Mickey’s POV:

We didn’t speak much during the car ride. By now, we had been in a car together so often--or better to say for such long periods of time--that we didn’t need to have a constant conversation going to make sure it wasn’t awkward. I really did want to ask Alex where we were going, but I figured he would have told me by now if he didn’t want to keep it a surprise. I had no idea what to expect.

All I could really see was that we were going further and further out of the neighborhood, which was pretty weird. Usually, you’d go into town for dates, or so I thought. I couldn’t really think of a time that I had actually gone on a proper date, so I had no idea how it all went. Maybe it was completely normal that Alex was heading right up the hill that all teenagers went to late night in their cars to bang each other. How was I supposed to know? Although it did make me a little uncomfortable that we were going straight towards the spot.

However, just as we started approaching the bend that was used as parking space, which only had two cars parked on it now that it was a Monday evening, Alex drove right past it. He didn’t even slow down to show that he was thinking about stopping there. No, he just went further up the road. The only time I had actually gone further up was when I had to turn my car around and it was too busy to do it at the bend. So, yes, I had been parked there before.

Only a little while after did Alex stop in an area that was actually designated for parking.

After taking his keys out of the ignition, he turned to me and said, “I know this seems a little sketchy since we are in the middle of nowhere, but you’re going to have to trust me.”

“Ok.” I nodded and took off my seatbelt, eager to see what he had planned. Maybe it was my excitement giving me courage, or maybe I’d already done so many sketchy things before that I didn’t really mind getting out of the car on a dark hillside.

“I’ll have to get something out of the back before we go, though,” he told me as he took off his own seatbelt and started opening his door.

He proceeded to open the trunk and pull out a blanket and a large book which I couldn’t identify. I decided to help him by taking out the other folded up blanket and a thermos with two metal cups. After he had closed the trunk again and locked the car, he pointed in the direction that we were going to go. Instead of going further into the forested area, we were going to climb over the barrier that was there to stop cars from flying off the road and down the hill. Before the drop-off, though, there was still a short stretch of rocky area.

“Just be careful with your footing,” Alex warned me as he went first to lead me where he wanted to go. “It’s getting dark so sometimes it gets a little difficult to see the areas where you could twist your ankle badly.”

“Yeah, I don’t exactly want another bone to break,” I agreed, just trying my best to follow his exact footsteps. At least I was wearing some good boots, but I could already tell that my dress could get a little cold as time progressed.

“Or have the possibility of making your arm worse,” he added, pointing at my wrist that had the extra blanket draped over it.

Another reason why I could possibly be cold. My cast didn’t fit in my leather jacket, so my arm was just out in the open while the jacket tried it’s best to only cling to my shoulder. Despite these worries, I continued to follow Alex until we reach one of the last large rocks. He stopped and put down the blanket he had in his hands before sitting down and patting the space beside him.

I first handed him all the objects I was carrying so I could use my good arm to let myself sit on the floor as well. Once I finally sat comfortably, I looked out at the view. We were on the other side of the hill, meaning the lights of the town weren’t right below us, however there was a different neighborhood that still had lights on here and there. In an area like this, though, it was impossible to find somewhere that didn’t have any houses or streetlights. This was just one of the better places.

“So, I didn’t just bring you out here for no reason,” Alex started as he pulled out his hardcover book again, putting it on his lap. This time, however I could make out the words ‘The Book of Constellations’. “I’ve had this book for quite some time, but I can put it to good use now.”

I looked up at the sky that was slowly getting darker as the sun had already set, and was able to start making out some of the stars. “You must be glad that the weather is perfect for this. What would you have done if it had been cloudy?”

“Honestly?” He looked at me as he bit the inside of his lip. “I didn’t even think about that. Oh my god, that would have been horrible.”

“Well, you are super lucky.” I started to lie down so I could look up easily--I couldn't exactly lean back on my arms with only one hand that was working.

“How the hell didn’t I think of that?” I breathed out with a small laugh. “Anyway, I hope this isn’t lame. Jack and Rian always make fun of my obsession with space.”

“Space is an intriguing subject!” I argued as I looked up at him. “Who knows what the hell is out there? It’s actually pretty scary. I’m pretty sure I’d have an existential life crisis if I thought about it for too long.”

“Finally somebody who understands!” Alex exclaimed with a bright smile on his face. I couldn’t help but smile back, knowing that what I had said had made him so happy.

“So, you gonna teach me something about these stars or what?”

