A Classy Date (Yuri)

The frosty night air nips at your face as you get out of your car. The season has turned faster than you expected it would, but you don’t particularly mind that. You stuff your ungloved hands in your pockets and walk up to the front door of Yuri’s house. Even in the dark, you can that the house holds an air of elegance, not too dissimilar from Yuri. Looking back to your older car, you can’t help but feel that your presence just dropped the property value by half.

You ring the doorbell of the house. Yuri had mentioned something about going to go see a play or some sort of show last week, and had extended an invitation to you. You nervously accepted her offer, not expecting the girl to ask you out. In the hours prior to your arrival, you had agonized about dressing properly for your “date”. Scrounging around for nice clothes wasn’t too fun, but you were eventually successful at throwing something together that shows you have a modicum of class. The matter of whether or not you felt comfortable in these clothes was another story, but at least you looked nice.

Hearing the knob jiggle is enough to break you out of your short daydream. The door swings open to reveal your date for the night. Yuri is wearing a one of the nicest purple dresses you’ve ever seen, combined with a light sweater and a pea coat over top of everything else. Her hair also looks slightly different than normal, almost as if she was playing with parting it just before you came over. It takes you a second to take in the sight and… smell? Her perfume lightly wafts over to you from the door. Holy shit, she really went all out tonight. Feelings of inadequacy are beginning to grip you the longer you look at her. Thankfully, she breaks you out of your trance.

“Hi Anon… W-Well, how do I look?” she says with a blush on her face, not making eye contact with you.

“I… didn’t expect you to be dressed this nice,” you say, eyeing her up and down.

“I like it, you look beautiful.”

You somehow managed to keep the confidence in your voice. Yuri’s face flushes with read upon hearing your comment. She sputters momentarily before composing herself. You can’t help but notice how cute she is when she’s flustered.

“T-Thank you, Anon,” she stammers, “you’re pretty handsome, y-yourself.”

A touch of heat spreads across your face. You can’t remember the last time a girl complimented you on your appearance, and wasn’t being snide about it. Actually now that you think about it, that’s never happened. The thought that Yuri likes your appearance makes you mildly giddy. You glance down at your watch to check the time.

“Well, are you ready to go the thing, Yuri? We don’t want to be too late,” you say as jab a thumb back  towards the driveway.

“Opera, Anon. We’re going to see an opera,” Yuri replies, “And yes, I am ready.”

Yuri grabs a small purse from inside and closes the door to the house behind her. As she’s locking the door, a thought occurs to you. Yuri was just finishing with the door when you ask her a question.

“Hey Yuri,” you start, “where are your parents tonight? I thought they were supposed to be home.”

Yuri stiffened up when she heard you say her name, but relaxed as soon as you finished your question.

“Oh, they’re away for a business trip this weekend,” she remarks softly.

Her answer only serves to cause you some unexpected confusion. Your furrowed brow draws Yuri’s attention.

“Why?” she asks inquisitively.

“That’s kinda weird… My parents are out on a business trip this weekend too…”

“Hm…”

Beginning to understand where your confusion is coming from, Yuri gives a proper response.

 “That is somewhat strange, I’ll admit.”

You don’t even hear her stop speaking; your mind has immediately drifted elsewhere. With it just being you two for the night, you were contemplating the feasibility and difficulty of bringing Yuri back to one of your houses and taking her sexually. And not in a sweet or tender way, but in some sort of animalistic, lust driven, sexual encounter that lasts all night. Yuri clears her throat.

“Anon?”

Your train of thought is derailed right into those beautiful violet eyes that are looking back at you. You toss your dirty thoughts aside while you gaze back at her. You’re unsure of why, but the idea of sullying the maiden in front of you just seems so… wrong. Some seconds pass before you realize she’s been waiting for you to stop staring and talk, so you think of something quickly on your feet.

“Uh, nothing like thinking quickly on your feet!” you say with a dopey smile on your face.

Yuri slightly tilts her head; her expression is a mix of confusion and curiosity. You’re woefully aware of your mistake.

“Anon, what are you talking about? Do you feel well?” asks Yuri, concern in her tone.

“…I wanted to answer you but instead of thinking of something to say I just said what I was thinking…” you answer in a low tone. You’re already mentally flogging yourself when she gives you a week grin.

“That’s ok, Anon. It feels nice knowing that I am not the only one who can be socially awkward around the opposite sex.”

You know full well she meant no malice in what she said, but you still can’t help but feel a little frustrated. With a heavy sigh, you try your best to pull yourself together and get the date going.

“That’s good, Yuri, glad I can help,” you respond dryly.

You give a quick point back to your car.

“ Now, let’s get going, we’re going to be late.”

