Chapter 20
Kiss & Tell

After the Halloween party, Dale walks me home, and just by having his presence around me, I feel calm and collected and I feel like there's nothing bad going to happen. His hand brushes against mine as we walk side to side, and eventually he holds my hand in his and sparks travel through my veins, making my heart race faster than it already is.

Silence looms over us, and it's the comfortable one. I never thought this day would come. Well, I wish it would come. If you were to tell me a month before this is happening, I would have told myself that this would never happen in my life, never in a million years but now, as I hold his hand and give it a squeeze, I know that this is real and he really is my boyfriend.

Once we reach my house, he turns me around and looks deeply into my eyes; his looks don't keep my heart calm. In fact he makes my heart even pump faster than ever. He brushes the strand of my hair that is in between my eyes, smiles at me, leans down so close that the tip of his nose is brushing against mine, his breath fanning my face, and then kisses me, a little bit longer, but not long enough to make me cling onto him like a Koala. "I love kissing you. Can't get enough of it." He says and I flush, hiding my face. Dale chuckles and gives me a kiss on my forehead. The action is sweet, and a huge smile creeps across my lips. "Good night. I'll go once you get inside."

Nodding at him, I turn on my heels and just to convince that this is really happening, I turn around once more to face him and see the look of confusion across his face. I tiptoe, grab his face, and kiss him deep on the lips and run inside my house. I hear him chuckle and I tell him good night, that I'll see him tomorrow. Through the window, I watch Dale turn around and walk away with a smile on his lips. My heart keeps beating rapidly, and I bet that it will not calm down until morning. As I turn around, on the sofa, is my father who is currently watching me with a raised brow and I let out an awkward chuckle.

"Hello, dad." I greet him, scratching the back of my head. He looks over my shoulder, through the window, and raises his brows again. He's waiting for me to tell him something, anything, about what happened outside. My father is overprotective, even my mother, of me. He crosses his arms across his chest, waiting for me to say something. "I'll go upstairs and good night, dad."

"Who was that guy you were kissing before you got inside the house?" my father asks, his tone demanding and I laugh awkwardly, pretending that I don't know what he's saying. Sometimes it works. Sometimes when I use that, they let the topic go and fade away into the air. But it seems it's not going to work since my father glares at me, keeping me still. "You know, good night, you can now sleep," he says, grinning evilly. There's something about his smile that makes my knees wobble. He continues, "But you should bring him to dinner tomorrow. If he doesn't come here for dinner, you will never ever see him again. Never." He turns around, walks away from me to his bedroom, and I'm standing still, mouth agape, looking at the disappearing figure of my father.

My father is serious. If Dale doesn't come for dinner tomorrow, he will ban me from seeing Dale. I know that I'm already old. But hey, that's why we have parents. My parents have an absolute control of my life, and that's something I should not ignore. If I bring Dale here in this house, my father will surely torture him, ask him questions, interrogate him as if Dale is a criminal that has committed a lot of illegal stuff and broke a lot of laws. I groan in frustration. I need to ask Dale to come in for dinner. Surely my father has already planned this for a very long time. Every time I mention a man in my parents' face, they will ask me if that man is my boyfriend and that I should bring him here for interrogation.

Stomping my foot on the ground like a little kid, I trudge my way to my room, wanting to shut the world out. My father's words ring in my ears, flashing inside my head, glowing in neon lights, and I groan out loud once my back hits the bed, as if my back has hit something hard.

For a moment I stare in the ceiling, not doing anything, and my heart is still racing, but not from the kiss Dale and I share earlier, but because of my father's words. I'm a bit scared. My father can be a cruel little monster, but he has a heart. It just he's so protective of me, keeping a tight leash around my neck and sometimes I cannot breath. I get it, he was hurt when I got hurt because of my supposed date but the man I met on the website did not come but I think he should move on. I mean, I have already moved on from that a very long time ago. If it weren't for the fact that I was scared to fall in love, I would have forgotten that memory. Still I don't know what to do. I know that I should bring Dale here for dinner. I guess I could just keep an eye out for him. I know that he'll be scared, because really he just realized that he has feelings for me, and he used to be straight, and he didn't have any experience having a relationship with a man before. I mean, I didn't have a boyfriend. I almost had a boyfriend. And it counts as an experience of mine.

Not having an idea what to do next, I shut my eyes close and just breathe in and out, in and out until I'm finally calm. Exhaustion takes over my body, and while I sprawl on the bed, I think of Dale and the kiss we shared and I smile, finally sleeping.

