Waking Up! – Chapter 6

Julie reached for the door handle and he could resist, he drove a little further.

"Tim," she yelled shrilly and his plan to do it once was gone out the window. That reaction was a sweet payoff to her dinner invite last night. He wasn't getting much out of this deal of theirs and dinner at the Taylor's just meant that his ass kicking was coming sooner than later. He stopped and waited for her to try and swing the door open again, then drove forward again. He couldn't help by laugh at her expression – equal parts frustration and anger. It was too much fun. Her face was bright red and fuming, she wasn't obviously enjoying his little game at her expense. She looked like she was about to blow a gasket so he decided it was time to stop torturing her and let her in. He still had to survive the ride to school and all. She grabbed the handle cautiously, waiting for him to mess with her mind again but swung her body into the truck with grace.

Julie didn't look at him, instead choosing to keep her face forward and to ignore him completely. Her breathing had been affected by his joke and her chest was rising and falling rapidly as she tried to relax and allow her anger to subside. Tim was mesmerised by her chest, he tried to look away but the pull of that area was too strong. She looked at him out of the corner of her eye and busted him good and proper.

"Do you mind?" she said in that haughty voice of hers. "You are staring at my boobs and yesterday you propositioned me, what's next?"

He hadn't really thought of it that way. Maybe he should apologise, he'd avoided it yesterday on the phone because she needed him for something but if this situation was going to be tolerable an apology would need to be summoned up. Crap, he was shithouse at apologising.

"Yeah about that, I'm sorry for what I did?" he murmured, not looking at her. He directed the truck away from the curb and towards the school.

"Sorry Tim. I am a little confused. You apologise?" her voice was brittle and she still faced forward from what he could tell from his eye corner vision.

"Yeah," this was harder than he imagined.



"What for? There are so many things coming to my mind right now..." she looked at him now and the anger was still there but so was some hurt. He began to think about how he could mend this breach.

"I am sorry about the "suggestion" yesterday. It was completely out of line," she looked at him the anger gone but tears welling, oh god not tears. "...and completely against the guidelines. Please don't cry." His request only made the tears begin to trail down her cheek and he was at a complete loss. What should he do?

"Why are you crying?" so he sounded like an insensitive jerk but he couldn't fight who he was. He just couldn't figure girls out. What did she have to cry about?

"I don't know." She gulped loudly, her voice breaking. " I'm angry at you and everything is just so frustrating. Mom, Dad, you. And then you apologised, you don't apologise. It's just too much, it's too hard." She sobbed and he wrestled with the need to gag her and hug her simultaneously. Tears sucked.

Tim was pulling into the school car park. He quickly found a place and scooted across the bench seat and put his arm around her to comfort her. He wasn't a hugger or even much of a consoler but Julie didn't seem to mind. She turned her head into his shirt and cried more. The poor kid was beside herself. Between sleeping with him, her parents, the rumours and having to fake date him her life was pretty crappy. He should try and make it easier for her.

"Can I make it up to you?" he asked as he tapped her shoulder trying to find something to say to staunch the tears.

"Th-thank you, you're the only one who's helping me out here." She sobbed, were these good tears?

"So what can I do?" he asked, actually wanting to help her out. She looked very kissable with her teary eyes, blotchy face and swollen lips.

"May-maybe we could go on a fake date?" she asked directing those big, water logged eyes at him. She had him and she knew it.



"Okay, tonight then?" she smiled and the clouds parted, sunshine flooding in. She leaned in to kiss him on the cheek in gratitude. He didn't want gratitude, he moved his head at the last second and his mouth connected with hers as his palm rose to cup the right side of her face. He drew her lips soundly against his own softly and with care. Showing her that he was sorry and that he did care with the best non-verbal PG-13 way he could imagine. She was receptive, her mouth slowly moving against his own. The truck moved and he quickly drew away from her, Smash was grinning at the hood of his truck having rocked it to get his attention. Julie pressed her face into his shoulder to avoid further embarrassment as Tim flipped Smash the bird.

