FIRST DATE → BAILEB
TAGGING → Bailey Carter & Caleb Sullivan
TIMELINE → Saturday, June 11th, 2016
SETTING → Planetarium
SUMMARY → Caleb surprises Bailey J on what he hopes is an awesome first date.
Caleb had taken an embarrassingly long time getting ready, especially considering the fact that he didn't look much different than on a normal day. But he'd dunked his head under the sink about four times to make sure his hair wasn't sticking up in weird directions, and he'd taken two showers, since Bailey had told him that him smelling bad was probably the only actual dealbreaker on the table. Other than that, his nervous energy was channeled mostly into excitement. He already loved being in Bailey's company on a regular day, but tonight he'd gone out of his way to try and make things special for her. Caleb had even gotten there five minutes early, pulling up in front of her home and shooting her a text to see if she was ready. Caleb had learned firsthand that girls usually took forever getting ready, and he didn't want to knock on the door yet if it was going to make him be that annoying, overeager guy right off the bat.
Bailey J had a pretty easy time getting ready for her first date with Caleb. Aside from minor weirdness that came from trying to make her hair and makeup look a little more than just casual, she'd actually freaked out the night before and had ended up choosing her dress to wear at 2am that morning, so ended up being way ahead of schedule. So by the time Caleb texted her five minutes early, Bailey only ended up having to put on her lucky sparkle high tops, lock her cat up in her room and went go open the door instead of bothering to text Caleb back since she figured that the only reason he was texting was because he was already there.
Caleb kept glancing between his phone in his lap, and Bailey J's door. As soon as he saw the door open, he fumbled to grab the flowers he'd gotten her out of the passenger seat, and then jogged up to the door to meet her, before she got a chance to walk down the pathway. Grinning nervously, he used his free hand to make sure that the collar of his polo wasn't sticking up in any strange directions, while his other hand extended the small bouquet towards her. "They're zinnias," he explained sheepishly. "I wasn't sure what kind of flowers you liked, but I know they figured out how to grow these in space, so I hoped you'd think that was cool, at least." Now that he'd gotten that explanation out of the way, Caleb finally had time to breathe and take in the sight of the first girl who wasn't Candice that he was ever going on a date with. "You look really pretty - I like the shoes," he told her, feeling a little calmer already. For the most part, this was just like any other night -- except for the part where he picked her up, brought her flowers, and planned a special surprise for her, but who was really keeping track of that?
Bailey J was a little surprised when Caleb got out of his car with flowers in his hand and jogged up to meet her before she'd even gotten that far. When Caleb extended the flowers to her Bailey was all set to tell inform him of how they'd also managed to grow zinnias in space, but was even more surprised when he got the information out first. "I totally think they're cool." Bailey J said, fairly stunned as she accepted the flowers from Caleb and looked at them, vaguely at a loss with what she was supposed to do with date flowers. However Bailey J's attention quickly snapped away from the flowers at Caleb's compliment. "Shut u-um Thanks. I like them too." She answered, just barely resisting her gut reaction to reject compliments from Caleb. "You look really nice too. But um, quick question. What am I supposed to do with these now?" Bailey J said, cheeks burning as she pointed to the flowers. "I've never gotten flowers before, am I supposed to bring these with us or should I go run them inside really quick?"
Caleb chuckled at Bailey J almost telling him to shut up, telling her, "It's okay, you can still tell me to shut up. I promise I'll probably still like you." It was hard not to default back to teasing her; he didn't want to go too overboard about it when tonight was supposed to be different, but he didn't want to stop it completely, either, because then it almost wouldn't be them. The light chuckle burst into a full on laugh when Bailey J asked him what she was actually supposed to do with the flowers. "You know, I've never had to deal with that part before. Girls don't give me flowers, they're so rude," he joked. They were still just a few steps away from her house, though, so Caleb nodded his head in the direction of her house. "They'll probably be a lot happier in there in some water or something than they will be where I'm taking you, though."
Bailey J grinned when Caleb gave her permission to tell him to shut up again, she knew she'd probably do it again sometime anyway, but at least now she had confirmation that he'd probably still like her after. However the smile momentarily slid away when Caleb started laughing at her genuine question. Thankfully his answer wasn't judgemental at all so Bailey J quickly went back to smiling in relief when Caleb didn't really know either. "I'll be sure to buy you the flowers next time then. But, in the meantime hold on a sec so I can run these in." Bailey J said with a smile before turning and running the flowers inside of her house to find water to stick the flowers into. "So, we're are we going?" Bailey J asked a few minutes later as she came back out of her house.
