“My friend’s band is playing, ha,” he said. “So tell me something. Why is a pretty girl like you looking on the internet for dates?” he asked.

Cassandra put her head down, covering her face with her hair to hide the blushing. She didn’t even know how to respond to the compliment. Her mind was momentarily blank, so she hid the fact by taking a drink from her beer. It gave her the extra time she needed to formulate a response.

“I got on there because my friend Betty kind of bullied me into it. She said I needed to find myself a boyfriend,” she said.

“Well let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” he said smiling.

“One day at a time,” she said holding up her drink. They both laughed at her corny Alcoholic Anonymous joke. She left her phone vibrate in her pocket so she pulled it out and saw she had a few messages from Betty. Jeremy looked at her as she looked at her phone.

“Betty, she is on a date tonight, but is asking me how mine is going,” she explained.

“So this is a date?” Jeremy asked.

“Oh my god, I didn’t mean to presume…” she started to say, but he interrupted her.

“Relax! I’m just messing with you,” he said. She let out a sigh and visibly relaxed. “Are you ok?” he asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she turned towards the stage. “What do you know about the first band?” she asked.

They spent the rest of the evening making idle chit chat between bands and enjoying the music. She had to admit she was having a good time. Betty texted her regularly asking how the date was going throughout the evening. When Chum Trail hit the stage they moved up as close as they could. Jeremy knew the words to all the songs.

By the end of the night Cassandra was pretty exhausted, but every time Jeremy spoke it reenergized her for just a little longer. They walked down the street in the cool night air, towards her car. Her ears rang from the loud music.

“Well, here we are,” she said pointing to her car.

“That thing still runs?” he asked.

“Hey, don’t knock Roger!” she said.

“Roger?”

“Don’t ask,” she said smiling.

“Are you really going to leave?” he asked.

“Well the concert is over,” she said. “What else is there to do?”

“We could ride over to Johnson Field. Walk among the trees,” Jeremy said.

“Just walk?” she asked.

“Yeah, just a nice midnight stroll through the park. Unless you want to walk through the cemetery across the street from there?” he asked.

“Let’s start with the park, meet you there?” she said digging her keys out of her purse.

“You can drive, I trust you. You only had the one beer,” he said opening the passenger door of her Dodge.

“That’s because I am only seventeen!” she exclaimed. Jeremy laughed as he climbed inside.

“Come on, let’s go,” he said closing the door. Cassandra ran around the front of the car and jumped inside. The old engine fired right up and they headed towards Johnson’s Field.

When they arrived there were several other cars there. Other couples came out to the park for a private moment or two. I wouldn’t be surprised if Betty was here, she thought. “It looks crowded in there,” she said.

“Let’s go over to the graveyard then. I’m sure it’s much more romantic,” Jeremy said. Cassandra shivered in the cool night air. “Are you cold? Here,” he said pulling off his jacket and handing it to her.

“Won’t you be cold?” she asked. He shook his head now and took her hand in his. It was the first time he touched her all night. She was so startled she almost pulled away, but after a few seconds she relaxed and realized she enjoyed his touch. His hand was warm and rough, like a carpenters hands.

They crossed the street and hopped the fence into the cemetery, landing in the cool dew that layered the grass. The light from the streetlights didn’t penetrate very far into the graveyard. They clamored their way to a path and followed it deeper in.

Near the middle of the cemetery was a big circle of grass with a memorial statue of the town’s founder. Three discolored stone benches surrounded the statue. They sat down on cold stone in silence for a few moments before Jeremy spoke.

“From here you can see the stars,” he said looking up into the night sky. “You can almost forget you are in a city.”

“It’s nice. Well other than all the dead people,” she said with a sly smile.

“Oh they won’t bother you, mostly,” he said and laughed. Cassandra laughed too and pulled her phone out of her purse. She looked at the time. 12:18

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