Author's Note: This will mark the eleventh episode of this saga, I hope this installment is fulfilling...we're looking at new love, old love, and everything love...

"Clarissa," I said. "I don't know if I like this idea..."

"C'mon, please...just ONE date..."

"No, Clarissa," I said. "The guy's a freakin' pervert...well, a man-nizer,
I guess."

"He's really a good guy," she pleaded.

"You barely know the guy," I said, giving her a look. "Send Ryan."

"No," she replied. "Aaron has his eyes on you, I know it. Girls know these things."

"Yeah, well, you don't know about Aaron McDonald, he's bad news."

Clarissa dropped her pencil frustratingly and closed up her trigonometry book.

"I'll give you twenty bucks to go on this date," she said, taking out a crisp twenty from her wallet.

"Forget it, you're not paying me to go out with him."

"Thirty," she took out another bill.

"No."

"Fifty," she said.

"NO!"

"Sixty-five," she said. "That's all I have."

I gave her a smirk and took the money, "Deal."

"I can't believe Clarissa paid you sixty-five bucks to go out with Aaron," Ryan said softly.

"Me neither," I said. "But it's just dinner and a movie, I figure I'll be talking for maybe ten percent of the time."

"Unbelievable," Ryan said.

"Let's go get some ice cream," I suggested. "I'll treat."

"Sweet," he replied. "Let's roll."

"Can we make a pit stop at my locker?" I asked. "I could really unload a couple books."

"Sure, that's fine," he said. "I just have to be home by dinnertime."

Ryan and I chattered idly while we traveled to my locker, and I stoppeddead in my tracks.

"Oh, look who's here?" Ryan whispered mischievously.

Aaron McDonald was standing in front of my locker, with his hands in his pocket, striking an idiotic pose.

"Aaron," I spoke up. "What are you doing here?"

"I got out of school and I had nowhere to go," he said. "Thought we could go grab a bite to eat."

"Would that be our date then?" I asked.

"If you want it to be," he answered.

I looked at Ryan, he glanced at his watch, "Oh, I forgot to go pick the film for my mom."

"What film?" I muttered under my breath.

"The film, ok?" he muttered back.

"Am I interrupting something?" Aaron asked, confused.

"No, no," Ryan said, giving me a silly grin. "I just have to go run some errands, you two can just run along and have a grand old time."

"I don't really think that's a great idea," I said. "I didn't think our date was until Friday."

"Fine," he said, rather tensely. "We'll move it up."

"Fine."

"Well," Ryan said, walking backwards toward the door. "I will catch you guys later, call me, Dway."

I could hear Ryan's snickers as he walked down the empty hallway towards the exit.

"Where do you want to go?" I said.

"I was thinking about this diner I saw on my way here," he replied.

"Let's go there."

We walked towards the parking lot, and I realized we had two separate cars.
As if reading my thoughts, he suggested, "How about we take my car? We
can come back to get your car."

"It's your gas," I mumbled.

I unlocked my car and dumped my backpack into the backseats, grabbed my wallet and keys and locked the car up. I walked slowly to Aaron's truck. I climbed in, and he started the engine. Within minutes, we were on the
freeway, driving away from home. We sat in awkward silence, and Aaron reached for the CD player. He turned up some Tim McGraw, and he started to sing to it. I couldn't help but laugh at his pathetic attempt to sound like Tim McGraw, but in reality, he was nowhere close to becoming the next American Idol. He looked at me and gave me that stupid, silly grin. I turned away, focusing at the passing landscape outside. Twenty minutes later, we arrived at a quaint diner named Parker's. We got out of the car, and we went inside. The hostess placed us in a booth close to the back. I unfolded my menu and started to look at my selections, a waiter came to take our drink orders.

"So, how have you been?" he asked politely.

"Ok," I responded.

The waiter came back with my ice tea and his Sprite, then the waiter took down our order of fries and burgers. The waiter walked away, and Aaron spoke up again.

"How's school?"

What a conversationalist!

"I'm doing ok," I said, still lacking enthusiasm.

He leaned in closer to the table, his face almost touching mine and said, "Why do you despise me so much?"

"I don't despise you," I said.

"Well, you sure act like it," he commented.

I said thoughtfully, "I just think you're a rotten scumbag who has no moral conscience."

"Nicely put," he said.

"I thought so," I replied arrogantly.

"You don't even know me," he said.

"I know enough about you," I said. "I don't need to know anymore."

"Like you're a saint yourself," he said, giving me a dirty look. "Taking bribes to go out on a date with someone."

"I, uh, um," I replied, rather flustered.

"What?" he said, giving me a smirk. "Surprised? How stupid do you think I am? I know Clarissa put you up to this to make Brad happy."

"Leave her out of this!" I yelled, a little too loudly.

A few customers turned to look our direction, we just smiled wearily to assure that everything was all right.

"Well, it's true!" he hissed. "Otherwise, you'd never go on this 'date' with me. So don't sit here and call me a scumbag with no moral conscience, that would just make you a hypocrite."

I was fuming with anger, probably because Aaron was right. Aaron gave me a satisfied look, a look you give when you've won an argument, and then our food arrived. The waiter placed our food down, and we devoured our food to fill up time and awkward silence. He kept looking at me, but I just looked away. I wanted to finish up this "date" as soon as possible to avoid anymore bickering.

