"Chessie's going to kill me."
I looked at my hand unhappily. Most of the nail polish had smeared right off only leaving ugly streaks behind.
"I'm sorry. I should have warned you the acetone would do that when we were cleaning the glassware," Matt said. He took my hand in his as we walked to Chicks. "I can't imagine she'd be too mad though, no matter how big of a fuss she puts up. It'll just give her an excuse to redo your nails."
I smiled and looked back at him. "Sounds like you're speaking from experience there."
"Sadly, yes. She doesn't have any brothers or sisters, and Alfie wouldn't let her get anywhere close to his star-studded hands. She got bored easily, so I let her paint them. She was just a little kid," Matt admitted.
"That's sweet. Very manly," I said.
"You should have seen her in her hot pink phase. It took weeks to get all of those sparkles to go away," Matt said. He let go of my hand to open up the door to the little diner. "After you," he said.
I walked in and saw Janet at the bulletin board where they usually posted things like special events. It looked like she was taking down the decorations for Christmas and New Years.
"Hey, welcome back, kids!" she greeted us.
"Hi, Janet," I said as I walked past her on my way to my usual seat. I noticed she was pocketing pictures of people kissing into her apron. "Hey, do you still happen to have that picture of Matt and I under the mistletoe?" I asked.
"Sure do," Janet said. "Best picture of the bunch."
Matt slid across from me in his usual place. He looked so cute when he avoided the gaze of everyone.
I grinned. "Think I could have a copy?"
Matt's face blushed as he glared at me. We continued staring at each other as Janet sorted through her apron and pulled out the picture of us.
"Here you go," she said. "I'll go tell the cook to fire up your usuals."
"Thanks," I said
I smiled even wider. Save for the holes from the staples, the picture was absolutely perfect.
"You should look at it," I said. "It's a pretty good one." I handed the picture to Matt.
He stared at it for a while until his gaze softened. "Yeah," he said softly, still embarassed. He handed it back to me.
"I think I'll put it on my blog," I announced.
"I'd rather you not," he said
"Fine," I whined. I guess I wouldn't force him into Internet stardom, but I still kinda wanted bragging rights. "So, was that really all I had to do? Watch you make pretty colors with fire?"
"No," Matt said. "You were supposed to write down what was going on and give an example of a practical application, but we sort of skipped over that part."
"Great," I said sarcastically.
"Don't worry. I'll help you out," he assured me.
"Oh, is that part of my special privilege as your girlfriend?" I asked.
"Maybe," he said with a smile. "Or maybe I'm just a nice guy."
"You know, I could think of a couple other things you could do that would be really, really nice," I said with a smirk.
Matt laughed. "I bet you could."
Muriel sighed obviously as she brought us our coffees.
"Hey, what's the matter? Are you still sad that Lisa moved away?" Matt asked the old waitress.
"No," she said dejectedly. "You're the one making me sad, Mattie."
"What did I do?" Matt exasperated.
"Nothing. You sit there and do nothing!" Muriel said growing more and more empassioned. "You sit across from a beautiful woman everyday, and you can't even admit you like her. It's sickening."
I tried so hard to hold back my snickers.
"M-Muriel!" Matt exclaimed.
"It's okay! I already know. We actually are going out now," I cut in. "This is technically our first date."
Muriel looked pleasantly surprised and then not so pleasantly surprised. "Mattie! You call this a date?"
"But she likes pancakes!" Matt defended.
"Here." Muriel slipped something out of her pocket and onto the table. "Take her to this. Lisa was going to take me, but you guys went and made her move away. You lovebirds can go. It's past my bedtime anyway."
"Muriel, that's nice of you, but we don't need any help with our relationship," Matt said, snatching them up.
"Yes, you do," she sighed and started walking away.
"Thanks, Muriel!" I said after her.
"Yeah, yeah." Her voice was muffled as she went back into the kitchen.
"What are the tickets to?" I asked.
"Uh... Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet. Wanna go?" Matt said as he read the ticket.
I shrugged my shoulders. "Might as well."
"They probably won't have wifi," Matt warned as I took out my laptop.
"Guess I'll just have to find some other way to entertain myself," I sighed.
"You're just full of innuendos today," Matt said, shaking his head with a smile.
"Better get used to it, babe," I said then took a sip of my coffee.
"Ooh, congratulations you two!" Janet sang as she brought us our pancakes. "Muriel told me all about it. Cook wanted me to tell you 'Way to go!'"
"News sure does travel fast around here," Matt said exhaustedly.
"I'll let you two have your alone time," she insinuated. "Enjoy your pancakes."
I laughed at Matt's expression. "Hey don't worry about it, maple lips. They'll get over it eventually."
"Did you just call me maple lips, bacon breath?" Matt said in faux shock.
