The original idea for this story is credited to Nijibrush who sent me an awesome prompt. Check out her works if you haven't already. She's fabulous.
"So what'd you think?" Jane was bouncing up and down in her excitement.
"Well, I didn't realize that there were so many insane people in this world, or that they were all fans of your book." Skye grunted as she shoved another box of books in the back seat of her car.
"C'mon, Skye!" Jane clasped her hands together and looked up at her older sister with her best puppy eyes.
Skye laughed.
"I'm kidding. I'm really proud of you. Your book is very good, and though your fans are slightly on the crazy side, I have to say that they at least had the common sense to read it."
"Yes!" Jane squealed and hugged Skye triumphantly, "Can you believe it?! They loved my book!"
"Next time there's one of these book-signings though, do you think you can maybe cut down the time you chatter with each fan? That one girl talked with you for half an hour, and it held up the line of all those shrieking fan girls. I thought book-lovers were supposed to be quiet."
"I couldn't help myself. I just got so excited, because she had so many good questions and points." Jane explained, "It's like-like if someone asked you a math question, Skye. You'd talk for hours."
"Would not." Skye said indignantly, "I'd give them a straightforward and logical explanation and that would be the end of that."
She shoved another box into the car.
"Sure, Skye." Jane smiled knowingly, "Can you finish loading up the car? I need to use the restroom before we go."
"Yeah, yeah, I've got it." Skye waved dismissively,"Hurry up though, or I might decide to whale on that guy for making us bring our own table. I mean seriously!? You were bringing business to his bookstore!"
"Not worth it, Skye." Jane called back, all ready going through the bookstore's door. Skye let out a grumble, and began strapping the fold-up table onto the roof of the car. She had just finished lashing the last strap and had picked up the huge sign that read, "Jane Penderwick's book signing", when she got struck full force by a hurricane. That was the best that non-author Skye could do to describe what happened next.
"Ms. Penderwick!"
"What?" Skye turned disinterestedly. She was busy thinking about what she should get for lunch.
"Oh thank God! I caught you." An overly-enthusiastic young man grabbed her hand and pumped it up and down excitedly. He froze mid-shake though, still grasping her hand as he stared -dumb-founded- at her face. He looked almost paralyzed.
Skye yanked her hand out of his, not a little suspicious as to his mental state.
"Sorry. Sorry." The disheveled brunette apologized, "Sorry, it was just I thought I was going to miss you. My band practice ran really late, and-"
"Do I know you?" Skye looked the stranger up and down in bewilderment.
"No, No, No. Sorry." He shook his head and held up a book, "It's just, I've got to be your biggest fan."
It was Jane's book. Skye looked up at the sign she was holding, and everything clicked into place. Oh, right. That made much more sense.
"You've made a mi-"
"I can't believe this!" Now he looked like he was about to go into hysterics, "Your book changed my life! And now I get to meet you?! It's-it's just a huge honor."
"Yeah, see about that-"
"Your character, Professor Yonder, is my favorite. She's like a genius! And I know almost everyone else likes your main character Sabrina Starr the most, but Yonder really spoke to me more."
"Wow. That's extremely intriguing, but seriously-"
"Although, I'm still a bit skeptical as to some of her mathematical equations. There was one spot where they didn't make sense at all in the book."
"Yeah, great-" Then, Skye finally grasped what he had just said, "Wait? What? Not make sense?! I wrote those equations myself! I checked and double-checked, there's no inaccuracies, Mr.-"
"Jeffrey." The brunette supplied as he opened his book, "No, seriously. It's right here on page 126. See? 'Sabrina Star smiled at her nerdy companion, "Blue?" She asked, "Are you sure your formula works?"'-"
"What kind of name is 'Blue'?" Skye wrinkled her nose and snatched the book from the biggest fangirl she had ever met. She was way too offended by his off-handed insult to even care about correcting his mistake now. Or even notice how he was gazing at her with star-struck eyes.
"You came up with the name." Jeffrey gave her a puzzled look. Skye ignored him, lips moving as she read the passage silently.
