A Series of Unlikely Events - Boring Teenagers Date

[madesomenoise]

The movie was...it was pretty okay. Mostly, Girl had spent it being very aware of her own boundaries, very aware of Carson's. She's never been in this situation before. Any connections she'd managed to make out in the Zones had been fleeting, a few hours at most, warm bodies in scavenged sheets. This is different. This is a boy who had wanted to spend time with her, who'd danced with her. At one point, she'd wanted to hold his hand so much her fingers had itched.

She'd held onto a fistful of her skirt instead.

After the movie, the Mall feels incredibly, intensely bright. Girl had spent what felt like hours getting ready while Poison had helped. He'd picked out the polka dot skirt flaring slightly just above Girl's knees. Her hair is up, held back with red cotton that matches her lipstick.

Why does she still want to hold his hand?

"So," she says. "What are we doing next?"

Comments

[boywhoflew]

The guitar she picks up seems almost as big as she is, and Carson watches with a sort of muffled amusement as she sits and balances the instrument across her lap. But even more appealing than the image of her sitting like that was the idea she might actually be interested in his writing, that she wouldn't roll her eyes and just barely humor it. He cracked a grin in response before he could help it and made a mental note to pull his best pieces, the ones he was most proud of, so he could show her.

"This is really nice, actually." He agreed, his grin crooked but stuck in place. He shrugged, hooking his thumbs in his pockets. "What about you? I mean. I promised you boring stereotypical and I delivered, right?"

[madesomenoise]

"Stereotypical, maybe, but I'm not bored," she says, running through a series of muffled chords. She bites her lip, practicing a particularly fiddly bit of fingering, one of the solos from Sing. She catches herself staring at him a little too long, the lines of his body, and blushes, looking down at her hands in feigned concentration.

"Nobody's ever done anything like this for me before."

[boywhoflew]

It figured that her blush would be as attractive as everything else she did, and Carson had to bite down on the inside of his cheek as he watched her slim fingers pluck out chords. There was something almost familiar about the tune she played, but for the life of him he couldn't place it, and it was difficult enough to pay attention when she had that nice color darkening her cheeks.

"They should have," he blurted out before he could help himself. "Well. I mean, I get why they wouldn't have had the chance. But this is something that gets taken for granted, right? At least for people like me. There's no reason you shouldn't get to just... go out. Do normal things. Learn to take it for granted yourself." He considered for a moment. "I'm-- uh. I'm glad you let me, though."

[madesomenoise]

Something in her chest goes warm and liquid when he says that and, if anything, she feels herself start to blush even darker. She bites her lip for a moment.

"You're making it really hard to be casual about this, man."

[boywhoflew]

For all intents she could have meant that as a bad thing, but the creeping color to her cheeks was enough to tell him that it wasn't. In response he feels that same nervous flutter of nerves start off in his belly, a jitteriness that expands and rises up into his chest and threatens to make his palms sweat.

"Well, I kind of only have one setting." He admitted wryly, digging his hands deeper into his pockets and attempting to command his body into not reciprocating the blush. Hormonal idiocy and a pretty girl was no excuse to let himself get sloppy. "All or nothing. So, you know, fair warning. Just so you know what you're dealing with."

[madesomenoise]

"All or nothing, huh?" asks Girl. She stands up, setting down the guitar carefully and then she moves closer. He's so much taller than her that she has to go all the way up on tiptoes to press a kiss against the corner of his mouth.

"Okay."

[boywhoflew]

As far as a first kiss went, it borderline barely counted. Just a warm press to the corner of his lips and then it was over. Fleeting and soft as it was, Carson could only blink down at her in surprise, the nervous jumble in his stomach and chest churning double time, and all at once it hit him that this was real. He really was on a date with a beautiful girl who for whatever insane reason seemed to like him, he really was hopelessly charmed by her, and somehow she seemed as into it as he was.

It was boggling.

