Who: Billy Horrible and Tara Smith (Tardis) What: They meet and fall in love and run away together and stuff. When: Anytime during regular business hours. Where: An electronics store. Rating: PG! Status: Complete
Tara loved electronics. She might have gone into engineering had she not been so interested in learning about people. Having grown up in a family that moved a lot, she had a lot of free time growing up. Though, yes, she did make and have friends, they would never have enough time to become as close as others might staying in one spot through childhood. She would busy herself with her fascination of taking apart and building electronics -- one of her favourite pastimes, which her best friend had learned the hard way. In other words, she’d taken apart his hotel room’s DVD player. She’d fully intended to put it back the way it was! Really! He didn’t have to get so mad!
It was for this reason that she was now in the electronics store, browsing the aisles as she sipped her hot chocolate. She had a big sweet tooth, and wasn’t big on coffee, so that was her go-to drink at Starbucks. She leaned over the glass display bar and oooh’d at some of the solid state drives. She could do with some of those!
Billy, whilst normally enamored by all things technology, had a bit of a problem on his hands. While there was something he terribly wanted to buy here (and he needed it kind of quickly, in that instant gratification sort of way), it was disgustingly expensive as compared to what it probably was online.
Now, he wasn’t a dick enough to say this to the shop employee, but it was kind of making him pause and stare at the glass case, trying to decide if it was worth it or not.
Tara started moving down the glass case, looking at all the pretty things that were on sale. She was thinking that John might appreciate an upgrade of his laptop when she bumped shoulders with Billy. Obviously she’d had something other than his personal space on her mind.
“I’m sorry,” she said, smiling at the blond she’d so rudely run into. Well, at least she hadn’t run into him hard. “I seem to be distracted by all of the lovely electronics in here! I have a tendency to forget where I am.” Big grin for Billy on that one.
“Oh,” said Billy, in his very Billy-sort of way. He backed up a step before blinking a little owlishly at her. He’d never seen her in here before. Then again, he almost never came here so that would make sense, wouldn’t it? “No. uhm. It’s okay. I completely understand.” He went back to looking down at the counter for a short moment. Then, not being able to help himself, looked back over at her. “So... what exactly are you looking at?”
Tara popped into this electronics store fairly often. She even just liked looking, often she’d stop by and just browse all the gadgets. On this particular occasion, she wasn’t intending to buy, really. But when Billy asked, she shrugged and smiled.
“Nothing in particular,” she told him, looking back to the display case she’d been peering into prior to rudely interrupting Billy’s shopping experience. “Was thinking of upgrading with a SSD, but I might hold off. Thought about picking up a few upgrades for my friend’s laptop. He’s a writer, so he’s always on it.” It would be a nice gift. Some more RAM or something.
She turned back to Billy, still smiling widely. “What are you in here for? Do you know much about computers? I’ve always been a bit enamoured by them... They’re just so... Fantastic!” she would let him get a word in, there. Only common courtesy.
Fuck, thought Billy. Another one. Really, he needed to start having more parameters when it came to things like... well. Women? In general? Men, he could be picky about all day. But when some nerdy girl talked to him, it was like life had ended and he was someplace nicer.
“I --uh.” he said. “I know everything about computers.” He wasn’t even saying it to be smug; it was just the truth.
“REALLY?” She all-capsed as her hands came together in front of her chest. “Oh my goodness, could you teach me? I’ve always wanted to learn more, but I’ve only got a basic understanding! Well, I love taking things apart and putting them back together. But I’ve never learned the proper way!” And, there’s the nerd Tara.
She grabbed Billy’s arm and pulled him down the counter, back to the SSD’s. “Which would you recommend?” She was looking at the case, back to Billy, and then back to the case. Because she couldn’t keep her attention on just one spot, apparently.
Yeah, no. It was definitely another one. Billy glanced at the Solid State Drives in the case in front of them, looking at each for just a short moment. “Easy,” he said, not really even having to take the time to consider it. “No matter what system you use -- OS or Windows -- Intel is the way to go. It’s the best for performance and price.”
Tara turned to Billy with that same big smile, nodding enthusiastically. “That’s what I’ve been told,” she said, still holding his arm. She waved down one of the employees, who looked a bit shocked (for a moment) at having a girl in the store. Let alone a pretty girl. She gave him the same smile, pointing into the display case they were in front of.
“I’d like that one,” she pointed at the not-quite-best-but-still-good Intel one. “He recommended it. Oh,” she turned back to Billy. “I’m Tara, by the way. I don’t even know your name!”
Billy turned a fabulous shade of red. He knew it was fabulous, because it was something he did with a sick amount of frequency. Really, he couldn’t help himself. It was just this thing he did -- in about every social situation he seemed to find himself in. “Oh.” he said, before realizing he should probably tack more onto that. “Hi. I’m Billy.”
