Hey y'all! Here's a short Linstead college AU one-shot. It's a little confusing at first, but I hope you all enjoy it! Your girl is suffering from a severe case of writer's block, so please review to help me get some motivation back!
PS: Anyone who reads Maybe It's Fate, I would also really appreciate some ideas of where to take that story, I'm super stuck with it, so please leave a review there or shoot me a message if you can – either on here or on Tumblr ( stayiny0urmagic). Thanks for your continued support and kind words, you guys are the best!
Enjoy this one! - B
xo
"Erin, come on," Nadia whined. "Just tell me who it was."
"I told you, I don't want to talk about it, Nads," Erin sighed as she rolled up her yoga mat. She had gone on a horrible – and even that was an understatement - date last night. Trying to hold a conversation with the guy had been like talking to a wall. Actually, talking to a wall might have been more interesting. Unless the guy was talking about himself, then he spoke a mile per minute. And the worst part was, Nadia and everyone else in the damn world had told her not to go on a date with this guy, so there was no way in hell she was going to drop his name and give her any satisfaction.
"Just tell me his name!" the begging continued as Nadia placed her dumbbells back on the rack and motioned for Erin to follow her out of the campus gym.
"Jesus, Nadia, stop asking!" Erin snapped, then immediately felt bad as a flash of hurt crossed her roommate's face. Desperate to fix the situation, she angrily pointed at a random guy on a treadmill who she'd never seen before. "I can't say his name because he's right there!"
"No fucking way," Nadia stopped in her tracks. "Erin, he's fucking hot. Tell me everything right now."
Erin shook her head vehemently. "Nope. You know who he is, now let's go."
"Nope," Nadia stood her ground. "If you don't tell me something, I'll go ask him myself,"
Erin snorted at her friend's confidence. "You wouldn't dare,"
Nadia raised her eyebrows. "Watch me." And with that, Erin watched her roommate cross the gym and approach the random guy on the treadmill.
Fuck, Erin thought. Nadia had balls, and this was not good. She had to stop this, but she was frozen in shock as she watched Nadia approach the random boy and say something to him that caused him to stop running. His eyebrows rose in shock as he looked at Erin in the corner, then quickly recovered as the hottest smirk crossed his face. Finally shaking herself out of her stupor, Erin sprinted over to the treadmill to do damage control.
"I-" she began to say, but the hot guy quickly cut her off.
"It's fine. You reserve the right to tell her it was a horrible first date," he smiled. "I'm really sorry that my roommate locked himself out and I had to cut out early."
Erin opened her mouth to respond, but quickly closed it. What was he talking about? she thought, but then realized he was playing along. "It… it's fine," she stuttered; back in a state complete shock.
"So?" Nadia continued and Erin groaned. "Before you ditched her, how was it?"
"It was great," the boy smiled, glancing at Erin. "She's beautiful, and I'm mad at my roommate for fucking it up."
"Aw!" Nadia squealed. "That is so cute. I'm sure she'll forgive you and give you a chance to redeem yourself, right, Erin?"
"Uh… we'll see," Erin mumbled, still shook. She was a sweaty mess after spending the last hour working out, and this boy was saving her life and calling her beautiful?
"Did you at least kiss her?" Nadia continued, causing both Erin and mystery boy to blush.
"Nadia!" Erin scolded. "We are-"
"No," the boy shook his head and interrupted the friends. "But I bet it'd be great."
"Let's go, Nadia." Erin turned even redder as she grabbed Nadia's arm to physically pull her away. "It was nice to see you again," she lied as she turned away from the boy.
"Wait," the boy reached out and grabbed Erin's arm.
Nadia raised her eyebrows as her grin got even bigger. "I'll get out of here," she pulled out of Erin's grip and crossed the gym, leaving Erin and the mystery boy alone.
"I am so, so sorr-" she began to apologize, but was quickly interrupted.
"I think you owe me a date now," the boy decided, his hand still on Erin's arm.
"What?" Erin asked incredulously.
"I meant what I said," the boy shrugged, finally dropping his hand. "You're beautiful."
Erin shook her head. What was happening? "You don't even know my name."
"So tell me it,"
Erin sighed. "Erin Lindsay."
The boy beamed. "I'm Jay Halstead, and I'll pick you up at 6. Where do you live?"
Erin's heart began to pound. Was she really going to agree to this, less than 24 hours after her date from hell with Kelly? "Elder Hall."
Jay's smile widened as he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and held it out to Erin. "Put your number in,"
Erin shook her head at herself as she reached out and grabbed the phone to enter her number. "Text me so I have yours," she handed it back.
"Is that a yes to our date?" Jay smirked.
"You get one shot. I really did have a shitty date last night," she said with a matching smirk.
"I promise to make up for it. Your friend looks really impatient over there," Jay winked as he pointed to Nadia peaking out from the corner. "I'll see you at 6."
Erin rolled her eyes. "I'm going to kill her. This better be worth it."