Caleb didn't know if she was serious or not, but he was used to fresh flowers and stuff being around the apartment, and that had been happening less and less the more Ofelia was gone, so if she really wanted to give him some, that would actually be pretty awesome. If not, Caleb definitely wouldn't be heartbroken about it, either. Flowers were cool, but it wasn't like she'd promised him a shark or something where he'd be legitimately disappointed if there was no follow through. "I'll be right here waiting," Caleb promised, and sure enough, he was still leaning against the wall outside her door, grinning at her when she came back out. He shook his head at her question, though. "You really want me to tell you so soon? I was gonna like, blindfold you in the car and have you open your eyes when you got there. Just kidding -- I don't have a blindfold, but I probably should have gotten one so you can't try to figure out if I'm actually a bad driver or not."
Bailey J shrugged when Caleb shook his head at her question. "Not really, I just wanted to know if you would. But that's fine, I'll just wait till we're there to find out. But I'm totally going to watch so carefully to figure out if you're a bad driver. If I see you slip your hands out of nine and three or seven and four, I'm totally going to consider myself completely correct about how bad you are at driving." Bailey J giggled, haply for the excuse to tease Caleb about his driving some more.
Caleb offered Bailey J his arm, not sure if that was overkill or if she'd actually want to hang onto him for the short walk down to his car. Once they got there, he pulled open the door for her, before jogging around to the driver's side and sliding in. "You told me you love surprises, so I'm totally keeping it one as long as I can," Caleb reminded her, staring at his hands as he tried to figure out which was more comfortable, nine and three or seven and four. Trust Bailey J to remember all of driver's ed class when he'd just done whatever felt right since the day after he passed his test and had never looked back. "What, you don't trust me to drive down these high speed Coolsville streets with just one hand? Well dang, I hope you really hate hand holding then, since both of mine are glued to this wheel now."
Bailey J raised her eyebrow in slight amusement as Caleb held out his arm to walk her to his car. It was such overkill in Bailey J's opinion but it was also far too cute to resist, so she happily let him anyway. "Cool with me." She agreed, watching him stare at his hands to try and figure stuff out. She'd actually expected the hands part to be mostly ignored since she knew that almost no one ever bothered with worrying about their hand positioning post actually getting their license. He amusement quickly vanished though when Caleb said that his hands were staying glued to the wheel and that he hoped she hated hand holding. Bailey J absolutely did not hate hand holding, so her jaw dropped almost immediately. "You were going to hold my hand if I hadn't mentioned the wheel thing?"
Caleb shrugged innocently as he pushed the button to turn the engine on, sliding the car into gear the placing his hands firmly back on the wheel. "Maybe I would have, maybe I wouldn't have. The world may never know," he teased her again. "This is going right up there on the list of things we can't solve, like 'what are the secret manly man organization's initiation rituals' and 'how many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie pop'."
Bailey J immediately started pouting when Caleb started teasing her again. Even though it was slightly funny, she was still disappointed that she'd accidentally hand blocked herself. "Or how long will it take before we accidentally crash because I tried to hold your hand anyway." Bailey J replied, attempting to sound somewhat innocent even though she really wouldn't actually do anything to endanger either of them.
Caleb didn't look over at Bailey J, but a sly smile turned up the corners of his lips when she joked about how long it would take them to crash if she reached out for his hand anyway. Caleb was definitely trying to feel things out and see what Bailey J was actually interested in and what she wasn't, and as he turned the corner off of her street and mentally recalled the directions to the planetarium, he determined that handholding was a go. Carefully, Caleb took his right hand off the wheel and rested it on the dashboard in the middle, still grinning as he said, "Looks like I just put both of our lives in total danger, Bailey, what are you gonna do about it?"
Bailey J watched gleefully as Caleb took one hand off of the wheel and rested it on the dashboard between them. "I'm going to reduce our chances of one of us possibly flying out of the window now and hold your hand. I'm all about safety, y'know." Bailey J replied, reaching to hold Caleb's free hand and watching his face the entire time in case he reacted differently at all.
