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"Mom! Dad!" I yelled as I went into my house making my dad jump in his chair and look away from the TV to me with concern.

"What's wrong, Paige?!" My mom asked rushing into the living room.

"We have out first show lined up! We play with the biggest band In Chicago! And I was asked to prom!" I said blurting out all my excitement.

"When is prom?" My dad asked.

"A week before graduation. Can I go? Can I go? Pleaseeee!?" I begged.

"When do I get to meet this young man?" My dad asked making me ecstatic.

"His name is Patrick and you can meet him whenever you want." I said

"Dinner tomorrow At eight?" My mom asked.

"He should talk to his parents first." My dad said.

"Dad, he doesn't live with his parents, he's eighteen. He's not a kid and neither am I anymore." I said.

"Oh, right." My dad said and looked kind of sad but he was being given this urging look by my mother and he cleared his throat.
"Your mother and I have Been talking and we understand your not a kid anymore and you've done pretty well with the freedom we've given you so far, so from now on you don't need to check with us before you leave. And no more curfew either, we trust you." My dad said reluctantly. I knew that my mom had talked him into this and I was greatful.

"Really?! Thanks!" I said still in shock.

"Now how much are dresses going to be for prom?" My dad asked getting out his wallet.

"Dresses and shoes are pretty expensive, Bill." My mom said to my dad.

"Here's two hundred, just don't get a dress that shows too much." My dad warned and handed me the money.

"I wouldn't dare." I told my dad then thanked him.

"When's your concert, Paige?" My mom asked.

"It starts Saturday at five at the cliff." I told her.

"But you guys just started your band. Do you think you'll be ready in time?" My mom asked concerned

"Were planning on going into overtime every day this week.

"That all seems like a lot of pressure with graduation, and applying for colleges, getting a job, your band, your boyfriend and now prom." My mom said still looking at me worriedly.

"All this planning and work is exciting!" I said cheerfully.

"Oh no, you're turning into your father." My mom laughed.

"That's my girl!" My dad cheered. I thanked him and went upstairs and started on my homework until Patrick called.

"Hey!" I said answering the phone. "I'm glad you called. "I was wondering if after my practice tomorrow if you wanted to come have dinner at my house?" I asked him.

"Sure, what time?" He asked.

"Eight or so."

"That fits perfectly. I have to work after school until seven." He said. " Pete already found some of the items we need for the show Saturday.

"I seriously believe our band is going to do awesome at this show." I said with confidence.

"I believe in you guys after what I saw today, it was pretty amazing for your first practice. I don't know if this will make you feel more pressure or not, I hope it doesn't, but there's supposed yo be more people coming to this show than the last one we played at the cliff." He said.

"No it's fine." I said then there was silence. I felt like Patrick wanted to say something and when he finally did it made my head spin.

"I was actually thinking about you, about our first kiss. I sound so stupid right now." He stopped himself for a moment. "I think we should kiss like that more often, I don't know, I told you it sounds stupid." He said regretting his words.

"I agree." I said swallowing the fear and nerves from my throat.

"Maybe Thursday night you could come over to my apartment then?" He asked "its okay if you don't want to." He added.

"No, Yeah. Sounds great" I said still nervous, too nervous to make sense of my words. I gave him directions to my house for tomorrow and got off the phone. The rest of the night was filled with homework and writing a few new songs.

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It was Wednesday and I had been tired all day from working all night.

"She's asleep on my shoulder" I herd Patrick say after someone tried talking to me.

"Is she alright?" Amelia asked.

"Yeah, she's just been working really hard lately." Patrick answered and I jerked awake to see we were in Patrick's car at lunch and I has fallen asleep on his shoulder.

"No I'm not." I said sleepily and sat straight up like I had been awake the whole time.

"Hey! There she is!" Joe joked.

"Maybe all of this is too much for you" Amelia said to me concerned.

"No, no. I'm okay, everything's okay I swear. I only have until Saturday to crank out some new stuff and get the band in order." I said beginning to drift off again.

"What?" Amelia said.

"Their playing with us at the cliff Saturday." Andy said.

"Why would you put this on her? Its too soon! She will seriously work until it kills her, you have no idea." Amelia said scolding the guys.

"They all wanted to to it, Amelia included." Joe shrugged.

"Hey, you want something to eat?" Patrick asked.

"No I'm okay." I said the drifted back off. Patrick woke me up again when lunch was over and walked me to my class.

"If there's anything you need help with please let me know, I don't want you under this much stress." He said.

"How do you do all of this? A band, school, living without parents, a job and a needy girlfriend" I laughed.

"You're not needy, your so independent its not funny. I don't know, I guess I'm use to it I kind of worked out a schedule too. Plus school is over will be over soon so that's one less worry." He smiled.

"Thanks Patrick."

"No problem." He smiled and I kissed him on the cheek, said goodbye and headed into class.
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"What took so long?" Blake asked as I put my guitar strap on and plugged in my guitar in a hurry.

