DATE STARTED: JANUARY 10, 2016
DATE FINISHED: JANUARY 11, 2016
DATE EDITED: PENDING
WORD COUNT: 3,723

“I have nothing to wear.” Jerri mumbled as she threw another dress on her bed, throwing her body into the same space a second later.

It was the first time a guy had asked her out after a certain asshole named Mitch made her endure three months of a helluva rollercoaster ride of a relationship. Mitch was her everything for those three months. She had never loved anyone like she had loved him- like she loves him, present tense. He brought back the child inside of Jerri that went away when her parents separated and made her grow up too fast.

Before Mitch, Jerri had a goal. To be kickass at college, graduate and proceed to law school all the while continuing her volunteer work at the Red Cross and finally getting people to notice her for who she really was. During Mitch, Jerri faltered. She had too many things going on at the same time, she had horrible professors, a lot of responsibilities to all of the clubs she had joined that semester as well as maintaining their relationship.

Jerri even compromised her credibility at the Red Cross for Mitch, since the people there thought that Mitch wasn’t ideal for her. The moment Mitch said that he didn’t like Red Cross as much as he used to because of their opinions about him and their relationship, without even asking her to, Jerri stopped being active and stopped talking to all of her friends there. Every picture she saw on social media of her friends helping humanity made her want to cry. But she endured because she loved Mitch and he loved her. He was worth the sacrifice.

After Mitch, Jerri thought her whole life was over and then saw that it was an opportunity to redeem herself towards the people she left behind for Mitch, especially her brothers at the humanitarian organization. Instantly, they took her back, at first reluctantly, and then they warmed up to her again, like they used to, like she never left. She had missed her friends but even while celebrating her reunion with them, in the back of her mind, she missed Mitch more than she ever missed them.

A single tear escaped Jerri’s eyes as she reminisced her time with her ex. He made her feel so special.

She’d been single for two months and a guy came up to her one day and told her he’d liked her, introducing himself as Theo.

“I’m sorry. You don’t know me but what’s important is that I know you. You accepted my friend request on Facebook a couple months ago, back when you were just getting used to the uni and then I started getting to know you through all of your other accounts and I said, ‘I think I’ve developed a crush’ the second I found your twitter, which wasn’t easy by the way, I had to look for friends of yours that had a twitter and then look for your account through their followers or followi-“ Theo rambled, flailing his arms before he was cut off by Jerri.

“How do you know me?” She asked, her backpack shuffling as she changed the position of her feet so the weight of her body would go to the other side.

“I’m Karina’s cousin. She used to be annoyed with you before she got close to you and ranted about you a lot so I got curious and sort of stalked you.”

She blinked twice as she assessed what the handsome boy in front of her had just said.

‘Karina did say she had a cousin. I never thought he’d be this cute but then again, you’re not really supposed to talk about your relatives that way. What is happening?’ She asked herself, knowing well that she would receive no answer.

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand why you’re here and why you’re talking to me.” Jerri confessed, pursing her lips adorably at the person in front of her.

Theo shook his curly mop of hair and grinned sheepishly as he dropped his back to the floor, while getting on one knee as his left hand reached into his back pocket handing Jerri a powder blue origami of a rose as he unzipped his backpack.

“I suggest you un-origami that.” Theo told her while still rummaging through his bag.

Jerri, as confused as she was, decided to humor the cute boy and ‘un-origami’ the beautifully done piece of art, reasoning out that it wasn’t every day that someone requested her to do such a thing, especially someone as cute as Theo.

Unbeknownst to her, Theo pulled out rectangular box wrapped in black construction paper with writing in the front. He was grinning wildly but you could see the fear in his eyes, the shaky movement of his hands as he holds the box and then the darkening of the color of the box from his sweat from all of the nervousness inside of him.

Jerri on the other hand carefully opened the origami paper and was shocked to see what was written inside with a blinding orange ink.

“Would you give yourself the chance to get to know me the way I’ve gotten to know you?”

When Jerri looked up from the paper, obviously hiding a smile, she saw the box Theo held out for her. “Please?” was written across the package in white crayon.

With Jerri’s attempts to hide the smile destroyed, she looked at Theo incredulously and took the box from him as he gestured for her to open it.

‘The dude knows how to woo a girl. A girl like me, to be specific.’ She remarked, unwrapping the box with as much care as the origami. Once it was open, she almost dropped the content.

