“You want me to what?”, Brim asked me.
“I want you to stay out of the date tonight. I believe that I got this with all you have done.”, I told him changing into a much nicer shirt.
I was feeling truly strong and confident in myself after I got home that day after asking out Sunset. So much so that I didn’t even bother to address Brim when I got home. Mainly because he was passed out on the couch. But I was feeling a strength that I had never felt before, a strength that I didn’t need Brim’s accompaniment
“You do realize that you haven't had the proper training from me to try and help out. You should’ve said to have it in a few more days instead of today. I would’ve been able to have time to do some research.”, He argued.
“There is no need to. I got this.”, I said confidently.
“Uh, no the fuck you don’t. You need to trust me on this Rocky. Dating is a completely different breed of conversing, something that you are definitely not ready for.”, He warned.
“Well then what do you expect me to do? I can’t just cancel at the last minute, I’d seem like a genuine asshole.”, I responded.
“You need to have me be by your side for this. It’s the only way you might come out of this successful.”, He argued coming into the bathroom.
“And then what? Awkwardly look over into the distance where you are to look distracted? It’s not gonna work Brim. I need to do this on my own. How do you expect me to grow up if you keep holding me back? Just give me a few moments alone for once.”, I said walking out.
“First of all, Hah! I caught that title. Second of all, what you call ‘holding you back’ is what has gotten you this far in the first place. Why would you question me now all of a sudden when I have been right almost nine times out of ten?”, He asked.
“Because most of the time your definition of right has been different from mine Brim.”, I said combing my hair.
“And? It’s still right, to a certain degree.”, Brim clarified.
“Look, why do you care so much about you being there when you applauded me literally yesterday to taking charge then?”, I asked.
“Because that was the fucking point of me trying to abuse you into doing what you felt was right. It was all a psychological thing. This is different, there is such a thing as reading someone and noticing that something is off or wrong.”, He stated.
“Yeah cause you’re totally the one to know how to read people Brim.”, I said sarcastically referencing yesterday.
“Okay, so maybe I might have a few kinks in my definition of reading people, but I know when someone isn’t ready.”, He siad.
“I am ready.”, I told him.
“Look at yourself, do you not notice that your head is getting bigger and bigger by the second? Don’t look in the mirror it was rhetorical. But what I’m saying is that your overconfidence will do you in badly tonight if you fuck up.”, He warned.
“I won’t fuck up. Will you just relax Brim? I promise you after tonight, you can follow me around afterwards and dick around at the bar.”, I promised him.
“Okay okay fine. I’ll back out of this, but at least take this with you.”, He said snapping his fingers to make a wrapper appear.
Grabbing it from his hands, I saw that he handed me a red condom with the name “D+D” etched on the front of it.
“A condom?”, I asked him.
“If you’re so confident that it will work out, then you’re gonna need protection when you tie the knot to finish it off.”, He explained to me.
“Thanks, but I won’t be needing this. I’ll keep it, but I won’t use it tonight. I have to head out now. I’ll see you later tonight when I prove you wrong that I can handle myself.”, I boasted to him as I walked out the door.
As I shut the door behind me, I heard some small grumbles from inside my apartment. Regardless, he wasn’t gonna change my mind on this. I thought that I was truly ready to take on this challenge on my own.
Before I had any second thoughts on my final choice, I forced myself out of my apartment to the streets of Manehatten. Since the trains only stuck to the inner cities and not the coast, I had no choice but to have to ride into a taxi to get to the pier. Being honest, I don’t necessarily like to ride in taxis. It’s something to do with a certain fear that one day I will be riding in one and then all of a sudden the driver will take off in a high speed launch after hearing some song scream out,”Yah, Yah, Yah, Yah, Yah!”. It sounds like a weird opening to a video game, but It still was a fear in the back of my mind when it came to taxis.
Collecting myself, I quickly waved over a taxi nearby. Thankfully I wouldn’t have to wave for over fifteen minutes like most people as a car pulled up. Without haste, I opened the door to the car to get in the back. CLosing the door behind me, the driver spoke in a very thick New Horsy accent.
“Where to boss?”, He said looking back.
When he looked at me, his look kind of threw me off. He had this mustache that looked like a movie villains, but at the same time it was large enough to fit the normal New Horsy resident. He still bothered me though, I didn’t know why. At the time, I just left it alone.
