Page 43 of Breakaway Goal

James and I have been talking more lately. He’s nice, he’s cute, and we have a lot in common. We even exchanged phone numbers recently, and a couple days ago we were texting about our favorite movies pretty late into the night.

There’s a gleam of interest in his eye when he looks at me. I think.

We chat every day before and after our Figure Drawing class. We even have a couple inside jokes together.

He’s probably interested, right? Or at least, I don’t know, open to being interested? If I asked him on a date or something? Would he be texting me past ten at night on a Tuesday if he weren’t?

“Hey, did you see that the movie theater in town is showingBefore Sunrise?” he asks. It’s a movie we both were talking about the other night as one we’ve been interested in watching but haven’t gotten around to yet.

“Really?” I ask, my interest piqued. “That’s so cool. I love how that theater shows classic movies along with new releases.”

“Yeah, same,” James answers. “I would’ve killed to have something like that in my hometown growing up.”

There’s a stilted, awkward moment as it seems like James is about to say something—ask something?—but then stops short.

I open my mouth, but only a peep of strangled sound makes its way out as James does the exact same thing.

“Sorry,” I say with an awkward chuckle, “you go ahead.”

He shakes his head, strangely fast. “No. You go ahead.”

“Uh, I wasn’t really going to say anything. It’s not important. What were you saying?”

I feel like a middle schooler at my first dance, gracelessly trying to talk to one of the boys. Which, I guess, I kind of am.

“Well,” James begins, “I was thinking I wanted to go see it. The movie. At the theater.”

There’s a beat of silence, which I fill by saying, “Yeah, me, too,” nodding my head.

“Cool. Yeah. So maybe we can go together.”

His cheeks color. The heat in my face suggests that mine do, too.

“Cool. Yeah. We should!”

He nods his head. I nod my head. It’s all so awkward that I feel like I’m about to collapse in on myself, curl up into a tiny ball, and die. But at the same time, my lips are pulling up into a smile and there’s a feeling of excitement bubbling in my chest.

I just need to ignore the echo in the back of my head reminding me that he’s not the one I really want.

“Maddie.”Jasmine says my name with an admonishing tone as she fixes me with her gaze from the other side of the table. “Ofcourseit’s a date.”

“Is it, though?” I question. Ever since James asked me to go to the movies with him, the over-analysis switch has been flipped to theOnposition in my brain. “Maybe I should have asked him? To make sure we’re both on the same page? I mean, friends go to the movies together, too.”

“Guys don’t usually go awkward and stuttery when they ask one of their friends to see a movie with them,” Jasmine retorts. I told her the story of how it happened.

“He blushed, too,” I say, picturing how his cheeks went cherry red.

“Oh, yeah?” Jasmine asks with a sly, interested grin.

I nod. “Even the tips of his ears.”

Jasmine’s eyes go big. “Girl, this issoa date. No question.”

She’s right. It’s a date. I’m going to have my first date.

“I’ll be sure to find an excuse to be out of our room that night,” Jasmine says with a twinkle in her eye, nudging my knee with hers under the table, “in case you two need somespace.”

My stomach does a tiny twist. “That won’t be necessary,” I say with a roll of my eyes.

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