"Are you ready?" Bernadette asked me, looking up at me through her glasses. I nodded, not entirely sure what the big deal was.
"What's there to be ready for?" I asked. Howard smirked. I guess if they were all like him then maybe I should prepare myself.
"Trust me, brace yourself. These aren't ordinary people." I wanted to laugh at her normally cute face, but now serious look. She opened the door after I signalled that I was ready.
"Everyone, this is Bernadette's friend, Morgan." Howard went in first and introduced me. I followed behind Bernie, suddenly nervous. I was greeted by a pretty blonde girl, Penny and I had met countless times, we even went out sometimes, but we weren't close. Of course when you're constantly moving around it's hard to keep a lot of stable friends.
"Hey Morgan, I didn't know you were coming into town. How are you?" she leant forward and hugged me. Her floral perfume filled my nostrils. I had missed Penny while I was away. We might not be close but it's hard not to like Penny.
"Yeah, well when Bernie called me to say Howard had proposed I thought I had to come back for my best friend's wedding." A short guy, around Howard's height stood up, pushing his glasses back up his nose and stepping forward. He put a hand through his greasy looking dark hair and squinted as he looked up at me.
"You're staying for the wedding?" I looked sideways at Bernie, she just grinned. I shrugged.
"Yeah, of course. I wouldn't miss her wedding for the world. When we were in grade school we would plan our imaginary weddings together. Of course it was to the members of the backstreet boys." He laughed. Then all went silent, until Howard finally broke the silence.
"Oh sorry! This is Leonard," I shook Leonard's hand and he gave what I assumed was a charming look, well, charming for him anyway. Next he pointed to a taller Indian man, finally a guy who had some form of body fat on him, when I spied the wine glass in his hand I guessed where it came from. Alcohol, it's just empty calories. "Raj." he said, as he pointed to him. He stepped forward and nodded but when I said 'hi', he just looked scared and whispered something in Leonard's ear.
"He says it's nice to meet you." Leonard said, looking embarrassed. I just giggled. This was the one Bernie said could never talk to her. Next Howard pointed to a Pretty Indian girl sitting on the arm of the couch Raj was just sitting in.
"That's Priar, Raj's sister and amazingly, Leonard's girlfriend." I coughed to disguise my laugh. And waved at her. She was very pretty. In a different way to Penny. How Leonard got these gorgeous girls to go out with him, I would never know. Priar had a smart, clean cut look to her, where as Penny was more of a fashionista, with a fun and querky side.
Suddenly there was a girl with straight brown hair, glasses and strong and defined jaw and cheek bones standing in front of me. Her hand outstretched.
"I'm Amy. I'm sure, we'll be best friends in no time." I laughed as she took my hand.
"It's nice to meet you." I giggled. Penny and Bernie gave me a knowing look. Obviously she was this intense with everyone. I looked over to the seat next to where Amy had been sitting. On the last seat sat a tall, lean man with short dark hair, when I looked closely I could see although he had short hair and quite obviously wasn't gay in any sense, he took great care of his hair, it looked silkier than my own. I almost felt jealous of his hair. I noticed everyone was now looking at him. He looked up, having sensed everyone was looking at him. He stood up smiling. Knowing he was in his late twenties, I still thought he had a baby face, so polite looking and adorable. His smile, while sweet and pleasant was tense and somewhat awkward. He stepped forward and dipped his head shortly, obviously this was as far as he was going to go. I was fascinated, so I walked into the living room to stand before him. Thank god I was wearing heels today, otherwise he would have been a few inches taller than me. Even with the height boost he was still a head taller than me. I stuck my hand out to introduce myself. He took it in his, his grip was firm yet tender at the same time.
"I'm Morgan." I smiled, for the first time being grateful of the braces I had worn for my last two senior years of high school.
"I know." he said simply. "You've already been announced." I blinked a few times, confused but amused. "It's now my turn." he cleared his throat before he spoke, and I tried not to laugh. "I'm Dr. Sheldon Cooper."
"Well, It's real nice to meet you." I said, in a high pitched voice.
"Likewise." was all he said before he stopped, and returned to his pace on the couch. He picked up his bowl of what looked like some type of fried pork in rice. His attention was completely off me now. Unlike everyone else's. As I walked back up to Penny Leonard apologised for Sheldon.
"Sorry, you really have to get used to him. Once you do, he's a great guy, when he wants to be. But until then he's going to make you wan to kill yourself, or him." I smiled, and told him it wasn't a problem. To be honest, I was finding him the most interesting person, or thing I had ever laid my eyes on. Who needed to go sight seeing when they could study Sheldon cooper?
"So, you hungry?" Howard asked, moving to the coffee table which was covered with Chinese food and bowls. I nodded, realising how hungry I was. I excused myself to the bathroom first, splashing myself with cold water, and giving my appearance a once over. I looked like I had been sitting on a plane for a few hours. Great. I pulled the brush from my hand bag and ran it through my hair, I quickly went over my eyelashes with mascara, and slapped on some lip gloss.
I couldn't believe I had regretted my decision to get bangs at one point. The contrast between my almost black hair and bright blue eyes was made more prominent with the bangs, a look I was definitely starting to appreciate. I walked back into the hallway, the only seat left was right next to Sheldon, I had a feeling that was on purpose, but with no where else to sit, it's not like I had much choice.
Half way through dinner, I couldn't stand wearing my heels any longer, with a sigh of relief I slipped off my floral wedges and rubbed my aching heels. Leonard put his head in his hands, and I noticed the entire room had fallen silent. There was heavy breathing coming from Sheldon's place next to me. I looked up, to see a look of pure disgust, and I'm pretty sure, horror.
"Uh, sorry, my feet just really hurt." I felt my cheeks blushing, and self-consciously slipped my shoes back on, not wanting to drag anymore attention to myself. When Sheldon still didn't look away, I looked to Leonard for a translation.
"Sheldon, among other things, many other things, has a certain distaste for feet. Or touching them in front of him while he's eating dinner." I raised my eyebrows. My feet were clean, they didn't smell, and I only took them off for a few seconds to see if they remained unbroken. When I mentioned this to Leonard he just shrugged, agreeing that it was totally weird, but that was just how Sheldon was.
"I'm sorry, Morgan was it? Yes, but I do have a strong disliking for people who find it acceptable to touch their feet with the same hands they are using to touch their food, and put it in their mouth. You may as well just pick up your food with your feet." I giggled, thinking perhaps he was joking. Evidently, he does not kid very often. I looked at Penny, knowing her she would have done something just to be a smart ass. So I thought it would be funny for me to do the same, although I might risk Sheldon hating me and losing respect from the others, it didn't bother me too much, because it wasn't like I was going to be there for long.
Once again I slipped off the heel to my left foot, the one closest to Sheldon of course. Then, while watching the dismayed look of grim horror spread across his features I lifted my leg up, picked up a piece of chicken and almost pulled every muscle in my thigh trying to stretch it back to drop the food in my mouth. It worked though, and it was worth it, everyone laughed, Penny even applauded me. Sheldon looked like he was about to die, but I swear I could see something in his eyes, a spark of something, like he was as intrigued with me as I was with him.