"It makes perfect sense. What are you talking about?" She was relieved, "Look I'll prove it. You got a pen?"
"I'm a composer, I always have a pen."
"Yeah, yeah whatever." Skye snatched the sparkly pen from his hand, and turning the poster board sign over, she began to sketch a graph.
"Look, she placed the names of all those suspects along the vertical line. See?"
Jeffrey nodded watching her more intently, then he was the board she was scribbling on.
"And on the bottom she put all the possible felonies that could be connected with the smuggling ring. Then she accounted the amount of time they had each spent in prison, with this simple formula involving the use of the difference quotient."
"Cool! Go on, I'm following." Jeffrey was studying her graph. Skye looked at him with a bit of a surprised pleased look. As if finally seeing him. Jeffrey looked up, noticing her silence.
"What?"
"Nothing." Skye tore her eyes back to the poster board.
"Next, I rounded each number to its hundredth place..."
Skye was writing quickly now, circling numbers and drawing arrows.
...
"Finally," Skye concluded after a long explanation taking over the course of twenty minutes, "She took those exact results, graphed them, and boom! It could have only been Mel Lisa. What a terrible name."
"You wrote it." Jeffrey reminded, as looked over all of her calculations.
"I did-"
"Wow! These are amazing! You're just like Professor Yonder. Hey, is she based off of you?!" Jeffrey cut her off again.
"I am beginning to have my suspicions." Skye scowled as she flipped through the book.
"'Her charts detailing the fabric of the universe and all its vast constellations'" She read aloud, "C'mon, Jane, it's like you're not even trying. How did I not notice that before?"
"Well, considering I've been standing here for half an hour without you seeing me, I'd say you're pretty oblivious. For Pete's sake, her name's Blue Yonder. Could I have been more blatantly obvious?"
"Horrible name."
"Wait. I don't understand. What's going on?" Jeffrey asked. He wrinkled his nose, which in combination with his wild hair gave him a bit of an adorable lost puppy look. Not that Skye noticed of course, "Are you her manager or something?"
He really was absurdly clueless, as he looked at Jane questioningly.
Jane laughed hysterically at the idea.
"Oh God, Skye! Really?"
"Hey, it's not my fault. Whenever I tried to explain he'd always just cut me off. Remember when I said you have the nuttiest fans?"
"I'm sorry, Jeffrey, was it?" Jane wiped an eye, "I see you've had the unfortunate privilege of meeting my sister, Skye Penderwick."
First, Jeffrey's face was blank, and he looked back and forth between the two sisters in an attempt to understand. Skye gave him an apologetic smile, and finally Jeffrey processed his mistake.
"You're-You're not Jane Penderwick?"
"Not in the slightest. Thank goodness."
"Hey!" Jane elbowed her sister.
"You're Jane Penderwick?!" Jeffrey's eyes widened.
"Guilty as charged." Jane shrugged and smiled at him sympathetically.
"Well.. That's cool! Can I get your autograph?!"
For a brief moment, Jane thought she saw disappointment flicker over Skye's face. She couldn't be sure though, because Skye began to load the signs into her trunk, and she was acting as if she had no interest whatsoever in Jane and Jeffrey's conversation. Jane was about to shrug it off, until she observed how Jeffrey was staring off at Skye, instead of listening to her ramble about Sabrina Starr's origin. She even stopped talking completely at one point, and he didn't even notice.
Only when Skye had closed the trunk, and stood with her hands in her pockets next to Jane, did he quickly revert his eyes back on her and nod along fervently. Jane kept talking, but she could see it was a lost cause. Both Skye and Jeffrey were pretending to listen, but also pointedly avoiding looking at each other so hard that they couldn't focus on anything else.
Fortunately for these two, Jane was well skilled in the fine arts of l'amour. Or she would have been, if Skye had let her try to set her up on dates. That didn't matter though, because she had a full hand and she was going to play the cards for all she was worth.