“Uh, I need to get to the pier. Can you get there as quick as you can?”, I asked him.
“We get there when we get there boss.”, he said in the annoyed Horsy accent.
Yep, that adds up now. Pure Horsy resident. New Horsy is the wild side of Manehatten. The easiest way to tell them apart is by taking a listen to their accent. I can't really describe it, but when you hear it you're going to know that it's a Horsy person.
Without any further details, my ride to the pier was short, or as the driver called it,"when we get there". The tone of the city changed from busy and frantic to calm and tranquil as we approached the coast. This wasn't as populated as the city, resulting in a not as crowded beach line with a pier. I would honestly love to live here but it's stupid expensive just to pay for rent at the cheapest apartments here.
"Alright buster. We're here. Now get on out of here.", the driver said pulling up to the pier.
Without paying attention I got out of the car without realizing that I hadn’t paid for the ride. Literally as I closed the door, he took off in a rush.
“Wait I forgot to……..pay for the trip.”, I yelled out to him as he took off.
I was probably getting on his nerves to make him want to dump me and get out of there as quickly as he could. It was common for a lot of Horsy residents to have a relatively short temper. But regardless, now I had more money to pay for me and Sunset.
I walked into the restaurant and was greeted by a waitress. I had told her that I was looking to make a table for two. Thankfully, the table she chose was right by the view of the coast and often gets pretty during the night. It was starting to get dark as the outside lights began to shine in a shade of warm orange. Everything was coming together. The only problem was that I was the only one there.
I don’t know if the waitress could read me or not, but for some reason she put me in some really segregated part. It was almost startling because I was beginning to think that I was in the wrong table. But, I was proven wrong when she came by to ask me if I wanted some water.
The more I sat there alone, the more nervous I became. Not from where I sat, but because of me being the only one to arrive. It was about the time we had agreed, and I was the only one who was there. At first I thought that she would arrive maybe a few minutes later. I figured that maybe traffic had caught her. But as a few minutes turned into five, and then ten, I began to worry that I was being duped. So much so that I had been nervously downing all of my glasses of water.
I began to doubt that I was worth dating the more I sat there. As I began contemplating just leaving and collecting my loses, I saw the waitress walking towards me with Sunset right behind her. She was wearing a short, beautiful crimson dress. Her hair was looking as good as it always is, as well as some small makeup done.
As they both had approached, I instinctively stood up to say hi.
“Sunset!”, I greeted her.
“Hi Rocky! Sorry for showing up a little late. I was getting ready and got caught by time.”, she explained.
“Oh no you’re fine. I was starting to think that I might have arrived too early.”, I said.
Her and I nervously laughed at each other for a little bit as we explained our situations.
“You look g-good”, I stuttered.
Oh no! I thought I had gotten rid of it for good. I thought that Brim had beaten it out of me. Looks like it is back for more.
“Thanks. I had gotten this dress a while back from an old friend of mine. I thought that I would never have to wear it, but tonight seemed like the first time to wear it.”, Sunset said sitting down at the table.
Maybe it was a fluke. It might have been one last time for old times sake to see me grow up.
“That's good. It looks rather pretty on you.”, I said snapping out of the stuttering.
“I think so too.”, she said smiling at me.
As we sat down, our waiter had come up to come and take our order.
“Can I get you two something to drink?”, Our waiter said.
Remember that feeling I felt with the driver who brought me to the pier? That feeling came back when I saw the waiter. He was rather stout with a smaller height, but he had a moustache that was very similar to the driver’s. Not only that, but his voice was weirdly familiar. Not like the driver’s, but just oddly familiar. Was it Dee’s? No, his was more awkward.
“Rocky?”, Sunset asked me breaking my thoughts.
“Oh uh. I’m sorry I was in a train of thought suddenly. What do you have?”, I asked the waiter.
“Well, tonight in particular we have a drink special where all alcoholic beverages are half priced. Could I interest you two in our Night Stout?”, the waiter asked.
“I would like to try it. What about you Rocky?”, Sunset asked me.
I dismissed it for the moment, trying to focus on the date at hand.
“Uh, yeah. I’ll do the same thing as well.”, I answered.
“Two Stouts coming right up.”, He said before walking away.
