Resident Geek: Chapter Seven
Title: Resident Geek
Genre: Romance/Humor
Pairings: Edward/Bella
Rating: NC-17
Chapter: 7/?
Warnings: Strong language, sexuality, and underage drinking.
Summary: Geeky Edward thinks he has absolutely no shot with the popular, beautiful Bella. Is he right, or will she be one of the many girls who thinks geeks make for better lovers? OOC-AH.
A/N: Thanks to Amelia for making sure I included something about DHSAB, to Sheejan for giving me a great idea involving Edward’s computer, and to Kristen for suggesting that Bella ‘mark’ her territory. (My words, not hers.) You guys will know it when you see it.
As always, love you Jen.
~*~*~
I may not have the softest touch
I may not say the words as such
And though I may not look like much
I'm yours
And though my edges may be rough
And never feel I'm quite enough
It may not seem like very much
But I'm yours
~"I'm Yours" by The Script~
~*~*~
Chapter Seven
EPOV
The drive to my apartment was not as conversation-filled as it had been on the way to the laser tag place. We listened to more Demetri Martin, but I was unable to focus on Bella’s amusing antics because I was too busy trying to remember if Ben had thrown out that pizza from four days ago. And if I had any of my underwear lying on my bedroom or bathroom floor. And if Angela and Ben would still be there.
If Angela was still there, she could distract Bella while I cleaned up my room… and the kitchen… and the living room… just to make sure everything looked okay.
I parked in the usual spot outside my apartment building and twisted in the seat to look at Bella. “Are you sure you want to come up? I haven’t really had a chance to clean up…”
“Pssh. I’m sure it’s fine,” she said brightly, dismissing my weak argument. Her hand hovered over the door handle for a split second and then was pulled back. “Unless you don’t want me to come up. Then we could do something else.”
The flash of uncertainty in her eyes and the undertone of disappointment in her voice steeled my resolve. “No. I want you to come up.”
She smiled brilliantly at me and opened the door. I got out of my side and met her in front of the car.
“Shall we?” I asked, holding out my arm for her hand. It was a completely dorky and old-fashioned gesture, but Bella laughed and took my arm. I led her up the stairs to my second-story apartment, nervous about what I would find on the other side.
Unlocking and opening the door a crack, I did a quick sweep to make sure nothing embarrassing or gross was visible.
“This is it,” I said with a flourish, swinging the door open and stepping aside so Bella could enter first. “Casa de Cullen y Cheney.”
I followed her in and shut the door as she took a look around. There was something about Bella seeing this place for the first time that unnerved me. With everyone else I brought over, I was fine. But she was different.
I wanted her to like what she saw. I wanted her to accept the pretty bare white walls, the oversized, used furniture, and the small messes scattered through-out the apartment. Those were usually the things my mother harped about whenever she came here for a visit.
We walked into the living room and she immediately commented on the prominent piece in the room. “Whoa… How big is that screen?”
“Uh, 62 inches.”
Her eyes widened and she whistled low in appreciation. “My dad would love that.”
“Yeah, most guys do.” I’ll admit it was a tad big for the normal college student. My dad may have gone a little overboard when I mentioned I needed a bigger television to see what was going on when playing in four-person split screen mode on my PS2 or Xbox 360.
Bella wandered over to Ben and mine’s extensive video and game collection and she ran down the tower, noting several of the titles.
“So basically… if it’s action, horror, or kung-fu, you’ve got it,” she pointed out.
“Yeah. But the kung-fu’s all Ben.”
“Ahh. That makes sense. You don’t really look like a kung-fu kind of guy.”
I wanted to ask her what she meant by that, but she had already moved on to my TV series sets.
“Got a thing for vampires?” she asked casually. I blushed a little. She had apparently noticed I had every season of ‘Buffy’ and ‘Angel.’
“Not vampires, per se. I have a thing for Joss Whedon,” I corrected.
“Oh. Yeah, he’s cool.” She paused in her browsing and turned around to look at me. “He did that ‘Firefly’ show, right?”
