Take My Hand, Just Hold On

"Are you ready to go?" I hear Robert calling down the hall. I look at myself in the mirror quickly and shrug at my reflection.

"Yeah, I guess. You're sure I don't need to dress up all nice?" I ask him as I wander out to the kitchen, where Robert is standing.

He smiles, "Of course I'm sure. It's just a few people hanging out at a friend's house. Look what I'm wearing," he states, as if that settles it.

I sigh and make a slight 'hmpf' noise as I look him up and down. Then I say, "But it's unfair 'cause you look gorgeous in anything. Even a ratty t-shirt and old jeans."

I can see his face twitching; trying not to form that huge grin I'd become so accustomed to. He settles it into a smirk and says, "Love, I'm not the most gorgeous one in this relationship. Believe me, you'd sooner pull off 'ratty t-shirts and old jeans' than me."

I give a bit of a humourless laugh, "Yeah right. Which one of us plays the dude that's supposed to be, like, the most beautiful boy to ever exist. Or... Something like that. Again, my lack of knowledge about Twilight is catching up to me..."

Robert smiles, "Well, to be fair, you'd definitely make a horrible man."

He tries to grab my waist to pull me into him, but I just roll my eyes and turn away from him; couldn't he tell that I was not in the mood for lame-ass jokes? I grab my flats and slip them on. I was silently fuming and I had no clue why.

"Let's go," I say as I grab my bag and take out my keys. I look back at Robert and he nods his head in a confused manner, and follows me out the door. I lock it and we walk to his car in silence.

He unlocks the car and I get in the passenger side, watching him walk around to the driver's side. I close my eyes and take a couple deep breaths slowly. I need to calm down, especially because nothing happened to rile me up...

Robert gets in and starts the car, glancing briefly at me before backing out and exiting the parking garage in silence.

About 15 minutes later we pull into modern suburbia and I let out a tiny laugh, which causes Robert to again glance at me, but say nothing. The whole drive here he has been clenching and unclenching his jaw, paying more attention to the road than I've ever seen him do before - though, that's not saying too much, I guess.

Another 5 minutes go by and he pulls over and kills the engine. I look at the house he pulled in front of - there were clearly markings of children living there. I turn to him, about to say that I had not agreed to hanging out with kids, when I saw him looking at me concernedly.

"Brenna, what the fuck is going on?" he asks as soon as my eyes met his.

"Nothing," I respond quietly, averting my eyes.

"Come on, you've been sulky or bitchy for the last 3 hours. Something is up."

"Excuse me? If I've been such a bitch, why'd you even get me to come to this thing?"

"You aren't a bitch, that's why I'm thinking something's up, or something's happened... So what is it? Is it something I did?" he asks quietly, lifting a hand to my face and making me look at him again.

Seeing the genuine concern and hurt in his eyes softened me, and I just looked at him, and he at me, for what felt like a long while. I finally looked away, shook my head, and rubbed the back of my neck with my right hand. "Fuck, you're right. I've been terrible today. I really don't know why. I'm just stressed about meeting your friends for some reason. Even though it doesn't particularly matter in any way..." I state a half-truth. It wasn't until now that I realised I was upset he was leaving. I never meant to actually start liking this guy - how could I have let this happen? Apparently being short with him was my lovely way of saying good-bye, pulling away before I could get hurt by his leaving. Which is stupid. I should just enjoy the remaining... 24 hours with him. "I'm sorry," I give a feeble smile.

Robert smiles wide, leans over, and gives me a quick kiss before turning the car back on and driving another block before pulling into the drive of a nice-looking house - one with no kids toys littering the front lawn; yay!

We get out of the car and I walk around to Robert who grabs my hand. I start walking on to the front door but Robert spins me back and pulls me into him. "Hi," I whisper, looking up at him.

"Hi," he whispers back, grinning happily. He leans in for a kiss and I respond readily. I put my arms around his neck and he pulls me in closer by the waist. He spins me so my back is against the car and presses me into it, leaving zero space between our bodies. I run my hands through his hair as his right hand starts travelling up my shirt.

The next moment I hear a wolf whistle and Robert pulls away quickly. Before turning around he whispers in my ear, "Sorry, that's the kiss I wanted back in the car, but it wouldn't have been as good if we were leaning over our seats."

I laugh, "True. You should let me out from between you and the car now, though..."

Robert nods and backs away slightly, grabbing my hand and turning around, "Hey, James," he says to the man who had apparently just arrived.

"Rob," he inclines his head. "Sorry to intrude on your, er, moment," he winks.

