Geek on Fleek. PG-13, romance/fluff, modern-day AU, Mike/Eleven.
"You are never going to find someone if you just sit there and wait for Mr. Right to come in through the door, Jane. Sometimes you have to take the initiative, you know? Put yourself out there. Grab the bull by the horns."
Note: This is a modern-day AU, and thus completely unrelated to any of my previous stories in the Quiet Moments series. Just wanted to make sure that's clear so there's no confusion. Also, El's powers, as well as any Upside Down elements, do not exist in this story.
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El was just finishing frosting the cookies when Max walked out of her room to look at herself in the full-length mirror they had installed in the living room so they could share. She watched from the kitchen as her best friend and roommate pushed her hair this way and that, adjusting her blouse and making sure her makeup looked okay. It was mildly amusing to her because Max usually didn't like dressing up— she was more of a tomboy, really— but whenever she did, it turned into a total production.
The redhead finally turned to her with a huff. "Okay, be brutally honest: Is this too much?" she asked, gesturing to herself from her head to her toes.
"You look great," El told her sincerely before bending down to put the cookie sheet on the lower tray of the fridge. "Are you going out? I thought you said you weren't going to do the dating site thing anymore." Over the past few months Max had been on a few dates with guys she met through a couple of the major dating websites, but so far she hadn't really clicked with any of them, which is why, after listening to endless complaints, El had thought she was giving up on meeting people online.
Max sighed as if frustrated. "No, I said all the guys I've been meeting on dating sites are douchebags," she started, which honestly didn't sound like much of a clarification to El, but then she continued speaking. "So I've decided that from now on, I'm only going to date nerds."
Well, that was... unexpected, El thought as she closed the refrigerator door, now a little bit worried that Max wasn't being careful enough. El had never really liked the whole "dating site" idea all that much— people could say anything in those profiles, and what if one of her dates turned out to be a serial killer?— but at least she took comfort in the fact that Max had generally kept some healthy skepticism when meeting these guys in the past.
This time, though, she seemed different; more excited about it, for sure. "You know that just because someone's a nerd, that doesn't automatically mean they're a good person, right?" she asked.
Max, as expected, waved off her concern. "I know, I know," she said with a shake of her head before turning on her heel and heading back to her room like she'd forgotten something. "I just want to try something new, you know?" came her voice through the open door. "Can't expect different results if you just keep doing the same thing over and over again."
She had a point, but still. "And that's why you're dressed to the nines? Because you're trying something different?" El asked, making her way from the kitchen to their living room couch and sitting down. She had a ton of reading to do for her Developmental Psychology class.
"No," Max said, finally coming out of her room with her purse in one hand and a jacket hanging off her forearm. "I just figured if this guy's as big of a nerd as his profile on the site makes him sound, then this"— she once again signaled to her outfit— "might actually get him to faint or something. That'd be hilarious."
El had to chuckle. "Which site is this, by the way?" she asked as she picked up her book bag and pulled out a notebook and a pen so she could take notes.
"It's this new site that just opened a couple months ago," Max explained as she shouldered her purse on her way to the door. "Geared specifically toward geeks and nerds and gamers... that kind of folks. It's called Geek on Fleek dot com."
El couldn't help but grimace. "That is the worst name for a dating site I have ever heard in my entire life," she commented with a shake of her head. "Are you sure it's legit?" she asked Max, now worried that she might be putting her personal information on some hoax website.
"It's a real company, Officer Hopper. I checked," Max replied in a teasing voice as she leaned her weight against the door handle. "Officer Hopper" was the nickname she used whenever she thought El was being too suspicious— something she repeatedly said she got from her father. "As for the horrible name, well hey, don't knock it till you try it."
"No, thank you," El retorted as she dropped her Dev Psych book on her lap, ready to start reading. No matter how many times Max tried to convince her otherwise, El just wasn't the type to sign up for a dating website. Maybe it really was her father's voice in the back of her mind, but she simply wasn't comfortable with the idea of going on a date with someone she'd never even met.
Max groaned, as she usually did whenever she broached this topic and got the same answer from El. "You are never going to find someone if you just sit there and wait for Mr. Right to come in through the door, Jane," she said, using her first name rather than her nickname for emphasis, but to her credit sounding less like a nag and more like a concerned friend. "Sometimes you have to take the initiative, you know? Put yourself out there. Grab the bull by the horns."
