Tugging At The Heartstrings
Note: Booth in this chapter may not seem like the Booth we all know but I assure you he is in there somewhere. And don't kill the messenger, please, I tend to like living.
"Damn Seels," A young man in the middle of the crowd chuckled, "She got you good. Real good. Looks like she broke something too."
"No shit, Jack." Another confirmed, "Hey Carter, can we have her on our side instead?"
With an angry glare flickering across the room Seeley groaned as he attempted to save what little face he had left. He was supposed to be the big man on campus, not thrown down a few pegs just because some little freshman decided to show how strong she was. "Wait... it can't be her" He lightly mumbled to who he thought was only himself but that was a mistake he would soon regret. Nothing got past his friends, especially gossip about their favorite captain.
"Her?" Jack asked, now interested in just how well his friend knew this young lady, "Don't tell me you had a fling with her. She doesn't seem your type, Seels, she is not blonde and plastic."
As the room filled with young men filled with a roar of laughter, Seeley knew he had to do something before the whole room would be talking about him for days. Sure, he had nothing to worry about in the female department but if it got out that he actually might like a nerd; it didn't matter how well he could throw a ball, he would still be a social outcast faster than his balls spiraled out of control.
"Her sister..." Seeley started as his eyes pierced through the young woman standing before him.
"She is not my sister." Temperance defiantly interrupted.
"Well, this nerd's sister, you see she..."
"She is not my damn sister, okay?" Temperance barked as she hovered above her arch enemy, "She is just a girl who happens to share the same domicile as I do. We are not related biologically or socially. We just... live together."
"Whatever you say, chick." Seeley half nodded toward her before turning back to the crowd of teammates, "You see, there was this girl named Becky and well... we hit it off if you know what I mean. I am not a one lady man and she couldn't just take a hint. She was good but not that good." He finished with nods of approval from his peers.
"Her name is Rebecca and you... you used her and threw her away like a piece of trash! She is a human being Mr. Booth, not some toy you can play with then throw away when you are done with it." Temperance huffed, determined not to let him win this battle of wills.
"You seem to know a lot about a chick you are not related to." Seeley finally turned from his admiring companions toward the woman hovering closely overhead, barely noticing the pain flickering over her baby blues.
"Well, we happen to have a lot in common and while she is not family by any calculate-able standards I do care for her. She is a friend."
"Uh huh, whatever you say." Seeley shrugged as one of his teammates helped him up off the ground, "It is not as though you nerd types need any normal friends..." He trailed off, caught up in trying to keep what just happened from making it's rounds in all the social circles.
But before he could even finish his thought the mouse had slipped off into the crowd and out the door. It was not as though she couldn't handle herself in a room full of men but the indignation that radiated off such an ungrateful man was something she found herself drawn to. Like a moth to a flame, there was no denying he was dangerous but she had no idea how dangerous he truly could be. She had promised herself to always hate him for the destruction he had caused but a part of her heart knew that was impossible. She couldn't even look into his hallow eyes without letting the indestructible anguish penetrate even the deepest corridors of her fragile heart. His eyes held all the answers her heart had always longed for but one look was enough to send her over the edge into the abyss.
"Hey, where did the girl go?' One of the young men finally noticed the lack of a female presence in the room.
"I... I'll go look for her." Seeley stumbled on the words, not sure if his friends would catch onto his true intentions.
"Well, be careful man. You don't want to catch any of those nerdy diseases."
"You know it." Seeley halfheartedly smiled before quickly dashing out of the room toward he only place he knew she would be. The only place he had ever seen a smile grace her meek face. She just had to be there or the last six months of his life had all been in vain.
Sure, most never tried to look past the nerdy, awkward woman that seemed to defy all logic. But to Seeley, Temperance was more than just a nerd with good self defense skills. Even if she never knew, from the first day she had walked into his gaze he had been watching and waiting, waiting for a moment just like this.