Chapter 23: Noah's Ark
"It's like Noah's ark," Tom Pickles complained, while shuffling towards his dormitory. "Everyone's pairing off."
With a rueful smile, Lillian DeVille intoned, "Let the rain begin."
Tom only grunted and kicked at a nearby beer can. The crushed can skipped down the sidewalk a few feet, loudly clanking the entire way. Tom watched morosely as the can fell into the gutter.
"Hey! Gilbert Grape!" Hearing Lil's voice, Tom glanced up. Lil had stopped walking and was standing, hands on hips. She continued, "What's eating you?"
He shrugged. "Nothing."
Lil cocked an eyebrow. Liar, said the eyebrow.
He sighed and turned away. He hated how Lil knew him so well. It could be very … inconvenient. Running a hand through his hair, Tom stared ahead at where his dorm loomed large and foreboding against the night sky. He knew he was coming home to an empty room, and worse, he knew it was all his own fault.
"I didn't know that Phil had left the party," Tom said aloud. "I didn't know that Dil was pissed at me. And I didn't even know that Chuck was in trouble until it was too late."
From behind, Lil said nothing. Then, very softly, she offered, "For what it's worth, I didn't know that Phil had left either."
Tom nodded but didn't otherwise respond. After a few moments, he heard Lil sigh heavily. He turned around to find her standing only inches away. She lifted one well-manicured hand and poked him square in the chest.
"Stop being a doink," she said, poking him again for emphasis. "This self-pity party is so not Thomas Pickles."
For a moment Tom's jaw worked but no words came out. The thing was, Lil had a point. Just as he realized this, Lil leaned forward and briefly brushed her lips against his, stunning Tom back to slack-jawed speechlessness. Meanwhile, Lil raised an eyebrow again, but whether in challenge or triumph, Tom couldn't tell.
Seeing that eyebrow—that damned, all-knowing eyebrow—was the last straw. Tom felt a smirk involuntarily play across his lips. "So," he said, in the smooth lady-killer voice he'd lovingly cultivated, "if a self-pity party isn't me, what is?"
Lil's eyebrow remained perched precariously near her hairline. "You don't even want to know," she replied coolly.
"Try me."
"For starters?"
Tom nodded. "An excellent place to begin."
"For starters," Lil repeated, tapping her chin thoughtfully, "you're way too cocky."
Laughing lightly, Tom took a step forward, so close that he could almost taste Lil's breath. He smiled as he said, "That's good, for a start. Anything else to add?"
"Yes. You're also obtuse." Lil smiled back. "Are you going to invite me up to your dorm room already or what?"
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Author's Notes: I'm so sorry for the delay in posting this. Holidays and family together time and what-not. Also, I've found Tommy and Lil to be hard characters to write for, and I wanted to do them some justice. In penance, I shall post the next chapter right along with this one.