I swear to God, if I thought I had a chance in hell of her saying ‘yes’, I would go out tomorrow and buy a ring.
“Yes,” I gasped. “He did that.”
“Huh.” She turned around and started back up where she had left off. I watched her silently take in the rest of the living room and then come over to where I was standing.
“So… can I see your room?” she asked, one corner of her mouth turned up in a hopeful, but shy smile.
“Sure,” I replied hesitantly. “Let me just check that there’s nothing, um, embarrassing lying out.”
“Okay.”
I hurried over to my bedroom and took a quick inventory. Nothing lying on the floor - check. No obscene pictures of girls in sight - check. Nothing visible that can be taken offensively - check.
“Okay, you can come in,” I called from my door. Bella half-skipped, half-walked toward me. She stepped around me and turned 360 degrees.
“You really like Star Wars,” she pointed out lightly. The way she said that, I wasn’t sure if it was a good or bad thing.
“Yeah. What tipped you off?”
“Oh, you know… the poster, the life-sized R2D2, the light sabers, the action figures in their original boxes… I’m a smart girl. I can put the pieces together,” she teased.
“What can I say? I feel a connection with Luke Skywalker that many people don’t understand.”
“Luke, huh? Han was always my favorite.” Bella smiled, amusement lighting up her eyes.
“He was a ladies man.” Which is why I identified more with Luke than Han.
She nodded absently, walking over to my desk. “Don’t hate me, but I’ve only seen the movies once.”
I gasped in shock and horror. Once?! How was that even possible?
“How did you catch the references then?” I asked, confused. Maybe she had photographic memory.
“I have a lot of guy friends. They tend to quote their favorite movies when slightly hammered,” she said, shrugging as if that explained it. “Seriously. I could probably regurgitate every single thing Will Ferrell has ever said, even though I’ve only seen a handful of his movies.”
“That’s okay.” I moved away from the door and stood beside her. “Is it like you’d thought it would be?” I asked, referring to my room and not the quoting of Will Ferrell.
“It’s…” Her eyebrows rose and she paused, looking for the right word. “No. No, it’s not. But I like it,” she hastily added. “Especially the Darth Vader poster.”
We both looked at the poster, which hung on the wall above my bed. It showed Darth Vader on half of it, and then had ‘A guy can be called Annie only so many times’ in big white lettering on the other half. It was a promo poster for Spike TV’s first showing of all six episodes of Star Wars.
“I’ve never seen anything like it. Where did you get it?” She went over to my bed and sat down. Seeing her on my bed strangely made me salivate and I swallowed loudly, trying to clear my mouth so I wouldn’t drool when I talked.
“I, uh, randomly won a contest from this website I frequent. Have you ever heard of geeksofdoom(dot)com?”
She shook her head. “Nope.”
“Well, it has reviews for a lot of things that I like and other things. And occasionally they do contests. I just happened to be the lucky guy who won.”
“That’s cool.”
We fell into silence. Bella continued to look around her, and then she unexpectedly turned to the side to lie down on my bed.
“Comfy,” she said softly, curling up on her side to face me.
Oh. My. God.
She was on my bed. She was lying on my bed.
It would be nothing for me to lie down next to her. Natural even.
But I couldn’t do that. She didn’t want me to creepily climb into bed with her.
But now my bed was going to smell like Bella. I was going to be breathing Bella’s fruity, intoxicating smell all night long.
Oh, god.
Why was she torturing me like this? Did she hate me?
Maybe this was just one of her things. A quirk. Maybe she went around to random guys’ rooms and tested out their beds.
I fiercely hoped I was wrong about that.
What I needed was something to distract me from the beautiful sight of Bella curled up in my bed. Something I could involve her in that might get her off it.
“Have you ever seen ‘Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog?” I blurted out, relief washing over me at my quick thinking of our earlier exchange of Joss Whedon shows. She shook her head ‘no’, so I explained what it was, getting kind of excited at the chance to share something I really enjoyed with Bella, who might actually appreciate it.
She sat up, an interested expression on her face. I pulled out my computer desk chair and sat down, winding up my explanation. “And I have all of them on my external hard drive, if you want to watch them.”
