Taking Chances

The next day, I woke up to a text from Ian saying good morning plus an apology. Before going our separate ways the previous night, we had exchanged phone numbers and I got the promise that he would call. A text would do just the same too, in my opinion. Gavin and Jamie would be pleased to know that their attempts in trying to hook us up were not futile and that we were actually talking. It wasn’t anything grand on any level but they would probably see it as that way. To be honest, I wasn’t even sure if I still wanted a relationship or not. Ian was attractive yes, and we held good conversation but that whole incident had put up a road block, apology or not. Something was just not right. That much was obvious.

I tried to keep the events from my mind as I went on with the rest of my day, getting through my classes that morning and eventually meeting up with Gavin again for lunch. Once again my sketchpad was in front of me, minus a tray of food and this time I was just doodling instead of working on any of my projects. At the top of the page were various stages of the sun setting over water, along with the moon rising. Oh yeah, definitely kept off of my mind. My inner me (meaning the sensible part of me that didn’t come out very often) was eye rolling at the doodles. Looking up as Gavin’s tray clacked against the table, I put my pencil down and stretched my arms out in front of me, cracking my fingers as well.

“So?” That was the first thing out of his mouth. His blue eyes bore into my brown ones, waiting for the story, right down to every little detail.

“So what?” I asked in return. No harm in playing a little dumb. I may be blonde but I certainly was not dumb though I had my moments. Gavin basically growled at me like I knew what he was talking about and I chuckled. I kept it up, not breaking the little act.

“You know what! He basically ran after you when you left, Sean. You can’t tell me you two didn’t do anything,” he said as he shoved food into his mouth. Always the elegant one, our Gavin.

“He did catch up to me and he also waited on me to get out of class. We ended up just going down to the bay,” I shrugged and picked up my pencil. With my other hand, I stole one of Gavin’s chips and popped it into my mouth. “That’s it.” I was debating on even telling Gavin about what happened. He was my best friend but if I didn’t even know what to make of it, how would his assumptions make it better? Not right now, I decided, but once I had enough facts to get it all straight.

His eyebrow went up when I was finished speaking and I grabbed another chip from him. He didn’t believe me, I could tell. “That’s it?” he asked.

“Yes, that’s it!” I said around the food in my mouth. “What, did you really think we were going to fall madly in love at first sight, go back to my flat, fuck, and then go off and join the Peace Corps together? Jesus, Gavin.”

He held up his hands in defense and turned back to eat his food, not pressing the subject anymore. Guess it was an adequate enough, valid answer. In turn, I stood to go grab something from one of the lines, which ended up just being a big pile of chips as nothing else sounded appetizing. Another one of our friends, Matthew, had joined us in my absence. I greeted him and then went back to doodling on my paper. Twenty minutes and a couple sketches of my parent’s dogs later, my phone buzzed as I received a new text message. I pulled it from my pocket and opened it, seeing it was from man in question himself.

Doing anything right now?

I looked over to Gavin, who was too busy talking to Matt to notice me as I hadn’t said much in on their conversation anyways. Nah, just eating. You?

At work still. Do you maybe want to do something later? I got a couple minutes later as a reply.

Smiling a little, I quickly typed out a response and sent it. Sure. When and where?

I’ll text you in a bit to let you know.

I set my phone aside after that, not replying since it’d just be a useless ‘okay’ or something along those lines. I still had that smile on my lips and I busied myself with my drawings again. Was it sad that I couldn’t wait until later on that night? In a way maybe, as I felt like I had that whole school-girl thing going on but at the same time, no, it wasn’t. We had been set up, hadn’t we? Obviously Ian felt the same way of giving things a chance to see how they played out or else he wouldn’t have bothered with asking me out.

Since I had no other classes for the rest of the day, the three of us sat in the cafeteria for another or so. Matt had at least two more classes and Gavin had another, so when their time came to leave, they did until I was sitting there all alone at the table once more. I had nothing better to do really. It was stay here, go up and get as much food as I wanted as many times as I wanted or go back to my flat where I had some stale cereal and crisps to tide me over until I could make it back to my parents for groceries. Though I know I had to leave at some point to go get cleaned up for Ian. Another two hours soared by without a passing glance and it was then I decided to head on back. I packed up, took my plates to the washing line and left the cafeteria.

One of the perks of not living on campus was that I had my own space and I didn’t have to worry about anyone stealing my things or barging in at the wrong time. The downside was that I wasn’t on campus and thus meaning I had to go the fifteen minute trek to my flat instead of a dorm instantly being right there. After eating so much though, I gladly welcomed the little exercise from the walk. Once at my flat building, I went up the three levels to my landing and went down the corridor until I was at my door.

Upon entering, I dumped my bag to the futon and went straight to the bathroom. The flat itself wasn’t much: a fairly decent sized living space with a small kitchen off to the side, one bathroom and one bedroom. It was all that I needed in the long run. It wasn’t about the size of it but its contents that made it home away from home. I didn’t plan on moving back home to Merthyr Tydfil after school so this place was in it for the long run. Turning the water on for the shower, I stripped from my clothes and got in. I only wanted to stay in long enough to give myself a good wash, not going to worry about washing my hair right now. I could feel it starting to frizz, meaning I would have to straighten it back out, and I finished as fast as I could to avoid doing it much. I changed into a clean pair of boxers, the same tight black trousers I had on before, and some random band t-shirt that I would throw my leather jacket on over. No repeats of the previous night.