El snorted, pointing at her with the capped end of her pen. "Any self-respecting matador out there will tell you that is terrible advice," El pointed out smartly, although she was smiling as well. Even if she was never going to follow that particular piece of counsel, she really did appreciate the fact that Max cared.
"Yeah, okay," Max retorted, laughing, before pushing away from the door. "Anyway, I'm out. I should be back before you go to bed, but you never know." She walked out with a wave of her hand.
"Make good choices!" El just barely managed to interject before the door closed between them, and then she was alone. With a resigned sigh, she uncapped her pen, opened her book in the first of the three chapters her professor had assigned, and started to read.
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It was pouring so hard that Mike could barely see what was right in front of him, so all he could do was follow the bright red blob he knew to be his date's hair as they ran the couple of blocks that separated them from her apartment building. Once they got there, she opened the door and he followed her in— he probably should've asked, but she didn't seem to mind and, honestly, he just wanted to get out of the rain for at least a minute.
"I'm on the second floor," Max said as she started making her way up, and Mike was honestly surprised; given how bored she'd seemed the entire evening, he would've figured she would prefer to say bye right there at the lobby and then never have to see him again. He was enough of a gentleman to walk her to her door if that's what she wanted, though, so when she signaled for him to follow, he did.
She stopped in front of one of four doors to be found on the second-floor landing and turned to him. "This is me," she signaled to the apartment they were standing in front of. "So... this was fun," she said slowly.
The words were so obviously forced, it made Mike's eyebrows lift all the way under his fringe. "Was it, really?" he asked dryly, well aware of the two hours of nervous babbling, awkward laughter and painful silence to which they'd subjected each other.
Max cringed. "No. No, it wasn't," she admitted bluntly, giving up the pretense. "But you seem like a nice guy, so I'm sure you'll find someone eventually," she added, trying to tack on some kind of silver lining there at the end.
"Yeah, thanks," Mike replied in the same dry tone, but really he was more than a little amused at her attempts to spin their current situation into a good thing, because for the most part he felt the same way about her. It's not that he thought there was anything wrong with her as a person; it was just really obvious from the moment they met that they had no romantic chemistry whatsoever, and pretending they did for the sake of politeness wasn't something he cared to do when he was completely drenched from head to toe and shivering from the cold. "Right, so... bye, then."
He was just about to turn on his heel and go back downstairs when she spoke again. "Hey, do you want to come in? We have freshly baked cookies."
The request was so out of the blue that it stopped him dead in his tracks. "Um, what?" was his immediate reaction, because he honestly had no idea why she would want to extend this failed attempt at a date any longer. Surely she didn't think he was interested in hooking up with her regardless...
His confusion must've shown clearly in his expression, because she rolled her eyes and walked up to him with a huff, pinning him in place with a hand on each shoulder. "That's not a euphemism," she stated unequivocally, looking him straight in the eye. "I'm not going to sleep with you. I just feel bad that I made you run all the way out here in this weather. You can wait out the rain inside."
"Oh," Mike said dumbly, realization finally dawning. "Thanks. That's nice of you."
She patted his shoulders as if saying "Anytime, champ," before turning around and looking for her keys inside her purse. Once she opened the door, Mike saw over her shoulder that it led to a narrow hallway, a decent-sized kitchen to the left and the living room straight ahead.
A brunette he quickly assumed was Max's roommate was sitting on the couch, poring over what looked like a textbook. She looked up from her reading when she heard them come in. "Oh, hey... You didn't tell me you were planning on bringing your date back with you," she said, sounding surprised.
"He's technically not my date anymore," Max replied with a shrug. Mike figured that was probably accurate enough, but at the moment didn't know if he should be offended or relieved.
The other girl obviously needed more information to understand the situation, though, because she just looked between the two of them with an adorably confused expression on her face. She closed her book, put it down on the coffee table and stood up, and— that's around the time Mike's heart started doing funny skips because wow, was she pretty. Beautiful, really, in a completely understated way.
She was around average height and wearing comfortable clothes: a long-sleeved grey sweatshirt and full-length denim overalls that looked a bit big on her, as evidenced by the fact that the fabric at her ankles was rolled up. Mike dimly remembered Will telling him that nobody wore full-length denim overalls anymore except for hipsters, but this girl didn't look like she had one pretentious bone in her body. Perhaps it was because she was also wearing fluffy white socks with— as far as he could tell from that distance— flowers or polka dots printed on them.
