"Maybe this was a bad idea." I tell my step-dad, David. He's chopping potatoes right now and stops to look up at me. "I mean... like... yeah."

Coherent sentences aren't my thing right now.

David returns to chopping his potatoes. "You like the boy, right?"

"Well, yeah," I say and then rest my chin atop my hands. "I don't think I should like him this much though."

He puts his knife down and folds his arms, looking at me from across the counter. "You think you like him too much?"

Understatement of the year. Instead of telling him that though (I doubt he'd appreciate my tone of voice), I simply nod. He rests his index finger against his chin and thinks about the whole situation for a few moments before going back to the potatoes.

"You should go," He says simply. I squint at the chopping board, my stomach tying itself into knots.

"But I'm nervous,"

"Don't confuse your nerves with excitement."

"But what if he doesn't like what I'm wearing?"

"Then drop him, you look great."

"Should I have left my hair alone? Like I normally do?"

"You can do whatever you want with your hair, it always looks great."

He really has all the answers. Damn.

As though he's worried by my sudden lack of questions, David looks up at me and sighs. "Kennedy, you'll be fine. If he's as good as a guy as you say he is then everything will go smoothly and you'll come home as smitten as a kitten. Now, what are you doing tonight?

I sit up. "That's the thing. He says it's a surprise,"

"That'll be fun. Maybe he'll take you to see a movie."

Oh God no. "I think it'll be a little more original than that," I comment and stare at my watch. It's ten to seven and Dante said he'd pick me up at seven so I'm a bit on edge right now. Oh God.

It just occurred to me that he might cancel at the last minute. How does one recover from being jilted?

"What's more original than going to watch a horror movie with a girl and her cuddling with you when she gets scared?" He says, now transferring the potatoes into a pan.

"Everything?" I shake my head and David chuckles in response. "Is that how you and my mom got together?"

"Nope, we watched a romance movie and she fell madly in love with me after realising I was ten times better than the lead male in that flop,"

"How amazing," I lean my head against my palm. "Who said romance was dead?"

Just as he is about to reply, the doorbell rings. Feeling nerves wash over me once again, I say goodbye to David and jump off the stool I'm sitting on. I almost fall down a few times on my journey towards the front door but I can't tell if it's because I can't walk or if I'm just nervous.

Tyler bounds down the stairs two at a time, whistling a tune.

"Why are you all dressed up?" he asks me suspiciously as he gets to the door, standing in front of me.

"I'm going out," I say, brushing a stray piece of hair out of my face. He raises both his eyebrows at me and then chuckles. "Could you like... move?"

He lets out a short laugh. "Nah, I'd rather meet the poor soul that's gonna break Chad's heart."

"Who? Tyler, just move, I've got to go," I dismiss and try to get him out of the way but he doesn't budge.

The doorbell goes off again and the two of us stare at each other before he opens the door with a powerful yank of the door knob. Dante is standing outside, all decked in black like I am and wearing a black baseball cap. His expression goes through many different stages of change; showing surprise, a smile and then a smirk.

"Well isn't it Mr Dartmouth!" Tyler is the first to speak. The two of them fist bump and then hug each other the way that boys do, with the one arm thing and the patting of the back.

"Nice to see you again, Ty,"

It's weird how friendly they are. You'd think because they go to rival schools and are both captains of rival baseball teams that they'd hate each other. But no, they've even got pet names for each other and I don't know which one I'd prefer.

"Hey Kennedy." Dante says, smiling.

I wave awkwardly and attempt to leave but then suddenly Tyler sticks his arm out in front of me. The both of us look to him, sharing the same expression of alarm as he removes his arm.

"Take care of Kenny, dude," He says with a bright smile. "I can't have her come home crying because it'll throw my game off for the rest of the season, okay?"

Dante rolls his eyes. "Your game is always off," he says.

"I'm sorry, what was that? See, I can't hear you over how many times we've won the league over you have,"

"You've only won once more than we have... and that last win was in 2000."

"Well, you two kids have fun!" Tyler disperses swiftly and the two of us watch him go back up the stairs.

I pick my bag up from the side table and sling it onto my shoulder, shaking my head. "Sorry about him, he's so weird,"

"Yeah," He shakes his head and then gives me a bright smile. "Ready to go?"

