"What are you doing here? Don't you have a class? You'll be late." Skye scolded Jeffrey as he walked into the cafe. Despite her words she began to pour tea into a to-go styrofoam cup.
"Yeah." Jeffrey shrugged, "I'll get there eventually. I thought I'd stop by to tell you that there's a new Italian restaurant that just opened, and it looks pretty good. How about a date Friday night?"
"No!" Skye said indignantly.
"Okay." Jeffrey shrugged again, "Just thought I'd ask."
"Here." Skye held out his cup to him along with a frown.
"What about my hug?" Jeffrey leaned on the counter with smirk.
"I already gave you one on Saturday!" She protested, "And the deal was once a week."
"It's Tuesday though, a new week." Jeffrey pointed out smugly, his arms still outspread.
Skye made a noise that sounded like a mix between a frustrated gargoyle and an angry Python, but with one smooth motion and a hand planted on the counter, she vaulted straight over. Her apron flapping, she landed right next to Jeffrey, who had stepped back defensively at her sudden leap. Skye hugged him tightly, his arms pinned helplessly to his sides, Jeffrey had to hold his cup out at a weird angle. Still he grinned-obviously pleased-once Skye had pulled back.
"Now beat it." She motioned gruffly, "Get to class"
Jeffrey winked brazenly and swept out of the cafe.
"Who's the guy friend?" Asked Mr. Carter, her boss. He was laughing as Skye jumped back over the counter.
"No-one." Skye grew red, "He's just a big-"
..
In class, Jeffrey was lifting his cup to his lips as he absent-mindedly listened to his professor lecture about the structure of Handel's music. The professor paused and blinked at Jeffrey, before breaking out into an amused smile.
"Insult the barista this morning, Mr. McGrath?"
"What?" Jeffrey was thrown off by the sudden question.
Mr. Hoover gestured towards his styrofoam cup. Jeffrey turned it, his eyes beginning to narrow in suspicion.
Jeffrey was used to uncaring baristas scrawling his name out wrong, but this was ridiculous. It wasn't spelled anything like his name.
"Touché, Skye." Jeffrey read it again and shook his head.
"Dork." Read his cup.
"That's J-E-F-" Jeffrey spelled out the next morning.
"I know how to spell." Skye said not even trying to disguise her self-satisfied smirk.
"Could have fooled me." Jeffrey crossed his arms, "I saw what you wrote on my cup, yesterday. That wasn't very nice, Skye, my whole class laughed."
"Aww, did that hurt your feelings?" Skye said without a trace of pity.
"You know I think I deserve a compensation now. How 'bout we go see a movie tomorrow night?"
"Is it a date?"
"Yup."
"No, I have homework, and so do you." Skye frowned at him and passed him his cup.
"So you'd go if you didn't have homework?" Jeffrey perked up.
"Nope, I have homework because I don't want to go." Skye said smoothly, "Have a nice day, Dork."
With that she turned to the next customer.
"Oh, it is on." Jeffrey said to himself with a determined expression, and a sip of his tea once outside.
A teenager passing by snickered at him. Jeffrey looked at his cup. His name was spelt right. Skye hadn't appeared to have done anything to-.
Jeffrey closed his eyes, and nodded his head knowingly. Slowly, he opened his eyes and looked at the bottom of his cup.
"A pig snout! Real mature, Skye!"
"Well, do you want to go out with him or not?" Rosalind sighed into the phone, " You shouldn't keep using your school as an excuse, unless you mean it. Are you sincere about not dating until you finish?"
"I-I...Yeah?" Skye groaned, "It's just really confusing right now. I'm not good at figuring out this kind of stuff. My head tells me that it wouldn't be logical and that it would just be an awkward inconvience."
"No offense, Skye, but that sounds like rubbish and not logic." Rosalind said matter-of-factly.
"What?!"
"You guys already hang out 24/7. How would dating be a hindrance?"
Skye spluttered but couldn't think of a comeback.
"I think it's just you over stressing and analyzing this. You're too worried that something will go wrong, that you can't see the positive side of you dating. You do like him a lot, don't you?"
"He's my best friend." Skye emphasized. Rosalind could tell by her tone that she was scowling.
"Yes, you've told me that three times in this conversation alone." Rosalind raised her eyes to the ceiling in exasperation, "Look why don't you go over all of the pros involved in the two of you dating. Maybe that'll help you decide. I've got go now. I've got school too you know."
(Pros for going on a date with Jeffrey, No 1: He'd stop asking me out if I went on one.)