Her brown hair fell just past her shoulders in soft ringlets— "princess curls," Holly would call them— and her large, dark eyes framed by long lashes peered at him inquisitively as they moved further into the apartment.
It was when Max spoke again that he realized he was staring like an idiot. "Mike, El. El, Mike," she said, gesturing at each of them in turn. Then she looked between the two of them as if expecting them to react somehow, before adding, "I'm going to go change." Without further ado, she walked off and disappeared behind a door to Mike's left which he guessed was her bedroom.
And so, for the second time that day, he was alone with a girl he'd never even met before, except this time he didn't even get a choice in the matter.
She eyed him warily, as if expecting him to explain his presence in her home, and all he could do was stand there and make a puddle on her floor. "I'm— sorry," he started, unsure of which part of his current dilemma he was apologizing for. "I don't... really know what's happening anymore," he admitted sheepishly.
She must have found his awkwardness funny, though, because she chuckled. "Yeah, Max can have that effect on people," she conceded with a shake of her head as she took a couple of steps closer to him. She smiled warmly at him for a moment longer before speaking again. "Um, would you like to sit down? I'd offer you some dry clothes to change into, but it's just me and Max, so I doubt we have anything that would fit you..."
"Oh, no, don't worry about it," he hurried to assure her, not wanting to be more of a bother than he already was— he'd already made a terrible-enough first impression. "It's okay. I don't want to get your furniture wet or anything..."
"You won't," she, in turn, reassured him. "I'll get you some towels— and I think we have an electric heater around here somewhere..." she said, that last part coming out more like she was wondering to herself rather than telling him. "Why don't you give me your jacket? I can hang it up in the bathroom so it will dry out."
"Thank you," he accepted, still feeling a little weird about the whole thing, but taking off his waterlogged jacket and handing it to her regardless. "You don't have to do this," he insisted as she carefully took hold of it.
"It's the least I can do, really," she retorted, waving away his concern. "If you can wait here for a second, I'll go get the towels. Would you like some cookies, by the way?" she offered kindly, once again smiling up at him. "I baked some this afternoon." Somewhere under his utter stupefaction at how pretty her smile was, he was reminded that Max had indeed offered him cookies— she just hadn't mentioned they weren't hers.
As Mike laid some towels down on the recliner so he could sit and plugged in the heater (which warmed his frozen limbs so quickly that he could cry), El handed him a plate with three sugar cookies on it. "So," she started as she walked around the coffee table to get to her previous place on the couch, "not the greatest date ever, then?" She sounded somewhat amused as she sat down.
"That would be an understatement," he replied, unsure if he should be disclosing that so openly to his date's roommate, but he figured Max would be just as forthright later on anyway. "Not that there's anything wrong with Max, of course," he hastened to add, "I just don't think we... clicked. Honestly, I think I spent most of the time blubbering about Critical Role while she played Temple Run 2 on her phone," he confessed with a shrug.
"I don't know what either of those are," El admitted with some chagrin as she picked up her book and settled it back on her lap, "but, yeah, that doesn't sound like much of a fun evening."
"Could've been worse, I guess," he retorted. Better a boring date than a problematic date, at last. He watched as El opened her book and picked up her highlighter pen, starting to read the page she'd marked. "Friday classes?" he wondered aloud before she could get too into it.
She looked at him again, frowning slightly. "I'm sorry?"
He pointed at the book on her lap. "You're studying. Do you have classes tomorrow? I told Max I have a class in the morning and she looked at me like she'd never heard of such a thing," he explained quickly, so it didn't seem like he was prying.
"Oh." Her eyes widened slightly when she realized what he'd meant. "No, I don't have classes on Fridays," she answered. "I just want to get all my reading done before I go back home for Spring Break," she said, lifting the book up so he could see the cover; it was titled Developmental Psychology. Well, no wonder she had a lot of reading to do. "How come you have Friday classes?" she asked him, now curious.
"Engineering major," he replied, figuring that alone said it all. "Fridays are for lab work. I've got three hours of physics lab tomorrow afternoon, on top of Calculus III first thing in the morning," he recounted as he picked up one of the cookies off his plate and bit into it.
