A/N: Here you go. The movie marathon Oliver asks about in Alien Encounter. With a dash of Todd, actually a whole lot more than a dash of Todd. You guys have AHigherOctave to thank for giving me the idea. And yeah… yet another follow up might even happen. I seem to have accidentally started a mini-series of sorts.
Oliver surveyed the living room, making sure he had every film possible in the "Alien" franchise in the plastic bag from the rental place on the table, well other than the ones he owned, of course. After all, he had told Lilly they would be watching all of them, in order. He hoped she was up for it. Of course, he had also grabbed a couple of filler movies in case she needed a break from aliens and they decided to pause the marathon for another day. And he also had a movie or two that his mom had asked him to pick up. He had even skipped his usual Friday night Batman movie, just so he would be ready to camp out on the couch all day.
He also had a bag of gummy worms, well actually two bags, one normal and one sour, on the coffee table. He knew that was Lilly's favorite movie candy, so he figured he might as well be prepared. There were a couple different kinds of chips, cereal, frozen pizza, and some carrots and apples in the kitchen, you know, in the event that healthy food was needed. The fridge was stocked with pretty much every beverage in his family's house. He'd even made iced tea, just in case. Not that he had been obsessively planning this for the last two days. Because Oliver did not do things like that. It was just, he told Lilly they were doing a marathon, so he wanted to be prepared for anything. A long day of movies meant a long day of junk food.
Oliver considered taking the movies upstairs to his room, but he thought after the last time they tried to watch a movie in there, that might not be the best idea. She had been fine the last couple of days since "the incident" as he was now referring to it in his own mind, but they had not been in his room since. He didn't think a Saturday when they were going to be alone in his house would be a good time for them to try. Plus, this way they wouldn't have to keep going down the stairs to get anything from the kitchen.
A knock sounded from the front door, which Oliver should have realized was odd since Lilly never knocked, just walked in through the garage, but he went to answer it anyway. And he came face to face with Todd. Not a very happy looking Todd at that.
"What are you doing here?" Oliver meant to say hello, or at least make his tone somewhat friendly, but it just didn't happen.
"Nick just told me he thinks I'm going to die," Todd told him morosely.
"What?" Oliver opened the door wider so Todd could walk in. As much as he didn't want Todd interrupting his day with Lilly, he figured after an announcement like that, he couldn't just leave him on the porch.
Todd collapsed into a chair in the living room, sighing loudly. Oliver glanced up at the clock, knowing that Lilly would be there any minute. If she said noon, she meant noon. He was hoping this wouldn't take too long, and sat on the edge of a couch cushion.
"So dude, I told Nick that I've been feeling weird. You know, stomach problems and stuff. He made this big long list of what could be wrong with me, and, dude, he thinks I might be, like, really dying."
Oliver stared at Todd for a second, trying to figure out just what he was supposed to say. They had known each other since they were in elementary school, and Todd was, well, he was Todd. He frequently had strange ideas, but never once had he told Oliver he thought he was dying. Except for that one time in the sixth grade when he couldn't figure out why his tongue was purple, but that turned out to be the result of him forgetting he had eaten a grape popsicle earlier.
Oliver finally settled on, "Well, what's wrong with you?"
Maybe not the best way to go because Todd then launched into a very descriptive account of every ache, pain, and temperature change he had encountered over the last week. After the first four symptoms, and the detailed events surrounding them, Oliver's eyes glazed over a little bit. After the first one though, Oliver would not have even been able to tell you anything else Todd told him. He never meant to tune Todd out. It just happened sometimes.
"Oliver, why is Todd's car in your driveway?" he heard Lilly calling from the door that led to the garage. He turned around, ready to explain, but she was already in the living room, dressed in a tank top and a pair of shorts. "Oh." She raised her eyebrows at Oliver, but said, "Hey, Todd, what's up?"
"Dudette, I'm totally dying," he informed Lilly.
She had the same reaction Oliver had.
"What?"
The only difference was, Lilly did not look like she actually believed him. Her arms were crossed, a plastic container hanging from one of her hands, and her eyes narrowed before she walked the rest of the way into the living room, taking a seat next to Oliver on the couch.
"Nick said…" Todd started.
"Wait," Lilly held one of her hands up, placing the plastic` container, which Oliver could now see had cookies in it, on the table. "Nick said that you're dying?"
"Yeah."
Lilly rolled her eyes and looked over at Oliver, mouthing, "seriously?" Oliver nodded his head, only half paying attention again, a little preoccupied with Lilly having brought what looked like homemade cookies with her.
Her mom didn't bake. That meant Lilly had taken the time to make cookies for their movie date. Not that this was a date. Because Oliver did not think that. He and Lilly hung out all the time. This wasn't any different.
"You believed Nick?" Lilly asked Todd flatly.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I? He's, like, my best friend." Todd looked at Lilly like she was the crazy one in the room.
