The noise was deafening in the stadium as he dutifully followed her down the steps towards the court. People filled every available space, chattering loudly and filling the area with the kind of electric excitement he had only heard other people talk about.
He should never have told her about his Basketball game virginity. It had simply been a passing comment, an irrelevant truth as they performed their experiment earlier. She had immediately insisted that she popped his sports cherry and dragged him here to this melting pot of heathens and ruffians. He cast his eyes around the congregated masses with a look of disgust on his face, his eyes finally landing on the bouncing blonde locks directly in front of him as he narrowly missed charging into her.
"These are our seats" She smiled, casually unfolding the chair and placing herself down beside a huge man painted all in white with a red 'V' on his chest. "My dad knows the coach, got us great seats"
Hodges nodded, not wanting to admit that he wouldn't have known whether they had great seats or not. Morgan grinned up at him, folding down his seat and gesturing for him to sit down. Hodges raised a cautious eyebrow, he knew there were over 350 species of bacteria growing on that seat alone, and that was assuming it had been cleaned between games. Which, looking around he figured was highly unlikely.
"Ok, so how long do I need to sit here and pretend to have fun?" He muttered, brushing his fingertips over the surface of the chair before sighing and sitting down.
"You'll have fun David, I promise" She smirked, handing him a ridiculously oversized soda.
He gripped the huge paper cup in his hands, wondering briefly how many trees had to give their life in order to stock this stadium with the number of giant paper cups it required in the average week.
"I fail to see how watching 10 gargantuan men throw a ball around can be fun" He quipped.
"So you do know about Basketball?" She smiled, nudging him playfully with her arm.
"Oh I know about Basketball. I know about everything Morgan. That does not mean I approve of, enjoy or indulge in any activities directly or indirectly associated with them" He declared, sitting upright and ignoring the confused stare of the thug sitting on the other side of Morgan.
"Do you read that disclaimer to all your dates?" She smiled.
"Can't say I've ever been dragged along to a place like this on a date..." He mused.
"Quit whining and put on your novelty foam hand" She smirked, tossing the offending item in his direction.
Hodges stared at the ludicrously oversized hand, wondering exactly how such a novelty had managed to make it across the globe and featured in almost every sports event there was considering that a young man in high school had accidentally started the trend at his team's basketball game.
"Did you know that the first novelty hand was created in Iowa in 1971 but a young man named Steve Chmelar and subsequently poached by Geral Fauss a year later?" He questioned, unable to stop himself from sharing his wealth of useless knowledge.
Morgan simply shook her head and shifted in her seat as the stadium erupted in chants and applause. The athlete's waved to their adoring masses and Hodges stood awkwardly with his huge foam hand trying not to think about the volume of saliva and bacteria flying over his head. Everytime Morgan looked around at him he waved the hand around and pretended to smile in an attempt to convince her he was at least trying. He was fairly sure it wasn't working, when they returned to their seats at the start of play she leaned across and muttered in his ear.
"It's ok... you don't have to wear the hand" He sighed with relief, immediately discarding it under his chair until she smiled "I'll buy you a hat instead"
He was about to protest when the noise around them intensified and Mr 'V' beside Morgan released a foul mouthed rant about the referee. Hodges had no idea what was going on and by the looks of it neither did a rather intimidated Morgan who shifted closer to him in retreat from the brute.
The first half was relatively uneventful. From the noises around him he surmised that the referee was one known by the irate Rebel's fans as being biased towards the other team but then he was well aware that most sports team's were liable to claim biased whenever a decision didn't go their way. He stood restlessly in line at the mens room surrounded by mighty hulks smelling viciously of BO and alcohol and wished he had simply refused to accompany her to this place.
Of course, he knew he would never have done that. Morgan meant more to him than he would even let himself admit and the promise of spending time with her, even at a place like this, was too hard to ignore.
Eventually the line began to move and he found himself standing in stagnant water in a pig trough of a bathroom. The disgust clearly registering on his face as he slipped past the urinal's and locked himself away in a cubicle. These could hardly be considered better but at the very least he was spared the humiliation of public exposure and possible backsplash from Mr 'V'. His mouth was filthy enough he could only imagine what his other regions would be like.
With a shiver he took care of business, amusing himself with the scratching's and graffiti on the walls. Stepping outside he came toe to toe with a veritable giant of a man. He looked Hodges up and down before pushing past him into the cubicle, the door barely closing behind him before he perched on the porcelain throne.