“Right… ok, so first we’re in the Northern Hemisphere.” He flipped to a section in the book that provided another list. “And it’s October right now…” He used his finger to go down the list until he found October and then opened up to the right page.

A large circle with the stars and constellations took up the two open pages, showing exactly where what was. The next few pages had some more information on more specifics, but first we were going to have to identify things.

“What’s your zodiac sign?” Alex asked me. “Maybe we can see it now.”

“Aquarius,” I replied, pushing myself up a little on my good arm to take a closer look at the pages since the book was in his lap.

“Well, look at that, what a coincidence.” He pointed somewhere toward the bottom of the circle to the lines that had ‘Aquarius’ next to it. His finger then moved to ‘Sagittarius’. “Mine is just barely on here. At least we can definitely see yours, so that’s a win.”

“And where would I find it in this jumble of lights?” I put my hands up to gesture toward the sky that now clearly showed us stars.

“Hmm... “ Alex looked between the book and the sky before pointing somewhere. “Well, north is there. So if we turn the book like this,” he moved it so it was nearly upside down, “it should be just ahead of us.”

I sat back up to see where he was pointing toward now, what he was calling ‘just ahead of us’. But all I could still see was a mess of stars. So, to try and see what he was seeing, I shuffled a little closer to him so I could look over his shoulder at the book and right in the direction he was looking. And then I could suddenly see the constellation right in front and above us.

“Holy shit,” I gasped, surprised that I could see the pattern before pulling down my leather jacket from where it was just on my shoulder to reveal one of my tattoos close to the base of my neck. “I finally see what I’ve had on my skin for years in real life!”

“An accurate representation.” Alex carefully grazed the tattoo. “It’s beautiful.”

“It was one of my first tattoos,” I told him as I put my jacket back on, “back when I still thought they all needed a special meaning. Now I’m more into just getting what I like cause I like it.”

“What’s your favorite one you’ve got?” He questioned, his eyes still lingering on where my constellation tattoo was despite it now being covered up.

I burst out with laughter, not because it was a stupid question or because it was so cliché to ask, but because of what actually was my favorite… or more specifically where it was placed. “I don’t think I can exactly show you right now, but you might have seen it once or twice before.”

“Really?” He looked so confused. I thought it was pretty funny that he didn’t get my hints. He seemed like the one person who would get this type of stuff, but I was wrong. Maybe he just didn’t want to jump to conclusions.

“The only way to show it would be by exposing my chest, so I do believe you’ve seen it before.”

“Oh!” His eyes went wide as they trailed down to my boobs and quickly back up when he realized what he was looking at. “Right, yeah… I think I may have been a bit too preoccupied to take a close look at the many tattoos you have.”

“Fair point.” I shrugged before sneakily adding, “I guess I’ll just have to show you again some other time.”

Suddenly his smoothness came back as he smirked at me. “I guess you will.”

After a short while of some more silence and Alex pouring both of us a cup of hot chocolate, I decided it was my turn to make a move. I really wanted to do something and be the one to start a conversation for once. I felt like if I always made Alex be the one to start talking, that he would believe that I wasn’t interested. In all honesty, I really was, I just wasn’t sure how to communicate it. Everything I thought about saying just sounded so awkward.

Eventually, I just came up with something and decided to go with it. “I feel like you know way more about me than I know about you.”

“No, that can’t be. Now I think about it, I barely know anything about you!” He replied easily. “What do I know? I know your name, I know your age, I know… You see, barely anything. I don’t even know your birthday.”

“Well, my birthday’s on the 21st of January,” I informed him. “You also know my entire family situation. You practically know everything that has been happening recently. Hell, you’ve even seen my actual childhood home.”

“Ok, true,” he gave in. “But, that’s all I know. I know nothing about what happened before you came here.”

“But you do know I lived with my dad until I was thirteen when my mom got custody of me. You know a bit about who I was before that whole change. You also know about us moving so often since then. So… you practically know my whole life story.”

“Again, true, but--”

“And what do I know about you?” I interrupted, trying my best to make sure this conversation wouldn’t end up about me again. It was always about me despite me actually never wanting to talk about myself. It was Alex’s turn to spill everything. ”I just barely found out your surname when I was blackout drunk. I can guess your age, and I know that your parents have a British accent. You know way more about me than I know about you.”

