- One -

"Good evening Blockbuster shoppers. I hope your DVD picks are going smoothly. Just a quick reminder that this month is our rent one DVD and get the second one free in the specials section so if you haven't made up your mind yet, you can head over to that section to make your picks. Happy renting."  Pressing the end button on the intercom system, a pair of tired blue orbs scanned the brightly illuminated DVD rental store with interest.

Well, one perk of this job was that DVD rentals for employees were always half off and sometimes even free, without the boss's knowledge of course. Letting out an exhausted sigh, a slender six foot two inch male with tanned vanilla skin and golden brown short curls reluctantly took a seat at the cash register awaiting customers with their purchases.

Somehow, tonight was moving exceedingly slow for this particular individual. He constantly found himself staring at his wrist watch every ten or so minutes. In fact, it quickly escalated into an uncontrollable habit in the past two hours.

Damn, what he would give to be home lounging around half-naked in the confinements of his apartment playing  PS3 just for the heck of it. But alas, no such desire was obtainable, at least not for another four hours.

No, instead he was stuck here on his shift at Blockbuster and couldn't leave until the store was closed down since he got promoted to supervisor about two months ago and was responsible for overseeing the new employees.

Taking another quick scan of his wrist watch Justin, or J.Net as his friends called him since he was a certifiable computer nerd, scowled in annoyance when he realized that only eight minutes had gone by since his last "time check". Was time slowing down on him? Was it purposely looking to piss him off tonight?

For some reason unbeknownst to him, Justin found himself desperately wishing for anything that would perk up his night. He at least deserved to be saved from this monotone existence right? After all he was a decent guy with his bachelors, presently going for his masters degree in computer programming. This was only a side job to pass some of his free time.

He was an avid gamer, had a solid group of friends and came from a stable home. He lived alone in his own apartment and was proud that he didn't have to ask his parents for much. He was a good guy; he had a few girl buddies but sadly no girlfriend. That was his flaw and it wasn't a pretty one at that.

You see the messed up thing in all of this was that he was twenty-five years old, only had two real girlfriends in his short life on earth, never went further than second base with either of them and had a fear of commitment. To sum things up, he was a single twenty-five year old virgin who by today's standards and the way his generation was so wild and loose, could have been viewed as your modern day saint of chastity. And, it was embarrassing.

It's not that he never wanted to get laid, or never tried. Luck was just never on his side and he was more than embarrassed to admit that he didn't know the first thing about really talking to girls and pleasing them. Justin figured it was his curse of maintaining a solid 4.0 GPA in school.  He left no room to have a life of his own between study time.

But, if and when he did finally get to do the deed, he vowed to try his outmost best to pretend like he was as experienced as any other guy out there so the girl he was doing it with wouldn't laugh in his face at how lame she thought he was because he was still pure and untouched.

He wasn't completely down and out though. Oh no, Justin had immense faith that soon, very soon he would partake in the act of fornication like mostly all of the people his age were doing. He had to. His reputation depended on it.

You see, there was this one girl that Justin kept hope for the past year and a half would be the one. You'd think he would have given up by now, but there was still hope. She was, in his eyes, perfect. She was caramel brown with long dark flowing hair. She wasn't skinny because the skin and bones trend wasn't his thing. She was filled out perfectly in all the right places. She had the smoothest brown eyes he ever witnessed on someone. In fact that was the first thing that drew him in when she first stepped foot into blockbuster to open a new customer account over a year ago. Ever since then, he usually saw her at least three times a week since she was a big movie buff as he later learned.

During that time, they developed a comfortable relationship of employee and customer and Justin tried to build up the courage to ask her out countless times but chickened out miserably. Still, it was nice to see her every week and if his calculations were correct, he expected to see her again today before the night was over.

"Excuse me, I'd like to rent these movies."

Gazing at the middle-aged woman in front of him, Justin plastered a fake smile on his smooth face, slightly annoyed that she pulled him out of his thoughts. Oh well, back to work.

"Sure, let's see what we have here..." Gazing at the two DVDs she picked out, he gave the woman with dark blonde hair a once over taking in her large plaid side-bag that actually matched the shirt she was wearing. "Nice choices. You like horror movies huh?" He inquired while gazing over Sweeny Todd and Mirrors.

He remembered right after watching the movie Mirrors he was actually a little spooked to gaze at his own reflection. It was stupid but it didn't help that his friends tried to prank him with that.

"Heavens no. These are for my son who insisted that he wanted to see these two." She pointed out.

"Oh understandable." Justin smiled brightly while swiping her blockbuster card and ringing her up. When he was done and placed her items in a bag, he wished her a good night and returned to his seat with a heavy sigh.

Gazing at the large clock on the wall, he rolled his eyes before fixing the spectacles on his face that he usually forgot were there. He was more that accustomed to them now. Too many hours spent programming deteriorated his vision but he wasn't complaining. He could still see fairly well without them.

"Only, three hours and thirty-five minutes to go." Slumping, Justin pulled out his latest issue of PCWorld Magazine to read between customer purchases. "Great." He muttered dryly.

