Anthony "Ace" Boot (practicemakes) wrote in thesocieties, @ 2010-10-24 15:26:00 |
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Entry tags: | ! log, 2023: 10/october, ch: anthony boot, ch: jennifer price |
Log: Jay and Ace
Who: Ace and Jay
Where: Ace's room, Ace & Gavin's flat, Glinda Gardens
When: Late Saturday, 23rd of October
What: An early Christmas gift, multiple confessions, and a big change.
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Ace's new bedroom was still something of a disaster zone, but for a first night, it would do. With his bed and desk and chest of drawers arranged, and his fake skeleton propped up in the corner wearing a sombrero, the bones of his room were more or less in place. Said bones were obscured, however, by the bags and boxes of clothing, books, posters, bookshelves yet-to-be-assembled, and miscellaneous shite, each container meticulously inventoried and labelled in Ace's handwriting, a task that he worked on piece by piece the previous week. His mother had insisted that he hang curtains soon after moving in, and he followed that instruction dutifully, as he knew she would check when she and his dad visited tomorrow. Though, possibly, her insistence was a complicated trick to get him to darken his room against the morning sun, which would enable him to oversleep on Sunday morning and do no additional cleaning or fixing up or unpacking before his parents arrived, and therefore she could make disapproving sounds over both the state of his new flat and his inability to be a responsible adult outside of her guidance. That was a paranoid and unkind conspiracy even if it was grounded in previous experience, and Ace proooobably wouldn't have indulged it were he not stressed and tired, but the fact was he WAS stressed and tired. He had spent a lot of his time today ensuring that the kitchen was ready to go, cleaned and stocked with the appropriate food and cooking utensils, which was an absorbing activity both stressful and reassuring. So, yes, he felt safer knowing that they indeed had potholders and a colander and each necessary measuring spoon, but it had sapped most of his energy and left him quieter (relatively speaking) on the outside and his thoughts louder on the inside. And among those loud thoughts: sometime during all of the busy activity of the day, he got it into his head that he had to give Jay her Christmas gift. Now. Okay, it wouldn't be her Christmas gift any longer, given that it was October and not December, and so he'd find her a different actual Christmas gift later. And though it felt very, if inexplicably, important to give the gift to her today, he couldn't remember where it was packed, or if he had packed it at all. And now that he was slightly panicking over this, he was starting to doubt the very reality of it. Could he have just imagined or thought very hard about getting her this, and it had felt so real that he had convinced his admittedly impressionable mind that it was true? Or else had he dreamt vivid, elaborate dreams of buying a gift for Jay and confused that with reality? Those prospects didn't strike him as all that off-kilter. And now, he knelt in front of one stack of boxes, rapidly reading through each one's marked contents and trying to rummage his brain for where (if) he had packed it. He had asked Jay back to his room but now he was feeling far too self-conscious about that. "See, I wanted to give you my--your--Christmas gift," he explained earnestly as he looked. "I've been thinking about it all day, or most of today, and I don't really know why. Except that I wanted to, so. But I'm not sure where it is, so it'll be just a moment." He gave Jay a pleading look before returning to his search. Jay smiled down at Ace, "Okay," she answered and waited for him to find whatever it was that he was looking for. Sure, to most people this sudden need to give a Christmas present months early might seem a bit off but it was Ace and he was talking to her and, in her mind, that was all that really mattered. She might be trying to convince herself that she didn't have feelings for him anymore but the fact of the matter was that even if she was getting over him (which was questionable on the best days) she still would do nearly anything he asked of her. Besides, she still owed him for helping out with Mara and Aya's birthday party. Because letting a bunch of six and seven-year-old girls play princess around you was an extraordinary act of male friendship. It was interesting to see the differences between the way that she'd packed up and the way Ace did and it probably said a lot about their personalities. When she'd packed she'd packed and labled based on where it was going to end up but that had been the extent of it. She certainly hadn't cataloged everything on the boxes. She saw the wisdom in doing it this way but it just hadn't occured to her to do things that way. Ace shoved aside a bin bag stuffed with clothes and pulled open the flaps of a cardboard box labelled "textbooks (already read), training paperwork, training notes (september)." It made little organisational sense for the gift to be be in here, but the timeline at least fit. That train of thought was rewarded: carefully pulling out the folders, parchments, and papers on top, he could see the book he was looking for wedged between two of his textbooks. He let out a breath of relief, abbreviated by his realisation of the next potential inadequacy. "It's not wrapped, sorry. I don't have any wrapping paper, either, but I can Transfigure something, I'm sure, old homework or something, if you want it wrapped. You can still open it, though." He opened his palms in the