"How about we forget that happened? I'll see you at lunch and we'll meet here so I can take you home," he collected himself, trying to regain some clarity. She shook her head.

"No I have dance after school." They both hopped out of the truck and started heading towards the main school building.

"Well then I will pick you up at 7?" as he waited for her to process the question he realised Matt Saracen was watching them again covertly, he didn't like it. He tossed his arm around her shoulders and drew her into his body. She looked at him questioningly and he kissed her soundly on the lips and started walking away. He turned around and added-

"I'll see you out seven." He said loudly enough that Saracen would hear and sauntered on his way, a smile on his face.

ooooo

Tim waited nervously in his truck outside the Taylor's house. He had been parked there for nearly fifteen minutes and still hadn't made his way up to the front door. He did consider beeping the horn but Tami Taylor would have his ass in a sling if he did that. He had arrived so early that he really didn't know what to do with himself. This was technically his first date. He was a dating virgin. He was incredibly stressed out. He had never had to do any of this before. Normally he'd pick a girl up at party, have sex in the market's freezer section or pick someone up from the Alamo Freeze when he was celebrating with the boys. Dating was not his thing. This was one area that Julie had more experience and he was hating it.

He sat at the wheel, tapping it with fierce nervous energy and wondered if he should go to the door. Like she was reading his mind he received a text come and get me already from Julie. He had to 

laugh, from anyone else that would be a come on but she actually meant that. She wouldn't have ever imagined that it could be interpreted in a different manner.

Tim hopped out of the truck, straightened his badly ironed checked shirt and walked up the path to the Taylor's front door. He knocked on the door and found his knees were nearly knocking themselves. Julie opened the door, light from the house streaming around her like she was some angelic being. He knew she wasn't but she sure could pass for one. She was dressed in a white dress that tied behind her neck and fell to below her knees. Her hair was trailing around her shoulders and she looked beautiful. She stepped out the door, grabbed his hand and dragged him to his truck.

"Look I convinced them to give me some space but in return..." her nose scrunched up in consternation "...you have to come to dinner tomorrow night".

He leaned in and pecked her on the cheek, "okay". She looked at him shocked.

"You do realise we haven't started the fake date yet? There is no one here to convince, it's just you and me." She said with her head tilted to the side. He tilted his own and raised his eyes to the window behind her. She spun and saw what he had seen from the start, her parent's idea of space was to station themselves at the window to see everything. Her hand was still in his own and he dropped it to open the truck's passenger door for her, wide eyed and still pissed off she jumped in silently and he closed the door behind her in his best try at being gallant. Instead he found that he'd managed to shut her dress in the door and had to open it again, fish it out and close it again before he could sit himself in the truck. He waved at the Taylor's, still looking from the window and centred his attention on the road.

When she wasn't paying attention he let out a giant breath to centre his nerves. How does someone stuff up closing a truck door?

"Where are we going?" She really didn't need to ask as there wasn't a whole lot of place to go. The Freeze or Applebee's. Tim had chosen the latter as Matt didn't work there.

"Applebee's, Tyra saved us a good table," she looked at him shocked.



"Wow, someone actually put some thought into this?" she joked. He smiled tightly, this was ridiculous and he shouldn't accept praise for something he didn't do. Tyra has stalked up to him when she heard about the fake date. She had threatened to castrate him and then asked if he wanted her to arrange a special table at Applebee's. It was all a little weird. Julie smiled rightly at him and he felt thoroughly undeserving of it.

"On our first date Matt and I went to the movies...or we were supposed to. We end up back at his place so he could sing a song to his grandmother to calm her down. He takes care of her real well," Tim contained the groan that sorely needed to escape from his body. This is who she was comparing him too? It wasn't real and it was his first date and he was supposed to match up to that effort. Jesus. Thank god it wasn't real or his heart would have exploded out of his chest now from blood pressure alone.

