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chapter seventeen: the date

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She meets him in the lobby of the hotel an hour later.

He's standing over by the door and picking at his cuticles when she steps out of the elevator, and he doesn't look up until she's halfway across the room. As soon as he lays eyes on her, he's staring at her like she's a goddess, like she stepped right off that clam shell in that Birth of Venus painting, and it makes her blush slightly.

"Are you alright?" Rory teases, waving a hand in front of his eyes.

Grinning, Averman nods. "Yeah. Billy Joel's Uptown Girl just started playing in my head."

"Oh, haha."

"She's been living in her uptown world." He croons in a dreadful Billy Joel voice. "I bet she's never had a backstreet guy, I bet her momma never told her why--"

Rory rolls her eyes, a smile gracing her lips.

"Oh, yeah. 'Cause you're a real backstreet guy, Lester."

"Mhm. The baddest, most backstreet guy you'll ever know."

He finishes his sentence and pushes his glasses up with his pinky finger. She stares at him, amused, for a moment before she shakes her head and starts walking, him happily following her.

"Is that why you were gonna shit your pants over Russ and his friends?"

"Hey, hey-- you don't even know how to take public transportation, princess. You can't get on my case."

"I know." She hums. "But I'm not claiming to be a backstreet girl, am I?"

Averman pauses for a moment. "No, you're not, but I'm no uptown boy, so you've gotta work with me here."

Rory snorts a laugh through her nose. He takes her hand, continuing to obnoxiously hum the song as they walk down the street to a bus that will take them to a theater.

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"That was... that was a good movie."

He waits for her to throw their empty popcorn carton away, rocking back and forth with his hands in his pockets. The movie wasn't bad, it was actually quite interesting to watch as a girl (because God forbid anybody make a feel-good movie about girls), but Rory thinks she's a little too attached to Daniel LaRusso to enjoy any Karate Kid movie without him.

She's been trying to goad Averman into talking about it for a solid few minutes now.

"Yeah." He nods. "It was."

She smiles knowing that her goading worked.

Rory listens to him as he rambles on about how he feels about this movie compared to the others. Silently, she starts to wonder just how many times he's watched the movies, and if they are to him what the Hobbit is to her.

"And that suspension thing was so stupid-- it wasn't like she was even doing anything, she was just feeding some overrated chicken."

"It was a hawk, wasn't it?"

"Yeah. Overrated chicken."

She blinks at him for a moment "You-- I-- do you ever think about your words before you say them?"

"Yes." He says it so casually that she might just lose her mind in the middle of Sunset Drive.

Instead, she shakes her head and heaves a fond sigh.

"You know, they don't even do suspensions at my school."

Averman's face scrunches. "Really?"

"Nope. You mess up like that and they just see it as grounds to expel you unless your daddy pays a pretty penny."

"Wow." He scoffs. "That must be so lame."

"It's actually pretty fun."

Rory grins when he turns to look at her with his eyebrows at his forehead.

"Nobody knows how to throw a party like a rich kid who knows they have nothing to lose."

He starts to bug her about that statement all the way down the street, completely ignoring the finality of it.

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They find themselves at a diner and pick a booth toward the back, away from the crowd and any potential press.

After they order, the waitress, as she gives them their drinks, warns them that they're short staff so it's probably going to be a while. In return for their patience and kindness, she slides them a plate of pickles and two things of coleslaw with a smile. He happily digs in, shoveling the slaw into his mouth, and she watches him with a mixture of amusement and disgust.

She then wonders when he last ate, and then mocks herself for asking questions like that.

Because Rory likes pickles far more than she likes the coleslaw, those go by a lot faster and, as the waitress comes around again, she leans down over them with a smile.

"Hi... want another plate of pickles?"

Averman's quick to answer, his mouth still full of food. "Yes please."

It sounds a whole lot more like 'yeth pleathe' and she snorts lemonade through her nose as she starts to laugh at that. Coughing because of the burn and laughing because of how silly it all is, she wipes at her face with her napkin and tries to quiet herself. Her shoulders tremble.

Despite it all, Averman's staring at her all starry-eyed.

(Her laugh. Not that he's ever really partaken, but if he could have bottled the sound and gotten drunk on it every night, he would.)

"Sorry. I'm sorry." Rory says, still giggling. "It wasn't even that funny--"

"I live to make you laugh, I'm your jester remember."

She rolls her eyes, still all light and floaty, and he grins, leaning forward with his chin on his fist.

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After the diner, he gets her a Slurpee at the seven eleven near the hotel.

It's the only thing she'll let him pay for, which he thinks is completely unfair because what's a Slurpee compared to dinner and a movie, but seeing her happy is enough for now, he guesses. And she really does look happy, walking next to him with that giant cup in her hand and her hair in waves, the hairspray hardly doing anything to maintain the curls after such a long time.

He initiates the hand-holding this time and becomes elated at the sight of her blush.

"So...how was our first date, m'lady?"

She hesitates and his eyes grow a little wide.

"It was... pretty awesome."

"Are you kidding me? You had me all worried for no reason--"

"I was messing with you. If you're allowed to mess with everybody, I can mess with you too."

The not-really-an-argument continues all the way up the street and into the hotel-- even as they step into the elevator, hand in hand, and have to pause so she can remind him which floor their rooms are on. It doesn't stop until they're off the elevator and in front of her door, her Slurpee now basically finished, and ready to bid each other goodnight.

"You don't get to pick on me because you're pretty and will probably get away with it."

"Oh, but I do." She hums. "If you're gonna be my boyfriend, you're gonna have to deal with the teasing."

His eyebrows shoot to his forehead and his face starts to get red and she grins softly, knowing she's won.

Rory easily segues the conversation. "I had a lot of fun tonight...thank you."

"Hey. I had fun too."

She opens the door and goes halfway through it before coming back out and kissing him on the cheek.

"Goodnight."

He stands there in shock for a while after she disappears behind the door. Eventually, a dazed little smile comes across his features and he rubs the spot where her lips touched his skin all the way back to his room.

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a/n:

my shnookums <3

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