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A bell tinkled as Darren opened the door of the quaint retro café. Lauren recognised the place as it was very popular among U of M students for its ideal location and affordable prices. You were almost always guaranteed to pass a Michigan Wolverines t-shirt in there, no matter what time of the day you went in.
With his hand resting on the small of her back, Darren guided Lauren to a table at the back of the café where it was a little quieter.
"After you my lady," he said in an English accent as he pulled out her chair for her.
Lauren hid a smile at his cheesiness and played along, graciously taking her seat. She picked up the menu and scanned her eyes over the options. After a few minutes a kind-eyed middle-aged waitress came over to take their order. "And what can I get you my dears?"
"Just a Chai Latte please," Lauren responded with a thankful smile.
"and I'll have the same," Darren added before the waitress had even a chance to turn to him.
The waitress raised her eyebrows and smiled warmly at them before tottering away to get their coffees.
"I don't believe it." Darren said suddenly, raising his head with a surprised look on his face, "this is one of my favourite songs."
Lauren listened, and recognised the song as the 'Time Warp' from The Rocky Horror Show. "Really?" she asked disbelievingly. "What?" Darren responded with a goofy smile on his face, "It's one of my favourite musicals of all time. I mean I know it's completely insane, but that's what makes it so great…. Plus you get to dress up every time you go to see it." At this moment their waitress returned with their lattes and placed them down carefully in front of them.
"I've never actually seen it performed," Lauren admitted stirring some sugar into her coffee, "Of course I know the songs and the general theme of it but…"
She stopped, looking up and noticing that Darren looked as if he'd just been told that chocolate was no longer available in the US. Lauren burst out laughing at the look of utter disbelief on his face.
They spent the next few hours exchanging stories and laughing at one another's embarrassing memories, most of these coming from Darren.
Glancing at her watch, Lauren gasped and leaped up, "Oh my God, I'm so sorry Darren, but I have to go, I have rehearsal." Darren stood up slowly, "Of course," he said understandingly, although Lauren swore she could detect a slight note of disappointment in his voice.
She rooted in her bag searching for some change but Darren placed his hand gently on her wrist, causing her to stall, "hey this one is on me, remember?" he said softly and Lauren felt her cheeks blush red at his touch as she raised her eyes to meet his.
It seemed like a lifetime ago that she had met this silly, curly-haired guy after almost suffering a concussion. Lauren reluctantly pulled her gaze away from him and bent to pick up the infamous beige bag, which she promised to herself to never throw away.
"Can you wait one minute while I pay and I'll walk you to your rehearsal?" Darren asked.
Together they stepped out into the street and headed back towards the university campus. Darren looked down surprised as he felt Lauren slip her small hand into his. He squeezed it in acknowledgement and Lauren breathed a sigh of relief. When they reached the studio Lauren turned and held out a piece of paper to Darren. He looked own at it confused.
"What's this?" he asked.
"My number," Lauren responded with a giggle and a raise of the eyebrows. Darren smiled, embarrassed at not realising the obvious.
He took the number from her and was once again caught off guard when she leaned up and pecked him softly on the cheek and thanked him. With that she turned and strode off towards the door to the studio leaving a stunned Darren staring after her. He shook his head in disbelief.
"She's something," he said quietly, under his breath to himself, before making his way back towards his apartment. Passing the theatre building, he stopped as he noticed a large poster displayed on the 'Upcoming Shows' notice board. He smiled and decided to make a quick detour or two on his journey home.
Lauren emerged from rehearsals late with some fellow theatre students, Meredith and Jaime, who she had gotten particularly close with over the past few weeks. She shivered as she felt the night air hit her and wrapped her arms around herself in an attempt to maintain as much body heat as she could.
Jaime wrapped her arms around Lauren's shoulders, "Lo, you really should start wearing a coat you know," she said disapprovingly. Meredith on the other hand just laughed and flung her arms around both Jaime and Lauren, "Oh but Jaime, it gives us more reasons to have group hugs."
Meredith's apartment was next door to Lauren and Julia, however Jaime's was on the other side on the campus completely and it wasn't long before they had to go their separate ways.
"So Mere how's your little crush on Brian progressing, any nearer to asking him out?" Lauren chanced, giving her friend a knowing smile. Meredith's mouth dropped open and she slapped Lauren playfully on the elbow.
"Ouch," Lauren winced.
Meredith crinkled her eyebrows confused, "Lo, I hardly touched you."
"No, no I fell earlier and cut it," she explained hugging her arm close to her. Meredith stopped and picked up Lauren's arm and let out a low whistle when she saw the cut. "Jeez Lauren, what were you doing today? Practising to become a stunt double or something?" Meredith laughed.
"Nope, just an unfortunate result of me running late as per usual," Lauren giggled along with her.
By the time the girls reached their apartment block they could hardly feel their fingers from the cold and they sighed in relief when they were greeted with a blast of warm air as they opened the main door. They trudged up the stairs seeing as the lift had once again decided to stop working and was now fashioned with an 'Out of Order' sign. Lauren felt the tiredness, resulting from the day's action, catching up with her and looked forward to lounging on the couch with Juls and watching an episode of Gossip Girl. She said goodbye to Meredith and unlocked her door.
"Lo, is that you?" Lauren heard Julia shout from the kitchen.
"Ya, hey Juls" Lauren responded as she entered the kitchen and saw Julia looking at her funny with a knowing smile on her face.
"What?" Lauren asked cautiously.
"That guy Darren called looking for you."Lauren stopped in her tracks and Julia continued, obviously enjoying Lauren's reaction.
"He said you left that in your art literature class," she said pointing at a rectangular book,"but I know he's not in that class with you. Still, I played along, I recognise young love when I see it."
"Julia!" Lauren gasped, mortified. She picked up the book and smiled. It was The Rocky Horror Show script. She opened it up on the first page and found an envelope taped to the inside cover.
Opening it she found two tickets to Basement Arts production of The Rocky Horror Show for the following Sunday night and a brief note:
To the beautiful girl with the wrecked blue hoodie,
Your knight in shining armour will pick you up at 8.00 Sunday night for dinner before we attend the most amazing show on earth. It'll rock your world.
Darren x
PS don't worry about a costume for the show, I'll sort that out.
PPS I'm still sorry I knocked you over today :)
Thanks guys, I hop you liked it. Please continue to review x x
Note: all representations of characters are purely for the stories purpose.