“Yeah, it sounds funny. I love Neil Patrick Harris on ‘How I Met Your Mother’,” Bella admitted, standing up and walking over to me. I quickly realized I had no other chair for her to use, and since I’m sure she wouldn’t want to sit in my lap (no matter how much I wanted that), I told her to sit in my chair while I got one from the dining room.
Awkwardly carrying a chair back to my room, I made a mental note to buy another, smaller chair. At least a fold-out one. Because damn, it was hard to carry this chair. My mother had great taste, but to buy high-back heavy wooden chairs for a college guy’s apartment points toward some level of gayness. It just was not right.
Maneuvering the chair through the doorframe, I looked up to make some crack about needing a bigger door, only to find Bella staring at my computer screen, mouth agape.
I realized what was on the screen and narrowly missed my toe when I dropped the chair.
Shit.
Her damn Facebook profile was still on the screen. And now she knew I was a crazy-stalker boy.
Bella turned around and we started talking at the same time.
“I - I just turned it on -”
“I can explain, see -”
We both stopped and looked at each other. I cleared my throat and tried again. “I was looking at your profile before I picked you up, just to see what you liked to do. I figured I would get some talking points off of it if the conversation ever lagged between us.”
That was lame. But it kind of made sense, in a twisted way.
Of course, my alternative was saying something even more retarded, like ‘I like looking at you. You’re pretty.’
Bella cracked a small smile. “You were doing research.”
“Yeah, research.” That sounded much nicer than stalking. I needed to remember that in the future.
“Well, in that case… I think it’s only fair I see your profile.” She smirked playfully and I quickly agreed, dragging the cumbersome chair over to her and sitting down. I clicked on my profile and let her peruse it.
“Not a lot to it,” she observed, scrolling down to the bottom.
I shrugged. “I don’t really get on a lot.”
She smiled sweetly. “All done.”
“Okay…” I closed the web page and opened the external hard drive folder, clicking on the first part of DHSAB. “Brace yourself for awesomeness.”
She laughed softly and settled back into the chair. I followed suit and soon we were laughing at Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion as they sang and fought each other.
Ahhh… the genius that is Joss Whedon.
“That’s the saddest thing I’ve ever seen,” she said forlornly after the last image of DHSAB faded.
“Yeah, it’s pretty heartbreaking at the end,” I agreed, turning off the screen. Bella gave me a watery smile and we kind of looked at each other for a moment. I wanted to give her a hug, or pat her shoulder, or something, but talked myself out of it.
“Hey, Edward?” she said tentatively.
“Yes?”
“Thanks for hanging out with me. I’m having a lot of fun with you.”
“Me too.” Which was the truth. Every minute was like a new adventure with this girl and I was reluctant for it to end. Her eyes sucked me back in, transfixing me with their hidden depths.
Bella started slowly leaning toward me, placing a hand on my knee for support, and I watched her come closer, inch by inch, my eyes flickering between her gaze and her luscious lips.
Oh my god. She’s going to kiss me.
Okay, keep it together Edward. Don’t just sit here like a statue.
I hesitantly reached up and cupped her cheek, my thumb caressing her cheekbone. Her skin was smooth and a light pink bloomed underneath my hand and across her face. She never looked lovelier.
What if she uses her tongue? I’ve never done that before. Do I use my tongue?
Gah! I wish I had more experience with this.
I felt her hot breath against my lips. She was so close… I could smell her enthralling perfume pulling me under her siren’s spell, the promise of deeper pleasure than anything I had ever dreamed before calling out to me.
And then -
“Hey Edward! You in there?”
Bella and I speedily broke apart as Ben yelled from the other room like we’d just been caught doing something dirty. Taking a deep breath and unsure of what to say to Bella, I took the coward’s way out and got up from my chair.
“Yeah, I’m here,” I answered Ben, going over to the door and opening it to find Ben and Angela on the other side. “What’s up?”
Angela looked over my shoulder and asked, “Is Bella in there?”