She cringed like she felt pained for him, but the gesture then turned into a grin. "That sounds awful," she said, but her tone made it clear that she was teasing.
"It's fun if you like science," he returned with a shrug. He'd always loved physics lab, personally— it had been his favorite class in high school, apart from A/V club, of course— but it did suck that he couldn't have Fridays off like most of the student population did.
She shook her head as if she couldn't believe anyone would subject themselves to that. He didn't mind; he got that reaction from his family all the time, anyway. "I could never do that," she declared. "I have to take two calculus requirements for my major, and I'm trying to put them off for as long as I can."
Mike couldn't help but chuckle; in his major, calculus was a requirement for most of his junior- and senior-level classes. "Not good at math?" he asked, because in his experience most people who went for humanities or social science majors did so in order to avoid math and science classes.
"No, I was always pretty good at it in high school, actually," she explained, pulling her legs up onto her seat and crossing them Indian style. "But I never really thought of it as fun. And calculus just seems a little... intimidating, I guess."
"Well, if you ever need a tutor, let me know." He leaned back against the backrest of the recliner, now covered with a striped towel, and took another bite of the cookie. It really was quite good; reminded him a bit of the cookies his mother used to bake for Christmas.
It was only a second after the words left his mouth that he realized someone looking in might think that he was flirting. Which he wasn't, not really— not intentionally, at least. It just happened that the conversation between them flowed very easily, for some reason, almost like they'd been friends for a while rather than just having met a few minutes ago. He wasn't sure why that was. Usually he wasn't great at talking to girls, especially not cute ones, but there was something about El that made him feel very comfortable talking to her.
Except now he was afraid she might think he was coming onto her or something. Just the thought that she might think he was being too forward was immediately mortifying, and he was just about to make it clear that he was just trying to be friendly when he saw her lips draw into a shy smile.
Her gaze veered down toward the floor for a moment, almost bashfully, before she looked up at him again. "Well, I guess I know who to call, then," she replied, her fingers playing with one of the pages of her book almost absentmindedly, and it felt like Mike's heart graduated from skips to somersaults.
He wasn't sure how long they sat there smiling at each other— it must've been a few seconds, but it felt like longer— but it was Mike himself who ended up breaking the silence when he cleared his throat, which was suddenly dry. "These are really good, by the way," he said about the cookies, taking the one in his hand back up to his lips for another bite.
It was only when he lowered the crescent-shaped remnant back down onto the plate that he noticed the pattern on the royal icing. "Oh, hey! Are these supposed to look like Eggos?" he asked, finding that an interesting detail.
El's eyes widened, almost like she was pleasantly surprised he had noticed it. "Yes!" she exclaimed with a grin. "It's a, uh... an inside joke, I guess you could call it." At his intrigued expression, she explained further. "Well, see, Eggos are my favorite food," she started. "Once when I was thirteen, we ran out 'cause my dad forgot to buy some when he went to get groceries. So I gathered up as many ingredients as I could find and decided that I would make cookies shaped like Eggos, instead."
One of Mike's eyebrows rose on his forehead. "You couldn't just have made actual waffle batter?" he asked. After all, waffles and cookies were both made with flour and eggs and stuff, right?
"That's exactly what my dad said!" she exclaimed, laughing. "Hence the inside joke, I guess. I really don't know why it didn't just occur to me to do that, we even had a waffle iron and everything." She shook her head as if amused at her thirteen-year-old self. "Anyway, it turned out that my dad really liked the cookies, so now I bake a batch for his birthday every year."
"That's really sweet," he said, her enthusiasm impossible to resist. "You two must be really close."
"Yeah," she replied, her smile turning wistful as she snuck a glance at the kitchen, where the decorative tin holding the rest of the cookies was. "He's basically the only family I have." She looked at him again. "How about you?"
Mike shrugged. "I'm not particularly close to my dad, no. But then again, my family's bigger than yours, so that might be why?" He took another bite of his cookie and made sure to swallow it before speaking this time. "There's my parents, and then two sisters, one older and one younger."
At that revelation, her eyebrows rose, and her smile turned teasing again. "Huh. You know, middle-child syndrome is a real thing," she pointed out, reminding him, in case he forgot, that she was a psychology major.
The response made him laugh. "Yeah... I'm probably textbook," he conceded, which in turn made her laugh. Which he, in turn, thought was brilliant.
