Cypress had a few hesitations as he pulled up to the Starboard Lounge. He was on a date, and with a girl he hardly even knew. She seemed like a nice girl, but the drive down to Kashmire Pointe’s boardwalk had been nearly silent. Each time she tried to start a conversation they would talk briefly before they realized they didn’t have anything in common and it fizzled out.

Secondly, this was all a ruse. Orion was in that lounge at this very moment and he had no idea that Nick and Cypress planned for him to see this date in action. Nick had told Cypress to kiss the girl as soon as Orion spotted them, but the idea squicked him out - kissing a practical stranger without even warning them of it seemed creepy, especially someone he had no actual desire to kiss.

“We’re here,” she reminded him as he hadn’t made a move to leave the car yet. They'd been parked a few moments.

“Uh…yeah, I know,” he answered, before scrambling out and going to her side to open the door for her.

It didn’t help he’d never been on a date in his life either.


"Was Cypress going to join us?” Orion asked, bending over the pool table and lining up the queue ball with a stripe. He had started a game of pool with Nick and didn’t seem eager to get too far into the game if his best friend was going to be coming along. The Starboard Lounge was premier night spot in Kashmire Point for dancing and dining on the weekends. It was also the only place that had a pool table that teens could get into on the boardwalk; the other place, Davy Jones' Pub, checked ID’s.

He took a shot and missed.

“Nah bro, he told me he was busy tonight,” Nick said and pocketed his first solid colored ball.


“Oh,” Orion frowned, contemplating what Cypress would be doing on a Monday night. The Starboard Lounge was kind of dead since the tourists had all gone home after the weekend. Traffic would pick up again, though, just like the tide of the ocean beyond the Lounge’s windows.



Cypress checked his phone’s clock and realized that he was late. Nick had told him to be there by 8:30 and it was already 9 in the evening. Cypress sat down in one of the foyer lounge chairs with a sigh. His date took a seat across from him and crossed her legs. He looked to her and saw she definitely had questions but maybe was too polite to ask. Instead she smiled.

“Sorry, Alina-”

“Alanna,” she corrected him, but not in a mean nor impatient manner that he would have expected a girl to act if he’d gotten her name wrong the first time he spoke it on a date.


He gave an embarrassed laugh before sinking his face into one of his hands, “Plumbobs, I’m terrible aren’t I?"

“Not at all!” she argued, and stood, crossing over to stand in front of him.

He peered between his fingers and slowly dropped his hands, revealing a look of doubt. “How can you say that? You don’t even know me.”

She bit her lip, “Well I can start to try. Tell me about your name.”

“My…name?”

“It’s a type of tree right?”

He gave a slight nod.

“So, why are you named after a tree?”

He gave a little groan, “My great-grandmother started this tradition of naming children after plants. For the most part, sons are named after trees and daughters are named after flowers.”

“How very…interesting,” Alanna mused.

He checked his phone clock again, Nick was probably wondering where the heck they were. “We’d better go on up,” he sighed and stood, holding his arm out for her to take.

“Right,” she nodded and did so.



As they turned the corner to look across the dining area on the second floor, they could see clearly into the room on the other side that contained the pool table.

“Aren’t those your friends?” Alanna asked, pointing toward Nick and Orion.

Cypress stiffened and grimaced because at the other end of the room stood his best friend with a look of bewildered surprise.


Orion’s reaction made him lose all plans of kissing Alanna, not that he would have in the first place. He wasn’t sure how he expected Orion to react at seeing him on a date, but there was a definite hurt in those eyes and it drove a knife between Cypress’s ribs. He immediately regretted going along with Nick’s plan because it didn't seem like things could ever go back to the way they were before if Orion looked him like that.