Vanessa walked back to her dorm with a simple towel draped around her. She had taken a long hot shower and tried her best not to think about the awful dream she had woken up from 2 hours ago. She opened her door without hesitation, because well, she hadn't locked it. She knew she should have, considering the consequences but didn't.

She tossed her shower supplies on the floor and walked into the bathroom. She plugged in her hair-dryer and started to dry her hair. Whipping it around for the effect she had always loved her hair was completely dry within minutes. She brushed it out and unplugged her hair-dryer. Vanessa got out her curling iron to have a little curl at the end of her hair.

Once that was done she walked over to her closet to pick out her outfit. She picked out a pair of jeans that had holes at the knees and were a bit worn down. She loved that style and started to search for the perfect top. She didn't want to look like it was a date, but still wanted to look hot. Finally, she decided on a simple off the shoulder long sleeved white shirt. She pinked out a baby pink tank top to go under it. The sleeves were a little longer then normal, but that was the style.

Vanessa got into her outfit then slipped on her pink flip-flops. She walked into the bathroom and put on a little makeup.

She walked into her room and looked at the clock. It read 8:50. She had ten minutes that is, if Reid ever got his text. Did guys even wake up before 9? Vanessa had no idea; she had never been around guys much. Let alone go out with them in the morning. Scratch that, she didn't go out with guy's period. It was simply not thought about.

Vanessa sensed that there was someone out in the hallway. She leaned her ear against the wall listening. Someone was mumbling and somewhat pacing back and forth. She pulled back a bit confused then tried to reach into their thoughts.

"So its 8:55, should I be early or late?" She heard the voice thinking. She laughed to herself a little. She knew it was Reid.

Vanessa walked away from the wall to grab her cell phone. She hooked it onto the side of her jeans. She grabbed a 50 and stuffed it in her pocket. Pausing slightly before opening the door she thought about what this…experience would be like. Without further hesitation she opened the door and walked out. Only instead of walking in the direction of Reid she walked in the opposite direction of him. She was pretending that hadn't even noticed someone practically staking out in front of her door.

Reid looked up to see the gorgeous girl walk out. He smiled and put both of his hands into his pockets. "I was just about to knock," He said a little flustered.

Vanessa turned around. "Sure you were Reid. You sure you weren't going to stalk me?" She raised an eyebrow.

He laughed. "Nah. Not today anyways." He walked over to her and they both started to walk.

"I got your text. What were you doing up that early?" Reid asked.

"Umm…" Vanessa searched for an excuse but then decided not to lie completely. "Bad dream," She answered.

"I see." He nodded. "What about?" He questioned.

"Nothing."

"Well it obviously wasn't just nothing if it woke you up that early," He pointed out.

Vanessa looked over at him getting a bit annoyed. "Just drop it okay."

"Fine," Reid said with a smirk on his face. "Anyways, I see you decided to join me never the less."

"I needed to get out of the dorm." Vanessa shrugged.

Reid nodded and kept walking.

"Where are we going?" She asked.

"You'll see." A smirk appeared on his face.

She rolled her eyes and they kept walking. They got to the parking lot and Vanessa started walking one way but Reid pulled her another. "My car's this way," He said not letting go of her hand.

Vanessa felt a bit awkward holding his hand and forced herself out of it pretending she needed to pull out her cell phone.

They walked up to a hummer. "I can drive myself," Vanessa stated.

Reid laughed. "Aww come on! You can't resist a ride in this baby!"

Vanessa laughed and climbed into the car. "Your car?" She asked.

"Yeah," Reid said with a grin.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "You sure about that?" She protested.

Reid looks at Vanessa sheepishly. "No, its Tyler's. But since we are practically brothers we share."

Vanessa rolled her eyes. "Sureee."

He smiled and paid attention to the road. "Almost there," He told her.

"I wouldn't know. Now would I? Seeing as it is a surprise and you wouldn't tell me." She crossed her arms over her chest while fighting back a grin.

He looked over at her and spotted her smile that was being held down. "Why don't you just smile? There's nothing wrong with that."

At this, she had to laugh. "I know." Vanessa shrugged.

Reid shook his head and laughed.

"We're here." He pulled into an IHop and parked the car.

He got out of the car, as did Vanessa.

Reid offered him his hand, but she pretended like she never saw it. He sighed and let it drop to his side. Vanessa noticed, and felt a little bad. She wasn't trying to be rude.

