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The air along the coast of Angel Grove always smelled like fishing season even in the deep Autumn and Winter months. Jason and Kim sat across from one another on a dilapidated driftwood table, Kim holding a light canvas jacket together over her chest like a security blanket and Jason wishing he had such a luxury.
“You, uh,” Kim began suddenly, startling Jason slightly as he’d been looking out towards the still night sea.
He couldn’t help but be annoyed that Kim had chosen to sit with her face away from the giant floodlights on the back deck of Merv’s Dock and Dine, a rundown beachside restaurant Jason had frequented with his family for ages. Perhaps he was just mad that he took the chivalrous route and allowed her to sit there so the light wouldn’t be in her eyes. He squinted to clear the details of her face, her full bottom lip tucked inside her mouth as she sipped soda from a plastic straw, the pale curve of her neck illuminated from the flood lights and small percentage of the moon.
"Have you always liked old men in cover bands?"
Jason chuckled heartily, blowing bubbles into his own soda. A group of post-middle-aged men with handlebar mustaches indeed adorned the plywood stage behind Merv's, performing covers of 80's rock ballads as a crowd of mostly other post-middle-agers clapped and yelled along with them.
"I have, actually," Jason smiled.
"You have?" Kim judged, as Jason watched her left eyebrow shoot upward incredulously.
"I think we may have to vote you out as leader."
"My dad..." Jason continued, chuckling again. "My dad used to play in an Aerosmith cover band when I was a kid. Him and a bunch of his college... friends or whatever. I mean, I'd fall asleep during most of their sets, but..."
"Aerosmith, like..." Kim began with her head cocked. "With the rapping?"
Jason shook his head fervently, his eyes never leaving Kim's. "Not good rapping."
Kim laughed breathily through her noses, shaking her head in return and averting her gaze back to her soda.
"Gee, you sure know how to impress a girl on a date, huh?" she asked.
Jason's smile faded only slightly as he felt a certain eagerness wash across his face. "Oh, this is a date?"
Kim set her glass down loudly on the table, the splinters scraping against the glass as she did.
"I mean, you asked," she challenged without lifting her eyes. "Last I heard Jason Scott didn't ask girls to Merv's for nothing." As her tongue clicked to finish her sentence, Kim finally looked up at Jason. Jason could hardly read the expression on her face, somewhere at the crossroads between Kim's playful sarcasm and... well, it was just different, Jason thought.
Eventually, he let the echo of Kim's words actually sink in, and he found it in his right mind to be a little offended. He straightened his back and folded his freezing hands down on the table.
"I've never take a girl here before," he said flatly as he copied Kim, only making eye contact once he was done speaking.
Kim quietly nodded, her eyes never leaving his. "Okay," she agreed, though Jason could tell somehow she was unconvinced. The crowd behind them roared with cheers as the band on stage finished a Lynyrd Skynyrd song. Kim turned her head to look on at them, and Jason could see another faint smile appear on her face as she clapped and hollered along with the crowd.
Jason couldn't take his eyes off her as she did, nor did he take his folded hands off the table. As Kim's back was turned to him, Jason could see the edges of Kim's cheekbones finally lit up, a faint hue of pink on her cheeks he didn't remember being there in the car. Kim leaned an elbow onto the table as she watched the band preface their next song. Kim touseled her thick hair with her free hand, letting it fall softly around the nape of her neck.
Jason found himself smirking again when the band began to play it's next song, a strong keyboard melody he could recognize anywhere, probably since he was about three or four years old.
"Hey," he yelled up to Kim.
Kim whipped back around towards Jason, her usual, flirtatiously mocking smile returning to her face.
"What?" she asked as the keyboard grew louder.
Jason rose from the table, leading himself off towards on large, square patch of sand right in front of the band.
"Come on," he smiled. He could see Kim clear as day now, her dark eyes sparkling. Thank god he hadn't invited any other girl here before.
"No way," Kim laughed, her head shaking playfully again. "I barely even kn..."
"Everybody knows this song," Jason finished. He walked back over to Kim and grabbed her hand as it hung off the table.
"Come on," he pressed as Kim rose, verbally rebuking Jason as she willingly walked along with him towards the sand, until Jason interrupted her as the vocals kicked in.
"I could stay awake, just to heee-eeaaarrr you breeeaa-thiiiin'" Jason began.
"Please don't," Kim pleaded through a smile. As they reached the center of the make-shift dance floor, Jason swung his body around to face Kim, leaving only his one hand attached to her.
"Watch you smii-iile while you are sleepin," Jason continued.
"Really the best thing to say to someone on a date?" Kim interrogated.
"Guess all I need is the van back, huh?" Jason smiled.
Kim pushed Jason's shoulder with her free hand and they both giggled to each other.
"Come on," Jason prodded again. Kim's face began to purse up, like she was keeping something locked in tightly.
"You can do it," Jason taunted before he resumed his song.
"'Every moment spe-ent with yoo-oou is a moment I..."
"TREEAAAAAAA-SUUUUUUUREEEEE," Kim joined in boisterously, her eyes closed tightly. Jason howled with laughter as Kim continued to scream the rest of the chorus, chiming in with her until he finally had the balls to swing his free hand onto Kim's hip, to which she instinctively brought her adjacent hand onto Jason's neck, now boiling hot.
Their singing continued on, and for who knows how many moments and choruses after, Jason and Kim watches each other singing and swaying slowly under the lights. Jason laughed as Kim occasionally got too into the music, her eyes closing and her head twisting around as she crooned. He focused on her animated, breath-taking face held on for dear life.
Jason was snapped back after another thunderous applause from the crowd rang out. He was still faced towards Kim, realizing her hand was still on his neck, his hand still on her waist. Kim appeared to have just realized it as well, and as they came to again, they found themselves lingering on each other. Kim offered an innocent smile, and Jason couldn't help but return.
Jason took a step back from Kim, who simultaneously took a step back from Jason, and Jason began clapping along with the people. Oddly, as Jason looked up to the stage at the band, the band themselves were clapping, and if Jason wasn't mistaken, they were looking directly at himself and Kim. Jason looked over towards the crowd, and low and behold, the crowd too watched on at them as they clapped. Some older men whistled loudly with their fingers in their mouths; a few women slapped each other on the arms and whispered to one another.
Jason looked back to Kim; a wide-eyed confusion signaled to Jason that'd she'd recognized their reactions long before him,
"Are they clapping at us?" he asked her quietly before Kim turned to see Jason there clapping along.
"What are you clapping for?" Kim hissed.
Jason slowed his clap to a more admiring speed. The moon had risen so high as to now cascade one side of Kim's face in a cooler, more natural light, and Jason couldn't help but laugh again at the way it illuminated Kim's dark brow, furrowing with confusion.
"I'm clapping for you," Jason answered.
Jason could have sworn Kim accidentally morphed her helmet on, as her face grew to a near-identical shade of pink. She tucked her chin downwards into her chest, pushing stray hairs gingerly behind her ear.
"You weren't so bad yourself," Kim replied, waiting until her sentence was over to meet Jason's gaze once again.