The sun wasn't surrounded by white clouds today. Unlike every past few days, today the sun was shining brightly across the blue sky. It was only the end of January, but there were clear signs of Spring season suddenly creeping upon us.

Neving being asked out on a date, I had no idea what the prospect was for clothing. After much deliberation, Harper and Chloé came by my place this morning to help me get ready.

"You should just wear something you feel good in." Harper had said while she went through my makeup box.

"Yeah, Noah's gonna love whatever you have on, even if it's just jeans and a hoodie." Chloé had agreed with my cousin, and also slipped out that little piece of information that had clouded my brain.

They stayed for lunch and left afterwards, and I got ready. Something I felt good in? That had to be my white converse and my favorite dress - one that I had gotten for my birthday a couple of years ago. It wasn't too long but it wasn't short either. It rested just above my knees and it had little lilac and yellow flowers, decorating the white fabric. It was long sleeved and with two small openings on both sides of my waist.

I had offered to meet him at the beach but Noah insisted that a real date was him picking me up, driving us to our date and then bringing me back home. I couldn't fight him on that, so, I was patiently - or better saying, impatiently - waiting for him to ring the doorbell.

Noah meeting my dads wasn't something I was dreading. He'd already met them when he picked me up for the concert, so, there wouldn't be any surprises there. However, this wasn't a concert I was going to with a group of friends, this was a date. Just me and Noah. And I have two dads, so it's overprotective times two.

I checked the time. It was five o'clock, and right on cue, the doorbell rang.

I wondered if he'd gotten here early and had been waiting in his jeep for the clock to strike five. I smiled at the thought before grabbing my bag and my jacket and walking down the stairs.

"Do you want to open the door?" My dad asked, with an annoyingly cute smile on his face. They were enjoying this much more than I'd thought.

I shrugged. "Sure."

I opened the door and there he was. Noah Wilson, looking tall and tanned as always, his brown curls flopping onto his forehead and some even slightly covering his brown eyes.

"Hi."

He smiled. His smile was so contagious and hypnotizing I hadn't even noticed he was offering me a bouquet of flowers until he nudged them into me and they were right in front of my eyes.

"These are for you."

"Thank you." I picked up the bouquet, taking it from his grasp and inched them closer to my nose to smell them. "They're really beautiful."

I noticed his fingers fidgeting by themselves, sensing the absence of the flowers. I couldn't believe Noah Wilson was nervous to go on a date with me of all people. I mean, he wasn't the school's most popular guy, in fact, he wasn't popular at all, but he was social. He could basically have any girl in the school and yet he wanted to go on a date with me. And he was nervous about it.

That didn't help my nerves either.

"Good to see you, Noah." My father, who stood behind me, said.

"You too, Mr. Moore." Noah smiled again.

"So, uh, are you ready to go?" He turned his attention back to me.

I nodded and hummed in agreement and after waving goodbye to my parents, I left with Noah, making our way to his jeep.

We got into our seats and drove all the way to the beach, to the same secluded beach where we hung out for the first time, at the bonfire.

He parked the vehicle. When we got out and moved to the back of his jeep to pick up the things for the date, I noticed it was much more clean. No sand. No wetsuits thrown into a corner.

I kept those thoughts to myself and focused on getting the supplies for our date.

I carried the two pizza boxes that smelled divine while Noah carried the drinks and the beach towels and blankets.

The beach wasn't usually that frequented, and since it was Winter, it only helped our situation. It was just me and Noah, the sun that was setting beautifully across the horizon, the sound of the seagulls crossing the blue sky, and the waves that were slowly crashing against the shore and against the rocks that delimited the beach.

It all felt perfect. It felt like it was all too good to be true.

Better than any date I have watched on television shows and movies.

We settled on a spot near the rocks on the right side of the beach, and sat down on the blue towel that Noah had straightened out for us.

"You can't possibly tell me that you prefer the sunrise to this." I said as I pointed to the skyline, stretching my legs in front of me and draping one leg on top of the other.

"I can see what you see in it... but my reasons for preferring the sunrise still top yours." He winked and handed me a can of Diet Coke. "So... what are you thinking of the date?"

"Well, considering I have no term of comparison, I am liking it so far."

Noah nodded in realization, remembering when I told him I had never been on a date before.

"Have you been on dates?"

"Yeah, but..." He chuckled softly while his brain was filled with what I could only assume it was a blast from the past. "I was younger and it was a disaster."

"I'm gonna need a little bit more than that." I said before adding. "And if you choose not to tell me, I'm just gonna rip that information off of Ben."

"Alright," He said in surrender, before telling his story. "We were seventh graders and I asked her if she wanted to come to my birthday party at the movie theater. She said yes, and when she got there, of course, there was no one else there but me because there was no party, that was just to lure her to go on a date with me. My birthday's in June and this was in March!" I opened my mouth widely in shock. "And then when she realized what I had done, she just left."

I laughed out loud. "Oh, no!"

"Ran off for her life like I was the devil." He added as he shook his head.

I continued laughing out loud, thinking about a twelve year old Noah going through all that trouble just to get a girl to go on a date with him, and the girl then running off.

"What movie was it?"

"It was Captain America." He said while he pulled one knee up and wrapped his arms around it, keeping his leg tightly against his chest.

I managed to stop laughing. "Well, you started things off by lying to her and betraying her trust." He turned his head in my direction. "What else did you expect?"

"Well, I hope you know that's not the case with this date." He spoke, his words rolling out of his tongue so softly and yet in a low voice, that it overlapped the sound of the waves crashing.