“I never would’ve thought that about you.”, Sunset said to me.
“Thought what?”, I asked.
“That you would drink. For some reason I would think you were the type of person to drink only water and tea.”, she explained.
“Oh. Well sometimes when stress kicks in for me I resort to it to try and wind down.”, I explained.
“You get shitfaced?”, she said cocking an eyebrow.
“What?! No No! Not at all! Or not very often!”, I said defensively.
“You crack me up with how defensive you are Rocky.", she said with a small smirk.
"I-I really don't mean to. I guess it's a weird habit.", I explained.
"It's not a bad habit. It fits you.", Sunset told me.
"Well uh, thanks.", I said nervously.
We had an early bit of awkward silence. What was going on? I thought it would be a lot easier since I asked her out with no fear. Now it just feels like some regular conversation with her on a day at college. I needed to turn it around, and turn it around quick.
"So uh….. how is life?", I awkwardly asked trying to break the silence.
"It's going fine. I was a little excited to actually be doing something with someone for once.", She said putting her arm on the table.
"What had stopped you?", I asked.
"It's been mainly school. Projects and all that other crap. If it's not that, its because most friends I have here are too busy with other things.", She explained.
"Like what?", I asked trying to keep the conversation going.
"It's complicated. Sometimes they will have projects, and then sometimes they just well….", she said before going silent.
"Sometimes what?", I asked.
She looked down. It looked like it wasn't a subject that she wanted to talk about. It could have hit a bad memory.
"I'm sorry. I feel that it wasn't my place to ask.", I apologized to her.
"No no, you're fine it's just…..sometimes they just don't invite me to stuff that they had planned. Like it started with the thought of maybe they forgot to invite me, but then it started to make me think that maybe they didn't want me around or something like that. Its especially prevalent when I try to talk to them and they just…you know what I mean.", she explained.
"Oh Sunset. I'm sorry that you feel that way sometimes. ", I said sympathetically.
"It's okay. That is because now I could actually do something with you for once. Being honest, you’re the only one that I guess really acknowledges me that I'm there.", Sunset said.
"W-Well, I'm thankful for that.", I said.
"Two Night Stouts for the couple by the seaside!", The waiter said coming with our drinks.
"Oh uh, yeah thanks.", I said taking my drink and handing Sunset hers.
"Have you two thought of something to order for tonight?", He asked us.
That's when we noticed that our table didn't have any menus on it. Come to think of it, almost all the tables had some except for ours.
"Uh, not yet. We didn't even get the chance to see a menu.", I explained.
"Oh I'm terribly sorry. I shall get you two a menu right away in sweet lu-ord's time.", he said walking off in the other direction.
Did you hear that? It was a weird stutter that he did. It for some reason made me feel deja vu. Like I heard that phrase before. As he walked away, I paid close attention to him to see what was it about him that set me off. He seemed pretty regular. Maybe I was just hearing things.
"You okay Rocky?", Sunset said noticing my glance.
"What? Oh yeah. I'm fine. It's just that the waiter reminds me of someone. I'm not sure who though.", I explained sipping my beer.
"Speaking of which, you never explained that to me yet.", Sunset said sipping her stout.
"Explained what?", I asked.
"The person you have been seeing. You said he is a friend that helped you out?", She asked.
I knew who she was referring to. But I can't just say to her that I have a demon in my apartment, I'd look crazier than the hobos on our street. I needed to speak of him in different terms.
"Yeah, he moved in not to long ago next door to me. He felt the need to introduce himself and get to know everyone in the apartment. At first, I was a little weirded out because I don't usually socialize with a lot of people. ", I explained.
"And then suddenly that changed from you only talking to me to talk to me and your friend?", she asked.
"It's weird. He seemed to cling himself onto me to talk, but after a while he seemed like a regular dude.", I explained.
"Oh I see. Do you two often hang out?", She asked.
"I don't call it 'hanging out' per say, I think of it more as him just talking to me when I pass by.",I tried to explain.
"Mmm, well I'm glad you have more friends. Or well, another friend. ", she said looking down at her stout before sipping it again.
I could tell by her face that it was slightly bothering her. Not me having Brim as a friend, but rather a link that connected to our last conversation. I wanted to address it, but I didn't think that I was close enough to talk to her like that.
