Best Thing In Town

Finger food wasn't something I trusted. Food that you had eat with your fingers was not something anyone should ever trust. But believe me here, as much as fingers are a brilliant invention and oh how life would truly suck without them - eating food with your fingers, the same things you use to do almost everything in day to day life, things such as; opening door handles which thousands of other hands could have touched and going to the toilet with, is vile.

Not only should you not trust finger food, or you own fingers, but you shouldn't trust the fingers that have prepared the finger food. What if they had done something, touched themselves inappropriately or forgot to wash their hands and then has their germ ridden fingers all over your food? Especially when in this day and age we had knifes and forks.

Now knifes and forks, they are bloody brilliant inventions. It's funny how they were made so you could eat food without having to use your fingers and yet people, such as Alex, still insist finger foods are edible.

I argued my opinion with him, battling it out with every possible argument I could but I didn't win. Apparently we were still going to be eating food with our fingers and god did I feel like a cave woman. It turns out it's not just Freya I can't win an argument against either. I should probably quit trying. Save myself the embarrassment.

Alex, who I apologise is actually twenty-three and proved it quite well, drove us here in his car. All the while we argued over finger food and the use of kitchen cutlery. Oh, and by here I mean to his pretty groovy house in Towson.

I mentally scolded myself for using the word groovy, that needed to stop and pretty fast. In this century, words like that were just not acceptable.

However, back to his house; the only way I could describe it was boyish but, in a clean way and modern, very modernised. I was a little bit confused when he pulled up outside of his house. I had always thought first dates were meant to be nice, romantic meals in which you sit, gazing into each others eyes across a table eating spaghetti drenched in a rich and creamy tomato sauce. Obviously I was misinformed and the movies and books I had watched and read lied, it was heart shattering, of course everybody knows that things that happen in fictional life never really do happen in real life because, if they did the world would be such a wonderful place. Yet the world as we see it is not a wonderful place.

Aware that Alex was now watching me as I stood in his doorway gazing around his house, my cheeks turned a light pink colour, I was almost in awe. Everything was so prim and proper and not what I expected from him at all.

"You can come in you know." He grinned and I obliged, walking warily into his comfort zone because you know he still could turn around and murder me. Not that he would stand much of a chance, I was fast. Very fast and especially when I needed to be - like when running away from a murderer for example.

"You didn't believe me in the car did you? I honestly do not like eating food with my fingers, the idea of my hands touching other things, then touching food and then that food entering my body covered in the other things I've touched freaks me out." As I rambled on and on about my hatred/fear a frown etched onto his face: oops.

Then, without so much as a hesitation, he placed a hand on the small of my back. The sudden contact of his palm on my skin through the flimsy material of my t-shirt made me leap forwads like a crazy grasshopper, whoa.

"And I do not like touchy feely people!" My voice came out like a muffled squeak, mixed with a squeal whilst I wiggled my finger in his direction.

Laughing, Alex just rolled his big brown, with specks of golden caramel eyes. "Is there anything you do like Jade?" He questioned me with a teasing tone to his voice, and maybe, just maybe if we friends I would have playfully hit him against his chest. But if I did that right now, he might think that I was actually enjoying myself and warming up to him. Which I wasn't!

So, when I didn't reply he stuck his tongue out in my general direction and signalled for me to follow him, making no attempt to touch me again. I followed on through his corridor as he took me from the hallway to the front room. Stopping me just before I could enter, I came to a halt and almost collided with his back. Slowly, Alex turned around and blocked my view of the room. Not that it was hard for him, because his height gave him a big advantage. I was tiny compared to him at least.

Warily he brought his hands up and placed them on my shoulders, gently his fingers rubbed my skin, something I'd have flipped at if he didn't suddenly look so nervous. He wasn't soothing me, instead he was soothing himself with the touch of my skin. It gave me slight butterflies.