"Good morning to me, good morning to me, good morning to me," I sing as soon as my eyes flutter open, getting up suddenly and watching myself go crazy in the mirror. My arms are flapping, as if they are wings and I shake my butt in the air, flinging my hands up in the air. "Dale is now my boyfriend. Dale is now my boyfriend. The hottest guy is now my boyfriend. Dale is now my boyfriend." I continue to sing like a little girl who has been so obsessed with her crush living just across from her house.

The clock reads 6:34 in the morning. I smile brightly to myself in the mirror, seemingly cannot hide the fact that I'm going to see my boyfriend at school. I have his number, but it doesn't seem right that I'm going to greet him a good morning message through text. But my phone makes a vibrating sound, and I pick it up; there's a text message coming from Dale, and when I open it, it reads: Good morning, my boyfriend. I read the text a hundred times before sinking in that Dale called me through text that I'm his boyfriend. That I am his boyfriend. Without further ado, I happily walk to the bathroom to do my morning routine, preparing for school, preparing to meet my boyfriend.

When I get down, surprisingly, even though it's my father's rest day, I see my father sitting on one of the stools reading a newspaper in hand and when he senses my presence, he smiles at me evilly and puts down the newspaper on the table. "Good morning, son." I narrow my eyes at him suspiciously. My mother kisses me on the cheek and goes back to cooking breakfast. "Be sure to bring your boyfriend here for dinner."

My mother turns around to look at me. "He has a boyfriend?" She scrunches up her nose in confusion, probably thinking of the last time I came up to her crying like a little kid.

"Yes, yes, our son has," my father almost hisses the word, and when my mother looks at him, he gives her an angelic smile and my mother almost sighs. I scrunch up my nose in disgust. My father looks at me again and smiles evilly. Ugh. His evil plans for evil purposes. "Your mother and I are expecting your boyfriend to come for dinner. If not..."

"I'll bring him," I mutter under my breath and when I see my father arch his brow, I say it louder this time. My mother beams at me brightly, tucking a strand of her hair behind her left ear and she places a plate of bacon on the table, with scrambled eggs on the side. My father grabs a fork, stabs the bacon with no mercy, and shoves it into his mouth and I shiver, looking away. Dale better prepare himself for this.

I eat, ignore my father for the rest of the breakfast, and as soon as Derek arrives, I jump out of my seat, shout them good-bye, and run into Derek's car and hop in immediately, telling Derek to go faster and I sigh in relief.

Derek just looks at me incredulously and drives toward the school. I decide to tell him everything, from the start of meeting Dale at the Halloween party to the kiss we shared in front of my house after he walked me home. For a moment Derek looks at me in confusion, then he breaks into a grin, then squeals out loud like a little girl and I join him, jumping in my seat. "Oh fuck, fuck, fuck. Why did you tell me only? Why not after it happened?"

"I'm sorry," I say scratching the back of my head. "But my father saw us kissing, and he was like being creepy last night. He told me, no demanded, to bring Dale at the house for dinner. He's going to interrogate him like he committed something bad."

"Dale is doomed," Derek comments and I sigh, as if exasperated suddenly. "On the other hand, if he comes, and once he surpasses your father's deathly wrath, that's when you would know that he deserves you, or you deserve him." He says, trying to lift my spirits up, and it does.

He parks on our usual parking space and then we head out. We head inside the school, go to our lockers to grab some stuff, and then I see Dale in front of his locker, getting something inside. I'm not sure whether to approach him or not. We haven't exactly discussed what would be our plan. I mean, I'm not sure whether he would like us to go public or not. It's okay if he doesn't want people to know. As long as he wants to be with me, then that should suffice, right?

My best friend gives me a look, jerking his chin to my boyfriend's direction and I shake my head at him. He glares at me, crossing his arms across his chest. I can practically hear him in my head: Go approach him, you scumbag. He's your boyfriend and you should do relationship stuff in public. Go PDA!

"Last night, I was thinking about you and it was kind of dirty," Derek sings and I frown at him. When I turn around, Dale is already leaning down on me, trapping me and giving me a bright smile. "HELP ME HERE! AND I LAY IN BED, I TOUCH MYSELF AND THINK OF YOU." I push Dale, hiding my embarrassment and Derek runs, bursting out laughing. "LAST NIGHT, YOU'RE IN MY SEX DREAMS."