Caleb licked his lips nervously, for a second doubting that Bailey J would actually want to hold his hand after all. Then his mouth split into a wide smile when he felt the slight pressure of her tiny hand slipping into his, his cheeks flushing slightly from her touch. "Oh, totally - we've got to make sure we're always focused on survival, we're too important to go flying through windshields or anything like that." As Caleb got used to the feeling of her hand in his, the color of his cheeks went back to normal, even if his smile never faded. It wasn't driving one handed that had him slightly distracted, though, but the fact that he was really, finally on a date with somebody new, and barely any time into it at all he was already having fun. Turning another corner, he risked shooting a glance at Bailey J, knowing the planetarium would be in sight in just a few seconds. "Know where we are yet?"
Bailey J grinned even wider at Caleb's smile and slightly flushed cheeks, happy that she had an effect on him. "Exactly, and you look way too nice today to ruin your face with broken glass and road rash. Maybe next time." Bailey J cheerfully replied back. Prior to Caleb, her only hand holding and "dating" experience had been Willow who'd always managed to be a little too aloof in the interest of saving face for Bailey J to ever quite know what was going on most of the time if she wasn't watching carefully. But Caleb, while still somewhat confusing on occasion was much more open with his expressions which kept a smile on Bailey J 's face as well. Especially since at some point during the ride Bailey J recognized the route to the planetarium from her house, so when Caleb asked Bailey J if she knew where they were yet, Bailey J nodded excitedly and could barely restrain her squeal of delight as she answered, "Hell yeah, I do. Only the coolest place in town!"
Caleb felt his chest puff out slightly, proud of himself when Bailey J called the planetarium the coolest place in town. He'd thought she would like it; when he'd made the list of all the places he could take her, he thought this was the best one for making a really good first impression. "I know how much you like space stuff, and they've got a laser light show in a little while, which is cool, too," Caleb told her, rattling off the facts he'd found on their event calendar. Once they were inside, Bailey J would probably pay more attention to all the space stuff than she would to him, but that was okay. Just seeing her happy was enough, especially when he'd felt like he was failing so hard at making other people happy lately. Caleb found a parking spot on the end, with no cars beside it so that it was easy to turn into with one hand, and only then did he reluctantly drop her hand so he could put the car in park again.
Bailey J was practically bouncing in her seat as Caleb rattled off the facts he'd found on the event calendar, interrupting only once to correct him that she loved space, not just liked it. Once Caleb got the car in park Bailey J had the door unlocked and open in seconds and was at Caleb's door hastily pulling it open before she could even think to stop and pretend to have some kind of chill about their date location.
Caleb had just put his hand on the door when Bailey J was opening for it, and he stared up at her, impressed. "Dude, you're like the roadrunner!" he commented on her speed, then quickly clamped a hand to his mouth when he realized dude was totally not something he should be calling a girl on their first date. Should he be calling her like babe instead or something? That seemed like too much too soon, though, so instead he quickly recovered, teasing, "Enjoy looking down at me because you're going back to being the smol in 3...2....1...." Caleb counted down, then stood up, grinning down at Bailey J now that he was towering a foot over her again, instead of sitting below her eye level in the car seat.
Bailey J grinned at Caleb's compliment towards her speed, not even noticing the dude part until his hand was over his mouth. Bailey J considered telling Caleb that calling her dude was fine since she didn't really see anything wrong with it, but Caleb went back to normal quickly enough that she didn't bother. "Maybe I should've worn heels, this is ridiculous." Bailey J remarked looking up at Caleb with a smirk, before shrugging and grabbing his hand again to lead the way into the Planetarium.
Caleb tried to imagine Bailey J wearing heels when she said that, and he was sure she'd look awesome in them, but he kind of liked her better, just like this, being herself. "I'm always scared people are going to trip over themselves in heels, I tried on a pair of -- uh, I tried some on once and they were like, super horrible, I don't know how girls wear them." Caleb remembered that mentioning his ex-girlfriend on the date was probably the world's worst idea, even if that was almost all of his girl experience up until now. Instead he focused on the here and now, and how his heart sped up a little when Bailey J grabbed his hand this time, even if it was probably just to get to the planetarium faster. "I'd volunteer to give you a piggy back ride but I'm not sure if they'd kick us out for that, I'm pretty sure that would fall into the 'date ruining' category. But I avoided the smelling part!"