"I'm sure you're not that bad," she said, shaking her head, before pausing for a second. "You know, I always wanted siblings when I was growing up, but I guess Max is the closest I'm going to get." Her brows drew together then. "Where is she, by the way? It's been a while." She looked around the room, searching.
Mike looked around as well, just now realizing that he'd completely forgotten about the girl who had invited him in in the first place— you know, his date. But there was no sign of the redhead; her bedroom door remained closed. "Maybe she fell asleep?" he suggested, really the first reason that came to mind for her choosing to stay locked in her room and leave her roommate, whom he'd just met, to play hostess.
Or maybe she was mad at him for being a terrible date. Who knew.
Whatever the reason was, El put her book down and stood up, making her way to Max's door. Clearly, she intended to check.
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She knocked three times on the door. "Max? Are you okay?" she asked, keeping her mouth close to the wood so her voice would carry. "You've been in there for a while. Everything alright?"
As she put her ear against the wood, she heard some clang and clatter coming from inside the room, like Max had tripped on something or was shoving stuff around. Then the tell-tale sound of a hair dryer drowned everything else. "I'm drying my hair!" Max yelled over the noise. "I'll be out in a bit!"
The thought crossed El's mind for a second that the excuse sounded odd, because she hadn't heard the hair dryer at all until she came up to the door, so what had she been doing this entire time? But she figured Max had her reasons, so as long as she was okay... "All right, we'll just be out here."
When she turned back toward the living room, she saw that Mike had also stood up and was looking at her like he wanted to say something. "Is everything okay?" she prompted, gaze sweeping over him as she spoke. His clothes had started to dry up from the heater, as had his hair, which was starting to poof up in the most adorable way— not that she was ever going to say that out loud, of course.
He rubbed the palms of his hands against the denim of his jeans as if drying them absentmindedly. "Yeah, um..." He signaled to the window. "It stopped raining," he pointed out. "I should... I should probably go."
"Oh," was the only thing she could think to say, hoping the disappointment wasn't obvious in her expression. She honestly didn't know what was up with her, but she'd almost forgotten Mike wasn't in her apartment because of her; it hadn't occurred to her that he would have to leave at some point. It was a ridiculous thought to have about someone she'd just met 20 minutes ago, but she'd been having fun just talking to him. It was nice. He was nice.
It also didn't hurt that he was really cute. In a lanky, geeky sort of way, but she really liked his freckles...
"Right," she added, quickly reminding herself that she shouldn't be thinking that way about her best friend's date. "Um, I'll... I'll go get your jacket, then," she declared, pointing in the general direction of the bathroom.
"Uh, yeah, that— that sounds good," he replied, although it sounded half-hearted to her ears. Maybe he didn't really want to go, either? She told herself she was reaching and forced her feet to take her to the bathroom. If she was going about it slightly slower than she normally would, it wasn't on purpose.
He was standing near the entrance to the kitchen when she came back, having turned off the heater now that he was on his way out. "It's still a little damp," she told him as she handed him the jacket. "It's probably better if you don't put it on straight away, as long as it isn't too cold outside," she suggested helpfully.
"Yeah, thanks," he retorted, giving her a quick but warm smile that made her stomach flutter a bit. "I was going to get an Uber back to campus anyway, so I don't really need to wear this, I guess."
She walked him down the hallway to the door, as she would with any visitors. He didn't step out right away, though; instead, he stood there shuffling his weight from feet to feet for a moment, glancing down at her every couple of seconds. "So, uh, thanks for... all of that," he said, waving his hand in the direction of the living room and the heater and the towels. "It was really nice of you."
"It's no big deal," she insisted, leaning her shoulder against the edge of the open door. As she looked up at him, their eyes met, and for a moment she forgot what she was about to say. Because the hallway was narrow, they were standing closer than they had been since he arrived, and she... really liked it. Him.
"It was nice to meet you, Mike," she said, smiling at him.
"Yeah, it was nice to meet you, too," he replied in kind, his gaze lingering on her for a moment longer. He looked like he wanted to say something else, but what came out of his mouth was "Say bye to Max for me," almost as an afterthought, and finally he turned to leave.
