There she is again, this time in a green dress with long flowing sleeves that gather at the wrist. She has possibly millions of bracelets, rings and necklaces on, black tights and tall black boots. Her beautiful blonde hair is middle parted and a little wavier than the first time he met her. Lindsey catches sight of her and smiles.

"Hey Stephanie!" he says, grinning like a fool and waving.

She wrinkles her nose. "Stephanie?"

"That is your name, isn't it?"

"Well, sure, but please, call me Stevie. It's what all my friends call me."

"I didn't know I was considered a friend" he flirts.

"You could be. So what's happenin'?"

"Same old, same old. Got practice again."

"With your band?"

"Well, not really my band but yeah."

"Cool." she replies.

"What are you doing today?"

"Not much, really. I went shopping, nothing too crazy."

"What did you buy?"

She raises an eyebrow. "You're interested?"

"Yeah, why not?"

"I don't know, just most guys wouldn't be too keen to see what a girl bought is all." Lindsey shrugs. "Alright then. And you're sure you really want to see?"

"Yeah, show me, Stevie."

"Alright, um, hold this." she says, thrusting one of her bag at him. He gladly takes one of the twisted paper handles and allows her to rummage through. "I got this pink fuzzy short sleeve sweater. It's kind of shorter, cropped, y'know, so it can go with my skirts. Oh, and this groovy little paisley printed dress."

"Like the pink one you wore last week"

"Yeah...you remembered" She seemed taken aback, smiling at him. "That's really sweet, Lindsey."

"Nah, it's nothing."

"Well, it means something to me. Thank you."

The bus comes and they both hurry aboard. Once seated, he urges her to continue. "What else?" he asks, peaking inside. Now, it seems they've drawn some stares, but neither are bothered by it.

"Then I got this black dress. It's long so I won't take it out but it has these really cool sheer sleeves."

"It sounds like it would be beautiful on you, Stevie."

"You have to be one of the nicest guys I've ever met."

"It's easy to be nice to you." He says and she smiles once again. God, how he loved to see her smile. Her whole face lit up and she became even more beautiful to him in that moment. Stevie looks up a moment and she seems lost. "Something wrong?"

"I think I missed my stop. Ugh..."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to distract you."

"Don't worry. Everything's fine."

"My stop's coming up. Since you said you're not doing anything, why don't you get off with me?"

"Really?"

"Yeah, of course"

"That would be so cool, Linds" She seemed genuinely excited and Lindsey scooted a little closer to her. When it was his time to get off, he took her hand and helped her with her bags. She was grateful, clinging to him like a girlfriend would. He liked the way she held onto his arm, how little she looked beside him. He began to think what it would be like if she were really his.

"Snap out of it" he says to himself, or so he thought.

"Hm?" Stevie asked.

"I didn't say anything"

"I could have sworn" she said with a shrug. Lindsey continues to walk with her, pulling her into him when a crowd passes by, not leaving much room on the sidewalk. He gets to the rehearsal place and there is no one around. He looks around the side, back behind- nothing. He went back around, trying the door knob and it's locked.

"Those little bastards" Lindsey cursed, kicking the bottom of the door. "They could have called before I made my way out here."

"What? Did they cancel?"

"Yeah, and obviously didn't have the balls to tell me."

"Hey, don't get upset. Why don't we do something else?"

"I made you miss your stop, brought you all the way out here and I let you down."

"No you didn't. I'm sure there's lots of fun stuff to do."

"Yeah, maybe..."

"Turn that frown upside down, mister." Stevie says and the cheesiness of it made him smile a little. "That's what I like to see. A handsome guy like you shouldn't be frowning and scowling all the time. I think that's what a lot of these hunky actor types do wrong. Why is it so uncool to be happy? I'll never understand."

Lindsey shrugs. "I'll make it a point to smile more, just for you. So what do you wanna do?"

"I don't know, what do you wanna do?" she asks and he sighs dramatically, making her giggle. "Okay, okay. I'll choose. Why don't we go out to eat or something. Nothing fancy, just a burger and a shake. It'll be my treat."

"No way am I letting you pay. I will treat you."

"And they say chivalry is dead!" Stevie remarks.

"Well, it's not right for a lady to pay. I'm more than happy to spend a little extra time with you."

"You're so cute!" Stevie ruffles his curls and he blushes a little.

They walk down the sidewalk again, spotting a little diner they could sit down and relax in. It seemed mellow and hip, not a single 'early-bird special' type in sight. They take their seat in a booth and promptly order a shake and their food.

"Two straws?" The waitress asks.

"That would be great" Stevie said and Lindsey smiled at her. "What?"

"You're just really beautiful, I'm sorry if I'm staring"

"No, it's okay. Thank you." She takes his hand across the table but instead of holding it, she turns it over, palm up, running her fingers over the prominent lines.

"I guess now is when you tell me you're a palm reading gypsy!" Stevie hushes him, continuing to stroke his palm.

"Do you ever think about what things will be like in 10 or 20 years? Like, what do you see yourself doing?"

"Why, is there something wrong with the lines on my hand?" Lindsey jokes. "I don't know. Do you? You seem like one of the 'in the moment' kind of people."

"Sometimes." she says with a shrug. Their shake is brought out and they each take a sip from their respective straws. Their faces are millimeters apart and Lindsey gets a better look in her eyes. She smiles around her straw and he pulls back. They continue with light conversation, the flirtation ramping up by the minute. Their food arrives and they eat, laughing and having a great time. Both were becoming smitten with each other, but Stevie suddenly became afraid she was falling too fast. What she didn't know was that Lindsey was scared too. He had already noticed his own sadness when she wouldn't see her at the bus stop. He was young, she was young. Nothing was certain. "I think I should be getting home" she said. She dabbed her mouth with her napkin and Lindsey went to pay their bill. He helped her up, gathered her bags again and walked back to the bus stop. He noticed an odd distance now and he turned to her, stopping them both in their tracks.

"Did I do something wrong?" he asked.

"No, Lindsey." she said.

"Are you sure? I hope I didn't ruin your evening."

"You didn't. I had a lot of fun."

"Then what happened? You seem...down, bummed out."

"I..."

"I really like you, Stevie and I just want you to be happy."

She smiled. "I really like you, too." she tells him.

"You just made my whole day, maybe even my whole week." Lindsey leaned down and gave her a chaste kiss on the lips.

"Thank you for today."

"You're welcome. It was you who made it fun." The bus arrived and they got back on. Much too soon, her stop came up and he didn't want her to go. "Can I have your number this time? Please?"

She giggles, nodding vigorously. She grabs a pen from her purse, pulls up the unbuttoned sleeve of his shirt and scrawls her number across his arm. "No calls after 10:30."

"Got it."

"Bye, Linds!" She waves, getting off the bus.

"Bye" he says, going to the window to wave at her but she's already gone.