Bailey J shrugged. "They're cute and it's nice to feel tall, I guess. I actually did break my ankle once in then but they're not that bad. Sneakers are just better." Bailey J laughed when Caleb mentioned a piggyback ride possibly ruining their date. "Good job on avoiding the smelling part, by the way. Maybe you can give me one after we leave then?" Bailey J suggested as she lead the way through the planetarium doors.
Caleb glanced around the crowd, where his eyes were above most people's heads, and then he nodded. "Yeah... yeah, it is pretty awesome to be tall, I never have to worry about not being able to see in movie theaters and stuff." Childishly, he stuck his tongue out at her, one of his favorite ways of bragging, and realized only too late that Bailey J had opened the door before he got a chance to hold it for her. "That could totally be arranged," Caleb agreed, a spring in his step from feeling happy. He reached into his pocket for the tickets he'd printed out earlier, passing them to Bailey J. "These are for the laser light show," he told her, handing them to her since he figured she'd still be in front of him by the time they reached the ticket guy.
Bailey J wrinkled her nose at Caleb in playful distaste when he stuck his tongue out at her. "It's not that bad being small, you know. People let me get in front of them at concerts and stuff." She retorted, finishing her statement by sticking her tongue out too. After Caleb passed her the tickets, Bailey J casually wondered if she should give into gender normativity and let Caleb be the one to lead the way, but as quick as she thought it she brushed the thought off and slowed only the smallest bit so that she was walking next to him instead.
Caleb cocked his head to the side, shaking his head at Bailey J. "I don't think that's because you're small, I think that's because you're cute," Caleb pointed out as Bailey J fell back a step, feeling amazed once again that of all the people in Coolsville the cute genius beside him could have been on a date with right now, she wanted to be with him. It still didn't feel real to Caleb sometimes, especially when he knew his competition had been people like Topher, but he was so, so not complaining. "All right, let's do this thing!" he said excitedly as the usher took their ticket, waving them through towards the auditorium to take their seats.
Bailey J groaned rolled her eyes. "Shut up! It was because I'm short and people are nice." Bailey J argued, even though she was completely blushing from the compliment. "Yess!" Bailey J cheered, squeezing Caleb's hand as she accidentally started leading with way again as she excitedly pulled him to their seats to wait for the show to start.
Caleb clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, adding, "Uh huh, whatever you want to keep telling yourself, Bailey." He was worried for a second that in all of Bailey J's excitement, she'd disappear into the crowd and blend in thanks to her smallness, but fortunately she kept a tight hold on his hand, and they somehow managed to get to the front of the crowd. "Nice, best seats in the house," Caleb grinned, even though he had no idea if they were actually that great or not. He hadn't been to the planetarium in ages, but he was positive that Bailey J knew what she was doing. "So do you come here a lot?" he wondered, hoping he'd picked a night for her that was at least sort of special.
Bailey J grinned widely at Caleb when he complimented her on the seats she'd chosen. "Of course, gotta make this date awesome for you too." Bailey J giggled. "Whenever I have time, yeah. You know what's funny though? I'm pretty sure this is the first time in forever that I've been here with someone else. So props for that!"
Caleb made a face at Bailey's comment, without even thinking about it saying, "It's already awesome, you're here." He always had fun when she was around, even if it had taken him a while to get his shit together enough to make it an official date. "I'm totally honored that I get to be the first person to come with you in a while, even if I was just a couple steps short of blindfolding you so you couldn't see you were coming here." As people around them continued to shuffle around and get to their seats in preparation for the show, Caleb added, "Now you get two of your favorite things at one: space, and knowing way more about it than I do." The tips of his ears turned slightly pink as he thought that he hoped hanging out with him was becoming one of her favorite things, too, but Caleb didn't want to push his luck.
Bailey J laughed and actually let go of Caleb’s hand for a second to punch him super lightly in the shoulder after he followed up saying that the date was already awesome since she was there with saying that he was honored. "Chill!" Bailey J insisted, continuing to take any of his compliments seriously in order to counteract the crazy butterflies going on in her stomach with every one. "Three actually." Bailey J corrected casually, looking down at her lap so face ended up slightly obscured by a curtain of blonde curls. "I also really love lasers." She said faking complete seriousness for almost a full second before looking back at Caleb and immediately cracking up.
