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The Best of Both Worlds
Sixteen: First Date

I hate first dates. They are so awkward and nerve-wracking. You never know what to say or do. You have to overanalyze everything… and you know, I already do that! So really, it’s just double the stress that I normally have.

Plus I’m going on a date with Brian Littrell, and quite honestly, I’m not even sure I want to. I know, I know, a thousand teenyboppers would kill to be in my position right now. But I can’t help it. Maybe it’s because we’re such good friends. Maybe it’s because I don’t want to open up to someone. And maybe it’s because I’d much rather be with his best friend than him.

But I guess I shouldn’t complain. Brian is a nice guy, and there is a definite possibility we could have some fun.

That doesn’t mean I didn’t change my outfit five times though. I wanted to look nice, but at the same time I didn’t want to look like I was trying to look nice. After all, all we were doing was going to a burger place. It wasn’t like we were getting married.

After fighting with my wardrobe for what seemed like an eternity I finally decided on something simple. Just a black shirt with a white flower printed skirt. Casual, and still cute.

“I don’t know about this.” I sighed to myself as I looked in the mirror. Once I’d solved the clothing issue, I’d moved on to the hair issue. Should I put it up, or leave it down? Putting my hair in a ponytail made it look stupid, as I’d had some blonde highlights where were starting to grow out. So the top of my head had my natural brown colour, and the ponytail was more blonde. But if I left it down it still looked bad, hanging a little past my shoulders and it had way too many split ends.

“Chill out, Dani.” Bev said from the other side of the hotel room.

I pouted. Clearly she hadn’t been on a first date in a while. “I hate my hair. This is going to go so badly.”

Bev raised an eyebrow as she walked over to me. “Because of your hair? I’m so sure.” She laughed. “I seriously doubt that Brian will see that your hair doesn’t look perfect and cancel your date.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “So you think my hair doesn’t look perfect?” I panicked.

Bev rolled her eyes. Okay, I admit it. I was being pretty difficult. “That’s what you just said!” She defended herself. “Just put it up.”

I looked at myself once more in the mirror. Putting it up did seem more casual, and that was the look I was going for. Okay, up it was!

Not more than a minute later, there was a soft knock on the door. I jumped and glanced at the clock. Was it that late already? Had I actually spent an hour deciding what to wear? I guess there was no more time for that. Bev gave me a cheesy grin and pushed me towards the door.

Pulling it open, I was floored by what I saw. There was Brian, standing there in his normal casual clothes, nothing out of the ordinary. But he was holding flowers and had a cheesy grin on his face. You know how they say in those stupid interviews that he’s the guy you’d want to bring home to Mom and Dad? Well, they’d definitely be right. How many guys are sweet enough to bring flowers on a first date? Not many.

“Hey Dani.” He said, handing me the bouquet. “Hey Bev.”

“Hey.” She said, taking the flowers from me and going to the other side of the room. Suddenly she was very occupied with finding an appropriate holder for them.

I smiled and blushed a little. “So, I guess you should lead the way.”

I think Brian could sense my nervousness. Honestly, I didn’t feel like he was nervous at all. I guess to try to make me feel better, he intertwined his fingers with mine. To be honest, I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. My heart started pounding in my chest, and if anything he was making me more nervous.

“You okay?” He asked, after walking through the hotel in silence. He pushed open the main door to the hotel and ushered me through it. God, he was just too sweet for words.

“Yeah, I mean, it’s just weird… cause it’s us.” I tried to explain how I was feeling, but I don’t think I did that well. “But it’s not just us, it’s us as an… ‘us’. You know?” I asked, hoping I didn’t sound too confusing.

He gave me a bit of a puzzled expression. Guess I wasn’t making as much sense as I thought. “Don’t worry so much, Dani.” He smiled as we walked down the street.

I smiled at him and tried to push any negative worrisome thoughts out of my head. Brian was right, I really shouldn’t worry so much. I mean, I wasn’t really giving him a fair chance, was I? All I was doing was thinking about how weird this was… and how different his hand felt from someone else’s…

“BRIAN LITTRELL?” A shrill voice broke through my thoughts… and ironically, reminded me who I was there with.

Brian smiled and greeted the two girls kindly. I have to hand it to him, he was always really good with the fans. Nick would just bitch about them after they were out of sight.

“Are you guys coming to the show tonight?” He asked and he finished signing their magazines.

“No.” One of them pouted, while the other one just stood there in shock. “We weren’t able to get tickets, you guys sold out in like, thirty seconds!”

Brian blushed. “I’m sorry to hear that.” He said sincerely. Meanwhile, I just stood there awkwardly. What was I supposed to do? The girls didn’t care about meeting me!

“Is this your girlfriend?” Oops, maybe I spoke too soon. Way to ask that question and make things ten times more awkward for me, random fan girl! It wasn’t like Brian was going to say to her ‘No, but you can be, babe.’ No, that was definitely something that Nick or AJ would say.

“No.” He laughed. “She’s just my friend.” See? I told you he wouldn’t say something pigheaded and stupid.

“Oh.” The girl replied, with a slight smirk on her face. Back off, bitch!

“Well girls, it was really nice to meet you, but I’m starving and we were just on our way to lunch.” He said, sensing that things were getting weird. So we were able to get away from the girls, but not before giving each of them a quick hug.

“Sorry about that.” Brian apologized to me, taking my hand again once the girls were out of sight.

I tried to wave it off as if it were no big deal. Besides, no matter who I was dating, Nick or Brian, I was going to have to deal with encounters like that. “Nah, it’s fine.”

I have got to tell you, Brian wasn’t lying when he said he knew the best burger place in New York. Not only was the burger awesome, but so were the fries, the milkshake…everything. Yeah, I’m one of those girls that eat like crap and never gain any weight. Though, that’s also probably because of the huge workout I get every night, being a dancer and all.

The walk back to the hotel was significantly less awkward. Brian and I chatted like everything was normal, and like this wasn’t an incredibly awkward first date.

“I had a really fun time, Dani.” He said once we’d reached the entrance. Time to go back to my non awkward life inside my hotel room. I couldn’t decide if I was happy about that or not.

“Me too.” I said sincerely. Because I did. Once I got over the whole butterflies in the stomach feeling. The food helped with that, I’m sure of it.

And the something strange happened. Brian leaned in closer to me and brushed his lips against mine. It wasn’t the most passionate and aggressive kiss ever, but at least it wasn’t done while AJ was standing right there. Regardless, it was sweet and innocent. A little bit awkward, but the perfect ending to our date. I guess. You’re supposed to kiss after a good date, right?

It’s really too bad I couldn’t figure out if the date was good, awkward or just allowing me to forget about other problems at hand.