smiled and shook my head, indicating I was just fine off to the side.

"God, Kyle is pissing me off," Leah muttered in my ear. I gave her a sympathetic smile. The song changed to Cooler Than Me by Mike Posner. Leah went up to Kyle and said something in his ear. He gave her an annoyed look, glanced at me and smiled, and then took her to the dance floor. I stood next to Derek as Marrianna and Matt and Jessie and Gordon followed Kyle's and Leah's suit. We watched silently as the bodies on the floor danced to the music. After that song was over, the DJ came on speaker.

"All right guys! Having fun yet?!" he asked. There was a loud chorus of an uncomprehensible answer. "Yeah! That's what I thought! Let's take it down a notch for all you romantic couples out there," he said slowly into his mic. He put on a slow version of Cascada's song, Everytime We Touch. I took a deep breath, glancing at Derek, who saw. He gave me his small smile and held out his hand. I nervously took it and he led me onto the dance floor, where the couples were putting their arms around each other and swaying to the soft music. Derek put his hands on my waist and I, with difficulty due to me being 4 inches shorted than him even withe heels on, put my arms around his neck. We swayed lightly to the music. I glanced up at him. He looked down at me and I felt my heart skip a beat. I saw something flash through his unreadable green eyes.

"Can't you feel my heart beat fast, I want this to last? I need you by my side..." the song lyrics went. Then the song ended and those 3 minutes of the best part of my night were over.

"Arright arright!" the DJ said. "Now that we're in the mood, I'll have you fallin' in love in no time," he spoke. And then he played Usher's DJ Got Us Falling in Love. Derek and I walked off the dance floor. Alisha and Jason walked over to us. Alisha's cheeks were pink with excitement. She looked absolutely adorable.

"How's it going?" she asked, winking at me. I shrugged.

"Ok, I guess. He's not much of a talker," I told her, sitting down. Jason was talking to Derek animatedly about something while Derek nodded and listened.

"Awww. I'm sure he's just nervous. It's OK, because you're not much of a talker, either," she said. I gave her a half smile.

"Leah doesn't look like she's enjoying herself very much," I said, pointing to Leah who was angrily talking to Kyle, who wasn't listening. He kept glancing my way. Or at least that's what I felt like he was doing.

"I know. It seems like Kyle doesn't like her," Alisha said. I looked over at the couple. Kyle saw me looking and smiled at me. Leah saw this, which only made her angrier."Shit, why does he keep looking at you?" Alisha whispered in my ear.

"I have no idea," I said, looking away.

"This doesn't look good for you," she said. I nodded. Jason came up to us.

"Hey hey hey! What are you girls gossiping about?" he asked, sitting down.

"About how you're such a bad dancer," Alisha remarked. He picked up a bead from the vase on the table and threw it at her.

"Maybe you're just too good a dancer," he replied. She grinned cheesily at him. I smiled at the two of them. They had only just begun dating and they were already so cute. Pitbull's "Hey Baby" came on next. "Oh damn! I love this song," Jason exclaimed, grabbing Alisha's hand and pulling her to the dancefloor. She giggled and waved at me. I smiled after them. Derek took Alisha's seat next to me.

"Derek?" I asked. He looked at me and I felt like I couldn't breathe. I realized I had never said his name before. I would always refer to him as "him".

"Yes?" he asked.

"Do you want to leave now?" I asked, because I couldn't think of anything else to say. He glanced at his Kenneth Cole watch. It was almost 10.

"Yeah. Let's go," he said, getting up. I got up, too and we walked out of the noise. It was eerily silent out in the parking lot. The night had gotten a lot cooler and the cold air felt nice against my warm skin. "Do you want to go home?" he asked, as we got in his car.

"I don't want to go home just yet," I replied, putting my seatbelt on. He started the engine and reversed, not saying anything after that. We drove in silence through the night. I watched the cloudless, starry night sky above. I didn't know where he was going. I didn't bother to ask, either. He drove to the beach where we would always meet at night.