"All or nothing," he agreed, a tad stupidly with a glance down at the red swell of her mouth. He was hit with the sudden desire to not let it go easily, to not just sit back and be complacent, and that if anything, he wanted a real kiss. That he could have a real kiss. Fuck it, he thought. I made it this far without fucking up.

Dipping down he pressed a soft firm press to her lips, lingering only a moment before standing back upright and clearing his throat. His heartbeat seemed intent on performing some sort of drum solo, but he maintained a collected demeanor. "So. More guitars or time for greasy foodcourt pizza?"

[madesomenoise]

It's brief but it's a kiss, a proper kiss, and Girl just stares at him for a moment, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. She's intensely aware of her edges, then, of all the warm and liquid parts of her. She bites her lip for a moment.

"Food?"

[boywhoflew]

"Food it is," he agreed, and he had the notion that the grin tugging at his mouth was probably borderline idiotic, but he honestly couldn't give a shit. His mouth still felt the ghosting warmth of hers and he resisted the temptation to touch his mouth by reaching out and catching her hand instead. Threading their fingers together, not for the first time he marveled at how everything had come together. Everything had seemed so hopeless when he had arrived to Darrow, but here he was a high school graduate, with university in the fall, and an incredible girl's hand in his. Maybe the girl part hadn't always factored into his grand plans for his future, but even if this only lasted a minute, it fit in like a missing puzzle piece.

"C'mon, before the hipster at the counter tries to sell us something." He said, giving her hand a small tug.

[madesomenoise]

Girl hadn't been planning for this at all but then he takes her hand again and she thinks about Poison and Jack, how neither of them had been planning for that and then...boom! There it was. This isn't that, isn't love, but Girl can't help but be distracted by the warmth that threads its way through her ribcage.

"I've already got a guitar at home," she says, letting him lead her out of the shop. "And I'm used to not buying things. He ain't getting me."

[boywhoflew]

"That's right," Carson grinned with a nod. "Fuck him and his half-assed sales pitch." On the way out of the store his attention wandered just long enough to flash a sardonic grin in the hipster's direction, his grin only widening when he caught the glare the guy was shooting him over the top of his magazine. Half tempted as he was to say something, he was briefly distracted by a flash of yellow in the case of the counter, and with a hum he filed that thought away for another time.

"Okay, important question." He proposed as they wandered closer to the foodcourt. "Are we getting slices or should I go all out and get a whole pizza? I'm not gonna lie, I could probably eat at least half on my own."

[madesomenoise]

"Let's get a whole one," says Girl, starting to rummage in her bag for her wallet. "And soda. I am still not over cold, fizzy drinks. They're amazing." She grins up at him and holds out some cash, eyebrows raised expectantly.

[boywhoflew]

"Nuh uh, nice try." He drawled, lightly pushing her wallet away with an eyebrow raised in challenge. "This is me pretending to be a proper teenage gentleman, right? I've got this one, you can get the next. And I'll get you one of those super sized sodas. The cup will be as big as you. By the time you finish it you'll be a diabetic."

[madesomenoise]

Girl rolls her eyes, but she also puts her wallet away.

"Coke," she says, grinning at him. She leans up and takes another kiss, just because she's pretty sure she's allowed to. "I'll go get us a table?"

[boywhoflew]

If he pressed into the kiss at all, he was willing to argue that it was just the height difference throwing him off balance. Even if he knew that it was total bullshit.

"You got it," he agreed, giving her hand a small squeeze before letting go. "I'll meet you there in a few minutes okay?" He lingered a minute before finally making himself turn and walk away, carefully determined to not glance back over his shoulder at her as he found the queue for the pizza place. Reflex betrayed him almost instantly however, and even as determined as he was, he couldn't resist flashing her a small half grin as he took his place in line.

[madesomenoise]

Girl finds them a table tucked into the corner and sits fiddling on her phone for a few minutes, texting Poison to tell him that she's staying out for a while longer, texting that she's still alive and SO FAR SO GOOD. She worries her lip with her teeth for a moment. She glances up at Carson and, yeah, she totally looks at his ass while he's not looking.

