The door opened, and Paul was awakened. He had fallen asleep waiting on the couch.
 "How'd it go?" Paul asked.
 "All right. Andrew gave me trouble, though," George said.
 Paul furrowed his brow. "Andrew?"
 "The guy that Ellen went off with," George replied. "Here's your tie."
 "Thanks," Paul said. "Julie have a good time?"
 "Pretty much. I think it went over rather well." George dressed in his pajamas and went to bed. Paul turned to John.
 "Now, Johnny, you're my buddy." He smiled. "My real pal. We're very close and you wouldn't keep anything from me, would you? I know you're gonna give me all the details, right?" Paul asked. "Any kissing?"
 John shook his head.
 "Slow dancing?"
 "Of course," John said. "What did you expect? Just one song."
 "Flirting?"
 "Nope. They both seemed a little shy towards each other." John hung up his coat.
 "George do anything strange?"
 "You'd think he was Sir George the Chivalrous," John said, sitting down on the couch. "He even put his jacket over puddles for her."
 "Is that bad?" Paul sat up.
 "Only for the jacket," John reassured. "They both thought it was kinda funny. They laughed a lot."
 "Were there any warning signals I should know about?" Paul asked.
 John thought. "Nope."
 "All right," Paul said, giving John a wary look but falling asleep just the same.
 Many Fridays went by after that. George and Julie talked more. John stopped tagging along. Ringo did once and decided he'd rather stay home instead of baby-sit them for Paul. They danced a little closer during the slow songs. (George and Julie, not John and Ringo.) George stopped noticing Ellen and Andrew, and Julie stopped asking about Paul. Their end-of-date porch conversations became longer all the while. Paul reluctantly (very reluctantly) let George in on Julie's telephone number. They both began to mark every Friday prominently on their calendars. (George and Julie, not George and Paul.) Things were changing. And Paul's ankle was slowly getting better.
 Julie's phone rang on one particular Wednesday evening. She answered it. "Hello?"
 "Hey, Julie," George's voice came.
 "Hey," Julie replied, sitting down.
 "What's going on with you?" he asked.
 "Nothing much. I'm in the middle of fixing dinner," Julie said.
 "Maybe I should let you go then," George said reluctantly.
 "No, it needs to sit a little while. We can talk some. George, I've been wondering."
 "What is it?" George prepared himself for the worst. He prepared himself for the news that Julie was ready to go back to Paul.
 "Maybe we don't have to go dancing every single Friday. We could still go out each week, but sometimes to a movie or play or concert," Julie said.
 "That sounds nice," George said. "Know any good movies playing?"
 "I hear that The Vampire's Revenge is playing Friday night at eight," Julie said. "We could see that."
 George sucked in a deep breath. He wasn't too fond of horror movies. "Is that all?"
 "The only thing worth watching that's on Friday," Julie replied.
 "Uh...okay, I guess," George said. "Pick you up at the normal time?"
 "Sure. We'd have an hour to kill before the movie comes on, excuse the pun. We could go somewhere to eat."
 "Somewhere dressy or any regular place?" George asked.
 "It doesn't matter," Julie replied.
 "How does Winters' sound?" George coiled the phone cord around his finger.
 "That's just fine," Julie said.
 George scribbled it down on his calendar. "Okay. See you then."
 "See you." George hung up the phone.
 "What's planned? Didn't sound like dancing to me. Mr. Mousie agrees with me 100%," Ringo said.
 George made a face. "Julie wants to see The Vampire's Revenge."
 Paul smiled fondly. "That Julie. She loves to watch horror movies. Mostly it's for other reasons than the movie itself, though..." His face immediately turned sour. "If Julie grabs your hand or holds on to you, George, don't encourage her any more."
 "What if she's really scared?" George asked.
 "You can do something small, but nothing more," Paul warned as George walked into the other room.
FRIDAY EVENING...
 Julie sat up in her bedroom, putting on a few coats of lipstick. At least she had the heart not to use the same shade she had on when she first kissed Paul. She may have lost interest in him, but not to the point where she would wear Raspberry Red to kiss any other pair of lips. Julie chose Peacock Pink instead. She was going to kiss George that evening even if she had to tie him down to the theater seat, which Julie hoped it wouldn't come to. For one thing, she had nothing to tie him down with.
 She heard the honking of a car horn and smiled. Julie put on her cat-shaped earrings and ran downstairs. Opening the door, she saw George. "Let's go," he said.
 "Are you in some kind of hurry?" Julie asked.
 "No. I'm just anxious. I've heard Winters' is great and I've been wanting to try it. Come on." They drove off to Winters' and ate a delicious dinner.
 "Boy, am I stuffed," George said. "I don't think we'll need popcorn after that, will we?"
 "I think not," Julie replied with a smile. "We've only got about ten minutes, so we've gotta hurry."
 Five minutes later, George and Julie had made it into the theater. George liked to sit way up front, but Julie insisted they take a seat in the back. Not questioning her choice, George followed. They sat down and waited for the movie to begin.
 In walked a man with a bus drivers' hat and dark sunglasses. He was wearing a pair of blue jeans and a gray sweatshirt that had a little picture of a Scottish terrier on it. At first George thought it was Paul, but then he remembered the terrier shirt belonged to Ringo. Maybe Ringo decided he wanted to see The Vampire's Revenge, too. It didn't sound like Ringo's kind of movie, but things were changing...George paid no attention. If Ringo did happen to see George do anything, he probably wouldn't tell Paul. Ringo didn't seem like the type. Even John hadn't told Paul about the little thing he had let him in on, although George had suffered plenty of teasing about it. But that was just the way it was. You win some, you lose some. George relaxed and leaned back in his seat. He toyed with the thought he should do the "yawn" trick on Julie. Save that for later, his mind told him.
