The Boy Scout (Part 4)

Needless to say, Billy quickly won both games of pool that they played. Mary didn't mind much though, he was kind enough to give her plenty of pointers, helping her position her hands better on the cue, reaching around her and giving quiet instruction in her ear as she tried to focus on aiming at a ball. Not the easiest task with someone she was so attracted to literally breathing down her neck.

After two games, it was time to head over to the high school for the dance. They walked across the parking lot to Billy's truck, and got in. Mary had some trouble shutting the old creaky door as the temperature had dropped a little outside and it was sticking. Billy laughed at her a little as she pulled on the door as hard as she could and it did not budge.

"No," he chuckled, "you really have to pull hard." Mary shot him a cold look as she yanked one more time and the door slammed shut. She pulled on her seat belt and gave him a smug smile as she turned her nose up at him. He laughed again as he backed out of the parking space.

They went through the rituals of standing in line and posing for pictures before going into the dark lunch room with it's shiny streamers and thumping music. Mary felt a bit awkward standing in line with him.. surrounded by couples that had their arms around each other, were holding hands, or hugging.. Here she stood with a boy that she didn't even know how to talk to and who barely even looked at her. As the last couple before them finished their turn, Billy put his hand on her back and walked her over to the cheesy life raft scene that they had set up to go along with the 'Lost at Sea' theme. Mary smiled broadly as Billy stood with his arm around her waist, pulling her close to him and grinning at the camera. Click. *flash*

"What a handsome couple you two make!" Oh my gosh.. he just called us a couple! Mary liked the sound of that..

They made their way to the lunch room with the hoards of other teens all walking around the courtyard between the lunchroom and the gym, goofing around, laughing, and hanging on each other.

Neither Mary or Billy were real big on dancing, so they did a lot of standing in the back of the room, staring at the mob in front of the DJ's booth, not really saying anything to each other. They joined in for the slow songs, and for the goofy songs, and the rest of the time pulled the wall flower act or sat at the tables with their friends. Despite the fact that most people who saw them would have assumed their date that evening to be a total bomb and that they were bored out of their mind, they actually both thought it was perfect.

As the last slow song came to an end, Mary looked up at Billy in the darkness with the colored lights swirling around them. He looked down and smiled softly at her, she saw genuine affection in his face for the first time. He leaned down and kissed her gently on the lips.

The lights came on in the room and Billy let go of Mary and took her hand, leading her out of the crowd back to the court yard. Once they were outside, they stopped to soak in some of the cool night air, relieved to be out of the stuffy room and crowd of sweaty teenagers.

"So, you need to go home right away?" Billy asked. "Or would you like to come over and watch a movie or something?"

"We could watch a movie," Mary answered. "Sounds like fun. My parents don't care as long as I'm home by midnight."

"Okay then," he said, his silly half smile returning. "Let's go."