My skin crawled and I found myself speechless. I nodded and busied myself with cracking open the can of my drink. I then took a sip, longing for the much needed distraction after Noah's latest statement.

He must have gotten the hint because his eyes soon left mine and he subjected himself to showing me the pizzas.

"I got us two pizzas. I didn't know which toppings you prefered, so..."

He opened the top cardboard box, revealing a mainly vegetarian pizza with peppers, mushrooms and pineapple. Then, he moved onto the next box, showing me a pizza covered in pepperoni. A classic.

"I'm sure we can take down two pizzas but if there are any leftovers you can take them with you, if you want." He added and I smiled before thanking him.

I watched Noah, my eyes lingering on his arms and hands as they moved the boxes. Then, something caught my eye, and I couldn't help but let out an audible gasp as I started figuring out what it was. "Is that a tattoo?"

Noah's brown eyes followed my gaze and they rested on the ink on the inside of his wrist.

"Oh, yeah." He responded, nonchalantly, as if having a permanent mark on his skin was no big deal.

Instinctively, I let the fingertip of my index finger run through his skin. "Is it the moon?"

"Yes." He replied before furthering his explanation. "My favorite phase of the moon. It's called the balsamic or waning crescent moon." He tapped his index finger against the ink. "It reflects the beginning of a new cycle."

"Or the end of the previous one." I shot back, winking at him, causing Noah to smile.

"Yeah, or that too." Noah looked into my eyes before winking back. "The beginning of the end."

It's so funny to me. How Noah and I were - and still are - two complete opposites, living our lives with such different mindsets and looking at things so differently with entirely distinct and divergent perspectives. Yet, we can find a lot of similarities between us. We make room for our differences and turn them into connecting points. Bridges that allow us to cross from him to me and me to him.

Isn't it funny?

I picked up a slice of the pepperoni pizza and took a small bite before swallowing it and speaking up again.

"So, I would love to know the motivations behind this date."

Noah shot me a puzzled expression that reflected how lost he was.

"Well, I don't know about you but after New Year's I can't stop thinking about our kiss."

I wasn't expecting him to be that direct. But then again, he's always been that way with me. Cutting the chase and speaking the words inside his brain. And I liked that about him.

"It's your turn to say something." He said, his eyes almost pleading me to say anything that wouldn't ruin what he'd worked so hard for.

"I..." I had no idea what to say but that seemed like a good start. "I..."

Now you're just sounding ridiculous, Zoey.

"I would be lying if I said that that kiss hasn't run through my mind once or twice."

He nodded and his lips curled upwards into a hint of a smile, that I knew he was trying so very hard not to show.

"Once or twice? Come on, don't break my heart here."

"Fine. More than once or twice."

"It was a pretty good kiss."

"Sure it was."

"I don't know about you, but personally, I would love to repeat it."

His words struck me like a lightning. Just the thought of kissing him again and reliving that amazing experience was enough to send a shiver running down my spine.

His brown eyes eyed my lips so intensely while he leaned in, that I thought he was going to do it again. I thought he was going to smash his lips against mine and send my heart into overdrive, one more time.

I wanted it so badly. I urged for it. I yearned his lips on mine, as hard as that is to believe, even for me.

But he didn't.

Not right away, at least.

"Can I kiss you again?" He asked, whispering against my mouth.

My teeth sank into my bottom lip while I nodded in agreement. His right hand - the one with the moon tattoo on the inside of his wrist - crawled up my neck to gently pull me closer. And then he did it. He kissed me again.

I don't know why I was expecting it to feel the same this time. It wasn't the same, not in the least bit.

It was so much better. My heart was beating so fast against my ribcage, I thought it was going to explode.

Noah's lips brushed against mine in a soft stroke before he picked up the pace, his lips moving in sync with mine more rapidly yet lazily, while he let his tongue slip inside my mouth.

Our first kiss wasn't this thrilling because I didn't see it coming. It came from him without any prior preparation. Without us confessing to each other out loud what we'd been thinking about one another for the longest time, although that might have been the case.

This kiss involved more. More communication. More honesty. More feelings.

And I don't know if I liked it or if it scared me. Maybe it was both.

When he pulled back and we both gasped for air, it felt like it had been an eternity.

He smiled, so widely causing me to smile as well. He bent down and pecked on my lips one last time.

"I really like you." He said, this time, not in a whisper. Aloud, like he didn't want to keep that information to himself anymore. Or hide it under his breath. His brown eyes set into my blue ones, not wanting to look anywhere else, and I felt hypnotized. Caught into a web I didn't want to crawl out of.

I was about to speak up, to say words I didn't even fathom, but he cut me off right before.

"I like you like I've never liked anyone else."

Words vanished from my head. I did not know what to say. No, correction: I knew exactly what to say, I just didn't know how to say it. So I did the next best thing and remained silent.

"That's okay, Zoey." Noah said, holding out his hand, his tattoo facing up.

It's so weird how that has been in his skin for such a long time but I had never seen it and now that I have, I can never unsee it.

I placed my hand on top of his and grasped it with his fingers that clasped around my skin. "You don't have to say anything."

* * * 

author's note: I'M SCREAMING!!! MY BABIES WENT OUT ON THEIR FIRST DATE!!! 🥺❤🥺❤

if you have been wondering about the meaning  behind the title of this story, after reading this chapter, it's pretty self explanatory am i right? also, THOUGHTS????

don't forget to please vote and add this story to your reading list so you don't miss out on any updates!

xoxo, mars