In for a Penny, in for a Pound

Note from the author,
This is not a polished work. It was uploaded as rough hewn as it was when I originally created it almost half a lifetime ago. I am aware of the many errors it contains, but I have not corrected them to both preserve its historical significance (as the first story I wrote) and to show a progression of my writing in subsequent works. With that said, dear reader, if you can get through the obvious typos and grammatical errors I believe you will find it an honest and cute read
Sincerely and hopeful
Alex N Khane


I was not the most social of butterfly's back then. As a matter of fact I was not social at all. For that matter I was nothing like a butterfly either. I was awkward, nervy and a whole host of other things that made me, at best, invisible to girls. I was short with the most mundane brown hair and eyes imaginable I hadn't really had any time to process why this one took any interest in me because only a few minutes earlier I was at my aunts house watching television. She called my aunt. Yes you read that right. But I'm getting a little ahead of myself, this was not the first time I actually met her. The day before she stopped by my aunts house and noticed me. After some convincing, I  walked outside with her and we talked as we (I swear this is true) played catch with a football in the yard. I must have made an impression.
    So I find myself making the short walk to the barn behind my aunts house. This is, after a short conversation with this cute little thing that somehow found me interesting.

    "Walk out to the barn." she says not ten seconds after my aunt handed me the phone.

    What was i going to do, say no? Not happening, cute little thing says go and I go, end of story. I may have acted like I wasn't at first but I was going to and we both knew it.  So i get there and she's standing on the hillside looking like a vision that I never had the guts to have. She was in a pink shirt and I can't really remember if it was one of those "body suit" shirts that tuck into pants and button at the bottom, but it might have been. Hey it was the 90's and that was what was in at the time. It could have just as easily have been a plain t-shirt. That part of the memory was not as important as the rest and not as well retained. But i do know it was pink. A set of light colored blue jeans completed the look. And no. I have no idea what shoes she was wearing because I was not looking at her shoes. I, on the other hand, was dressed in the most mundane pair of bluejeans and a white shirt. My shirt had  long sleeves to protect me from the wind that was playing at her slightly longer than shoulder length hair while at the same time making me curly, yet unremarkable, hair all the more frizzy. I made my way up the hill and said
"hi".

    Original isn't it? I couldn't think of anything else to say but fortunately she could and filled in the conversation nicely when I couldn't find anything to say. This happened several times but after a little while I kind of got the hang of it and we had a decent talk. Subjects changed from school to what we do in our free time and pretty much all of the everyday stuff that all teenagers have in common. Then there was a flat out stop in the conversation and I locked up like a race engine without oil. The time drew out and I got even more uncomfortable but she seemed unfazed. I looked for a diversion and found one in my right front pocket. The case knife that my granddad gave me. I mean hey, I haven't checked the blade on it in a long time and then was as good as any to make sure the the hawk bill and the can opener was still there and had not fallen off. You can never be too careful. So I took it out and sure enough all of the blades were there and I closed it up and started to put it in my pocket. Without any warning her hand shot out and grabbed it. Out of instinct Grabbed for it back and we started basically wrestling for this knife. it was closed of course so no danger but once again the ice was broke and after the tug of war for the knife I found myself setting on the hillside against a tree with my arms around her waste. I had time to wonder if a perfectly healthy thirteen year old boys heart could literally explode. But I managed to keep my chest in one piece and enjoy the situation. The knife eventually found its way to both of our hands and we began talking again
    "So ' she said ' you having fun yet"
    "Sure" yeah yeah, again I only managed one word.
    Looking back I should have understood, but she was patient and it took a few minutes for me to figure things out.
  "Your really shy aren't you" she said impishly
What to do? When all else fail try mild sarcasm mixed with a dash of uncertainty.
"You haven't figured that out yet?" I said
"Yeah, I have, and its kinda cute." she replied smiling.
  She took a deep breath in and moved my hand from her waste farther up. Wow. The impish smile appeared again.  The look on my face was total surprise as I was still reeling from being called cute.Then another look took its place. Iit seemed... expectant.
    There are moments in our lives and especially that you got to take a chance. This was one of them. I remembered a show about a guy that was afraid of sky diving but he faced his fears and did it. This was not necessarily a fear but it was uncharted territory and the unknown makes  me, yeah you guessed it , nervous. I thought about what the guy said as he hesitated and then decided to jump.
"Aw what the hell". I threw the knife away to free up my hands. I closed the distance between our lips and kissed her. The feeling was indescribable of course so I wont try to here. But the  least I can say is that I was on top of the world for that amount of time. I put my arms around her and hugged her tightly. Hey, in for a penny in for a pound right?