I own nothing.
A/N: Thanks for your reviews.
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Ryan POV
I woke up this morning with Anna's head on my shoulder. We'd been sharing the bed for four days but it was the first time she'd slept on me. And I didn't mind. In fact, I liked it. It had been a while since I'd hung out with a girl I felt comfortable with. A girl that I felt no pressure with. And it was... refreshing. I'd expected her to be panicked when she woke up and saw me staring down at her, but instead, she smiled and apologized for not being in control of her hands. It was cute. Of course, I didn't want to make things uncomfortable by urging her to keep her hands on me as much as she liked, as I thought it could be taken out of context and spoil everything.
It's quite odd that even though I'd liked her while she was still in Newport, I hadn't really noticed her. I thought she was cool but I didn't really know much about her. I think it's because she had that intense relationship with Seth and I had mine with Marissa. But here, alone, with nothing but nature around us, we really get along. And to think that in a few months she'd be back in Pittsburgh and I might never see her again. Is it odd that I've already begun to miss her?
But the weirdest part about it was that other than the daily calls to Newport, we barely spoke about Seth. Which was odd considering he was the reason we were embarking on this trip in the first place.
I'd spent most of the day trying to get in touch with Theresa. With all the technology, sometimes, we still had to dial about four or five times before the call went through. But that wasn't what was happening today. The phone kept ringing and going to voicemail and I was getting a little worried. Theoretically, she could just be out of the house, in fact, I was almost certain that was the case, but I still needed to be reassured by her voice.
I decided to take a break after an hour of power dialing and when I walked back into the living room, I saw Anna flipping through channels.
"Hey, did you get to speak with her?" she asked.
I shook my head.
"Don't worry about it," she said dismissively. "I am positive it's nothing."
I didn't respond. I sat next to her and looked at the television screen. Instead of just keeping it on a channel, she just kept surfing. I reached for the remote control but she held it away from me.
"What do you think you're doing?" she asked with mock severity.
"I want to find something to watch."
"And what does it look like I'm doing?"
"Playing with it. Just hand it over," I ordered.
"Hell no. You think I want to spend another afternoon watching European Soccer?"
I laughed. "No. I'll find something we both want to watch." I lunged for it again but she scooted away.
"Anna, you're hogging the clicker. Hand it over."
"Nope. And leave it to me; I'll find something, okay?"
We spent about ten minutes going through all the channels. Everything I wanted to watch, she was opposed to, and vice versa. We finally decided to leave it on a music video station.
"Hey, Ryan, I was wondering. Do you speak French?"
"Why?"
"Because that's what's spoken in Tahiti. If we are going to find that idiot, we're going to have to be able to communicate. I brought a little handbook with me, but it'll be helpful if one of us could speak it."
"Hey, I'm from Chino," I said waving my hands.
She groaned. "Not that again." She frowned.
I grinned. I'd intentionally said it to piss her off.
"What does that mean? That you speak French?"
"No. It means that I am from Chino, not France, so I speak English."
She rolled her eyes. "Aren't you just so funny?"
We kept watching and when U2 came on, I hummed along. She gave me a sidelong glance and noticed I was moving to the beat.
She stood up and stretched her hand to me. "Alright, since I can see that you're itching to, let's dance."
"Huh?"
She reached down, picked my hand and pulled. "Come on, let's dance."
"Ehm... no, Anna, I don't dance."
"Dude, will you just get up? It's rude to reject a lady. Besides, I won't tell anyone you actually have fun," she said with a wink.
I had no choice but to obey. I never actually knew if I could dance because I never really tried to. At parties, I just hung around and drank and if a girl danced with me, I just stood and let her do the work. It had worked for me for many years and I wasn't about to change.
Anna on the other hand, was in her own world. I'd been a little frightened that it would be a repeat of the waltzing episode and was glad when she didn't hold on to me or anything. Instead of dancing with me, she was dancing around and with the room. She reminded me of Madonna in one of her videos. She just kept shaking her head, jumping around, flapping her arms and just did her thing. It really was an amusing sight.
"Hell no!" Anna was brought back to earth by a change in the song. "Britney Spears? Not in this lifetime." She reached for the remote and turned off the television. Then she walked to the stereo system and started looking through some of the CDs we'd brought along.
I just stood there watching her. She glanced at me.
"Ryan, please tell me you don't like her. Please, just say you don't."
"Well, she's cute..."
She shot me a chilling look.
"But, I agree, her music sucks." She smiled. The truth was, I didn't care either way, but since it seemed a little important to her, I lied. Also, I wanted to avoid a lecture on why 'Britney Spears was the reason the world was in chaos.' I was still recovering from her lecture on Bill O'Reilly.
She held up a CD. "Is Maroon 5 okay?"
I nodded. I didn't recognize the band but I really didn't care. I just wanted to watch her do her dancing thing again.
She put it on a slower song and came back to dance with me. But this time she actually decided to dance with me. She pulled me out of the corner I was hiding in so that there'd be more space for us. She pulled her body close to mine and started to move against me.