"Well we are out of menus, but might I suggest you order a new special we have called the 'One for all' Platter? It's gonna have enough for you two to share and it costs about the same as two separate meals.", the waiter suggested.
I looked over at Sunset to see if she wanted to do that. With an approving nod, Sunset said all she needed to say.
"Sure, we could do that.", I answered him.
"Alright. I'll have your meals out in just a second. Might offer you some more drinks you finished?", He asked.
"I think we still have a full gla-", I said before looking down at our glasses to see that they were empty.
"Whoa, looks like we downed ours a little fast. We would like some more please.", Sunset said answering for me.
"Coming right up.", He said walking away with our empty glasses.
"Something wrong?", Sunset asked me noticing my look of confusion.
"I could have sworn that we had just taken sips of our beers. Did you feel that?", I asked.
“Nope. It was a full drink we just did. I think your ‘alcoholic tendency’ is coming out.”, she said with a smirk to try and mess with me.
“Heh, maybe.”, I said to her.
Not long after, we got our drinks and food after that. The food was absolutely delicious. The waiter wasn’t lying when he said it was large enough to feed a couple of people. Sunset also seemed to have enjoyed it as well. All of a sudden, our talk had turned from talking about stuff going on in the present to our past. In that conversation, I discovered a lot of things that I never knew about Sunset. She told me that she had been a rhythm guitarist for a band she was in back in high school. I don’t know why, but she didn’t give me that vibe at all that she was a music person.
In those talks, I began to open up a little bit more, partially due to the three beers I had in me to help calm me down. All of a sudden, I was cracking jokes and telling more embarrassing stories about me and my family. I would’ve never done this otherwise, but I was glad to know that Sunset was enjoying it.
“So wait wait wait. So when you were seven you managed to light your curtains on fire from simply lighting a candle?”, she asked me with a laugh.
“No no it’s more complicated than that. It was Hanukkah and it was the fifth day. I was given the opportunity to light the candles. Me being eight, I didn’t know that you were supposed to hold onto the non wax part to not burn your fingers. So when the candle wax melted, I managed to burn my finger slightly, resulting in me dropping the candle on the gift for that night and frantically trying to put it out.”, I explained to her with a smile.
“Ha ha. You tried to put it out with the curtain?!”, She said with a laugh.
“It was the only thing nearby. I got my ass beat for burning it, but at least it wasn’t a burnt down house.”, I said.
“Oh my god that is funny!”, She said.
“Are you two doing okay over here?”, the waiter asked walking over to us.
“Oh yeah, we’re fine. Do you think you can do one more round of drinks before we head out.”, I asked him.
“I’ll do you better. We have this share cocktail by the bar on the rails. If you go over there they can make that for you two can drink out of the same glass.”, He explained.
“Do you want to get it Sunset?”, I asked her.
“Sure why not? It’ll make this night last a little longer. I’ve been having fun.”, she said with a slightly buzzed smirk.
We set aside some money to pay for the meal and headed over to the bar. I could tell that we were just a little drunk because of how much we were laughing at some dumb stuff. For instance, we found a street performer playing with some sticks to be amusing. Or at least I did. We later made it to the bar and ordered it, unfortunately we had to wait a few minutes since a lot of people were ordering it as well. To pass the time, both me and Sunset were hanging around the rail by the water just talking like we did at dinner. It was going fine until for some reason Sunset had just stopped. She just looked blankly into the water like she was drifting off into another state of mind.
“You okay Sunset?”, I asked her putting a hand on her shoulder.
She jumped from me touching her. I must’ve really interrupted a thought.
“Oh yeah. I was just thinking about something. It’s dumb, you wouldn’t want to know about it.”, she said dismissively.
“I just told a story about me being a dumb little kid nearly burning down a house. I’m sure your thought is perfectly fine.”, I said comforting her.
“Do you really want to know?”, She asked me with a small smile.
“Absolutely I do.”, I answered.
She looked back into the sea before sighing and closing her eyes.
“This is the first time in a really long time that I’ve had this much fun with someone. Like a really long time.”, she explained.
“What’s so dumb about that?”, I asked.
“It was back in high school when I had this much fun with them.”, She said.
“Them?”, I asked.
