the food court. how romantic! (mabby)

[princemarcus]

Marcus just waited for Gabrielle to say something for a couple of minutes. Not that he minded the silence, he enjoyed just looking at her. He loved how her facial expressions changed while she was thinking. He was sure she wasn't doing it purposefully, it was probably just something she did without noticing. It was like she was talking without speaking: she looked around aimlessly, brushed her hair out of her face and moved her lips slightly along with her thoughts. Marcus almost laughed at the sight of it. She was a very interesting girl, that much could be said.

"Starbucks? Uh...okay then?" Marcus said, scratching his head. He looked her with a confused look on his face. She was crying two seconds ago, and now she was all okay with it and wanted to go to Starbucks? That wasn't what he was expecting. At all. What a strange girl! She was beautiful of course, but she never did what he expected her to do. She rejected him, then chased after him, then cried, then wanted to go to Starbucks with him. Could she just make up her mind? He couldn't deal with this back and forth stuff. She either liked him, or she hated him. It really wasn't that hard! God, why were girls always this confusing?

[danyisdarling]

Gabrielle grinned. It was an unsure sort of grin but a grin nonetheless. Wow, she must've been so confusing right now. "I'm sorry," she said again (how many times was that today?). "I must be so confusing." She felt some need to explain herself. Her weird mood swings. Normally, she wasn't this bad. For the most part, she was upbeat and cheerful. But, as she'd thought before, there was something about Marcus. "I'm not usually like this," she paused, "all moody and such." She laughed, a nervous laugh. Was she even making sense now? "I promise." She almost held her pinky out but that would've been immature and silly. That was the last thing she wanted to look like.

Gabrielle glanced around again, noticing that the food court had fewer people in it now. Not by many, though. It was still crowded. Of course. She glanced down at her hands and realized she was still fidgeting. Gabrielle put an end to that by crossing her arms over her chest and looking back up at Marcus. Huh, she wasn't tired. This random thought crossed her mind for a moment. Normally, Gabrielle would've quit the applications by now and gone back to her dorm for a nap. Always sleepy, that's what she was. Now, though, she was wide awake. ... Interesting.

[princemarcus]

Marcus stared at Gabrielle as she stuttered out....something. He couldn't really understand it, she was talking more to herself than to him. Although it seemed very shallow of him, Marcus wasn't really paying attention to what she was saying, he was perfectly fine just looking at her. And anyways, she was completely flustered and everything she said wasn't coming out right. Marcus had the same reaction around reptiles, or people holding reptiles. Or people resembling reptiles. He just never had that reaction around girls. He was probably just as nervous as she was, but he never had a problem forming....coherent sentences? Which Gabrielle was obviously suffering from. But he didn't care. It was almost...endearing.

"So, are we going to Starbucks or are we just going to stand here all day?" Marcus gave a slight smile and motioned towards the Starbucks in the distance. He suddenly looked down at his watch. Jeez, it was three already? He had a meeting with his biology teacher in twenty minutes. Shit! Well, it would take him five minutes to get back to school if he ran, so that left him....15 minutes. Okay, that was enough time to get coffee and exchange numbers and such. God, he didn't want to leave though. He just wanted to stay here all day and just....look at her. Gabrielle. Gabrielle Montgomery. The most beautiful name in the world.

[danyisdarling]

Gabrielle nodded, realizing she'd sort of rambled. She should learn to just talk less. Really, her going on and on was probably annoying. She definitely didn't want to annoy him. Biting her bottom lip, she turned away from him and towards the direction they'd be going in. Starbucks wasn't to far and she was grateful for that. Her stomach had begun to ache and, though she had lunch, a cookie sounded very good right about now. And with hot chocolate? Mmmm.

Wait. This was a date. Wasn't it? Oh jeez. Gabrielle had just met Marcus and they were technically going on a date. Wow, her aunts would probably kill her if they found out. Stranger danger. She scoffed and had to roll her eyes. No, they'd be totally happy for her. They'd gush over the fact that their darling 'daughter' had met such a handsome (amazing, perfect) boy.

