Arriving at a big mansion, the limo stops. Aidan opens the door and gets out, offering Mylene his hand to help her out of the car. Walking arm in arm Aidan starts to get nervous

“What´s wrong Aidan?”
“I´m not sure I should be here, I´m nervous I´ll mess up and embarass you since you brought me here.”
“It´s alright Aidan, just be yourself and you´ll be fine. And if you do start doing something embarrassing I´ll be here to help you out”
Aida, with a little grin on his face
” You know what? Somehow, that doesn´t make me feel any better”
“That´s the spirit, but trust me, you´ll do fine”

Arm in arm they start to ascen the stairs, Mylene walking with a ladys dignity and Aidan with the clumsy style of a “normal” person. When they reach the top a person comes to greet them
“Do you have a invitation to this party?”
“Yes, we do. And we should since it´s my parents that sponsor this party”
“Oh, I´m sorry Miss, I thought you were going to come here with either your father and mother or with Max”
“Who I come here with is my own choice and not something my parents have to agree on”
“Right you are Miss. Please enter”
“Thank you”

Entering Aidan feels out of place when he sees a lot of high ups, politicians and members of the city council. Mylene on the other hands seems to shine even brighter than usual. She greets the politcians and everyone in the correct way and giggles a little when she gets a remark on how beautiful she is, Aidan on the other hand feels like a farmer visiting the city for the first time, really out of place. He feels so out of place he sneeks of to a corner while Mylene is speaking with the guests. Leaning against the wall he sighs and wonders how long time this is going to take.

His suit is itching and he starts to wish he hadn´t come here at all, but then when he´s the most down he starts to think about Mylene, something must have made her ask him out to this so he shouldn´t be so egoistic and only think of himself. All of a sudden he can feel a hand on his shoulder, turning around a guy with glassess and his long brown hair tied into a ponytail stands beside him with a comforting look in his eyes.

“Is this a boring party?”
“No, not really, it´s just that I´m not used to going to such a party with formal attire, a big floor where everyone is dancing to classic music, tables with food to pick from and everything. So I just feel out of place.”
“You know what kid? When I first started doing this I feelt the same way, so I know what you´re going trough, but I want to give you some advice, don´t stand here when your lady needs you. She doesn´t enjoy being here and she is here more because of a sense of loyalty than wanting to be here, you´re her fresh breath of air, so don´t stand here stupid.”
“I had just come to the same conclussion myself and I feel bad for only thinking about myself. But I´m not used to being around girls or having to think about other than myself. But I´ll try to be as bright as she is from now on.”
“That´s the spirit kid. And now I hope you´ll enjoy the part some time before Mylene wants to leave. Keep her company and attend to her every need tonight, since I have failed to do so for so many years.”
“Excuse me, but who are you?”

“Aidan! There you are!!”
Mylene is walking towards Aidan where he is standing leaning on the wall. She has a little anger in her eyes, but her walking and face doesn´t reveal anything. Grabbing his hand she pulls him with him out to the dance floor.
“Don´t stand there in the corner leaving a lady alone when the music is starting and it´s time to dance.”
“I´m sorry, I was talking to someone and I didn´t hear the music, he was standing right next to me, I´m suprised you didn´t see him”
“What are you talking about? Noone was standing near you when I came to get you”

Being confused with what happened and what Mylene said Aidan isn´t concentrating so the music starts and he isn´t in position. Then he feels a slight sting in his side.
“You know, for someone who was afraid of embarassing me he is doing quite a job of doing so.”
“I´m terribly sorry Mylene, so shall we dance?” Aidan says as he stands back and bows down, then offering her his hand.
“That´s better Aidan, keep that up and I might forgive you for the blunders you´ve made so far. It´s a classic waltz so you should be ok”
“I hope so, but anyway, let´s get this on the road!”

Taking her hand Aidan can feel Mylene´s warmth as he leads her out on the dancefloor. As the tunes start to sound he starts to dance. Slowly to mix in with the tunes that play they start to move.
“I´m impressed, you dance quite well Aidan. Espacially regarding how nervous you were before”
“I have to thank the mystery man the next time I see him. And I also decided that I shouldn´t embarass you anymore if I could”
“Thats reassuring Aidan, now let´s enjoy dancing”

After dancing, they walked arm in arm to once again greet everyone that Mylene had greeted before with only one thing in mind: Aidan excusing himself for not being there the first time. All meetings went fine and they were happily standing by the food table when Mylene swayed a little. Aidan moved in to her to stop her from falling.