"Come on, Ryan, you can move," she urged when she noticed I wasn't.
She held my arms and flung them around like one would do when dancing with a little child.
She rolled her eyes. "Dude, dance!"
And slowly and surely, I got into the beat and danced with her.
We were still dancing when she suddenly fell on me. I instinctively caught her and managed to stay on my feet so that neither of us fell flat on the floor.
When she regained her composure, obviously embarrassed, she said, "I'm so sorry. That's what we get for dancing on the boat -a wave must have pushed it a little."
Except I didn't feel the boat move. Not even a little.
-------
Anna POV
After my little stunt, I was kind of embarrassed. I really don't know what I expected him to do but even for a moment, it felt nice to be held by him. That can't be good. After about five minutes of dancing, when I felt that it wouldn't be obvious that I was leaving out of sheer humiliation, I walked up to the deck to "check for Seth." I knew my binoculars were powerful but I didn't exactly expect to see anything in the dark.
When I felt it was appropriate, I walked back in. I heard him speaking to someone I presumed was Theresa.
"... yeah, I was just making sure you're fine...."
Pause.
" Yes, I knew you would be, but I needed to hear your voice..."
Pause
He chuckled. "I'll try my best, don't worry about it."
Long Pause. "Yes, me too. Bye."
I wondered if the last sentence was a response to a declaration of love. But I really wished it wasn't even though I had no right to, as she might have been carrying his child, but it was just a wish - I didn't really expect it to come true.
I walked into the room and sat next to him on the bed.
"Everything's fine?" I asked optimistically.
He nodded, looking through a little bag he'd brought with him . "Yes."
"See, I told you it would. Looking for something?" I asked curiously.
He looked up at me then shook his head. "Oh, don't worry about."
I figured that whatever it was had to do with the conversation he'd just had. He pulled out a pen, wrote something on a nearby piece of paper then put them both in his bag.
"Everything is fine with Theresa?"
"Yeah, she's cool."
"Wow, it must hard to be pregnant," I said. We'd never actually spoken in detail about the entire thing and I was as curious as hell. I could imagine what he was feeling but I just wanted to know.
He shrugged. "I'll never know, but she seems to be handling it well."
"And what about you and Marissa? How does this affect your relationship? I noticed you've only called her once."
"Yeah?" He suddenly looked like he needed to get the hell away. "Hey, Anna, how about we talk about this some other time, I... I have to do something," he said right before he walked out of the room.
I guess it just wasn't the right time to discuss it.
A/N: Thanks for your reviews.
----
Ryan POV
I woke up this morning with Anna's head on my shoulder. We'd been sharing the bed for four days but it was the first time she'd slept on me. And I didn't mind. In fact, I liked it. It had been a while since I'd hung out with a girl I felt comfortable with. A girl that I felt no pressure with. And it was... refreshing. I'd expected her to be panicked when she woke up and saw me staring down at her, but instead, she smiled and apologized for not being in control of her hands. It was cute. Of course, I didn't want to make things uncomfortable by urging her to keep her hands on me as much as she liked, as I thought it could be taken out of context and spoil everything.
It's quite odd that even though I'd liked her while she was still in Newport, I hadn't really noticed her. I thought she was cool but I didn't really know much about her. I think it's because she had that intense relationship with Seth and I had mine with Marissa. But here, alone, with nothing but nature around us, we really get along. And to think that in a few months she'd be back in Pittsburgh and I might never see her again. Is it odd that I've already begun to miss her?
But the weirdest part about it was that other than the daily calls to Newport, we barely spoke about Seth. Which was odd considering he was the reason we were embarking on this trip in the first place.
I'd spent most of the day trying to get in touch with Theresa. With all the technology, sometimes, we still had to dial about four or five times before the call went through. But that wasn't what was happening today. The phone kept ringing and going to voicemail and I was getting a little worried. Theoretically, she could just be out of the house, in fact, I was almost certain that was the case, but I still needed to be reassured by her voice.
I decided to take a break after an hour of power dialing and when I walked back into the living room, I saw Anna flipping through channels.
"Hey, did you get to speak with her?" she asked.
I shook my head.
"Don't worry about it," she said dismissively. "I am positive it's nothing."
I didn't respond. I sat next to her and looked at the television screen. Instead of just keeping it on a channel, she just kept surfing. I reached for the remote control but she held it away from me.
"What do you think you're doing?" she asked with mock severity.
"I want to find something to watch."
"And what does it look like I'm doing?"
"Playing with it. Just hand it over," I ordered.
"Hell no. You think I want to spend another afternoon watching European Soccer?"
I laughed. "No. I'll find something we both want to watch." I lunged for it again but she scooted away.
"Anna, you're hogging the clicker. Hand it over."
"Nope. And leave it to me; I'll find something, okay?"
We spent about ten minutes going through all the channels. Everything I wanted to watch, she was opposed to, and vice versa. We finally decided to leave it on a music video station.
"Hey, Ryan, I was wondering. Do you speak French?"
