Date with the Bad idea

Who: Dean and Janice
Where: Movies
When: Evening

Dean had to wonder what the hell he was doing as he walked up to the cinema, after Sophie had dropped him off in town. Sure, he knew what he was doing, but he was as nervous as all hell and had spent the last hour wondering if this really was that good an idea. Maybe it would be best to just turn round and go home, stand her up, forget about the whole thing, deal with the fallout in school tomorrow where he'd doubtlessly be bitched about, but at least he wouldn't have to run the gauntlet that Thia and Caleb had him worrying about that this would be viewed as a more than one time thing. Somehow he had to make sure he made that clear. The one time only thing. Unless this went well - which he doubted it would - at least, not well enough for him to want a repeat performance. Sure, the girl was pretty, but, well, she was like fourteen or something and really not his type. He hadn't been lying when he told Thia that the reason he'd picked her was because he knew beyond a doubt that she'd say 'yes'. That probably wasn't a very good start. But, he was here - and wearing the jacket as Thia'd insisted, along with a pair of dark blue jeans and a charcoal grey tshirt. He'd purposefully picked them so she couldn't think that he'd made too much of an effort or anything. God, what was he doing again?

Janice had actually arrived about fifteen minutes previously. She'd been spectacularly early, but hadn't waited outside the theater proper, just in case he didn't show. She didn't want to look stupid or anything! So, instead, she had waited across the little side streets and parking areas in the little bus stop shelter to watch the entrance for him. When he arrived, her heart soared. He's here! Okay, calm down, Janice. Calm down. she told herself, even as she hopped up and started the walk over. She had certainly gone all out with her own date-attire. She'd gotten new jewelry and clothes, going with a short skirt and a top that showed off what curves she did have, which in her opinion weren't nearly enough, but she had some. So she accentuated! She'd gotten new make up to match--which included glitter. She kind of went a little overboard with the glitter. She even got body spray that had sparkled flecks in it, and there was some in her hair too. Her hair which was freshly blonde again was pulled up. She couldn't go out on her date with undyed hair, so she'd scraped up the money for that too. Her heels clicked on the sidewalk as she headed towards him, she'd picked the heels because if she judged right, it would put them near enough at eye level, and that's exactly where she wanted to be. "Dean!" she cried when she was within ten feet. "You're here! Awesome, how are you?" she asked, coming right up to him, and of course into his personal space--she hadn't gotten that body spray for nothing, thank you very much. "I hope you haven't been waiting long!" Even though she knew he hadn't.

Dean turned as he heard his name called - there was no way he could have missed it as loud as the call had been, and he saw her walking toward him. Looking very much like she was expecting to go clubbing or something. With the heels, and the hair, and the makeup and the clothes and... wow, did he feel under dressed right now. He couldn't help but stare at her as she headed up to him and stepped in probably a little closer than she should have done and he caught a whiff of whatever it was she was wearing, which was a touch too overpowering for his liking. God, but she'd obviously put in a lot of effort for this... "Hi, I'm good, just arrived actually," he told her, a little self-consciously, starting to take a half step back and then stopping himself, just easing away a little instead. Nothing too obvious.

He was staring! Awesome. She must be making an impression! She marked that up as a little win in her book and she was still smiling at him brightly. "Oh good! I'm glad you didn't have to wait long, I told my mom to drop me off like five minutes ago but she was totally spazzing about something, and..." she laughed, and lit her hand on his arm. "Nevermind, totally not important! Anyways I'm so glad that we met up a little early so we'd have a chance to talk!" she added, sort of taking his arm as she looked meaningfully over at a bench off to the side of the entrance. "I really wanted to get to talk to you before but with school and everything and we only have art together so I didn't get to catch you and all but I'm so glad that you asked me out, you know, I always thought we had a connection, and my friends said that I was imagining things, but then you came over and asked me out! What can I say, a girl can tell. You always look over at me. I was really totally hoping that you'd ask me out sometime."

Sheer force of habit kept Dean looking at her while she rambled on, his eyes fixed on the movement of her lips, though he didn't really need to supplement with lip reading here. It wasn't that noisy and he could pick up what she was saying fairly clearly. And, apparently they had a 'connection'. Huh, he had to wonder where that came from, or how she'd failed to note that generally the only times he'd looked at her and her friends had been when they'd made it a little too obvious that they were listening in on his conversations with Caleb. he offered her the barest hint of a smile, little more than an upturn of the corners of his mouth and led her to the bench where she clearly wanted to go. Talking - he could do talking. Wait - what were they meant to talk about? He was probably meant to make a comment on their supposed 'connection', but the only thing he could think to say about that was that it was utter bollocks and he doubted that would get them off to a very good start. He needed something else. "So, erm - you look nice..." he offered. Compliments were probably a safe bet.