"Honesty is the best policy right? Well I've never, ever done anything like this before, ever. I mean you know you're quite outspoken right? So for my piece of mind, promise me you won't laugh or be rude and you'll keep in your mind at all times that I have never done anything like this, okay?" There was no smirk or smug grin on Alex's face, instead he looked like a lost puppy.

His whole facial expression screamed cute and admittedly, I couldn't and wouldn't be able to deny his request when he was looking at me like that. Like I had the power to break him. So I nodded my head, giving him my word and promise that I wouldn't be rude, or laugh at him if everything went to shit. I'd just do it mentally instead.

"Good!" He grinned widely after I nodded and then stepped out of the way, into the room.

My jaw dropped, literally, and if it wasn't attached to my face I'm sure it would have hit the ground and smashed into a million and one tiny pieces. Who knew twelve year olds, who were actually twenty-three and able to drive, could plan and do something as beautiful as the scene in front of me?

In the middle of his very modern living room was a small coffee table, just a couple of inches off of the floor. Thrown over it was a blood red, satin cloth, draping down until it almost touched the floor. On top of the table was a selection of foods, mainly picnic foods that you would indeed need to use your fingers to eat: sausage rolls, mini sandwiches, fruit, carrot sticks. Either side of the table were two large floor cushions, perfect for sitting on and at a perfect height to comfortably sit at the table on. The whole idea was absolutely adorable. We were essentially having an indoor picnic, the best kind - no bugs, no screaming children, no gods.

"Alex this is adorable." I spluttered, my mouth working faster than my brain, something that happened a lot when I was happy or pleased.

"You like it?" Alex's voice was a mixture of shock and happiness.

I glanced at him and then back at the table, I felt like an over excited kid at Christmas. What could I say, cute things lure me in. Scared to verbalise anything else, I nodded and just noticed the faint blush on Alex's cheeks.

"No-one has ever done something this adorable for me before." I spoke honestly and it God it was so true. Everything had been arranged perfectly over this little table, each thing having it's own place, as if so much time and effort had gone into it and just for me. No-one else but us was going to see this. I coughed as I realised what I'd just said. My own cheeks began to heat up. "Although, we never know it might not taste as good as it looks." I joked, trying to rid of that blush from his cheeks and my own.

If there's one thing I've learnt from past dates, those conventional type of dates that no thought what so ever goes into, is that when one of the dating members' blushes everything goes down hill. The conversations gets awkward and you end up sat eating in silence, or if I was the blushing member, I'd end up saying something I'd regret seconds after the words left my mouth meaning my date left and I was alone. Or, they'd drop me home and never want to see me ever again.

Breaking away from one of my many daydreams I realised Alex had comfortably placed himself down on one of the cushions. I decided it would be best if I followed his lead rather than standing in his doorway. I sat down opposite him, because if I sat on top of him that would be really, really bad.

"I really do not like finger food." I sighed under my breath eyeing the delicious looking variety of foods in front of me.

All of them you would have been able to eat with your fingers, but that would have been ten times more appetising if I had a knife and a fork in my hand. Or even a spoon, I'd have used a spoon!

"Again, is there anything you do like?"

"I like many things." My eyes locked onto Alex's face as I watched him pick up a mini sausage roll and pop it into his mouth like he wasn't bothered of all the germs that he'd probably just stuffed his face with.

Chewing his food, he raised a brow as he waited for an elaboration.

"I mean, I like cats and I like my bed..." I stammered as I tried to think of other things I genuinely liked, but it was proving to be more difficult than I thought it would have been. Think Jade, god think you're good at these kind of things. "I like fish." I shrugged. Yes fish. When you see them swimming around in a tank, especially those tropical ones. Heck, they are pretty.

Clearly though, something I said had tickled Alex's funny bone. He sat staring at me, biting his bottom lip every few milliseconds to prevent himself from laughing. I narrowed my eyes at him and he looked away, still stifling that laugh.

"Is there a problem?" I asked, genuinely confused.

"One minute." His voice was muffled as his placed his hand across his mouth, still looking away.

