Chaos Theory on Dimensionally Stable Objects on Earth College Campuses (9/27-ish)
Title - Chaos Theory on Dimensionally Stable Objects on Earth College Campuses (9/27-ish)
Author - earlgreytea68
Rating - General
Characters - OCs
Spoilers - None
Disclaimer - I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for the kids. They're all mine.)
Summary - Brem goes to university.
Author's Notes - Many thanks to jlrpuck, from whom Kate gets her bright red coat.
Many, many, many thanks to Kristin, for all the ideas. Thanks also to bouncy_castle79, who once again gave it the first outside-eyes read-through.
The gorgeous icon was created by swankkatfor me, commissioned by jlrpuckfor my birthday.
To those celebrating, Merry Christmas! Happy Hannukah! I hope you have a beautiful and peaceful time with your loved ones.
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8
Chapter Nine
The next Twentieth-Century Novel class could not come quickly enough for Brem. He used the day between classes to research restaurants, asking everyone he ran into which restaurants they would recommend so he could impress Kate with a bit of exploration that went beyond bookstores.
He was early to class again, and then he didn’t know what to do. Should he choose a seat closer to where he knew Kate would sit? Should he stay in his regular seat? He stood, fretting in hesitation at the front of the room, before moving to his usual seat. Kate walked in shortly before class, chatting with the girl who usually sat next to her, and he was unsure what he was supposed to do. He watched her, hoping she would glance his way, and he thought possibly he would smile and maybe give her a little wave. She didn’t look at him, pausing by her row to finish up her conversation, then she turned and startled him by walking directly over to him and dropping into the seat next to him, looking at him with a smile that dazzled him.
“Hi,” she said.
“Hi,” he managed, suddenly aware he was grinning like an idiot. And blushing, too. He felt ridiculous.
She pulled out a notebook and her copy of The Plague. “This book I liked a lot better,” she said. “But I wonder if you might have a special perspective, being our visitor from abroad.” She grinned at him.
He found himself saying, “You’re terribly beautiful.”
She blushed the most enchanting shade of pink, reaching up to push one of those wispy strands uselessly behind her ear. “Thanks.”
The professor began speaking then. Brem had no idea what he said at any point during class; he wondered if he would ever hear a word of Twentieth-Century Novel ever again. It was certainly impossible to concentrate with Kate right next to him. She took diligent notes, in a quick, no-nonsense script that suited her. She smelled wonderful, some light, fresh scent that made him almost dizzy, it was so Kate. She kept pushing at those wisps of hair, and he suffered a sudden impulse to reach out and fix the wisps for her, just nudge one behind her ear.
He didn’t even know class had ended until Kate closed her notebook and looked at him. “You didn’t take a single note,” she said, smiling.
“What?” he asked, stupidly. It was really impossible to think when she was up close like this.
“You didn’t take any notes,” she repeated.
Mostly because he’d been watching her. “I, uh, no,” he said, because he didn’t know what else to say.
“Don’t think you’re borrowing mine,” she teased, dropping her notebook in her bag.
“So did you want to…” he began.
She looked at him expectantly.
“Did you want to, maybe, have tea again? Or coffee? Or chocolate? Or, you know, whatever.”
“Okay.” She turned to face him fully, which caused that annoying no-thinking response in him again. “I’m going to tell you something, and I don’t want you to think this is any sort of hint that I don’t want to go for any shorthand for casually going out with you. Because I really do. Okay?”
“Okay,” he agreed, while secretly panicked.
“I have a class.”
“What?”
“I have a class. After this one. That I missed the other day, but I don’t really want to miss it twice.”
Brem stared at her. “You have a class? You have a class? And you missed it?”
“It’s okay.” She stood, slinging her bag over her shoulder. “I have a friend in it, I borrowed her notes.”
“But…” he sputtered, standing as well. “Why didn’t you tell me you had a class?”
