My palms glisten from the sweat and shaking in the dim, ever changing light. My mind clouds itself so much so that I haven’t even been paying attention to the silver screen before me. My unsteady heartbeat raps in my ears, increasing its volume every pump. I know it has to be soon…Otherwise there might not be another chance. I look down at her hand, then to her, then back at her hand. As I follow her gaze to the enormous screen with Bradley Cooper sprinting through the streets of New York City, pure adrenaline snakes through my veins. Her sheer beauty encompasses my mind, working its way into every last corner of my brain. Upon realizing I can no longer control the shaking in my hands, I glance at my feet and notice my foot rocking from my toes to my heels. I hear my self munching on popcorn but I don’t taste it which puts my stomach into an uncontrollable twist.

I commit to what I’m about to do and set my hand in motion. I feel my hand sliding through the stagnant air. I don’t look at my hand in my attempt to be suave, obviously this is a mistake since I never feel my hand meet with hers. I look to see if I missed, but my hand never even moved from its spot in my lap! If anything, it moved farther away from its target. I set my hand in motion for the second time, watching it the whole time as it acts like the claw in a crane game, slowly moving above its target as the timer in my head continues to click away as my opportunity window grows smaller. I slowly let my hand fall onto hers. I know I’m shaking profusely since I can feel my fingertips fluttering and bouncing off of hers. I expect her to pull away but she doesn’t hesitate as our fingers entangle and find their match.
Like a puzzle, our hands fit together perfectly. Our palms then meet and now I can feel my hands stop shaking. I leaned in closer to her, as she did the same. Our shoulders brush together and the smell of coconut hand lotion replaces the stale aroma of long forgotten popcorn. The fluttering in my stomach worsens and I get butterflies, but a good kind of butterflies, like you know that everything is alright as long I’m with this girl. I feel accomplished and it must show because she notices my chipped tooth smile and giggles as she turns her attention back to the movie I’m not watching. I can’t be sure if she is actually watching it, but I follow suit. I can’t think about anything else but her hand entwined with mine. The shaking and sweating is a distant memory as I feel more at ease with her hand softly resting in mine, thankfully. I glance back in her direction and the oceans that are her eyes meet mine. She preceded with a smile and with that, I knew this is what she wanted the entire night.
At the time I had no idea that this little moment would be the start to an amazing relationship with a girl I never believed I had a chance with. Over the days and months that follow I’ve come to love her even more. Every moment with her is better than the last. Even now I still look back to this little moment being the start of everything I have loved and known for the last ten months.