 The lights dimmed, and the movie began with a scene in a dark castle. A shadow was moving up and down the halls, through the stairwells, and into a room where a beautiful lady slept in a billowing canopy bed. The shadow hovered over the lady, and it turned into a grinning vampire. He opened his mouth, brandishing his long fangs. As he moved closer to the lady, the camera moved upward and the words THE VAMPIRE'S REVENGE came upon the screen as lightning crashed and the lady screamed. George shivered and Julie watched, wide-eyed.
 After ten minutes, Paul checked his watch. "I just hope he doesn't try anything funny with Julie." He cast a wary eye in their direction.
 About half an hour later...
 "NOW- I SHALL HAVE- MY REVENGE!!!!!!!" the vampire bellowed as the trees shook and lightning crashed again. He disappeared into the night, and there was a scream. Julie trembled as George took some ice from his soda and pressed it to his head. He had to stay awake.
 George looked up at the movie. There was a horrible sight. Blood was splattered everywhere, and in the midst of it all...George felt himself getting dizzy.
 Julie noticed something was wrong. "George?" she asked.
 "No, I'm fine," George said. And to show Julie how fine he was feeling, George fainted. Paul smiled and turned back to the movie.
 George woke up to a more pleasant scene a few minutes later. "Are you all right?" Julie asked.
 "Yeah, I think I'm fine," George said. "As long as there aren't any more scenes like that in the movie."
 Julie grimaced. "That's one of the milder scenes," she said. "Should I get you some smelling salts? I brought some in my purse just in case."
 "You thought of everything, didn't you?" George smiled.
 "Don't worry. There won't be another one of those for a while," Julie said. "But be prepared for the last fifteen minutes."
 "All right," George said. He yawned and stretched. One arm ended up in his lap, the other on the back of Julie's seat. Julie knew that trick, but she had to laugh at George's ambition. Besides, it worked up to her goal rather nicely. Paul wanted to run over there and give George what for but he had his pride. Now where have we heard that before?
 At the moment, it was at a romantic part in the movie. How a horrible movie like The Vampire's Revenge could be romantic was beyond George. But it seemed to be rubbing off on Julie. She leaned over a bit and sighed. George's arm moved from the back of her seat to around her shoulders. Paul ground his teeth and sent hate waves to George. But George could not sense hate waves. Come to think of it, Paul couldn't send them either. Oh, well. If Paul could have sent hate waves, he would have.
 Now, let's get something straight. Paul was never in a million years mad at Julie. Julie was his little angel. She was his sweetheart, his love, his darling little...you get the idea. He fawned over her and loved her to pieces. But, apparently, so did George. Paul ground his teeth even more. Grrrrr.
 Julie felt so warm next to George. She could have fallen asleep, but she had to be there when the scary parts came and George needed the smelling salts. Julie had seen The Vampire's Revenge many times, so she was used to it. His arm was very comfortable, like a pillow. She closed her eyes for a moment and heard a scream.
 Instantly Julie woke up and saw that George looked faint again. She reached into her purse and gave George the container. He held onto it tight as if it was going to slip out of his hands. Julie had to smile. He was so cute when he was nervous. George looked like a little boy, staring so wide-eyed at the movie. The container of smelling salts went over his nose and he inhaled deeply and shakily. In Paul's eyes, this was even more entertaining than the movie itself.
 After the movie was over, George was a bit shaky. He stood up and looked behind him as they walked outside. It was around ten-forty-five when he dropped Julie off.
 "Aren't you going to come in for a moment?" Julie asked.
 "Sure, I guess," George said, climbing out of the car and walking inside. He and Julie sat down on the rose-patterned couch.
 "Boy, was that a shocker," George said, leaning back onto the couch and whistling. "I was never much of a horror fan, but it was pretty good."
 Julie nodded. "You sure you're okay?"
 "I think I'll have nightmares for the next few nights, that's all," George smirked.
 Julie looked around. Now or never. It was her chance. She scooted a little closer and didn't notice Paul peeping in through the window.
 "Would you like me to help you have some sweet dreams tonight?" Julie asked, getting even closer. If George had scooted away any more, he would have bumped right into the armrest. All he could do was gulp and tug at his collar.
 "Say, it's a bit warm. Why don't I go turn down the thermostat?" George jumped up, but Julie sat him back down.
 "I take that as a no?" George asked.
 Julie smiled and put one of her hands to George's cheek. George tightened his neck and looked around nervously. Paul didn't care even if George did try to run away. He only cared that George's mannerisms and charm had gotten Julie this far, and he had to put a stop to it before it was too late.
 "George?" Julie asked, staring deep into his eyes.
 "Yeah?" George squeaked.
 "I like you, George. I like you a lot." She started to stroke his cheek and stare up at him dreamily. George thought, I'm dead, I'm really dead, I will be toast when Paul finds out.
 "Julie, uh, I think this might be our last date," George said. "Paul's a lot better now."
 "Paul who?" Julie asked. When someone did that, George knew there was no hope. Julie got on her knees and came closer to George. George sucked his lips in tight and moved his head as far back as he could. But Julie was stronger than he thought. She grabbed his head and moved it closer to her. George's lips went in more. Unfortunately, George had something to say about the situation, so he opened his mouth to speak.
 "Julie, this- mmmpphhh!!!"
 The kiss had knocked the poor guy unconscious. Julie got up, smiled, and shook him.
 George woke up. When he saw Julie, he jumped up and ran out to the car, not even saying "Goodbye". He threw open the car door and quickly started the engine, pulling out of the driveway for good. And Paul ran close behind. He followed the car back to the house.

 Chapter 4