gesture of opening a book, then winced when he realised that just gave away the gist of the gift. He put his hands behind his back to prevent completely ruining the surprise for her. "Do you want it wrapped?" He really was adorable when he got like this. She couldn't help the enormous smile that she gave him, "Since it's not really a Christmas present anymore I think we'll be okay without you wrapping it. Whatever it is." Yes, she caught the opening gesture from him but really that could mean almost anything. Plus, he had her really curious as to what kind of gift he could be talking about that would make him that nervous. She figured that if it was just a book that he thought she would like he wouldn't be nearly as flustered by the giving of it. But she liked seeing Ace like this, not the flustered part but the earnest and adorable part. And he wondered why she'd liked him since she was fourteen. "Okay then! Your real Christmas gift, in December, I'll wrap that, I promise." He smiled back and swallowed hard against his nervous energy. He slowly eased out the green leatherbound book, making sure that nothing fell out of it. He had come across the book itself at a stationery shop when he was picking out coloured ink (for colour coding his notes, naturally), the idea for how to use the book struck him, and he consequently found all sorts of bookmarks to fill it with. And now he was apparently too impatient to wait until December to give it to Jay. Now that he was here, gift in hand, Ace found his mind wandering to the "Believe in yourself because someone else does" button Jay had given him a couple months ago. (He knew where that was: in the inside pocket of the satchel that held his current textbooks and current schoolwork.) That button was really important to him, so maybe he was doing this partially to give Jay something equivalent to what she gave him. "Here," he said, handing the book to her. "Happy Christmas. Happy October. Happy Having Me and Gavin As Your New Neighbours Day." He sat down on the edge of the bed, trying not to be overly anxious for her reaction. Jay took the book in her hands and carefully turned in over a couple of times to examine the outside before she opened it. And when she opened it she couldn't help the simultanious smile and prick of tears in the back of her eyes. She wasn't sure if anyone had ever given her something more perfect in her life. She ran her fingers over the different bookmarks some of them serious some of them silly and marvelled at how well he knew her. She could only trust two other people in the world to find something this perfect for her and she honestly wasn't sure that even they would have come up with something like this. "You have no idea, Ace, how perfect this is. I...I don't have words," and she didn't so she did what she would have done with anyone else regardless of how comfortable she knew Ace was with physical contact. She closed the space between them and bent down and hugged him. "You're an amazing friend, Anthony Boot," she whispered in his ear. Ace hugged her back for a beat, tense, then pulled back. "It's a bookmark book," he said, too loudly and somewhat unnecessarily. The relief that she liked the gift warred with his own self-consciousness; at least part of him wanted to draw her attention to the book, to keep it off him. But another part of him wanted to keep talking to explain himself to her, to have her understand. "I know you probably don't need bookmarks, because I know you can always find your place, in general but probably in books too, but...you can use them to mark favourite places. Something like that!" When Ace actually hugged her back Jay felt like she'd finally broken through some invisible wall. Sure, it had been tense and he probably hadn't really wanted to but it was the first time in a long time that she'd touched him in any way (besides popcorn projectiles) that he hadn't immediately backed away. Jay had always been an affectionate person so she was figured that there had to have been a time before everything happened with Ace that he'd been more okay returning her hugs and pats and generally touchiness but, if he had, it was a long time ago. "It's perfect. I usually just keep all of my bookmarks in an old beer stein, this is so much better. And I can choose bookmarks for school books to remind me to keep focused. This is excellent. Thank you." She hugged the book to her chest and smiled again. She wasn't sure that she could explain to Ace how much he had given her with the book. "You're welcome! And, see, it works that I gave them to you before Christmas, so you can use them for school." His confidence was boosted a bit, now that he stumbled onto an actual, non-crazy reason for needing to give Jay her gift so early, as "feeling like he had to" was slightly ridiculous, even for him. He kept his gaze on her, smiling tentatively, easing into the idea that she liked and understood the gift and wasn't faking. That fear was also ridiculous, because he knew very well that he could trust her to be honest with him; she made authenticity look easy, natural, even attainable. He found that both terrifying and comforting, which led to this mix of warmth and anxiety he felt around her. "I--well, thank you for helping with the move. And for being an amazing friend, too." Jay rolled her eyes, "Did you honestly think, even for a second, that I wouldn't come? I'd do a lot for all of our friends, but I'd do just about anything for you, goose." She knew that she had to tell Ace often that he meant a lot to her as a friend because she knew that it wasn't something he really believed about himself yet. But she was determined