This is the last chapter. End of the date. Enjoy. (ty b&s)

We said goodbye to Tori and Simon at the door. Derek offered them a ride home, but they said they wanted to stay a bit longer and dance with other people. Derek warned them to keep an eye on each other but left it at that.

After we got in the van, Derek started it and got back onto the main highway that went by our hotel. His hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles were turning white. His jaw was clamped shut. This relationship would never go anywhere if I let him get away with his moods.

"So, what are we going to do now?"

His head whipped around and he looked at me. "What do you mean? I thought we were going back to the hotel."

"Do you want to go back to the hotel? I didn't think our date was over yet."

"It's not? But you said you wanted to leave the dance."

I laughed lightly. "The fun of going to a dance like that is having an excuse to dress up and go somewhere fancy for dinner. It's not really the dance itself. Especially if you don't know anyone there."

"Oh." A pause "What should we do then?"

"How about dessert? You didn't get to get one at the restaurant. I saw a Dairy Queen on this road, a little farther up. I don't want to go in though. Let's go through the drive thru."

Derek pulled up to the drive thru window. He ordered a large snickers blizzard and then looked at me. I leaned across him and ordered two cheeseburger, a coke, a large fry, a hot dog and a small strawberry sundae.

HIs lip quirked "Hungry?"

"Not really, but I'm guessing you are." I gave him a cheeky grin and he grunted a response. He didn't cancel the order.

We got our very large bag of food and drove off.

"Where to?"

"Somewhere quiet."

We kept on the main highway until we drove out of town. He ended up pulling off on a dirt road that drove into the forest that bracketed the highway. He drove for a while until he came to a small gravel widening in the road. He put the van in park and I got out. It was a beautiful night, as far out in the country as we were the stars were brilliant.

I went back into the van and pulled the blanket off the backseat. I spread it out on a grassy patch. I grabbed the bag of fast food and set it up on the blanket. Derek joined me. We ate in silence and then lay back on the blanket to look at the stars. I was able to pick out the big and little dippers, and I found Orion's belt. I pointed different things out to Derek until he grabbed my hand and held it against his chest.

I looked over at him, but he continued to stare at the stars. He cleared his throat and started talking in a voice dripping with sarcasm "I know this will come as a shock to you, but I've never been on a date before." Then he got serious "I tried to do everything right, but everything kept going wrong. Nothing was wrong with you, you were perfect. But first that fiasco at the restaurant, and then that guy at the dance. It's probably the worst date you've ever been on."

"Yes, it is the worst date I've ever been on." Derek's face fell, and he turned his head farther away from me. I gently cupped his chin and turned him back to me, "It's also the best. It doesn't have a whole lot of competition in either category considering it's the only date I've ever been on."

"What about ice cream with Simon?"

"Well, I prefer to think of that as going for a walk and ice cream with one of my friends. In the end that's all it was. And we're both pretending the kiss never happened."

"There was a kiss?"

"Oh, yeah . . .That's kind of what made me realize I didn't really like him that way."

A grunt.

"I can't believe you never went out at your old high school. You seem like you would make friends so easy."

"Really, I'm pretty shy. I moved a lot, and I was ok making friends, but they were quiet girls too. I never fell in with the popular crowd, or the fast crowd. So there weren't boys swarming around us all the time. It didn't help that I look three years younger than everyone in my classes."

Another grunt and then we were quiet for a while.

"So, that guy you were dancing with… I mean, I understand if you wanted to dance, but I would have danced with you…maybe… probably"

"Really?"

A sigh "No. I don't dance."

"You danced with Tori."

A loud groan "Don't remind me" I had to laugh, he sounded so put out. "If you hadn't up and disappeared it never would have happened." A pause "Did you really ask that guy to dance?"

"I did. But its not like you think. His mother was there and she was worried about him. Didn't seem to think he had any game. I figured it was a small thing to do. Easy to accomplish."

"So some woman approached you and asked you to dance with her son?"

"She was a ghost. She thought her dying when he was only five really skewed his social skills. I thought he was a pretty typical nerd. He'll struggle now, but by the time he's out of college he'll have figured things out."

We were quiet for a little longer, enjoying the silence of the night. Derek rolled onto his side and propped his head up on his hand. He studied me for a while, then started again. "I don't dance. But I don't think most of the people on that floor could either. It looked like they were just holding each other and swaying. I could do that. Do you want to try?"

"Here?"

"Why not? No one can see us, and I don't have to worry about people sneaking up behind me."

"Music?"

He started his horrible off key humming of Daydream Believer and stood up, palm extended down towards me.

I let him help me up. I'd taken off my shoes when we started walking into the dirt, the heels on them would have sunk into the ground, so now I was just standing on the blanket in my bare feet. I reached my arms up to put around his neck, but they were stretched pretty far. I felt like a little girl who has to stand on her dad's feet.

He laughed "You're too short" and picked me up so we were face to face. My legs wrapped around his waist. Our eyes met and we just looked for a long time. He hummed the first verse of the song and started slowly turning around in a circle.

I just watched him. Looking into his beautiful green eyes until he got to the chorus. I interrupted him then. "Thank you. This was a great night. Regardless of everything that went wrong. You did so many things right." I tightened my grip with my legs to get the leverage to lift my body up those last couple of inches to his mouth. His lips were soft and welcoming, kissing me back. When his tongue came out, mine was eager to meet it - the first touch contracting my stomach and causing my hips to buck against his stomach.

After awhile we broke apart panting. His hands were spanning my butt holding me up against him. It wasn't at all like that guy a the dance. It felt like they belonged there.

It was too intense, to fast. I panicked "I-I-I-I. . . ."

He smiled a slow smile at me. "I hope you don't think I'm the kind of guy that puts out on a first date." The tension was broken and he got an honest laugh out of me. I played along.

"I'd always thought werewolves were sure things."

"Don't tell me Tori's been lending you books. That stuff will rot your brain."

He let me down and we gathered up our blanket and garbage. We walked back to the van holding hands. "Thank you again, for everything. I really did have a good time. Best date I ever had."

He laughed. "We could try it again."

"I'd like that. But next time, maybe we could just go to a movie."

"Can I wear sweats?"

"Yes, and have an extra large butter popcorn, with free refills."

"Would I get to pick the show?"

I snorted. "Let's not get carried away."

The end.