"So, Marcus," she started, as they began to walk to the Starbucks. "Rihanna?" That's what they'd talk about. Music. Something she could go on about. Like those wonderful artists that she would never tire of. Or those few songs that she couldn't stand. And by few, she meant less than, ohh, fifteen? Gabrielle rarely came across a song she disliked. "Listen to her on a daily basis?" An almost teasing grin had spread across her lips. God, he was so cute.

[princemarcus]

Marcus walked next to Gabrielle, staring more at her than at the ground in front of him. God, she was beautiful. He was looking so attentively at her hair, and the way she walked, and...well, everything about her, that he walked straight into a trash can, knocking it and himself to the ground. He picked himself back up and laughed nervously, scratching his head. "You know, those trash cans just...sneak up on you, right?" He asked, giving her a slight grin. Wow, that was smooth.

As Marcus started to get up and walk alongside Gabrielle again, he felt the urge to hold her hand. It was an almost subconscious notion, and just as he put his hand out he pulled it back in. Although his body disagreed with him, his mind told him that was a bad idea because A) He wanted to earn back her trust after the whole kissing misunderstanding and B) He had just fell into a garbage can. Touching him was probably not so high on her to-do list at the moment.

Marcus laughed as Gabrielle mentioned Rihanna, and said, "No, not really. That song is just overplayed on the radio, I guess." Lies. He loved Rihanna. He owned all of her CDs. But was he going to sacrifice the little masculinity he had left for that? Of course not! He was being enough of a girl already. He had to seem tough, for once. He officially liked bodybuilding now. And soccer. Actually, that was true, he did like soccer. But not as much as singing and horseback riding. Oh jeez, he really was a girl.

[danyisdarling]

Gabrielle was almost unsure if Marcus was beside her. She somehow felt like holding his hand, wrist, sleeve, linking arms. Anything that would make him seem more... real? Either way, it was kind of like he wasn't next to her. He was, though, she confirmed with a quick glance towards him and an almost relieved sigh escaped her. She wasn't dreaming. She'd have bruises if she pinched herself every five minutes. There was a loud bang suddenly and she turned, confused. He'd... run into a trash can? As much as she didn't want to, Gabrielle laughed. Trash cans sneaking up on you? Ninja! "Hahahaha, you're so cute," she managed between giggles. It was something she said to almost everybody, no matter how well she knew them. Gabrielle thought most people were cute in that 'awww, did you really just do that?' kind of way. Marcus, though, was also cute in that 'cute' way.

"Very smooth," she said after the laughter had subsided. How had he managed to do that, though? Wasn't he paying attention to what was in front of him? Oh well, maybe he was clumsy. She had those days. That's actually why she usually wore flats or things without laces. She always tripped over them. 'Shut Up and Drive' was on the radio often? Maybe she'd been to busy listening to it on her Zune. The moment she'd heard the song, it was hers. The radio was a mystery to her. What with their talk shows and stuff. "Oh, I see," she said after a moment. "What do you listen to on a daily basis, then?" she asked, feeling like she should get to know him. Of course she should. That's what you did when you first met somebody. Plus, she kept them on that safe topic. That topic she could talk about forEVER.

[princemarcus]

Marcus was too busy looking at the ground in front of him that he only caught some of what Gabrielle was saying. He wanted to be sure there wasn't another trash can incident. He needed to focus on walking and not on how he was making a complete fool of himself in front of the girl of his dreams. Wait. Did she say something about him being cute? Really? He should trip over things more often. "Running into a trash can is cute? You might need to rethink that logic," Marcus said as he laughed quietly under his breath. Why was he so nervous? The words were coming out smoothly, but he wasn't making any sense. It was like everything he was thinking just wasn't translating right. 'Rethink that logic?' What does that even mean?

He wished he could sniff his hand without looking like a total weirdo. Hopefully Starbucks would have some anti-bacterial stuff. Or a sink. Or a bathroom with a sink. Jeez. Of all the things he had to run into, it was of course a trash can.

