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Posted: Fri May 21, 2010 8:43 am
At first, Khalla had thought about inviting Rohan to dinner with her grandmother. It would have been a fun time, the old woman was lively and amusing, especially after her nightly margarita. But then after everything.. happened, Khalla had decided that what they really needed was a night alone to discuss everything. It promised to be awkward, but Khalla had really done some thinking after that night. She'd had over two weeks at this point to decide what she wanted to do and now she was sure. She just had to tell him.
Her grandmother had already left for her regular bingo night and Khalla didn't expect her home until late. She expected Rohan, on the other hand, any minute now. That meant that she was a bit of a flustered mess as she paced back and forth in her living room, waiting for a knock on her front door. She'd chosen a rather pretty white summer dress with a matching kerchief holding her dreads back from her face, the knot tied under the mass of hair.
From the adjoined dining room she could smell the dinner she had cooked, a pasta dish with salad and bruschetta. She hadn't decided if she wanted to talk to him before or after dinner, though, and she was sure she still wouldn't have a clue until he actually arrived. She was mumbling softly to herself, talking under her breath about what she would say to him. Her hands were clasped tightly together as she paced circle after circle, her fingers clenched so tightly that her knuckles had turned white at this point.
When the knock finally came at the door she all but jumped straight out of her skin. She turned to gaze sharply at the door for a moment, as if she weren't quite sure of what she had heard, but finally decided that it was better to double-check than to make him think she wasn't there if he was actually standing outside. She walked across the room, set her hand on the door, and drew in a deep breath before she pulled it open. For a moment she looked surprised to see him standing there, as if she were sure she had been imagining the knock, but then she smiled nervously at him.
"Come in," she said softly, stepping aside and hold an arm out to motion him into the house.
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Posted: Fri May 21, 2010 8:44 am
The invitation hadn't really come as a surprise; after all, he'd been expecting it. Rohan was sure Khalla would keep her promise and invite him over as she'd said she would, and yet... the day he'd received the email with the date and the time he was to show up at her house, he'd felt as if it were pretty surreal. Still, seeing as how the girl had not tried to schedule the meeting face to face (she DID know where to find him), and hadn't tried calling him, he was pretty sure she was feeling much more awkward than he was at that precise moment. This, of course, lead him to think that the situation had been ironically inverted, and had he not been a tad too busy feeling concerned for the girl in question, he would have laughed at the irony.
The walk to her house had been used to clear his mind; a futile attempt, really, because all he'd managed to figure out was that he still felt the same way and that he really didn't expect anything from her. At this point and given the fact she'd emailed him, instead of seeking him out personally, he figured it meant she was going to shoot him down before he ever got the opportunity to open his mouth. He just hoped she'd let him more or less ask if they could at least remain friends - he could deal with the rest since, well, he'd been pretty much prepared to hide it from her forever. And ever and ever. Pity that he'd slipped. Alas, no use crying over slipped milk.
Walking had also allowed Rohan to pick up some pastries on his way there. He'd remembered the fact Khalla had once dragged him into a tea shop, and for some odd reason, the idea of getting her pastries had stuck, so he'd gone with it. Upon arriving at her door, he'd knocked and waited for her to answer - not only did she take a horribly long time to open the door (in fact, so long that he'd already lifted his hand to knock again), but she stood there for a moment, looking at him as if she couldn't believe he was really there.
Slowly, he walked past her and into the house, pausing to look down at her, "This is for you," he then offered her the box of pastries, "I picked it up on the way here. I wasn't sure what you liked... but I recalled you dragged me into a tea shop once," that said, he lifted his head and actually sniffed the air; in his defense, he'd not eaten all day (he'd gotten painfully distracted - something that tended to happen to him often), and whatever she'd been cooking smelled rather delicious. Then again, it could have been the fact he'd arrived on an empty stomach.
Unlike her, he seemed to be wearing a random suit, tie and shirt, which looked as ruffled as ever.
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Posted: Fri May 21, 2010 8:45 am
"Uh, thank you," she seemed a little confused as he handed her the box of pastries. In her defense, a box of pastries wasn't exactly a common gift. As she shut the door behind him, however, she couldn't help the smallest smile. She wasn't exactly big on sweets but pastries were her favorites, set above chocolate or icecream or anything else of the dessert variety. "That was very thoughtful of you." Once he was in and the door was closed, she motioned for him to follow her and walked past him into the livingroom beyond.
