"You sure came in late last night," Jasper yawns as I'm pouring myself a cup of coffee and he pads down the stairs and then into the bathroom. When he comes back out, he continues talking. "I tried to wait up but I eventually fell asleep. Where'd you go?"

"Just went out to clear my head," I shrug innocently.

"You sound a lot better than you sounded yesterday- feeling better?" He wonders, pouring a cup of coffee for himself as I stir mine and wait for it to cool down.

"Much better," I assure him with a smile that I can't stop from showing.

"And you didn't talk to Noah at all?" He wondered skeptically.

I shook my head and rolled my eyes at him. "No, I didn't talk to Noah. I did, however, break the celibacy rule. But it's not what you think."

"It's not what I think," He repeats, blinking at me a few times.

"No, it's not," I tell him. "I didn't just have sex to have sex. You see, the thing is that I went over to the tree house. You know, the one at Scott's house. And I just went there to think by myself, but then Scott showed up and-"

"Oh wow," Jasper breathes, interrupting me when he sees where this is going. "You're right- that wasn't what I thought."

"Yeah," I sigh. "Well, I thought that he would be an exception to the rule so I didn't think that you'd mind."

"Um. I guess not," He says, trying to decide how he should react to the news. "So are you together now then or was it just a heat of the moment type of thing?"

"I think we're gonna try dating," I tell him, walking into the living room to sit down on the couch as Jasper does the same. "Which goes against my policy, I know, but everything was so intense last night so it was worth it."

"Well, that's good. Yeah, good for you, Jo," Jasper nods, sipping at his hot coffee. "I just really didn't see that coming."

"Me neither," I smile. "But it happened. And it was awesome."

"But how? I mean what happened?"

"Well, like I said, I was in the tree house and then he came in and he said that after his dinner with Phoebe, he'd come to the tree house to think- it's a good place to think, I guess- and he said some other stuff too and then he accused me of liking him, he told me that he liked me too, paraphrasing, of course, and then we were kissing and I'm sure you can take it from there."

"That just seems too easy," He tells me with a small chuckle.

"Don't ruin this for me." I deadpan.

"No, I'm not, I'm just saying that it's kind of funny that you were all sad for a whole week when it turns out that he liked you back. But then boom, you're together. It's great, I just love the irony."

"Of course you do," I chuckle.

"So is he coming over today or something? Like where'd you leave things?" He wonders.

I just shrug. "I mean, he said that he'd call me today but we didn't really talk afterwards. I figured that you'd get worried if I didn't show up at the apartment so I came back."

"I'm glad that I'm the first thing to pop into your head in your post-coital thoughts," Jasper tells me sarcastically as I grab the remote from the coffee table and flip the TV on.

"Jas, you definitely weren't the first thought in my head," I assure him, rolling my eyes at him again. "You flatter yourself."

The day is really relaxing, just me and Jasper. Conner has a lot of beginning-of-the-year crap to clear up so he's busy and won't be spending time with Jasper this weekend and last night both really exhausted me and put me in a really blissful type of mood so I am happy just sitting around and being happy and not worrying about anything.

It's around five when we're going through all of our takeout menus to try and decide what we wanted for dinner when there was a knock on the door.

"I'll get it," I tell Jasper before heading for the door.

When I open it, I jump a little when I see that it's Scott standing there- wearing that blue button up, I notice.

"Hey," I greet him, feeling a fire starting to burn in my belly. "We didn't have anything planned, did we?"

"No, but I was kinda hoping that you'd let me steal you for the night," He says as I step aside so that he can walk into the apartment.

"What, like a date?" I wonder with raised eyebrows and a ridiculously giddy smile that I can't wipe off of my face.

"That's what I had in mind," He confirms, glancing into the kitchen where Jasper is putting away all of the menus. "Hey, Jasper."

Jasper returns an embarrassingly knowing smile and then says, "I'm going to go get food. Have a nice night, you two," He says as he grabs the truck keys and leaves the apartment to go pick up whatever food he's decided to order. I think it's pretty obvious now that I won't be eating takeout with Jasper tonight.

"Are we leaving now?" I ask Scott.

He nods. "Yes."

"Can I get dressed first?" I wonder, looking down at my pajama shorts and tank top that I hadn't gotten out of from this morning considering my lazy day.

Scott scrunches his face and pretends to think about it for a minute before he says, "I'll allow it."

"I appreciate that," I giggle, hurrying toward the stairs. "I'll be right back."

I quickly flip through my closet and decide on a tan dress with gold sequins that cover the midsection of the dress and then fade down to the hem of the dress and up to the neckline. I poke square spiked gold hoop earrings through my ears, add a fake diamond bow ring on my finger, and then step into my black pumps with a gold lining near the edges so they kind of match my dress.