Yuri wordlessly nods and follows close behind you. Feeling chivalrous, you walk over to the passenger side and open the door for her. She blushes slightly and sits in the car, glad to be out of the nipping cold. Walking back to the other side of the car, you puzzle over how good of an idea it would have been to leave the car running. You don’t really care too much about being cold, but you forgot to consider that Yuri may feel differently. The internal speculation you have is dashed away when you put the keys in the ignition and start the vehicle. The heat starts up just as warm as it was, and Yuri lets out a contented sigh.

Unbeknownst to Yuri, you set out to shore up your car in the days before your date. The easiest part was cleaning it: The trash in the back seats was tossed, the floors and seats vacuumed, air fresheners were placed around, windows were wiped clean. What you really spent most of your time and cash on was getting that damn heater to work.  You had already narrowed down the problem to a failure of a piece of equipment near your radiator weeks ago; you just needed to actually perform the work. Sadly, you’re no mechanic and only mildly handy with the proper tools for the job you’re doing. The process took an excessively long time, even with the numerous help videos you studied. In time you managed to persevere and fix what was broken in the car, proving that you’re capable of more than just writing poems. Watching Yuri enjoy the heat in that understated manner of hers was enough to make the arduous ordeal feel worth it.

The time you two spend in the car is quieter than you would have liked. You were mentally occupied with driving in unfamiliar territory while using your GPS as a guide, not to mention that Yuri already doesn’t talk much without first being prompted. To make up for the silence, you tune the radio to a fairly innocuous station for background noise. You hope that Yuri is fine with the selection, since you’re still not too sure what genre of music she actually prefers. In your concentration, you hadn’t noticed Yuri stealing several glances at you. Yuri had never been in a car with a boy before, let alone one that she liked. She was unsure of what to say to you and was attempting to think of a topic when she found herself admiring the way you looked. Your concentration on getting to the event projected a sort of confidence you weren’t aware of, but still caught Yuri’s attention. The notion that she was on a date with an attractive boy made her heart skip a few beats.

Eventually, you made it into the city and found parking a couple blocks away from the theater. You and Yuri had started the walk when you noticed her shiver slightly in the wintry wind. Wanting to make up for not speaking earlier, you go for a bold move and grab her by the waist, holding her tight to you as you walked. The purple haired girl let out a surprised gasp, taken off guard by your move. Her face was turning a shade of crimson while she was becoming increasingly enchanted with you holding her. You felt yourself turning just as red since this is the first time in your life you’ve ever held a girl this way. It feels like you’ve really fallen hard for this shy girl since you first met her months ago. You wonder if you would have agreed to go to an opera had she asked back when you first met.

Oh shit, you forgot you’re going to an opera! And you’ve neglected to even ask what it’s about! You finally shatter the silence between you too.

“Hey Yuri?”

Yuri looks to you with an inquiring expression, her face still blushed.

“Hm?”

A few cars loudly buzz down the street, making it hard to hear her. You still ask your question anyway.

“What exactly are we going to go see?”

Yuri’s eyes bulge for a moment. Your question makes her realize she was never too specific with you.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you, Anon! I apologize,” she answers while shaking her head mildly.

“We’re going to go see ‘La Buona Figliuola’, an old Italian opera. It’s a love story about a maid and a noble.”

You find her abrupt excitement incredibly adorable and endearing. And the way she so easily spoke the Italian title was equally alluring. You grip her tighter and hurry along to your destination.

In a short amount of time, you’re at the ticket booth having a minor heart attack. You were never aware of how much tickets to this sort of thing ordinarily cost, and the price you were given seemed unreal. Before Yuri can ask if you’re alright, you hand the proper amount of money over to the ticket taker. You’re flashing Yuri and the booth a polite, but utterly hollow smile. You can almost feel a literal hole burning through your wallet as you receive your tickets. Yuri protests when you walk into the lobby of the theater.

“Anon, thank you for buying my ticket, but you honestly didn’t need to pay for me…”

You shake your head at her and try to put your initial shock behind you.

“That’s ok, I’d hate to be a cheap first date,” you say, giving Yuri a thumbs up along with a more genuine smile.

Yuri’s expression shows she’s still somewhat bothered.

“But coming here was my idea…” she meekly responds.

“Yeah… but you’re worth it,” you admit to her.

Almost as if on cue, her face is again flush with color and she’s avoiding eye contact. She’s fallen for you just as hard as you have. Noticing that the other patrons are piling into the main amphitheater, you take Yuri’s hand and walk to the assigned entrance on the ticket. You’re excited to spend the next couple hours with Yuri, and hoping that you have shred of interest in the finer thespian performances you can see.