“I like your name, Billy!” she told him. “Billy is a good name.” She turned back to the employee, whose name was apparently Greg (it said so on his name badge) and smiled at him. He had the SSD in his hand, which Tara nodded at enthusiastically. “Yes! That one, thanks. I’m gonna look around a bit more.” Which meant she was going to talk to Billy some more, because he was nice and turning all red, which Tara enjoyed immensely.
“What do you do, Billy?” she asked, turning back to him with a smile.
She would enjoy that. Most people seemed to.
Billy decided that paying attention to the stuff behind the glass case again was a great idea, because her smile was sickly infectious and he just wasn’t sure he could match it tooth for tooth. “Me? Oh, uh. I’m a blogger,” he said, a little lamely. “What about you?”
“I work in human resources at a small marketing agency in Irvine,” she rambled off, though she wasn’t saying it as if she was hugely proud of it. Just pointing out that that’s what she did for a living. “What do you blog? Do you have a business card?” She definitely wanted to check that out.
“What?” said Billy, even though he wasn’t confused about what she was asking -- it was just something he did sometimes. “Oh. Uh. Yeah, actually.” He dug through his pockets until he found his wallet and then rifled through it until he found his card. It was glossy, and had a good, but kind of silly font. “The Horrible Blog”.
“Human resources? Sounds like a load of fun.”
Tara took the business card, looked it over quickly, then put it in her bag. “I’ll check it out when I get home!” She didn’t even think to ask why it would be called The Horrible Blog. She’d find out eventually.
“Well, um,” she began as she walked them down one of the aisles in the store. “Human Resources is um... Actually, it’s quite boring. I’m good at it, but I don’t really want to be doing in forever. I want to see more of the world!” She gestured with a swipe of her arm in front of them. “I’ve already seen so much, but there’s so much out there to explore. Know what I mean?” Smile.
He didn’t. Because he’d grown up in California and never thought to leave it before. Not really. Billy was also a pretty big fan of just staying in his apartment forever. He fiddled with some of the stuff on a random shelf. Put it back down. Picked it up again. “What do you want to see?” he asked.
Tara watched as Billy fidgeted and fiddled with the things on the shelves. Was he really interested in it, or was he just trying to find something to do? “The world! The universe! The moon!” she told him, still with that big grin on her face. She may have bounced a little, because she was excited. “I grew up with a dad in the military. Never stayed in one spot long. Adventure is just natural for me!”
The moon was a little far-fetched, even for Billy. ...Sort of. He had been talking about building a laser robot army and taking over Russia the other day. So maybe not as far fetched as some might think.
“You’ve got some high hopes there,” Billy said. Because he fucking loved puns okay. Get it? GET IT? The Moon? It was high... oh, nevermind.
That pun went over Tara’s head. Completely and totally over it. Like the man who jumped over the moon. HA HA GET IT? Moons. So funny. She nodded a bit, and then sighed and shook her head. “I know they’re high hopes, but I just want to see everything. I suppose I never will.” Which made her a bit sad, because really, how was she going to go to space and see the moon? It was basically impossible, unless she turned out to be able to travel through space and time and -- whoah, getting carried away there.
Well, there was always NASA, man. But that seemed like a lot more effort than just learning time travel. But who knew, really. “Don’t get your hopes up,” Billy said quickly, because the idea of this super bouncy hyper excitable girl pouting made him want to pout.
That made Tara sad. Shame, Billy. She nodded, looking down a bit and pouting, because she always liked having her hopes up and aiming high. “S’pose I shouldn’t,” she agreed, fidgeting with her bag on her shoulder. She forced the pout from her face by trying to fake a smile as she looked back up to Billy. “Still, wish that I could!”
And that was when he decided he was just a horrible person (...get it?), because he’d actually made the girl pout.
“You never know,” he said, making his voice excited enough to actually crack. Which was kind of fucking embarrassing but there you have it. “Technology is actually, you know, pretty good in that area. So.”
Tara liked Billy more when he thought he was embarrassing himself. She enjoyed all the aspects of people -- even the awkward parts. Billy’s were especially endearing. She found herself smiling (not a fake one!) at him again. “You never know!” she agreed, nodding enthusiastically.
Looking at her watch Tara made a shocked face. “Oh no! I’m supposed to meet someone right now! I’m so sorry, Billy,” she said, reaching out and then pulling him into a hug. “It was so nice to meet you, I’ll check out your blog tonight! Bye!”
Tara having to run was not something new. She even forgot to buy that SSD she’d told Greg she was picking up. Oh well, she’d pick it up next time she was in.
Billy just blinked for a moment. Even after she was gone she was a little bit surprising. The hug had been out of nowhere and then... well. Abrupt.
Women were just strange creatures, he decided.
“What?” He said to Greg when the other man looked at him funny. “Don’t be an asshole, Greg.”