"I'm serious, Kate." Skye groaned slumping over her textbooks, "The customer complains that I put too many blueberries in his blueberry muffin! Then he demands a refund on his money, plus a free new muffin."
"Freeloaders." Kate shook her head, "They complain on purpose you-"
She paused and wrinkled her forehead.
"Where's that music coming from?"
"What?"
Skye lifted her head.
"Listen?" Kate shook her head insistently, "Hear that?"
Kate was right, there was a guitar strumming somewhere. The two roommates exchanged confused looks. Then someone started singing and Skye face palmed and groaned.
"I never needed love
Like I need you,
And I never lived for nobody
But I live for you." Jeffrey crooned under the kitchen window.
"Is that..?" Kate was covering her mouth and snickering. Skye didn't answer, instead she flung open the window and looked down on the messy-haired brunette boy standing below on the fire escape. Jeffrey smiled up at her but kept on singing.
"Maybe it's the way you smile,
I come all undone..."
Skye pulled back into the apartment; so Jeffrey strummed and sang the chorus for all he was worth.
"Baby, ooh I get chills when I'm with you,
Oh, Baby! My world stands still when I'm with-"
Skye dumped cold water on his head mercilessly.
Jeffrey shrieked at the icy downpour and spluttered in panic.
"Dang it, Skye!" He rasped and shivered, "You'll ruin Alec's guitar!"
"Like it wasn't already ruined by your failed singing career." Skye said dryly, looking down on him with crossed arms.
"It's freezing now!" Jeffrey swiped at his wet hair, "Will you let me in?"
"No."
"How about a date on Saturday, then?" Jeffrey asked hopefully.
"No!" Skye slammed the windows shut.
Jeffrey's shoulders sagged and he descended the fire escape, dejected. Skye felt a little guilty at being so harsh.
"Pros for going on a date with Jeffrey, No. 2" Skye muttered. She sat there thinking hard. What other pros were there? All she could think of at that moment were cons.
"Irhgh." She groaned and dropped her head on her desk. It was too hard, there was nothing good about dating! Everything about it screamed pointless.
Rosalind had said that much though, that she was too focused on what could go wrong. Alright then, what if the date did go well. What would happen? Would they go on another? Skye groaned at the idea of going through all that torturous inward hassle again.
Did it have to be a hassle? Was she over-analyzing this? She had never had so many prohibitions when she went on dates before. And she had always gone on those with a sense of 'This isn't going to work, so let's get this over with'. Was she scared, because she thought...that a date would lead to something more between her and Jeffrey?!
Skye sat back and furrowed her forehead, trying to swallow that thought. No, that couldn't be. She was only scared of hurting Jeffrey and ruining things between them. But would it ruin things? Jeffrey had said that if things didn't work he wouldn't let it get between them.
Was it because...she possibly, might-? No! She never thought of that dork like that ever!
Skye shook her head stubbornly, but stopped herself in frustration. She had to stop pushing stuff out of the way, it was preventing her from looking at the problem clearly. She breathed in deeply.
Okay, what if she did care for Jeffrey as more than just a best friend? Skye pushed on.
Well he did annoy the crap out of her a lot. And he could be the biggest dork in the universe. He pushed her buttons on purpose and sometimes they'd fight because they were both too stubborn for their own good.
But, he made her laugh a lot. Sometimes just by laughing himself. He was absurdly patient with her, and listened to anything she ranted about. And there was that time he badgered her into telling him about her crappy date, and then helped her get over it. He took her sarcasm in his stride and it was to be admitted that she teased him just as much.
Yeah, he was a dork. But a sweet, gentle, and kind dork. Like that time she had to wait ten minutes for him because he was holding the door open for a school group, and was too nice to not let them all through before himself. Not to mention his whole pretending to like coffee just so he could get to know her.
He was absurdly selfless too, willing to drop his schoolwork at a moment's notice when a classmate needed a ride to an emergency dentist appointment, and like how he shoved Jane out of the way of that car.
He was able to joke with her, but also just as easily hold his own in more thoughtful and serious conversations. He respected and encouraged her passions, and-
Skye blinked in surprise. She had really run on there. What was that supposed to tell her? Slowly she began to type on her keyboard and finished her second pro.
(Pros for going on a date with Jeffrey, No.2: There could be a possibility that I care more for the idiot then I'm inclined to admit)
Skye leaned back and looked at her two lists. The one with cons ran on for twelve different reasons, while she had only two pros, but for some reason Skye felt the pros outweighed the cons.
