A/N: I'm back with the second chapter of 'Cougar town before Cougar town.' I apologise for the lack of creativity behind the title, but it still seemed a very apt choice. As you probably would expect from me based on my other works, this story will continue in the first person and the character perspective that I am writing from will always be stated at the beginning. Thank you very much for all your support with my other four different books, and I hope that you will enjoy this one. Reviews and suggestions for improvements with the story will always be appreciated, and so I hope that you will share them. I think I've talked for long enough, so let's continue and see where this chapter goes:
Chapter 2 – Ellie
"I want coffee," I say loudly, whilst lying vertically on my bed.
Jules was taking a shower in the en-suite bathroom, and I was attempting to read one of my assigned textbooks but in reality I was just bored but too lazy to move. "Go get it yourself," I hear Jules shout back.
"I don't have money," I say back. "Besides, I'm too lazy to walk all the way down to Starbucks."
"Then there's no way that you're going to get coffee," Jules shouts back. "That's how it works today, my friend!"
I am thinking through the options I have to answer with when Jules starts to talk again. "Besides," she adds. "You do have money!"
Regardless of the fact that Jules was right, I still didn't want to use it for coffee. We had gone down to the canteen at breakfast where they had had the coffee and tea machines that you could get for free, but as per usual, the coffee machine had been broken. Consequently for Jules, but luckily for me, I had been trying to wear her down with Ellie's coffee withdrawal attitude problems.
"I'll go steal one then," I say, knowing full well that Jules would end up paying for me so that I could stay here and complete my degree as Jules was so supportive of me achieving.
"Hasn't the fact that you are literally studying the law as part of your degree taught you anything?" Jules shouted back.
{A/N: Many apologies, but if I use the British spellings of words or entire words themselves such as 'degree' instead of 'major', it's because I live in the UK, so sorry to my readers if it gets annoying because I do try to remember to use the 'correct' one with the story}
"Yeah," I say. "But it has so little written on emergencies that I am pretty sure that Elisabeth needing coffee could fall under that category."
"I give up," Jules shouts back, and I grin in celebration. "I'm going to go through your wallet and find the money," I say, as if I was stating a fact.
Before Jules can comment any further, I walk over to Jules's bed and see her rucksack that is sitting on her pillow, beside a pile of books. I unzip the front compartment of the rucksack, and find her wallet almost immediately. I zip open the section where she keeps her loose cash, and start counting enough for my regular drink of choice, a Grande cappuccino with two shots of expresso. I take a few extra bucks to make sure that I can also get Jules her regular order too, since I am stealing her money and she's more likely to go easy on me when she finds out.
I put the wallet back into the rucksack, and put it back where it was originally on the bed. I pocket the money, and grab one of my many scarves that's hanging up with our bed robes, coats and jackets on the coatstand. I wrap it around my neck in front of the mirror, and shout through the frosted door of the en-suite that I am leaving to go to Starbucks.
I take the key out of the lock, and open the door. I lock it again, and start walking towards the staircase. I hope that, because it's 10am in the morning and most people have lessons around this time, I don't meet anyone as I am walking downstairs.
"Hey Ellie," one of the guys who's in the same dorm block as me says as I pass him. I debate between pretending that I haven't heard him or saying something in return. I decide on saying something because he is one of the more decent people in my class. He's not that horrible looking, either.
"Oh hi, Andy," I say, "I'm just on my way to get coffee."
"Cool," he replies. "I'm off to study."
"Rather you than me," I say, feeling a little surprised by how polite I am being compared to how I am normally.
Andy laughs slightly. "You don't seem like the kind of girl who would care much for studying," he says.
"My talents are often better used elsewhere," I say. "When I say talents, I am mainly referring to my ability to express my hatred towards the majority of humanity."
Andy laughs again. "Don't say that," he says. "You can be such a good friend, and you're funny as well. I mean, look at Jules if you want an example."
Now I'm confused between feeling awkward to the point of embarrassment and flattered. "Thanks," I squeak, having to turn away because I'm blushing bright red and I don't want Andy to see.
"Guess I'll see you around," Andy said, continuing to walk up the stairs. I manage to barely get out an audible goodbye before marching my way straight to Starbucks to get away from the situation because I didn't want to make it more awkward than it already was.
As desperate as I was to forget the encounter, I couldn't shake the feeing. I see Andy pretty much every day in passing through the dorm block, and it's never been this awkward to have a perfectly normal conversation with him. So what, if anything, has changed? I couldn't put a finger on it, which was bothering me the most, but I decided that I was sure that something had changed. I made a mental note as I was pushing the door open to Starbucks to talk to Jules about it.
I ordered Jules and I's regular drinks, and started to walk back up the stairs. I was hoping that I wouldn't have to see Andy again, and so I was holding my breath all the way to outside our dorm room. I used my key to unlock the door, after placing the coffees on the floor against the wall in the corridor because I couldn't multitask.
Jules was sitting on her bed when I walked in. I passed her coffee to her, and gave her the spare change. She was looking at me with the expression that I recognised to be pissed off, which adjusted slightly when I handed her the coffee. "At least you had the decency to get me something," she said, taking a sip of her flat white.
"I always do when I steal your money," I said, matter-of-factly. "Anyway, I have some gossip to share."