“Yeah, hold up.” I moved out of the way and opened the door wider for them to come in. I mean, it wasn’t like they hadn’t already killed the mood. They might as well kill my date… er… hang out.
Angela looked relieved when she saw Bella stand up. “I’ve been trying to reach you for the last half hour. Why are you ignoring my calls?”
“Sorry,” Bella apologized quickly, throwing her hands up in front of her. “I forgot my phone back at the house. What’s so urgent that you tracked me down?”
Angela laughed. “I didn’t ‘track you down’. We saw Edward’s car outside and I figured you were here with him. Alice wanted me to tell you that we’re having a dinner get together in about an hour at the usual place, if you want to come. She’s pretty enamored with her new boy toy, so I guess this is her showing him off to everyone.”
Ben and I exchanged a look. Boy toy? Who talks like that?
“Oohh… is it Jasper?” Bella asked, her voice dropping to a hushed conspiracy whisper. Angela nodded. “The girl works fast, I’ll give her that.”
Bella caught my eye. “So, what do you think? You wanna go?”
I blinked in surprise. Did she just invite me along? “Uh… yeah, sure. I could do that.”
A million questions ran through my mind, but there was only one I chanced getting an immediate answer to. I shot a nervous look over to Ben, silently asking him if he was going too. He nodded and shrugged nonchalantly, like this was just another day, another thing to attend.
Well, it was to him. He probably went to a ton of these things with Angela.
Such was the price of dating a sorority girl, I guess.
“We’re in,” Bella told Angela, flashing me a quick smile. I liked that. We. Like we were a couple already.
I found myself agreeing to pick up Bella at the same time that Ben went to get Angela at the KD house in half an hour, so the girls could change before the ‘dinner thing’. Whatever a dinner thing was. I watched Bella leave with Angela, a small piece of my heart leaving with her. No kiss, no hug, not even a handshake exchanged before she left. Just a hint of a smile and a small wave.
Once they were gone, I pounced on Ben for information. “So what does ‘dinner thing’ mean?”
He smirked. “You’ll see.”
Confused, I waited for him to clarify, but he just shook his head and walked away, smirking the entire time. So much for my insider information source.
Sometimes I wished I lived alone.
~*~*~
A/N: Defs/Refs -
PS2/Xbox 360 - game consoles. PS2 is a PlayStation 2, made by Sony, and Xbox 360 is made by Microsoft. (PS2 is better. Just because I automatically hate anything made by Microsoft. But really, when it comes down to it, the Wii wins against all.)
Will Ferrell - Please. Like someone doesn’t know who this is.
SpikeTV - a guy’s cable channel. They play Star Wars all the time and I love them for that.
Geeksofdoom(dot)com - awesome review/news website. They cover comics, games, television, movies, DVD releases, books, and random bits of geeky news. I love them and their contests. I wish I had won that poster, which was real, because it was amazing. I couldn’t remember what it said exactly, but it was pretty close to what I typed up.
DHSAB, or Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog - an online musical, but soon to be released on DVD in December I think, that may have a sequel in the works, involving one Dr. Horrible, his unrequited love Penny, and his arch-nemesis Captain Hammer. Joss Whedon was the master mind behind it and I love it to bits. I think we’ve talked about this before, but it’s worth mentioning again. Buy the DVD when it comes out. I don’t know if the website is still up, but if it is… you, sir or madam (whatever the case may be), are in for a treat.
External hard drive - it’s not that hard. It’s a hard drive on the outside of your computer’s tower. I highly recommend one, especially if you tend to download a lot of movies, like me.
‘How I Met Your Mother’ - if you’re not watching this show, I want nothing to do with you. NPH is gold, even if the boy is gay. He plays the best man-whore around. Much better than that damn Charlie Sheen. And Marshall… I have no words. I’ve liked that guy since the days of ‘Freaks and Geeks’. :sigh: I miss that show. The only person I’m not a big fan of is Ted. And he’s supposedly the main character. Hah. Is that irony? I’ve never been good at spotting irony. …maybe I should watch ‘Teaching Mrs. Tingle’ again.