"I, well," she paused, tapping her fingers lightly on the box of pastries that she held in her hand. It probably didn't bode well that she was already fidgeting, but then again, when had she really stopped? "I obviously made dinner," she motioned her hand towards the dining room but didn't move in that direction yet, "but I don't know if you want to.. eat first or talk first." She paused for a second as another option occurred to her. "I suppose we could talk while we ate, but that seems like it wouldn't be as personal."
She watched him for a second, staring at the face that she had been picturing in her head for the last two weeks. She suddenly became very self-aware and glanced down at her feet quickly, feeling a blush rising to her pale cheeks. She turned away and walked to the side of the room where a tall table sat, complete with a vase and flowers. She set the pastries down and took a moment to rearrange the daffodils she had brought in earlier - all just nervous fidgeting and attempts to not have to face him directly.
"I hope you like pasta anyway," she was speaking quietly, mostly because she was afraid anything else would cause her voice to break and stammer. She finally realized that playing with the flowers anymore would just be obvious and turned around to look at him again, smiling as she watched him. She was still waiting on his answer, on his decision, because she just didn't know what he wanted to do at this point. That, and she really couldn't decide for herself.
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Posted: Fri May 21, 2010 8:45 am
In all honesty, Rohan wasn't all that used to being invited to... well, anywhere really. These past two weeks had been something new to him, what with both the wedding and being invited to dinner; he'd always been rather the solitary sort of man. A book, accompanied by a nice round of soft music was all he'd needed to be happy. As such, that meant that getting gifts for people that asked him over had never been high on his main list of priorities, and he'd pretty much been winging it with the pastries. After all, it'd felt rude to show up at her door without something to offer in return for the meal he was going to have.
Her initial reaction to the pastries made him think that perhaps he'd been mistaken with regards to her tastes, and he'd been about ready to apologize for this when she thanked him, "You're welcome," he told her, momentarily looking down at her before following the movement of her hand towards the dining room. On one hand, dinner smelled horribly tempting, and he was quite positively famished, however... on the other hand, judging from a quick glance her way, it was pretty obvious the girl was not going to stop fidgeting until they talked. He really did not want to have to sit down and watch her squirm and fuss endlessly as they ate (it would probably mean she wouldn't get much food in her to boot).
That meant that the decision was pretty much taken for him from a get go.
After a moment's thought, he turned back to Khalla, "I think that a talk is in order, no matter how tempting the food is right now," he motioned at the way she was fussing with anything her hands could get a grip on, as if to explain why he thought the talk should go first, "And pasta will be lovely," a pause, "So long it's not spicy. I'm not fond of spicy food," the blushing hadn't gone unnoticed either, really, but he was choosing to not comment on it for the time being, "So then... talking," he turned, looking around the room before lightly motioning towards the sofa in the room, "Would the sofa be fine with you?" he figured if he was going to be rejected, he wanted to be sitting down comfortably, thank you very much.
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Posted: Fri May 21, 2010 8:46 am
"Oh, no, nothing spicy," she shook her head at that and waved her hands in front of her a bit as if to ward off even the thought of such, "I'm not a big fan of spice." Well, that was one weight off of her shoulders at least. She could calm down over the thought that might not like what she made and concentrate instead on the matter at hand.. which wasn't exactly a matter that was going to calm her nerves any. Which was the lesser of the two evils?
"Oh, yeah," she blinked a little as if she had been lost in her own thoughts (she probably was) and moved over to sit down on the couch once he motioned to it. Had she been in a better, calmer mood she probably would have been quite disappointed with herself. This was her house, he was her guest, and there was no reason that he should be telling her where to sit. That just wasn't polite on her part, leaving him to be the host like this. And yet, as soon as she sat down on the couch and waited for him to join her, the butterflies in her stomach erupted like a volcano. She reached out one hand to settle it on the couch arm, curling her fingers into the fabric like she might rip it up in her nervousness.
This conversation was actually about to happen. Oh, how she wished Gabbie or Amara were here to guide her through it. She'd never done anything like this before in her life. She'd never had a relationship, she had never even kissed a boy aside from Jacob Johnson in the first grade, and that could hardly be considered a real kiss. She sighed to herself as she realized she was rambling and brought a hand up to her cheek for support.
