Marie
Saturday arrives, and Armand and I are spending the day together. I head over to see his new house. It's huge for a first house!
He meets me outside.
I start to feel a little self-conscious under his stare.
"Nice house, Armand!" I say brightly.
He smiles his roguish grin and pushes himself off the wall to walk towards me.
He startles me a little when he pulls me into a sudden bear hug.
"I've missed you these past few days." I feel his fingers press into the outer edges of my waist as he hugs me. "I've just been so busy moving." He sighs, still hugging me. "But now I have all of today for only you."
I run my fingers through his hair on the nape of his neck. This is what I like about Armand. When he's being the 'good Armand' he's absolutely wonderful. He makes me feel like I'm the only woman in the world.
"Well, do I get to see the inside of the house or what?" I ask when we pull apart.
He laughs, "Yeah, but later." I raise my eyebrows in question. "I'd like to just go hang out at the museum for a little bit. That okay?" I nod. We pile into his truck.
I love how comfortable I feel around him. He's no fun when he's mad, but I can tolerate that. We'd been a couple for years. Our breakup was pretty nasty. He really tore into me about my friendship with Dawson. He couldn't stand it. He saw what I didn't - that Dawson was trying to steal me from him. I told him I wasn't going to stop being Dawson's friend just because he told me to. Well, then he said some awful things that I don't like to think about.
Maybe now we can get past it. He hasn't apologized yet, though.
And now Dawson is more in the picture - just like Armand was afraid he'd be. Well, I'm not going to worry about him today.
The atmosphere in the truck is quietly tense, and just as I start to ask him what's wrong, he speaks up.
"Okay, let's start off with an apology from me." he says suddenly.
"Armand, it's okay."
"No, it's not! I turned into a jealous prick after graduation! When Cristina moved away I panicked."
I remember that Dawson started hanging out at my house all the time then. At the time I'd thought it was just because he had more time for our friendship with Cristina gone. I never understood why Armand would get this look in his eyes when Dawson came around. Now I do.
"And then," Armand continues, "I do the one thing Dawson wanted. Stupid me."
"Armand..."
He continues like I didn't just try to interrupt him, "I pushed you right into his arms."
"Armand..."
"Hang on a sec, Marie." he asks, finally acknowledging my interruption. I sigh heavily with aggravation. He continues, "Well, like I told you the other night, I'm going to just have to pull you right back out of them." He pauses.
I take the opportunity, "But Armand, you had every right to be angry. You were right."
"Of course I'm right." he says.
That's one thing I don't like about Armand. He's usually right. The worst is that he knows it. His genius gets on my last nerve sometimes.
He smiles belatedly at me like that's going to make it look like he doesn't think too much of himself.
"Well," I say, "let's not talk about that today. I accept your apology. You were angry. People say stupid stuff when they're angry."
"Right." he agrees. "When we get out of this car, we have a clean slate."
"Agreed."
"Pan." I comment on the obvious.
"The guy who always chased nymphs." he says and we stare at the painting some more.
"Wasn't it like, if he played his pipes you'd go insane or something?" I ask.
"Depends on the source I guess. I'd also heard he could cause PANic by yelling."
"Hm." This is boring.
"She looks like Bella Goth." I say. Armand walks up and holds my hand.
"Bella Goth is an urban legend. She doesn't really exist." he says.
I turn to him and shake my head no. "I thought she did!"
"I don't believe it."
I walk a little down a hallway next to the bathrooms and take an interest in a huge urn thing. Armand walks up and grabs my butt.
"Hey!" I say and elbow him in the ribs.
"Ow!" he says as he clutches his side like I've bruised him.
"Well, what do you expect me to do when you do that?" I ask while I turn and glare at him.
He stares at the urn. "Didn't bother thinking of that. Didn't bother thinking at all actually. My hand just seems to be magnetically drawn there." He grabs my butt again. "Look! See! There it goes again!"
I roughly shove him off of me while he laughs real loud at the irritated expression on my face.
"Shh!"
"There's nobody here, Marie. Don't worry about it."
His voice gets softer suddenly. "This place is deserted. We could do anything and nobody would know." He's no longer playing around.
I am not about to have my first woohoo in a corner of the museum!
I can't think of what to say, so I just back off while shooting him a warning look. I know him, and when he gets like this he can quickly get out of control. I head off to the previous room and sit on a couch.
I hear him go to the restroom so I wait quietly. I sit there mindlessly staring at the various items in the room, trying not to think about where Armand's mind was a moment ago.
I hear some strange bird chirping outside the window and I look over to see if I can find it.
I jump as I feel Armand suddenly standing next to me and he gets hold of my chin to turn it towards him.
"Surprise." he says huskily and captures my lips with his. The way he kisses me causes me to picture him as a cheetah. One that has successfully pounced and gotten it's prey. He DOES seem to be intent upon devouring me.
He makes a strange noise in the back of his throat when I try to sit back on the couch, and he pulls me up to him.
Alright, the next place we go does NOT need to be his house. I'm just not ready for this.
I pull back suddenly and the words fly out of my mouth, "Let's go to Leo's."
He massages my shoulder and says, "I thought I could give you a tour of my house now."
Yeah, right. I look up at him. He looks absolutely serious. Doesn't he know me? Doesn't he know that I'm not ready for this?
"It can wait. I want some nachos." I say.
"We can make nachos at my place."
"But Leo's ones are better than the kind you make in the microwave." I say lamely. He takes the hint, and drops his hands.
The lunch crowd hasn't really arrived yet when we get to Leo's. In fact, the bartender hasn't arrived yet. So, Armand pulls me out onto the dance floor to kill some time. We dance around like a couple of fools, laughing and acting silly.
Suddenly, he grabs me around the waist and starts spinning me around the room. He laughs at my surprised expression.
I squeal a little when he dips me, afraid that he's about to drop me. Panting, I look up at him in shock. His eyes smile down at me. It's almost like he's saying, 'Yeah, you thought I'd drop you didn't you? But I didn't, silly.'
He makes a big show of pulling me up slowly like he wants to prove how light I am to him. My heart starts fluttering from the intense look in his eyes. I take in a shaky breath. A slow song starts playing.
"You didn't honestly think I'd drop you, did you?" he finally says.
I grin at him sheepishly. "I didn't expect that if you were going to dip me that it would be that low."
"I'd never drop you." he says simply with a smile on his face.
"I know."
"Obviously not, because you thought I was going to."
"Only for a second!" I say as he presses me against him. Somebody really needs a cold shower. I feel like I can't catch my breath, and as I look at the floor I feel myself blush.
Thank heavens, the bartender arrives. I escape to order some food.
Demarco's mom walks in and sits at the bar. She asks Armand if he'd like to dance. Talk about cougar! He explains that he's here with someone. Yes. That someone that everyone seems to want to stare at while she eats.
Apparently the drink I order later needs a blowtorch. Crazy.
When we finish our food and drinks, Armand pulls me back out onto the dance floor again. We're fine as long as the song is fast.
When another slow one starts up, Armand looks at me and says, "I don't think I can take another slow song, Marie. It would be a better idea to head back to my place. It's a great house! You're going to love it."
"A-Alright." I say because I can't think of any excuse to give him.
(I needed to break this up into sections, the next update is the second half of this one.)
(current edit: Yay! Now all the posts are on the blog!)
Warning!!!! Clicking 'Newer Post' will take you to update 119! To get to 101A click here.