I've never had to get ready for a date so fast but since Scott is waiting for me downstairs, I go as fast as I can, which is why I pull my hair up into a high, elegant pony tail instead of straightening or curling it.

Grabbing my bag, I make my way back downstairs.

"Just give me two more minutes," I tell Scott, who's sitting on the couch watching TV as I hurry around the apartment.

I don't wait for a response before I go into the bathroom to apply some eyeliner and mascara as quickly as possible. "Take your time, it's fine."

"So where are we going?" I call through the bathroom door as I dab on just a little bit of lip gloss before I do one last check in the mirror to make sure that I look presentable.

"I'm not sure yet," He admitted. "I'm kinda just playing it by ear right now."

I open the bathroom door and Scott stands up from the couch when he sees me. "You sure know how to sweep a girl off her feet."

"I know," He agrees, quickly looping his arm around my waist and then pressing his lips to mine. Before I can fully kiss him back, he's pulling away, opening the front door so that we can leave. "And also you look nice."

"For getting ready in fifteen minutes? I look fabulous," I correct him before pulling out my keys, I lock the door behind me since Jasper isn't back yet and then I follow him down to his car that's parked right outside of the building.

"You're pushing it," He teases me as we get to his car and he steps in front of me, opening the passenger side door for me because he's ridiculously cute.

"Well, I guess you look okay too," I say, getting into the car as he walks around to his side and gets into the driver seat before he's starting up the car and driving away from the apartment building.

"Just okay?"

"Yeah," I confirm. "You'll do. Do you really not know where we're going?"

"No, I really don't," He shrugs. "There's the drive-in, the theater, or we could- Oh! Never mind, I've got an idea."

"Care to share?" I wonder with raised eyebrows as he continues in the same direction, now with a destination.

"Not yet. I'm not sure if it'll work," He explains. "Just give me a minute."

"Alright then," I say with a quiet giggle. "Whatever you say."

We drive for a little while, kind of far away from the city, until we pull into a long parking lot that seemed to be surrounded by hills, trees, and grass. I don't get it. "Okay, good. They're still open."

"I don't think nature closes," I tell Scott slowly.

"It's a garden," Scott tells me with a small grin that he's trying with no success to hide. "Gibb's Gardens, it's really cool. I think you'll really like it. Come on, I'll show you."

Getting out of the car, Scott led me toward a gazebo that led to a sidewalk that snaked through the small hills that I can see now really is a garden. There's flowers blooming all over the place, surrounding the sidewalks as if to greet us into the garden. Up ahead, I see a small pond sparkling with a small river of water flowing into the pond from a rocky fountain. It is gorgeous.

"Wow," I breathe, wishing that I'd brought my camera with me. Annie would love this. "This is incredible."

"I thought you'd think so," Scott says, kissing my cheek before pulling my hand into his and then he leads me farther into the paths of the garden. It feels like such a magical place, like you need to be really incredibly special to be able to explore the depths of a place so beautiful. It feels like a secret.

"I can't believe that you haven't brought me here before," I tell him, admiring the sight of the path that lay in front of us. The path was covered by a tunnel of wood panels like a really long gazebo and then on top of the wooden panels, vines made a ceiling for the tunnel covered in mossy leaves and little pink flowers. The eerie vines fell down off of the sides of the "ceiling" and danced around the panels of wood that supported the tunnel.

"I was saving it," He tells me as we start walking through the path. There's a couple walking with their young daughter walking in the opposite direction and they flash us friendly smiles as they walk passed.

"As if you knew that we'd be doing this," I scoff, holding up our entwined hands as if to show him that by 'this' I mean us going on a real date where we kiss and hold hands.

He shrugs sheepishly. "I had my hopes."

"Shut up," I tell him, not believing him at all. "You did not."

"I did," He argues, laughing now.

"Not when I first got here," I remind him. "You were with Macy, you big fat liar."

"That makes me a bad boyfriend, not a liar," He tells me and when I look at him to explain himself, he continues as we walk all the way through the tunnel of pink flowers and then down a sidewalk surrounded by dark purple and red flowers and bushes. "It's not like I've had some crush on you since you got here. It's just that whenever you asked for things to do here in Atlanta and I didn't tell you about this place, it was because if- if there was any little possibility- that we went on a date, I would want it to be here. And I would want to see your face when you saw it."

"Then why didn't you know where to take me at first?" I wonder.

"I forgot," He says with a small laugh. "But come on, you know that you love it."

"I do."

"So it worked out," He supplies when we round a corner and I can see up ahead that people, probably employees, are stacking up chairs onto carts and taking down extra flower decorations. It looks like some happy couple out there just got married in this beautiful secret place but now that wedding is obviously over and they're on the way to party at the reception.

"It did," I agree. "I'm glad that you saved it. I'm also glad that you saved that shirt because it's like wow."