He pushed the door open, holding it for her. "Thanks," She said with a smile and walked in.

"How many?" The host asked.

"Two," Vanessa said.

She smiled and grabbed two menus. "Follow me." She turned and walked through the restaurant. Vanessa started to wonder if they would sit them in a booth, seeing that most of the place was filled with them. But a bit of relief started to flow over as the host stopped at a chaired table.

"Your waitress will be right with you," She said politely before turning to leave.

Vanessa and Reid both smiled before picking up their menus.

"What are you getting?" Reid asked, his eyes looking from Vanessa to the menu.

"Im not sure. Im looking for something…" She trailed off trying to find her favorite food.

"Well you should try the peanut butter and banana pancakes. I know it sounds really gross but they're really good," He mentioned. "But they aren't on the menu. I get they made especially for me." Reid grinned.

Vanessa slowly looked up with a look of confusion on her face. "Wait…you like peanut butter and banana pancakes?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Listen, it sounds gross-," He got cut off.

"No I know what they are. They're my fav…I just can't." She paused and tilted her head to the side. "Have you been following me?"

A sensation came over Reid that he didn't know. He laughed. "No I haven't. They're my favorite too. That's why I get them made."

She set the menu down and folded her hands over it and leaned forward slightly. "Really. Tell me the truth. Absolutely nobody likes peanut butter and banana pancakes."

He laughed and raised his right hand. "I swear that's the truth. All the guys get grossed out when I order them here."

Vanessa still looked at him funny but a waitress came over. "Hey you guy's I'll be your waitress for the morning. My name is Michelle. What can I get you?" She asked pulling out a pen and pad of paper.

"Two orders of the peanut butter and banana pancakes," Reid told her.

The waitress paused before writing that down. She wrinkled her nose and looked at Vanessa. "Did he persuade you to order that hun?"

Vanessa laughed. "No, he didn't."

Michelle raised an eyebrow and reluctantly wrote the order down. "Look's like you've found your sole mate Reid," She said through a chuckle.

Reid blushed a little and Vanessa noticed. She smiled and looked down at her hands.

"Anyway…sorry about that," He said a bit embarrassed.

"It's okay," She reassured him.

"Tell me about yourself," He said leaning in a little sounding very interested.

"Not much to know," Vanessa shrugged.

"But there's gotta be something," He urged.

"You were saying that Tyler's like your brother. Tell me about that," She said completely ignoring his statement.

"Long story," He explained.

"We have time."

"Okay. Well Caleb, Pogue, Tyler and I all grew up together. Our families were really tight so now we are. Caleb's like our leader you could say." He wasn't too pleased with that. "And Pogue is like Caleb's second in command. Tyler's my bad ass in training," He continued.

Vanessa laughed. "Bad ass in training?" She questioned.

"Yeah. Baby boy needs it."

"Baby boy?"

"He's the youngest of the bunch," Reid explained.

"I see," Vanessa nodded her head.

"Any who, that's pretty much it. Since we grew up together, like brother's that's what we refer to one another as." Reid shrugged and leaned back in his chair.

For the first time, Vanessa started to see Reid as a real person. Not just someone that she could waste time with. But someone with feelings and friends.

"You're lucky," She started. "I've never been able to get close to people…" She paused and quickly became alarmed with where she was going. "With moving so much," She recovered without Reid picking up on anything.

Reid sensed a bit of sadness in her, he knew that she had opened up a little bit to him. Maybe he had a shot after all? He placed his hand on her knee.

Vanessa suddenly became very aware that she might have let herself get a little "too soft" and reached down to remove his hand. But something made her hand linger on his, a bit too long but then eventually slowly pushed it off.

Reid noticed how she had lingered on his hand and a smile crossed his face. He knew he wasn't there all the way, but he knew, somehow, that he was getting close.

Vanessa felt an awkward silence coming up but that was luckily stopped by their waitress coming by with their food. "Here you go." She said placing the plates down in front of Vanessa and then Reid. "Enjoy." Michelle said with a smile and walked away.

"Yum!" Vanessa exclaimed. "It's only missing…" She searched for the right bottle of syrup.

Reid hadn't even looked up at Vanessa but went to reach for the pecan syrup.

Vanessa found the right syrup, pecan. Her favorite. She had it in her hand and without looking felt another hand as well. She looked up and saw Reid's hand there. He looked up and started to laugh.