Once again she tried to push down her disappointment as he crossed the doorway, but he'd barely taken one step outside the apartment when he suddenly stopped and spun on his heel so he was looking her way again. "Actually, uh," he started and then paused as if he'd started speaking before he was quite sure what he wanted to say. El just looked at him, a little startled but a lot expectant, waiting to hear whatever he had to tell her.
"It's just—" he tried again, briefly stumbling once more before seeming to finally gather his thoughts. "I hope you don't think this is, like, weird or anything, but, um..." He took a deep breath. "Could I have your phone number?"
El's heart started beating really fast, and she had to bite her lower lip to hold back the bright smile that was threatening to overcome her features. For some reason, it struck her right then how crazy this whole situation was; Max was supposed to be the one worrying about boys, not her. "You literally just came back from a date with my best friend," the irony slipped unbidden past her lips, because the whole thing was just funny. Good funny, though.
Mike's hopeful expression quickly fell, though, and El realized that had been the wrong thing to say. "Right. Sorry. I didn't—" he started, looking mortified, and El wanted to tell him he'd misunderstood but she didn't have time, because then he muttered "I'm just gonna go," and turned right back around, making his way right out of the apartment and down the hall toward the stairs.
She only had the length of a heartbeat to feel abashed. Their university was huge, and the Engineering building was on the opposite side of the campus than the Social Sciences building, and she knew if he walked out like this, she might never see him again.
She had to say something. Shaking off the weirdness of these circumstances, she remembered what Max had told her earlier that afternoon about putting herself out there. Mike had taken the plunge first; now the ball was in her court. Was she going to let someone who seemed like a great guy just walk away because of a little awkwardness?
Grab the bull by the horns, Jane, she told herself. Granted, she still thought that was a really bad metaphor, but that didn't stop her from poking her head out the door and calling out, "Hey, Mike?"
He stopped in his tracks and turned to look at her, a slight frown marring his brow as if he was confused she was still bothering to talk to him at all. "Uh, yeah?" he asked warily, seeming unsure of her motivation but too polite to just outright ignore her.
Now she was the one who had started talking without thinking through what she was going to say. She floundered for a second, but he was waiting for her to speak, so she had to go with the first thing that crossed her mind. Which, oddly, turned out to be "Do you like dinosaurs?"
His frown deepened. "Yes...?" his response came out sounding more like a question than an assertion.
This time she couldn't hold back a smile, because his utterly befuddled expression was just too cute. She leaned against the doorframe as she elaborated on her question. "Well, it's just— Jurassic World is playing at the Student Union this weekend," she explained. "I asked Max if she wanted to go, but she has all these opinions about the movie," she added with a roll of her eyes. "How it will never live up to the magic of Spielberg, and that she finds it derivative and what not..."
Mike blinked. "It's a sequel," he stated, deadpan.
He took a couple of steps back toward her, though, so El was taking that as a good sign. "I know, right?" she said, laughing. "I love her to bits, but she can be a handful," she added, shaking her head in amusement.
Mike took another step closer— he was only a few feet away now— and smirked, almost reluctantly, it seemed. "Yeah, I can definitely see that," he agreed with a nod, making El wonder if he'd gotten a hint of Max's stubbornness from something that happened on their date. "I didn't peg you as the type to like Jurassic Park movies," he added, moving closer.
"No, I'm more of a Chris Pratt fan," she admitted somewhat sheepishly. She did like the original well enough, but that wasn't really something that would come up in the first 20 minutes of knowing each other, would it? "But since you're into dinosaurs... I thought maybe— maybe you'd like to go with me?" she offered, sure that she was blushing now. "You know... for science," she added with a chuckle.
Now standing only a couple of feet away, he looked down at her for a moment, as if measuring her intent, and El was afraid she'd messed up so badly before that he wasn't interested anymore. But then he smiled. "Well— not much actual science in those movies, but..." He looked down at their feet for a second before nodding. "Yeah. I'd like that," he finally answered.
"Great," she said. "Let's say... Saturday? Outside the Union building at five?" she suggested excitedly. "There's usually a showing at around that time. Or if there's not, we can just go grab something to eat while we wait..." she added shyly.
"Okay," he agreed with a grin. "Cool."
"Cool," she repeated, unable to stop smiling herself. Butterflies were fluttering in her stomach, but then again, that had been her status quo since he had first walked into her apartment that day.