Previous Chapter | Next Chapter
Genre: Romance/Humor
Pairings: Edward/Bella
Rating: NC-17
Chapter: 7/?
Warnings: Strong language, sexuality, and underage drinking.
Summary: Geeky Edward thinks he has absolutely no shot with the popular, beautiful Bella. Is he right, or will she be one of the many girls who thinks geeks make for better lovers? OOC-AH.
A/N: Thanks to Amelia for making sure I included something about DHSAB, to Sheejan for giving me a great idea involving Edward’s computer, and to Kristen for suggesting that Bella ‘mark’ her territory. (My words, not hers.) You guys will know it when you see it.
As always, love you Jen.
~*~*~
I may not have the softest touch
I may not say the words as such
And though I may not look like much
I'm yours
And though my edges may be rough
And never feel I'm quite enough
It may not seem like very much
But I'm yours
~"I'm Yours" by The Script~
~*~*~
Chapter Seven
EPOV
The drive to my apartment was not as conversation-filled as it had been on the way to the laser tag place. We listened to more Demetri Martin, but I was unable to focus on Bella’s amusing antics because I was too busy trying to remember if Ben had thrown out that pizza from four days ago. And if I had any of my underwear lying on my bedroom or bathroom floor. And if Angela and Ben would still be there.
If Angela was still there, she could distract Bella while I cleaned up my room… and the kitchen… and the living room… just to make sure everything looked okay.
I parked in the usual spot outside my apartment building and twisted in the seat to look at Bella. “Are you sure you want to come up? I haven’t really had a chance to clean up…”
“Pssh. I’m sure it’s fine,” she said brightly, dismissing my weak argument. Her hand hovered over the door handle for a split second and then was pulled back. “Unless you don’t want me to come up. Then we could do something else.”
The flash of uncertainty in her eyes and the undertone of disappointment in her voice steeled my resolve. “No. I want you to come up.”
She smiled brilliantly at me and opened the door. I got out of my side and met her in front of the car.
“Shall we?” I asked, holding out my arm for her hand. It was a completely dorky and old-fashioned gesture, but Bella laughed and took my arm. I led her up the stairs to my second-story apartment, nervous about what I would find on the other side.
Unlocking and opening the door a crack, I did a quick sweep to make sure nothing embarrassing or gross was visible.
“This is it,” I said with a flourish, swinging the door open and stepping aside so Bella could enter first. “Casa de Cullen y Cheney.”
I followed her in and shut the door as she took a look around. There was something about Bella seeing this place for the first time that unnerved me. With everyone else I brought over, I was fine. But she was different.
I wanted her to like what she saw. I wanted her to accept the pretty bare white walls, the oversized, used furniture, and the small messes scattered through-out the apartment. Those were usually the things my mother harped about whenever she came here for a visit.
We walked into the living room and she immediately commented on the prominent piece in the room. “Whoa… How big is that screen?”
“Uh, 62 inches.”
Her eyes widened and she whistled low in appreciation. “My dad would love that.”
“Yeah, most guys do.” I’ll admit it was a tad big for the normal college student. My dad may have gone a little overboard when I mentioned I needed a bigger television to see what was going on when playing in four-person split screen mode on my PS2 or Xbox 360.
Bella wandered over to Ben and mine’s extensive video and game collection and she ran down the tower, noting several of the titles.
“So basically… if it’s action, horror, or kung-fu, you’ve got it,” she pointed out.
“Yeah. But the kung-fu’s all Ben.”
“Ahh. That makes sense. You don’t really look like a kung-fu kind of guy.”
I wanted to ask her what she meant by that, but she had already moved on to my TV series sets.
“Got a thing for vampires?” she asked casually. I blushed a little. She had apparently noticed I had every season of ‘Buffy’ and ‘Angel.’
“Not vampires, per se. I have a thing for Joss Whedon,” I corrected.
“Oh. Yeah, he’s cool.” She paused in her browsing and turned around to look at me. “He did that ‘Firefly’ show, right?”
