Remember Me

Dressed in a form-fitting, green dress cut just above the knees, Aly brushed her hands gently against the front of her body to smooth out the bottom skirt. She had just finished straightening her hair and adding the final touches to her smokey eye makeup. Tonight was the night. She was going out to dinner with Marc-Andre,

"You ready?" she overheard her aunt asking from the other side of the door, before hearing a gasp from behind her. "You look gorgeous." Carol-Lyne grinned across the room at her niece, watching her smile back. To see how happy she had been lately only made her firm on her decision that convincing Pascal to let Marc take her out was the right thing.

"Merci," the blonde responded quietly, going back to checking out her outfit in the full-length mirror. "Can you make sure Uncle Cal doesn't go over those 'rules' with Marc?"

Carol laughed at her niece's request, knowing all too well Pascal would do whatever it took to make sure Marc-Andre knew how overprotective he was. If he didn't already know, that is. "My dear, I'm not sure even I can stop that from happening."

Aly sighed, turning to face her aunt once more. The last thing she needed was her uncle completely embarrassing her. She didn't even know if Marc had already been scared off by Pascal from their earlier talk. He had told her he was going to tell Pascal about their outing at their practice earlier that day. Even though Alyssa had offered Marc the chance to keep it to himself, he had promised her it would be a 'real date,' and he seemed determined to keep it that way. She made a reminder to ask him about the talk later, as the doorbell rung throughout the house and she hurried past her aunt and towards the stairs. She had to beat everyone to the door.

"I'll get it! I'll get it!" the blonde shouted out through the home, seeing her cousins standing in the front entrance already as she jumped off the last step of the staircase. She whipped the front door open, seeing a very dapper man standing outside. He was wearing a nice pair of dark jeans, and a pale blue dress shirt, with his hair slicked back. She smiled as they greeted one another, and Marc's signature grin came into play as well.

"I, uh, brought you flowers," he smiled affectionately at her, holding out the bouquet of roses for her to accept. Marc couldn't take his eyes off of her, even when her aunt came to tell her she'd put them in a vase so they could get going. He didn't even care when he knew his teammate was watching him, giving him warning looks to keep his eyes above the neckline.

"Okay, we should go. This is feeling too much like ninth grade," Alyssa broke the moment, grabbing a hold of his arm and dragging him out of the house.

"Have fun, you two!" Carol exclaimed out the door.

Just how old do they think I am, Aly thought to herself, deciding she probably should have gone for the dorm room rather than staying with her relatives. They were just too embarrassing for her to handle. Marc held the door to his sports car open for her, and she got in before he rushed around to the driver's side.



Marc had decided on taking Aly to the Spaghetti Warehouse restaurant in Pittsburgh. He had remembered Aly's self-proclaimed love for Italian foods, and decided it would be the perfect place for them to have their date. It wasn't too formal, but at the same time, it wasn't a place you'd see everyone wearing sandals and swim shorts at either. He had made a reservation for two, and they were seated almost immediately after arriving at the establishment.

"How's your 'friend' doing?" Marc questioned, using his fingers to make air quotations mockingly. He picked up his menu, starting his search for what he would have for dinner.

"She's not imaginary!" Alyssa laughed, tossing her cloth that was sitting on her lap at him. He caught it just in time and wiped his own mouth with it before handing it back.

"Merci." he smirked that classic 'I-know-I'm-so-clever' shit-eating grin before going back to eating his meal.

"See, now that's just gross. How am I supposed to use this now? It's got Marc germs." she screwed up her face to show her disgust, only to put the cloth beside her plate on the table as Marc just laughed at her. "And for your information, my friend and I are going to this basketball game together on Sunday."

"Pictures, or it didn't happen." he teased.

"Oh, so that's how it's gonna be, huh?" she quirked an eyebrow and he nodded with a mouth full of food.

"I can't believe I agreed to spend this entire evening with you," Aly muttered underneath her breath, poking fun at him.



Their dinner went by without a hitch. Jokes were often and mostly made by Marc in any attempt to keep his date laughing. They had finished off their main course, and ordered some dessert before their evening would come to an end.

"Aren't athletes supposed to be, like, healthy?" she giggled, watching as the server put his dessert of a chocolate mud pie in front of him. "I don't understand how you're not four hundred pounds. I mean, you just stand in front of a net during the games." He shot her a look, and she just smirked to show she was only playing around.

"I don't just stand there," he argued and picked up the fork placed beside his plate.

"Okay, okay. You slide around a little bit, too."

Marc rolled his eyes, but Alyssa managed to hear the laugh he had mustered as well. "Want some?" he asked her in between bites, just as she was diving into her own apple crisp with ice cream. Alyssa smiled an answer, reaching over with her spoon and taking a bite from his dessert tray. She pushed her own plate his way, offering some of her own dessert to him and he accepted. Soon they were taking every other bite off of each other's plates until there was nothing left on them.

"Okay, that was good." Aly said, leaning back in her chair and wiping the sides of her mouth gracefully. Marc just smiled triumphantly, already knowing such. "So you still haven't told me, what did my uncle say when you told him you asked me out?"

Marc shrugged, still munching on his dessert. "He told me your curfew, and I wasn't to inappropriately touch you," he couldn't even hide the laugh as she stared at him with wide, horrified eyes.

"He didn't seriously say that, did he?!" Marc nodded a response, and she groaned. "I swear, he thinks I'm fourteen."

"He just cares about you." Marc knew he would do the same thing with his sister. Hell, he had done the same thing whenever he met boys that were hanging around his younger sister.

"Seems more like smothering, to me," she muttered and stabbed a piece of the baked apple crisp with her fork, overhearing his laughter. "Did he say anything else I should know about?"

