They're like fire and ice.
She's fire.
He's ice.
And damn if she doesn't make him melt every time.
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He catches her listening to Frank Sinatra in the library. He notices her Pandora is filled with the oldies stations, and it makes him smile, because it's just one more thing he didn't know about her.
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They have a class together and, even though he knows she saw him, she doesn't sit with him. She sits on the other side of the room and avoids eye contact and doesn't even say hello, until the teacher mentions groups and she shyly looks at him, defeated, because of course she'd end up being partners with him.
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She oversleeps and he can tell, because her hair isn't brushed and her makeup consists of the smudged remains of last nights eyeliner.
And she still looks good.
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It's raining and she drenched and she's miserable and then there he is, with an umbrella and a smile. And he offers to walk her home and she accepts and then even thanks him when they get to her house, but she doesn't invite him in.
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She gets hit by a pitch during gym class. One of the giant lesbian softball players; she'd always been out to get her. She was hit by the pitch, but damn if she let them know it stung, even him. Especially him.
That's why, when he hands her an ice pack out of his bag, she accepts it silently, blushing. She doesn't like being fragile, but she can't help it.
His throwing arm hurts like hell after practice, but he doesn't mind cause she has his ice pack, and really, she's much too pretty to bruise.
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It was cold in the city in the winter- colder than he'd been prepared for, but colder than she was prepared for too. She never wore a winter coat, just her little pleather jackets, and when people asked if she was cold she always answered no.
But, since he was always watching her, even just out of the corner of his eye, he knew better. He saw the way she shivered, her knees knocking together. That's why, one day when they're walking home because the subway was late, he hands her his jacket.
Her lips are blue and her fingers frozen as she holds it at an arms reach- she doesn't want to accept it if he's just going to pull it all out from under her.
He nods reassuringly and she eyes him wearily as she puts it on- it's about 12 sizes to big for her tiny frame, but she bundles into it. She smiles shyly, and he smiles back. When they get to his house he makes her keep it for the rest of the walk.
He was warm enough now, anyway.
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Her best friend'd called dibs on him years ago.
(Hadn't she?)
Everyone knew you couldn't break dibs.
(Could you?)
Even though it was a different time and a different situation.
(Wasn't it?)
But she didn't want him anyway.
(Or did she?)