"Spill," Jules said, shifting slightly on her bed.
I sat down on my own, sitting cross-legged so I was opposite Jules. "You know Andy?" I say. "Andy Torres?"
Jules nods. "Yeah. The one that's majoring in economics and finance?" she says.
"Oh yeah," I say, remembering that as I had forgotten it in the haste of the situation. "Well, today was really odd. He didn't say anything weird or do anything, I was just really awkward and nervous around him, and he was complimenting me and being really friendly."
"That's how most people are," Jules says, laughing for a moment. "But seriously, have you thought about why you were like that?"
"No," I say, sheepishly. I look away.
"You have," Jules says. "Haven't you?"
I want to keep looking away because I am ashamed to admit it. "Maybe…"
"I know! I know!" Jules fist pumps the air. "You looove him!" she exclaims triumphantly, and I have to try and stifle the urge to scream that I don't.
"I don't," I insist, through gritted teeth.
"Prove that to me," Jules says, stubbornly. "Have a completely normal conversation with him without feeling awkward or embarrassed." She pauses to think about it for a minute. "No!" she exclaims, as if she has made some kind of amazing discovery. "Since making sarcastic and mean comments about people is something that comes naturally to you, say something about Andy!"
"Fine!" I say. I try and focus on his features or something that I can make fun of. I try and think of an adjective to describe his height, or that he has a receding hairline, but I can't help focusing on his amazing smile and the fact that he is always a gentleman to everyone he meets. I can see that Jules is enjoying watching me squirm whilst trying to figure out even a single mean thing to say about him, and I can also tell that she knows I'm losing the fight and that she is winning.
"Can't think of anything, can you?" she taunts, enjoyment plastered all over her face.
I really don't want to give in. I don't know why I am so ashamed to admit that I find him and his personality so attractive. It's probably because virtually any kind of sentimental emotion is completely alien to me. I am desperate to wipe the grin off of Jules's face that is just getting wider and wider, but I also know that I can't hide away from the truth and the truth will only give all the satisfaction to Jules.
I start to look at the situation a little more objectively. Would I be open to something in the future with Andy? It takes me a surprisingly short amount of time to decide that I would 100% want to take it further. Based on that, I decide that there really is going to be no benefit to me or my pride by not admitting that I do have a crush on Andy.
"You're right," I say, having to look away almost immediately after saying it because I know that Jules will have the most insufferable 'I told you so' expression on her face. "I have a crush on Andy." It feels oddly comforting to say, but weird at the same time because I had never imagined Andy as any more than just another student at college who happened to be in the same dorm block. "What should I do next?" I ask Jules, because I know that she has experience with navigating relationships.
"Ask him if he feels the same way," Jules said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Yeah, no," I say, firmly. "Not that fast."
"Goddammit, Elisabeth!" Jules exclaimed. "You have to get in there as quickly as possible, otherwise you'll have no chance!"
"Keep it down, woman," I said, in frustration. "We are going to keep it as low-key and as subtle as possible."
"That's not going to work!" Jules sang in what I think her best attempt at an annoying child's voice.
I absolutely hated to admit it, but Jules was true after today. The damage had already been done, and my only way to go forward was to try and fix the damage in the way that I wanted. My first question was going to be to Andy, asking why he was nice to someone like me who was always such an ass. If it was for friendship in the same way that Jules had approached me when I first started here, I wouldn't be too gutted but if he wasn't willing to take it further, I would be hurt enough to not want to pursue it.
"I'll go with you to his dorm," Jules offered.
"Thanks," I said, finally giving her eye contact again. I saw in her eyes that she was genuinely happy for me as my best friend, and I felt bad for pushing her away so much. "I really appreciate it." I tried to show Jules in my expression how genuinely grateful I was, and I really hoped that she knew that the fact I had even been able to admit that I loved Andy to her was a huge step in how much I trusted her.
"Let's go now!" she said, getting excited again.
"For fucks sake," I groan, but I shuffle off of my bed to go to the en-suite bathroom. I grabbed my hairbrush, and stood in front of the mirror mounted onto the wall opposite the bathroom. When I'm happy that my hair looks a little more presentable, I look at Jules. "Do you even know which dorm he's in?" I ask.
"Yep," she says. "Follow me."
I follow her, and wait a couple of seconds whilst she locks the door after us. Jules leads the way, and I follow. My palms are starting to sweat, and I am not chill at all. Part of me is telling me to act completely natural and part of me was telling me that I needed to really pick up my game and stop being so awkward. In the end, I just decided to completely ignore both voices in my head because they were making more nervous, and I hoped that by blocking them out, it would go better.
We stop outside the door, and Jules motions for me to make the move and knock on the door. I glare at her furiously, and stand back. Jules ends up knocking on the door for me, and suddenly the grey carpet is disproportionately more interesting to me.
A/N: Sorry to leave y'all on a cliff-hanger, but I was having far too much fun with this not to. You won't regret having to wait, I promise. I also wanted to just thank everyone for the continued support on my books, and I hope that you guys like this one and check out the other four books that I am writing, which are a Cougar Town and Friends crossover novel and a companion trilogy called Familiar Faces which is from the perspectives of the three main Friends couples. Thank you once again and I hope that you guys will read, review and enjoy this update!