I swear to God, if I thought I had a chance in hell of her saying ‘yes’, I would go out tomorrow and buy a ring.
“Yes,” I gasped. “He did that.”
“Huh.” She turned around and started back up where she had left off. I watched her silently take in the rest of the living room and then come over to where I was standing.
“So… can I see your room?” she asked, one corner of her mouth turned up in a hopeful, but shy smile.
“Sure,” I replied hesitantly. “Let me just check that there’s nothing, um, embarrassing lying out.”
“Okay.”
I hurried over to my bedroom and took a quick inventory. Nothing lying on the floor - check. No obscene pictures of girls in sight - check. Nothing visible that can be taken offensively - check.
“Okay, you can come in,” I called from my door. Bella half-skipped, half-walked toward me. She stepped around me and turned 360 degrees.
“You really like Star Wars,” she pointed out lightly. The way she said that, I wasn’t sure if it was a good or bad thing.
“Yeah. What tipped you off?”
“Oh, you know… the poster, the life-sized R2D2, the light sabers, the action figures in their original boxes… I’m a smart girl. I can put the pieces together,” she teased.
“What can I say? I feel a connection with Luke Skywalker that many people don’t understand.”
“Luke, huh? Han was always my favorite.” Bella smiled, amusement lighting up her eyes.
“He was a ladies man.” Which is why I identified more with Luke than Han.
She nodded absently, walking over to my desk. “Don’t hate me, but I’ve only seen the movies once.”
I gasped in shock and horror. Once?! How was that even possible?
“How did you catch the references then?” I asked, confused. Maybe she had photographic memory.
“I have a lot of guy friends. They tend to quote their favorite movies when slightly hammered,” she said, shrugging as if that explained it. “Seriously. I could probably regurgitate every single thing Will Ferrell has ever said, even though I’ve only seen a handful of his movies.”
“That’s okay.” I moved away from the door and stood beside her. “Is it like you’d thought it would be?” I asked, referring to my room and not the quoting of Will Ferrell.
“It’s…” Her eyebrows rose and she paused, looking for the right word. “No. No, it’s not. But I like it,” she hastily added. “Especially the Darth Vader poster.”
We both looked at the poster, which hung on the wall above my bed. It showed Darth Vader on half of it, and then had ‘A guy can be called Annie only so many times’ in big white lettering on the other half. It was a promo poster for Spike TV’s first showing of all six episodes of Star Wars.
“I’ve never seen anything like it. Where did you get it?” She went over to my bed and sat down. Seeing her on my bed strangely made me salivate and I swallowed loudly, trying to clear my mouth so I wouldn’t drool when I talked.
“I, uh, randomly won a contest from this website I frequent. Have you ever heard of geeksofdoom(dot)com?”
She shook her head. “Nope.”
“Well, it has reviews for a lot of things that I like and other things. And occasionally they do contests. I just happened to be the lucky guy who won.”
“That’s cool.”
We fell into silence. Bella continued to look around her, and then she unexpectedly turned to the side to lie down on my bed.
“Comfy,” she said softly, curling up on her side to face me.
Oh. My. God.
She was on my bed. She was lying on my bed.
It would be nothing for me to lie down next to her. Natural even.
But I couldn’t do that. She didn’t want me to creepily climb into bed with her.
But now my bed was going to smell like Bella. I was going to be breathing Bella’s fruity, intoxicating smell all night long.
Oh, god.
Why was she torturing me like this? Did she hate me?
Maybe this was just one of her things. A quirk. Maybe she went around to random guys’ rooms and tested out their beds.
I fiercely hoped I was wrong about that.
What I needed was something to distract me from the beautiful sight of Bella curled up in my bed. Something I could involve her in that might get her off it.
“Have you ever seen ‘Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog?” I blurted out, relief washing over me at my quick thinking of our earlier exchange of Joss Whedon shows. She shook her head ‘no’, so I explained what it was, getting kind of excited at the chance to share something I really enjoyed with Bella, who might actually appreciate it.
She sat up, an interested expression on her face. I pulled out my computer desk chair and sat down, winding up my explanation. “And I have all of them on my external hard drive, if you want to watch them.”