I shrug and try not to feel dazzled. "Sure, um, I'll just... never mind,"

Taking a deep breath, I take a few steps forward and close the front door in front of me. He smiles at me a little more and the two of us walk to where his car is parked at the roadside.

"You look nice," Dante says, in passing. "I like your turtleneck,"

Yes, I somehow convinced myself that wearing a turtleneck would be a good idea. It's pretty warm out though so I'm glad it's sleeveless.

"Thanks, you look good too." I say as we reach his car.

"My head doesn't look too big under this hat?" He pulls out his car keys and unlocks the car, opening the passenger side door for me.

I have to hold back a laugh as I get in. "No, it's just the right size of big. Like it's far from Jupiter but borderline reaching Saturn."

Before he closes the door, Dante sends me a look I can't place. "Have you figured out what we're doing today?"

"No... why? Does it have something to do with what I said?"

Keeping quiet, he closes the door and walks round the front of the car, a hand in his pocket. When he gets to the other side of the car, his expression has changed.

"I can't believe you likened my head to Saturn," He says, taking a seat and smiling. "That's so mean,"

-

We've been driving for about half an hour and I'm beginning to get a little bit antsy. Even though I've been throwing out guess after guess, apparently they've all been so far out it's not even 'in this galaxy'.

Either I'm missing something or his clues aren't as easy as he thinks they are. For now, I'm going to go with the latter.

"I give up," I say, throwing my hands in the air. He just laughs, like it's funny.

"Don't give up now! We're almost there,"

Because I'm feeling severely unimpressed by his current antics, I purse my lips and fold my arms. "Where is there?"

He tuts a few times as we reach a red light, taking notice of my facial expression. To my dismay, he just laughs. "Oh come on, Kennedy, I can't just give it away that easily."

"I hate surprises," I mutter and he smiles gently.

"Do you hate surprises or do you hate not being able to figure out the surprise?"

Confused, I turn to him. He's not looking at me, instead at the road ahead with the same gentle smile on his face. The quiet confidence behind his concentration propels me to relax because it's like he's very sure of himself and he knows that I'll have fun even though I'm currently sulking. I don't like that I don't know what's going on but then I like him, and I guess that should be enough for me to trust him.

"I don't know, I guess the second option," I say, sitting back in my seat. It's not like he's taking me somewhere to die. He's not a serial killer. Serial killers don't get college scholarships.

Don't quote me on that one.

"Don't worry about it." He says firmly, pulling the car brake. "You'll love it, it'll be... out of this world."

"Is it something to do with space?" I sit up once more and try and enter his peripheral vision. I know he sees me when his smile starts widening even though he's not looking at me.

"I don't know, we'll see." Dante shrugs and puts his hands behind his head, smiling at me with a leisurely expression.

"That's the first time you've said that!"

"It is?"

"So it has something to do with space?" He offers me a stick of gum. I decline it gracefully, still thinking about this whole surprise thing. "But what though?"

"Kennedy,"

"No, wait –are we going to like... watch the stars? It's not that dark out yet so I don't know..."

"Kennedy,"

"Or like, ice cream? There's this super dessert parlour that does these weird ice creams that look like nebulas and they taste so good – oh but we passed that place on the drive down here..."

"Kennedy, we're here," He says.

I turn to face him and then finally realise that the car has stopped moving. Dante has this hesitant expression on his face as though he's trying to figure out my whole reaction to the situation as I look out of the windshield and (finally) see where we are. The familiar feeling of excitement bubbles through my chest and my mouth breaks out into a wide grin that I can't even contain.

"You brought me to the planetarium?!" I yell. He winces slightly but then maintains a smile on his face.

"Surprise?" He does the jazz hands and I have to resist the urge to lean over to hug him. It's a very powerful urge but it must be stopped before he thinks I'm weirder than I am already.

"Oh my God, I feel like a kid," I cover my face with my hands and then remember I'm wearing makeup so remove them. "Dante! How'd you think this up?"

He shrugs. "I just thought it'd be fun,"

"I love this place!" I squeal and clap my hands together a few times. The last time I came here I must've been about ten.

He laughs. "You said that already." When I look to him again, he's grinning. "Wanna go in?"