"Well, that's good because that dress is also like wow," Scott tells me and I blush.

"That bridge is pretty wow," I say, pointing to a bridge ahead of us, passed the deteriorating wedding scene, where there was a larger pond than the one we'd come across before. It had a dark green bridge that arched over a small stream of the water to the other side of the garden with vines following the railing of the bridge all the way across on both sides. "This really is so beautiful, Scott."

"Good. I was hoping that you'd love it."

We walk over the bridge and then down another path of blossoming flowers and old wooden gazebos and lively ponds with trickling fountains. We pass a few other people on our way through the maze of sidewalks but eventually, when Scott says that we're about halfway through the gardens, I can't take much more walking. My heels are beginning to cut into my feet so when I see a bench up ahead of us, I ask Scott if we can take a break.

"I should have worn flats," I mutter, slipping the heels off of my feet once we're sitting on the bench.

"Sorry," He mumbles sheepishly. "I didn't even think of that."

"I can handle it," I assure him. "Anyway, I have something I want to ask you. Seriously."

"Okay. What is it that you have to seriously ask me?" Scott asks me, looking over at me to listen to what I'm about to say.

"Okay, well last night, you didn't just decide to become hopelessly in love with me," I say, adding that teasing dramatization with a whisper of a laugh. "So when?"

"When did I start liking you?" He wonders for clarification and I nod as he scoots closer to me on the bench and wraps his arm around my waist. "I don't know. I didn't really realize it until I was with Phoebe last night and like, everything she did- it reminded me of you. And I realized that I'd rather be on a date with you than this random nice girl from my psych class."

"Well, I'm very glad that you came to that realization," I say, resting my head on his shoulder so comfortably that it feels like I've been cuddling up to him forever.

"What about you?" Scott fires my question back at me, which I was hoping that he wouldn't do.

"I don't remember," I lie, not wanting to tell him that I've been hiding my crush on him for a whole week. I mean, I now that's not very long but it really did seem like forever to me.

"Liar," He accuses me.

"Fine. Try to guess," I tell him.

He's silent for a minute before he says, "Was it when you saw my incredibly sexy body at the humane society fair?"

"Oh, that's a really good guess," I giggle. "But no."

"Was it before or after that?"

"After."

"What about after your first day of class, when we were in the tree house? That was a nice night," He says.

"That was a very nice night," I agree with him. "But still no. After that."

"Jeez, you're difficult," He teases me. "I have no idea then."

"Are you giving up?"

"If I give up, will you tell me?"

I consider this for a minute and then decide, "Sure. I guess."

"Then I'm giving up," He confirms.

"Quitter," I chuckle softly. "Anyway, it was when I was helping you move into the dorms last week."

"Really," He wonders. "Sunburn and sweat turns you on?"

I scoff and pull some hair out of my eyes that had fallen from the pony tail. "Wouldn't you like to know what turns me on."

"I have a few good ideas," He responds, his voice closer to my ear when he says that and it sends a shiver down my spine.

"Shut up," I find myself saying, blushing a little bit too.

"Seriously though, you could have told me," Scott says, pulling me even closer to his side.

"It doesn't matter. The cat's out of the bag now anyway," I remind him, looking up from his shoulder and placing a quick kiss on his lips.

"Fine," He says with a small laugh. "Anyway, they're going to close soon so we should probably get going again if you want to see everything."

"Sure," I sigh, feeling the loss of his arm around my waist as we both stand up, holding hands again as we walk down the sidewalk, going over wooden bridges and through vine-covered gazebos.

"I feel like this is where fairies live," I tell Scott, letting my eyes roam over the rose garden to our left. "Like, they come out at night and make everything look magical."

"That is a very interesting theory," Scott tells me with a small laugh. "And all along, I thought it was the landscapers and gardeners who took care of these plants."

"Nope. It's definitely the fairies," I assure him. "Or else it wouldn't seem so magical."

Just to prove to him how magical these gardens are, I step forward and with his hand still latched onto mine, I twirl around on the sidewalk. My dress spirals around me as I tuck under my and Scott's connected hands. I spin around a few times before Scott catches me by wrapping an arm around my midsection and pulling me closer to him so that my back is pressed against his front. The whole thing causes me to let out a loud laugh, breaking the silence in the air around us. Since the gardens are about to close, there's not that many people here anymore.

"I think you're the one that makes this place magical," Scott mutters before kissing my neck and then releasing me again as we continue to walk toward the entrance that we came in from. "Just by being here."

"You," I say, turning to poke at his chest to add emphasis. "Are incredibly cheesy."

"You," Scott wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me closer to him as we keep walking. "Are incredibly right. You're just going to have to deal with it."

"I suppose that it's a flaw that I can overlook," I assure him teasingly when we both know that being cheesy is definitely not a flaw at all- it's kind of the opposite, I think.