“Yeah, it sounds funny. I love Neil Patrick Harris on ‘How I Met Your Mother’,” Bella admitted, standing up and walking over to me. I quickly realized I had no other chair for her to use, and since I’m sure she wouldn’t want to sit in my lap (no matter how much I wanted that), I told her to sit in my chair while I got one from the dining room.
Awkwardly carrying a chair back to my room, I made a mental note to buy another, smaller chair. At least a fold-out one. Because damn, it was hard to carry this chair. My mother had great taste, but to buy high-back heavy wooden chairs for a college guy’s apartment points toward some level of gayness. It just was not right.
Maneuvering the chair through the doorframe, I looked up to make some crack about needing a bigger door, only to find Bella staring at my computer screen, mouth agape.
I realized what was on the screen and narrowly missed my toe when I dropped the chair.
Shit.
Her damn Facebook profile was still on the screen. And now she knew I was a crazy-stalker boy.
Bella turned around and we started talking at the same time.
“I - I just turned it on -”
“I can explain, see -”
We both stopped and looked at each other. I cleared my throat and tried again. “I was looking at your profile before I picked you up, just to see what you liked to do. I figured I would get some talking points off of it if the conversation ever lagged between us.”
That was lame. But it kind of made sense, in a twisted way.
Of course, my alternative was saying something even more retarded, like ‘I like looking at you. You’re pretty.’
Bella cracked a small smile. “You were doing research.”
“Yeah, research.” That sounded much nicer than stalking. I needed to remember that in the future.
“Well, in that case… I think it’s only fair I see your profile.” She smirked playfully and I quickly agreed, dragging the cumbersome chair over to her and sitting down. I clicked on my profile and let her peruse it.
“Not a lot to it,” she observed, scrolling down to the bottom.
I shrugged. “I don’t really get on a lot.”
She smiled sweetly. “All done.”
“Okay…” I closed the web page and opened the external hard drive folder, clicking on the first part of DHSAB. “Brace yourself for awesomeness.”
She laughed softly and settled back into the chair. I followed suit and soon we were laughing at Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion as they sang and fought each other.
Ahhh… the genius that is Joss Whedon.
“That’s the saddest thing I’ve ever seen,” she said forlornly after the last image of DHSAB faded.
“Yeah, it’s pretty heartbreaking at the end,” I agreed, turning off the screen. Bella gave me a watery smile and we kind of looked at each other for a moment. I wanted to give her a hug, or pat her shoulder, or something, but talked myself out of it.
“Hey, Edward?” she said tentatively.
“Yes?”
“Thanks for hanging out with me. I’m having a lot of fun with you.”
“Me too.” Which was the truth. Every minute was like a new adventure with this girl and I was reluctant for it to end. Her eyes sucked me back in, transfixing me with their hidden depths.
Bella started slowly leaning toward me, placing a hand on my knee for support, and I watched her come closer, inch by inch, my eyes flickering between her gaze and her luscious lips.
Oh my god. She’s going to kiss me.
Okay, keep it together Edward. Don’t just sit here like a statue.
I hesitantly reached up and cupped her cheek, my thumb caressing her cheekbone. Her skin was smooth and a light pink bloomed underneath my hand and across her face. She never looked lovelier.
What if she uses her tongue? I’ve never done that before. Do I use my tongue?
Gah! I wish I had more experience with this.
I felt her hot breath against my lips. She was so close… I could smell her enthralling perfume pulling me under her siren’s spell, the promise of deeper pleasure than anything I had ever dreamed before calling out to me.
And then -
“Hey Edward! You in there?”
Bella and I speedily broke apart as Ben yelled from the other room like we’d just been caught doing something dirty. Taking a deep breath and unsure of what to say to Bella, I took the coward’s way out and got up from my chair.
“Yeah, I’m here,” I answered Ben, going over to the door and opening it to find Ben and Angela on the other side. “What’s up?”
Angela looked over my shoulder and asked, “Is Bella in there?”