I sat impatiently for one minute waiting for him to rid me of my confusion. Finally, he looked at me, eye wide and full of seriousness. I was confused, so, so very confused.

"So you like fishy pussy in bed?" The sentence flew out of his mouth in a massive blurt and then he started laughing hysterically.

I for one however did not find it funny; in fact I think I now resembled tomato purée. Or it must certainly look like I'd smudged it across my cheeks with how hot they were beginning to feel. I'm sure if it was only my parents that thought I was a lesbian before, everyone else did now. I was hopeless.

"I... I didn't mean it like that." I uttered, but I should have just stayed quiet because Alex was now laughing even harder, so hard that he'd turned to lying on his back, holding his sides in an attempt to stop laughing "Stop laughing or I swear to god I will leave." I stressed, the embarrassment eating my insides.

"Bless you babe," He cooed as he hoisted himself up. "You can be proper cute you know." Alex continued.

Once he'd composed himself, he shook his hair away from his face. Now, I won't lie to you, because lying is a very, very bad thing to do, but he looked so hot at that precise moment in time. Although he looked good and he was being nice, he had just called me cute and cute was never something that should not have been used in a sentence when describing me. I was Jade Perry: feisty, a hot ball of fire that wasn't to be messed with.

When I was just about the respond and tell Alex I was far from cute, a loud and shrill noise vibrated through my back pocket. I shrieked in surprise and then realised it was my phone - shooting an apologetic glance to Alex, as this phone call was interrupting the date he'd spent so long trying to perfect, I pulled out my phone and answered it not bothering with the caller ID. Who even checked that nowadays?

"Hello?" I hollered.

"Hey, Lesbi-Jay, where you at?"

I groaned and Alex looked at me, nodding to the phone but I shook my head. On the other end of the line was my idiot brother, Tony. Tony the Dick as I usually call him because although he might be twenty six, just, he still acts like a teenage boy and manages to piss me off just by breathing. Also, he refers to me as Lesbi-Jay.

"I just popped around your apartment and you weren't in. Your chick friend is here though. She just invited me in, I thought maybe we'd talk but all she's doing is reading a book - so I reckon you should come back and save me, yeah?"

"I'm out at the minute Tony and that bird friend has a name, it's Robin - wait Tony are you urinating?" I shrieked at the sound of a liquid landing in another liquid.

He was definitely urinating, after seventeen years of living with him, I could tell you who was having a wee at home without knowing who was actually in the toilet. I shuddered, never had he rung me whilst he was on the toilet before and it creeped me out.

"Yeah sorry, I was holding it in for so long and your mate Robin can't really hold a decent conversation."

His wee was actually going on forever, so I truly believed he had been holding it in.

"Come home Jade." He whined down the phone, dragging my name out like a child. "Who are you with anyway?"

I looked over at Alex when he asked, wondering if it would be safe to tell the truth or not. Alex seemed to be in his own land, gazing off into the distance so it wouldn't matter if I lied? Forget everything I said about lying, lying can be good sometimes. "Uh, just at a friends." I lied - to save my ass from being bullied by Tony.

But the mention of ‘being at a friends, rather than on a date' made Alex's eyebrows furrow in almost, just almost disappointment. I winced, looking away.

"But you have no friends?"

"Dammit Tony what is it you actually want?" I barked down the line.

"You to come home and save me from my boredom, hold on let me zip myself up," There was some rustling followed by the flush of the toilet. Huh, so actually he was toilet trained as a kid, who'd have known? "Anyway, as I was saying, I was just passing through with some mates and they're all going on a bar crawl. I didn't really want to go, so I thought I'd come and show my baby sister some love."

I faked a gag. "Well I'm busy. Go home and entertain yourself dick head." I pressed the end call button on my phone and stuffed it into my back pocket, all the while looking at Alex with an apologetic glance. "I'm really sorry about that." I told Alex, whose eyebrows were still furrowed and lips still down turned in disappointment.