“My old friends. We would hang out like this all the time, although we never did drink. Well, maybe Rainbow but ...I'm sorry, I was going off on a tangent. You don’t need to know about the rest.”, she said trying to dismiss it.
“No I do. They honestly seem like the nicest friends. Friends I wish I had back in High School.”, I said.
“Your compliment doesn’t even scratch the surface to how much they meant to me. Not only were they the best friends I have ever had but……”, she said before sighing and continuing,”....they were kind of like my closest family”.
She all of a sudden went silent on me again. I went to try and say something, but then Sunset continued.
“All those years away from them really has made me miss them so much. Like I could never find anyone as good as them. They really helped me to become a better person and I-I…..I love them so much for all they did.”, she said suddenly tearing up a little bit.
I felt bad now, I wanted to tell her that I was sorry for the way she had been feeling, but then she kept on going.
“But then, I kept talking to you a little bit more. Getting to know you in those small little increments of time before or after class. You honestly kept me going through a lot of stuff by simply being there for me and talking to me like I was one of your own. That’s when I realized, you’re the first person to ever be on my old friend’s level of importance to me.”, She said turning to me.
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. She thought of me like I was one of her closest and dearest friends of all. The fact she mentioned how much I helped her through so much, it really made me realize how much I really could’ve been there for her if I went to drink coffee with her a couple of times.
“Sunset, I….”, I said to her before stopping.
“Yes?”, she said waiting for me to respond.
Here comes the big moment. The moment where I put it all on the table and bet it all. The moment that could make or break me as a person. There’s no going back now Rocky.
“...You’ve...been like that for me too. In all honesty, I never knew what it was like to be appreciated by someone who wasn’t directly related to me. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I never had any close friends. Especially not as close as you’ve been to me. That day you came up to meet me for the first time really made me feel that I could actually talk to someone about stuff that I really clicked with.”, I told her.
“Do you…. really mean that?”, She asked me.
“I do. Even before I got help from a friend I knew. It’s just that I….I think you know what I mean.”, I said looking into the sea with her.
We both stood by each other silently before I felt that we both looked at each other.
“Sunset?”, I asked her.
“Yeah?”, she said softly.
Without any explanation why, I felt that our faces were moving closer to each other. It was slow, but it was still moving. Then as sudden as thunder and lighting, our lips pressed with one another as we closed our eyes. Still to this day, I can’t describe the feelings I was feeling when we had kissed for the first time. The best way I can describe it is like riding a really steep roller coaster. You are scared with anticipation as you rise. Then, as you slowly creep down to the fall, your fear turns to happiness as you scream with joy. That describes it best as my first kiss. Fear and pure bliss.
We slowly pulled away from each other as we began to blush a deep red. We both were unexpectedly blindsided by what just happened. We stood silently as we were out there in front of the water.
“Order for Rocky and Sunset!”, our bartender yelled out to break our silence.
“I…. think it’s time we head home.”, Sunset said with a blush rubbing on her arms.
We both began to move away from the rails and walked past the bar. I noticed our drink was there. We were really excited to get it and I didn’t want it to go to waste.
“Sunset wait.”, I said.
She stopped to face me.
“Before we go, you want to make this night last a little bit longer?”, I asked pointing at our drink.
Not saying a word, she gave a small smile before nodding yes. She and I grabbed the drink with both our hands and got our straws ready to sip on our separated sides. Suddenly, Sunset began to speak a little.
“Here’s to us.”, she said before sipping into her side.
“To us.”, I responded before hitting my side.
What happened after that was a blur. We had originally planned to go home afterwards, but then we stuck around in different places. I don’t remember it all that well, but we ended up in a local park that was near my apartment that we walked around in. She and I were laughing like we were before, only this time I didn’t know what we were laughing about. Were we okay? No, we were just like what Sunset had said jokingly about me earlier: We Were Shitfaced.
After that, it was a blur up until a point that I never expected to get to. The last thing I remember from that night was in my apartment. For whatever reason that happened, me and Sunset were both in my bed completely naked and making out with each other. I never knew how to kiss a girl like that, so it is still a mystery how we were doing that. All I could feel was the warmth of our bodies next to each other as we were making sweet and drunkenly love to each other. After that, it was all a fuzzy memory. What I could assume was that night went on like you would expect: Me and Sunset singing drunken lullabies.