“Yeah, hold up.” I moved out of the way and opened the door wider for them to come in. I mean, it wasn’t like they hadn’t already killed the mood. They might as well kill my date… er… hang out.
Angela looked relieved when she saw Bella stand up. “I’ve been trying to reach you for the last half hour. Why are you ignoring my calls?”
“Sorry,” Bella apologized quickly, throwing her hands up in front of her. “I forgot my phone back at the house. What’s so urgent that you tracked me down?”
Angela laughed. “I didn’t ‘track you down’. We saw Edward’s car outside and I figured you were here with him. Alice wanted me to tell you that we’re having a dinner get together in about an hour at the usual place, if you want to come. She’s pretty enamored with her new boy toy, so I guess this is her showing him off to everyone.”
Ben and I exchanged a look. Boy toy? Who talks like that?
“Oohh… is it Jasper?” Bella asked, her voice dropping to a hushed conspiracy whisper. Angela nodded. “The girl works fast, I’ll give her that.”
Bella caught my eye. “So, what do you think? You wanna go?”
I blinked in surprise. Did she just invite me along? “Uh… yeah, sure. I could do that.”
A million questions ran through my mind, but there was only one I chanced getting an immediate answer to. I shot a nervous look over to Ben, silently asking him if he was going too. He nodded and shrugged nonchalantly, like this was just another day, another thing to attend.
Well, it was to him. He probably went to a ton of these things with Angela.
Such was the price of dating a sorority girl, I guess.
“We’re in,” Bella told Angela, flashing me a quick smile. I liked that. We. Like we were a couple already.
I found myself agreeing to pick up Bella at the same time that Ben went to get Angela at the KD house in half an hour, so the girls could change before the ‘dinner thing’. Whatever a dinner thing was. I watched Bella leave with Angela, a small piece of my heart leaving with her. No kiss, no hug, not even a handshake exchanged before she left. Just a hint of a smile and a small wave.
Once they were gone, I pounced on Ben for information. “So what does ‘dinner thing’ mean?”
He smirked. “You’ll see.”
Confused, I waited for him to clarify, but he just shook his head and walked away, smirking the entire time. So much for my insider information source.
Sometimes I wished I lived alone.
~*~*~
A/N: Defs/Refs -
PS2/Xbox 360 - game consoles. PS2 is a PlayStation 2, made by Sony, and Xbox 360 is made by Microsoft. (PS2 is better. Just because I automatically hate anything made by Microsoft. But really, when it comes down to it, the Wii wins against all.)
Will Ferrell - Please. Like someone doesn’t know who this is.
SpikeTV - a guy’s cable channel. They play Star Wars all the time and I love them for that.
Geeksofdoom(dot)com - awesome review/news website. They cover comics, games, television, movies, DVD releases, books, and random bits of geeky news. I love them and their contests. I wish I had won that poster, which was real, because it was amazing. I couldn’t remember what it said exactly, but it was pretty close to what I typed up.
DHSAB, or Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog - an online musical, but soon to be released on DVD in December I think, that may have a sequel in the works, involving one Dr. Horrible, his unrequited love Penny, and his arch-nemesis Captain Hammer. Joss Whedon was the master mind behind it and I love it to bits. I think we’ve talked about this before, but it’s worth mentioning again. Buy the DVD when it comes out. I don’t know if the website is still up, but if it is… you, sir or madam (whatever the case may be), are in for a treat.
External hard drive - it’s not that hard. It’s a hard drive on the outside of your computer’s tower. I highly recommend one, especially if you tend to download a lot of movies, like me.
‘How I Met Your Mother’ - if you’re not watching this show, I want nothing to do with you. NPH is gold, even if the boy is gay. He plays the best man-whore around. Much better than that damn Charlie Sheen. And Marshall… I have no words. I’ve liked that guy since the days of ‘Freaks and Geeks’. :sigh: I miss that show. The only person I’m not a big fan of is Ted. And he’s supposedly the main character. Hah. Is that irony? I’ve never been good at spotting irony. …maybe I should watch ‘Teaching Mrs. Tingle’ again.
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