Matt and I were playing video games in the living room when he suddenly paused the game, set the controller down on the cushion beside him and turned to me with a serious look on his face.

“Hey, I was winning,” I whined, annoyed at the interruption to my winning streak.

“I was just thinking about something,” Matt started, completely dismissing my complaint.

“Wow, thinking? Did it hurt?” I ask in a childish attempt at sarcasm. Matt, however, was used to my often giddy and childish behaviour and he didn’t even bat an eyelid at this. I knew that I wasn’t going to be getting back to my game anytime soon, so I put my controller down and motioned for him to continue telling me about whatever brainwave he had just had.

“How long have you and Alex been seeing each other?”

I had no idea where he was taking this, but the simple mention of Alex’s name brought a smile to my face. I didn’t need to think of the date of that kiss. I knew the date straight off. It was something that I couldn’t forget.

“Since October fifth, so that’s about two months.”

“And you haven’t taken him on a proper date yet or asked him to be your boyfriend yet? You haven’t tried to make everything official?”

Matt sounded shocked at this revelation and if you were to listen to him, you’d think that he was the gay one, not me! As much as I hated to admit it, he was right; Matt did have a point. Alex and I had been so content together in our own little bubble that the thought of doing something a little more public had never crossed our minds. We were both happy to stay in after our tutoring sessions and talk or cuddle and watch movies. As for making things official, well Alex knew how I felt about him and I knew how he felt about me. Matt was right though, and he knew it because straight away he immediately began shooting suggestions for dates at me.

I really wasn’t patient enough to let Matt just go on and on and on. I had to stop him before he went too far. If I left him to his own devices, then he would have had a wedding planned in a heartbeat. Besides, I knew Alex and I knew what Alex liked. I had an idea of what I wanted our perfect date to be like. It was one that would work out perfectly and it was one that I hoped that Alex would enjoy. Before I could plan anything though, I needed to text Alex and make sure that he knew that he was all mine for the night.

Don’t plan anything for the night. I’ll collect you @ 6. - J xx

I quickly sent the text before pulling out my laptop to do some research.

~*~*~*~

The evening flew by and before I knew it, I was on my way to collect Alex. My day managed to get a hell of a lot brighter when I saw him getting into the car.

“Hey, Lex,” I started but my greeting was cut short by Alex leaning over the console and capturing my lips in an amazing kiss.

“Hi, Jack,” Alex whispered, smiling shyly as we broke apart. “Sorry, I needed to do that.”

My shy Alex then returned as he glanced nervously around the empty parking lot to make sure that no one had seen us.

“What‘s up?” I questioned, lacing my fingers with his. “Is everything okay?”

Alex sighed as he leaned back in the chair.

“It’s nothing, really,” he explained. “I’ve just had a bad day. Dad and I argued over something silly. I was so happy to get your text earlier. It made my day better. I needed to get out of the house.”

“Let’s hope that I can make your day even better then, because you are mine and only mine for tonight and we are going on a date.”

This immediately caught his attention and Alex wanted to know where we were going.

~*~*~*~

“Are you kidnapping me?” Alex questioned when he had run out of places that we could be going to. We had been driving for over an hour and his guesses were getting more and more ridiculous with each one, but I didn’t care.

“Maybe,” I smirked, giving him the same reply that I had given him to every single one of his guesses. “You‘ll find out soon enough.”

Alex was quiet for a moment but with Alex, he’s never quiet for too long.

“You know babe, technically it‘s not kidnapping if I want to be here and, since I very much want to be here with you, then I guess that you aren‘t kidnapping me.”

Alex could be so impatient at times and he was cute when he got worked up over something so small. Alex began to occupy himself by skipping through tracks on my iPod until he found one that he liked and began singing along softly as I concentrated on the road ahead of me as traffic built up around me. We had left our leafy suburban town and headed in the direction of the city of Baltimore. I had figured that we would have a much smaller chance of running into anyone from school here and that meant that we would have more privacy. More than anything, I just wanted everything to go well tonight. I wanted to take Alex on the perfect first date.