Waiting on my hair straightener to heat up, I wandered back to the futon and flopped down on it. I reached into my bag to retrieve my phone, checking to see if I had any messages. One new message popped up on the screen, saying it was from Ian. It must’ve come while I was in the shower. I opened it and read what it said- him asking for my address so he could pick me up. I texted him back with it and no later than thirty seconds after I pressed send, I had another message. This time it said that he’d be round in twenty minutes and that I should be ready. I hopped up from the futon and went back to the bathroom to finish my hair, making sure each and every piece was perfectly in place.

Right on the dot twenty minutes later, there was a knock on the door. I turned my straightener off and checked to make sure I had my phone, keys and wallet with me. Going to the door, I opened it, giving Ian a smile upon seeing him. He returned it though I could tell that something was wrong as he was a little out of breath and seemed rushed. Maybe he had just taken the steps rather than the lift like most people. I wasn’t sure whether to invite him in or not but with the way he stepped back to turn to leave made my decision.

“Hey,” I greeted, coming out into the hall and making sure the door was locked behind me. “So where are we going?” Felt like I had had this conversation before, strangely.

“My place,” he answered. Ian stepped back a little bit more and let me go ahead of him, so he could follow me down.

I went for the lift and pressed the button, it only taking a minute for it to arrive and then to go down once we were inside. Inside, he asked how my day had been and if I had done any more of my project drawing. I told him I hadn’t, talked about my classes a little bit and then I asked about his own day while it was his turn to lead me to his car. He said work was work, not saying much about it. At his car, Ian unlocked it and I got in on the passenger side. It was a little bit messy but nothing I couldn’t handle. No organizational skills, remember? I moved a CD folder from the seat before I sat down and I flipped through it once we were both in and the car was moving. Always great to see how someone was by their music taste. As I flipped, I noticed that we had similar interests and I pulled out a CD.

“Pendulum, huh?”

Ian looked over, glanced back to the road and then back to me. “Yeah, they’re pretty good.”

“They’re brilliant! Mind if I put it in?”

He gave me the all clear and I slipped the CD into the player. The song started up after the initial delay and as soon as it played, I was immediately singing along with it. Ian was a little surprised but he looked amused by my singing and bouncing around in the seat to the music. By the time he had pulled up into the drive of his house at the fourth song into the album, he was singing along loudly with me, revealing a little more of him to me. We sat in the car until the song was finished, both singing and laughing at ourselves because we really were ridiculous sounding. He shut the car off when it was through and pushed a hand through his hair, giving another chuckle.

“Think we could get a record contract if we send in tapes of us belting out Pendulum?” he asked, looking at me.

“Totally! It’d be the best deal any company could ever make,” I teased back. Ian laughed more and got out of the car, me following suit.

He led me up the drive and along the pathway in the yard, going up the one step to reach the door. Unlocking it, Ian pushed it open and then stepped back so I could go in ahead of him. He shut and locked it after him, flipping on a few lights to brighten the place up. It was rather nice, a lot nicer than my flat but that was a given. A spacious living room, a kitchen that wasn’t all crammed and a dining room off to the side. Down the hall, there were a few other doors but I wasn’t going to go be nosy or anything.

Dropping his keys onto a side table by the door, Ian shrugged off his jacket and hung it up. “Sorry about the mess. I haven’t been home since I left this morning. Went to work, had to do a few things when I got off, then came by to pick you up,” he explained.

My eyebrow went up automatically. I wanted to question him again about the previous night but I felt like I’d get the same answer: nothing. The whole having to do things, especially after what that guy had said, was definitely there in the back of my mind as Ian led me to the couch to sit with him. He cleared a few magazines and other papers off, sticking them on the coffee table that was in front of the couch. I sat beside him, close but not to close either. Leaning forward, I put my elbow on my knee and my chin in my hand, turning my head to look at Ian through my fringe. It took him a moment to realize that I was staring at him and he gave me a weird look, along with a chuckle.

“What?” he asked, reaching forward and brushing a few strands of my hair out of my face. Not expecting him to do that but it was nice. “Do I have something…?” He motioned around his face, hand going to his mouth to check if anything was in his teeth as well.

“No!” I laughed a little as I sat up straighter. “No, nothing, I’m just. Watching.” Okay, Sean, way to sound creepy and all.

“Watching, huh?” he repeated. I slowly nodded. “I see. What do you see so far?”

Oh boy. “An attractive man who I find it easy to get along with, whom also enjoys the same music as me and has a good sense of dress.” All of that was out of my mouth before I knew what I was saying. It was all true; I just hadn’t meant to immediately spout off the attractive part just yet. I took a deep breath and leaned back a little, looking away and biting over my bottom lip.