"-And that's how I created her backstory." Jane paused, "You know, Jeffrey, this has been really fascinating, but it's about time for lunch and I'm starved. You're a native of this fine city. You know any good places to eat?"
"Um...yeah? I mean of course." Jeffrey twitched guiltily, "Um... There's a place...that's really good. It's just overrrrrrrrrrrrr...
The two Penderwick sisters both raised an eyebrow as Jeffrey drew out the word.
"That way." He pointed blindly.
"Great! Wanna come to lunch with us?!" Jane smiled brilliantly, and then turned to the car without letting Jeffrey give an answer, "Terrific, you point the way out. Dibs on shotgun!"
"You don't live here, do-" Skye started as soon as Jane was in the car.
"No, I don't live here." Jeffrey confirmed, "I drove down from Boston."
"Hey! Boston! Same." Skye threw her hands up.
"Really?! Sweet. What part are you in?" Jeffrey lit up.
'HONK'! Jane waved from the car.
"You drove all the way down from Boston, just to talk to someone who wrote a book?" Skye asked, ignoring Jane.
"I didn't drive!...I took the train, a bus, and ran the rest of the way." Jeffrey rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassedly, "But you know, driving doesn't sound as insane. Let's just say I drove down here."
Skye bent over laughing. Jeffrey blushed, but waited until she had finished.
"I just...Oh, that is the best thing I've ever heard!" She wheezed, "You went to all that trouble only to mistakenly assault someone other than the heroic authoress you were so crazy to meet."
"You know how everyone has moments in their life they'd like to try to forget? This is kinda of one of them." Jeffrey passed a hand over his face.
"Oh, sure. Sorry." Skye's mouth was still twitching. And she looked like she was holding back a quip.
Jeffrey sighed.
"Fine. Go ahead."
"Hey, Jeffrey, remember that time when you listened to me rant on for thirty minutes about graphical charts, because you thought I was a writer?" Skye cracked up all over again.
"Hey, remember that time where you decided to rant on for thirty minutes about graphical charts, instead of telling me who you really were?" Jeffrey reminded, hands on his hips.
"Hey, nobody ever lets me talk about math for that long. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity." Skye excused
"Really? I thought it was really interesting how you came up with that logarithm." Jeffrey said sincerely.
"Really?" Skye was taken aback.
"Yeah, it was pretty creative." Jeffrey insisted, "Why do you think Yonder's my favorite character?"
"Let me guess, it wasn't the name?"
"No." Jeffrey laughed at that, "It's because she's so resourceful, and whenever she hits a roadblock she just shoves right through it. She's so stubborn! I mean in the book, it took her seventeen different attempts to come up with the perfect solution, but she didn't quit once. She always had everyone's back, and not to mention her mean right hook. She comes across as super grumpy and irritable at first, but she develops as a character, and you can see how much she loves her other team members-"
HONK!
Jeffrey and Skye both jumped, and Jeffrey reddened as he realized just how much he had been rambling.
"She won't give in." Skye told him, "It looks like you're stuck with us for lunch. Fortunately for you, I scoped out a great restaurant earlier, Jane won't notice the difference."
"Nah, I can't intrude on your lunch." Jeffrey stepped back regretfully, "And I really should get back to Boston..."
"She'll be furious." Skye pressured. For the life of her, she couldn't tell what possessed her to push him so much, "C'mon, what's a thirty minute lunch in the grand scheme of things? Think about it, after all you went so far as to take a train and a bus here, and ran-"
"And there it is again." Jeffrey looked up at the sky resignedly.
They both laughed at that, though Jeffrey's laugh trailed off slowly until he was just staring at Skye with a absent-minded smile on his face. He shook himself, before she noticed.
"So...I've got to go." He winced apologetically, "I do have to get back, there's this thing I really need to get done. Say, sorry to Ms. Penderwick for me?"
"Um. Yeah, sure. I understand." Skye told him, backing up too.
"It was terrific meeting you." Jeffrey said earnestly, "And the amazing Jane Penderwick too of course."
"Yeah, definitely." Skye said, equally awkward.