“I tried to. You jumped to the conclusion I had a boyfriend, and I was worried you’d take it the wrong way and not ask me again, and I really wanted to go out with you. I really want to go out with you again. Just…after this class. Okay?”
“Yes. Absolutely. You really should have told me about the class.”
“Don’t worry about the class,” she grinned at him. “Can we meet at five? Outside Wigglesworth?”
“Yeah,” he agreed. “Yes. That’s perfect. Where’s your class? I’ll walk you.”
“Robinson,” she said, and he walked her to the building next door. “Wigglesworth,” she reminded him. “Five o’clock.”
“Yes,” he agreed. He watched her go into her class, then felt at loose ends. What was he supposed to do? He’d blocked the entire afternoon for Kate.
He wandered back to his room and half-heartedly typed up a new column for the Crimson. It was probably rubbish, but he’d deal with that later. Matt walked in when he was attempting to fix his hair to the perfect level of mussedness.
“Hey,” he said, by way of greeting.
“How does my hair look?” Brem asked.
Matt looked at him blankly. “Huh?”
“My hair. How does it look?”
“Fine, I guess.”
Brem looked back in the mirror, adjusted a few strands. “What about now?”
“It looks fine, Brem.”
Brem pushed at it again. “What about now?”
Matt looked up from where he had sat at his desk, looking through the mail he’d clearly picked up. “Brem. It doesn’t look any different.”
Brem huffed in frustration. “You don’t have any sense of hair appreciation.”
Matt tossed his mail on his desk. “What’s gotten into you?”
“I have a date with Kate.”
“Another one?”
Brem nodded. “A proper, serious date. A planned dinner.”
“So I guess being impossibly cute is a good thing.”
“Evidently so, yes.” Brem regarded his hair again, glancing at the clock. It was half-four. He would be early if he left now, but he definitely didn’t want to be late, and he was getting nothing done in the room anyway. “I’m off,” he said.
“Have fun,” Matt told him. “Good luck.”
Brem acknowledged the wishes grimly, as he set out for Wigglesworth.
He was very, very early. It was a brisk, gray day, and he stood huddled into his woolen coat, waiting for the moment when Kate emerged. She was bundled in a bright red coat that stood out like a beacon as she hurried toward him, and her cheeks were flushed with the cold.
“Ready?” she said, smiling at him.
“Yes,” he affirmed.
She reached for his hand, with one be-gloved hand of her own. He was startled by how automatically he gave it to her as he led her across the Yard, away from the Square.
“Where are we going?” she asked, curiously.
“A restaurant,” he responded, playfully.
“Impressive. Did you go exploring? Just for me?” She swung their joined hands a bit, almost bouncing with energy beside him.
“Maybe,” he said. “Tell me about the class you had after Twentieth-Century Novel.”
“Elizabethan Epic Poetry.”
“Oh,” he said, brightly. “Like Spenser?”
“Yes.”
“I liked Spenser.”
“You’ve read him?”
Well, he’d met him. “I…Yes, in a manner of speaking, I suppose.”
“A manner of speaking?” she asked, quizzically, casting him an amused glance.
“Er, yes. Sort of. It’s complicated.”
“How is that complicated?”
“I have a way of making things complicated.”
“That could be because you think too much.”
“That’s an oxymoron.”
She laughed.
“Here we are,” he said, as they reached the restaurant. He asked the maitre d’ for a table for two, and they were settled in a booth in the back, where it was fairly dim. “They have a great spinach and artichoke dip,” he told Kate, as they were handed their menus. Kate was watching him, not looking at her menu. He could feel the weight of her gaze, so he looked over at her. “What?” he asked.
“You did research,” she accused, with a grin.
“A bit. Ish. Possibly,” he admitted.
“You’re-”
“Let me guess,” he interrupted. “Impossibly cute.”
Her smile widened. “Well, you are.”
“You know, I didn’t know if that’s good or bad,” he informed her.
She shook her head a little bit, as if in disbelief, and then said, “It’s very good.”
