Meet. 

Talk. Talk. Talk. 

Fireworks. 

Text. Text. Talk. Text. 

Now it was time to ask her out - just him and Rachel, the two of them together. Tyler lay on his back, his legs hanging over the side of the bed, and looked at his phone. Rachel's name was at the top of his contacts, but he hesitated. He was strangely nervous - the worst she could do was say no, but he really didn't want her to say no. When he thought about getting close to her, it was like he was exploring the ocean, or discovering another solar system, or something. He hadn't felt this way about anyone since... well, never. 

He tapped her name, and held the phone to his ear. As it rang, he wondered what her ringtone was - probably some kind of Christian Rock, "we love Jesus" shit. When she answered, she said, "Hi, Tyler," and her voice was as nervous as a human's could be. 

"Hey," he said. "What's going on?" 

"Oh, nothing. I'm just... sitting in my room."

"Yeah, me too," he said. He looked at a tiny pink flower that had been sewn into his quilt, and picked at it with one finger. 

"Hey," he said, "what does it mean when someone says they're 'fixing to boil the ocean'?"

"'Boil the ocean'?" she asked. "I have no idea." 

"'Cause this guy came in the store today and said that.... I think that's what he said."

"Well... was he old?"

"Not that old, actually." 

"Maybe it means.... I don't know." She laughed. 

"So, um," he said, "do you have anything going on on Friday?" 

"No," she said. "Just work." 

"Well, would you like to go out? With me? Like, to a movie?" 

"Like, okay," she said, and they both laughed. 

"There's just the one theater, isn't there?"

"Mm-hmm," she said. "You mean... oh, I see." 

"See what?" 

"I just didn't realize that bigger cities had more than one theater." 

"Yeah," he said, "and we also have more than one library. And more than one Walmart."

She laughed. 

"So," he said. "That Barbie movie is supposed to be good."

"Yeah. We could see it."

"Would you want me to pick you up, or...."

"Um, maybe we could meet there," she said, which was kind of a relief. He hadn't really been looking forward to meeting anyone's parents, and hanging out in their living room.

"So, what time...."

"Let me see." She paused for a minute. "It starts at 8:15." 

"We can meet there, then." 

"Okay," she said. 

"Okay." They talked for a little while longer, and then they said goodnight. When Tyler set down his phone, he looked at the ceiling, and he was happy. 

************

Friday night, he said goodbye to his grandma and stepped out onto the porch. As he crossed the front yard, his phone rang, and he pulled it from his pocket. Rachel's name shone on the screen. 

"Hey," he said, holding the phone to his ear. "I'm just leaving."

"Yeah," she said. "Um... the same movie's playing at 10:15. I was wondering if, um... if we could go later?" 

"Oh, okay," he said. He walked down the driveway, and stood at the edge of the street. "That's fine," he said. "But... but why?"

"Well, my mama just has some stuff to do, and she wants me to put Micah and Josiah to bed."

"Oh, okay," he said, and started back toward the house. "10:15, then. We'll meet there." 

"Okay." 

He went back in, and found his grandma in the kitchen. "Well, we're going later," he said, and set down his phone. He thought for a second. "Her parents just order her around like she's a slave."

His grandma laughed. "Well, maybe they're just old-fashioned."

"Then they need to.... I don't know." He went to the living room and found the remote. The cat was curled up in the chair, so he flopped down onto the couch. 

************

Two hours later, he stepped into the bathroom, and glanced in the mirror. His grandma was asleep, and as he walked out to the porch, he locked the door behind him. The night was cloudy and dark, and the crickets were chirping more loudly than it seemed their little wings should be able to. 

He got into the car and backed into the street. When he got to the theater, he noticed a few people standing around on the sidewalk. He glanced through the crowd, but Rachel wasn't in it. He turned into the parking lot, found a space and checked his phone. 

When he left the car, he crossed the street to the box office. He bought a couple of tickets, and stepped to the edge of the curb. Looking up and down the road, he waited. When Rachel came walking toward him, he thought: Wow, she's really pretty, and then he thought: Wow, she's my date. 

"Hey," he said, and took her hand. "I got the tickets." 

"Oh, okay," she said, and they opened a glass door and stepped through. 

In the lobby, they passed the ticket stand and came upon a brightly-lit snack counter. "Do you want anything?" Tyler asked. He expected her to say yes or no, nod or shake her head. But instead it was like she froze, and waited for him to do something. So Tyler said, "I don't usually get any food at the movies," and she sort of whispered, "Okay, I don't either." 

They found the right theater, and went in as some previews were playing. Tyler adjusted his hearing aid, and they held hands as they walked up the stairs. The space was semi-crowded, and he paused on one step. "Where do you want to sit?" 

She did that weird thing again - like she froze - and then she said, "Um... where... wherever you want." 

"Is the back row all right?" 

"Mm-hmm," she said, and quickly nodded her head. So they walked up the stairs to a couple of empty seats. They sat next to each other, and as the movie began, their fingers laced together.

************

Two hours of bright-pink screen time later, the show was over. Tyler and Rachel followed the crowd down the stairs, and he wondered if he'd ever get that song out of his head. "Well," he asked, as they stepped into the lobby, "did you like it?" 

"Mm-hmm. It was funny." 

"Did you play Barbie when you were little?" 

"Yeah. I had like a million of them."

"Someone gave me a Ken doll once," Tyler said, as they stood near a bench. "For my birthday or something. And I think I remember laying him down on the floor and making my trains run him over."

"Oh," she said, and laughed. 

The lobby was nearly empty, and Tyler looked at a clock. "I guess it's too late to go out to eat or anything."

"Yeah," she said. "Everything's going to be closed."

They started toward the doors, and he laid his hand on her back, sort of winding his fingers through her tresses. They stepped outside, and he asked, "Would you have cut your hair, though? If you'd been allowed to?" 

"I don't know," she said. She pulled one strand off her shoulder. "There were so many things I wasn't allowed to do."

"Oh, like what?" 

"I couldn't get my ears pierced, I couldn't play card games, we didn't celebrate Halloween." 

"You didn't? Why not?" 

"Because it's a pagan holiday. I couldn't read Harry Potter, I couldn't watch The Wizard of Oz." 

Tyler laughed. "Well, my grandmother would very strongly disagree. She's really obsessed with that movie." 

"Oh, really?" she asked, as they stepped off the curb and crossed the street.

"Yeah. My uncle used to joke that that was why he turned out to be gay. Because there's this stereotype that gay men idolize Judy Garland." 

"Oh. Was she one of the witches?"

"No," he said. "She was Dorothy." 

The parking lot was almost empty, and so dark that it was hard to see. "So," Tyler asked, "were you allowed to date, though? Like in high school?" 

"Well, it's not that I wasn't allowed to," she said. "We just didn't talk about it." 

"Did you have a boyfriend?" 

"Yeah.... Well, I don't know if 'boyfriend' is the right word. But I went to the senior dance with someone." 

"Oh."

"Yeah. His name was also Christian. Christian Miller. He moved away, though. He went to college." 

They arrived at her car, and she clicked open the doors. Tyler felt a slight breeze, and thought that this really was his favorite time of day - when it was late but not too late. He looked around, and it was like they had the whole world to themselves - there were no other humans in sight. Rachel leaned back against her car, and Tyler knew what she wanted. He stood closer, and moved his hand to the back of her head. Leaning down, he kissed her mouth. 

When they moved apart, they looked at each other and giggled. Rachel circled his neck with both arms, and they kissed again. "Maybe we can just stay here and do this all night," he said, and in that moment it seemed as if they would.