At the rate his life was going, he'd be a virgin all into his thirties and heaven forbid he went down the path of  ‘the forty year old virgin' which by the way was his second favorite movie for obvious reasons, right after ‘Ferris Buller's Day Off.'

 

*****

 

The remaining hours slowly ticked by, and now it was down to minutes, fifteen minutes in fact, before Justin's shift for the night was over and he could lock up the store and head home. After ringing up two of the last three customers in the store, Justin stood and stretched out his limbs, a loud groan bubbling up in his throat and spilling out of his lips in the process.

"Damn, you look beat."

Freezing mid-stretch due to the familiar voice, Justin quickly dropped his hands and whipped around to stare at the person who just walked through the entrance doors.

Smoothing his palms over his blue polo employee shirt and jeans, a large grin crept unto his face when he took the person in. It was her. She actually made it, with a few minutes to spare.

"Hey Kenisha." He beamed widely and she returned the favor while coming over to the counter to place down her previously rented items.

"Hey Justin, how have you been?"

"Oh you know, same old." He smiled coyly, avoiding eye contact. Clearing his throat nervously, he took her rented DVDs and placed them in the returned rental stash to reshelf later.

"I was hoping I would have made it on time. I almost didn't make it." She spoke and he lifted his head to stare at her, his blues finally taking in her deep browns.

"Oh? What happened?" He didn't want to pry, but he was wondering why she hadn't showed up yet.

"My roommate had a crisis. Something about her boyfriend giving her some STD. She was crying hysterically and I was trying to console her. I mean, it was curable. What she had to do was get even with the slime-bag." She rambled on with a shake of her head and Justin nodded in understanding.

You see, it was shit like that that made him happy to be a virgin. Some guys were just so dirty it amazed him. Justin silently agreed that Kenisha's roomate should get her boyfriend back for messing around on her.

"I'm sorry about that." He said the only thing he could, not really able to sympathize since he never had that type of experience and never wanted to.

"It's ok she'll be fine. Sorry for just dumping that on you. I was just pissed off. But whatever. I'm here now. So, tell me what do you recommend?"

"Uh well..." Drifting off, Justin studied the grey hoodie she wore with her cotton shorts. She always dressed casually when she came in like she strolled right out of her apartment which he was sure that she did. "We got a few newbies and there's the special section."

"The buy one and get one free right?" Kenisha asked in realization and Justin nodded his head while gulping down harshly. "Nice. I should check those out then. I'm trying to manage my funds better since I have student loans and whatnot paying. I'll be right back." Smiling and touching Justin's arm gently, she turned around and maneuvered through the DVD isles to the specials section to make her picks for the night.

Letting out a pent up breath, Justin rubbed his arm softly still feeling the goosebumps from where Kenisha touched him. Staring at the object of his affection dreamily, he cocked his head to the side taking in her long toned legs until his eyes traveled up to her round, firm behind. Forcing himself to look in the opposite direction, Justin smiled to himself when he realized just how much he wished he could squeeze her ass and just take her into his embrace. Damn, he had it bad and she was completely clueless. It was just his luck.

It wasn't long before the other remaining customer in the store made their purchase and left, leaving Justin and Kenisha alone. She was still searching the isles for her picks so Justin took that as his opportunity to lock up since it was midnight which meant closing time...finally. Locking the front doors and flipping the open sign to closed, he moved around the counter to gather the DVDs he had to reshelf first thing tomorrow. He was glad that he sent home the other employees earlier tonight because he was able to have a little alone time with Kenisha even if it didn't seem like much.

Placing the keys in the front door so he could unlock them for Kenisha when she was leaving, Justin quickly rushed into the storage room to put away some boxes before heading back out.

By the time he made it back to the cash register, Kenisha was patiently waiting for him with her chosen rentals for the next three days.

"I think I'll watch these tomorrow. I was planning on doing so tonight but I had a long day so I think I'm going to turn in early tonight." She voiced, just making conversation as Justin rang her up.

Glaring at him intently, Kenisha smiled to herself when he gave her a light hum and nod in response. She didn't know what is was about Justin that drew her in, but he seemed very different from the other guys she knew. Something about him just screamed decent and charming to her even with the nerdy look he had going. She could still see how cute he was...handsome even and she always wondered about him, but never felt it was her place to ask. It was nice though just having a simple friendship with him. That was rare and she liked that Justin always made her comfortable even if it was through their short conversations whenever she came in to rent a DVD.

At least, she had a reason to keep coming back.

"Ok your total is 10.99." Justin suddenly voiced, snapping Kenisha out of her thoughts. Handing him her blockbuster credit card, she bit her bottom lip as a thought crossed her mind. She hesitated to voice what was on her mind at first, but figured it was now or never. They knew each other well over a year and she felt like they were friends.

"Uh Justin?"

"Hmm?" Gazing up from packing her two DVDs into a bag, Justin frowned when he noticed the thoughtful look Kenisha was giving him.

"You'd say we were friends right?" She suddenly asked and his eyes widened slightly but he kept his cool.

"Y-y-yeah sure we are." He stuttered, slightly taken aback by her line of questioning.