“I know. I asked my sister.”
“And I’m sure she translated for you, as we both speak the mysterious language of ‘Female.’”
“One thing I’ve learned since being on Earth,” rejoined Brem, gravely, “is that I’m rubbish at languages.”
“You have the funniest way of speaking sometimes.”
“I’m British.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about. ‘Since being on Earth.’ Such a curious way to put it.”
“I have a dry sense of humor,” said Brem.
“Uh-huh.” She leaned over the table a bit, ducking closer to him, and he held his breath. “What did your sister say?”
“About what?” he managed, mouth dry.
“Your being impossibly cute.”
“She said I should ask you out.”
“Yes,” Kate affirmed. “She’s right about that.”
“Did you want something to drink?” asked the waitress at that moment, who clearly had no sense of timing.
Brem tore himself out of Kate’s gaze and said, blankly, “What?”
“Something to drink,” the waitress repeated, bored.
“Water, for now,” Kate answered her. “Oh, and the spinach and artichoke dip. I’m told it’s very good here.”
They talked through the spinach and artichoke dip-“It is good,” said Kate. “Stellar research.”-and the hamburgers that followed, and she was the one who suggested Tealuxe afterward. “It’s our thing,” she told him, taking his hand again as they headed outside.
“Is it?” he asked, thinking that they had a “thing” now, and how unbelievable was that?
“That’s what I’ve decided,” she answered.
“It’s a good thing to have,” he concluded, as they walked toward the Square.
“Glad you approve,” she said.
He ordered a different tea this time around and commented, as he waited for his egg timer, “I should buy some tea leaves. Have proper tea instead of teabags around the dorm.” She watched him as he counted out his seven sugars and emptied them into his teacup and then pronounced this latest tea as delicious as the first.
“Next time,” she said, as he waked her back to Wigglesworth, “we’ll do bookstores.”
“Next time?” he echoed.
She bumped her shoulder against his, casually. “Weren’t you going to ask me out again?”
“Welllllll, sure, but I was going to be very dramatic and impressive about it.”
“Ah. Sorry to ruin your surprise.”
“I’ll forgive you.” He was amazed how natural this was all getting, walking through Harvard Square hand-in-hand with this beautiful woman, who he actually suspected was flirting with him.
They had arrived at Wigglesworth, and she once again paused in front of the door, looking at him expectantly.
He was torn between wanting to kiss her and worrying that maybe it was still too soon to kiss her, and did she even want him to kiss her, because maybe he was really misinterpreting everything and she wasn’t really interested in him at all. He didn’t know much at all about human mating rituals-Time Lords, he suspected, did not exactly excel at dating-and Athena was always pointing out to him that he was clueless. “D’you want me to open the door for you again?”
Kate smiled at him, then leaned toward him. His breath caught in his throat-he was sure she was going to kiss him-then she rubbed her nose against his. He was flummoxed. For a moment, all he could think was that the Grymolians executed treaties by rubbing noses together, and was she executing a treaty with him? But she wasn’t Grymolian, and that didn’t make any sense.
Kate pulled back, lifting her eyebrows at him. Maybe he was supposed to reciprocate? He leaned forward and rubbed his nose against hers, then straightened.
“When do you want to do the bookstore thing?” he asked.
She sighed a bit. “I’m done with classes at three on Friday.”
“I…” It was his turn to sigh. “I have no idea what my schedule is.”
“How do you not know your schedule?”
“I’m not good at schedules.”
“So you’re not good at languages and schedules. I’m keeping a list, you know.”
“I’ll make three o’clock work,” he promised.
“Good. I’ll see you then. Thank you for dinner.”
“Thank you for coming.”
“You really are impossibly cute.”
“Thank you for that as well.”
She chuckled, then winked at him as she walked into Wigglesworth.
Brem turned, stuck his hands in his pockets, and walked back to his room.
“Hey,” said Matt when Brem returned. He was sprawled on his bed, playing a video game. “How’d it go?”
