You Had Me at "I Hate You"

"What?" I asked him. "What's wrong?"

THe first thing that jumped into my mind was that someone had died. The look on Linc's face suggested that he'd just seen a ghost.

"I... I got the job..." he muttered.
"What are you talking about?" Jesse asked. "What job?"
"That animation job!" he replied, breathless.

"But..." I protested. "You asked out the boss!"
"I know!" he cried.
"But... You said that they said that you didn't get it!"
"They said that they'd call me! I just didn't think that there was a chance in hell that I'd actually get it!"

Everyone went crazy. We leapt up off the couch and began shouting, throwing out hands in the air.

"That's great!" Julia cried.
"They must have seen my work!" Linc mused. "They must have seen all the animation's I've done before... Wow!"

"Oh my God!" I shouted, throwing my arms around his neck. "This is brilliant! This is so cool!"

He wrapped his arms around my waist and began jumping up and down.

"You're going to be an animator! Oh my God! Oh my God!"

We continued jumping, and he scooped me up, bridal style. I threw my head back and laughed. He set me down back on the couch, and heartily agreed when Gavin suggested that we break out the champagne.

House was forgotten... I guess Linc would just have to catch up later!

1 MONTH LATER

Aiden and I burst through the door, laughing like fools. We'd just been out to dinner, and we'd been having a great time.

We've been going out pretty steadily now... And I was waiting for him to ask me out officially.

He'd just finished telling me about his vacation last summer to Germany, and his run-in with a crazy man who was obsessed with The Beatles.

"And he just kept shouting at me in German!" he exclaimed.
I was laughing like mad.
"I couldn't understand a word he said, except 'John!' He thought I was John Lennon!"

We roared together, clutching our aching stomachs.

Things had been going well. Everything was back to normal... Well, relatively normal.

Lincoln's new job was going quite well, and he'd even been asked to help out a bit on a small animated commercial. But... Ever since Aiden and I had gotten really serious, Linc had become especially moody. He now slams himself around like an angry toddler, and he would frequently snap at Jesse and I.

It was quite annoying.

"Sorry to interrupt the giggle-fest," Linc interjected. "But I'm sort of trying to watch a movie here."

He turned back to the screen, and I finally got a good look at our other company. Jesse was in his room, crashed after a long day at school. I could hear him snoring. This wasn't the weird part. The weird part was that there was an extremely pretty Asian girl lounging on the couch.

She was picking her long nails and sighing in boredom. For some strange reason... She had on one of Linc's shirts.

"Oh!" I exclaimed, suddenly remembering her as Naomi, Linc's girlfriend.

"Aiden," I said, pointing to Naomi. "This is Lincoln's girlfriend, Naomi."
"How do you do?" he asked, and she giggled.

"You remember me... From the Christmas party? And this is my... my... uh... this is Aiden."
"I'm her boyfriend," Aiden answered, and strode over to the couch to shake Naomi's hand.

He shot me a look over his shoulder, and, when he came back over to stand next to me, I squeezed his hand.

I guess we were officially dating!

Linc hadn't really heard anything, as he was still absorbed in his movie. It was Night of the Living Dead, an old zombie movie from the '60's. He wasn't paying much attention to Naomi, and she looked bored off her ass.

"So, Linc?" Aiden asked conversationally. "How can you stand living with Violet 24/7, huh?"

I smiled and punched him lightly in the arm.

"Well, it's a delicate balance. She keeps the place smelling decent, and we kill all the bugs. Simple shit, man."

He hadn't taken his eyes off the T.V. screen.
Aiden shifted uncomfortably.

"Hey, Naomi?" Linc asked.
"Yeah?"
"Can you quit chewing that gum so loudly? Honestly, you're going to pop an eardrum," he replied.

And this is why I hate him.

How could he do that to her? She was his girlfriend! I sighed. Only Lincoln could date someone he didn't even like.

"Maybe I wouldn't be chewing so loudly if I wasn't so bored!" Naomi answered stupidly. She flipped her long hair over her shoulder.

"Well, if you're bored then you should probably be quiet and watch the movie, then, huh?" Linc sneered.
"No! You've made me watch this dumb movie seventeen times! I've counted!" she protested.