"Right...me too." She trailed off, her thoughts running rampant. "And, and friends hang out right?"

"Uh sure?" What was she getting at? Justin was a little afraid to find out.

"Well, you know, I was thinking that...maybe tomorrow, when I was going to watch the movies you could, you know come over to watch them with me?" She asked hopefully, Justin's expression suddenly turning blank and unreadable. "I, I mean if you want to, but you don't have to, but I'd really like you to." She quickly rambled out while giving him a shy smile.

"Oh...uh well, yeah I guess I..." Scratching at the back of his neck nervously, Justin chuckled to himself, amazed that she actually beat him to the whole ‘asking out' bit. "I guess I could. My shift ends early and I'm not doing anything." He drawled, his mind working overtime on his plans for tomorrow. He did plan to go out and play pool with his friends but that could be postponed.

"Great!" Kenisha perked up, happy that he didn't reject her. She wasn't sure if he cared, but she wasn't about to wait around forever for him to ask her out. "Ok, so I'll tell you what, why don't you give me your number and I'll call you to give you my address and directions, how does that sound?" She asked hopefully causing Justin to glower at her.

Was this really happening to him tonight? How did she turn into the ‘asker' and he the ‘askee?' If he remembered right, it was customary for the guy to do the asking out right?

Well, this was the 21st century.

"That sounds...fine." Shaking his head in amusement, Justin quickly grabbed a pen and piece of paper to scribble his number on before handing it to Kenisha.

"Thanks. Well I should really get going. I'll see you tomorrow about eight is that good? Will you be done with your shift then?"

"Yeah, I get off at seven so...that works." Awkward was an understatement to how Justin was feeling at the moment but nothing could stop the sense of elation that overpowered him.

"Cool, well take care Justin and have a good night." Leaning over the counter, Kenisha quickly gave him a loose hug before pulling away and trotting over to the exit.

Gazing at the keys in the door, she looked back over at Justin but decided to let herself out since he seemed to just be standing there staring at her wide-eyed.

"Bye Justin! See you tomorrow." She called out before she was out the door and disappearing down the sidewalk.

Blinking slowly, Justin continued gazing at the door for a few seconds, trying to understand exactly what just happened. Did Kenisha Brown just ask him out? Well shit, he didn't see that one coming but was pleasantly surprised that she decided to jump the gun. Wait, it was a date right? Hell if he knew, but it was a start.

"I guess I was too slow." He laughed out before moving over to the door to relock it. Taking in a deep breath, he gazed around the now empty store before moving to switch off a few of the lights.

In the midst of his tasks, Justin's cell phone began vibrating and he quickly pulled it out of his jeans pocket to answer.

"Yeah?" He answered and was met by a brief pause before a giggle filtered through the line.

"Hey J where are you?" It was his cousin Rachel.

She was the closest Justin came to bonding with the female species since his mom was back home in Tennessee and he lived out here in California. But, it was still different because Rachel was his relative and he was always comfortable around her.

Smiling at the sound of her warm voice, Justin shrugged. "I'm locking up the store to head home. What are you up to?"

"I'm in your apartment actually, wondering if a guy or a woman lives here."

"Whatever." Justin laughed.

"I swear, for a guy Justin, you're too clean. It's a little creepy. Anyway, I was just grabbing my laptop that I left here last night. I won't be here when you get home but, I'll see you tomorrow for ‘pool night' right?" She inquired and he cringed in return.

He hated canceling on his friends but there was no way he was about to turn down Kenisha. He waited too long for an opportunity like this to pass it up.

"Actually, I'm going to have to pass on that sorry. I have other plans." Justin voiced and was instantly met with Rachel's laughter.

"Oh please, this is like tradition Justin. What other plans could you possibly have? You don't have a girlfriend and you completed your exams last week so..."

"It was last minute." He cut her off in defense.

"Ok, so what are these plans that have you canceling on your closest friends?" Rachel asked curiously.

Damn, his cousin was nosey and since this was his first time missing their weekly planned outing he knew her mind was running a mile a minute.

"I uh...have a date...I think." Justin's voice dropped to an inaudible octave so he knew his cousin didn't hear him.

"What? What was that? Speak up Justin!" Rachel demanded impatiently.

"Ah shit, fine! I said I have a date!" He shouted, his voice echoing in the silent store. In his mind, he wondered if he could really call Kenisha's invitation a date, but he wasn't about to voice that to Rachel.

Justin felt his ears and face heat up from his blush and embarrassment. Maybe it didn't help that his last real girlfriend was five years ago.

"Rach? Hello? Rachel are you there?" The line suddenly went silent and Justin was sure that his cousin maybe died of shock on the other end.

Just when he thought she got cut off he was met with an uproar of laughter, which he expected coming from her. He was pretty sure that a million questions would soon follow when she sobered up and maybe she'd even resort to teasing him mercilessly in the process.

But, he didn't mind. He was actually feeling confident about this. Smiling happily, Justin continued to listen to his cousin's laughing fits as he finished locking up the store so he could head home.

When Rachel finally calmed down, the most she got out before her laughing resumed was one word which Justin himself had to agree with.

"Wow..."

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