never look back, don't doubt tomorrow [closed]

[somesayinfire]

Who: Brooke Reynolds and Rachel Roth
When: Evening of 11/5
Where: Brooke's apartment
What: Watching Night of the Living Dead together and who cares if it's not seasonal anymore.

Wow. Had Brooke actually arranged a real-life, bona fide date with Rachel swear-word Roth? Well, it was nearly 8:00 and she'd gotten herself dolled up in much the same outfit that she'd worn when they checked out the Towers together, so... it was starting to look like yeah. Yeah, she had.

The moderately-sized flatscreen TV in her main room had the intro to the millennium edition DVD of Night of the Living Dead on loop, the kitchen table had an expert display of the finest takeout menus the city could offer, and Brooke had even vacuumed. Now came the hardest part, and as she paced around her apartment idly humming Tom Petty, she couldn't stop herself from wondering if this was a mistake.

Zelos had had a point, whether he wanted to or not: This would reflect on her family if it got out. The numbers club thing, yeah, but also going on a date with Rachel Roth. Neither her parents nor Rachel were exactly low profile. If it turned out that this was just some crush, or if it blew up in her face, it would bite everybody in the ass at once, hydra-style.

"Yeah, totally encouraging thoughts before your first date in months," Brooke muttered to herself, passing by the intercom for the tenth time.

Comments

[titansno]

Bzzzzz. Bzzz bzzz bzzz. Guess who's here?

She's tossed on a long black jacket, considering the colder weather. Her nerves weren't doing so well--she had been out of the dating game for a while, and there were a lot of ways this could go wrong. For the sake of trying to relax, she fishes a cigarette from her case and lights it. One deep, slow inhale before breathing back out.

Okay.

[somesayinfire]

Normally she'd let Rachel find her own way up, but she can't do that tonight. She's just too damn excited. So Brooke comes down, out to the front of her building, and the first thing she sees is Rachel Roth wearing a very cool-looking jacket and smoking a cigarette just as coolly. Then again, maybe cool is the wrong temperature for the way she's feeling right now.

"Rachel!" she says, trying (and failing) to hide her emotions. "Glad you got here safe. Come on in." She'll wait until Rachel's done smoking, of course, and ignore other, more intrusive thoughts that would only make tonight much more awkward for everyone if she vocalized them.

[titansno]

Yes, your date's harmful addiction is so cool, Brooke. It isn't as if she was nervous or already itching for a cigarette apart from that. Perish the thought!

She might not be the most empathetic person naturally, but it isn't that difficult to tell Brooke isn't doing much better than she is. Which...helps. "Hi, Brooke. Just a second, yeah?"

After a moment or two more, she's had enough of the thing to at least take the edge off. That'll do. Snuffing it out against the brick and tossing it into the bin by the door, she nods to Brooke. "After you."

[somesayinfire]

"No problem," she says, just content to watch Rachel smoke for now, because no matter what, it is incredibly cool in Brooke's eyes. Everything about Rachel is incredibly cool in Brooke's eyes. God, she really is head over heels, isn't she. This is going to get embarrassing.

She re-enters her building and leads the way to her apartment for Rachel, once the smoke break is over. Along the way, she tries desperately to break up her own awkwardness with some totally natural conversation. "Did you find the place okay? I know it's kind of out of the way." God. That rhymed. Why did that have to rhyme. "You excited for the movie?" No, she's talking too much. Cool it, Brooke. Let your date—your date—reply to something for once.

[titansno]

"I had to pick you up last month, remember? Wasn't hard to find it again." Rachel walks after her, hands in her pockets. It's probably for the best that Rachel isn't hearing any of that, Brooke. "I've seen it, but it's been a while. I think this'll be fun, though."

[somesayinfire]

"Right. Right, sorry. I'm kind of scatterbrained right now." For no reason in particular. She forces back an embarrassed look and is glad there's no accompanying blush. "I've just been thinking about how great this is going to be. And I can even give you the tour! Outside of where I do posts, you haven't seen anything. Not even the rest of my bedroom!" Not that there's much to show. They're nearly there at this point anyway; Brooke starts looking for the right key, though there aren't many to look through. Soon enough, what she just said will hit her. Probably.