Brem considered the question, pulling off his coat and tucking it in the multidimensional wardrobe. “I think it went well. She did this thing…”
Matt paused the game, looking at him expectantly.
“Where she kind of rubbed my nose,” Brem finished.
Matt drew his eyebrows together. “Rubbed your nose?”
“With her nose.”
Matt’s expression suddenly turned to disbelief. He stared at Brem.
“What?” Brem asked finally, defensively.
“Please don’t tell me you were confused by that.”
“Wellllllll, I-I mean, she could have been executing a treaty.”
“She could have been what? She wanted you to kiss her!”
‘Is that what that’s code for?”
“It isn’t code, Brem. Aren’t there any girls in England?”
“Not ones who aren’t related to me,” retorted Brem.
Matt looked at him for a second, then they said, in unison, “Dry sense of humor.”
“So the other night, when she stood outside for the longest time, she was probably waiting for me to kiss her, huh?” Brem wanted to kick himself. Kate was going to think he was horrifyingly thick. He was horrifyingly thick.
“Wait a second,” said Matt, turning fully to Brem, forgetting about the video game. “You had a signal like that, and you had us decoding ‘impossibly cute’? Could you be any more clueless?”
“I really don’t think I could be, no,” admitted Brem, flopping on his bed in dramatic dismay. “So she wants me to kiss her. That’s a good sign, right?”
“Brem. Kate likes you. Short of hiring sky writers or tattooing it on her forehead, I seriously don’t see how it could be more obvious.”
“I don’t like tattoos.”
“Not the point, Brem.”
“Dude,” piped up Digger, from the corner, and Brem looked at him, startled. He hadn’t even realized he was in the room. “She’s toooooooootally into you.”
“I’d be embarrassed,” Brem told Matt, “except he won’t even remember this in five minutes.”
Matt waved his hand. “Yes, yes, you can feel his brain cells dying, I know.”
Brem was silent for a second. Matt resumed playing the videogame. “So you think she likes me, then? I mean, not just as a friend.”
“I’m going to throw a book at you,” said Matt.
Next Chapter
Author - earlgreytea68
Rating - General
Characters - OCs
Spoilers - None
Disclaimer - I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for the kids. They're all mine.)
Summary - Brem goes to university.
Author's Notes - Many thanks to jlrpuck, from whom Kate gets her bright red coat.
Many, many, many thanks to Kristin, for all the ideas. Thanks also to bouncy_castle79, who once again gave it the first outside-eyes read-through.
The gorgeous icon was created by swankkatfor me, commissioned by jlrpuckfor my birthday.
To those celebrating, Merry Christmas! Happy Hannukah! I hope you have a beautiful and peaceful time with your loved ones.
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8
Chapter Nine
The next Twentieth-Century Novel class could not come quickly enough for Brem. He used the day between classes to research restaurants, asking everyone he ran into which restaurants they would recommend so he could impress Kate with a bit of exploration that went beyond bookstores.
He was early to class again, and then he didn’t know what to do. Should he choose a seat closer to where he knew Kate would sit? Should he stay in his regular seat? He stood, fretting in hesitation at the front of the room, before moving to his usual seat. Kate walked in shortly before class, chatting with the girl who usually sat next to her, and he was unsure what he was supposed to do. He watched her, hoping she would glance his way, and he thought possibly he would smile and maybe give her a little wave. She didn’t look at him, pausing by her row to finish up her conversation, then she turned and startled him by walking directly over to him and dropping into the seat next to him, looking at him with a smile that dazzled him.
“Hi,” she said.
“Hi,” he managed, suddenly aware he was grinning like an idiot. And blushing, too. He felt ridiculous.
She pulled out a notebook and her copy of The Plague. “This book I liked a lot better,” she said. “But I wonder if you might have a special perspective, being our visitor from abroad.” She grinned at him.
He found himself saying, “You’re terribly beautiful.”