"Nah, not really. I think he wasn't really sure I was serious," he confessed to her honestly.



"Pour vous, ma petite fleur," he handed her a small heart-shaped mood ring he had found in the middle of the plastic ball. Aly quirked an eyebrow, looking at him. "What? Don't like it?"

"It's not Tiffany's," she judged him, and he would have been offended had she not grinned and taken the ring from him, slipping it onto her ring finger on her right hand. "Suits me though, doesn't it?" Marc chuckled, watching her push her hand in front of her to admire it playfully, before turning to him and adding, "Merci."

"Only the best for you, Madamoiselle." he bowed his head and she bumped him with her shoulder, and they continued walking down the sidewalk. They discussed a lot, which surprised Marc due to previous experiences with the blonde. She never spoke about her direct family, though. She'd ask him about his family, and what little traditions they had. She figured there had to be, as he seemed to resemble one of the sons from the Camden family in 7th Heaven, only not as big.

They walked for miles, it seemed, around downtown Pittsburgh. It wasn't until flakes of snow started to fall, that they decided to make their way back to where Marc had parked and they realized how far it was. Alyssa had memorized the stride of his walk. She watched the way he swayed as he took his steps through the snow, and she watched the small freshly fallen flakes hit his face and melt almost instantly. She laughed to keep herself from blushing after being caught staring, but Marc just stuck out his tongue and tried to catch a snowflake on his tongue.

"What are you, nine?" she laughed.

"I'm a grown man, thank you very much." Marc smirked, turning around to meet Aly face-to-face. He had no problem with being called immature, or that he just never acted his age. Mainly because he didn't. He acted like a child sometimes, and he was willing to admit that. It was more fun to not act like he was a twenty-six year-old. He knew when it was time to be all business, and when it was okay to have a little fun and let loose. Some people were too wound up, he thought. Sometimes the best remedy to life's little problems was a little fun without worrying about what others thought.

He watched a tiny, white snowflake fall onto her lips, making them glisten against the light being emitted from the remaining Christmas strung ones along the street. Her curls were reappearing, the snow rinsing out all her hard work she had spent at straightening her hair that evening, but he didn't find anything wrong with the image in front of him. She was beautiful without even trying, and the fact that she had no idea how beautiful she was, just made her that much more appealing to him.

"What're you looking at? Do I have something on my face?" Alyssa caught him, and he was brought back to her and what was happening in that moment. He hadn't realized he had been staring intently at her lips; the supple, red glossed, plump and heart-shaped lips.

"No, nothing," he shook his head, laughing.

"Now why don't I believe you?"

"You have nothing on your face!" Still, Alyssa stuck her head out in front of a parked car's rear-view mirror, to make sure he was telling her the truth. Brushing away her now wavy and snow-damped hair, she stood upright again and met Marc back in the middle of the sidewalk. "I'm an honest person, you should learn to trust a little more," Marc spoke teasingly at the blonde.

"You also like to play jokes on people. I wouldn't put it past you to keep me walking around with food on my face for an entire day," she shot back at him.

"Nah, I would never do that to you!" he told her in as innocent sounding tone possible.



Any other guy Alyssa would have followed into their place, and fucked. It would have been meaningless, and just for the pure pleasure of it. There would be no morning after, as she always left right afterwards as to not give the wrong impression. There was never any feelings attached to it, and that's how she knew she wouldn't get hurt. She wouldn't get attached. First dates were always the last, and there were always more boys. But there was something different this time. Something she wanted to keep. The feeling Marc gave her was something she had never felt since she was a child. It was like how she felt the days her entire family was together with no fighting, and they'd go to Central Park for a picnic. Or how she felt when she and her brother would have breakfast together at the diner just down the street from the MET. She didn't know what to call it, and maybe that was a good thing because she was so scared of admitting it out loud. She was scared of jinxing it. As though finding out exactly what caused her to feel that way, finding exactly what to call it... if the real world were to find out, it'd take it away from her. And it was that feeling she strived for on a daily basis. It was the only thing keeping her going. That hope.

"So I'm going to go inside now." Alyssa paused, feeling insecure for the first time in a long time. Usually there were shots of tequila around to get rid of that feeling. She hated feeling inferior to someone, so she'd pretend like she was better than them and like she didn't give a damn. When in reality, it was the exact opposite.

"I had a good time," Marc smiled. "Good night."

"Me too," she returned the sincere gesture, reaching behind her for the doorknob of the front door and pushing it open. Something stopped her though, as she paused and spun around on her heal just in time to have Marc's hand grab the back of her head and crash their lips together. There were sparks that flew through her body, not that she would ever admit that to anyone, but they were hard to ignore. She could feel the goosebumps when Marc finally pulled away and the couple were able to catch their breath.

Marc wasn't going to do that. He had wanted to keep her waiting, and give her something he was sure she had never had before. He wanted to make her fall for him, which was most likely because she had sworn she wouldn't. She had promised that wasn't possible. He just wanted to prove to her that she had been wrong, and perhaps at this point, it was based on his own pride and stubbornness to prove her wrong. But grabbing her and kissing her wasn't based on that. He just hadn't wanted to end the night without at least one kiss. Her lips looked too appetizing for him to deny.

Alyssa couldn't stop the grin on her face from the moment she watched Marc drive away, to the time she walked straight up the stairs to her bedroom. She was just about to go to sleep when her phone beeped, telling her she had a new message.

Just wanted to say I had a good time tonight, and say goodnight. Again. Let's do it again sometime.

Smiling, she rolled onto her side, placing her phone back onto the bedside table and falling back to sleep.