"Isn't Nick the one who told you he thought you were a mutant?" Lilly questioned him dryly. Oliver started laughing when he remembered that conversation, but she smacked his leg to let him know he should be quiet.
"That's cause he thought I could breathe underwater," Todd explained, brushing the comment off to run his hand through his blond hair nervously. "This time, he could totally be right."
Lilly leaned back on the couch, sighing, knowing she was going to wish she didn't ask her next question. The was supposed to be her and Oliver watching a movie, not her and Oliver counseling Todd on why he was not actually dying.
"Why does he think you might be dying?"
"Okay, see, I've been having this weird like, roller coaster stomach thing, for a while now. But, now, I'm getting like fevers sometimes, like my face is on fire, and my mouth goes like, totally dry, like you know, when you're outside all day with nothing to drink, and sometimes I get really dizzy, like that time I get hit in the head with my board, except it doesn't, you know, hurt or anything…" Todd trailed off because Lilly was smiling now.
She recognized all of his symptoms, having recent experiences with all of them herself. She pursed her lips together to stop herself from laughing. Only Nick could get Todd to think this meant he was dying. Anybody else would have just told him the truth.
"Roller coaster stomach?" Oliver asked, also seeing that Lilly was smiling, but not understanding why.
"Yeah, dude. You know how, like, when you get to the top and go down really, really, fast your stomach has to like, catch up with you? And then, like, when you go upside down, it flips over too?"
"Ohhh," Oliver said. The talk of flipping stomachs seemed to clue him in to why Lilly was smiling. "Your stomach's been doing flips?"
"Totally, dude!" Todd was impressed that Oliver seemed to get his problem.
Oliver nodded his head slightly, absentmindedly tapping his fingers on his knee. He didn't want to be the one to explain this to Todd. Shouldn't this be his parent's job?
"Todd, uh, did the flips start off small at first?" Oliver asked him, avoiding looking at Lilly. "Maybe get bigger lately? And the dry mouth happens at the same time? And the fevers, they, uh, they only happen when the flips are really bad?"
"Dude, that's it exactly! You don't have it too, do you?"
"Yeah, Oliver," Lilly added, catching her best friend's eyes with a smile, "you don't have it too, right?"
Oliver grinned back at her, but didn't answer her question. She wasn't sure if she wanted him to answer or not, but she found herself hoping that after their last movie night and the almost… something, that his answer to that question might just be yes.
Seeing their expressions, Todd's eyes widened in shock. "Dudes, this is totally serious. We might have to go to the hospital or something!"
"Todd, I think you're going to be just fine," Lilly said, awkwardly patting him on the knee.
"But, how do you know?"
Lilly bit down on her tongue, trying to keep a serious expression on her face long enough to explain how "sick" Todd actually was.
"Well," Oliver started, saving Lilly for the time being, "how do you feel right now?"
"Fine. Normal."
Lilly made a noise in the back of her throat. Normal for Todd was probably not normal for most people.
"When was the last time you had one of these, er, episodes?" Lilly asked him.
"Just a little while ago when I was hangin' out with Nick." Todd nodded thoughtfully, or as thoughtfully as he could.
Oliver groaned when Lilly asked him what happened, thinking that Todd was going to go into a really long story, but Todd just shrugged.
"We were at the Shack. That's why I came here, cause, dude," he looked at Oliver, "your house is totally on the way to my house, so I wanted a second opinion."
Oliver nodded his head and asked, "who else was around when you were hangin' out with Nick."
Todd scrunched his forehead up while he thought about it. "Amber and Ashley came by cause they want us to go to Ashley's party next weekend." His face fell and he added, "But you guys aren't invited. Sorry, dudes."
"Not really a surprise," Lilly muttered to her self. To Todd, she said, "Anybody else?"
"Miley's little brother was totally working, but it was pretty slow."
"Jackson's actually her big brother," Oliver explained.
"No, he's littler than her." Todd again, looked like he couldn't believe he was the sane one.
"Amber and Ashley, really?" Lilly said to Oliver. They exchanged a look before Lilly threw out another question. "What happened the time before that?"
"Oh, it was in class at school yesterday."
"Which one?" Oliver pressed.
"Uh, the school we go to."
Todd gave Oliver a funny look and Lilly had to stifle a giggle again. Sometimes talking to Todd was like talking to the wall… or maybe her younger brother. Of course, her brother was more of a smart aleck whereas Todd was… not.
"Which class?" he clarified, fighting the urge to hit Todd over the head with a pillow.
"Oh, right! English."
"Don't you sit behind Ashley in English?" Lilly reminded him.
"Yeah…" Todd appeared lost in thought for a minute, then he sighed. "She has cool hair."
Lilly and Oliver exchanged another look of amusement.