I had no idea what Ian was going to say to that and I was racking my brain over the possible negative outcomes when I felt the couch cushion shift by me. Ian was suddenly closer to me than he had been before when I looked up. I opened my mouth to say something but stopped as his hand was now at my cheek, his fingers caressed it gently and then his mouth was on mine. His lips were soft as they moved over my own and I felt myself scoot closer to deepen the kiss without another thought. It continued like that for another moment or so until Ian was the one to pull away. He licked over his bottom lip and stared at me like he wanted to do it again but was controlling himself. I was a little out of breath and I swept my hair out of my face as we continued to look at each other.

“I thought maybe we could uh, order take out and watch a movie or something,” he stated to break the silence.

Even if I had just come from the cafeteria at school, I nodded. It would take a while anyways for them to make the food and then deliver it, so I was sure I would be hungry by then. “Sounds like a plan,” I replied.

Ian stood after that, going into the kitchen to try to find a takeout menu. I turned on the couch to watch him shuffle through all the drawers. His hair was in his face, his tongue was sticking out a little from the corner of his mouth like it was a natural expression while he thought, and he just looked at ease- more than he had been before. He came back into the living room when he had found a few menus, handing them over to me.

“Don’t care which one you want to order from. Had to search for the damn things though, it should’ve been an easy find with often I order carry out,” he admitted.

I just gave a laugh as I looked through what he had given me. Pizza, no, just didn’t sound good right now. Italian seemed too fancy and then it was down between a Chinese and Japanese place. I didn’t really know the difference as it all tasted the same to me, so I grabbed one and set the others aside. I ended up picking the Chinese and I scanned over the menu to see what sounded good. After a moment, I told him what I wanted and it turned into a ten minute debate whether pork or chicken dumplings were better (pork all the way). Ian finally went to call to order the food after I playfully punched him in the arm over his hardheadedness, laughing nearly the whole time on the phone because of it. It had been a pretty pathetic punch, honestly. We were told it would be about half an hour before it would be delivered, so in the meantime, Ian sent me over to the bookcase where all his movies were displayed to pick one or two out. We’d get started with one, pause when the food came and finish it while eating.

I picked out two comedies, not wanting to go with the whole clichéd horror films for the excuse to sit closer to him. If I wanted to sit closer to him, well then damn it, I would. I didn’t need another reason as to why. Putting one of the movies in, he came back to sit beside me, his arm going around the back of the couch, his fingers just barely touching my shoulders. I watched them out of the corner of my eye for a couple moments, hearing the movie but not paying attention. His fingers twitched every few seconds, like he was debating slipping his arm down or not. I took the initiative and moved over all the way until our sides were touching. I brought my legs up onto the couch, arms going around my knees. It was an open invitation for him to do and I could only hope he would take it. Ian did it without hesitation, his arm falling down around my shoulders as his fingers rubbed the top of my arm. We sat like that until there was a knock on the door, signaling that the food had arrived.

Ian jumped up to get it and after paying the man, he shut the door behind him and brought the food over to the couch. “No plates,” he grinned. “S’what chopsticks are for.” He sat back down next to me, handing me a pair of chopsticks and also one of the boxes of rice. “Okay, may need a fork for that, I’ll get that.” With that, he was up again and then back with two forks.

I dug into my food almost instantly. It smelled really good and my stomach was growling for attention. Unpausing the movie, we sat and ate, talking about random parts of the movie, making fun of some of the characters and the things they were saying. We also laughed a lot, most the time it was at the stupid things. What was a comedy without the stupid stunts for the laughter? When we were both finished eating and when the first movie was over, the lights in the living room were turned off and I went right back to snuggling against Ian like I had been before. We were more quiet during the second movie, most of the energy having been taken out on the first one and now that we were both stuffed, it was time to settle down for a bit.

Throughout the second one, unlike the first, I spent my time divided between the movie screen and then what Ian was doing beside me. At random times, when there would be a noise that hadn’t come from the movie, he would jump and look around. Most the time, he would look toward the door. I tried not to show that I noticed but really, it was noticeable. He just seemed spooked about something, like something was going to come and attack at any moment. In the middle of the movie, I slipped my arm around his waist and soothingly rubbed my fingertips over his side to try to make him calm some and forgot about whatever was clearly on his mind. When the second movie was over, it had gotten pretty late and I had an early class the next morning.

“I hope you had a good time,” Ian told me from his spot by the TV while he was ejecting the DVD from the player.

I smiled as I stretched out from my position, rising from the couch. “I did. It was nice. Have to do it again sometime,” I hinted. He almost basically lit up from my comment, and then turned to put the movies away.

Collecting my jacket from where I had discarded it earlier in the evening, I shrugged it on, making sure I had everything in my pockets. I heard Ian picking up his keys and I made my way over to where he was now standing at the door. “I really did have a good time,” I told him again. “Thanks for having me over.”

Ian smiled again and leant down to press his lips to mine another time. It was short and sweet and I could find myself starting to love them. Not getting enough of it, I pulled him down by his neck and kissed him harder for a moment until releasing and stepping back. Just from the way he was looking at me now, I could tell that we both were already in it for the long haul.