"Check please," I said, calling the waiter.

The waiter acknowledged me with our tab, and I quickly glanced at the total and took out my wallet.

"Will you be paying your meal with your own cash or your hustling fund?"

I slammed my money down, and I gave him a glare.

"Take me home!" I demanded.

"Fine!" he spit back.

He paid his half of the tab and tip, and we left in silence. We got into his truck, and he drove back on the freeway. He took a weird exit, and we were starting to go up hills.

"Aaron," I said. "Where are we going? This isn't the way home."

He didn't respond, he just stared intently ahead.

"Aaron!" I repeated, raising my voice. "Where the hell are we going?"

Within a few minutes, we arrived at a vista point. It looked like a shabby make out point, and I turned back to Aaron and asked, "What the hell are we doing here? I asked you to take me home."

Aaron turned to look at me with a menacing look and said, "I'm getting my money's worth."

He advanced towards me and started to unbutton my shirt. I pushed him off me, but he kept bringing his hands to feel my body. I felt cheap and dirty.

"Get off me!" I yelled.

"Why? You cheap whore," he said. "You're mine for the evening, aren't you?"

"Shut up, you asshole!" I cried back, continuing to push his arms away.

"How much will SIXTY-FIVE dollars get me?" he said in an eerie tone.

"Aaron, seriously, cut it out!" I said, punching him in the chest.

He was taken back by my sudden attempt at violence, and he recomposed himself. He had a scarier look on his face, and he practically leapt onto me. He started to fumble with my buttons, and I pushed him aside. Then, he started to unbutton my pants, and I just socked him in the jaw. The blow caused him to hit his head on the windshield. The windshield didn't faze him, he looked back up, and all I could see was sadness. He had tears welling in his eyes, and he just opened the door and went outside. I sat in the car for a few minutes, confused.
Finally, I got out of the car and called out, "Aaron, please, just take me home."

Then I heard sobbing, and I knew Aaron was crying heavily. I found him sitting on some random log facing the city, his face buried in his hands. I was confused, I felt like I should be crying.

"Do you know how it feels?" he began, in between sobs.

"What? Being raped?" I said, a hint of anger in my voice.

"No," he said, giving an eccentric chuckle. "Ever really like someone and you just pray that they'd like you back?"

"Uh sure," I replied hesitantly.

"God, how naive are you?" he suddenly yelled.

"What?" I said, giving him a puzzled look.

"It's been five days since the party, and I can't stop thinking about you. I would go to school and think of you, I would go home and think of you, I felt like I was obsessed with you. I hated the way things ended between us then, and I debated so many times whether or not I should just drive down and confront you. Then, Brad tells me that you'd go on a date with me. I was thrilled. Then I heard Brad and Clarissa talking, and I heard about how she paid you. I felt so dirty, so degraded. Someone had to PAY you to go on a date with me, am I that pathetic? Then I thought about how many ways I could seek revenge and make you feel as dirty as I felt and guess what? In the car, I couldn't do it. I couldn't even find myself to go any farther. I felt sick just doing that to you, seeing you squirm. God, I like you so much, Dwayne. And I care for you so much, but you just ripped my heart out and twisted it in sixty different directions. I don't even know what I see in you."

He just broke down.

"Christ!" he said. "I never cry."

He wiped his tears with his sleeves, and he tried to regain his composure.

"All right," he said quietly. "I'll take you home now."

I have been standing there, numb, listening to Aaron. I was flabbergasted, as I tried to re-piece everything from the party until now. Aaron started to walk back towards the truck, but I found my voice, saying, "Aaron, wait."

He stopped and turned around, his eyes were swollen from crying.

"I don't know what you see in me either," I responded, tears forming in my own eyes.

"Dway," he said, walking towards me. "You're funny, intelligent, sweet, and cute. You're a real catch, Dway. So forget I said that, I don't even know why I said it. Must've been temporary insanity."

He gave a small chuckle to lighten the mood. For the first time since the beginning of Brad's party, I saw Aaron more positively. He was obviously passionate, humorous, and not self-absorbed. I chuckled with him, and I pulled him into a deep hug. I took in his scent, a distinct mix of cologne and after-shave. It was intoxicating, and it was comforting. His hands encircled me tightly, and I could feel his hand touching and caressing my back.

"I'm sorry," he said, still sniffling. "I never planned this to get so out of hand."

"I'm sorry too," I said. "I should have never accepted Clarissa's money in the first place."

"I should have made a better impression at the party," he said.

And I added, "And I should stop making assumptions."

I smiled at him, and he gave me his trademark grin.

"Let's start over," he suggested and extended his hand, "I'm Aaron McDonald, I'm Brad's cousin from out of town."

"Well, Aaron," I said, shaking his hand. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Dwayne Carmichael, but you can call me Dway."

"Well, Dway," he said, "It's nice to meet you too."

He held my hand, and I just pulled him in and gave him a long, passionate kiss. The kiss lasted minutes, but finally, I had to resurface for air.

"You have no idea how happy I am right now," Aaron said.

"I think I may have a clue," I answered, then averted my attention to the view. "Oh hey, the sun is setting."

He gave a slight giggle and said, "I thought this stuff was overrated."

"Nah," I responded, hugging him tightly. "Just sunrises."