Oh shit, she was still on the topic of music. What was he supposed to say? 'I really like the music of Phantom of the Opera and Mexican mariachi bands?' No, that wasn't going to happen. Marcus looked down at his feet as he mumbled "Um...Three Doors Down. And Lincoln Park. And 30 Seconds to Mars. You know, guy music. And you?" There, that should do. Classic male screaming music. He never really understood why people liked that. It didn't even have a melody! What was the point of music without a melody? In his opinion, they shouldn't even count as music.

[danyisdarling]

Gabrielle shook her head, grinning. "Clumsy," she corrected him," clumsy is cute." Even if he wasn't clumsy, he sure had been right at that moment. And it was adorable. He wasn't the typical guy, thank goodness. Most typical guys would've been really annoying with the trash can incident. Marcus brushed it off and made her laugh all in one. Guys who made her laugh? They were the same as tall guys. Man, he just got better and better each minute.

Oh, they'd arrived at Starbucks. Gabrielle glanced back at Marcus and watched him for a minute. He was so cute. She lead the way to the table she usually sat at, one with plush armchairs. She sank into one before motioning at Marcus to as well. Gabrielle let her bag slide off of her arm and onto the floor. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table and her chin on her fists. Hopefully a waitress would get here before her stomach started growling.

Guy music? Gabrielle grinned. Well, she wasn't going to lie. Those bands weren't bad. In fact, she'd been a big Three Doors Down fan for awhile. Nowadays, she tended to listen to more... how would she describe it? Well, now it was her turn to answer the daily basis question. "Vampire Weekend," she started. She'd been listening to the band almost non-stop for a week now. "Oh, and Colbie Caillat." Her, too. "I listen to pretty much everything and anything, though." Gabrielle shrugged as a waitress arrived at their table.

She introduced herself as Jill. "What can I get for you two today?" she asked, a notepad in hand. Were orders hard to memorize here? "I'd like a... chocolate chip cookie and hot chocolate, please," Gabrielle told her. Yum. Now, she had to hope she'd brought money with her. It would be just her luck that she hadn't. That was why she'd brought lunch, after all. So she wouldn't be spending money. Oh well~!

[princemarcus]

"I can live with that," Marcus joked, giving Gabrielle a small grin. She thought his clumsiness was cute! Not that he was normally clumsy. He was just...distracted momentarily. But the point was, she thought he was cute! Even when he was being stupid. That had to mean she liked him at least a little bit, right?

They finally reached the Starbucks, successfully avoiding another incident. Gabrielle didn't even seem to notice Marcus' intense concentration on the ground in front of him, which was a relief. As he settled down in a plush armchair, he let out a sigh. No more tripping.

As Gabrielle stated her favorite music, Marcus started to interrupt, saying "I love Col-" before catching himself. He couldn't say he loved Colbie Caillat! He might as well have admitted straight out that he was a total pansy."...the Cold War Kids. They're....loud." Marcus coughed softly into his hands and looked away. Wow, that couldn't have come out any more awkwardly. Way to go.

"I'll have a tall coffee. Black." Marcus said to the waitress as she approached them, barely paying attention to anything she was saying. Aww, Gabrielle ordered a hot chocolate and a cookie. It couldn't get much more adorable than that. Marcus had to restrain himself from going over to her and kissing her again. God damn his stupidity!

Wait. Yes! There was an anti-bacterial thing on the table! Score. Marcus silently cheered to himself as he reached for the bottle. He nodded along to what Gabrielle was saying as he anti-bacterialized his hands. There! Much better. Now he didn't have to worry about giving her rabies, or whatever the hell was in that trash can.

Marcus soon noticed Gabrielle scrambling through her purse, and he cautiously touched her wrist as he said, "Don't worry about it, I'll pay." That was the polite thing to do, right? Even though Marcus didn't have much money, he had enough cash on him to cover for her.

Jeez, what time was it? Marcus looked down at his watch. He had totally missed his meeting. Oh well, screw Bio. He had more important things on his mind now.