that one day he would see himself at least a little like she saw him. She knew he was far from perfect but his endless enthusiasm even in the face of his own insecurities was inspirational in it's own way. She knew that it would be one of the reasons he would make a good healer, he kept moving forward even when he was scared or insecure and, if he made himself look like a prat then he made himself look like a prat. She sat down on the floor next to the his bed and opened the book, letting it rest against her knees, "Were there reasons you chose the bookmarks or are they just random?" she asked. He leaned forward, looking down at the opened page. "Both, actually. I've spent a weird amount of time lately ducking into random shops to see if they have bookmarks, and I found a lot, so not all of them make any sense. But there's this metal one, probably silver or something, that has these curly wave things, and their shape made me think of flying, which made me think of doing Quidditch with you, so there's that. And there's a lime green one, which made me think of your 'accent colour.'" He grinned, actually enjoying how silly that reason sounded. "They're stupid reasons for choosing them, but they're reasons." "They're good reasons. They made you think of random stuff about me or that you know about me. Like the fact that I love Quidditch and my roommates weren't exactly fond of my love of bright colours. Those are important things to know about a person," Jay considered her next words very carefully worried that they might bring back the wall that had existed periodically between them since she'd told him that she had feelings for him, "They prove that you know me. Better than almost anyone. Most people...most people wouldn't think that this would be a good gift for me. But you knew me well enough to not only know that I would love a book full of bookmarks but to pick out the bookmarks that will make me remember events and feelings that you know mean something to me," she glanced up at him, "Are there any in here to remind me of you?" she asked. Ace shook his head almost immediately. The idea hadn't crossed his mind while picking out bookmarks for her, but now he felt like it should have, if only because that'd be something a normal person would do. Ace, though, knew that not only did he not think of it, he also wouldn't know where to begin thinking of a bookmark to remind her of him. Especially if she believed he knew her well, he didn't want to make it obvious how little he knew himself. "No, I didn't pick any like that," he said, running a shaky hand through his hair before settling with a mental reminder that he didn't have to be nervous. "Sorry. Maybe I can find one to add to the collection. Or if you see one that reminds you of me, then yeah, that can be it." The smile Jay gave him was almost shy (if anything about Jennifer Price could ever be considered shy), "I guess I don't need one, everything here reminds me of you. You were around for a lot of the events that the bookmarks represent so you're really through the whole thing. Right?" she knew that Ace was starting to feel uncomfortable again and she wanted to bring things back to at least somewhat level footing. She nudged him with her shoulder as she turned the page, "You don't need to be nervous about me liking this Ace, I love it. And everything is good. And I know what bookmark I need to find to remind me specifically of you, too. I need to find one with popcorn on it. Everyone is in on the popcorn throwing but it's really our thing, or it started out that way and they can't appreciate the fine art we've made of movie theatre popcorn throwing." He smiled a little at that, content with an association with popcorn. Well, the throwing of it, at least. "Okay, then. I'm glad you like it. And we'll find one with popcorn. That did start out as our thing, didn't it?" He actually liked that thought a lot, and he mimed throwing an imaginary popcorn in her direction. "And it was so cool, yes cool and awesome and amazing, that everyone wanted to get in on it. We should do that more often, be so cool and awesome and amazing that everyone copies us." "I don't understand why people don't immitate us all the time because we are the ultimate in cool and awesome and amazing," Jay continued happy to feel the conversation moving into familiar places again, "Though it does mean since people have so readily picked up on popcorn throwing that we're going to have to find a new way to differentiate ourselves from the masses. I don't recommend anvil throwing though because one, anvils are hard to find and two, they're damn heavy." "No, you're right. Not anvil throwing." Ace drew up his legs to sit cross-legged on the bed and then steepled his fingers under his chin as he schemed in faux seriousness. "Though now that we're living in the same place, it should be easy to come up with something we could, should, do now. That doesn't involve lifting heavy things." He blinked when the words caught up with his mind; in all his excitement over moving and getting to live right near loads of people he already liked, he hadn't yet really considered how that might change him or his behaviour. It wouldn't be exactly like being back at school (surely), and it would in fact be better (he was convinced of it), but the unknown nature of it felt large and looming in a way not entirely bad. Would it be like this, like today? Where he'd gotten so worked up that his chosen solution was to give Jay her Christmas gift? If that was the case, he'd run out of gifts eventually, but he did, admittedly, feel a lot better and a lot more at ease now. Getting himself back on track, he added