I couldn't stop laughing. "Bacon breath" were the only words I managed to get out.
"Oh! That reminds me I got you something," Matt said. He reached into his backpack and pulled out a maple syrup bottle. "It's the good stuff."
"Oh babe, I want to kiss you so hard right now," I said when my laughter calmed down.
"Oh, well in that case..." Matt leaned across the table making his face more accessible.
I kissed him softly and sensually whispered, "Babe, you're leaning over my breakfast."
"Right, sorry." He went back over to being strictly on his side of the table. "Shall we try it out?" He unscrewed the maple bottle and handed it to me. I poured it generously over my pancakes and handed it back to him.
"I feel a little guilty. I didn't get you a souvenir this time," I admitted.
"That's okay. I'm sure we'll think of something," he said. I raised my eyebrows and smiled at him until he started blushing madly. "I mean...if...I..."
"Oh relax, honey buns!" I broke off some of my pancakes and stuffed then in my mouth. "I'll still like you no matter how awkwardly you try to seduce me. Trust me, you'll never be more awesomely awkward as me. Oh, I just remembered. My friend Olive wants to meet you, so we'll have a double date with her and her boyfriend at some point."
"Who's Olive?" he asked.
"Olive is my other best friend. You know, the one who isn't your cousin. Her boyfriend is my brother's girlfriends brother. He's only a high schooler, so he'll probably come up during the weekend," I said.
"So, like this weekend?" Matt asked in clarification.
I shrugged my shoulders. "I have no idea. I'll let you know."
"Okay, 'cause I'd rather fit one 'real' date with you before I have to share a date with anyone else," Matt said.
I couldn't help from smiling.
"God, did I say something awkward again?" Matt's voice was low and just a tiny bit shaky.
"You...are absolutely...amazing. Don't you dare change a thing," I said.
Matt's hesitant smile stabilized and turned absolutely incredible.
"But keep smiling like that and I'm going to have to kiss that smile right off your face," I said and continued to eat my pancakes.
Matt laughed once and said, "I'd like to see you try. So, chemistry..." He pulled out his books and tried to teach me what he had been actually been doing in the lab today.
Little did he know, nothing revved me up like a challenge.
"Jules, I've got to go," Matt laughed deliciously. He made no such attempt at pulling away.
"Just one more. You're still smiling. It's too pretty," I said.
He obliged by kissing me once more but smiled even wider just to spite me.
"I've really got to study. You can try to kiss the smile off my face tomorrow," he said.
"But what if it's not there tomorrow?" I whined.
"Don't worry. It'll be there. As long as you're there, I'll be smiling," he assured me.
"You're too smooth for your own good," I said. I settled for wrapping him up in my arms. "Fine," I sighed. "Go study, you nerd. And I mean nerd in the best way possible."
He held me tightly. He was so warm but in the most comfortable way possible.
"See you tomorrow, Jules," he said.
After he left the lobby of my dorm, I climbed the stairs back up to my room. I guess it had been getting pretty late.
"There you are! I was... What happened to your hands?!" Chessie greeted me before I had the chance to open my door.
"Oh yeah, they got sort of messed up," I said looking at my nails once again.
"Come on," she grumbled as she pulled me into her room.
Olive was chatting on her phone with hushed tones with that same smile on her face whenever she talked to Romano.
"Mattie always does this. He just has absolutely no respect for a good manicure," Chessie complained.
She got down her bucket full of nail polish from her closet. She chose a completely different color than what she had painted before. She hummed to herself as she took off what remained with nail polish remover.
"So...special occasion tomorrow?" I asked, eyeing several sets of clothes lying on Chessie's bed.
"I've got a date," she sang happily. "Can't have you two girls showing me up."
"Really? Anyone I know?" I would have guessed Arthur, but Chessie would probably be ballistic by now.
"Oh, it's no one special," she shrugged. "It's been awhile, you know? I just need to sort of get out there."
I nodded. Not gonna lie, I was a little concerned. I mean, she had spent all of last semester setting her goals towards Arthur. He practically hated her, especially after that last stunt, so I guess it wasn't bad that she gave up on him. This might just be her way of moving on.
"There. Now, don't you dare move your fingers," Chessie said as she finished painting them. "Since you're here, what do you think?" Chessie held up one of the outfits to her chest.
Chessie had really outdone herself this time. Her clothes looked too high quality to be a first date with just a nobody. There was an beautiful sophistication in the fabric that only Chessie would be able to pull off. "Whoever your date is, he won't be able to take his eyes off of you."
Chessie grinned as if that was exactly what she intended. "Perfect."
So, new semester. The time when everything is the same but somehow completely different. The school year is over halfway done, and things are going to have to wrap up at some point, right? Wrong! This is the time to get your butt in gear and do everything a little bit more awesome than the semester before. Get out there and do it!
-Jules