Commit This to Memory

Betty was the first one up at the Pierre residence. Anna had bunked down at Jesse's place. She probably could have stayed with Matt or Josh, because there was no way we'd let her and Tony in the same building without supervision, but Jesse offered first and they wanted to catch up on old stuff. So there was Betty, sitting at the table, alone in Justin's kitchen, reading and drinking a cup of freshly made coffee. There was a loud crash and some scrambling behind her, over by the door. She glanced around, not sure if she had imagined it or not. A minute or two later Justin came in blushing slightly and tugging on the waistband of his pajama bottoms.

"Did you hear that crash?" Betty asked as he poured himself some coffee.

"Uh yeah," he stammered.

"What do you think caused it?"

"It was me," he mumbled not looking at her. "I forgot you were living here."

She started giggling. "So why'd you run off? Did you need to compose yourself or something?"

"No I needed pants." He tugged the fabric on one of his legs.

"You weren't wearing pants? Why?"

"Because," he drug out the 'uh' sound for a few seconds.

Betty raised an eyebrow and opened her mouth to say something, and then she closed it. "Actually you know what; I don't think I want to know." There was a knock on the door. "I'll get it."

As soon as she opened it, Anna burst in and flung herself on the couch. "I hate my life!" she screamed into a pillow.

"Um," Justin started looking into the living room. "You might not want to-never mind."

"Anna, the man has a point," Betty said sitting next to her friend. "I know you're mentally distraught but the couch is filthy."

Anna looked at the pillow she had been screaming into and shuddered. "Do you have any tissues?" She asked Justin sitting up. He thought for a minute then dashed out of the room. "And a clean pillow with extra squish!" In moments, he was back with a large fluffy pillow and a box of Kleenex. He handed them over wondering where the hell the Kleenex had come from. After she blew her nose, Anna went into a large and detailed description of her "dream guy" and how she had finally met him. Then she collapsed onto Betty's shoulders and started sobbing.

Justin raised an eyebrow at Betty as if to say "who". "Tony," she mouthed. He nodded and rubbed his chin trying to think of ways to fix the sobbing girl on his couch scenario.

There was a knock on the door. It was Tony; he looked slightly nervous and uncomfortable. "Is Anna here?" he asked shifting his weight from his left foot to his right. "I checked at Jesse's but he said she already left so I thought she might be here."

"She is," Justin said slowly.

"Can I talk to her?"

"Why?"

"I want to ask her something?"

"What?"

"Jesus Justin, is this the fucking Spanish Inquisition?"

"Look Tony," said Justin as he moved the two of them into the hall and shut the door. "She's on my couch bawling her eyes out because she likes you. So unless you're here to offer your undying love, you should probably leave."

"Well I don't know about 'undying love' but I would like to take her to dinner."

"That's close enough." Justin paused in opening the door. "Wait what about-?"

"We broke up...like two weeks ago. Where have you been?"

Justin thought about it. How had he become so out of touch with one of maybe ten people he regularly saw? "Mars apparently," he shrugged and went inside.

As soon as the two of them walked into the living room, Anna made a futile attempt at escaping but Betty made sure she didn't move anywhere. Tony looked even more nervous. "Um, I was wonder Anna," he said to his shoes. "If maybe you'd like to go out sometime?"

Anna sniffed and wiped her eyes. "But what about-?"

"For the love of Yoda, Justin!" Tony yelled, throwing his hands up in the air. "If you're going to tell people about me at least get the facts straight!"

"I'm sorry!" Justin cried hiding behind the couch. He moved over to Anna and whispered, "He broke up with his girlfriend awhile ago and I just now found out."

She was at a loss for words. No really, she just sat there with the biggest smile on her face. Even after Tony left, she just sat there, grinning like an idiot. It wasn't until Betty waved a cup of coffee under he nose that Anna did anything. "Oh my god, he asked me out!" she screamed standing up.

"You owe me five bucks Mr. Pierre," Betty said holding her hand out towards him. "I told you the smell of coffee would make her move." He grumbled and headed to his room to look for his wallet.

"Bee, what should I wear?" Anna asked a slight hint of panic in her voice.

"She asks the girl who hasn't been on a date in two years."

"Jeans," Justin said reappearing and handing Betty a five-dollar bill. "Or a casual skirt and a nice top that shows some but not too much booby." Both girls looked at him questioningly. "What? I'm a guy; I know what guys like to see on a casual first date."

"Uh huh," Anna said skeptically. "Well I'm going to go shopping then, what time do I need to be back by?"

"He said he'd pick you up at six," Betty said.

"Okay, I'm off." Anna dashed out the door.

There was a brief awkward pause after she left, at least that's the way Justin felt. "So uh," he said, trying to break the silence. "Now what?"

"Hey what are these stairs for?" Betty asked, not paying attention, as she opened what had appeared to be a closet door.

"They go to the roof."

"Wow really?" She asked in disbelief. "You've got private access to the roof?" In an instant, she was dashing up the steps. She pushed open the heavy metal door and stepped outside.

"I come up here to write sometimes," Justin said, a few steps behind her. "It's a nice place to think. But I don't really go too close to the edge, like you are right now."

Betty was standing right next to the ledge and leaning over. She wanted to see what the sidewalk looked like from this height. It scared the shit out of Justin. "Am I making you nervous?" she asked glancing back at him.

"Very."

"Okay I'll stop." She moved away from the edge and he slowly started to relax. "Let's go back inside and watch a movie."

"Okay." They went back inside and Justin pulled open the large closet next to the TV revealing hundreds of DVDs and tapes. Betty's jaw dropped slightly. "Your pick I'm going to run down the store and pick up some snacks."