"It was hell getting out of the school parking lot today." I said dryly back to him. I was in no mood to hear Blake's mean comments today. I reached in my bag and pulled out the papers that contained new music.

"I'm so glad we don't have to deal with school anymore." Nate said.

"I'll be glad when its over for me, just a few months left." I said.

"Let's play the stuff we've been working on and see if we can get to get to the new stuff today." Kevin said and I nodded.

It all just sounded wrong and messy, every song. I tried to help sort out as many problems as I could but nothing was going right. I started to feel like we weren't going to be ready for Saturday when I looked at the time on my phone.

"Shit! I'm going to be late." I said grabbing my backpack with my guitar still stalled to me. The guys just looked at me in confusion.
"Dinner with my parents and Patrick, I have to go." I explained as I got my stuff together. "Sorry guys." I called back down the stairs to them hoping it was an exeptable apology.
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"Looks like Patrick got here before you did." My dad said making me embarrassed as I entered the dining room. My dad was seated across the table from Patrick and my mom was bringing dinner in.

"Paige, guitar." Patrick mumbled but it was too late my parents were already looking at me like I was crazy for bringing my guitar that was still strapped to me into the singing room. I apologized and set it up against the wall and sat down next to Patrick.my mother served us food and sat down too.

"Paige you look tired. Are you sure this isn't all too much?" My mom asked repeating the thing everyone's been telling me all day.

"She fell asleep on me today at lunch" Patrick laughed. I mouthed the words 'traitor' to him and he smiled.

"I'm okay" I said wanting to end the conversation.

"So Patrick are you in a band too?" My mom asked.

"Yeah, me and Paige's bands are north playing at the cliff together Saturday." Patrick said.

"Oh so your the biggest band in Chicago Paige was talking about." My dad said making Patrick glow red and glance at me.

"Were good, I guess" Patrick shrugged.

"So what do you do in your band, Patrick" my mother asked.

"Same thing as Paige, guitar and vocals." He said and took a big bite of mashed potatoes.

"So what are planning to do after school ends?" My dad asked him.

"I work in a record store now, I have since I was sixteen, my dads a folk singer, so I'd really like to to something with music too.

"I remember we when we got Paige her first guitar for her eighth birthday she still hasn't put that thing down." My mom gushed. " you don't look like the type that would be in a band" my mom said.

"I get that a lot, people say I'm too nerdy or something. But our bass player Pete, he's the stereo typical band guy ego and everything." Patrick said making me smile.

"Pete and I don't get along." I threw in.

"Good." My dad smiles. "What kind of music do you listen to?" My dad asks Patrick.

"David Bowie, Tom Waits, Prince, Michael Jackson all kinds of stuff really."

"You should see my record collection," my dad said enthused "its full of that stuff." He said waving his fork around. They both began talking about records like they were best friends and my mom and I rolled our eyes.

"Now we have one more guy to go on and on about their records. He's like your dad was at his age." My mom said as my dad and Patrick went on and on not even listening to us.

"Eww no he's not!" I laughed and she nodded.

"He is, except my dad hated him." She laughed reminding me of the time my mom told me of the story about how my grandpa had chased dad out of his house with a rifle. I was instantly glad dad and Patrick got along.

After dinner Patrick said he had to head home.

"Thanks for having dinner with us, Patrick." My mom said

"Thanks for cooking for me Mrs.Adams. I don't get food like that since I moved out of my mom's house." He said.

"Well you're welcome for dinner here anytime." My mom said.

"You're more than welcome in this house son." My dad said once again I wished he would just stop talking.

"Dad!" I groaned.

"I'm glad you're taking my little girl to prom. I wouldn't want her messed up with anyone like that Pete kid." He said making Patrick actually laugh.

"Dad!seriously stop!" I interjected cueing my mom to drag him away reminding me of how a bad preformer gets dragged of stage with a cane in old cartoons. We stepped out onto my porch and I closed the front door behind me.

"I like your family." Patrick smirked."I'm glad you invited me over." He said.

"I'm glad you did because I was totally regretting it the whole time." I laughed and a silence fell over us as Patrick looked in my eyes.
"So tomorrow your coming over?" He asked.

"Yeah." I said.

"You don't have to." He said.

"Let's talk about this tomorrow or something." I said glancing back at the food to my house hoping he would understand, which he did.

"Hey, I was going to ask if you wanted be to cone to your practice tomorrow to help out?"

"Yeah, the guys begged for me to ask if you would." I said. And another silence fell over us like a blanket of tension suffocating our words. I knew it was coming but it still felt like a shock when Patrick's lips were on mine giving me a long kiss like the one we first had. When our lips seperated I felt like I wanted more but I new it would be weird making out on my porch. We said good bye and I went back in my house and climbed into my bed. I thought about how I felt about Patrick differently now for some reason and how I wanted the kiss to last longer but my thoughts were quickly taken over by sleep.