"That sounds nice," he replied barely moving his mouth as he spoke. They pulled up at the restaurant and he rushed around the truck to help her from her seat. Apparently it was the gentlemanly thing to do. She smiled appreciatively at him and he tried to ignore the black line that now existed on the hem of her dress from its door capture earlier. She hadn't noticed, good.

Tim reached out for her hand, entwining her fingers with his own. It was weird. It wasn't something he had really done with anyone but her. Her hand was tiny in his, warm and soft, he actually liked having it there. Tim opened the door for her, letting Julie enter first and found that as he let the door shut it hit him on the butt and pushed him into her. His jeans were pressed right up against the dress covered ass. She yelped in surprise and he quickly went into panic mode.

"Oh Julie sssssorry, the door clipped me and ... sorry," she looked at him a little quizzically as the words burst from him and the sweat started beading on his forehead. So this is what it felt like to be stressed, the nausea wasn't all that welcome either.

They saw Tyra as she waved them over to a booth right in the centre of the room. How that was deemed to be special he had no idea? Tyra was in on it, the fake date idea and as such made sure the date was a public spectacle. Student from Dillon High and community members stared at them in interest as they walked hand in hand to the booth. Tim had never felt this ill in his life. He waited for her to slide into her side of the booth and then took his own seat. Tyra quickly took their orders and stormed off in her normal Amazonian way. Julie's hand flew across the table the moment Tyra left and grabbed his-

"Tim, are you okay? You look a little pale." She looked concerned, her grip on his fingers tightened.

"Yeah its just ahh I don't date..." he said quietly, his head leaning closer to her.

"...that much?" she finished his sentence.

"No, not at all...ever" Her face said it all, she nearly fell off her chair.

"This is your first date?" she asked stunned.

"Kinda." Her mouth made a perfect o shape with absolutely no sound made at all.

"You're doing good." She smiled and he felt marginally better. "Except for the stain on my dress," he looked up surprised she noticed and waiting for the yelling to begin. Instead she took in his expression and laughed, a great bell like sound.

"Oh it was so funny, you should have seen your face when you saw it," she started cackling heartily now and he joined in. Maybe this wasn't so hard after all? He liked laughing with her and she liked making fun of him, it was perfect. Tim looked to their joined hands and up, seeing that their laughter was drawing more looks again. They were achieving what they had set out to do, to give the impression that they were together, a couple.

"Don't worry, I can manage clumsy. I was with Matt for over a year." She meant well but the mention of Matt's name made his whole body tense. Enough with the comparisons already.

"Yeah well let's not discuss Matt can we?" he sounded pithy but he couldn't help it. She looked a little hurt and the whole atmosphere changed.

"Why do you have to do that?" she asked. He had no idea what she meant and his face showed that. "Anytime I try to share something with you either say something harsh or push it aside with a poorly judged joke. What is wrong with you?"



"What is wrong with me? You're the one who slept with the town man-whore?" the words were biting.

"Case and point, Tim." There were no tears or angry expressions or screamed accusations. She was perfectly calm and he was the one all riled up. Her nonchalance made him angrier.

"Why do you have to be such a bitch?" he spat.

"Why do you have to be so self-destructive all the time?" she was as calm as calm could be. Their voices were hushed so as not to blow their cover.

"Like I said, there were two of us in that truck," he threw back.

"So we are both self-destructive then because we both know a certain Coach that will have both our asses," she was a little shaken at that. Tim realised that maybe she wasn't as put together as she seemed. Whether or not she could remember that night, both of them had chosen to not remember Eric Taylor when they had made their way to his truck. They were both as bad as one another. Who was she to be laying blame when he should have known better? He'd known her well since his time at the Taylor's and now he had done the one possible thing to ruin him in the eyes of the Coach. This time around he wasn't doing the right thing and trying to sneak her into the house, he'd already taken the girl and run with it.