"Duh!"

The both of us get out of the car and I take a moment to calm myself down. I was expecting something else, a little less cool and a little more awkward but sitting next to him in a dark room while staring at stars? Count me in. It's such a cool idea too: we can easily bond over staring through telescopes and rockets.

I am so easily appeased.

"Kennedy, you good?" Dante asks, coming around the car. I nod and smile, focusing my eyes on where he is so we can go in.

He smiles and sticks his hand out toward me. Before I can ask him what he's doing, his phone vibrates and he looks down at it, frowning slightly. I stare at his outstretched hand for the longest time I possibly can before deciding that it's best for me to hold it.

Hopefully he didn't want me to high five it because I'm probably not going to let go.

When I give it a squeeze, he puts his phone away, and smiles at me. "Shall we?"

"We shall." I say.

We're holding hands and he doesn't even seem fazed. My heart.

The two of us make our way through the car park, talking about what we're excited to see. Dante tells me about how he used to come here all the time with his mom when he was a kid and how it used to be his most favourite place on earth. I feel honoured that he's sharing this piece of information with me because he really didn't have to bring me here at all. He literally could've taken me to an ice cream parlour and I would've had a blast.

And the fact that he may have held my hand while we were there would have kept me sedated too.

Am I seventeen years old or am I eleven?

The planetarium is a white dome shaped building with a large fancy lens on the top. It's preceded by a large flat area of grass and a cobblestone path that looks so clean it surprises me that we're still in Pasadena. There aren't that many people around which makes the place seems somewhat cosier. Though I have a preference for lively places, I can appreciate the beauty that the quiet can bring.

The inside is the colour of space; that dark purplish blue colour that emits a certain enigma about the emptiness. From the front of the building it's solid but once inside we can see that a whole part of the wall is completely glass and you can see far into the city

"So, the next show starts in about half an hour," Dante says, swinging our hands slightly. I was looking at the ceiling because it has the pattern of Van Gogh's Starry Night on it. "What do you wanna do first?"

I shrug. "We can look at the exhibits before the show? Like the models and stuff – hey! I know!"

"What?"

I look for the direction the telescopes are in and drag him along. "It's a surprise."

The exasperated look that he gives me is completely worth it. "Really?"

In response, I stick out my tongue and pull him up the steps leading to the three telescopes pointing out of the glass wall and to the sky. It's not completely dark outside but it's dark enough that we can comfortably see the stars.

"Come on, let's see if we can see the moon!" I say enthusiastically and let go of his hand so I can peer through the telescope. It's strange because almost instantaneously everything changes from the brightly lit room to the vast and mysterious star filled space.

"Hey, I can see Orion's belt! This is so cool," I say humming.

"Do you know the story of Orion?" Dante asks. When I tear myself away to look at him, he's leaning against the wall just next to me. I shake my head. "Well, he was this hunter who said that no animal on Earth could beat him. And then the Roman gods got super pissed and sent an animal to kill him,"

"Did he die because of a dog bite?"

"Nah, I think it was a scorpion that stung him,"

"Well shit, I'd die too," I mutter, thinking about how I should really deflate my own ego before a roman god sends something to tell me about myself. My ego isn't even big... but still. "Hey, do you know like, constellations?"

"More or less, I guess." Dante bends down until he's level with me. "What's your star sign?"

"I think it's Leo," I say. "My birthday's August 19th? Does the Leo end before then?"

"Look, all I know is that I'm a Taurus," he says defensively and I start laughing.

"I'm a Leo," I confirm, smiling,

"Er, may I?" I shuffle over so he can look through the telescope with his trained eye. It takes him a while but a quiet cheer tells me he's found it, "Okay, look... right below the moon and to the left."

I squint through the lens and look in the direction he's instructed. "Just above the palm trees?"

"Yep; the bright star right above the one with the weird leaves?"

"I see it, kinda. Wait, is it the smaller one?" I peek up at him and he presses on his upper lip with his index finger as if he's trying to remember where it is. It's a weird action but it's so cute I can't even look away.

"Fuck, I don't even remember," he throws his hands up in the air when he realises I'm waiting and releases a breath.

