Title: Prelude
Rating: PG
Genre: Romance/Humor
Summery: Kirsten and Sandy in college.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Not even Ryan and Seth. [pause] Dammit.
A/N: I got this idea from MethodActor05 on the TWoP boards. My apologies if Kirsten seems OOC, but I figure that College Kirsten would be a lot different than the Kirsten we see now.
Kirsten glares at the box of tissues in front of her. This is unbelievable. She is hiding out in a corner of the library, crying, with nothing but tissues for company. At the rate her day is going, the deranged librarian at the front desk will kick her out for sniffling too loudly. Not to mention that there's this lump in her throat that won't go away, even though she never gets colds.
And of course, her sisters at the sorority weren't any help. All they would say was, "Oh, please, Kirsten. Just forget about the guy. He's not worth it, anyway. And did you talk me up to Sandy Cohen today like I asked? Man, is he ever hot..."
Even if Sandy is hot, (which he is) their pep talk wasn't helping.
"Are you okay?"
Kirsten sniffs and looks up. Speak of the devil, as her dad would say. Sandy Cohen from Economics, the guy that none of her friends will shut up about, is standing in front of her, looking concerned. And hot, goes the little part of her brain that never shuts up.
She wipes her nose with a tissue. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine." She lets out a shaky laugh at the thought of what she must look like. Not exactly how she wanted to appear in front of Sandy.
"Tell me what's wrong," Sandy says as he pulls out a chair and sits next to her.
"Um, my favorite football team lost?" Kirsten tries out on him.
Sandy gives her a look. "No dice. Come on. Tell me." His voice is gravelly and low, and it sends a shiver down her spine. Not that she's going to admit this anytime soon.
Kirsten sighed. "Um...I just got a phone call from my dad. My ex-boyfriend just married someone else."
Sandy let out a long whistle. "Ouch."
"Yeah," Kirsten says bitterly. "We broke up less than a year ago and he's already tying the knot with someone else in a huge wedding that all of my friends were apparently invited to, and I'm finding this out now. What—what is that?"
"I'm sorry," Sandy says softly in that voice that is still sending shivers down her spine. He's a really nice guy, she realizes. Really nice—and is that his hand on her shoulder?
It is, and Kirsten is trying very hard to regain her train of thought. Oh, right. Furious at Jimmy and hating his new wife. That's right.
"What?" Kirsten asks when she realizes that she's missed Sandy's question.
"I asked how long you two were going out."
"Oh. Since junior high."
"Wow," Sandy says, lifting those ample eyebrows—Kirsten likes Sandy a lot, but his eyebrows are big.
"Exactly. And when we broke up, he acts like he's completely devastated. Nine months later, he's going to the altar with some—bimbo!" She glares at him when he starts chuckling a bit. "Glad to see you're so amused by this."
"No, it's just...Kirsten Nichols is calling someone a bimbo," he says, grinning at her. "What will everyone think?"
She glares at him, refusing to melt at that smile of his. She will not melt, she will not melt—oh, dammit.
"Anyway," Sandy continues, "you gotta feel sorry for that wife of his."
"Oh?" Kirsten says, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah," Sandy says, looking her straight in the eyes. "After all, she's gonna be competing with you for the rest of her life. Her entire marriage, she'll always be second-best. A poor man's Kirsten."
Kirsten should be blushing right now, but she can't, because she's too busy wondering how it is possible that she didn't realize until now just how blue Sandy Cohen's eyes are.
She finally tears her eyes away and Sandy clears his throat slightly. "So, I take it you're devastated."
"Not really," Kirsten replies honestly. "To tell the truth, I'm more insulted than anything else. It's like…all that time we spent together didn't really mean anything at all. Or it didn't mean as much as I thought it did."
Sandy nods, understanding. He hesitates, and then says, "Hey, you wanna get a burger or something? I know this great place nearby..."
Kirsten's breath catches in her throat for a second. Sandy Cohen is asking her out. Sandy Cohen, the guy that none of her sorority sisters has been able to snag.
And that lump in her throat is disappearing and she might not care about the new Mrs. Cooper as she thought.
"Okay," Kirsten says abruptly. She smiles at him. "Yeah. Yeah, I'd--I'd like that."
"Yeah?" Sandy's smile is just huge and blinding right now, and God, could he be more gorgeous? He stands up and offers her a hand.
Kirsten takes it.
End.