Ch.9

"Fox...Fox are you awake?"

"Huh?" Fox lifted his head at the sound of his name. He turned to look at who it was. He turned too far and rolled off the couch.

Teresa laughed. "Are you alright?"

She walked over and bent down beside him.

"That hurt.""Thanks for giving me the couch Resa...it's great," he said sarcastically.

"We only have one bed Fox...the couch isn't that bad is it?"

"Not that bad? Teresa, I've had a broken spring in my butt all night!"

She laughed.

He looked around.

"What time is it anyway?"

"It's a little after 2," she said.

"What's going on? Why are you awake?"

"I couldn't sleep," she admitted. "There was a bug in my bed and it crawled up my leg."

Fox sat up laughing.

"It's not funny Fox! It scared me."

"Nothing about this apartment is funny Teresa...but you picked it."

He stood up. "You know what we need?" he asked.

"What?"

"Ice cream."

She smiled.

"We don't have any food."

'Well we can go get some." He tossed her coat to her.

"Fox, I'm in my pajamas."

"So am I," he said buttoning his jacket. "Come on, it's 2 in the morning...who cares what we look like."

She grabbed the coat and put it on.

"I look like a mess."

"You look like an angel."

She laughed. "Alright Romeo, let's go."

She grabbed the key next to the door and followed Fox out into the hall. She made sure the door was locked and they walked down the stairs of their apartment building, the cool breeze hitting their faces as they walked outside.

"Alright," she said. "Where is this ice cream?"

"I think there is a grocery store a few blocks over," he said pointing." We can go buy some there."

"You know what else we should do?"

"What?"

"We should go rent a couple of movies," she said. "We need to have a really fun first night."

"Sounds like a plan," Fox said. "Let's go."

They walked to the store a few blocks over.

"Should we get some more food while were here?" Teresa asked. "We don't have anything."

"That's probably smart," he said grabbing a cart. "Nothing like grocery shopping at 3 am."

They walked down a couple of aisles, looking at the various food selections.

"Let's see," Teresa said. "We should get just enough to hold us over for now."

"Ok...chicken, beer, and ice cream." Fox smiled

. She glared at him. "I was thinking more along the lines of cereal, bread, some kind of pasta?"

"Oh I see," Fox laughed. "And of course ice cream."

"Of course! That's the main course."

They walked down a few more aisles, grabbing what they needed.

"Psst...hey Resa."

She turned around.

"Hop in."

"What?"

"Hop in," Fox whispered.

"In the cart?" She asked.

"Yea."

"Why?"

He smiled at her. "Why not? Let's have some fun."

She looked around. Seeing no one, she climbed into the cart.

"I haven't done this since I was about 8," she said laughing. Fox held on to the handle tight, and began running down the aisle. Teresa laughed, putting her hands up. He got to the end of the aisle and sharply turned, running into a stack display of cereal. It collapsed onto the ground, cereal spilling everywhere.

"Whoops," Fox said.

The manager came up. "What are you two doing?" he yelled. "You've made a huge mess!"

"We are so sorry," Teresa said jumping out of the cart. "We'll pick it up."

"Get out of my store," the man yelled. "We don't need dumb kids like you causing trouble in here."

Teresa and Fox looked at each other.

"Go ahead," Fox whispered. "I'll be out in a minute."

Teresa walked outside. Fox came running out a few minutes later.

"Run!" he yelled. "Run!"

Surprised, she did as he said and followed him. When they were a few blocks away, he stopped, catching his breath.

"Ok," she said gasping. "What was that about?" F

ox coughed. He reached into his coat and pulled out a pint of ice cream.

"Did you steal that?" she asked shocked.

"I guess you could say that," Fox said laughing.

"Fox, I cant believe you did that!"

He reached into his coat and kept his hand in there.

"So I guess you don't want your ice cream then?"

She smiled.

"Is it peanut butter?"

He pulled it out.

"Of course."

She grabbed it from him. "Well I guess it will be ok."

He handed her a spoon and held on in his hand.

"Cheers," he said banging his spoon to hers.

"Cheers," she smiled. They took a bite.

"Yum," she said closing her eyes. "This is so good."

"I thought you would like it."

"Well now what are we going to do? We didn't get any groceries."

"We can get them tomorrow...let's go get a movie and take it back to the apartment."

They walked a little ways down the road until they reached Blockbuster Video.

"What movie do we wanna get?" Teresa asked walking in.

"I think I should get to pick out something manly since you made me watch The Notebook last time."

She laughed. "You liked the Notebook!"

"That's not the point," he said defensively. "It's my turn...and I'm picking something scary out."

He rented The Exorcist.

"It's a classic," he told her. "You'll love it."

They made it back to the apartment about 40 minutes later. At around 4, they started the movie.

"Fox, is this really scary?" Teresa asked. "You know I hate scary movies."

"Just watch," he said.

Within an hour, Teresa was snuggled up to Fox, her eyes closed. She was too scared to look at the tv.

"Is her head still spinning?" She asked into his shirt.

"No it's not," Fox laughed. He stroked her hair. "It's just a movie Teresa...it's really not that bad."

The movie kept playing.

"Teresa, watch this," Fox said. "This is a good part."

No response.

"Teresa?"

He looked down. She had fallen asleep. He smiled. He managed to crawl out from underneath her. Slowly, he reached down and picked her up. She started to stir.

"Shhh," he said soothingly into her ear. "You're ok."

He walked her back to the bedroom and slowly laid her down. He pulled up all her covers and made sure she was comfortable.

"Sweet dreams," he whispered to her, bending down and kissing her cheek. " Dream of me."

He looked at her once more, then walked back to the living room. He plopped down on the couch and sighed. He knew he would have trouble sleeping tonight. And it wasn't because of the movie.

"That's it," he said to himself before drifting off to sleep. "Tomorrow is the day I make Teresa fall in love with me."

He fell asleep, her face the last thing he saw, a small smile forming on his lips.