Price Check On Monogamy

"Tiger?"

I smiled sleepily and yawned. "Tandem, it's three in the morning. What's going on?"

Tandem laughed, but I'm not sure if it sounded weird because something was really going on or if I was just that delusional. Sitting up in bed and turning on my lamp, I stretched. "Nothing, I was just checking up on you."

"At three in the morning?"

Another laugh. "Well, I haven't been able to see you all week."

I raised an eyebrow and yawned again. "And whose fault is that, jack ass?"

"Calm yourself, woman, I just wanted to check up on you." And there was that laugh again, making me smile. Must have been me. "Anyway, I wanted to know if you wanted to go to the library tomorrow. Err, today."

I couldn't help but laugh. "The library? Seriously? You don't read."

Tandem scoffed. "Well, I have to start working on that damned project eventually."

I rolled my eyes, the smile slipping off my face. He'd been out all week; apparently, the cold had really knocked him off his feet. I'd been the one to tell him that his partner on the project was Kip, and he hadn't taken that too well. Even if she had been a bitch, she was still one of my best friends, and I wasn't going to let him say anything about her. Besides, what did he have to complain about? Kip was officially back to being her absolute happiest, seeing as Justin was still waiting for her to come back and she was still determined to be okay without him. He wouldn't even have to deal with Kip when she was on a Justin-bipolar streak. "Watch it, Tandem."

"Tiger..." A pause. Then, a sigh. "Fine, fine, you win. But still, I've got a surprise for you and I need to get this project out of the way first. So can you meet me there? C'mon, I'll even invite Jeremy, you two can work on it together, too. What's your project on?"

"You don't really care about that," I teased. "Fine, fine, don't worry about it, I'll meet you there, alright? Can you call Jeremy and ask him to meet me, I don't have his number."

"Of course, doll. See you tomorrow. And remember, I've got a surprise for you, be there on time!"

"Night, Tandem," I said, smiling and turning off the light.

"Night, Tiger," he hung up first as I snuggled back into bed and closed my eyes.

Saturday, here I come.

- - -

Tandem leaned back in the uncomfortable library chair and ran a hand through his hair. He was tired; he'd been up for hours the night before trying to make sure everything was just perfect, and had almost forgotten to call Tiger once it all was and ask her to meet him. Tiger had called an hour ago and said that she was on her way; where the hell was she?

Though, to be fair, he thought blandly, eyeing his 'partner', I wouldn't be irritated if I wasn't in a damned library. With her.

Kip had been babbling on and on since they'd first met each other at the library two hours ago. For the first half hour, he'd tried-- he'd really tried-- to like her. For Tiger's sake, mostly; as weird and bitchy as Kip was-- and, in that half hour, Tandem had remembered just why, after having a class with her the first semester of his Junior year, he'd decided that she was weird and bitchy-- she was still Tiger's friend, and he was honest to God trying to figure out how to get obstacles like this out of his way. Out of their way. He knew it was grating on her to have to keep playing this Double Jeopardy game with the school, her friends, Caleb, Jeremy.

Fingering the box in his pocket, he smiled to himself nervously. It was gonna be worth it. It was gonna work out. Dammit, he was going to make it work out.

"What are you smiling about?" Tandem blinked and bit his tongue, looking up at Kip with just barely hidden irritation. Not hidden enough, however; the smile on her face wavered under his look. "I-- I just wanted to know why you randomly started smiling. You haven't smiled the entire time we've been here up until just then. Sorry, Tandem."

Rubbing the back of his neck, Tandem straightened in his chair a little. He was being an asshole and, even if he didn't really like her, it wasn't fair to Kip. He was just nervous.

"Well..." he mumbled. She didn't hear him; she'd already ducked her head back down to the books and notes in front of her. Coughing to clear his throat, he tried again, "Well, hey, can I ask you a question?"

Kip looked back up and smiled. "Sure, what's up?"

Tandem shoved a hand back in his pocket and went back to fingering the box in his pocket. Now, how did he phrase this? Should've let her tell Kip the truth... he thought mournfully. "Well, okay. So say you like someone that you're, err, technically not supposed to like. And you, you know this person likes you back. So how do you tell everyone that's, err, standing in the way? Do you just... do you just say it? Or... err... do you give this person something to mark them as yours?" He looked around worriedly. Saying it out loud sounded a lot stupider than he'd thought it would. "Would, err, something like prom make it official?"

Kip was beaming so brightly that she could've blinded him, but he was barely paying attention to that now. Now, his entire plan seemed stupid.

"Well," she said slowly, "Prom sounds like a good way to come out. Why not focus on how you ask this, uhh, person to prom? Besides, a relationship is between two people, right? Other people shouldn't matter, even if they have a reason to not approve."

Tandem smiled, slightly relieved, but still distracted. "Well... what... what if how you ask them is still undercover? Do you, uhh, think this, umm, person would be upset about being asked in a way that isn't, umm, really out there? Like..." Tandem was still glancing around, still uncomfortable. "Like in a library or something?"

Tandem was about to add something else when his phone vibrated. Fishing his phone out of his pocket, he smiled when he saw it was Tiger. Before he could answer it, however, he felt someone's hand on his shoulder. Turning his head to the side, but not taking his eyes off his phone, he was about to ask who it was when a set of lips were on his.

A really talented set of lips at that.

Tiger.

Closing his eyes and smiling, Tandem pushed back in his chair slowly and turned so she could get on his lap. Putting on hand on her hip and another in her curly hair...

Tiger doesn't have curly hair.

Tandem's eyes shot open right as a loud crack sounded right behind him. Yanking his head back, he was staring straight into Kip's bright brown eyes.

Or, at least, they were bright until they were looking past him and toward whatever had cracked behind him. Tandem shoved his chair back and was on his feet in a second, turning fast-- but not fast enough to see anything other than Tiger's back running straight out of the library.

And, most likely, straight out of his life.