hastily, "Which, by the way, I'm glad we're living in the same place. Maybe I'm just clingy but I've missed seeing you and everyone else on a regular basis." Jay had considered how much like their old dorms the apartment complex was turning out to be but it just made her happy. She'd inherited her mother's need to create a family unit from her friends and having most of them near to each other put her mind at ease. She didn't worry much about the fact that she thought this way because she'd grown up with the results of such a group of friends and, as far as she was concerned, the next generation should be proud to have lived in group of family/friends like the one that Jay had grown up in with the combined Price/Gumboil/Summerby/Twonk families. There wasn't an ounce of blood shared between them and it didn't matter a bit. She suspected that the same would be true in the future among the offspring of her friends. Jay looked up at Ace thinking that this mirrored so many days and nights spent in the Hufflepuff common room together with him sitting on the common room couch and her on the floor next to him, "I've missed you too. Nothing seems right when you aren't around, you're such an important part of the group dynamic," Jay shrugged, "That and I just miss you when you aren't there." "Yeah, same here." He tilted his head as he looked over at her where she sat on the floor. "I like it better when those kind of things stay the same. A lot of the time when other things are so unsteady, I'm glad to have something steady, and I'm glad you're part of that steady something. Half the time I'm rambling or trying to get other people to understand me, when I probably should just be rambling to you instead, because you're better at getting me." He thought of trying to pick the collective brains of Logan, Gavin, and James on normalcy and relationships, which was helpful in one sense but mostly unhelpful in the sense of understanding himself. For a moment he considered turning the question on Jay but then felt the familiar fears and awkwardness and baggage that topic would have between the two of them. "So I'm glad you're nearby," Ace summed up. Hearing Ace say she got him better than most people warmed her and ripped the scab off her heart. How could she not care about him when he said things like that? As happy as she was she had no idea what made her say what she said next. Maybe it was tempting fate by forcing him to admit something or maybe she was some kind of sadist and enjoyed getting her heart accidentally trampled on. "I'll always be there for you Ace, your future wife is probably going to hate me for that reason. But what would you do if I wasn't? If for some inexplicable reason I stopped being a constant in your life, what would you do?" She couldn't look at him when she asked it. She didn't want him to see the naked emotion she was feeling just saying those words. Because, for her, not being a part of Ace's life would be like not being a part of Paige or Louis' lives and they were as necessary to her as breath. The phrase "future wife" had him furrowing his brow, but Jay's questions hit him hard. He could practically feel the hairs on his arm stand up. He pressed a hand to the side of his head as if trying to physically keep his thoughts from scattering, because he had to focus. This question sounded important, and he didn't want to let her down. "I don't know," he said slowly, the pitch of his voice going upward in a nervous half-laugh. "I can't imagine it. It doesn't sound like my life. I can't imagine a life without us being friends, you know? Can you?" Jay shook her head and ran her hands over the soft green leather of her book, "No, I can't. As much as I love Paige and Lou there are things about me that even they don't understand that you get. Like the book, as well as they both know me, I don't think they would have ever thought to get me something like this. They know me and understand me but you get me. I don't ever have to explain myself to you because you seem to always know what I mean to say. What joke or point I'm trying to make. I think that if I ever couldn't talk to you it would be like missing a piece of myself." Jay knew that she was responsible for the turn in the conversation but, as hard as she suspected parts of this conversation might be for both of them she also felt that this was one of those necessary conversations that every relationship romantic or platonic had on occasion. Ace listened quietly, resisting the urge to fidget just to relieve the creep of tension. He wanted to pull his knees up, to make himself smaller, but he concentrated on listening and not withdrawing or disappearing. Even if part of him wanted to. He just said that Jay was better at getting him, that she was steady, and it was true. But it only made his associated fears and anxieties all the more starkly real. "It makes it harder sometimes," he ventured haltingly, shoving aside thoughts of how his pulse was starting to rattle and his lungs felt as if he had been running. Merlin, did he hate his body. He stared hard at the ceiling to keep himself focused. "Like how I don't want you, of all people, to touch me. To hug me. Because you already know me so well, and I don't want you to figure out what a fat slob I actually am--and I know, I know that's a bad and unhealthy and untrue thought and that I'm not really, but it's still in my head." He hesitated again. "And I like you too much for you to know that. To touch me. I don't really want most people to, anyway, but you, it's something particular. So it's harder sometimes." There was something in what Ace said, Jay knew, something significant but she