Still smiling, I straighten up. "You're actually so cute," I say before I even have the brain power to control my mouth. At first I panic but then I really meant it so who cares. And the smile on his face when I tell him this is so sweet I can't bring myself to have any regrets.

"Look at the mini moon they have over there," Once again, he takes hold of my hand and we walk towards the scaled down model of the moon. It's not too big, about the size of a globe and it's on a rotating plate that apparently emulates it orbit of the Earth.

"Did you know that... if the Earth was hollow, fifty moons could fit inside?" Dante asks me.

Confused, I look away from the moon. "Why do you know that?"

"It says it there," He points at a board situated behind the spinning moon, and I

"Oh – well, did you know," I clear my throat and read the first thing that I see, "The moon has no magnetic field,"

He gasps dramatically. "Wow! I did not know that!"

Laughing, we go through the next few models and get excited about all the facts we read out. It's totally lame and I know that if I tell my friends that we did this they'd laugh at me until my wedding day when they'd tell everyone I knew all about it but I don't mind. It's really fun being here with Dante and I find myself having the greatest time.

"Look, it's Pluto," I say. The model of Pluto is free from any type of restrictions so I pick it off the pedestal and hold it in the light, appreciating the murky blue colour they painted it. To my surprise, it completely blocks off Dante's face from my line of vision and when I realise it's the same size as his head I start laughing.

"What's wrong?" he asks, squeezing my hand. I hold the weighted ball next to his head and the look his face is priceless. He plucks it out of my grasp swiftly and examines it, looking utterly dissatisfied.

Still cheesing, I nudge his side. "It looks like I was wrong; your head is merely Pluto sized."

"Oh ha-ha," After shaking his Pluto head he points at a display ahead of us. "Look, it's space rock,"

It's literally a lump of rock. Grey, cratered rock. If I'm perfectly honest, it looks a bit like SpongeBob,, just without the eyes, nose and teeth.

"It says that it's four billion years old."

Okay, so maybe it isn't just a lump of rock. It's an old lump of rock.

"Can we touch it?" I ask, wondering if my fingers will soil its longevity or something like that.

"It says we can,"

Quite excited to be touching space rock, I lean forward and brush my fingertips against the surface of the rock. It crumbles slightly and a small chunk of it ends up falling into my hand. I stare at it wide eyed for a while, wondering why this four billion year old rock decided that I was the perfect person for it to break on.

"You broke the space rock," Dante says in a sing song voice, bringing me out of my surprise. I shove the piece into my bag.

"We do not speak of this," I warn him and he starts laughing.

From behind us, someone clears their throat and my heart beat quickens all too much. Can you go to court for breaking a rock from space? What would the fine be for that?

My mom's gonna kill me when she finds out. I am a criminal.

"I won't say anything if you don't?" Dante whispers quietly to me.

"Deal,"

"Excuse me," The person says and we turn around.

I'm expecting the worst but it's not really anything. A boy who looks to be about thirteen is staring at the two of us, tapping a camera against his thigh impatiently. Well, mostly me but we're partners in crime so I think I get to group us together.

"What's up?" I ask, trying to sound upbeat. Hopefully I don't come off suspicious.

"Could you take a picture of me and my friends?" He asks. "Sorry, we'd ask someone else but..." The two of us observe the floor and there's nobody else here except a few employees and a group of five other preteens standing behind him. They're all staring at their cell phones and chewing gum in a scary sort of synchronisation.

"Oh, um, well sure," I say, pulling on my hair and then remembering that it's all done up.

The boy offers me the camera and I remove my hand from Dante's to receive it, wondering how it works. He shows me where I'm supposed to press to activate the shutter and then rushes back to his friends to prepare them for a typical squad photo.

"Hey, Kennedy, give me two seconds," Dante says quietly into my ear.

I nod, suddenly feeling all sorts of giddy and he gives me this smile before going to one of the employees standing around and initiating a conversation. I watch him for a few seconds before turning back to the group that are still not ready. The two girls are arguing about being next to the floating space dust which actually looks pretty cool.

How do they get it to float? Is it a natural effect? Is the dust imbued with the power of Krypton?

"Okay, we're good!" The boy calls and my inner photographer is released for their impromptu photoshoot. I take about thirty photos before they're appeased, after which they're all grinning at me.