Caleb acted like he was pondering her suggestion for a few seconds, and then shook his head. "Naaaah. If I were chill, you wouldn't like me half as much," Caleb pointed out, hoping that he was right about that fact and wasn't just taking a shot in the dark. It bounced right off him when she said her third favorite thing was lasers, too. "Lasers are awesome!" he agreed enthusiastically, resting his hand on the arm rest in case she wanted to take it again. "I've never actually seen it, but I can already tell that your reaction to it might be just as good as the real show."
Bailey J shrugged. "Good, I definitely like you the way you are. But I still figure telling you to chill is at least worth a shot." Bailey said, widening her eyes in surprise when Caleb wholeheartedly agreed with her on the awesomeness of lasers. "Oh my gosh, I was totally kidding! I meant hanging out with you!" She said through her laughter, taking Caleb's hand back. "My reaction isn't going to be that great, but this show is completely killer. You're going to love it!"
Caleb was about to make some kind of retort, but around him, the lights started dimming. His stomach did a quick flip as Bailey J took his hand and the room got dark, and a giant grin spread across his face again. It was a miracle that his cheeks weren't hurting from smiling, but he leaned closer to Bailey J so he could whisper into her ear, "Okay, maybe now I can chill. I'm actually really excited about this," he admitted, not making any effort to shift back away from her as a booming voice announced the start of the laser show.
Bailey J glanced over at Caleb and just grinned before turning back since she knew she was way too excited to even risk trying to whisper. Once the show actually started though, Bailey J didn't keep her attention on the actual show for as much as she thought she would. While she managed to keep her focus on the show for the parts that she had already known were her favorites, most of her attention kept straying back to Caleb to see his reactions and to make sure that he was enjoying the show as much as she had during her first time seeing it.
Caleb had thought he'd spend the entire show looking over at Bailey J to make sure she was having fun -- and he did, a little bit. He wanted to admire the way she loved this place so much, and got caught up in the excitement of it all, but Caleb wasn't immune from that enthusiasm, either, and he found himself entranced by the way the lasers moved around the room. Every time he did look over at Bailey, though, the smile on her face seemed identical to his, and he only looked away from how beautiful she looked whens he was happy like this because he could feel her eyes turning towards him, and Caleb didn't want to keep getting caught being the creepy guy that stared at her.
Bailey J was surprised at how hard Caleb kept making it to watch him throughout the show since there were more than a few times where she wanted to just look him instead of the lasers but couldn't because either he would start to look at her or she was really aware that he was already doing it. She honestly wasn't certain if she found it unbelievably cute or just plain annoying. By the time the show finally came to a close however, Bailey J ended on the firm conclusion that it really was cute since it did force her to look at the absolutely amazing show and that was probably a good thing to some degree.
Caleb was loving every second of the show, between the spectacle itself and the girl sitting next to him, but he was also impatiently waiting for it to be over, about to burst from wanting to talk to Bailey J about it. Finally, as the grand finale finished up and the lights started to turn back on, Caleb turned to Bailey J, his jaw dropped from watching the end still, and blurted out, "That was so cool!!! I can't believe you haven't dragged like everyone in Coolsville here with you, that was seriously awesome."
Bailey J barely gave Caleb a moment to get the last of his praise for the laser show out before she took advantage of how much closer in height they were sitting down to launch herself forward and kiss Caleb square on the lips. She wasn't entirely sure what possessed her to do it, perhaps some weird emotional high from just being in her favorite place in the world with the guy she liked, who was also complimenting the hell out of something she also liked a lot. "After a couple seconds Bailey J came back to her senses and snapped away quickly. "Sorry! That was a bit much. Um, yeah. The show was super awesome. I liked the finale the best I think, they clearly saved the best for last and stuff. Uh what was your favorite part of the show?" Bailey J rambled quickly in an attempt to distract Caleb from her out of the blue kiss.