"You okay?" Skye had been quiet for most of their study session, tensing herself for Jeffrey's inevitable question, but Jeffrey had been silent as a grave and he looked tired.
"Hmm?" Jeffrey looked up distractedly.
"You look stressed." Skye raised an eyebrow.
"It's just all my homework." Jeffrey rubbed his face, "Sometimes I feel like trying to balance music and business is going to kill me. It's a lot to focus on."
"But...that's not all.." Skye examined him thoughtfully, "You're worrying about something else aren't you?"
Jeffrey shrugged uncomfortably, but Skye stared at him persistently. He finally gave in, throwing down his pencil so he could run his hands over his face tiredly.
"Mother has been on my case more than usual." He admitted with a deep sigh, "You know, to give up music."
"But you aren't thinking about doing that, right!?" Skye demanded, surprised, "Music's your dream, and you've worked so hard at it!"
"No, no," Jeffrey shook his head firmly, "I'm not giving up music ever, Skye. Do you really think I'd even consider it?"
Skye relaxed.
"Well, you better not, or I'd have to knock some sense back into you."
"Would have thought you'd be the first person to try to make me stop playing music." Jeffrey smiled at her.
"It's the only thing that can distract you enough from bugging me all the time." Skye shrugged dismissively, "What are you telling your mother?"
"Just the usual." Jeffrey picked his pencil up and began to study his textbook again, "Promising her to do my best in my Business studies and that I'm putting that before music. Like I said it's just a little stress, I'm fine really. I've just got to keep working at it."
Skye studied her best friend tentatively for a moment or two, before returning thoughtfully to her English homework.
Later, when Skye was getting her books together to go back to her apartment, Jeffrey still hadn't asked her on a date. Unusual for him, because he had persisted pretty well on his promise to her.
"Goodnight." Skye told him uncertainly.
"Night." Jeffrey waved distractedly before returning his hand to tangle in his hair. He was silently mouthing the words in his textbook as he read them. Skye stalled hesitantly by the front door.
"Hey?"
Jeffrey looked up startled.
"Aren't you going to ask me out or something?" Skye shrugged nonchalantly.
Jeffrey blinked and stared at her. Then after a moment's confusion he broke into his slow easy smile and put down his pencil.
"I don't know." He drawled, leaning back in his chair, "I'm thinking about just playing hard to get. Think it'd work?"
"No." Skye said staunchly and made herself open the door proudly.
"Alright, Skye." Jeffrey threw up his hands obligingly and played along, "Will you go on a date with me on... Saturday night?"
Skye paused in the doorway and turned back.
"Sure." She tried to say as lightly as possible.
Jeffrey's chair's front legs came down with a thud, and he gaped at Skye.
"R-really?" He asked, eyes wide.
"Sure." Skye shifted a bit nervously, despite her best efforts to appear cool, "What time?"
"Uh...um. I-I." Jeffrey ran his hand through his hair as he tried to think rapidly, "Um...uh, how about six? I'll pick you up?"
"Yeah, sure." Skye nodded, trying not to blush at the excited look that was beginning to light up his face, "Sounds good. I'll see you tomorrow morning at the cafe?"
"Yeah." Jeffrey crossed his arms and tried to look smooth, "Right. Right. See you tomorrow. Have a good night."
"Bye." Skye closed the door behind her, and hurried down the apartment steps, her stomach still twisting and her heart still pumping hard. Her face had heated up, and she didn't doubt that it was red.
She had only gotten halfway down the stairs though, when a sudden whoop came splitting through the night air. Skye turned back and looked up at the apartment Jeffrey and Alec shared. She couldn't stop the wide smile that threatened to crack her face.
KoalaLover-ABC-123: Glad you loved it! As to how I'm so amazing, I wouldn't know about that, but I try to read three books a week, maybe that contributes to the writing. I dunno. If you mean amazing as a person, I find that hilarious. I'm basically just a walking mass of puns trying to make it as an adult. Thank you for the kind words though.
Readwriteedit: So many compliments in one review, you've got me incredibly flustered and flattered. I started laughing in the middle of it. Sorry this is late, got into one of those writer slumps for a stretch there. I'm going try to get back on track with the updates, but thank you for the confirmation on their characterization too, I'm trying my best there.
Nijibrush: Your review thrilled me. I'm honored that the chapter had that effect on you, and I probably got way more excited than I should, but then beds were made for jumping on anyway right? Anyway you left me very pleased, happy, and with a sore head (the ceiling was a little closer than I realized), gratius tibi.