It Started As A List...
Chapter 1 – Of Grease and Grape Soda
For once, it didn't start as a list; it came spontaneously and outrageously. Don't be confused, she was no planner, Selphie Tilmitt was anything but. She was a go with the wind, happy-go-lucky free spirit, who did what she wanted, when she wanted. At least, most of the time she did. When it came down to serious situations, situations such as this, there was no room for error, every action had to be planned meticulously and properly to the very detail. But this time, this odd occurrence, did not start as a list.
Selphie looked down at the blank paper in front of her and examined the heading: Say 'I Love You First', then at the subheadings that read: pros, and cons. She hadn't technically written anything down underneath, so she hadn't technically written a list and planned out her actions.
"I... willn't tell him!" Obviously she was still at a loss.
Her and her boyfriend Irvine, had been dating for 5 months, the time when Selphie had decided to say those three small words that aren't really all that small. This was when she had planned to say it, well this is when she had planned it to be said; she hadn't exactly thought that he wouldn't have said it by now, she thought that she was loveable enough to get the 'I love you' by now. But he just was not getting loose lipped.
"I'm being too dramatic," the brunette said to herself aloud, "He'll say it I just need to give it time, I don't need to write a list...". Selphie examined the paper for all of fifteen seconds before putting pen to paper and filling in the columns of the page.
This time was no odd occurrence; this time started as a list.
Pro: It'll be out in the open.
Con: I said it first; he now has control in the relationship.
Pro: He'll say it right after I do.
Con: He'll say it right after I do, was I not good enough to have him say it first?
Pro: Our love can only grow once it's said.
Con: I said it first...
Selphie examined her neat handwriting and read the list over again in her mind before crumpling the paper and throwing it in the garbage. If there were equal or more cons, she never answered 'yes' to the question on the paper, and the list gods had spoken. She sighed and leaned back in her chair before she heard a knock on her door. The girl quickly got up and headed to answer it, hoping maybe she wouldn't need to make a list later that night, hoping that it was Irvine with twelve long stem roses and a cookie that read: I love you.
She opened the door to the sight of a bucket of deep fried chicken being waved in her face. The bucket moved and she saw the face of her roommate, Tinsley, dressed in black yoga pants and brown clogs, her long blonde hair pulled up in a ponytail.
"Hey roomie, want some? I got a twelve piece!" she said entering the dorm room.
At least she was getting twelve of something...
"Uh sure... ew, twelve piece? So what six for you and six for me, that's gross, we're gonna have coronaries," replied Selphie as she closed the door and sat on her bed as Tinsley got napkins for the two girls.
"Don't be crazy Selph! We're gonna have a girls night! Except Rinoa's busy and so is Quistis, so I invited Zell instead, since he helped me pass a training exercise today," said the blonde as she placed the bucket between the two girls. "So technically the ratio will be more like 3-3-6."
Selphie nodded and took a piece of chicken, "So where is Zell then?" she asked her mouth full of chicken.
"He's on his way, he's bringing beverages." There was another knock at the door and Tinsley got up to answer it. She opened the door and there was Zell standing in the doorway with a case of pop. He walked in and looked around before placing the pack of drinks of the floor.
"Where are the girls? Aren't there usually girls involved in a 'girls night'?" he asked as he took a piece of chicken from the bucket.
"Everyone was busy so it's just us," replied Tinsley as she wiped at a grease stain on her white wife beater, "Man, I already got grease on myself. I'm so useless..." She went into the small bathroom attached to the girls' room to clean herself and Zell looked at Selphie intently still eating his chicken.
"So um, what are we gonna do for fun?" he asked as he tossed the chicken bone into the garbage nearby, missing atrociously.
"First of all, ew," she said looking at the bone on her floor, "Second, I don't know, I guess we'll you know like braid each others hair and tell each other our crushes, and we can go through the hot guys in our yearbooks and choose who belongs to who!" replied Selphie in a high pitched girly voice. Zell simply chuckled and went to pick up the bone he threw on the floor.
Tinsley emerged from the bathroom with a wet spot where the stain was, "So what are we gonna do tonight guys?"
One hour later the three were laughing at Selphie's stories of her clumsiness.
"So after I fell I looked around to see if anyone was behind me, and there, was a line of 3rd graders who were out for a walk with their teacher! I had just mooned a bunch of small children! And their teacher gave me such a death glare, like I was some kind of pervert-slut." Tinsley fell back on her bed laughing at her friend.
"You are so funny Selphie," said Zell as he wiped a tear from his eye.
"Oh you are no better," she retorted picking up the empty chicken container and throwing it out.
"Yes, I am," he started, "I'm a fighter and that requires a sense of grace."
Tinsley smirked and pointed to his shirt from where she was on the bed, "Well, you gracefully made a mess all over yourself then." Zell looked down and saw that he had spilled grape soda on his shirt, along with grease stains in the shape of his fingers from where he had wiped his hands.
He groaned and took off his shirt on his way to the bathroom. The two girls watched him enter then looked at each other as the door closed. They both cleared their throats and Selphie leaned against the counter examining her nails, while Tinsley played with her hair, that she had taken out of the ponytail and was now cascading around her head.
"I wasn't looking at his body," said Tinsley from the bed.
"Me either," responded Selphie from the kitchen. There was a silence.
"He's hot though,"
"I know," Selphie said looking around. There were empty cans of grape soda on the nightstand on the floor and some in the recycling. She sighed and began to collect them all. "We're classy, with our grape soda and greasy chicken. We should wear monocles and go to fancy balls," she said sarcastically.
Tinsley laughed, "Yeah, today we're more of the trailer-park variety of people. But tonight was fun."
"T'was, t'was," responded Selphie in a fancy accent. "So Tinsy, what's new with you, there's always something going on in your life."
Tinsley scoffed, "No there isn't. I never do anything interesting, I'm always running some errand for Cid, that keeps me either, under enemy fire, or in some random town watching people deliver beef jerky."
It was true; Tinsley was always doing grunt work. She had officially become a SeeD a few months ago, and now she was always being called since there was a shortage of active SeeDs recently, for some reason, and the students still hadn't passed their exams.
Selphie and the others, weren't really called a lot since they had 'saved the world' a year ago, and that sort of gives you the right to some time off. They were still called, just not often, and some more than others. Zell went out a lot since he wasn't an instructor, and had no other prior engagements, whereas Selphie had Garden Committee, and Quistis was an instructor again.
"Aren't there any boys you meet in these 'random' towns?" asked Selphie as she got up on the counter.
"Farmers," replied Tinsley dryly, "and hobos. Not really any grade A hotties. Not everyone is all couple-y like you and Irvine and Squall and Rinoa, who by the way are out now and that's why Rinoa didn't come." Selphie rolled her eyes, Rinoa was always with Squall; they were like attached at the hip. It would be cute if she weren't so jealous of them.
Her and Irvine, weren't exactly always around each other, it wasn't his nature. But she knew that when she first started dating him. He was sort of lone-wolf man, and that was what Selphie liked about him, he was so mysterious and charming. But at times she did wish that he would just grow up already and stop being such a... boy.
"Well I'm sure that you will one day find a really nice good-looking farmers son who will sweep you off your feet and you can become all couple-y just like us," Selphie said. Tinsley rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, okay. That'll happen," as she finished her sentence there was a knock on the door. Selphie looked at the door.
"Maybe that's him," she said mock-excitedly. The petit girl got off the counter and went to answer the door.
"Hi," said Irvine from the doorway. Selphie was a bit flustered; she didn't exactly look glamorous in grey sweat pants and a black t-shirt.
"Hey," she responded.
"I just came by to say I l-..."