She blushed the most enchanting shade of pink, reaching up to push one of those wispy strands uselessly behind her ear. “Thanks.”
The professor began speaking then. Brem had no idea what he said at any point during class; he wondered if he would ever hear a word of Twentieth-Century Novel ever again. It was certainly impossible to concentrate with Kate right next to him. She took diligent notes, in a quick, no-nonsense script that suited her. She smelled wonderful, some light, fresh scent that made him almost dizzy, it was so Kate. She kept pushing at those wisps of hair, and he suffered a sudden impulse to reach out and fix the wisps for her, just nudge one behind her ear.
He didn’t even know class had ended until Kate closed her notebook and looked at him. “You didn’t take a single note,” she said, smiling.
“What?” he asked, stupidly. It was really impossible to think when she was up close like this.
“You didn’t take any notes,” she repeated.
Mostly because he’d been watching her. “I, uh, no,” he said, because he didn’t know what else to say.
“Don’t think you’re borrowing mine,” she teased, dropping her notebook in her bag.
“So did you want to…” he began.
She looked at him expectantly.
“Did you want to, maybe, have tea again? Or coffee? Or chocolate? Or, you know, whatever.”
“Okay.” She turned to face him fully, which caused that annoying no-thinking response in him again. “I’m going to tell you something, and I don’t want you to think this is any sort of hint that I don’t want to go for any shorthand for casually going out with you. Because I really do. Okay?”
“Okay,” he agreed, while secretly panicked.
“I have a class.”
“What?”
“I have a class. After this one. That I missed the other day, but I don’t really want to miss it twice.”
Brem stared at her. “You have a class? You have a class? And you missed it?”
“It’s okay.” She stood, slinging her bag over her shoulder. “I have a friend in it, I borrowed her notes.”
“But…” he sputtered, standing as well. “Why didn’t you tell me you had a class?”
“I tried to. You jumped to the conclusion I had a boyfriend, and I was worried you’d take it the wrong way and not ask me again, and I really wanted to go out with you. I really want to go out with you again. Just…after this class. Okay?”
“Yes. Absolutely. You really should have told me about the class.”
“Don’t worry about the class,” she grinned at him. “Can we meet at five? Outside Wigglesworth?”
“Yeah,” he agreed. “Yes. That’s perfect. Where’s your class? I’ll walk you.”
“Robinson,” she said, and he walked her to the building next door. “Wigglesworth,” she reminded him. “Five o’clock.”
“Yes,” he agreed. He watched her go into her class, then felt at loose ends. What was he supposed to do? He’d blocked the entire afternoon for Kate.
He wandered back to his room and half-heartedly typed up a new column for the Crimson. It was probably rubbish, but he’d deal with that later. Matt walked in when he was attempting to fix his hair to the perfect level of mussedness.
“Hey,” he said, by way of greeting.
“How does my hair look?” Brem asked.
Matt looked at him blankly. “Huh?”
“My hair. How does it look?”
“Fine, I guess.”
Brem looked back in the mirror, adjusted a few strands. “What about now?”
“It looks fine, Brem.”
Brem pushed at it again. “What about now?”
Matt looked up from where he had sat at his desk, looking through the mail he’d clearly picked up. “Brem. It doesn’t look any different.”
Brem huffed in frustration. “You don’t have any sense of hair appreciation.”
Matt tossed his mail on his desk. “What’s gotten into you?”
“I have a date with Kate.”
“Another one?”
Brem nodded. “A proper, serious date. A planned dinner.”
“So I guess being impossibly cute is a good thing.”
“Evidently so, yes.” Brem regarded his hair again, glancing at the clock. It was half-four. He would be early if he left now, but he definitely didn’t want to be late, and he was getting nothing done in the room anyway. “I’m off,” he said.
“Have fun,” Matt told him. “Good luck.”
Brem acknowledged the wishes grimly, as he set out for Wigglesworth.