Robert makes a face that was indiscernible to me. I squeeze his hand and nod to the house. He smiles, but before heading in decides to give a bit of an introduction. "Uh, Brenna, this is James - James, Brenna."

James flashes a smile (I return it) and nods to a girl standing behind him slightly, "This is Jen," he grabs her hand and pulls her out front. She was a gorgeous girl, and, I was a little upset to see, she had dressed up for the occasion.

"Hi Jen," I say, waving slightly.

"Hey," she smiles at me and leans in to whisper something to James while watching Robert. I see James nod slightly, and I turn to Robert.

"Shall we go inside?"

He glances back at James and Jen before nodding and leading the way inside - he doesn't bother knocking, he just enters.

"Brian, you around?" he yells.

A few seconds later a man with light, curly hair came out from around the opening on the left, "Hey Rob!! Long time no see!" he pulls him into a quick hug, "And this must be the reason why. Brenna, right?"

I smile, "That's me. Brian, is it?"

He nods, "Yep. Come on through here, we're all out back by the pool."

He walks away and we follow slowly. I whisper to Robert, "Is he an actor?"

Robert shakes his head, "No. He works in the industry, but he's more adept at anything behind the camera."

I laugh, "Hmm, he just looks almost exactly like Bright from Everwood... Except, I guess the British version of him."

"What is Everwood?"

"A TV show from a couple years ago."

***

When it started getting dark we decided to head inside as it was getting a bit chilly. I led Robert inside, fearful of him stumbling over the doormat... or walking into the closed door... Or something equally stupid, as he'd been doing a lot of that tonight. I told him early on to 'drink as much as he wanted' as I had agreed to drive us home. I didn't really feel like drinking anyway, so this worked out fine for me. I had never seen Robert drink this much; he'd always held his drink well whenever out with me.

As we reach the sitting room, Robert points to the girl Brian had brought to the party - Alexa - and says, quite loudly, "Brenna, don't you think Alexa is umbelievably sexy?"

I look over at Alexa who is smiling broadly and winks at Robert. I roll my eyes and grab Robert's still-pointing arm and bring it down. "Well, she's a run-way model, I would certainly expect her to be."

"Ah, that's okay," he says not quite as loudly, "She's got nothin' on you, babe."

I roll my eyes yet again, "Yes, well, that would mean more if you weren't so drunk, Robert. Why don't you sit down, I'll grab you a glass of water."

Robert nods and slumps into the first available chair. I walk away smiling and shaking my head. I turn the tap on in Brian's kitchen and fill a glass up for Robert. Just as I was turning the tap off I hear, "I hope you don't think anything of what Robert says when he drinks."

I turn around and see Brian. I smile and say, "I don't, really. I hope you don't either - that's your girl he's talkin' about!"

"Eh, it's not serious with her-"

I interject, perhaps a bit to quickly, "-nor is it with Robert and I."

Brian nods, "Okay. Well, it wouldn't be the first girlfriend of mine who tried to get Robert when they met him. But I trust him well enough; he's only gotten one of them - and that was a fair battle, I guess."

I laugh, "All's fair in love and war?"

"Something like that. Although 'all' is a bit, well, all-encompassing, really."

I nod, "Agreed. So, how long have you known Robert?"

"A long time. About 9 or 10 years, I guess. We were friends back in school."

"Wow, that's a long time. When did you move out here?"

"Only a couple years ago. Robert convinced me. I started in the movie industry when I moved out here as a camera guy. I'm now like 'Junior-Assistant-to-the-Editor', so it's kind of a cool job."

I nod as we start heading back out to where Robert and everyone else was. As we reach the sitting room I see Alexa sitting on the arm of Robert's chair and trying like hell to engage him in conversation - something which he doesn't seem at all concerned or interested in doing.

I walk up to them and hand Robert his water, "Here you are, Robert."

He takes the glass happily and says, "Brenna! Sit!" and pats his lap. I look up at Alexa who is almost glaring at me, but trying to keep a smiling face at the same time. Purely to infuriate her more, I oblige. Robert wraps his arms around me and pulls me into him. I lean my head on his shoulder and whisper, "I think you should stop drinking now. You've got a long day ahead of you tomorrow."

Robert nods, "Sure, love. Think I drank too much, too quickly anyway."

***

At quarter after twelve, Robert bid everyone good-bye, gave a few hugs, and stumbled to his rental. I said my bye's and nice-to-meet-you's and followed closely after him.

I found him trying to get into the driver's side. "Uh, Robert, you're the passenger tonight."

He looks up, says, "Oh, right," and walks around. I unlock the doors and get in.