Give Me Your Heart And Your Hand

**Aleah's POV**

"Honey I'm hoooome!" I heard Tony call from the living room with a loud laugh afterward.

"I just got out of the shower and blowdried my hair. What time is it?" I yelled from the bathroom.

"Little after one." Tony called back. I hadn't expected him back so soon and I had nothing but a small towel to cover myself with.

"Tone," I said in a serious voice, "Can you promise me something?"

"Uhh... Sure?"

"Turn around, and stay that way until I say." Without awaiting a response, I ran from the bathroom up the stairs to the bedroom. It wasn't a whole second floor, just a small loft. "Okay, you can go back to whatever you were doing..." I said once safely inside. It occurred to me that I hadn't looked to see if he was watching me or not. I'm sure he wouldn't... He's such a sweet guy.

At around five, I was nearly finished getting ready. I let my bright blue hair fall in large, loose waves and put in a headband, leaving my bangs fall over my face as usual. I rolled up the sleeves of my cardigan and put on an assortment of bracelets on my left wrist (which covered about six inches) and just a few on my right arm, leaving my Pantera lyric tattoo to stand out proudly. You can hardly see the scars on that side. I stopped cutting on that side about six months before I got the tattoo so it would go on and stay properly, and I've had it for about a year now. Unfortunately, if you looked closely, you could see dozens of little, white lines laced through the letters. At 5:30, I put on some bright red lipstick, and I was ready. As I walked out of the bedroom and bounced down the stairs, Tony didn't take his eyes off of me. You look awful, you ugly whore. He's staring at you because you're hideous.

"You know, the point of me taking you out to dinner was so that I could say we had an official date before we did anything... You're making that very difficult for me right now." Tony said, a bit awkwardly. Is he... turned on...?

"We already kissed twice, you know. And you've been kissing me all day." I said, giggling at his demeanor.

"Only on your head." He said as he walked over to me and took my hands. "And I meant before... never mind." he said, leaning in to kiss me. "Ah... lipstick." Tony chuckled, then kissed the tip of my nose. Is he implying... I mean, of course I'd thought about it, and I figured we'd hook up eventually, but to hear him say it was weird. Even weirder, I didn't just want to "hook up" with Tony. It wasn't like with Mike. I just wanted to spend time with Tone, watching movies, cuddling, small kisses... I didn't really know how I felt. "Ready to go?" He asked with an embarrassed chuckle.

"My purse..." I said. I didn't have my phone, wallet, or keys.

"Got it from Kellin this morning." With a big, beautiful smile, Tony walked over to the couch tossed me my purse, which held everything it had the night before. "You also forgot your ID card at work again last night, and it's in there."

"Tone, that's so sweet! You didn't have to do that." I said, surely blushing brightly.

"Don't be mad...'' He said hesitantly. I gave him a confused look as a response. "I punched Mike, too..." As much as I wanted to be mad, I knew he did it for me, and that made me feel so happy and special.

"Can we just go now?" I asked. Tony looked very hurt by the question. "You know, so we can get back and I can kiss you?" He pulled me in for a long, sweet, loving hug, which lasted a few minutes before he finally released me, took my hand, and pulled me toward the door.

"Do you mind if I drive?" He asked, "It'd be awkward to show up being driven around by my date, ya know." He said with a laugh.

After a moment of thought, I responded, "As long as you promise to be careful with my jeep." I winked at him. "We have to walk over to the mall parking lot to get it, don't we?"

"Yeah." And we walked, hand-in-hand, happily talking. Until we saw him waiting by my car.

Notes

hope you guys like this chapter! the next one will be up some time today, but i just had to give you a little cliffhanger ;)

{Title Credit To: Tonight Alive}