"Aw, come on! It gets better every time!" Linc retorted, protecting his precious zombie flick.
She snorted in disgust.

"Uh, hey, babe?" Aiden whispered to me, as to not disturb Linc. "I'm gonna get going, okay?"
"'Kay," I replied, pecking him on the lips. "I'll see you."

Naomi took this opportunity to leap up from the couch.

"Oh! Me too! I'm leaving!"
"Bye," Linc grunted.

Naomi didn't answer, and she walked out of the door behind Aiden.

I strode over and stood in front of the television, glaring at Linc. I heard the squelching sound of someone getting stabbed behind me, and winced.

"Move! This is my favorite part!" he ordered.

I turned off the DVD player.

Lincoln leapt up from the couch, his face set in an angry expression.
"Hey! I was watching that!"
"Yeah, I know. That's why I turned it off," I replied cooly.
"Bitch! Just turn it back on for a second, this is my favorite part!"

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I spat.
"What's wrong with me? I'm missing my favorite zombie movie, that's what's wrong with me!"

"No, I mean... Why do you ignore Naomi like that?"

He paused. I guess I'd kind of hit home.

"I... I don't know," he laughed. "Because she's a spoiled brat? I don't know..."
"If she's a spoiled brat," I said slowly, moving towards him... my anger growing. "Then why are you dating her?!"

He moved around the coffee table so that he could lean right into my face and growl,

"None of your business!"
"I'll make it my business! You can't treat her like shit, Lincoln!"
"I can do whatever I want."

I roared in frustration. "You think you're so suave!" I hissed.
"I don't think, Dollface. I know."

"Lincoln-" I began, a warning edge in my voice.

"AGH!" he roared. "Don't call me Lincoln! I hate it when you call me Lincoln, Naomi calls me Lincoln... I'm not effing Abraham!"

"Well, Lincoln," I said, purposely trying to annoy him. "You are a spectacularly horrible boyfriend."
He winced at the sound of his name, and fought to keep him voice under control. "And I don't see why you care so much!"
"How are you going to keep on doing this? Are you just going to slap a bow on it and call it love?"
"I don't see why you care so much!"

"I care because you're putting a poor girl through hell! So what if she is a spoiled brat? She still deserves someone better than you! You can't just force her to watch a movie that she doesn't like... You've got to do things together! That's what a relationship is, Linc! It's two people who want to be together! And, seeing as nobody can stand you, there's a fat chance of that happening for you, but you can at least-"

Linc now wore a small, knowing smile. As if he suddenly understood everything.

I narrowed my eyes at him, with my hand on my hip. "What?"

He stepped closer.

Okay, what the hell did he think he was doing? If he thinks that he can just write me off like that and-

Oh God.

Linc had pressed him lips to the side of my face. He'd kissed my cheek quickly, still with that secretive smile plastered to his face.

I was in shock.

"Linc!" I clapped my hand to the side of my burning face. I could tell that my cheeks had bloomed into two giant red rosebuds of embarrassment...

"What?" he asked, shrugging. "That's what you wanted, wasn't it?"

"N-No!" I stuttered.
"Well, you're always bugging me about Naomi! You're always hinting that I should dump her!"
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" I shouted in his face. "And Aiden is my boyfriend now! So you need to leave me alone!"

He scowled, and I wiped my cheek off where he'd kissed me with the back of my hand.

The next morning, as I went off to work, I was still angry with him.

How could he think that I was lecturing him because I liked him? How could anyone be such a jerk?

I was so angry, in fact, that I brought up the story I'd written about the scam. If published, I had enough evidence for a large court case...

No! I couldn't do that!

No matter how angry I get, I can't be tempted to print this story. Sure, it might get me on the front page... But I would lose two really good friends.

Yes, I'd called Linc my friend. I realized that, no matter how annoying he could be, that sometimes we had fun.

I printed the article out, folded it up, and stuck it in my purse. Then, I deleted the file from my computer.

There, I'd have it to look at when I got angry at Linc... But nobody would be able to find it, since I'd now deleted it.

I sighed and got to work on a story about how Brad Pitt had just adopted a cyclops-baby.