"Oh, it's cool." He mumbled. A sigh slipped past my lips, it seems his mood had deteriorated and a lot. Did I do that? Is it my fault damn-

"Jade, are you single?" Alex blurted out, chewing the inside of his cheek as soon as he'd said, well shouted, the words to me.

"Urm... yes? I am very much single." I responded my eyebrows furrowing to mirror his expression "Why wouldn't I be. Who would date me?" I said, sniggering because it's true.

I'm probably the most un-dateable person ever and if there was a category in an awards show for that I would win hands down. There wouldn't even be any competition, I'd knock them all out in the first round.

"But I just can't work you out..." he muttered as he leaned forwards, his head titling as he eyed my face over and over and over. I'm sure he'd have been able to draw it from memory by now. "I don't understand how can someone like you not be in a relationship?" One of his eyebrows lifted to form an arch.

He was convinced I was lying? Really, did I look and sound like someone who: A: Was in relationship? And B: Would cheat? No, no I bloody well didn't that cheeky so and so.

"Are you accusing me of something here?"

"I don't know, am I?" Leaning back onto his elbows, he licked his bottom lip and then smirked - and for the first time since we'd met, or since he'd harassed me if you like, I'd saw the twenty-three year old boy he'd said he was rather than the twelve year old I'd convinced myself he was and damn it was hot. He looked smug and cocky and it was hot, so hot.

My mouth started to water but I shook away the thoughts. "You can't just answer a question with another question." I declared.

"But you can?" His eyes told me the same story his smirk did as he chuckled.

"Christ, you're difficult. I am completely single. I think I would know if I wasn't. Did you not listen to anything Robin said? A boy hasn't come near me in a while, so screw you." I defended myself quickly. Also bringing up the fact I was practically something that forced people of the opposite gender away from me. Me and boys were the same ends of magnets - we repelled each other.

"No offence to your friend, but I was pretty scared of her so, no I didn't listen to her." He informed me and I grinned, mentally adding another person my ‘scared of Robin' list.

Despite Robin's rudeness and her say-it-straight attitude, she was a good person to have around because if someone upset me I'd set her on them. Not that, that was the only reason I kept her around, of course not I wasn't that much of a user; she paid half the rent too. Kidding, just kidding I love Robin and behind her hard demeanour she was a big loveable softy.

"Why would you even ask me something like that anyway? I'm here on a date with you right now. I'll tell you for a fact, if I was in a relationship I would not be here eating food with my fingers, which I hate doing by the way." I argued rather than dropping the subject, defending myself again because being accused of something as horrific as cheating on someone was something that usually happened to Freya, not me. Plus, cheating wasn't exactly a strong topic of conversation for me. Not at all.

"You haven't even eaten anything yet." Alex rolled his eyes. "But it's because, well your phone call sounded pretty secretive, like you didn't want that person to know you with me." His voice deepened and his eyes full of accusation. "Almost as if you have a boyfriend, a boyfriend waiting at home, you're trying to keep things from. Is that why you turned me down?"

I laughed. His eyes were icy cold. "Oh god , Alex, you think I'm in a relationship with my brother. That's incest. Gross, I now have images of being in a relationship with my brother, in my mind. Who do you think you are putting things like that into my head?" I screwed my face up, revolted by the thought and decided Alex needed more of an explanation.

I wasn't embarrassed to be out with him, not at all. Just merely wanted to avoid being teased.

"I don't want my brother knowing I'm out with a boy because he'd never let me live it down, no boyfriend waiting at home whilst I go on secret dates. I promise." I confirmed and once again Alex was laughing.

And then just to make matters worse my phone started to vibrate in my back pocket, soon enough it was ringing; making Alex laugh even harder. I sighed, my laughter fading. Alex's laughter faded too and I shook my head, why was that boy so bloody dumb.

If there was one thing I could say about this first date, it is that it was like no other I'd ever been on.

Take that how you wish.

Notes

Another Blink Title....I'll try and change it up a little bit, promise ^_^