A genuine smile crossed Jay's face. "I promise."
xo
"I can't believe you're giving him a second chance!" Nadia chirped happily as she curled the final strand of Erin's hair.
"Yeah," Erin laughed nervously, determined to keep her secret. "Hopefully tonight goes better,"
"I'm sure it will. He seemed really sorry at the gym. And come on, the odds of you seeing him there? It's totally meant to be," Nadia smiled as she sprayed hairspray over Erin's curls.
"Totally," Erin fought the urge to roll her eyes. "Thanks for doing my hair,"
"I figured I owed you for totally ambushing your man at the gym before," Nadia winked. "Besides, I left you to get ready on your own yesterday and look how that turned out."
"Hey!" Erin playfully swatted her friend's shoulder. "I am totally capable of getting ready by myself,"
"If you say so," Nadia joked. "You look hot, E."
Erin rolled her eyes. "Thanks, Nads." She considered telling her roommate that this was actually her first date with Jay, but she was interrupted by a knock on the door.
"Fuck, is it 6:00 already?" Erin's heart began to pound in anticipation as she reached in her back pocket for her phone. Sure enough, it was 5:58 and she had a missed text from Jay.
"Hey, calm down. It can't be any worse than yesterday, right?" Nadia gave her roommate a wink as she crossed the room to open the door.
"Touché," Erin smirked as she grabbed her purse and followed Nadia to the door before she could torture poor Jay anymore. "I'll see you later, Nads."
"Oh, if I were you, I wouldn't come home tonight," Nadia said with a wink.
"Nadia!" Erin scolded for what felt like the hundredth time that day before slamming the door in her roommate's face.
"Hi, I'm sorry about her," she said with a laugh, looking up at Jay for the first time that night. Jesus, he was attractive. He wore dark jeans with a gray t-shirt, just tight enough that she could see his almost muscles beneath it. His hair was gelled back, and his baby blue eyes were sparkling.
"No worries," Jay laughed. "I feel like I should be thanking her. You look beautiful tonight,"
Erin felt herself blushing. "And here I thought you liked my sweaty gym look."
Jay chuckled. "I won't lie, they're both pretty hot." He began to walk down the dorm hallway, motioning for Erin to follow.
Erin rolled her eyes at his forwardness as she began to follow him. "So what's your plan for tonight?"
"Do you like baseball?" Jay asked.
"I do," Erin nodded as they reached his truck. Jay opened the passenger door and Erin hopped in, the door slamming shut behind her.
"Thank god," Jay continued once he got into the driver's seat. "I got tickets to the Cubs game,"
"What?" Erin's jaw dropped. "Aren't they playing the Cardinals tonight? These games have been sold out for months,"
Jay smiled at her excitement. "They are. My grandfather is a season ticket holder, I had to beg him to steal two seats for tonight,"
"Oh yeah?" Erin smiled back. "How'd you convince him?"
"Told him that I somehow got a really pretty girl to agree to go out with me, and this was my one chance," he answered honestly.
Erin laughed. "You're off to a pretty good start."
Jay's smile widened as he took his right hand off of the steering wheel and placed it on Erin's thigh, then got even bigger when she laid her hand over his. They rode in silence for a few minutes, Jay enjoying Erin's humming along to the radio, before he had to ask.
"So… can I have the full story about what happened on the gym this morning?"
Erin groaned in embarrassment, but took a deep breath to tell the story. Jay deserved to know. "So last night I had this really horrible date with the most boring guy I've ever met. I didn't know him that well, but we have a lot of mutual friends, and he always seemed sweet, but for some reason all of my friends and my roommate basically banned me from going out with him. I hate when people tell me what to do, so I obviously had to accept when he asked me out. But I didn't tell anyone, and I'm so glad I didn't. All he talked about was himself, and if it wasn't about him or his fraternity or his intramural teams, he couldn't hold a conversation. I basically had to talk to a wall for two hours. I would've rather watched paint dry, or grass grow. It was literally painful. So this morning, when Nadia found out I was on a date last night, she was bugging me about who it was but I could not tell her it was him and give her the satisfaction about being right by warning me not to go out with him. And she kept nagging me at the gym, so I finally told her to shut up and that I couldn't talk about it because my mystery man was at the gym and I didn't want him to hear me complaining. And I may have accidentally pointed to you."
Jay was in hysterics by the time Erin finished her story. "Hey! It's not funny!" Erin removed her hand from Jay's to playfully punch his shoulder.
"It's pretty funny," Jay said, still laughing as he squeezed her thigh in hopes she'd replace her hand, and she did.
"Whatever," Erin said, starting to laugh herself. "Moral of the story is, I am not looking for a repeat of that."
"You don't have to worry about that," Jay smiled widely as he pulled into the parking lot of Wrigley Field.
Erin smiled back. "So do you use your grandfather's tickets to woo all of your girls?"
Jay shook his head. "You're the first."