Jeffrey turned to go, but hesitated and turned back.
"Hey!"
"Yeah?"
"Would you mind signing my book? I mean, it's not everyday you meet the real life Professor Yonder." Jeffrey held out his book.
"Yeah sure! I'd be happy to." Skye took the book from him, "Can I borrow your pen?"
"Of course." Jeffrey handed her his glittery, piano keyboard, decorated pen.
Skye opened the front cover of the book and wrote her name neatly under Jane's messy scrawl.
"Thanks!" Jeffrey smiled at her.
"So... Uh, goodbye?" Skye asked
"Yeah, um, goodbye." Jeffrey walked backwards, clutching his book. Then, he decided walking backwards was too awkward and turned around.
"Hey! You want your pen back?" Skye called after him.
"Nah! Keep it." Jeffrey waved back, and then because there was a weird tension in the air, he broke off into a run. Soon, he was out of sight.
Honnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnk!
Skye started and turned to see Jane giving her a put-out glare, without removing her hand from the horn. Skye got the feeling that Jane was dissatisfied that she had let Jeffrey leave.
Stranger still, Skye felt a little rueful herself. She pushed that away though. There's just some moments or feelings in everyone's life that they want to forget.
...
[Two years later]
"Can you believe this!?" Jane squealed and spun in her swivel chair, "I still can't! We're eight months in working on this, and I still can't believe they're making a movie of my book!"
"I told them that the only possibility of time traveling around a blackhole- if time travel even exists- is to fly around it counterclockwise not clockwise!" Skye said in exasperation as she made yet another x mark on the script she was reading.
"You know I'm beginning to regret making you fact-checker." Jane complained, "You keep raining on my parade. Can't you be excited at least once!"
"Aren't you supposed to be writing or something?" Skye muttered as she kept reading.
"I'm already three weeks ahead of my deadline. I'm just waiting for you to finish reading those scenes, so we can go meet a composer who wants to write the music for the movie. The producer said he's brilliant, but wanted to run the music by me to see if it's what I pictured for the story."
"Why would I want to listen to someone blabbering on and on about music?" Skye asked, leaning back and clicking her pen absent-mindedly.
"Because I'm too nice!" Jane pointed out, " This way I can let you tell him how I feel about the music and if I hate it, you can just shut him down."
"Why on earth can't you just hire an agent?" Skye grumbled.
"I've got you for that." Jane waved, "Why would I need anything more than you and my publicist?"
"Glad to hear that you put me on the same level as that over-zealous man in pink." Skye faked offense.
"Oh, don't worry about that, Darren is way higher than you. You're like all the way down here, and he's up here." Jane shot back, measuring the distance with her hands.
"I could just leave you to meet that composer on your own." Skye reminded.
"I mean way up here!" Jane corrected, smiling pleasantly, "Of course you're way off the charts, my dearest sister!"
"Don't ever address me as dearest again." Skye made three more x marks, and then tossed the screenplay aside, "Alright, let's get this over with, where are we going?"
"We're meeting them at the sound studio." Jane tossed Skye her jacket, "The guy's apparently already got some melodies in place, he just wants to run them by us first."
"Doesn't that sound something like the director would take care of though?" Skye frowned.
"Well, it turns out this guy is a huge fan of my book, and he wanted to make sure he's doing right by my standards."
"Oh, great. Another nut case?" Skye moaned, "I'm just about done with these crazy fans of your's. What this guy's name?"
"Uh...it's a Mr. Tifton." Jane squinted at the name written on her hand.
"He sounds snooty and pompous." Skye wrinkled her nose.
"I know! It kinda makes me want to give my next villain that name. Only problem is that it's a she and she's an aristocratic woman with a shrill voice and control issues..."
...
"Ah, Ms. Penderwick!" The director exclaimed pleasantly, then he observed Skye standing behind Jane and his face fell, "I see you've brought your sister. Hello, Ms. Penderwick."
Skye only grunted, as she read over the clipboard in her hand. She clicked her pen and scribbled something on the sheet of paper.