"Okay," she said, dropping that hand into her lap and curling it into a fist. She glanced up at him shyly, then away as she felt a blush turning her cheeks a bright red. Why was this so difficult? She never had a problem with talking before this, not in the slightest. She supposed it was really just a matter of the subject. "So I spent a lot of time thinking about it, a really long time actually," she dropped the hand that was on the couch arm into her lap, lacing both her hands together again, "and it really wasn't easy at all." She had to stop and take a deep breath at this point, her teeth worrying at her bottom lip as she tried to collect her thoughts. She felt like they were going a million miles a minute and she couldn't stop a single one to express it.
"What I'm trying to say is that I think.. I want to try this?" She rubbed her palms together and glanced up at him shyly from the corners of her eyes, not turning to face him exactly but definitely giving him her attention. "I'm not sure about anything, I've never.. been in a relationship. This is all strange and new, and really confusing to say the least." She cut off there, silencing her words and the unintelligible ramble they were about to degenerate into. "But I thought about it, and I know I that I want to give us a shot."
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Posted: Fri May 21, 2010 8:46 am
In all honesty, had only been paying half a mind to the spicy comment (he figured that if she rejected him, he wasn't going to enjoy dinner all that much, and if she chose not to reject him... well, the notion hadn't really crossed his mind), "That'll be fine then," he told her, swiftly deciding that apparently, Khalla was going to need his approval every step of the way tonight, even with something as simple as the food that she had taken the time to cook.
Rohan watched as she chose to indeed take his hint, marching towards the sofa as if she were going to face hell upon arrival. He decided to let her talk and get everything out before interjecting his own set of thoughts (because he had thoughts to share and spare, given the long time he'd spent alone since the wedding - alone time tended to give rise to thinking time). However he couldn't help but notice the way the girl was gripping the sofa arm, her dress, or otherwise worrying anything she had within reach; needless to say, he was trying very, very hard not to grab one of her hands in an attempt to stop her. Seeing as how the last time he'd done that it had yielded terrible consequences, Rohan did his best to focus his attention on her face and ignore her fidgeting.
It was... however, really hard to ignore, given the fact the girl was apparently a bundle of nerves (something he could easily relate to in other circumstances, yet right at that moment, he was feeling oddly composed, like a man that was facing his execution with his head held high and no regrets). As she mentioned spending a lot of time thinking, he tore gaze away from her face and looked up to the ceiling, preparing himself for the refusal that was just about to come.
Any minute now. Any minute. Really.
She wanted to try this. Of course, she wanted to give them a tr-- wait a minute.
Her words caused him to snap his head back to look at her, and for a very long moment, he looked utterly confused; it was apparent that this was not what he'd been expecting to hear at all. Don't get him wrong, this was exactly what he'd wanted to hear; it just wasn't what he'd expected to hear. It looked like Khalla had quite effectively thrown him for a loop with just those few words, "I don't think you're meant to be sure about any of this; and those that say they know what they're doing, are lying through their teeth," a pause, "Really though?" he still sounded mildly confused, albeit pleasantly surprised.
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Posted: Fri May 21, 2010 8:47 am
"Yes, really," she drew a deep breath, trying to make herself look and feel less like a jumble of nerves. The effect lasted all of a few seconds before she felt the jittering compulsion rush right back into place. "After we parted on the wedding night, I gave it some thought and I realized that.. I felt the same way, I just-" she sighed and glanced down at her hands where her fingers were picking at the fabric of her dress. She was silent for a few minutes, trying to figure out how she wanted to say what she was thinking. "I guess I just didn't realize it because I'm not used to this. I don't.. date."
She finally decided she just couldn't stand sitting still anymore and pushed herself to her feet instead. For a minute she just stood there, tapping her fingers together, then gave him a small smile. She wanted this, she just didn't know how to go about it, exactly. That's what was making everything about this completely and totally uncomfortable for her. "Maybe.. we should just go ahead and eat now?"
She had almost turned to go to the dining room when she stopped and turned back around to look at him. "I, uhm, unless you have something.. you want to talk about?" Mentally, she kicked herself for this. Not only was she being a terrible and inconsiderate host, but she also had absolutely no idea how she was supposed to act around a.. boyfriend. Was he technically even her boyfriend yet? She had no idea and the thought of sitting down and discussing anymore of this in greater detail made her flush furiously and set her back to toying with her hands again.
How on earth she was going to handle the actual relationship (eventually she was going to have to kiss him) was beyond her if she couldn't even think about discussing it without turning into a puddle of goo.