"It smells like flowers," Todd added, and Oliver suddenly had a coughing fit, trying too hard not to laugh.
"Go get something to drink," Lilly hissed at him.
"I'm not thirsty," he hissed back, still coughing through his laughter.
"I don't care." Lilly gave him a look, and Oliver decided it was better to just listen to her. When Oliver left the room, a thought occurred to her. "So, Todd, you uh, smell Ashley's hair often?" She thought she might have heard something fall in the kitchen, but she figured it was better to ignore it, even if Oliver did know why she asked that particular question.
"Yeah, it's really nice," he told her.
"Anytime you get the, what did you call it, roller coaster stomach?" He nodded his head. "Yeah, when that happens, is Ashley usually around?"
"Yeah, she is! You don't think she gave it to me?" Todd's eyes were about as wide as they could possibly go now.
"Um, yeah… no. Maybe, just maybe, you like her?" Lilly sat there, leaning forward on the couch, waiting for Todd to catch up.
"Ohhhh." He nodded his head. "Dudette, you might be right."
After that, Todd was in a considerably better mood, especially once he noticed there was a bag of gummy worms on the table.
Oliver walked back into the room to see Todd eating a handful of green worms, the regular kind, not the sour kind. He came back without anything to drink, Lilly noticed. She rolled her eyes, but figured Todd wouldn't be the type of person to notice that Oliver was not actually coughing because his throat was dry.
Todd seemed to have a rare moment of clarity when Oliver sat back down on the couch.
"I'm not, like, interrupting your date, or anything?" Todd asked quickly.
"Uh, no, we're not…" Lilly started to explain, her face heating up.
"Nope. Just watching a couple movies," Oliver spoke over her. "No big deal."
They glanced at each other quickly, then looked away.
"Ohhh… good, cause I think I do that a lot."
Lilly closed her eyes when Oliver just had to ask Todd, "do what?"
"Dude, I totally keep interrupting your dates."
Lilly and Oliver both gave Todd confused looks.
Gritting her teeth, Lilly said, "What are you talking about?"
She had a feeling that the movie marathon was slowly going out the window, and as much as she wanted Todd to leave, her curiosity was piqued.
"You know, last week, you guys were surfing, and I totally broke in on your set. I wasn't even thinking. And then, a while ago, when I ran into you guys at the movies, I sat with you cause Nick ditched me for that new girl. Man, I totally missed that you guys weren't with Miley. Sorry about that. And, oh, dude…"
Todd looked at Oliver and kept talking, but Lilly wasn't listening anymore. She was watching Oliver to see just how he reacted to Todd's view of their friendship. It was kind of funny. Oliver's face was a light shade of pink, but he didn't even bother to try to correct any of Todd's versions of the stories. When Todd "broke in on their set," Joanie had actually just left to go home, so Oliver asked if Lilly wanted to surf for a while. And the movies… Lilly didn't actually remember that, but they saw movies without Miley all the time. Of course, they still managed to get kicked out of half of them for talking.
Oliver just nodded his head and listened. Sometimes smiling and nodding was the way to go with Todd. Then you didn't have to explain anything.
"Todd," Oliver finally interrupted when he made it to the sixth date he thought he had gotten in the way of, "we don't mind. It's cool."
Lilly raised her eyebrows at that. He wasn't going to deny any of those were dates? Well, that was unexpected. What he added next made more sense though.
"Lilly and me are friends… it's cool."
It might have been Lilly's imagination, but it seemed that Oliver sounded a little disappointed. She saw him shoot a quick look at her, almost seeming apologetic. Nah, it was definitely not her imagination.
"You're not together?" Todd asked, skeptical.
Lilly shook her head no.
"Why not?" Todd asked, seriously. "I mean, dude, I totally had a crush on Lilly in seventh grade."
"And eighth grade, and ninth grade," Oliver muttered.
Lilly tried to muffle her laughter at that.
"Oh, but don't worry, I'm definitely over you," Todd told her.
"That's… good to know," Lilly answered, still smiling. She had a hard time really picturing Todd dating anyone. He was like a giant seven-year-old. She kind of wondered what was going to happen now that he knew he liked Ashley. She would pay to see him ask Ashley out. She would even pay to watch that entire date if Ashley said yes. It would be better than television.
"So, what are you dudes watching?" Todd asked brightly. He felt a lot better knowing that he wasn't dying and that he wasn't butting in on Oliver's alone time with his girlfriend.
"Um…" Lilly hesitated, glancing at Oliver again. "We were going to watch 'Alien' and maybe a couple of the sequels, right Oliver?" She figured they would be re-watching the first film since Oliver had specified all of them were on the agenda.
"Yeah, but, I know you don't like scary movies, Todd."
Lilly and Oliver watched Todd expectantly, both hoping he was going to agree and then be on his way.
"No way, but 'Alien' is awesome!" Todd nodded excitedly.