"Ms. Penderwick and...Ms. Penderwick, may I introduce the composer, Mr. Tifton."
Skye didn't look up, too immersed in her paperwork. Jane poked her viciously, and frantically.
"Hi." Skye waved in the general direction without looking up.
"Um...Skye." Jane said urgently out of the side of her mouth.
"Sec..." Skye mumbled, "I'm almost done disproving this thesis."
"Nice pen." A strange voice, she assumed belonged to the composer spoke up, "I bet you can draw up a lot of useful graphical charts with it."
"What?" Skye looked up in bewilderment.
Standing there, his arms crossed, his hair ridiculously everywhere, and a broad grin on his face, was someone she hadn't ever expected to run across again. The goofiest and probably biggest fangirl she had ever had the privilege of meeting. It was Jeffrey.
"You!" Skye fumbled in shock.
"Yes, me. Though I also answer by my first and/or last name." He laughed, his eyes creasing.
"Jeffrey.." Skye pointed at him with her pen, and turned to Jane in disbelief, "It's him right? I'm not going crazy?"
"You remembered my name?!" He looked pleased.
"I think it is him." Jane agreed, just as stunned as Skye.
"You're the composer!?" Asked Skye
"Your last name's Tifton?" Jane asked, what was in her opinion, a more logical question.
"Yes, to both." Jeffrey beamed, and pointed to the pen Skye was holding, "You kept my pen for this long?"
"What?" Skye shoved the pen in her pocket, " No. I mean...it was a good enough pen. I just found it the other day."
"She's refilled the ink at least eight times. It's the only pen she uses." Jane spoke up.
Skye kicked Jane's ankle "accidentally", and both she and Jeffrey avoided looking at each other.
"Ahem!" Fake coughed the director, who felt considerably out of the loop.
"Oh, right! So do you want to check out the scores I've arranged?" Jeffrey collected himself and jerked his thumb in the direction of a small sound booth. I've got some stuff I think will work, and I can fix them up if some scenes change. It's mostly just the characters' themes and the movie's main theme."
"Sounds great!" Chirped Jane, "Let's go take a listen!"
"Can we make it quick, though?" Asked the director, "We have a whole stack of audition tapes to go through too."
"Uh, yeah, sure." Jeffrey sat down at an upright piano, and shuffled through a few pieces on the stand, "All right, this is what I came up with for the theme. I was trying to make it triumphant, but also with a bit of a thriller sound to generate anticipation."
Jeffrey cracked his fingers, glanced at his sheet music to refresh his mind, and then closing his eyes, his fingers began to move along the piano keys with an easy practiced air. The piece started out gently, with what Skye had to admit was a pretty memorable tune.
"See it'll start out like this." Jeffrey said over his shoulder, "Then-"
He reached over to the giant soundboard that lay to his left, and while still playing the twinkling melody with his right hand, he flipped a few switches and pushed a button on the soundboard.
A rolling booming drum sounded.
"Percussions come in next." Jeffrey explained, "Because it helps build up the suspense. Then we add the strings and woodwinds in for the beginning of the chorus..."
Jeffrey flipped some more switches, pushed up a few bars, and turned a knob.
It all began to fit together to produce a more complete sound.
"Lastly, we bring in the brass." Jeffrey looked happy as he described the process, his eyes flashing with a proud-like passion, "And this just gives a cool introduction as we build into the climax."
Jeffrey flipped one more switch, and he was right. It sounded majestic.
Jane and Skye both exchanged a look of pleasant surprise. Jane nodded. Jeffrey was definitely the composer she wanted for the movie. Skye was relieved. It would have been a very uncomfortable situation for her if she had had to say Jeffrey's work wouldn't do.
The climax rolled through the room, and carefully Jeffrey brought each instrument back down until only the piano was left, and that he brought down to a slow closing finale. As the last few notes died out, he turned on the bench.
