She reminded me, the whole night, of a purple rose. Now, that might be weird to compare a girl to, especially with her name already pertaining to a plant that has no resemblance to a rose, and is definitely not purple, but, there are reasons for my beautifully weird comparison.

First off, she was very unique. Now, roses generally aren't purple. It's not as common as the regular red, orange rose, or even pink rose that you'll see a lot. But, purple is my favorite color, and since she made me feel warm and good inside, I automatically associated her to the color purple.

Now, why a rose? Because of her name? That definitely was a factor. But not just that... there was just... something about her that gave her a rosy feel. I don't really know how to explain it.

All right, imagine a rose. Any kind, and whatever color, I don't really care. Now imagine it in a completely dark room, and it's in the center of it just.... glowing. Imagine how beautiful and lovely it would be! That's how I viewed her.

I don't believe in love at first sight, but when I first saw her ninth grade, I always thought she was beautiful. I rarely got to talk to her just because we weren't really that close and I never mustered up the courage to really get to know her. That's why I was so happy I got to talk to her that night of the party for such a length of time.

When I got home that night, my dad was snoring in his arm chair that only he was allowed to sit in. I tiptoed past him and up to my room. I quietly shut the door, and started to unwind. I changed into my boxers and a t-shirt, and then collapsed on to my bed and fell asleep.

When I woke up the next morning, the sun was shining in through my room. I yawned and stretched, and turned. My door was still shut, meaning my dad hadn't come in to check on me at all last night. He probably didn't even know that I came in late.

When I got downstairs he was sitting at the dining room table, eating cereal.

"Fun night?" my father questioned.

"At Bobby's?" I asked, walking to the fridge. That was my story. That I'd be at Bobby's, one of my friend's house, a little late last night. He bought it.

"Yeah," he said.

"Yeah, I guess, it's just Bobby's," I said, shrugging. I opened the fridge and brought out milk. I grabbed a bowl from a cabinet, and walked to the table, pouring myself some cereal, and then milk.

"Do you really think I'm stupid?" he asked me.

"What are you talking about?" I asked through a mouthful of cereal.

"I know you weren't at Bobby's last night," he said.

"Oh yeah? So then where was I?" I asked, daring him to say what he was thinking.

"You were on a date!" he said, a smile spreading on his face.

"What makes you think--" He pulled out my phone from his pocket and on my lock screen I saw the words "Purple Rose[mary]" iMessage (2). I swallowed down the fact that I was pissed at myself for leaving my phone on the table, and snatched it away from him.

"Why do you think I went out on a date because of that?" I asked, taking another bite of cereal.

"Because I know my son," he said. "You came down here pretty happy today. Which is unusual for you. You're also very chatty with me. Which is also unusual for you." Since he wanted to be right, I played along.

"Oh, yeah dad, you caught me," I said, sarcastically, and rolled my eyes.

"I'm always right!" he said. I rolled my eyes again and muttered, "Whatever." I walked off into the living room and put on some Netflix.

I soon received a text from my friend saying, "Let's meet at the mall and go somewhere. Maybe laser tag or something, I'm bored."

I replied with, "All right I'll text you when I'm leaving."

I then looked at the texts from Rosemary. She said, "It was really nice talking to you!" for the first one, and then "See you soon :)" for the second one. I didn't want to seem too forward about anything. I wanted to tell her that I thought she was so beautiful for some time now, but I thought we should get to know each other more before I started looking into another level of our relationship. Words can be powerful.

I simply replied, "Yeah it was great! See ya! :)" and left it at that.

I threw on a plaid button down shirt and some jeans, then went downstairs. My father looked at me questionably and I said, "Gonna meet Eric at the mall, and then we're going to go do some laser tag or something."

"Have money?" he asked me.

"I guess I need some more," I said. He gave me some money and I went out the house and walked to the mall.

"Guess who I just saw!" Eric texted me while I was walking.

"Who?" I texted in reply.

"Rosemary," he responded. My heart leaped but I calmly texted back, "So?"

"Dude, I know you like her. Now hurry to the food court where she is. She and Tammy just bought food, and I'm a little hungry too myself."

I responded, "Ok, ok, I'm hurrying."

I sure did hurry. My feet moved me faster and faster toward the mall. When I was outside of it, I slowed down, and walked all the way to the food court, hands in pockets.

When I got there, Eric waved at me from a table. He was sitting with Rosemary and Tammy. They also looked at me, smiled, and waved. I smiled back at them and approached the table.

"Hey guys," I said, pulling out a chair, and sitting down.

"Hey Brian! Nice to see you here," Tammy said, grinning, and glancing at Rosemary, who did a slight roll of her eyes, though she was smiling.