Caleb had figured kissing would be part of the evening at some point; otherwise, it wasn't a whole lot different than just a regular hangout. He'd been pretty stoked for it, too; he just had been expecting it to be at the end of the night when he walked her to her door or something, instead of Bailey J catching him completely off guard. For a split-second, he didn't react, too surprised - after all, his kissing experience was limited to Ofelia and Candice, and he was sure sometimes that he still didn't completely know what he was doing. He definitely wasn't thinking about either of those girls in that moment, though; all he could think of was the blonde in front of him, who he'd never meant to let into his heart but who had found her way in there anyway. He was just starting to kiss her back when she seemed to pull away quickly, and Caleb didn't even have time to wonder if he'd been a bad kisser or something before she was talking. His heart hammered against his chest, and he was sure his lips were still slightly parted as he stared at her, dazed. "Um...I really liked that last part," Caleb told her, the tips of his ears turning pink as he blushed. "You know, the part after the show ended," he teased, really hoping that she'd liked kissing him as much as he'd liked her doing it.
Bailey J was momentarily pleased when Caleb seemed to be going along with her idea to pretend that she didn't just do that, but then her jaw dropped almost comically as Caleb started to tease her about the kiss. "What? Seriously?" Bailey J asked, a little more shocked than she should've been considering that they were on a date with each other after all. However, she did quickly try to fix her tone by following it up with a less shocked and more flirtatious, "That was barely even a kiss at all." Before the ushers got to their section and made it obvious that it was time to leave the auditorium.
Caleb shrugged as he stood up, not wanting to face the wrath of the ushers. "Yes, seriously! What, were you worried that you'd be bad at kissing, too?" Caleb ducked his head, somewhat bashful after that comment, but it really did no good when they were standing up now and he was practically looking down right at Bailey J. He didn't let go of her hand as they walked down the hallway, although he tried to shield her from the crowd so that they weren't swept up in a group of people. "I mean, if you don't think that was a good example, we could always try it again later."
Bailey J shook her head with a small cocky smirk spreading on her lips. "I told you last time I wanted to kiss you that I didn't think I was bad at it. But I dunno, I didn't think you'd like being kissed completely out of nowhere." She replied letting Caleb decide where they walked as they left the auditorium. "But it definitely was not my best example, so I'm glad you're already down. "
Caleb grinned fondly at Bailey J; it seemed like a smile hadn't left his face the whole night, it had just shifted from one type to the next. "You could have been trying to trick me! I didn't even know you really liked me yet then," he pointed out, thinking of how much teasing he and Bailey J had done before they'd both admitted to feeling something. And okay, maybe they still did it now, but it was fun, and Caleb didn't want things to change too much. Adding kissing in, though? That he was totally cool with. "Hey, you said you like surprises; maybe I like them too. I'm not really sure how you're going to have another kissing sneak attack window though, I might be too prepared next time," he added with a wink.
Bailey J rolled her eyes and laughed. "Only you would convince yourself that a girl trying very hard to get you to kiss her might be trying to trick you. It would be cute if it hadn't been so darn frustrating." Bailey J commented, happy that she could now be totally honest about her feelings for him. She paused to size Caleb up for a second. "I'm really not sure how I'd be able to get in another sneak attack either since you just had to be so darn tol" She complained playfully. "If I attempt another, you should just pretend to be surprised because I'd have to try really really and it's only fair."
Caleb feigned innocence. "You girls are strange and mysterious creatures, a guy can never be too careful," he pointed out. "I'm really sorry for being frustrating, though. Hopefully if you had fun tonight, you'll wanna let me take you out again so I can keep making it up to you?" Caleb didn't really want the night to end, so he took his time walking back out in the direction of the car, smirking in triumph. "I can't help it that I'm like a tree! I didn't ask to be this way, even if tall person supremacy is totally awesome every once in a while. But if it makes you feel better about being smol and cute, I guess I'll pretend I'm caught off guard... or you could distract me, that works too. I bet if you started with shark facts I'd never see it coming."
Bailey J scoffed at the faked innocence. "Uh huh. There was absolutely nothing mysterious about me insisting that we kiss so I could judge you. I don't think I've ever been more blatant about anything else in my entire life." Bailey J giggled. "But seeing as how I haven't stopped having fun with you tonight, I think I'll definitely let you keep making it up to me." Bailey J said, hip checking Caleb gently as they walked. "I think I've decided that tall person supremacy isn't a thing. Sure you can reach things but you're hard to spontaneously kiss which, in my opinion, invalidates everything. But sure I'll keep the shark facts thing in mind." She said, musing quietly for only a few seconds before blurting out "The licence plate that Lenny pukes in Shark Tale is the same one seen in Jaws and Deep Blue Sea."