First stop was the movie theatre which was showing a new 3D film that I knew Alex had wanted to see. He’d mentioned how cool it looked after we saw the trailer. The movie theatre was pretty empty considering we were going to see what was essentially a kid’s film but hey, we are all kids at heart, right? Alex and I found a seat in the back corner and I couldn’t help but notice that even though he was wearing the hideous glasses, Alex still managed to pull them off. He looked so cute in them. He noticed me looking at him and squirmed awkwardly as he buried his head in my shoulder.

“Stop looking at me, babe.”

I lifted my arm, putting it around Alex and pulled him closer to me as I placed a kiss on his cheek.

“Why?” I asked. “You look hot in those glasses!”

~*~*~*~

“That was a really good film,” Alex announced as we walked hand in hand back to the car, eating ice cream cones. “Thank you for such a great date. I couldn‘t have imagined a better first date. It was perfect.”

Alex came to a stop at my car and kissed me, wrapping his arms around my neck, pulling me closer to him. I could taste the sweet taste of strawberries from his ice cream.

“It’s not over yet,” I reminded him when we pulled apart. “There‘s more still to come! Come on, let‘s head back to mine.”

As we drove home, I began thinking of the big step that I was about to take. I was one hundred percent prepared to take our relationship to the next level and I think that Alex would be committed to making it more official. Although, in reality asking Alex to be my boyfriend was more of a formality than anything else. I already considered him to be my boyfriend, my partner. The fact that he was allowed to be around Bella was a testament to this. Bella is legally my daughter now, and I’m so careful about who I let into our lives. I don’t want to do anything that could harm her in any way. I trust very few people with Bella apart from my mom and a few close family members and friends. Alex is a part of that select group that I would trust Bella with. I had come up with the perfect way of asking Alex and I had thought of it all on my own, without any of Matt’s help.

Even if I do say so myself, I was sure that Alex would love the evening that I had planned for him. He didn’t even recognise my room when he stepped into it. I had moved all of Bella’s stuff out of the room and into Matt’s room. Matt and Bella were spending the night at his girlfriend’s apartment which meant that we would have the place to ourselves all night.

Alex’s face lit up when he saw the pile of DVD’s which I had picked out because I knew that they were his favourite ones.

“You did all of this for me?” He asked, turning to face me whilst clutching onto my hand.

“Of course I did. I made cupcakes too. We have the place all to ourselves. Matt and Bella are at Cassie‘s which means that there will be no five am wake up call. Be warned though, the next time that you stay over, there will be! I‘m letting you off lightly for your first night over, babe.”

“This is why I love you,” Alex stated, breathing a contented sigh of relief as he rested his head against my chest. It was the first time that he had ever said that to me and I had no hesitation in saying it straight back to him.

“I love you too, Alex, with all of my heart,” I placed a kiss on his lips before leading him to sit down on my bed. “Wait here and I‘ll show you the cupcakes that I made.”

Alex sat cross-legged on my bed watching eagerly as I walked over to my desk and grabbed the special cupcakes that I had spent hours trying to perfect earlier. I took one quick glance at them to make sure that they were okay before carrying them across the room to him. Alex paused the DVD that he had just started and smiled at me widely as I handed him the plate.

On the plate, were four carefully arranged cupcakes with a message on them reading, ‘Be my boyfriend?’

Alex looked up at me, his face lighting up as he placed the plate on my bedside cabinet. He only got as far as saying ‘Yes’, and before he could say anymore, I leaned forward catching him in a passionate kiss. I’ll admit that my idea was a little corny but I didn’t care, it had worked. Alex had said yes to being my boyfriend and I couldn’t have been happier. I had everything that I could possibly want in life. Once, I had managed to tear myself away from Alex, I settled on the bed beside him as we cuddled and talked for a while before settling down and watching one of Alex’s favourite films, ‘Batman Begins’.