couldn't tell exactly what it was. It was almost as if it nearly reached the kind of admission she'd wanted to hear from him for a long time without quite attaining it. His words honestly confused her more than ever. She didn't know what to think or feel about what he was saying. And, as much as she hated pushing him to anayse things when he was certainly not as big on self analysis as she but the ambiguity of his statement in her mind could only lead to more emotional pain if she didnt clarify it now. "What do you mean, especially me, Ace? Why especially me? I don't want to push anything but if I don't ask you this I'm going to end up making things up in my head. And I don't want to give you feelings or motivations that you don't have just because they make me feel better." "I don't know," he said, too quick with the words and with the look of sudden exasperation. Saying that was hard enough. But he owed her a better answer than that, so he put his hands together, entwined his fingers, and backed his mind up. "Like I said, you already know me better than most people, and I know you used to have a crush on me, and I've had a hard time getting that out of my head lately. And I don't know how you could know that. Because I'm perpetually, perpetually, confused about that stuff, or at least I am right now." He looked down at his now white knuckles and shook out his fingers. "I think about you having that crush on me, and I don't not like the idea, but I don't know my own feelings except that I'm confused and I don't want you to stop liking me. Not in a crush sense," he added hurriedly, but as soon as he said it, he wasn't sure. "In a general sense. I don't know." It was Jay's turn to stare at the ceiling before taking a deep breath, since this seemed to be an afternoon of deep conversation and painful emotional honesty she supposed she owed Ace a bit of her own, "It isn't 'used to' Ace, I still like you in a way that isn't entirely friendly. I keep trying not to because I know that it's easier for you but I can't. I just can't." She hugged her knees to her chest and waited for the words she knew would come next because they always did. It was flattering but he just wasn't ready. She knew this. She told herself this a dozen times a day but still her heart refused to listen. Ace cast a glance down at the book he had given her, feeling like the time when they both concentrated on the bookmarks was now far away and far less complicated. Though not really, it couldn't have been uncomplicated if it still led to this. Hearing Jay say she still liked him loosened a piece of his anxiety: it didn't break or melt it away, but he could now feel it separately from all the other anxieties battling for attention underneath his skin. This anxiety was different, he knew, even if he couldn't parse how. After a moment, he said, "I think things happened in the wrong order. I was supposed to stop being neurotic, and then I would be interested in, and ready for, crushes and and feelings. But I'm still neurotic and because I'm neurotic I don't want you to touch me, but I've still thought about dating you. I even went and asked Logan and James and Gav about how they knew they should be in a relationship. Stupid, right?" Jay leaned her head back against Ace's bed and closed her eyes, her heart was beating so fast she's surprised that Ace couldn't hear it from where he was sitting, "Emotions, don't work that way, Ace. I really wish they did. I've been telling myself for years that it's the wrong time to like you. First, I was fourteen and girls are stupid at fourteen and then you were sick and not at school and once you came back and I knew it was definitely not the time to even think about it. And you were my Quidditch captain and then still not ready. As much as I love books, real life isn't like a book. There aren't perfect answers, things don't happen so that the plot falls perfectly or because the main characters are in a place where they can emotionally deal with them. Real life and emotions are messy and imperfect and painful and suck at the same time that they make us feel like we can fly. It's the worst and best part of being human. Well, besides the opposable thumbs, those are pretty sweet too." He listened hard, and he blocked out his own thoughts and confusion until she had finished speaking. Ace was behind the curve when it came to understanding emotions. Identifying emotions was difficult enough; dealing with them was usually impossible, because messy imperfection was unacceptable. Restriction, on the other hand, was easy. His typical (unhealthy, wrong) belief that it was better to be hungry than to be full applied to emotions as well as food, and the scary thing was that he could imagine himself missing out on feeling like flying because self-denial was second nature to him. "So it was always the wrong time for you to like me. And it's still the wrong time for me to like you. And that's just life. I might never be ready. Or I might never be able to tell the difference between not being ready and me just being really good at saying no. Then what?" He shook his head. "Don't answer that. Rhetorical question. Or a question I don't want to know the answer to. Anyway! Pandas have opposable thumbs too, did you know? Well, they're not technically thumbs. But they're opposable and thumb-ish." For just a moment Jay had felt like just maybe Ace had been ready to take a chance but then he'd retreated again and she didn't know how to convince him that maybe, just maybe it was time for them to both take a chance. For them both to risk getting hurt. She was silent for a moment carefully considering what to do say next