"Okay… then I guess I'll just put the movie in." Oliver got up and started fiddling with the DVD player.
Lilly exhaled in frustration, not believing her luck.
"I'm gonna get a drink, you want anything, Todd?" He shook his head and she didn't bother asking Oliver, just getting off the couch and into the kitchen as quickly as she could.
Oliver eyed her back as she went through the doorway, and tossed a remote to Todd. "Do me a favor? Just go ahead and start playing it once the menu pops up?"
Oliver followed Lilly into the kitchen and Todd happily began eating the red gummy worms out of the bag. Just to have an excuse to actually be in his own kitchen, Oliver grabbed a bag of popcorn out of a cabinet and popped it in the microwave. Lilly had her back to him when he moved to face her, the door of the refrigerator open in front of her.
"So, Lils, how's your day going?" Oliver leaned back on the counter just below the microwave, hoping she picked up on the sarcasm in his voice.
Turning from the fridge with two bottles of apple juice in her hand, Lilly walked around the island counter between them, hopping up on it when she reached his side, so she could face Oliver and not have to yell over the sound of the popping corn to answer.
"Apparently, I've been having a better day then Todd. My best friend didn't try to convince me that I'm dying," Lilly joked, holding one of the bottles out to him.
Oliver took it from her, letting his fingers rest over hers for a little bit longer than was necessary. She gave him a small smile, setting her own bottle on the counter next to her.
"Yeah… I can't believe he fell for that. I mean, how could he not know…" Oliver let the sentence go unfinished. He sighed and changed his line of thought. "I'm sorry about Todd. He just kind of showed up. I don't think I can get him to leave."
"Why would you want him to leave?" Lilly asked, quirking an eyebrow, even though she had been thinking the same thing, and had a feeling she knew exactly where his mind had been the entire time Todd had told his story. "I mean, we're just a couple of friends hanging out, right?"
"Right, yeah," Oliver agreed quickly, maybe too quickly.
He smiled and Lilly bit down on her bottom lip, trying to hold back her grin.
"I mean, if we weren't just friends, I might have offered to do a marathon of those cheesy chick flicks you and Miley like instead of action movies, just so you could see what a sensitive guy I am," Oliver added, taking a step away from the counter he had been leaning against.
"Mmm, and if I thought that it was more than just two friends hanging out, I would probably take this as an opportunity to remind you that we have watched a bunch of cheesy chick flicks together before. In fact, I think I saw 'The Notebook' with you before I saw it with Miley."
Lilly felt her stomach jump a little bit when Oliver took another step forward and closed the distance between them. Her knees grazed the front of his tee shirt and she gripped the edges of the counter on either side of her.
"In fact, I think I would also have to remind you that you cried more than I did," she added cheekily.
"I thought we agreed that we would never talk about water leaking out of my eyes when they got together?" Oliver asked her softly. He braced his own hands against the counter on either side of hers. He may have found that being this close to her again was making him forget how to breathe, but he had no intention of backing away from her.
"It was hypothetical, remember? You know, if we were more than friends, and if you wanted to show me how sensitive you are?" she replied, just as quietly, staring straight into his eyes, the small smile still playing at the corners of her mouth. She was having one of Todd's roller coaster stomach moments, but she had no idea why he would let anyone tell him they meant he was sick. She felt a little giddy, and she was fairly certain she did not want the feeling to go away.
The two of them stayed just like that, neither of them willing to look away. That it, until the timer on the microwave went off, and Oliver had to make himself turn around and get the bag of popcorn out. Lilly slid from her spot on the countertop, grabbing a plastic bowl from a cabinet next to him.
"I guess we should go watch the movie before Todd eats all the gummy worms, huh?" Oliver asked, pouring the contents of the bag into the bowl in Lilly's hands.
"Well, we could try hiding out in the kitchen, but I think he would notice. Besides, I brought you cookies." She tried to make her voice nonchalant, but she knew that Oliver knew she did not just cook for anybody. It was too big of a deal in her house to keep the kitchen clean.
"Yeah, I saw that container. Did you happen to make these cookies?" he teased.
"Maybe."
"And the oven didn't blow up?" Oliver joked, picking up the bottles of apple juice they had abandoned to follow her back into the living room.
"That was one time, Oliver. You have got to let that go. My cooking skills have greatly improved since then." Lilly flashed a smile over her shoulder at him.
When they settled back on the couch, Todd was completely engrossed in the television screen.
"Dudes, I was afraid you were gonna miss all the good stuff," he said.
Lilly tucked her legs beneath her, scooting a fraction closer to Oliver on the couch, making sure to grab the blanket draped over one of the arms. She didn't need Todd questioning her later when she inevitably tried to "borrow" one of Oliver's sweatshirts.
"Nah," Oliver said, letting his arm rest on the back of the couch, just behind Lilly's head, "it's just getting started.