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Posted: Fri May 21, 2010 8:48 am
The ironic part of the whole conversation was that to Rohan, it almost felt like Khalla was implying that while she didn't date, he might. The idea was purely laughable, if only because... he'd spent most of his time alone, and people rarely tried to get to know him (though again, that might've had something to do with his tendency to hole himself away). He'd had crushes before, sure, and he could appreciate a girl's looks, no doubt (he was only human), but he'd always been too shy to come forth with his feelings, inevitably making him a loser in that department.
He hadn't really even planned on telling Khalla how he felt. That had just been a slip on his part, and had the girl not been so insistent on spending time with him before the wedding (thus getting to know him), it was probable he could have blown it off as some sort of impulse. Not that he minded this outcome in the least; in fact, he was a tad busy being on cloud nine (even if it didn't seem like he was, outwardly) to mind much of anything at all.
When she eventually got off the sofa, still fidgeting, Rohan followed her with his gaze; it had not gone unnoticed that the girl had, in fact, refused any sort of contact with him, even after telling him she was ready give them a try. He was perceiving this as mixed signals, but at the same time, he could identify with her, after all... hadn't he secretly wanted to find reasons for contact but been entirely appalled by the notion of doing so? Then again, in his defense, he'd been trying to hide a secret. He didn't quite understand what was going through Khalla's mind.
Alas, he decided to throw the metaphorical dog a bone, and instead of commenting on this, got up from the sofa, "Dinner would be fine," he paused his motion as she turned to face him sharply again, almost making her collide with him in the process of moving off the couch, "I... uhm, no," he breathed, "Actually, I'd pretty much come here to ask if you'd at least be fine with remaining my friend. So I hadn't... thought past that point. I'm afraid I'm winging it, Khalla, you're not alone."
Really she wasn't.
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Posted: Fri May 21, 2010 8:48 am
Khalla jumped slightly as she turned and he was just.. standing there. She almost collided with him and it certainly startled her, to say the least. What he said, however, made her feel infinitely more calm. "Well, that's kind of comforting, actually," the smile on her lips spread a little and for the first time the whole night she actually looked like she wasn't an alien in her own skin, "it makes me feel better to know I'm not the only one completely unfamiliar with the situation."
She looked up at him in silence for a few minutes then, with a small nod she reached out and slowly took his hand. It was awkward at first, unfamiliar despite the fact that she had probably drug him around by it more times than she could count. It was just different when it had meaning. Slowly, she adjusted, and instead of just standing there awkwardly holding his hand she laced her fingers with his own. A small blush crept over cheeks and she laughed at herself under her breath as she shook her head, finding the whole situation suddenly.. ridiculous. She felt like a five-year-old.
"Dinner is this way, then," she said with a smile, tugging lightly at his hand and pulling him into a walk towards the door that joined the living room to the dining room - the place where the smell of a homecooked meal was drafting from. "Maybe after dinner we can watch a movie?" She glanced back over her shoulder at him as they neared the doorway, her face quizzical. "I don't know what you like, but we have a big collection. Grandma loves movies."
Ahead, through the doorway, the food was visible on the table with two places set together at one end. For what it was worth, she seemed a bit calmer, even though the simple touch of his skin against her hand sent jitters up her arm.
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Posted: Fri May 21, 2010 8:49 am
Watching her jump away from him, Rohan had to refrain from grabbing her arm, almost afraid the girl would fall backwards. She caught herself though, and to his credit, Rohan managed to remain put, "Did you really, honestly, think that I had more of a life than you might've?" he wasn't particularly afraid of admitting as much, mostly because he'd never actively sought out to change that facet of his life. He probably could have, but he had just never bothered; he'd come to find that he didn't really like most people he met, so why bother trying to get to know people in the first place then?
It surprised him a lot more that she seemed almost more awkward and uncomfortable than he had ever been around her. The idea that she had never received... any special sort of attention from anyone else seemed preposterous to him. Then again, it had never occurred to him that the girl went to an all girl school, studied herself to death, and lived with her grandmother; it was probable that even if someone HAD shown interest in her, she wouldn't have noticed.
As she reached out to grab his hand, he blinked, startled out of his thoughts. His gaze fell down to watch her as she apparently experimented with the contact, finally deciding to lace her fingers with his. Given the fact he felt they'd done far 'worse' than just hand holding, he wasn't particularly shocked, and simply allowed her to guide him towards where the food awaited them, apparently quite used to the situation (he had been dragged around by her on several occasions - albeit he hadn't been as willing a participant), "You," he started, looking mildly thoughtful, "Are extremely cute," and he could finally, finally come out and say it.
