Title: Girls' Night In

Disclaimer: not mine.

Notes: deleted part of a story, didn't fit in overall.

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"Thank you for this."

"For what. A chance to watch videos above the gas station? I mean, I love Keanu myself but-"

"It's a break from the common room. I needed it."

"Surrounded by hot boys. My heart bleeds. Pass the selzer."

"Hot boys who think I'm a hot boy. Ahh. That came out wrong."

"I think you're supposed to say "I only have eyes for Hamilton"." Twisted smile from Bella.

"Yeah well. That's kind of the problem. They're watching us like hawks."

"But they know you're together. God, Edmund High knows you're together."

"I think they're trying to work out - god this is embarrassing - who's, uh, who's on top."

"Who's the butch and who's the bitch is how Ryder put it."

Long silence. "Ryder is an animal and I'm gonna have to kill him."

"Don't Jake. Grace is dating him."

"And at a moment like this I have to ask, why."

"He's cute." Even though Bella disliked him too. She saw that wasn't enough for Jake. "Come on. This is funny right? He was just quoting the gossip. I mean, no one who knows you two could miss that you wear the pants." Absentmindedly, she was quoting Scout on the wearing pants thing. Scout sniggered when he said that. Bella didn't.

"Just don't tell me that Hamilton doesn't have issues around this."

"Oh. Oh, right."

"Actually he comes on kind of strong in private. Damn I'm blushing."

"Do you hate that? If it's bad you should tell him-"

"Are you crazy? It's nice. It's beyond nice. I'm prepared to stand up and say, sex is great."

"I'll be sure and get a Tshirt printed up for you."

"You're not getting any details. The details are dirty and crude."

"Haven't you realised? Too Much Information, already. The love that dare not speak, I wish."

"I'm sorry. I haven't got anyone to talk to."

"Yeah. I know."

"What about you and Scout and dirty and crude?"

"Jake! We've barely started dating. It's kind of weird."

"Weird, how?"

"It feels like we know each other really well. I mean, god, we do. Know each other really well. Then I remember how few actual dates we've had. Sometimes it's more like hanging out with a friend than romance."

"Isn't that good? The whole being friends first. You treat each other like people not mascots."

"Yeah.. I wish Will had someone like that. Someone notCaroline."

Jake looked at Bella, surprised. "You can't stand her either?"

"Will's got terrible taste in girls. Always has had. Did he tell you about the school nurse?"

"Bad at romance, yeah. He's good around girls otherwise."

"I think Will is leaning on Scout to treat me OK" Bella confided.

"Oh you can be sure of that. He's like, the perfect big brother."

"So the wrong choice of words."

Jake laughed openly. "You must be immune to tactless by this time. Dating Scout, wow."

"And still the foot has not emerged from the mouth." Brief immersion in the film, on both their parts. "Jake, Scout's different with me. He's sweet and romantic. You're judging him by the guyfront."

"So, which is the real Scout? 'Cause, I have to say, the guyfront's pretty convincing."

"Hey, *your* guyfront's pretty convincing. Maybe more so than Ham."

*groan.*

"Issues: Ham's public image, am I right?"

"It's just, sometimes we spend whole dates armwrestling over who's in charge. Headgames, arguments. I know I'm a controlling shemale bitch-"

"Excuse me."

"It came up in a row. The phrase is a joke now."

"Riight. Not a funny one."

"You know I think he got his ideas about women from old Doris Day movies."

Bella said nothing.

"It's getting worse. It used to be, we'd fight. But then we'd kiss. Huh. And our brains would white out and it didn't matter who called the shots. Kissing doesn't stop us being angry any more."

"This isn't the Hamilton I've seen" Bella protested.

"He is so controlling. We didn't get into this pretending I was meek for godsake."

"I thought Hamilton was into you being strong."

"But, he's reacting to how the guys are at school. And I think of that and I let him away with stuff. There's got to be a way to make plans jointly or something. I don't want to trample all over him.. I happen to get better ideas and plans of course."

Bella was looking anxious. This was coming out of the blue as far as she was concerned. "You're not breaking up over this are you?"

"No, no. No. We've gotta work it out. I'm so dependant on him it scares me. I don't want to talk about this. Let's watch the movie. Go on Keanu, try and emote."