"Well...do you think it'll do at all?" He twitched nervously, "I mean obviously it would sound ten times better with a full orchestra, and I could always scrap it and work on a new one I'd you don't like-"
"No, it's perfect." Skye told him, Jane nodded in eager confirmation as she wiped a teary eye.
"All right, then." The director pulled out his phone. "That's settled. We'll draw up the appropriate paper work and arrange your contract with your manager."
"That would be what he's for." Jeffrey looked a little stunned, but also like he was bubbling over with excitement, "I've got a whole bunch of other pieces too though, do you want to-"
"Just a reminder, Ms. Penderwick, we do have all those audition tapes to look over." Director Carson interrupted.
"Oh, right!" Jane face-palmed, "How 'bout Skye stays with you, Jeffrey, and listens to those pieces. Sound good?"
Then, without giving the two a chance to argue, she grabbed the director's arm and swept out of the room.
"Good! See you later!"
Skye looked around the whole studio, and Jeffrey shuffled his papers around. The silence was uncomfortable.
"So...how have you been?" Jeffrey cleared his throat, but didn't tear his eyes from his music.
"I've been good. How 'bout you? You haven't been going around asking for autographs from people who look like Keira Knightley have you?" Joked Skye.
"Actually..." Jeffrey made an embarrassed face.
"No! You didn't!" Skye's said incredulously.
"No, I didn't. Just kidding." Jeffrey chuckled, "What about you? You still ranting about math to anyone who gives you a chance?"
"Sort of. I'm an Astrophysicist, and I've actually lectured and debated quite a bit on the subject. I've also written a book, though I can't say I have crazy people coming up to me in the street to ask me to sign their copy of it."
"Hey! That's great, good for you." Jeffrey said genuinely, "Though I'm going to pretend you didn't say that last part. That's really awesome!"
"Thanks." Skye smiled back at him, "How 'bout you though? Are you really still hunting through those music sheets or just shuffling them mindlessly? I'd love to hear what you've got."
"It's nothing great." Jeffrey shrugged, "But there is one score I wrote, that you might find interesting. It's the theme I wrote for Yonder."
"Cool." Skye took a seat on the chair in the corner, "Go ahead."
Jeffrey placed a rumpled piece of paper on the piano stand. The paper was creased and smeared from so many passages being erased over and over. Skye had to wonder how Jeffrey could even read it.
Jeffrey let out a long breath, bent over his piano, and played. Skye listened mesmerized. The piece he played made the previous score sound tinny and out of tune. This one was a masterpiece. It was slow but radiating with a power, his right hand played an impulsive and wild melody, while his left hand played lower down and sounded steady and unmoving. Skye was so enthralled she almost didn't notice when Jeffrey turned to look at her once he had finished.
"I know...it's not exactly right." Jeffrey scratched his head humbly, "But-"
"No! It was-it was terrific." Skye hurried to stop him, "I'm serious. I've never been one to care much for music, but that really connected with me. It was amazing! How did you ever write that!"
Jeffrey shrugged, but he was flushed from her praise.
"It's actually pretty old. I wrote it like two years ago. It's called, "Fair Skies", you know, keeping in with the Yonder theme."
"It's incredible!" Skye insisted, "It's the most beautiful thing I've ever heard."
"Yeah, well I did write it right after I met you. It was based off you." Jeffrey stated matter-of-factly.
Skye's eyebrows shot up. Jeffrey's eyes widened as he registered what he had said.
"I..um.." Skye didn't know what to say to that.
Jeffrey groaned and pulled on his hair, which turned out to be kind of humorous and kind of made Skye feel more sorry for him then she did awkward.
"Sorry. That was stupid." Jeffrey cringed and ducked his head. His ears were turning red. "I didn't mean it like that..."
"Like what?"
"Like...creepy." Jeffrey winced, "What I meant is that you were so much like the character I couldn't help being inspired to write her theme after I met you. That's it, I swear. God! Why do I end up humiliating myself like that every time I see you?"
Jeffrey buried his face in his hands. Skye had to bite back a grin. He was overreacting, which made her feel better and not so worried that she was the only overly-conscious person in the room.