"You're so generous," He says sarcastically and I can see the entrance coming up in front of us with that familiar wooden gazebo that we'd walked in under just about two hours ago. "Anyway, are you hungry? Or what do you want to do?"

"I'm starving," I admit, remembering that I still hadn't had dinner considering I was ordering dinner with Jasper when Scott had taken me by surprise out on this wonderful date. "But I don't care where we go- I'll eat almost anything."

"I know just the place," Scott assures me.

In the car, we drive back toward the city as the sun is setting over top of us, hiding behind the buildings that seem to grow taller as we get deeper into the city. We drive in silence for a while and I admire the beauty of the sun setting until we pull up into the parking lot of a small restaurant that looks like some kind of 50's diner.

"I may be a little overdressed," I tell Scott but we're already walking into the building.

"You think too highly of yourself," Scott jokes and I roll my eyes at him. "You'll fit right in."

And yet, I do get a few odd glances when we walk in, me wearing my gold dress and elegant black heels but Scott blends in more with his incredibly sexy button up shirt and nice pair of jeans. He looks dressy but still okay to walk into a diner. Oh well though, standing out isn't a bad thing. I just shrug and then I revel in how strange it is to be sitting in a diner wearing a gold dress, coming from the magic-ness of the Gibb's Gardens. These people can think that I'm just overdressed but they don't even know the half of it.

And then as we're sitting in our little booth near the wall, I think of how surreal this is. I'm looking over a breakfast menu in a diner, sitting across from Scott- the boy who was my savior so long ago- and who I had tracked down just a little while ago and who had unknowingly put me through some emotional turmoil in the past week and who had laid me down in a tree house last night and also the boy who is drilling my heart into the ground right now just by smiling at me. And I'm here with him. On a date. It feels so perfect that it might just be too perfect and that part scares me.

"Scott," I say to get his attention.

"Okay, so I know that the menu is kind of sketchy but I promise that they have the best burgers, and-" He finally looks up at me and notices the look on my face. "You aren't worried about the menu choices."

I shake my head.

"What's up?" He asks, his brows furrowed in worried curiosity as he waits for me to explain my sudden scared expression.

"I just..." I can't put it in words. "It scares me to think that maybe this is just... I don't know, a fling. I don't want this whole dating thing to just be a quick little thing before college really starts. I'm... I'm suddenly terrified that I'm going to lose you again."

"You're not going to lose me," Scott says, leaning over the table enough so that he can grab my hand and hold it in his just to emphasize his point. "And also I don't think that this is a fling. I think that we're really going to do this and I think that it's going to be amazing."

"Yeah?" I wonder, unable to hide the grin that starts sprouting on my face.

"Yeah. Definitely. I mean, I know that we didn't have the most... romantic start to a relationship," He explains, talking about last night. I blush. "And I can see how that could be suspicious but it's not my fault that you're so incredibly beautiful that I can't think straight enough to make good decisions. And I'm aware that most relationships that start like that don't last very long but this is different. We're different."

I can't help but laugh a little bit at that. "Yeah, it wasn't very romantic at all."

"That's why I had to make up for it tonight with the gardens," He tells me with a grin as a waitress comes and takes our order. I'd barely had time to look at the menu because I was so preoccupied, so I just order what Scott orders.

"And this oh-so romantic diner?" I wonder with raised eyebrows and a small laugh.

"Of course," He agrees jokingly with a nod. "The most romantic spot in Atlanta."

"Clearly."

"Anyway, my point is that I like you more than I've ever liked anybody ever," Scott tells me, his voice and facial expression now completely serious and I can feel my heart thudding spastically in my chest. I mentally tell it to calm down but it won't listen to me. It's a stubborn heart. "And right now, there is nothing I want more than to be with you for a really, really long time."

I pinch my lips together and smile anyway, trying to decide how to respond to that without it being a giggle. Finally, I stand up from my side of the bench and I squeeze my way onto Scott's lap in the most elegant way possible so that I don't draw any attention to us. I put my lips on his very softly and only momentarily even though the only thing I want to do in that moment is rip off every single button on his shirt with my teeth. We are in public though, and I want to take things somewhat slowly, which means no button ripping for a while now.

"I'm going to love you madly," I whisper, my lips brushing against his as I speak. I know that it's true- given time, I know that I'm going to love Scott so much. More than anything. Sure, I love him now as a friend but that's different. We both know that it's different. I've loved him since I can remember and I never stopped but this love, it's going to be something new.

This time, Scott is the one kissing me but it's still light and soft since we're both very aware that although we're in the corner booth, we're still in public. "I can't wait," He says back, his voice just above a whisper.

I grin, sensing that we are about to start a whole new adventure.

The adventure of a lifetime.

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Song: Make You Feel My Love by Adele
Picture: Her outfit