He was very, very early. It was a brisk, gray day, and he stood huddled into his woolen coat, waiting for the moment when Kate emerged. She was bundled in a bright red coat that stood out like a beacon as she hurried toward him, and her cheeks were flushed with the cold.
“Ready?” she said, smiling at him.
“Yes,” he affirmed.
She reached for his hand, with one be-gloved hand of her own. He was startled by how automatically he gave it to her as he led her across the Yard, away from the Square.
“Where are we going?” she asked, curiously.
“A restaurant,” he responded, playfully.
“Impressive. Did you go exploring? Just for me?” She swung their joined hands a bit, almost bouncing with energy beside him.
“Maybe,” he said. “Tell me about the class you had after Twentieth-Century Novel.”
“Elizabethan Epic Poetry.”
“Oh,” he said, brightly. “Like Spenser?”
“Yes.”
“I liked Spenser.”
“You’ve read him?”
Well, he’d met him. “I…Yes, in a manner of speaking, I suppose.”
“A manner of speaking?” she asked, quizzically, casting him an amused glance.
“Er, yes. Sort of. It’s complicated.”
“How is that complicated?”
“I have a way of making things complicated.”
“That could be because you think too much.”
“That’s an oxymoron.”
She laughed.
“Here we are,” he said, as they reached the restaurant. He asked the maitre d’ for a table for two, and they were settled in a booth in the back, where it was fairly dim. “They have a great spinach and artichoke dip,” he told Kate, as they were handed their menus. Kate was watching him, not looking at her menu. He could feel the weight of her gaze, so he looked over at her. “What?” he asked.
“You did research,” she accused, with a grin.
“A bit. Ish. Possibly,” he admitted.
“You’re-”
“Let me guess,” he interrupted. “Impossibly cute.”
Her smile widened. “Well, you are.”
“You know, I didn’t know if that’s good or bad,” he informed her.
She shook her head a little bit, as if in disbelief, and then said, “It’s very good.”
“I know. I asked my sister.”
“And I’m sure she translated for you, as we both speak the mysterious language of ‘Female.’”
“One thing I’ve learned since being on Earth,” rejoined Brem, gravely, “is that I’m rubbish at languages.”
“You have the funniest way of speaking sometimes.”
“I’m British.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about. ‘Since being on Earth.’ Such a curious way to put it.”
“I have a dry sense of humor,” said Brem.
“Uh-huh.” She leaned over the table a bit, ducking closer to him, and he held his breath. “What did your sister say?”
“About what?” he managed, mouth dry.
“Your being impossibly cute.”
“She said I should ask you out.”
“Yes,” Kate affirmed. “She’s right about that.”
“Did you want something to drink?” asked the waitress at that moment, who clearly had no sense of timing.
Brem tore himself out of Kate’s gaze and said, blankly, “What?”
“Something to drink,” the waitress repeated, bored.
“Water, for now,” Kate answered her. “Oh, and the spinach and artichoke dip. I’m told it’s very good here.”
They talked through the spinach and artichoke dip-“It is good,” said Kate. “Stellar research.”-and the hamburgers that followed, and she was the one who suggested Tealuxe afterward. “It’s our thing,” she told him, taking his hand again as they headed outside.
“Is it?” he asked, thinking that they had a “thing” now, and how unbelievable was that?
“That’s what I’ve decided,” she answered.
“It’s a good thing to have,” he concluded, as they walked toward the Square.
“Glad you approve,” she said.
He ordered a different tea this time around and commented, as he waited for his egg timer, “I should buy some tea leaves. Have proper tea instead of teabags around the dorm.” She watched him as he counted out his seven sugars and emptied them into his teacup and then pronounced this latest tea as delicious as the first.
“Next time,” she said, as he waked her back to Wigglesworth, “we’ll do bookstores.”
“Next time?” he echoed.
She bumped her shoulder against his, casually. “Weren’t you going to ask me out again?”
“Welllllll, sure, but I was going to be very dramatic and impressive about it.”
“Ah. Sorry to ruin your surprise.”