"Now I'm sure you're stalking me." Vanessa stated.

Their hands hadn't moved, still touching one another. Vanessa noticed and pulled hers away.

Reid smiled and handed the syrup to her. "I swear Im not stalking you." He said trying to be serious by easily cracked up.

"It's not funny!" Vanessa scolded with a smile on her face.

He laughed some more. "Come on, you don't find it a bit odd that we both like peanut butter and banana pancakes with pecan syrup?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Of course I think it's weird. But not funny, more freaky."

"It's funny."

"It is not!" She said almost laughing.

She cut her pancake and put it in her mouth. Flavor started screaming in her mouth and she felt like she was in heaven. Once she was done chewing she wasn't angry or even annoyed. "These are the best one's I've ever had."

Reid grinned while chewing a piece of his own. He swallowed. "I know."

From there they mostly had small talk. About school, classes and Vanessa's run in with Aaron the other night at Nicky's. They got some laughs about that one.

The check quickly came. Michelle placed it on the table "Have a wonderful day." She smiled and left.

Reid and Vanessa reached for it at the same time. Vanessa got to it first. Reid held his hand out, awestruck. "Are you kidding me? Since when do girls pay?" He asked.

Vanessa smirked. Satisfied with his reaction. She pulled the 50 out of her pocket.

"No way." He said grabbing the receipt from her hands. He slipped the receipt and his Black American Express card into the leather envelope thing the receipt had originally been in. "Parents credit card." He shrugged.

She sat there with her arms crossed over her chest. "Exactly, your parents didn't eat this. We did. So ill pay." She challenged.

"But you see, my parents want me to be well fed." He joked.

Vanessa couldn't help but laugh.

"But you know what this means?" He asked.

"No, what?"

"You'll just have to pay next time." Reid stated.

"Next time?" Vanessa raised her eyebrows.

Reid laughed. "Yeah, next time."

Vanessa laughed, but only a little.

"You didn't think you could get rid of me that easily did you?" Reid asked.

Vanessa didn't know what to say with this. Because quite frankly, she thought he wouldn't become attached to her. At least that's what the girls had said about his reputation. She would definitely have to ask them about this.

They both got in the car.

Vanessa sighed. "Listen, I might have been a little harsh earlier."

Reid raised an eyebrow. "Are you…apologizing?"

Vanessa looked down. "No." She objected.

"Whatever you say." He tried to hide the satisfied smirk on his face. He popped a CD into the stereo.

"What CD is that?" Vanessa asked.

"They're my favorite band." Reid smiled.

Vanessa waited for some kind of music she would hate to start coming out of the speakers. But instead she got one of her favorite bands.

"You like Dashboard Confessional?" Vanessa asked.

"You know who they are? Im impressed. Yeah they're my favorite band." Reid said.

"I love them. I've seen them in concert 4 times." She leaned her head against the back of the seat.

"Really? You're lucky. Im officially jealous of you." He laughed.

Vanessa laughed. "Yeah they were awesome." She thought to herself, I wouldn't be so jealous of me.

The song Stolen started to play off of their new CD. Vanessa closed her eyes and let the music fill her ears. Reid looked over at her and smiled. He let her listen to the song in peace and continued to drive.

When it ended he said "You really like that song?"

"Yeah." Vanessa answered with a smile on her face.

They finally got back to Spencer's and before Vanessa could open her door Reid was opening it for her. She smiled politely. He offered his hand to help her out and she took it. He smiled to himself. Progress, he thought to himself. Vanessa let go after a couple seconds. Reid locked the car, knowing Tyler would kill him if he didn't.

Vanessa and Reid started to walk to their dorms. "Thanks for breakfast Reid." She smiled and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear.

"No problem. I enjoyed the company. Caleb and Pogue are always off with their girlfriend. And don't get me wrong, I love Tyler's company. But sometimes it's nice to hang with someone else." He smiled at her.

Vanessa smiled. "Well I guess I should go. I have to get all of my things together for classes tomorrow."

Reid nodded. "Yeah. Who knows? Maybe ill have some classes with you."

"You never know." She grinned. "See you later." She turned and walked away.

"I hope so." Reid muttered to himself before turning to go back to his room.

A:N/ Yes! Very long I know! But I had a lot of good ideas to put in here. Help of my friend Michelle of course!! Reid and Vanessa have a little connection going on. Review!!!