Lorna and Alex - after class

[sunpowered]

His first class on Mondays was easily Alex's favorite. Because, rocks!! But also because of Lorna, who always arrived in a rush, always with a roommate horror story. Even if she wasn't beautiful and brilliant, Alex would still be totally fixated on the soap opera of Life With the Evil Twins. What would they do this time? Change the locks again? Use not just the hot water, but all the water, period?

Alex only believed they were real because everything else about Lorna was totally credible.

He still kind of wanted to meet them.

This morning, they hadn't had a chance to share their usual twin update - Lorna had been late, and the work had been so absorbing they'd just talked about the lab instead - but as they walked out together, Alex turned to her with a grin.

"Let's go to that coffee cart, drink all the coffee, and you tell me about your weekend and morning with the rich bitches."

Comments

[alphaursaeminoris]

"Yes, you are just racking up the qualities that are of no use to me. Congratulations." She rolled her eyes playfully.

[sunpowered]

"No use to you? You sure about that?" Was he flirting? Oh yeah. Alex was flirting.

[alphaursaeminoris]

"What do I need from you when I have a naked Wanda in my life?" Her voice was wry.

[sunpowered]

"Aw, man. I can't compete with a beautiful insane woman."

[alphaursaeminoris]

"How do you know she's beautiful?" She was, of course. "Stop thinking about my roommate naked."

[sunpowered]

"She's probably not more beautiful than you, but I was totally picturing her naked."

[alphaursaeminoris]

"I should just send her to walk around naked at your place instead. Then I could get some work done."

[sunpowered]

"Nah. I only like it when girls I date do that."

[alphaursaeminoris]

"That is surprisingly classy of you, Summers. I'd offer to put in a good word for you--I'm pretty sure she's single--but she hates my guts, so."

[sunpowered]

"What if I want to ask you out instead?" Alex asked quickly.

[alphaursaeminoris]

"You can't, because eventually we would break up and it would be super awkward and we would no longer be the rockstar geology dream team we are now." Her answer sounded practiced, like she'd actually thought about it before. More than once.

It took another minute for her to realize that she wasn't just considering some hypothetical by herself, but that he'd actually mentioned asking her out. In real life. "Wait, what?"

[sunpowered]

Alex raised his brows. "Did you just reject me on autopilot?" He couldn't be offended because it was... well, cute.

[alphaursaeminoris]

"No. Yes?" She took a moment, cheeks flushed, then settled on "No, because you didn't actually ask me out, you just asked about asking me out. That doesn't count."

[sunpowered]

Alex had to laugh. "Let me make it count. Will you go out with me?"

[alphaursaeminoris]

Lorna was flustered, nervous and happy and worried all at once. "I want to," she told him, because she did, and she wasn't going to lie about that. "But I was serious. What happens when we break up and we have to find new lab partners?  I do not actually want to trade you for one of the morons in our class." Despite teasing him with exactly that earlier.

[sunpowered]

"Who says we're going to break up?" Alex asked, which maybe was unreasonable - almost every couple broke up - but he asked it reasonably, like he really believed it would work. Because he sort of did.

[alphaursaeminoris]

"Because--" Because she was a mutant. Because he would find out and hate her, or she would manage to keep it hidden and he would resent her for being closed off. But she couldn't say that. "Because that's just how things go, isn't it?"

[sunpowered]

Wow, this had been a great idea. This was really super fun. Alex sighed. "I don't think it always goes that way. And I don't know, I think the risk is worth it." But he wasn't going to try to convince a girl who didn't want to go out with him to go out with him.

[alphaursaeminoris]

This was stupid. She was stupid. She was letting the fact that she was scared get in the way of going out with a cute guy who liked science and liked her and if she kept that up, she'd never forgive herself. So she didn't.

Lorna held up her hand, pinky extended while all her other fingers curled into her palm. "Pinky promise you'll still be my lab partner if it all goes horribly wrong and I'm free on Friday."

[sunpowered]

Alex broke into a grin, like the clouds had cleared and all was sunny again. He took her pinky to complete the oath. "I'll still be your lab partner. Wanna go out on Friday?"

[alphaursaeminoris]

His smile was so clear and bright and warm that she could hardly believe she'd almost said no. "I'd love to go out on Friday."

[sunpowered]

"That's the best news I've heard all week, Lorna." He meant it.

[alphaursaeminoris]

Lorna smiled widely, pleased. "Where are we going to go on this date of ours?"

[sunpowered]

"The lab," he teased. "We're gonna do the assigned reading."

[alphaursaeminoris]

"I take it back. I'm washing my hair Friday night."