He picked me up at 6:26, right as my panic attack peaked. I hugged my dad for dear life, because I was so terrified. I had a tiny bit of vodka because I was so panicked, and I don't even drink.

I curled my hair, and pinned by bangs back so they wouldn't get in my face like they always do.
I wore my red sweater, with black jeans, and my cable-knit socks with my combat boots. The ones with the ribbon laces. I had my little side purse, with the tassels. My face was masked. My eyes dusked with a champaign color, my eyelashes lush.  And I stood there terrified. I felt beautiful, and amazing, and confident, and terrified, and so insecure. He wore a hat with ears. He called it his russian hat, and I laughed.

He picked me up at the door,  instead of just texting me. And my dad said hi. I just wanted to run into my dad's arms, go on a "date" with him instead. He walked me to his car, and opened the door for me, which is the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me. I told him he was really tall. He said I looked nice.

We went bowling. He won twice. We tied 75-75 once. The Simpsons were on the television above our heads. He tried to spell my name without an H. He wears a size 11. My ball was green. His was brown. We laughed until my face hurt, and bowled until I couldn't feel my arm.  We had alley #3. We bowled for an hour.

Then we went to Denny's. At first he tried to go to some other restaurant in his town, but it was closed. We went the Denny's on Washtenaw. He told me that didn't pay for their food there once. I thought that was weird, but whatever. He ordered cinnamon pancakes, but he told me they were too sweet. He ordered his eggs over-easy and put pepper on them, and butter on his pancakes. I ordered waffles and bacon and sausage and scrambled eggs, and we both got waters. I got weird pancake ball things because my waffle almost didn't work out. The machine was broken or something, so I almost had to get french toast.

At the end of the night, he hugged me. I don't know if he tried to kiss me or not, but it was awkward. First dates always are.

I just don't want to forget this night. It was so incredibly normal.