[danyisdarling]

Gabrielle grinned. Had he almost said Colbie Caillat? 'Awwww!' she thought even if hadn't. His cover was the Cold War Kids. She knew she recognized that name. Maybe it'd been one of those bands where she stopped in at the Myspace page just long enough to hear all of the songs. Then, as she sometimes did, had forgotten them. There was one song, though, that was at the tip of her tongue. "Hang Me Up To Dry is ringing a bell..." she paused, "I'm not entirely sure though." She'd definitely have to look them up again later.

Black coffee? Gabrielle almost stuck her tongue out. Sweet things were definitely her preference. Not to mention that she wasn't a very big fan of coffee. It never kept her awake. Starbucks was usually her go-to place for frappuccinos or pastries. Had it not been so cold out, she would've ordered a Vanilla Bean. Darn weather. "Add something sugary to that," she told him, joking, obviously. Haha, he was using the hand sanitizer. How cute! Gabrielle glanced down at her hands and decided, after a minute, that she was fine.

Gabrielle looked up to the counter and bit the inside of her cheek. Jeez, she hoped she had money. She took her wallet out of her pocket, always there, rarely full. Ahh, she had, like, zero dollars. Just her luck! Gabrielle looked up, surprised at Marcus' fingers on her wrist. He would pay? No, no, no, she couldn't let him do that! Gabrielle's eyebrows furrowed together. She was torn between a decision. Let him pay or wash dishes for not paying. Or whatever it was they did. "Thanks so much," she said after a moment, "I owe you!"

He glanced down at his watch. Was he in a hurry? What if she was just being boring? A tiny part of her was suddenly very insecure. Gabrielle kept herself busy for a moment, putting the wallet away and fussing with her top. God, this sucked. What was she going to do to keep him here? What was she going to say?

[princemarcus]

"Um, yeah....that sounds about right..." Marcus said as Gabrielle mentioned the song, and looked down at his feet again. The truth was, he had no idea who the Cold War Kids were. His roommate last year would talk about them all the time, but Marcus had never actually listened to them. He just hoped she wasn't testing him, or anything. That would not be good at all. And jeez, how did she know all this about music? Marcus felt almost inadequate compared to her.

"Don't worry about it," Marcus said, as he pulled some cash out of his old wallet. He wasn't going to let her pay even if she had had money. Although he despised his parents, they did teach him how to treat a lady. And even if he didn't have that much cash, they were at Starbucks. It would've been rude of him not to pay.

Marcus noticed Gabrielle looking at him worriedly as he looked at his watch. He smirked to himself as he said, "Oh, don't worry. I had a meeting with a teacher, but I'll miss it." The look said she cared. That meant something to him. Plus, that worried look on her face was endearing. She didn't want him to leave. So he wouldn't leave. That was that.

Which led him to says something he never would have said if he wasn't in some sort of weird trance mood around Gabrielle. "Um, do you mind if I ask you something?" No. No no no no no. That did not just come out of his mouth. Marcus mentally slapped himself in the face. He could not ask her to the Winter Ball five minutes into their first date. Especially not after the whole weird kiss incident. Absolutely not.

[danyisdarling]

Gabrielle rose her eyebrows at Marcus' answer. He sounded unsure. Was he? Well, maybe he was saying stuff. He had almost said Colbie, right? Why was she asking herself all of these questions? They weren't really questions. Just sort of... okay, there were. She was confusing herself. Gabrielle looked down, shook her head, pushing the thoughts away. Either way, he liked music. That was a big plus. She started to make a little list in her head of pros and cons. So far? The pros list was epic and the cons were empty. Awesome.

Jill arrived with their order. Gabrielle gave her a grateful smile before the waitress left. Looking at her cup of hot cocoa, Gabrielle almost laughed at the whipped cream. Her favorite part was that because one, it was super sweet and two, it looked so cute. With its little swirly top. Gabrielle gave Marcus the same thankful smile she'd just given Jill. Ahhhh, he was such a sweetheart! He'd had a meeting with a teacher? And he'd missed it? Cause of her? Oh jeez, now she felt a bit guilty. Hopefully, that missed meeting wouldn't be a bad thing later on.