"So what are you guys doing today?" Eric asked them.

"We were shopping--well I was shopping," Tammy replied, giving a playful glare to Rosemary. "She never buys anything and just watches me."

"Aww, you know I love creepily watching you; even when you're asleep," Rosemary joked, teasingly, and perked her lips.

"I hate you for that, and for that face you're making," Tammy laughed. Rosemary giggled and then broke out of the face. She glanced at me, and I realized I was staring. I cleared my throat and looked away.

"Well, we were going to do some laser tag," Eric said. "You guys up for joining us?"

"Hell yeah!" Rosemary said, and we all looked at her, amused.

"That's my girl," Tammy said, laughing. "We're in."

***

Rosemary was pretty badass, I must say. She probably didn't think that, which is fine. She didn't need to know. You play the role better when you don't know that's the role you're playing. Once you point out someone is badass to them, they start thinking about it, and try to find what makes them badass...

Oh, maybe that was just me? I'm probably the only one who did that. Or thought that way.

But yeah, Rosemary: badass. She got the most points on our team of 15 people in laser tag. She literally kicked ass out there. I totally wouldn't mind playing laser tag with her again, but Tammy... She was kind of... really bad. She was too busy trying to see what guy was looking at her, rather than trying to play the game. She got some lookers, but everyone here came for some fun... Not drama.

After laser tag, there was still enough light in the day to hang out. We got some milkshakes and sat back in front of the mall, relaxing. Eric and Tammy went off somewhere, leaving me and Rosemary alone. I made a note to watch the kind of relationship that was developing between those two. That could be interesting.

"Today was fun," Rosemary said. "I didn't expect to see you guys here."

"Same," I replied. "We all should do this more often."

"We will," Rosemary said. I gave her a questioning look.

"Why are you so sure of that?"

"Oh, no reason. It's just... Uh... We had fun, ya know? So it's bound to happen that we hang out again."

I raised an eyebrow slightly, smirking. She was blushing and stumbling over words, and it was so adorable.

"Yeah, I-I agree," I said, teasingly. She smiled, and slapped my arm lightly. I noted that, knowing that if a girl starts hitting a guy, that can be a sign of flirting.

She suddenly looked depressed, and I frowned.

"It's almost time for me to go home," she muttered.

"Is that bad?" I asked. I was starting to get worried.

"No no," she changed her mood. "I just don't want to go home because I'm having so much fun."

"Oh," I said, but I didn't believe her. I knew that there was something going on in her household, and she just didn't want anybody to find out. Well, me being the nosey person I am, decided that I was going to find out what was going on with her. But not then. I wanted to make the last moments of her day fun. Or memorable.

"You remind me of a purple rose," I blurted out to her.

"A purple rose?" she asked. "Really? Why purple?"

"I don't know," I lied. "When I look at you I just imagine a purple rose."

"Is that a good thing?" she asked, smiling.

"Depends on if you like getting compared to a rose," I replied.

"Roses aren't bad; they're really beautiful," she said, and her voice got softer. A slow blush formed on her face. She probably realized, finally, that I was calling her beautiful.

I didn't want there to be an awkward moment of silence so I said, "Yeah, roses aren't bad to be compared to."

"You're a really sweet guy," Rosemary replied after a moment. For some reason my brain took its own spin of her words and screamed at me, "She's about to friend zone you!" I sighed.

"But?" I asked.

"But what?" she asked, looking at me confused.

"There's always a 'but,'" I said. "'You're a sweet a guy... But...'" I looked at her, waiting for her to add in a but. She didn't though. Instead, she smiled.

"I have no 'but' to give you," she said. I suddenly grew happy, and before we could talk more about what was seeming to develop between us, Tammy said, "Hey losers!" She and Eric were both walking towards us.

"Hey!" we both said in unison, and we smiled at each other before she shouted, "Jinx! You owe me a soda!"

"Hey no fair!" I laughed.

"It is totally fair!" she giggled.

"How about I... Owe you a--" Before I had a chance to attempt to create a date with her, she got a call on her phone. She pulled it out of her pocket and I saw the name 'Papa' written on the screen. She seemed as if she mentally prepared herself, and then picked up the phone. As she did, Tammy and Eric sat down next to us.

"Hey papa," she said. I heard a loud voice on the other line, and she turned the volume down on the side of her phone.

"I'm coming home right now, papa," she said. Then she frowned.

"No papa, Tammy will drive me," she said. It was awkward that we were listening to her conversation so I motioned for them to stand with me. As we did she said, "Have you had drinks today? Can you drive?" I heard a loud shout and something that made my heart almost stop.

"I'm gonna beat your ass in front of your friends if you ask me such stupid questions again! And you're definitely getting a beating when we get home!"