“Are you ok Mylene?”
whispering she tells him “yeah, I´m fine but I´ve been here long enough now. Or do you want to be here anymore?”
in a louder voice Aidan starts to speak: “It seems Mylene isn´t feeling well so she´ll withdrawl for tonight. Thank you for the party.

Supporting Mylene they walk towards the exit, when they get outside the limo is standing here waiting for them. Helping Mylene to get inside the car and then entering himself Aidan sits down in the comfortable seat once more. Mylene looks a lot better as well.

“So Aidan, we have the evening to ourselves, anywhere special you want to go?”
“Not really, what time is it?”
“It´s close to midnight”
“Wow, time went by faster than I thought. But now when I think about it, there is one place that I want to go with you”
“Oho, where would that be? A hotel?”
“Are you drunk? No, not a hotel, but if I calculate this right the beach would be a great place to go to now. I think the time would be just perfect”
“If you say so. Michael, take us to the beach”
“Yes Miss”

While Michael is driving, Aidan is trying his best to keep awake, the ride will take about an hour since the beach is so far of. When Aidan was about to speak up to strike a conversation with Mylene he catches a glimpse of her face, her eyes are closed and she´s taking deep breaths, she´s asleep.

“Man, it must have been really hard for her, having to smile that much for so long, not being able to say the words of hatred that she wanted, and then with me going of on my own. Man how I let her down. I just hope that I´ve redeemed myself a little bit.” are some of the thoughts running trough Aidan´s mind.

And once you´re lost in thought, time flies and they have arrived at the beach. Not wanting to wake her up Aidan opens the door and goes out to the beach, taking of his shoes he goes into the water, feeling the cold sting at his feet, but it makes him feel refreshed and alive.

Looking at the seaside he can see the reason he wanted to go here, the sun is slowly starting to rise to spread it´s light and warmth over the earth. Hearing a splashing sound behind him Aidan turns around, there Mylene is standing barefoot in the water, with her dress blowing in the wind.

“Oh, so that´s the reason you wanted to come here Aidan, I have to agree it is beautiful and watching it like this really calms me down and makes me feel refreshed.”
“Sorry if I woke you up, I should have asked Michael to take us home instead, but then the trip would have been wasted and I wanted to watch the sun rise once more, it was so long ago that I had the chance to watch it rise.”
“Seems like the sun and you are friends, I feel a little jealous, she seems to know you better than I do. I didn´t know that you had such a romantic side in you Aidan.”
“This? I´m egoistic since I wanted to go here. I´m happy you liked this though.”
“Yeah, I really loved this, a perfect end to a otherwise boring evening.”

Comming and standing close to Aidan, Mylene leans onto his side, placing her head on his shoulder.
“You know Aidan, I haven´t been completely honest with you about tonight.”
“Hm?”
“In reality my dad and mom wanted me to go with Max tonight, but I refused and they said that I had to go with him if I couldn´t find anyone else. So I thought about you and well, here we are. I hope you´re not to angry with me.”
“I can´t be angry at you Mylene. I just can´t. You´ve helped me a lot so if this is a simple way of returning the favor then you can call on me anytime you want you know.”
“Thanks Aidan. Now there is just one more thing to do here, before we go home”
“Hm? What´s that?”
“Your reward for helping me”
“Mylene, I don´t need any reward you know that by now”

The moment he turns around to talk with Mylene face to face he can feel two small hands grabbing his face and Mylene´s face comming in fast and on target: His lips. But this time around even though Aidan was against it, he beats her to it and brings his face down to kiss her on her lips. A sweet warm feeling enters his body as he brings his arms around her to give her a hug as well, just to keep her close to him, never wanting to let go…

After what feels like an eternity he releases her from his grip. She stands there looking confused with a big questionmark like look on her face. To clear everything up Aidan speaks up

“You know what Mylene? I think I´ve fallen for you”

end chapter 17