"Really?" Erin asked, her smile widening as Jay pulled into the parking spot the lot attendant directed him to.
"Yeah, I just have a feeling about you," he said with a wink. "Don't get out yet,"
Erin's confusion quickly cleared when he appeared on her side of the car to open the door for her. "Such a gentleman," she smiled, taking his hand to hop out of his truck.
"You know it," Jay smirked as he reached back into the car and pulled out two Cubs caps from the glove compartment before shutting the car door. "For you," he handed her one.
"You really did think of everything," Erin placed the cap on top of her head, not even mad that it was messing up her perfect curls.
Jay just smiled as he grabbed her hand and led her inside the stadium. He was not messing this up.
xo
The game had been great so far. It was currently the middle of the seventh inning, and the Cubs were winning 6-1. Jay and Erin had been pretty focused on the game, but spent time between plays and innings getting to know each other better. Their instant connection was undeniable. They had so much in common; they were both born and raised in Chicago, both were criminal justice majors at Northwestern – Jay was a junior and Erin was a sophomore - and they both preferred to spend their free time at the shooting range. Jay had already mentally planned their second date at Maxon Shooters, in the case that Erin agreed to go out with him again, but he was confident that she would.
They were engrossed in a heated, but playful, debate about the best pizza parlor in the West Loop when Erin suddenly stopped speaking and turned bright red.
"Hey, you good?" Jay asked, reflexively reaching a hand out to touch her cheek. "What's wrong?"
Erin shook her head and meekly pointed up at the Jumbo-tron that was currently targeting innocent fans with the Kiss Cam. In the middle of the huge screen was her and Jay's heads with their matching Cubs hats.
Jay didn't say anything, but moved his hand on her cheek down to cup her jaw. He searched her eyes for acceptance, and a smile crossed his face when he saw her nod and begin to lean in. Jay's heart was pounding unreasonably fast and his whole body was buzzing with anticipation. He leaned into meet her and watched her eyelids flutter, then close. Then their lips met. Despite the fact that everyone around them was cheering, it was silent. All Jay could focus on was her perfectly soft lips and the fact that she was actually kissing him back. Even though they had an audience of 40,000+ people, it was the best kiss that Jay had ever had. He pecked her lips once, then twice more before reminding themselves they were in public and finally pulling back. He watched her eyes flutter open this time, and a shy smile crossed her face, her dimples popping.
"Wow," she whispered, glancing up at the Jumbo-tron once more. Once she saw that the kiss cam was now victimizing a different couple and their audience had significantly decreased in size, she leaned in to capture his lips one more time.
"Wow is right," Jay smiled once she pulled away for good. "I was right before, ya know."
Erin wrinkled her brows in confusion. "Huh?"
"At the gym. When I said I thought kissing you would be great. I was right," Jay smiled, wrapping an arm around Erin's shoulder and pulling her closer to him, despite the armrest between them.
"You were right about a few things," Erin smiled as she tried to rest her head on his shoulder, laughing when the bill of her cap hit him in the chin.
"What else?" Jay asked, reaching up to take the hat off of her head and running his fingers through his hair.
"When you promised to make up for my horrible date last night. I really am having the best night, Jay." Erin admitted.
"Me too," Jay agreed. "Did I earn myself a second date?"
"It's not over 'til the fat lady sings, but you're on the right track," Erin teased, already knowing there was no way she'd be saying no to seeing him again.
"So hard to get," Jay joked back, pressing his lips to the top of her head. At the sight of a Cubs batter stepping into the box, he settled back in his seat and tightened his arm around her shoulder as the bottom of the seventh inning started.
The rest of the game went way too fast for either of their likings, and before they knew it Erin and Jay were hand-in-hand, walking back to Jay's truck.
"Thank you," Erin said quietly as they entered the parking lot.
"For what?" Jay asked.
"Everything you did today. You didn't have to play along with Nadia. You didn't have to actually ask me out on a date. You didn't have to take your grandfather's tickets to give me one of the best nights of my life. Just thank you. It means a lot to me, especially after yesterday." Erin squeezed Jay's hand.
"Thank you for agreeing to give me a chance." Jay squeezed back as they reached his truck and he once again opened Erin's door for her so she could get in before he got in himself.
"So about that second date…" Erin started as Jay got into the car.
"Maxon. Noon. Tomorrow. I'll pick you up again." Jay declared as he began to drive.
"Tomorrow?" Erin smirked. "What happened to the whole 'macho guy waiting 24 hour to text thing'?" she joked.
Jay rolled his eyes. "Not my thing. If we're being honest, I don't think I could wait 24 hours to see you again."
Erin smiled. "If we're being honest, I don't think I could either."
"Thank god for honesty then," Jay beamed. "So Maxon?"
Erin couldn't help but laugh at his excitement. She couldn't believe he already had their second date planned before the first had even ended. She couldn't believe that somehow the worst date of her life had led her to the best thing that ever happened to her. "Oh, definitely."