He quickly washed his hands and made his retreat, a smile crossing his face as he met up with Morgan on the steps laden down with food and the promised hat. He relived her of some of the trays and they moved back to their seats in silence. The second they had settled she swung the hat over his head and surveyed him proudly.
"Not bad" She smirked, fishing in her pocket for her own matching one. "Now we're proper basketball fans"
"Well you'll forgive me if I don't feel the need to shave my chest and paint it" He remarked as 'V' pushed past them to get to his own seat.
Morgan stifled a laugh "You'd have to shave?" She quipped, dipping a Nacho into some cheese and stuffing it in her mouth.
Hodges sipped his, now watery, cola and pondered her insult while he watched her eating. She had the strangest eating habits he had ever seen, and he had met Gil Grissom. She scooped cheese onto a Nacho, doused it in Mustard and then dipped it into some bacon bits in a tiny tub. She must have sensed his scrutiny, her eyes were pulled from her food to his and he failed to disguise his curiosity and disgust at her snack choice.
"Is that even edible?" He grumbled, staring suspiciously at the laden Nacho in her hand.
"It's better than sex" She declared with a broad smile. "You want to try?"
Hodges startled, sitting back in his chair as he struggled to compute her request when she burst into a torrent of laughter and bent over in her chair.
"The food I mean!" She cried, playfully slapping his arm and offering him the Nacho.
Hodges almost jumped the length of the stadium avoiding the offending foodstuff as she hovered in under his nose.
"No! Thank you... I'll pass" He stumbled, leaning way over in his chair and holding his hand up to stop her.
"Oh come on... it won't kill you" She insisted.
"Are you sure about that? A recent study in Munich showed that the number of heart attacks during the world cup more than doubled...and I guarantee some of that was down to the questionable food in these places" He argued Matter-of-factly.
Morgan rolled her eyes persisting with the enforcement of nacho's "You gotta live a little David" She smiled.
Hodges met her eye, her unwavering wide eyed stare hypnotised him and she smiled brightly already anticipating his surrender, the nacho hovering offensively under his nose.
"Fine" He huffed "but if I die I am haunting you"
Morgan narrowed her eyes before answering definitely "I'm ok with that"
She raised the nacho to his lips, her hand resting somewhat unnecessarily on his leg. Hodges reluctantly took a bite, an explosion of flavours sparkling in his mouth. She watched him with baited breath and he felt compelled to feign a love of the taste currently offending his taste buds. He nodded, attempting a smile through his mouthful and she broke into a wide smile.
"See!? I told you didn't I?" She declared, nodding confidently.
"You sure did" He mumbled through a mouthful of food.
Morgan turned her eyes away and Hodges seized the opportunity to discard the food in his mouth into a napkin, rubbing his tongue on the paper in an attempt to save his tastebuds from catching fire. He suddenly felt Morgan's hand tugging his arm and she pointed to the huge screen overhead.
Hodges, having never been to a basketball game before, raised his eyes in confusion and frowned as he saw himself and Morgan framed in a red novelty loveheart. The eyes of 60,000 basketball fans burnt into him, their baying and wolf-whistling imprinting themselves on his brain. It was like he had stepped directly into his worst nightmare.
"We're on KissCam" Morgan explained "Kiss me"
Hodges shot his eyes back to her, his mouth agape in shock.
"I'm not going to kiss you just because a stupid basketball tradition says so" He insisted, turning to the camera and shaking his head only making them zoom in on them further.
The image refused to budge from them, the sound of boo's and heckles causing goosebumps to cross his skin at the embarrassment. He froze, stealing a glance at Morgan as the nervous energy coursed through his veins.
"Then kiss me because you want to" Morgan muttered.
Hodges watched her for a few long moments, the sounds of the crowds fading to a mere murmur as she looked up at him coyly, a slight smirk on her lips. He could tell from her expression she was waiting for him, his concentration suddenly broken by the uproar of the crowds and various men grabbing his shoulder.
Without over thinking it he leaned forward, her hat falling to the floor at it collided with his. He cupped her delicate chin in his hand and finding his lips with hers. The stadium exploded in cheers as his lips danced on hers and his hand stroked the soft silky skin of her face. With a deep breath he drew back, watching as she sat there paused in position like she was stunned by the action. He sat back waving at the camera as it moved onto another couple and he attempted to pretend nothing had happened. Morgan, a blush creeping across her face, retrieved her hat from the ground and nudged him with her elbow.
"That wasn't so hard was it?"
Hodges shrugged, stifling a smile with his eyes firmly fixed on the screen above them.
"Can't say it was any worse than your snack choice"