I wonder if there's something wrong with me. I'm sixteen, and I've never been kissed. It seems like all my friends are being kissed or at least have a boyfriend. I've never had a boyfriend. I really like Wesley, but I only met him two weeks ago when he transferred to my school. We really hit it off, and he asked me to go to the movies with him tonight. I've never been on a real date like this, so I'm kind of nervous.

I'm a little scared that he'll try to kiss me. What if I kiss him wrong? What if he decides he doesn't like me because I can't kiss right? I dressed up very nicely, after changing five times. Now, I'm waiting for him to pick me up. I've never felt this nervous in my whole life! I don't want to blow a date just because I'm nervous.

The doorbell rang, and I froze, then hurried toward the door before anyone else could. I opened the door, and there was Wesley, looking mucho hot in his cargo pants and band T.

“Riley,” he said, and his smile calmed my nerves a little.

“Hey, Wesley,” I said, not wanting to be nervous. I wanted to have the same comfortable feeling we'd been having since we started hanging out.

“You look. . .gorgeous,” he said, making my stomach flutter. I reminded myself to calm down. I took a deep breath and acted like normal.

“You don't look so bad yourself.”

He took my hand and led me to his car. As I held his hand, I was worried that my hand would be really sweaty or disgust him. I kept telling myself to calm down, but it wasn't working. After he opened the passenger side door for me and let me get in, he went around to the driver's side. I was mentally smiling at how gentlemanly he was acting, but on the outside, I was cool and calm.

He started backing out of my driveway and heading toward the movies. “So, Riley, I saw someone hanging out of an upstairs window sticking her tongue out at me. I'm assuming that was your little sister.”

I shook my head. “That is so embarrassing. Yes, that was probably Emma. She's ten.”

“I just waved and stuck my tongue out too.”

I laughed. “Good job, now you're encouraging her.”

“Hey, hey, hey! Don't be blaming me; I'm just a copycat.”

“That can be dangerous. If you happen to see anyone jumping off a bridge, please don't follow their lead.”

“Bridge jumping. Okay, crossed that off my list of things to do this year.”

“You are so odd.”

“Yet awesome. Which is why you choose to hang out with me. Just hoping some of it will rub off on you, right?”

“You got it. How did you ever figure out?”

“It was your face. It kinda gave it away.”

I made a face at him. “What did that face say?”

“That face said 'I'm ready to die today, so I'll distract Wesley from driving so we can have a car accident.'”

“Wow, my face talks a lot more than I give it permission to.”

Wesley laughed. “Hey, hey, that's okay sometimes.” He reached over and patted my hand, which was resting on my lap. As we had been talking, I had slowly forgotten that this was a date, and I had just acted like myself. But when he touched my hand, I got nervous again. It sent tingles up and down my arm. I knew that I wanted to kiss him; I just didn't know how.

When we got to the movies, Wesley got the tickets. I offered to pay for mine, but he said he would take care of it. When we got inside, he got in the snack line. He ordered an extra large drink and grabbed a couple straws. My stomach started turning over and over, as though it were practicing for a gymnastics competition. He asked where I wanted to sit, and I said I didn't care. So he chose seats close to the back, which is where I like to sit anyway.

Before the theater got dark, we continued to talk. “Riley,” Wesley said, looking at me with his forget-me-not colored eyes. “What's the strangest thing you've ever eaten?”

“The strangest thing?” I paused for a moment, thinking. “Hmmm, this probably won't sound strange, but I'm not a big 'eat weird food and see if I throw up' kind of person. I'd say, deer.”

“Deer, not too strange.”

“Why? What's the strangest food you've ever eaten?”

“I did eat some snake one time. It was delicious.”

“EW! Wesley, that's gross. How can you eat something that's slimy and scaly. . .”

“You don't eat the skin.”

“Oh, well, still. I can't imagine eating a snake. That's gross.”

“It's not that gross,” Wesley corrected. “You can't say it's gross unless you've tried it. In fact, how can you eat a cow that has big brown eyes, looking at the butcher right before its killed, pleading for its life. That poor cow didn't do anything to deserve you eating him.”

“Stop it! I don't even want to think about that. How can you eat cow if you care so much about it?”

“Oh, I don't care. I have no heart. . . for anything except you, of course.”

“Aren't you just a flirt?” I said, smiling, my heart beating extremely fast.

“I am; I am. I take great pride in it, but I only flirt with those worth flirting with.”

I just melted a little bit more, and I couldn't think of a funny comeback to say to that. The previews, however, started just then, and I didn't have to say anything. I started in on the popcorn, as I remembered his words over and over again. That was not something that I wanted to forget. Just as the previews were ending, Wesley put his arm around me. He didn't make it awkward by pretending he was stretching and then putting it around me. No, Wesley's not lame like that; he has confidence. He just put his arm around me. I snuggled up to him, just a little. Did I mention that the armrest was not between us? Well, it wasn't. Anyway, I was still feeling nervous as I ate popcorn and watched the movie.

I tried not to look over at Wesley. I didn't want him to think that I was asking for a kiss. But then I would get mad at myself. I was sixteen for goodness sake! I shouldn't be afraid to kiss someone, especially someone so sweet. Several times throughout the movie, Wesley would pull me closer to him to whisper a comment about the movie. It was sweet, and his breath tickled my ear.

When the credits started rolling up, I saw others stand, but Wesley and I continued sitting, as we scraped out the last of the popcorn. Some of the others left, and I wondered if this was his plan: to kiss me right now. I stood up, almost without realizing what I was doing. I stretched as Wesley stood, towering over me by half a foot. Wesley took our snack trash in one hand and my hand in his other. I loved holding his hand. It felt comfortable.

When we reached his car, my stomach started fluttering again. It was nine thirty and dark outside. I kind of wanted him to kiss me now. I knew that until he did, I would be worried about it. I didn't want my worry to consume all my thoughts.

“You're kind of quiet,” Wesley said. “Not your kind of movie?”

I shrugged, looking out the windshield, then at him. “It wasn't my favorite movie, but you picked alright.”

“Next time, you can pick the movie,” Wesley told me, making me realize that there would be a next time. “I didn't ask you officially on Wednesday, but now I want to ask you, will you be my girlfriend, Riley?”

I smiled. “Yes, of course.” I would have gone into more detail with my answer, but he leaned in. I saw his eyes flutter close, and I quickly closed mine. Then, his lips touched mine, gently. He put his hand on my cheek, rubbing his thumb back and forth. His lips caressed mine, and I felt like I was in a totally different world. When he pulled back, I didn't really know what I had done. But he was smiling, so I guess I didn't mess up too badly. I actually wanted to kiss him again. His smile was just so amazing. I'd never seen him smile like that. I felt so special, and I was glad that Wesley was my first kiss.