[boywhoflew]

Even if it didn't actually take long at all, he would have sworn that the line for the pizza place had stretched on for hours. He was impatient by the time he made it to the register, then irritated when they told him he had to wait for a full pie, then outright frustrated when the pimple faced community college drop out at the counter said they were all out of cup-holders.

Seriously. Cup-holders.

By the time he got the pizza and preciously balanced two obscenely large coke cups on the lid, he was genuinely expecting one last blow. Whether it was slipping on a freshly mopped floor or getting tripped by some imbecile happening by and wearing their meal home on his inevitable walk of shame. But as if by some divine intervention and only one terrifying cup wobble that magically righted itself, he made it over to the table in the corner occupied by the prettiest girl in the damn place without any sort of disaster.

Short of the horrifically overpriced pizza, that was.

"Either you're good luck, or I'm just having a good day." He decided as he slid her soda towards her. "I thought I was about to eat shit at least three times."

[madesomenoise]

"Well, I made it this far," says Girl, with a smile, bending her head to take a swallow of her soda, her eyelashes fluttering at the sheer pleasure of it. "So maybe I am lucky." She grins at him. "You need to stick with me, clearly. I'll look after you."

[boywhoflew]

"I'm pretty sure you could kick my ass, so I don't doubt it." He said with a raised brow and shaking off the image of her lips pursed around her straw. Flipping open the pizza box he eyed the disc of grease and cheese critically before deciding that it was acceptable, and that the smell might have even been worth the wait. Grabbing his chair, he casually pulled it from the opposite side of the table and a little closer to her own before taking a seat.

"As for sticking with you... well, there are definitely worse things I could imagine."

[madesomenoise]

And then she's blushing again, just a little, as she reaches for a slice of pizza. She notices the way he places his chair. She shifts under the table so that her knee presses against his, her foot slipped between his, just a little.

"Good," she says. "I could get used to this. All the mundane stuff."

[boywhoflew]

"Yeah?" He asked, focussing on grabbing himself a slice of pizza instead of the way her knee pushes against his, even if he might shuffle his legs a bit and press back.

"And just think, there's a long list of completely forgettable things to do." He added wryly, picking at a pepperoni and popping it into his mouth. "Go shopping, walk in the park, visit half assed and overpriced arcades, go bowling." His eyebrow creased. "Huh. Actually, I don't think I've even gone bowling before."

[madesomenoise]

"Then we definitely have to go bowling," says Girl. "One hundred percent."

The pizza isn't the best that she's ever had but it's also not the worst and she just lets herself enjoy it, chewing for a second.

"I go to the beach a lot. Even growing up in California, I barely knew the ocean existed."

[boywhoflew]

He was tempted to ask her if she even knew what bowling was if she was so willing to go out and try it. From what he knew it was a dull and unsanitary past time for the overweight lower middle class, and he was actually contemplating that and a bite of his pizza when she spoke next.

It was enough to actually make him forget to chew for a second.

"Wait," he halted her, wiping at his mouth with a napkin and swallowing. "The Zones were in California?"

[madesomenoise]

She hadn't realised that that was something she hadn't told him. She nods, swallowing the bite of food that she's been chewing.

"Yup. All that's left of California. Zones one through six and Bat City. I don't know how Bat City maps onto Californian cities. So, I know Jack is from San Francisco."

[boywhoflew]

It never would have occurred to him that the horrific place she had described could have actually been his own home state. Even with the knowledge that she was American, that the Zones were the result of war and desolation, California never would have been his first guess. It made sense in a strange way, if he guessed. She often felt like some kind of fictional character, too complex to be real, and if he was honest those sorts of things were almost always set in California.

It didn't make it any less weird though.

"That's insane," He said, still thrown by it. "I didn't-- I wouldn't have guessed that. I'm from California." He leaned back in his chair. "Just a very different version of it, I guess."