"Why?"
"Because that's what's spoken in Tahiti. If we are going to find that idiot, we're going to have to be able to communicate. I brought a little handbook with me, but it'll be helpful if one of us could speak it."
"Hey, I'm from Chino," I said waving my hands.
She groaned. "Not that again." She frowned.
I grinned. I'd intentionally said it to piss her off.
"What does that mean? That you speak French?"
"No. It means that I am from Chino, not France, so I speak English."
She rolled her eyes. "Aren't you just so funny?"
We kept watching and when U2 came on, I hummed along. She gave me a sidelong glance and noticed I was moving to the beat.
She stood up and stretched her hand to me. "Alright, since I can see that you're itching to, let's dance."
"Huh?"
She reached down, picked my hand and pulled. "Come on, let's dance."
"Ehm... no, Anna, I don't dance."
"Dude, will you just get up? It's rude to reject a lady. Besides, I won't tell anyone you actually have fun," she said with a wink.
I had no choice but to obey. I never actually knew if I could dance because I never really tried to. At parties, I just hung around and drank and if a girl danced with me, I just stood and let her do the work. It had worked for me for many years and I wasn't about to change.
Anna on the other hand, was in her own world. I'd been a little frightened that it would be a repeat of the waltzing episode and was glad when she didn't hold on to me or anything. Instead of dancing with me, she was dancing around and with the room. She reminded me of Madonna in one of her videos. She just kept shaking her head, jumping around, flapping her arms and just did her thing. It really was an amusing sight.
"Hell no!" Anna was brought back to earth by a change in the song. "Britney Spears? Not in this lifetime." She reached for the remote and turned off the television. Then she walked to the stereo system and started looking through some of the CDs we'd brought along.
I just stood there watching her. She glanced at me.
"Ryan, please tell me you don't like her. Please, just say you don't."
"Well, she's cute..."
She shot me a chilling look.
"But, I agree, her music sucks." She smiled. The truth was, I didn't care either way, but since it seemed a little important to her, I lied. Also, I wanted to avoid a lecture on why 'Britney Spears was the reason the world was in chaos.' I was still recovering from her lecture on Bill O'Reilly.
She held up a CD. "Is Maroon 5 okay?"
I nodded. I didn't recognize the band but I really didn't care. I just wanted to watch her do her dancing thing again.
She put it on a slower song and came back to dance with me. But this time she actually decided to dance with me. She pulled me out of the corner I was hiding in so that there'd be more space for us. She pulled her body close to mine and started to move against me.
"Come on, Ryan, you can move," she urged when she noticed I wasn't.
She held my arms and flung them around like one would do when dancing with a little child.
She rolled her eyes. "Dude, dance!"
And slowly and surely, I got into the beat and danced with her.
We were still dancing when she suddenly fell on me. I instinctively caught her and managed to stay on my feet so that neither of us fell flat on the floor.
When she regained her composure, obviously embarrassed, she said, "I'm so sorry. That's what we get for dancing on the boat -a wave must have pushed it a little."
Except I didn't feel the boat move. Not even a little.
-------
Anna POV
After my little stunt, I was kind of embarrassed. I really don't know what I expected him to do but even for a moment, it felt nice to be held by him. That can't be good. After about five minutes of dancing, when I felt that it wouldn't be obvious that I was leaving out of sheer humiliation, I walked up to the deck to "check for Seth." I knew my binoculars were powerful but I didn't exactly expect to see anything in the dark.
When I felt it was appropriate, I walked back in. I heard him speaking to someone I presumed was Theresa.
"... yeah, I was just making sure you're fine...."
Pause.
" Yes, I knew you would be, but I needed to hear your voice..."
Pause
He chuckled. "I'll try my best, don't worry about it."
Long Pause. "Yes, me too. Bye."
I wondered if the last sentence was a response to a declaration of love. But I really wished it wasn't even though I had no right to, as she might have been carrying his child, but it was just a wish - I didn't really expect it to come true.
I walked into the room and sat next to him on the bed.
"Everything's fine?" I asked optimistically.
He nodded, looking through a little bag he'd brought with him . "Yes."
"See, I told you it would. Looking for something?" I asked curiously.
He looked up at me then shook his head. "Oh, don't worry about."
I figured that whatever it was had to do with the conversation he'd just had. He pulled out a pen, wrote something on a nearby piece of paper then put them both in his bag.
"Everything is fine with Theresa?"
"Yeah, she's cool."
"Wow, it must hard to be pregnant," I said. We'd never actually spoken in detail about the entire thing and I was as curious as hell. I could imagine what he was feeling but I just wanted to know.
He shrugged. "I'll never know, but she seems to be handling it well."
"And what about you and Marissa? How does this affect your relationship? I noticed you've only called her once."
"Yeah?" He suddenly looked like he needed to get the hell away. "Hey, Anna, how about we talk about this some other time, I... I have to do something," he said right before he walked out of the room.
I guess it just wasn't the right time to discuss it.