It was the book she wanted about intergalactic space travel and an artificial intelligence which gains consciousness and helps a whole planet avoid getting destroyed by the intergalactic fleet. She had been looking for this specific book for practically a year and there it was, being given to her as a bribe for God-knows-what by a random guy who had just randomly appeared to her outside of the girl’s bathroom in her building.

She was at a loss for words but had enough coherence to be able to give Theo a nod as a reply to the question his origami rose had asked him.

The look on Theo’s face was pure joy and excitement. It was like someone had just told him he won the lottery and that the girl he liked had just said yes to him. Pure happiness glowed from the smile that planted itself on his face as he told Jerri to prepare for the night of her life on Friday and to dress appropriately based on the weather for the day and asked for her number.

Every time Jerri thought back to how Theo asked her out, she would shake her head out of pure giddiness and blush. After they had exchanged numbers, Jerri asked Theo about himself and got answered with cryptic replies as the conversation circled back to Theo telling her to wait for Friday, which she did. And now she was faced with the predicament of what to wear.

Beside her, Jerri’s phone beeped to life, signaling a text message from her best friend Jamie.

“I give up on school. I’m going to be a stripper.” Jerri rolled her eyes at her overdramatic best friend and fired a reply.

“Why a stripper? Don’t prostitutes get better pay?” Jerri giggled as she pressed ‘send’ and went back to her dilemma.

In the four days that she had known the guy, she admitted that she liked him a little bit in the way he wanted her to. He was sweet, adorable and a total geek like she was. He shared the same opinion as her on the “Snilly” ship in Harry Potter fanfictions as well as her love for He is We. Theo, if put into perspective, was the exact opposite of Mitch who was the exact opposite of Jerri, which basically meant that Jerri and Theo, judging by the way she had known him, were practically the same person.

Jerri walked towards the mirror in her room and looked at herself. She was in shorts and a large white shirt, her usual outfit. Theo had said to dress casually but Jerri was the type of girl that defined casual as unbrushed hair, a baggy t-shirt, skinny jeans and sneakers, with the occasional addition of a backpack. Her type of casual wasn’t going to work on a date.

While she continued to rummage through her closet, her phone beeped again with a reply from Jamie.

“Yea but a stripper only strips, as a prostitute, you have to strip and have sex with a guy. I’d rather not do that.” Jerri smiled and gave her phone another eye roll, Jamie could be a drama queen sometimes. But then again, so could Jerri, so she really couldn’t complain, which was what made them best friends.

Eager to go back to her closet hunt, she sent an SOS to Jamie. “Tru. I’m still here for u tho. When I pass the bar, I’ll pay for you to continue living. Fuck being a stripper, waifuuu. BTW, what do you think I should wear? My casual sounds more tomboy than adorable.”

She pocketed her phone and then continued to make a mini-mountain of clothes on her bed while she looked for the outfit. Before long, Jamie had replied to her and fixed the problem.

“Wear your girliest skinny jeans and the white v-neck you splattered with paint and use the sneakers you always use. It’s going to work. And don’t bring your backpack. Pack enough money for any type of emergency, a handkerchief and your phone, that’s it.”

Jerri’s mouth opened with shock. Of course!

She ran to her bed and retrieved the articles of clothing Jamie mentioned and was soon dressed up and ready to go. All she had to do now was wait for Theo to pick her up.

As soon as she pulled out her phone to text him, she heard honking from outside so she ran downstairs and locked the door, greeting Theo as soon as she saw him leaning on the passenger seat door of his truck.

They had grown close despite him being cryptic during the days leading to the date so the moment she was near enough, she gave Theo a hug, pulling away after about three seconds. Jerri smelled mild cologne on him, the cologne similar to the one she gave her grandfather for his birthday and posted on Instagram six months ago. Weird.

“You smell nice.” She remarked, giving him a weird look.

Theo winked as he opened the car door for her and helped her up, “I may have been taking down notes while stalking you.”

Jerri laughed, “I can see that.” She said, winking back at him, before he closed the door and jogged to the driver’s seat.

Once the car started, Jerri took a glance at Theo. He was wearing a gray sweater with green pants and a pair of white chucks. She couldn’t help but comment on how his hair looked especially adorable today. How it was like he had a personal stylist in his house who curled his hair to perfection every day, even if she knew they were naturally like that and Theo considered them to be a bother.

“So where are we going?”

Without looking away from the road, Theo grinned. “You’ll see when we get there,” he said, a hint of mystery in his tone.

Jerri shook her head preposterously at him, he was so full of secrets.

They were driving for a full twenty minutes before a conversation took off.

“Are you wearing a wifebeater under your sweater?” Jerri asked Theo, curious.