"Thanks so much!" One of the girls says, actually going as far as giving me a hug.

"Oh, you're welcome," I say, wondering what to do, other than to pat her back awkwardly. She lets go soon after and skips after her friends.

Distracted, I go to see the magic space dust and inspect it's airborne nature. To my dismay, it's just being blown up by air on both sides to keep it afloat, but what else should I have expected? For it to actually have some special power that keeps it up like it's Superman? It's stupid, yeah but that shit would be so cool, it'd be -

Someone touches my shoulder. I fall down, shocked, surprised and everything in between. Dante is standing above me with a look of concern on his face. "Kennedy, are you alright?"

He helps me up and I release a sigh of relief. "You scared me," I say, clutching my chest.

"I called your name like twice." He says, still looking worried.

"I was distracted by the space dust," I explain. When he doesn't look appeased, I brush the few strands of my hair that escaped my ponytail out of my face. "Anyway, what's up?"

"I just got our tickets for the planetary show, it's starting soon – hey are you sure you're okay? You're warm,"

That's because I've noticed that Dante has freckles splattered on his nose and it's doing shit to my brain. I don't know why I never noticed them before, they're so cute.

"Kennedy?"

"Yep, I'm great. Planetary show, yay,"

Yeah, he's not convinced. Either way, he lets it go and we walk towards the direction of the auditorium. One of the employees takes the two tickets and tears them in the way they do at the movie theatre when you're going to watch a movie (fuck else you do at a theatre?).

"I heard some of those kids call you pretty," Dante says when we get to the door. He holds it open for me and I scuttle in, still slightly flustered but ultimately pleased.

"They did? You're lying,"

"I'm not," He says. There's about five other people in the room and they're all sitting in the most awkward spots, leaving a circle of seats in the middle section.

"You jealous?" I say whimsically and sit in one of the seats and nearly fall down again because it's so far back and I did not expect it at all. They're also very close together; when I wriggle around, I end up bumping his shoulder about ten thousand times but he doesn't complain.

"Very," Dante confirms and I feel a double chin forming on my face. "I wanted to be the first one to call you pretty tonight."

My face begins to heat up again and I shuffle in my seat slightly. "You said it when I got into your car," I mumble, slightly incoherent. Even though it's kind of dark in here, I can see his smile as clear as day.

"If I recall correctly, I only said you looked nice. Pretty was reserved for when I dropped you at home."

"Oh shut up," I push on his arm, completely embarrassed. His soft laughter compels me to look away from him and up at the screen ahead of me. Maybe I should've brought sunglasses to hide my face.

"Hm, maybe pretty was too simple." He says thoughtfully, touching his chin. "What to say now... beautiful?"

I cover my face but he doesn't stop.

"What about gorgeous?"

"Dante," I squeal and he chuckles.

"No, I've got the perfect word: stunning."

"Stop, you're making me lactose intolerant,"

"What?"

Fanning my face, I turn to him but it has an adverse effect because my face heats up even more. "You're cheesy!"

He props his fist up and covers his mouth but I can see from the way his cheeks have risen that he's trying his hardest to hide his laughter.

The lights dim in the already dark room, signalling that the show's going to start. At first, there's a white light and then the screen turns this purplish pink. A woman that sounds suspiciously like Siri begins to explain the big bang. I don't really focus on what she says, more on the melody of colours that come together to create planet after planet in the solar system.

When we get to both Saturn and Pluto, I suppress the urge to poke Dante and tell him I've found his thinking space. I doubt he'd appreciate that.

"This is so beautiful," I whisper at him, tilting my head so it's almost off my chair and dangerously close to his shoulder.

"Yeah,

Siri is talking about the formation of stars such as the sun and even though the sun is a huge ball of fire that could and would probably kill me if I was as close as the film is taking me, I still want to touch it. It illuminates Dante's face for a while and I turn to see him under all the light. It turs out we have the same idea because just as I look at him, his eyes meet mine and we smile at each other for the longest time. It's only when it goes dark that I'm sable to tear myself away and even then, I can't stop smiling. My face just won't relax.

Smitten as a kitten? I think it's completely safe to say at this point that I'm as smitten as a tiger.

word count: do u guys actually expect a number here 

a/n: idk why it took so long for me to post this but it did soz