“I’ll forgive you.” He was amazed how natural this was all getting, walking through Harvard Square hand-in-hand with this beautiful woman, who he actually suspected was flirting with him.
They had arrived at Wigglesworth, and she once again paused in front of the door, looking at him expectantly.
He was torn between wanting to kiss her and worrying that maybe it was still too soon to kiss her, and did she even want him to kiss her, because maybe he was really misinterpreting everything and she wasn’t really interested in him at all. He didn’t know much at all about human mating rituals-Time Lords, he suspected, did not exactly excel at dating-and Athena was always pointing out to him that he was clueless. “D’you want me to open the door for you again?”
Kate smiled at him, then leaned toward him. His breath caught in his throat-he was sure she was going to kiss him-then she rubbed her nose against his. He was flummoxed. For a moment, all he could think was that the Grymolians executed treaties by rubbing noses together, and was she executing a treaty with him? But she wasn’t Grymolian, and that didn’t make any sense.
Kate pulled back, lifting her eyebrows at him. Maybe he was supposed to reciprocate? He leaned forward and rubbed his nose against hers, then straightened.
“When do you want to do the bookstore thing?” he asked.
She sighed a bit. “I’m done with classes at three on Friday.”
“I…” It was his turn to sigh. “I have no idea what my schedule is.”
“How do you not know your schedule?”
“I’m not good at schedules.”
“So you’re not good at languages and schedules. I’m keeping a list, you know.”
“I’ll make three o’clock work,” he promised.
“Good. I’ll see you then. Thank you for dinner.”
“Thank you for coming.”
“You really are impossibly cute.”
“Thank you for that as well.”
She chuckled, then winked at him as she walked into Wigglesworth.
Brem turned, stuck his hands in his pockets, and walked back to his room.
“Hey,” said Matt when Brem returned. He was sprawled on his bed, playing a video game. “How’d it go?”
Brem considered the question, pulling off his coat and tucking it in the multidimensional wardrobe. “I think it went well. She did this thing…”
Matt paused the game, looking at him expectantly.
“Where she kind of rubbed my nose,” Brem finished.
Matt drew his eyebrows together. “Rubbed your nose?”
“With her nose.”
Matt’s expression suddenly turned to disbelief. He stared at Brem.
“What?” Brem asked finally, defensively.
“Please don’t tell me you were confused by that.”
“Wellllllll, I-I mean, she could have been executing a treaty.”
“She could have been what? She wanted you to kiss her!”
‘Is that what that’s code for?”
“It isn’t code, Brem. Aren’t there any girls in England?”
“Not ones who aren’t related to me,” retorted Brem.
Matt looked at him for a second, then they said, in unison, “Dry sense of humor.”
“So the other night, when she stood outside for the longest time, she was probably waiting for me to kiss her, huh?” Brem wanted to kick himself. Kate was going to think he was horrifyingly thick. He was horrifyingly thick.
“Wait a second,” said Matt, turning fully to Brem, forgetting about the video game. “You had a signal like that, and you had us decoding ‘impossibly cute’? Could you be any more clueless?”
“I really don’t think I could be, no,” admitted Brem, flopping on his bed in dramatic dismay. “So she wants me to kiss her. That’s a good sign, right?”
“Brem. Kate likes you. Short of hiring sky writers or tattooing it on her forehead, I seriously don’t see how it could be more obvious.”
“I don’t like tattoos.”
“Not the point, Brem.”
“Dude,” piped up Digger, from the corner, and Brem looked at him, startled. He hadn’t even realized he was in the room. “She’s toooooooootally into you.”
“I’d be embarrassed,” Brem told Matt, “except he won’t even remember this in five minutes.”
Matt waved his hand. “Yes, yes, you can feel his brain cells dying, I know.”
Brem was silent for a second. Matt resumed playing the videogame. “So you think she likes me, then? I mean, not just as a friend.”
“I’m going to throw a book at you,” said Matt.
Next Chapter