Theo’s was thrown aback by the question and turned to look at her weirdly for a second before returning to the road, where his eyes were supposed to be.

“I’ll have you know I’m single as a pringle and I would never condone a man beating his wife, Jerri!” He retorted dramatically.

“I don’t mean that kind of wifebeater, Theo. I meant the kind of wifebeater that guys wear. You know, the tank tops for guys. They’re called wifebeaters, man.” Jerri defended.

Theo let out a long ‘oooohhhh’ sound, realizing his mistake and laughing it off.

After a while, they had gotten to their destination with Theo killing the engine and yelling “We’re here!” as he climbed down the car to open the door for Jerri.

As he helped her down, Jerri gave him a compliment, “Sweet, I like that.”

Theo chuckled, replying with, “I know you.”

Jerri took in their surroundings, noticing that they were on top of a hill in the middle of God-know-where. She pulled out her phone and was glad to see she still had signal just in case something bad might happen. Like Theo turning out to be a huge anti-Potter and totally shipping Snilly. That would be a huge turn-off.

“Where are we?” She asked her companion, walking to the other side of the car to see if the scenery was any different. It wasn’t.

They were still on top of a hill and there were no other humans around them and the moon illuminated their surroundings, giving everything a magical glow.

“A hill I discovered a couple of weeks ago that inspired me to ask you out.”

Jerri blushed, Theo was so poetic. By now, she could see herself getting used to things like this. She liked Theo and she could feel like he genuinely liked her too.

A flush of wind hit their little party of two and made Jerri hug herself. Concerned, Theo opened the car and took out a basket and a blue hoodie.

“Here,” he offered, handing Jerri the hoodie as he placed the basket in the back of the truck and coming back to take Jerri’s hand and lead her to the back of the truck.

“You should put that on.” He suggested as he helped her climb up the truck.

Aside from the basket, there were three blankets and a couple of pillows laid in the back.

“We’re going to have a picnic under the stars.” Theo whispered into her ear as he held on to her shoulder with his chest against her back.

Jerri turned to face him, increasing the distance between them by a bit as she asked him why he chose a picnic over a regular night around town.

“Because you’re no regular girl, Jerri.” He whispered again as he sat them both down onto the pillows and opened the basket.

Their eyes met under the star-filled sky and it was as if the constellations alighted for them and the moon illuminated their moment.

Jerri looked at the boy beside her as he took out a box of pizza from the basket while she put on his hoodie. The next thing Theo pulled out was a container filled with chocolate-covered strawberries and a two cans of coke zero, Jerri’s favorite.

“You know me so well and I know next to nothing about you, Theo.” She said sadly, making him look at her frowning face.

“Which frustrates me too, but that’s why we’re here right now. I’ll tell you what, I’ll let you ask a question for every strawberry you eat. Deal?”

Jerri bit her lip and nodded at him, reaching for a strawberry but was stopped by Theo’s hand.

“I changed my mind. I’ll let you ask a question for every bite of pizza or strawberry that you let me feed you and I also want to hold your hand.” He declared, entwining their hands as he spoke.

“What!? That’s not fair, Theo! No fair at all!” She grumbled.

But in actuality, Jerri liked the idea of being fed by him and holding his hand. His palm was smooth and caressed her the distance between her pointing finger and thumb. It was a sweet, numbing feeling that made the butterflies in her stomach flutter. She playfully glared at the boy who held her hand and had her sit closely beside him.

She closed her eyes and pretended to think about her decision even when she knew that she was going to do it anyway. She considered Theo’s eyes too adorable to resist.

“Fine.”

Theo momentarily let go of her hand and pumped his fist in the air, yelling an almost incoherent “YAS!” to the sky and then grabbing the first strawberry and replacing his hand in her own.

“What’s your favorite movie?” She asked him after taking a bite of the delicious strawberry treat.

Theo grinned at her. “Don’t be mad but, I’ve loved this movie before I started stalking you,”

“Post-Grad.” Jerri mumbled as she continued to chew on her strawberry.

“What you do with your life is, really just one half of the equation.” Theo recited, knowing full well that this was Jerri’s favorite quote second to the eskimo pie.

“The other half, the more important half, really is, who you're with when you're doing it.” They both finished.

Their eyes met. Hazel on hazel.

Their faces drew closer but at the last second, Theo pulled back, leaving Jerri in the air.

“I’m saving that for later, when you fall in love with me and my infinite knowledge of the things you love.”

Jerri shot him an offended look and let go of his hand to slap his shoulder. “You are a tease, Theodore Brye!”

