Chapter 12

David
David packed a bag and grabbed his car before driving to his townhouse. The girls weren’t home, so he used his key to let himself in. He almost wet himself when their guard cat, Precious, let out a warning yowl that sounded just like a bobcat’s, which they suspected was in her heritage. A millennium of evolution kicked in as his heart went into overdrive, and David froze.

He almost bolted when he saw the big cat come stalking around the corner.

“Is this the day we finally figure out who’s in charge?” he asked the feline.

She eyed David for a moment, flipped her tail, and went in the other direction.

’That was fun,’ he thought.

The townhouse had four bedrooms. One was supposed to be David’s, but the girls had turned it into a study. There was a daybed in case he wanted to sleep over. He thought he just might do that since the townhouse was close to the baseball field. He put his bag on the bed and began to take off his farmer-nerd clothes. He’d brought what he thought might pass for Goth clothing for tonight’s date with Kat.

He’d opted for all-black garb that included skinny-leg pants and a silk fitted t-shirt that was semitransparent. He’d gotten it doing a modeling gig, and he liked how it clung to his torso in the photos. David had brought a pair of handmade boots with silver zippers up the outside that he put on over his pants.

He checked himself in a mirror and almost had the look he was going for. All that was needed were the finishing touches. He decided to raid Tracy’s room upstairs because she would have the most makeup. He found her black eyeliner; she also had some red mascara, but he figured the eyeliner was enough.

Then David had a thought. Over the center of his right eye, he used the eyeliner to give himself some flair. Starting halfway up his forehead, he drew a vertical line that ended halfway down his cheek and, at the top, added a small horizontal line to make a cross.

He stood back and took in his appearance. He decided it wasn’t so bad for something thrown together last-minute. If he and Kat were to go to more events like tonight, he’d want to get a Goth-inspired jacket.

David heard the girls come home, so he grabbed his stuff and walked down the stairs. As he approached, the cat from hell was registering her complaints to Cassidy.

“What’s wrong, Baby?” she asked as he walked into the kitchen where they were unloading groceries.

Pam shrieked in surprise to have a Goth man standing in the doorway. She saw it was David and threw the bread in her hand at his head. He caught it and put it on the counter.

“Jerk!”

“What do you ladies think?” he asked, posing for their inspection.

“You going to a costume party?” Tracy asked as she wrinkled her nose.

“Goth,” Cassidy clarified. “I take it you asked out that barista that everyone has the hots for.”

“David asked a girl out on a date?” Pam asked.

The way she asked made it sound like she was shocked that he was capable of asking a girl out. Then he thought about it for a moment. The last normal girl—not counting princesses, actresses, and the like—he’d taken out on anything close to a regular date had been over a year and a half ago. And that was only if he counted Destiny Crown. She’d technically won the date as a prize, so that one might not be considered a regular date.

The last time David had asked a girl out on a first date might have been nearly three years previously. No wonder Pam was confused.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t dated; he had. Somehow, girls just ended up going out with him without the awkward having-to-ask portion of the process. And once they had, they just seemed to keep going out together. This morning had felt weird when David put himself out there for possible rejection. He might have to call his younger brother and ask him what it felt like to get rejected.

He chuckled because that was what younger brothers were for: to torment. Phil had assumed that because his two older brothers were successful with women, he would be too. It amused David to no end, watching the little dumbass go down in flames over and over again. Both he and Greg had offered their help, but Phil ‘knew better.’ Obviously not.

“Have you guys gone on dates since you moved here?” David asked, suddenly curious.

The girls had all enrolled in the fall, so they had a semester of college under their belts.

“You make it sound like we aren’t capable of finding a guy to ask us out,” Tracy said.

“It’s not that; I just wanted to know what to expect on my first college date. Do I pounce on her at the door and have my way with her before we go out? Or do I need to wait until the second date for that?” he asked with a straight face.

Pam looked at him in horror as both Cassidy and Tracy smirked. They knew he was goofing off.

“This is college, not Hollywood,” Cassidy reminded him.

He’d shared stories of what he’d witnessed some of his fellow male actors getting up to. The whole pouncing bit wasn’t out of the question for a lot of them.

“You might want to play it by ear,” Tracy suggested and then added, “And if she pounces on you at the door, be sure to wrap your little friend.”

“You guys are terrible. Don’t listen to them, David,” Pam said, obviously worried.

“Thanks, Pam. I’ll be good,” he assured her.

He looked at his smartwatch.

“I gotta go,” he announced.

“Have fun,” Tracy encouraged.

“Be nice,” Pam suggested.

“Pounce,” Cassidy said, then quickly wiped the grin off her face when Pam twirled around on her.

David shook his head as he left them to it.

He’d been warned that some of the neighborhoods around USC could be sketchy. He drove through one that gave him pause, but when he pulled into the large apartment complex where Kat lived, it looked fine. He passed by several buildings until he found hers.

David checked his watch, and he was a few minutes early. He knew that in LA, you were supposed to be fashionably late, but where he was from in the Midwest, punctuality was the norm. As he walked to the door, he wondered if coming early would send the wrong message, one that would make her think he was too eager.