She didn't know how long they stood there just smiling at each other— it was probably longer than it felt to her— but finally it was Mike who ended their moment with a cough. "So... I'll see you Saturday," he said eagerly.
El nodded. "Bye, Mike," she replied. He gave her one last smile as he walked backward a couple of steps, before turning and heading for the stairs again. El leaned her head back against the doorframe and watched him go, pursing her lips to keep herself from giggling.
It was only when his dark hair disappeared from view that El was pulled out of her daydream. "Well, it's a good thing he's not pining over me," came the voice from inside the apartment, making El jump nearly a foot back.
"Jesus," she gasped, taking a hand to her chest as she glared at Max, who was standing by the entrance to the kitchen, munching on a sugar cookie. "You nearly gave me a heart attack." Shaking her head disgruntedly, El walked fully inside the apartment, closing the front door behind her. "And stop eating the cookies, those are for my dad," she added, walking past her roommate to grab the cookie tin from where it stood on the kitchen counter.
"You didn't seem to have a problem with Mike having some," Max pointed out smartly, taking another bite of her cookie as if raising a challenge.
El rolled her eyes. "Yes, well, he's cuter than you," she retorted, walking out of the kitchen and heading for the couch where she'd left her study materials. She sat down in the same spot she'd previously occupied, carefully propping the cookie tin on the cushion beside her bookbag, and plopped her Dev Psych book right back on her lap again.
Max wasted no time sitting down in front of her— on the coffee table, of course, because it was Max. "Really? You're going to be like that? And to think I just got you a date, too." She shook her head as if disappointed in her. When El didn't respond, she poked her in the knee with the tip of her index finger. "I told you Geek on Fleek would do the trick," she added in a teasing tone.
El let out a snort. "I don't think this," she signaled between her and Max, and then to the door through which Mike had just left, as if connecting the three, "is how dating sites are supposed to work."
"Hey, results are results," Max quipped, pushing herself to her feet. "We'll come back to this conversation after Saturday," she declared, starting to walk around the table and toward her room. "I'm gonna go watch some Netflix. Don't study too hard!"
With those parting words, her friend disappeared into her room again— this time, thankfully, no hair dryers were involved— and El chuckled to herself. Opening her book at the page where she'd left off before, she mused to herself that now she had even more incentive to get her reading done quickly.
After all, she had somewhere to be on Saturday.
.
.
Notes: No, but seriously, why isn't there a major dating website dedicated to nerds/geeks/fandom people yet? It seems like such a genius idea that if I were at all competent with business and/or tech, I'd totally make one myself. If anyone ever does create one, though, and wants to use the best website name ever (shush, El), I am always available for royalty negotiations. ;)
(And yes, I did patch together a logo for the site, because I am just that big of a dork)
There are so many oblique and/or character-flipped references to the show in this one, I couldn't possibly list them all. I do hope you caught them, though! As it stands, the "Make good choices!" quote I got from the movie Pitch Perfect. Critical Role is a Dungeons & Dragons web series on Geek & Sundry; I know nothing about it, but all the D&D players in my Twitter timeline seem to really love it, so I figured it's something Mike and the boys would be into. Temple Run 2 is a mobile phone game by Imangi Studios which I also know nothing about other than the name sounded cool (I am the worst geek ever, I know).
Jurassic World is a 2015 movie in the Jurassic Park franchise starring Chris Pratt, and of course our future overlords at Netflix need no introduction. Mike's Friday schedule was exactly my own during my sophomore year of undergrad, so shoutout to all my fellow Engineering majors out there who know the pain of Friday classes (and any other majors who had to suffer through them, too).
When the concept for this story came to me, I intended for it to stand as a one-shot. I do have some ideas as to where things could go from here, though, so I miiiiiight be open to some convincing if you guys want to see one or two more chapters to this. BUT! You folks have to review/comment and let me know if you'd like that, otherwise I'll just leave it as-is.
Comments and kudos and views have been dwindling lately, and while I'm not hung up on the numbers (I love and appreciate every single review/comment/kudo/view I get, you guys are seriously the best), it does make me sad that the hiatus is getting the better of the fandom. And fandom sadness is not conducive to me wanting to write more, so y'all gotta show me some excitement here if you really want me to do this. Also feel free to drop me a line via Tumblr at girls-are-weird or Twitter at girls_are_weird. That helps, too.