"Why do you keep on lashing out at me? I may not be your favourite person right now but we've always been friendly. We both got ourselves into this position with some pretty unwise decisions but then again I can't remember what happened so all I have are the negatives." She said that with a smile, if he didn't know better he might have assumed she was talking about having some fun with him that night. He knew she would have. despite his own lapsed memory but she had no idea.

"You would have had a good time," he stated with a glint in his eyes.

"Really?" she lifted an eyebrow sceptically at him.



"Guaranteed."

"Well I guess you've had the practise," she joked and he had to smile, it was true. Anymore practise and he would be suffering from some friction related chaffing.

"True," their meal arrived, Tyra plonked it down on the table with little finesse, smiled and went on her way. They began eating and talking about neutral subject matter. Julie's fork snuck across the table and poked at his food. She grabbed a forkful of his chicken and jammed it in his mouth.

"Couples do that?" he asked. She looked a little confused.

"Sure," he got the distinct impression that she made that up. So he forked some of her food and ate it making a big show of enjoying it while she giggled. He could remember his mom saying something when he was little, before she left. Something about being truly comfortably with someone when you could eat off their plate. He guessed that they were truly comfortable. God knows she called him on his shit and could turn him from morose to gleeful in two seconds flat. "Yours is good," she said through a mouthful of his food and he had to chuckle. She was unpredictable that was for sure. He'd miss having her around once this farce was over.

"Yours too," he replied. A cold wash of melancholy flooded over him as he realised that he was beginning to get attached to her. He grabbed her hand and kissed her palm. She looked at him in confusion, wondering why he'd kissed her.

"Someone was watching," he answered briefly, pretending that that was exactly what had happened. He couldn't explain it but he was feeling her loss already. The silence continued to stretch but it wasn't a problem. They ate in companionable quiet, shooting smiles and glances at one another between bites. Occasionally a blissful moan would emit from a particularly tantalising bite but they were both comfortably not speaking.

"I think it's easier for me to push people away, force them away. " He shoved a mouthful of his chicken in his mouth. She quietly set down her fork and looked at him.

"Easier than what?" she was looking at him, really looking at him like his answer really mattered. He felt uncomfortable.

"Then caring about someone or something. It's easier not to," he looked at her waiting for her response. She was looking at him curiously, her gaze moving across her face back and forth trying to find the answer to a question he didn't know.

"That's crap." Again she was doing her weirdly calm thing.

"What?" He hadn't been expecting that as an answer. Where was his freaking sympathy?

"That's crap. You care about football, the team, Street, my family, me. That's utter crap."

"I tell you something really personal and you tell me its crap. You wonder why I lash out,"

"No I asked you why you lash out. I know why. I wanted to know if you knew why."

"Nothing you just said made sense." It was weird usually when people attacked him verbally or physically he would walk away or attack. Neither was really an option here, he actually wanted to hear what she would say but he was afraid too.

"You said pushing away people is easier like you don't care about people, that you can't be bothered. You lash out, push them because you are testing them. Waiting for them to realise you aren't worth it. You lash out then you punish yourself for not being enough. Your whole deal with Lyla was that - seeing how many times she would reject you, and then be with you, and then reject you again. You were punishing yourself." She said every word carefully and quietly, her eyes on him the entire time. Not accusing but kind. "You are enough Tim. You just have to believe it."

The words were hard to hear and he couldn't maintain eye contact with her. He looked down and realised his hand was shaking, just enough that he would realise.

"I think we better wrap this up," he said shovelling food into his mouth and gesturing for the check. If she was surprised, she didn't show it. She laid her napkin down and stood, folding her hand into his own. He paid, she insisted on going dutch, he argued and won. He figured he needed some sort 

of victory that night and they headed for the door. His hand on the door, he watched at she drifted past him silent and composed not knowing what was in store for them next.

Authors Note