even though she knew she would never say the million things that were running through her mind. Finally she settled for what she knew he wanted to hear, "Really? Well, I guess that would make eating all that bamboo easier than not having a thumb-like apendage." And here they were back to square one. "But you never see pandas doing the thumbs up sign, and a bamboo diet would seriously suck, so I think the human race still wins." Though he didn't feel much like a winner right now. He felt scared and panicky, and he had exhausted his knowledge of pandas. "Jay, I'm sorry. What if the reason I like you is because I know you liked, or like, me? What if we dated but I'm never ready to hug or kiss? You have so many better options. You made that joke about my future wife, and you know I have stupid idealistic ideals about love, but I don't think any of that will ever be real." Jay still hadn't opened her eyes but she closed them even harder to try to force back hot tears. She really didn't want Ace to know that he'd made her cry. "Ace, I know that you don't want to hear this, but hear me out okay?" she was proud that her voice was steady as she spoke, "I know what you see when you look at yourself and I know that you think that I somehow am only attracted to the inner Ace but it isn't true. When you smile at me and that dimple flashes I still feel like I'm fourteen, which is insane and there were a couple of times last year that I completely forgot what I was doing during practice because I was watching your shoulders. Do you get that Ace? I can't make you think or feel or act in any way that you don't want to but for Helga's sake please understand that, for me, you aren't perfect but you're right. As for the dating and touching thing, I'm not talking about you dating or touching me, but the fact of the matter is you're going to feel this way about it until you do something about it whether it's with me or some other girl, it doesn't matter. You're still going to feel paralised by your insecurities until you decide to say screw it, feel the terror and do it anyway." He didn't want to hear that, she was right, but he sat still for it and tried not to hide, mentally or physically. It was easier not being face to face for this conversation, though it was hard enough, and he felt raw and inside out. He rubbed a hand against his forehead. "I'm working on it," he said quietly. "It's not easy, and doing it's going to be even less easy." He drew in a conscious, deep breath then exhaled, thinking of his lungs, his blood, his heart. His body working. This came down to fear, and fear was a trick, a way to make him feel smaller, which was always a lie. "So if I wanted to ask you on a date, because I like you, like like you, and I think I know that even if I'm still confused about everything else, would you say yes?" Jay snorted, "I'd say yes, because I've known all along that if anything ever did happen between us that it would be a lot of work. But I think that you're worth it and I want to try. We'll work on the other stuff, Ace, it's enough for now to just try." Jay hugged the book to her chest because right now more than anything she wanted to hug Ace, she knew that it was going to take a lot of work on both their parts to make things work and to make Ace feel more comfortable with everything. But they were finally on the same page and maybe they could both start moving forward from here. "Okay then," he said, a small smile easing back on his face. Despite the way he felt--raked over, far too honest--he also felt like the future was, at least, open for him to be better. Even if he was feeling awkward about the present. Because Jay was right: he had to try. "So, then I'll do that. Do you want to go on a date?" Jay moved up to sit next to him on the bed even though she was careful to not touch him and she turned to him and grinned, "Yes, Ace, I definitely want to go out on a date," she bit her lower lip and sent him a sly look, "When?" she asked her tone moving into teasing. She honestly felt like she was floating. It wasn't the perfect moment that she'd invisioned a million times since she was fourteen but it was perfect in it's own right because it had finally happened. He regarded her, taking in her familiar features and her familiar faith in him. "How busy are you going to be next week for your Halloween jamboree? I don't want to get in the way of party prep." Jay laughed, "Please take me away from party prep. Lou and Paige can handle it alone for one night. And I'm finished with the first tests so really any time next week works for me. How's your schedule looking?" A part of her was feeling very grown-up discussing schedules as part of date planning which she found amusing. "Friday, probably, will work best, because I have way too much stuff to be studying for every day next week." He swept a hand at his unpacked room. "And this to work on. So Friday night, is that okay?" "Friday night is perfect. Since we're neighbors now, do you want to maybe do a study night Wednesday? Paige and Lou will probably be home but we might as well take advantage of the being neighbors thing, right?" she asked. She looked at Ace's closed bedroom door and laughed, "I bet that everyone out there is wondering what on Earth we've been up to in here." "Yeah, let's do that too. Wednesday study night." As he looked at the door, he shook his head. "We should probably rejoin them before they send in a search party." "Probably," Jay stood with her book in one hand and held out the other to Ace, "You ready to take the plunge?" she asked? He accepted her hand with a slight hesitation. "I already dove in. Let's try to enjoy the swim." |