Thank the gods.
"Dinner and a movie would be fine," more than fine really - maybe she was starting to catch on that 'fine' was apparently his codeword for 'really good'? He couldn't really tell what she knew and didn't know about him, but seeing as how he could now actually watch her without feeling extremely guilty for doing so, he was planning on finding out (his eyes had been on her, rather than the path she'd been leading him down, since she'd grabbed his hand), "Anything is good, really," and he meant it; he doubted he was going to be paying too much attention to the movie anyhow. She was going to be the one to have to let go of him, because he was apparently not planning on doing so himself, even when they reached the table.
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Posted: Fri May 21, 2010 8:49 am
She shrugged a little at his question, finding that her thoughts seemed silly when he phrased it that way. It had just seemed a natural conclusion that someone older than her would have more experience with this kind of thing. Then again, most people younger than her would assume that someone of her age would have had at least one boyfriend before now. How often did a girl make it to her senior year, let alone the end of it, without it happening? "It seemed possible. I don't know everything about you after all."
She had just been about to let go of his hand and direct him to the chairs when he stopped her words in her mouth and made her come to a dead halt. The compliment was strange to ears but not unwelcome exactly. She opened her mouth to say something back to him, but ended up shutting it and looking away from him with a small smile and a furious blush. She was doing a lot of that tonight. "Thank you," she said softly, so quiet that he probably wouldn't have heard if he wasn't so close to her. She cleared her throat a little, one small little cough, before she forced herself to disentangle their fingers and shyly peek up at him once more. "That's really sweet of you." She managed to look at him straight in the face for a few moments instead of glancing away out of nervousness - a huge accomplishment for her.
"Um. We should sit down, then." she waved her hand at a chair suddenly as she broke her gaze from his. She then proceeded to take the seat next to it, folding her hands into her lap and watching him expectantly from where she was. She wasn't sure how she had intended the night to go, but this was alright all things considered. If she could just get her nerves under control, she was sure it would go a hundred times better though. Thankfully, she was sure that Rohan wasn't the type to fault her for being a little nervous.
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Posted: Fri May 21, 2010 8:50 am
Now that he thought about it... it was quite true; she didn't really know anything about him. She knew very, very little, and Rohan was pretty certain he knew more about her, than she'd probably ever know about him (except he was oh-so-wrong to assume this much). A mild snort was offered at her words, "I'll take that as a compliment then," he was uncertain if she was just yanking his chain with that, or not, but chances were she wasn't, given her earlier behavior, "I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm a bit... antisocial," and that was putting it mildly, "You on the other hand..."
She proved his compliment to her to be true as she stood there before him, looking mildly out of place and actually blushing just because he'd mentioned she was cute, "You're welcome," he murmured, now finally feeling self conscious over the reaction his words were getting. As she released his hand, he took hold of his chair and sat himself down, watching her for a moment. The moment turned into two and he finally cleared his throat, "I think this is the moment where you serve the food and then we eat," he sounded... amused, which was a big deal for him. He was very, very rarely amused, and at that point in time, it was more that actually felt happy than anything else.
He figured eating food, talking, and the movie, sounded like an easy enough plan to follow, right? Nothing could ever go wrong with that, right? Right. He couldn't fault her for being nervous, given the fact he was probably just as nervous (just apparently better at keeping up a facade). It was right around then that a thought occurred to him; he turned his head and looked around the room, "Will we be alone all night here?"
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Posted: Fri May 21, 2010 8:50 am
Khalla watched him sit down, then sat there in silence for a moment more until he pointed out that she was, yet again, being a completely awful host. "Right, right, I'm sorry," she mumbled with a shake of her head, wondering what had gotten into her. She was never this nervous or flustered.
She picked up the pasta dish and scooped out the portions onto each of their plates, just as she was about to set it back down in the center of the table though, his question distracted her. She dropped the dish (thankfully not from too high) and it landed with a sloppy thud on her grandmother's tabletop. A bit of pasta plopped over the side but at that moment it was the least of Khalla's concerns. "Uhh, no," she stammered a bit, busying herself with picking up the bruschetta and setting a couple of pieces of the bread down onto each of their plates with the pasta. "No, no, my grandmother will be home in a few hours after her bingo games are over."