"Its not creepy." Skye assured him, "I'm flattered."
"Really?" Jeffrey peered hopefully up at her.
"Yeah. Like I said, it's a pretty genius piece of work."
"Oh, good." Jeffrey sighed in relief and pushed back his hair, "Sorry, I didn't mean to be over-dramatic. You're the first person I've ever played that composition for is all. I was worried that it wasn't that good. Thank you."
"I'm honored."
A heavy silence fell over the room, as both of its inhabitants struggled to find something else to say. It felt like there was something in the air between the two, but both were afraid that it was only they that felt it. So the silence increased and increased, their eyes met nervously once and that made it worse. Finally, it grew so unbearably painful to Skye that she had to speak.
"It was great seeing you again."
"Yeah, you too." Jeffrey jumped up jerkily, and then shoved his hands in his pockets.
"I'm glad you got picked to be composer."
"Yeah, you- I mean, me too." He corrected himself abruptly,
"I just have work to do..." Skye backed up towards the door, waving the clipboard in a gesture of explanation, "This thesis is faulty-"
She paused as her eyes fell on the thesis, and got distracted by it.
"Yeah, I should get back to work too." Jeffrey waved towards his piano, "See you around?"
"Yeah." Skye was still staring at her clipboard, but also fishing in her pocket as she left, "Great seeing you again, Jeffrey."
She waved back at him distantly again, only this time she was holding the pen she had taken out of her pocket. The pen he had given her.
Jeffrey fidgeted in place, undecided for a moment, but then he moved. Dashing to the door, he flung it open to rush after Skye, only to take a step back because she was standing right there still writing on her clipboard.
"Ha, I knew your little thesis was bull crap, Pearson." She muttered to herself triumphantly, before looking up at Jeffrey questioningly, "Hey, something wrong?"
"I was-I just-" Jeffrey felt his adrenaline rush drifting away, so he pushed on quickly, "I was just wondering if I could ask you out to a movie or for a cup of coffee sometime?"
Skye opened her mouth, but Jeffrey kept rambling.
"I mean unless you don't like coffee or something, we could always do tea because most places sell tea and-"
"A movie sounds good, Jeffrey." Skye cut him off.
"Really?!" Jeffrey's face shone, "I mean great! I mean, does Tuesday sound good?"
"It sounds perfect." Skye found it hard to resist a smile, "Here's my number."
She wrote the numbers down neatly on the corner of her paper, and tearing it off, she handed it to him, "We can text out the details."
"Great! Great!" Jeffrey brushed back his hair, "...Great!"
"Great." Skye did her best not to laugh, "See you then."
"Grea- I mean, yeah, see you!" Jeffrey waved.
Skye had barely made it fifteen feet away from the little sound booth when she heard Jeffrey playing his "Fair Skies" music again.
She couldn't stop herself from smiling for the rest of the day.
So I think I went a little crazy over this prompt, at over five thousand words it's the longest piece I've ever written. Sorry to everyone who submitted a prompt and didn't see it get written. There's always the next time around, which will be update no. 6. Submit as many ideas as you want, I love and appreciate your creativity.
KoalaLover-ABC-123: Thanks for the one shot prompt, sorry that I didn't use it this time. I love the idea of Jeffrey and Skye being forced on the date, and I want to use it at some point, but I haven't brainstormed it enough yet. I don't think it's stupid at all, and I genuinely care for it. I'm going to use it soon, promise. Thank you for your review!
Nijibrush: Thank you, I'm beginning to like this project a lot myself. I love writing AU's. As you can see, I went full out crazy over your idea. It kind of possessed me. I almost started it right away, but it was already midnight when I read your review, and I needed to get up for work at five. Then, I started writing it as soon as I woke up. I don't know why, but the whole idea tickled my fancy and I've been obsessing over it all yesterday and today, hence this update that came so soon. Thank you for that prompt, it really made the past few days for me. It deviated a bit from your original suggestion, sorry about that. Hope you enjoyed!