Caleb wrinkled his nose. "Let me live! I told you I was clueless about this stuff, at least I'm getting a little better!" Caleb protested, unable to stop from laughing. A part of him wished that he'd seen it sooner, and had been able to do something about it without confusing Bailey J in the process, but another part of him knew that he hadn't really been ready for it -- ready for her -- yet. Caleb still wasn't sure he was as good of a guy as she deserved, but she seemed happy, and he was trying, and for now that was what counted. "Ooooooor it makes kissing more fun because the smol person has to climb you like a tree," he pointed out, although he quickly shifted gears to talk about the shark facts instead. "Wait, seriously?! I knew it was in Jaws and Shark Tale but I totally missed the Deep Blue Sea connection, how could I have been slacking so hard?"
Bailey J giggled. "I'm totally letting you live, I'm just telling you so you don't somehow manage to slip and make the same mistake again." She told him with a shrug before laughing hard at Caleb's idea. "Or that makes kissing sound like even more of a challenge since the smol person would have to do that a lot and ain't nobody got time for that." Bailey J argued back with a smile. "I have no idea how you missed that. The deep blue sea one was an total Jaws reference, it was even supposed to be the same kind of shark. You totally failed. Speaking of which, you have something weird on your collar, bend down so I can get it for you." Bailey J told Caleb, pointing at a completely random spot on his collar as she tried her best to keep a straight "concerned" face.
Caleb couldn't help but protest. "But it hurts tol people's necks when they have to bend down all the time! Maybe we just need to compromise and I'll get you a step ladder." Realizing how easily he'd slipped into talking about them specifically instead of just general tall people, he ran his free hand through his hair, feeling sheepish as he corrected himself. "Or, you know, the tall person and the small person -- it doesn't have to be us." Caleb was already distracted; he couldn't believe Bailey had beaten him when it came to shark trivia, but he was determined to defend himself. "I saw Deep Blue Sea first, and it wasn't as good as other shark movies so I didn't rewatch it after I was allowed to watch Jaws! Clearly this calls for a rewatch," he told her, surprised by how easy it was to keep suggesting more things for them to do together. Tonight had only made him enjoy her company more, and he was starting to trust her more than he'd trusted anyone in a long time. "Huh? What is it?" he asked, ducking down to let Bailey J look at it, hoping it wasn't something too gross that would put a damper on a date. "I didn't get a leech, did I?"
Bailey J grinned slightly as Caleb slipped into specifically talking about them but then immediately corrected himself. "Would I have to carry the step ladder around whenever I'm with you?" Bailey J asked, not bothering to beat around the Bush now that Caleb had slipped up. " I'd be down to rewatch with you. But you were allowed to see Deep blue sea before Jaws? Jaws is only PG isn't it? I thought Deep Blue Sea was like, a full R rated movie?" Bailey J asked just before Caleb finally ducked down to let her look at the weird thing. "Of course not. Ew. You got a Bailey." She informed Caleb before kissing him for the second time that night, exceptionally pleased with herself for a better thought out sneak attack.
Caleb pressed his lips together and blew out air, shaking his head at her in mock offense. "You think I'd make you carry around your own stepladder? No way, I'm a gentleman - I'd do it for you." Caleb shrugged as Bailey J pointed out how odd his shark-movie viewing order was, but then again, he was sure by now she knew that a lot of things about him were strange. "I don't think they realized that movie existed; after I watched Shark Tale we scrolled past Jaws one day and I begged to watch it and they said no. Then I spent the night at a friend's house in like fourth grade and he said his big brother had some cool shark movie we could watch, so Deep Blue Sea happened." Sighing, Caleb admitted, "Okay, I haven't watched it again because it scared the pants off of me when I was little. Not like Ring levels of terror, but it almost ruined sharks for me for a while, so you've gotta make sure our Deep Blue Sea viewing is really good to make up for it!" His neck craned, he really thought Bailey J was going to brush something weird off of it, and was pleasantly surprised when instead he was met with her lips against his. His stomach was doing flips like crazy, and he was tempted to pull back and tease her, but instead of breaking the kiss completely, he murmured against her lips, "Nice sneak attack."