Coupled with a wink, Theo replied to her saying, “And so were you before I gave you my hoodie, Jerri Freud! I saw too much.”

Theo feigned disgust, dramatically placing his right arm on his forehead, the palms facing the sky while his left arm stretched towards Jerri, the palms practically in Jerri’s face.

“Drama queen! And for that, you aren’t getting your hoodie back, Theo!”

Theo’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets as his neck turned to face Jerri, shock on his face, “You wouldn’t!”

She smirked at him, “Try me. If you know me that well, you’d know I wasn’t joking.”

Theo rolled his eyes and draped an arm over Jerri’s shoulders, shrugging at her declaration like it was nothing.

“Admit it, Jerri, the night is still young and you’re over here already falling for me. So much that you’d even steal my hoodie, you sneaky ho.”

Jerri let out a breathy laugh, leaning against the boy beside her and sticking her tongue out.

“If every date with you is like this, then it doesn’t sound too bad.”

It was Theo’s turn to blush, he was shocked by how at ease his crush felt with him after only a few days with him. But then again, he should have expected more. She did deal with strangers a lot in her line of volunteer work. Plus, it seemed almost like second nature to her to get comfortable with people quickly.

He loosened his tense muscles and adjusted his arm to make it more comfortable for Jerri. His attention went back to their food so he decided to feed Jerri a slice of her favorite pizza, ham and cheese.

“Say ‘aaaahhh’ for Papa Theo, Jerri!” He commanded her, as if giving an order to a little baby.

Jerri’s initial response was to move away but when she saw that he was offering pizza, she opened her mouth wide and gave Theo a big, closed-mouth smile to express her gratitude. She was sure she liked Theo now.

“If you had to wear one color of clothing and accessories and own everything in that color, what would it be?” Jerri asked as soon she finished chewing.

Theo thought for a moment before responding. “I would say a rainbow-“

“That’s not fair. Pick a color, Theo!”

“Fine. I guess I’d say either blue, yellow or white.”

Jerri cocked her head and asked him why he picked those three while gesturing for him to feed her more pizza.

“Because from what I’ve seen, those are the three colors that look good on you the most. White t-shirts, yellow blouses and blue, no-nonsense jeans.”

Jerri bit her lip to stop herself from smiling. This guy was too much.

“Where have you been all my life?” She asked him, smiling sadly.

“In the shadows, too scared to talk to you.” He answered honestly.

Their lips met under the starry night sky. A sweet, chaste kiss to sate the urge for now. They parted shortly after to go back to their food, staying silent, too embarrassed of what had just transpired between them, their cheeks as red as the tomato sauce on their pizza and their lips craving for more rather than the delectable strawberries in front of them.

When all of the pizza was finished, they moved to lean against the back window of the truck and look at the stars above them, connecting dots to make their own constellations and naming them.

“And you see that bright star on the left? Right beside your version of Cassiopeia? That’s me.”

Jerri faced him, confused by his announcement. “Why’s that?”

“Because now that I can be with you, I can be happy. And that’s what I’m feeling right now. That star is me because I’m practically glowing with joy, with your head on my shoulder and my hoodie keeping you warm. I haven’t felt that before.”

Jerri was about to reply but thought better of it as she saw him open his mouth again to continue.

“Did you know that the brighter a star shines, the faster it dies? If I die tonight, at least I’ll die happy knowing that I got to go on a date with a person as amazing as you.”

The moment those words passed his lips, Jerri’s heart fluttered and she leaned into him, taking in more of his scent and closing the gap between them with her own lips.

A couple of minutes later, her phone beeped. A text message from Jamie.

“Hey! How was the date? Are you finally over Mitch?”

Theo looked at her phone and sent her a glance.

She inched her face close to his and gave him a peck on the lips.

“Mitch who?”

--

Watch out for the sequel! XOXO

Boy that was such a joy to write! Actually it wasn’t. Hahaha. I’ve been dealing with a lot of things for a while now and those things sucked my romancey feels dry. I shat u not I’ve been trying to write another romance after “Another Airport Love Story” but I couldn’t do it. Now that I’m a little bit better, I’m able to do it. What sparked me to write was a friend of mine who shared a quote with me that made me cry like hell. So I excused myself from our conversation and told him I had to write all my frustration out, and so I have!

Jerri isn’t just a one-shot character. She’s actually supposed to be part of a collaboration I’m making with my friend Cher Fan. (I made her penname. She asked for something food related like mine and this was the best I could think of at the time. Lol) It’s about two college freshmen best friends who deal with life, basically.