The thought of spending an entire night alone with him suddenly had her eyes a little wide and her heart racing more than it should. She paused and drew a deep breath before she decided to finally dish out the salad into the bowls she had set by their plates as well. "There," she smiled, sitting back in her seat and waving a little hand at the food, "enjoy!"
She'd like to have said the meal went well, but that would have been a lie. It passed mostly in silence except for a few words between them - a few awkward words, at least on Khalla's part. That was alright with her though, she wasn't much for talking and eating at the same time. Once they were done, however, she smiled and started to clear their dirty plates from the table - she could get the food put up after he left but grandmother would have been in a foul mood if she left the dirty plates sitting there. As soon as she was done, she paused at the table and held out her hand to him again. For what it was worth, she seemed less nervous about the contact this time around.
"I have the movie in the living room if you want to go watch it now?"
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Posted: Fri May 21, 2010 8:51 am
While it was indeed true that the meal had been awkward, Rohan was... pretty used to awkward (hey, he still remembered that time at the tea shop - nothing beats that one time), and didn't really think the meal was half bad at all. But then again, this must've been due to the fact that for once in his life, he wasn't the one squirming around feeling awkward; he'd had his share of that. It was apparently Khalla's turn to feel what he'd been feeling for most of the duration of their friendship.
It was entertaining, in a way, how he felt the roles were reversed, but to his credit, rather than bring attention to it, he was doing his best to make her feel comfortable. He was just uh... not doing a really good job at it, if the way she'd almost dropped the pasta had been any indication (in his defense, he felt it'd been a question that was entirely legit, given the circumstances). All in all, Rohan had enjoyed the food, and he'd enjoyed her company above all.
Despite the fact he wasn't all that used to home-made meals, he'd helped her as she'd set about cleaning up, and it wasn't till she'd left the table spotless that she finally offered him her hand. The gesture was (in his honest opinion) extremely endearing, and he took the hand she offered without a second's thought, "What movie did you have in mind?" issuing forth the question let her know that he was, indeed, perfectly fine with the idea of a movie.
Though in all honesty, he was more selfishly focused on the idea of him, and her, and a nice comfortable couch; she could very well play whatever she wanted on the TV, because most of his attention was going to be focused elsewhere. He just hoped she either did not notice, or just threw him a bone here. As they reached the living room, he let go of her hand so he could go sit at the couch, waiting for her to slip the movie in and then join her. Except now... he was actually getting nervous, because he wasn't sure what he was allowed to do, which meant this was going to be a trial and error thing.
He did not like Trial and Errors. Plans were always better, damn it.
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Posted: Fri May 21, 2010 8:53 am
She led him back towards the living room, sighing as he asked her that question. She wished he'd just kept quiet and resigned himself to being surprised because honestly? Khalla didn't watch a lot of movies, so when she went to the store to pick one up she'd just asked the retail guy for some help picking it out. "I actually don't know what it's about," she shrugged a little as she said this, "but the guy I spoke to said it was really good?" She dropped his hand and let him go sit on the couch, making a line for the dvd player instead. She popped the case open - it was a generic movie rental store's cover, there was nothing to determine from it. She busied herself for a moment with putting it in the player and then grabbed the remote as the TV flickered to life.
With the remote in hand, she plopped onto the couch at his side (close, but not QUITE close enough to touch him) and waited for the movie screen to come up. Impatiently, she skipped the previews and was pleased that this wasn't one of those movies that gave her an 'error' when she tried. The dvd main menu popped up, scrolling through random movie scenes that made absolutely no sense taken out of context. So instead she just hit play and set the remote down - then froze as she realized that she was in, yet again another awkward situation.
She could either lean back and keep her hands to herself, and look completely awkward and very un-girlfriend like. Or she could get closer to him and risk complete and total heart failure as the poor little organ beat itself to death against her rib cage.
With a few minutes pause, she shifted, then finally moved closer to him. She shifted his arm around until she could drape it over her shoulders, then wedged herself comfortably against his side. It felt awkward at first, but as the movie flashed on the television screen and she heard his heartbeat against her ear, she found that she was relaxing ever-so-slowly. She avoided his eyes like the devil, refused to put her hands anywhere but curled against her own chest, and her heart was still beating a hundred miles a minute - but she supposed if her heart did choose now to quit, at least she'd die happy.
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