Bailey J laughed and pretended to be relieved. "Thank God. I was almost worried for a second there," She told Caleb before he went into recounting how he watched Deep Blue Sea before Jaws. When the story was over Bailey J couldn't help but burst into laughter over it. "No problem. When we watch it I'll be sure to hold your hand for all the scary parts and remind you that the sharks won't get you, so you'll end up liking it way more than you did before." Much more confident in her kissing this time, Bailey J only smiled slightly when Caleb complemented her on her sneak attack and breathed out a cocky "I know." Before she returned her focus to the kiss.
Caleb wanted to pout at Bailey J laughing at him, but it was impossible. She tried to pretend she was grumpy all the time, but when she laughed, it was starting to become one of his favorite sounds. In the end, he ended up laughing along with her, agreeing to her plan. "But if I have Deep Blue Sea nightmares, you know I'm calling you in the middle of the night," he teased her, knowing he'd probably never actually bug her in the middle of the night unless it was a real emergency. Especially not if it meant risking this new part of their relationship. He hoped that the fact that he was practically smiling against her lips wasn't ruining the kiss; he was too happy to really help it. Finally, though, Caleb managed to control himself, even though his heart was still pounding against his ribcage. Tentatively, he raised a hand up to cup Bailey J's cheek, not wanting to break the kiss until they absolutely had to... Which unfortunately came a few seconds later, when the cough of a security guard had them leaping apart. "Sorry," Caleb mumbled, embarrassed, as he looked around and realized that almost all of the other cars in the parking lot had already cleared out.
Bailey J didn't really stop laughing even as Caleb teased her with the possibility of him calling her in the middle of the night if he got nightmares from the movie. "You can call me as many times as you want to in the middle of the night. I keep it off when I'm sleeping so I'm sure my voice-mail would love to keep you company. If there was one thing that Bailey J had to say that she particularly enjoyed about kissing Caleb, it would've almost certainly would've been how she was almost certain that Caleb was smiling as they kissed. It made her feel really special and was the number one cause of the butterflies going crazy in the pit of her stomach as they kissed. Bailey J was sure that she could've kissed Caleb for a much longer time if it hadn't been for the stupid security guard that interrupted them. However, unlike Caleb, Bailey J completely bypassed any feelings of embarrassment at being interrupted and was just plain annoyed as she shot the security guard a death glare while she grabbed Caleb's hand to walk back to his car.
Caleb scoffed at Bailey's comment about her voicemail. "If I'm just gonna get your voicemail I could talk to my stuffed animal shark instead! He doesn't talk back either, but he won't make fun of me the next day for the voicemails," he laughed. Caleb was definitely still on a high from kissing Bailey J; he'd never imagined that the night could go this well, not with all the baggage that he was usually carrying around, and he was disappointed at the security guard's interruption, too. But all good things had to come to an end, and Bailey did still live with her parents - it was probably best if he took her home at a reasonable time. After all, he was pretty sure as soon as he asked, there would be more dates to be had, so it wasn't like he had to guarantee that this one lasted forever. "All right, m'lady," he teased, tipping an imaginary hat towards her as he swung her door open. "What do you say we risk my one-handed death driving one more time on the way home?"
Bailey J made an exaggerated pout face and looked up at Caleb. "But making fun of you is my favorite! Why would you deprive me of that kind of enjoyment?" Bailey J asked with a giggle. Even with the mild annoyance from the security guard Bailey J was practically flying high with how perfect the date was going and her smile was almost immediately back on her face by the time Caleb was opening her door for her. "I'm so down." Bailey J replied happily, as she got into the car. "Yodo!"
Caleb rolled his neck so that he could look down at Bailey J, shaking his head. "You find enough things without me giving you extra ammo! Where's the fun if I make it too easy?" It was funny, but when he was spending time with Bailey J, he forgot about everyone else - he couldn't even remember what dating Candice had been like, which meant this was probably the best first date he'd ever had. "Glad you agreed; this is way more fun than the other ways I could have thought of to kill us from behind the wheel," Caleb laughed, squeezing her hand again. It fit easily into his, and he actually felt disappointed as he put the car in drive and headed back towards Bailey J's house.