"Yeah, sure, shoot," Gabrielle answered, curious. What sort of question was he going to ask? They should play 20 Questions. NO, wait. She was bad at the game. Waiting for the question, she bit into the cookie she'd ordered. Mmmmm, yummy.

[princemarcus]

Marcus gave a nod to the waitress as he took his coffee. He had never really liked sweet drinks. It seemed that sugar always ruined the pure taste of the coffee. He had always been into natural things. Like Gabrielle. She didn't wear too much makeup, she was slightly frazzled, but she was still gorgeous nonetheless. And it was like she didn't even know how beautiful she was. It seemed odd to Marcus; all the beautiful girls he had met had this sort of aura of snottiness about them, like they knew they were stunning. Gabrielle was different. She didn't know, or at least acted like she didn't know. It was like she had never looked at herself in a mirror before. She was stripped of all the chemical knowledge that usually was a package deal with beauty. Shit, he used stripped in a sentence when describing a beautiful girl. Marcus took another sip of his coffee as he tried to erase the thoughts from his head. He could not afford to be thinking those thoughts right now. He watched as Gabrielle looked gleefully at her hot chocolate. Although he didn't like it, he enjoyed watching her reaction. He gave her that reaction. By buying her the coffee. Not by doing anything else. Not by touching her....shoot, bad thoughts bad thoughts bad thoughts.

"Umm....would you like to...." Marcus stopped. He was not going to embarrass himself again. "...Skydive? I mean, not now. Eventually. And not with me. Just, you know, in general. " Wow. He really took awkwardness to new levels with that statement.

[danyisdarling]

Gabrielle waited patiently for the question. There were a few things vying for her attention, like the mother and daughter over there. The two were obviously having some sort of argument, the girl looked furious at her mom. What had happened? Things like that made Gabrielle wonder and she always wanted to intervene. Fighting wasn't good. Especially not with your elders, and especially not with your parents. Or Aunts, in her case. She'd rarely fought with them and if she did, there was always an apology within the next hour or two.

She took a careful sip of her hot chocolate, knowing that it'd be, well… hot. And it was. She set the cup down quickly, looking down and covering her mouth with her hands. Ow, ow, ow, ow! Tears pricked the corners of her eyes as gulped down the small amount of drink she'd taken. Great, now her tongue and throat burned. Resisting the urge to do every childish motion she usually did, Gabrielle looked back up to Marcus. … Skydiving? Was that really his question?

Blinking back the tears, she nodded eagerly, momentarily forgetting the pain. "Skydiving is on my Bucket List," she answered, wincing as her tongue hit her top teeth when she said 'list.' Well, this could be troublesome. "And why not with you?" she asked, grinning, "that'd be so cool!"

[princemarcus]

Marcus watched Gabrielle as her eyes wandered around the Starbucks. She seemed especially intrigued with some kind of argument in the corner. Did that have some sort of significance for her? Or maybe it was just because they were being really loud. Yep, that was probably it. He had to stop reading into stuff she did too much.

"Really? I mean, about skydiving part. That's really cool. Skydiving. And that you have a bucket list. And that you'd think it'd be cool to go with..." Don't say me. Don't say me. Don't say me. "....yeah. Skydiving." Marcus took a huge sip of his coffee. He was only a nervous talker when he was hiding something. And it seemed that the more he avoided the dance subject the more he ran out of things to say without sounding like an idiot. It wasn't really that awkward to ask though, right? The dance was next week. And she seemed to like him, at least somewhat. He just couldn't imagine going to the dance with anyone else. Or being anywhere with anyone else. And if she said no, he just wouldn't go at all. Would it be social suicide? Yes. Would he care? No.

God damn it. He might as well get it over with. At least he'd go back to normal.

"So I'm assuming you've heard about the Winter Ball." Marcus said, looking casually into the distance, avoiding eye contact. He didn't want to see her expression.