faun

[shesepankh]

Saturday morning sees Bella with her notebooks about magic all in her knapsack, her medallion safety-pinned by its chain to her bra just in case she trips the wrong way, waiting with Charlie for pickup for the Avalon trip.

Comments

[castmyown]

"Hi," he says.

Then all of the coaching is just gone and he blurts, "Your hair is smooth and shiny today!"

And then he runs.

[morethanimaginary]

From her spot nearby, Savannah watches. And then, her hand meets her face and she sighs. Her brother is so terrible at this.

[shesepankh]

Bella lifts a hand to touch her hair, absolutely bewildered.

Then (at a safe, sedate pace) she heads in the direction where he fled.

[castmyown]

There he is, sitting and bonking his head against his palm. Over. And over.

(And over.)

[shesepankh]

"Are you okay?"

[castmyown]

"Probably not," sighs Darren. "If I die of embarrassment, daisies at the funeral, please."

[shesepankh]

"Embarrassment is not fatal. Are you otherwise okay?"

[castmyown]

"... Um. Yes?"

[shesepankh]

"Okay, so what happened?"

[castmyown]

"I thought that part was kind of obvious," he says, closing his eyes and wincing.

[shesepankh]

"You gave me a weird compliment on my hair and then ran away like I was a lava monster, I'm confused."

[castmyown]

"I am so bad at this," sighs Darren. "... Sorry, um - for confusing you?"

[shesepankh]

"You could better apologize by unconfusing me. Unless the problem is that you don't know why you did it either and you need to be checked for some kind of neurological issue."

[castmyown]

There is a momentary deer in the headlights look on his face.

"... Um. I mean - I meant to compliment you but it kind of turned out really weird so I ran because I was nervous?"

[shesepankh]

"Nervous that I'd spontaneously turn into a lava monster? In addition to having smooth and shiny hair did I also accidentally come to class with fangs in?"

[castmyown]

"No! No, that's not... I don't think you're a lava monster."

[shesepankh]

Bella sighs.

"Am I going to get an explanation for why you bolted, or should I give up?"

[castmyown]

"Sorry," he winces, flinching a little. "Um. I... Um. Was trying to -"

Deep breath. Then, all out in a whoosh, he says, "Tryingtofindawaytoaskyouout."

[shesepankh]

"...Try again with more breathing, please?"

[castmyown]

"Trying - to... Find a way to..." He is blushing so much right now. "Ask you out?"

[shesepankh]

Blink.

"Oh! Okay. We should get dinner sometime?"

[castmyown]

Darren smiles a bit and giggles like a school girl. "That... Would be great!"

[shesepankh]

"But seriously - where did the hair thing come from?"

[castmyown]

"I was trying to say that it looked nice today and - I just kind of... Screwed that up."

[shesepankh]

"Did Savannah try to teach you to ask me out?"