You’re half way through the opera now, and holy shit you bored. Bored bored bored bored. You can’t understand a damn thing these people are saying, probably because they kept the script in Italian. You can admit that the performance of the actors seems very well done; their singing ringing throughout the theater. The novelty of their costumes and the set, however, has long worn off. You’re only vaguely aware of the stage drama that’s unfolding below you, unfortunately.

You’re amazed by the turnout, as almost every seat was filled a person. You glance over to Yuri every now and again, trying to gauge how she feels about the performance. She’s been humming a few of the songs to herself and has ostensibly kept up with the drama. To say that she’s enthralled with the entire spectacle would be a massive understatement. Despite being bored out of your god damned mind, you feel a little happy knowing that Yuri is enjoying the show. You reach out and grab her hand, interlocking her fingers with yours. You’re surprised by how Yuri didn’t pull away or react to your touch like normal. She’s so bewitched with the entire thing that she hadn’t even noticed. You can’t help but smirk, knowing you made this girl’s night.

A couple hours later, the opera had ended. Yuri was strangely excited while leaving the performance, talking about all the aspects of the show and story. You can’t help but feel a little left out while she gushes about the opera though, you basically feel like you missed all of it.

“Yuri?” you ask, trying to make yourself heard amongst the general cacophony from the crowd.

“Yes?” she’s smiling sweetly at you.

“I don’t know Italian or anything, so I completely missed everything about the story…”

Yuri becomes extremely distraught when she hears you. She grabs you by the shoulders for some reason.

“Oh my! Anon, I’m so sorry! I should have known better! I must seem really selfish!”

She looks like she’s on the verge of tears while telling you this. You grab her hands and begin reassuring her that you’re ok.

“Yuri, stop, it’s ok,” you say in a calming tone.

“But…but...” she stammers.

“You can tell me everything about what we just watched on our way home, and maybe next time we can try finding something in English,” you tell her, squeezing her hands tightly.

Yuri’s heart flutters upon hearing you say ‘next time’. Unable to contain herself, she gives you a large hug while you’re still in the lobby. Feeling her warmth, you hug her back tightly and savor the feeling. Pulling away, her purple eyes stare into your eyes heatedly.

“Ok Anon, you missed a lot so here’s how it went,” Yuri eagerly starts as you walk back out into the night.

For the entire walk back to the car along with the ride back to her house, Yuri happily tells you the entire story of the opera. She tells you of why Checchina couldn’t marry the marquis of Conchiglia and how they tried to overcome the obstacles in the way of their love. The way she tells the story back to you and engages you has you believing that the three and a half hours of boredom were worth it for Yuri to be herself with you. It’s a side of her you rarely saw and you’d be damned if you ever missed a moment of it.

As Yuri tells you how the story ends, you pull into her driveway. The conversation falls silent for a moment, the both of you unsure of how to say your goodbyes. For once, Yuri is the one to speak up.

“I had a lot of fun tonight Anon…” the girl mutters.

“I did too, we should definitely do this again,” you reply.

Yuri covers her mouth, trying to guess your next words.

“Anon, are you asking—“ she tries to say before you cut her off.

“I’d love it if you would go out with me!” you hurriedly say, almost unsure if you could get the words out. Yuri stares at you in shock for several seconds, leaving you to wonder if she feels the same way.

“Yes, Anon, yes!” she shouts, hugging you tightly from the other seat.

Your chest is pounding harder than it ever has before now that you feel your new girlfriend hugging on you. She looks up at you, her visage a mix of happiness and surprise. After staring into each other’s eyes for a few moments, you kiss Yuri on the lips. She’s surprised initially, but eventually settles into the kiss. It’s the longest and probably most awkward kiss you’ve ever had; the both of you puckering a few times and slipping a light amount of tongue. After what feels like hours, Yuri pulls away from the kiss and looks longingly at you. Yuri gives you another kiss on the lips before undoing her seat-belt and opening the car door.

“G-Good night,” she unsteadily says.

“Good n-night…” you respond, just as shakily as her.

You watch Yuri return to her house and enter the door. You’re still stunned, but overjoyed that you just got your first girlfriend and had your first kiss, all on the same night. You make it back home and get settled in for the night on the couch, thinking about her the whole time. Just before you go to bed for the night, your phone buzzes. It’s a text from Yuri.

From Yuri at 1:47 AM
I love you.

Your heart feels like it’s about to jump out of your chest, so you send a text back

Sent at 1:48 AM
I love you too.

You don’t receive any more texts for the night, which is a good thing since you fell asleep not too long after send your text. You know that without a doubt, you love her.  Your thoughts before drifting away to sleep for the night were with Yuri and the time you spent with her.