“Ok, then, let me introduce myself to you. A complete introduction.” He held out his hand for me to shake, which I did. “So, my full name’s Alexander William Gaskarth and I'm still seventeen. I was born in Essex, which you can find in good old England, but we moved out here when I was nine. I met Jack in eighth grade, we started a band. Jack met Rian in French class, who then joined our band. And then we met Zack. We just thought he did awesome skateboard tricks. This is my dad’s second marriage, so I have some older half-sisters and I had an older half-brother who I was pretty close to. That’s about it. Oh, and I'm having a Halloween party next week which you're definitely invited to. ”

“Wait…” I thought out loud, wondering if this was ok to bring up. “Had?”

“Yeah, he died a while ago…” He clarified for me. “I don’t really like talking about it.”

I wasn’t sure how to deal with this. Alex had just told me something very personal that obviously still hurt him. I was never good with emotions, let alone good at consoling somebody. Just sitting there without saying something seemed rude to me, but saying the wrong thing was even worse. I was never put in this place before!

“I, umm…” I stuttered, trying to come up with something to say.

“You don’t have to say anything,” Alex excused, brushing off my failed attempt like it was no big deal that I was freezing up.

“But I feel like I have to say something.”

“It’s the thought that counts,” he said as he discreetly moved his hand over mine and intertwined our fingers a little. I followed his gesture and looked down at our hands curious as to how such a small thing was actually making me feel so warm inside.

“If it would make you feel any better, I could tell you why I’m so screwed up.” I looked up again to see him already looking at me. “Well, I could tell you why I’m probably so screwed up in the whole relationship department. There’re many things to be accounted for that I don’t even know about if you want to figure out my entire life.”

He whispered in an encouraging way, “not unless you want to tell me.”

I decided that I did want to tell him. Not just so he would understand me better, but also so that I could come to terms with it. So, I laid my head on his shoulder to avoid eye contact with him as I retold my story. “Well, it all started when I moved back to Texas with my mom--it’s where I’m originally from despite only having lived there for a few months of my life. It’s kind of a typical story. It was my last year of middle school and I hung out with some people that you could consider ‘the wrong crowd’ outside of school. They weren’t exactly ‘the wrong crowd’, though. It was just like two girls from my class who had older brothers and their friends were kind of sketchy. For some reason these girls always hung around and I just joined them. But that’s not really the problem. You can probably already guess what happened. Long story short, I kind of built this stupid crush on a seventeen year old back when I was thirteen. And we slept together, which was totally illegal, but still. So, yeah, although it wasn’t like a serious crush or anything, I was quite hurt he only wanted to sleep with me once and never again. He fucking took my virginity. Obviously, I thought I did something wrong. Instead of just sulking and realizing I made a horrible decision, I decided that I wanted to get better, to find out what I did wrong. And that’s how I started sleeping around at the age of thirteen. Of course, my mom found out and we moved for the very first time, but that didn’t help at all. I guess I just fell into the habit and never really looked back at why I started it all. It's why I always tell Jack I wouldn't take his virginity, which is obviously a joke. I'm exactly like the person who took mine, always a one-time thing. I don't need to create another person like me.”

"Hey, I wasn't a one-time thing." Alex nudged, a smirk hinting at his tone of voice.

"I know," I agreed. "And this is also the first proper date I've ever been on. You can count yourself special."

“But really, though, that guy’s an asshole,” he commented as I could feel him shaking his head. “Who the fuck would even do that?”

“Let’s be honest here, have you never slept with a freshman?”

“Not this year! Plus, you weren’t even in high school. I swear to god, if I would ever see this guy, I’d punch him.”

“I mean, he is twenty-three or four now according to my math… so, are you really sure you’d want to fight him?” I chuckled and raised my head from his shoulder, determining that it was safe to make eye contact again.

“For you? Yeah!”

I could help but kiss him right there and then. I tried my best to follow what Alex had shown me during our last kiss. Slow and steady, not rushed and hard. My instincts told me to not waste any time and to go right down to business, but that was not what I wanted this time. I wanted to show him how much I liked him, not how much I was sexually attracted to him. The only way to do that was by trying to kiss him like he had done at the bottom of the stairs in my house. And apparently, it seemed to be working because he carefully laid one hand on my cheek to guide himself and follow the rhythm I would have usually thought to be excruciatingly slow.

Nothing would ever top this first date.

Notes

Here's the date you all wanted ;) Plus some extra backstory. I have had Mickey's backstory all planned out since the beginning. There's just one important thing I haven't explained yet. You guys remember what that is? It was only mentioned in one chapter before.