"Thank you!" she squeaked happily, sitting down with him and crossing her legs, making sure her leg brushed his while she was at it, and she was still keeping hold of his arm, sort of half trying to make sure he knew she had a chest. Pushing it against his arm was a good way to do that. "I couldn't show up for a date I'd been dreaming about since school started looking awful, now could I?" she asked. "You look great too! I like your jacket." she commented, making a show of looking at him and appreciating the view. "So what made you ask me out finally? I mean, I know I was totally waiting for it and everything, and like, I wasn't sure it would be so soon, but here we are! But for serious, why'd you ask now?" she asked, gazing at him through her eyelashes, in a demure, 'tell me something good about me' manner.

Dreaming? She'd been dreaming? Oh shit. And no, he couldn't be flailing on that, because he needed to be flailing on the answer to her question. Somehow he didn't think 'I needed a distraction from another girl' would go down too well. Add into that the fact that he really wasn't good at this whole 'compliments' thing. He'd already told her she looked nice, wasn't that enough? What did she want from him. "Erm, I guess I just, er, got round to it," he offered.

She wasn't going to get discouraged. She'd told herself that she knew he seemed a little quiet, and so she was going to be very, very patient. He probably had issues anyways. He was all foreign, with the hot accent, and his friend had died and stuff. What he really needed, was for a girl like her to step in and make it alllll better. So she smiled at him encouragingly. "Yes? You must have been waiting for your moment, I suppose, I was so excited when you picked during class--I can't even tell you how many people came up to me and asked me when we'd started going out! I'm still so happy that you did, especially before homecoming..." she started. "But anyways I guess you've got a lot on your mind and everything, or had, so I'm glad that I could be a bright spot in your darkness." She fluttered her eyelashes at him and leaned closer again, so he could smell her perfume some more. She smelled good, damnit!

Homecoming? What the fuck was homecoming? And what did that have to do with anything? Dean wracked his brains and realised with a sinking feeling that that, from what he'd seen from films and everything, generally had some kind of dance or something attached to it. Arse. And there was that whole 'going out' thing again. He kept his eyes on her, of course, his brain racing while she spoke and he knew this was probably the point that he should disabuse her of that whole future notion, but that would put a downer on the whole evening, wouldn't it? End things before they'd even started and he was here now, he should at least see things through. "Yeah, things have been kinda rough lately," he admitted, because it was the safest topic in there, in his opinion. He glanced down at where she was pressed against him, noting that he was speckled in glitter. Greaaaaaat.

"Oh my god, I know!" Janice cried emphatically. "Everything's been so crazy! And you here all new in this country and everything!" Or so she thought. "But you know if you ever need to like, talk about anything, I'm here for you, y'know? Anything at all, I'm totally your ear, I'll listen to anything you want to talk about." she said. Of course, she could also avail herself to offer him distractions, but first she wanted to get to know him. Really know him, too, because she was just dying to find out what he was really like. Her and everyone else, but she'd be special. She'd know.

He had to bite back a laugh at that - which he managed to do quite successfully, but he had this mental image of him telling her some of the things that had been going on in his life lately, and he had to wonder whether she'd actually bother with the 'backing away slowly' before she started to run. But at least the thought helped him to relax a little, and come down off that 'really fucking scared' point he'd been at. "Thanks - I'll remember that," he told her. He had no intention of ever taking her up on it, but he'd remember it. If nothing else, it'd give Caleb a laugh...

"Do so! You can call me anytime you know...I'm up late usually..." she implied, voice going slightly lower for a moment as she leaned in even closer to him. She was going to do that until she had him squished into the side of the bench, at the rate she was going, but she was okay with that. She was pretty much working on the assumption that she wanted to be the best date evar, and guys liked that kind of thing, right? The guys she'd been around did, anyways.

Dean mentally noted the part where he was probably meant to ask for her number and so very definitely didn't do that, though he did finally cave and put his arm around her, since that was obviously what she wanted. And, really, there were worse things in the world, he had to admit. Caleb was right - she was a good looking girl if you could just ignore the drivel that came out of her mouth. Though never before had he really appreciated just how self-centred she was.

Oo yay! There! She liked that, she shuffled right in close there, looking pleased as all hell that he had his arm around her. See, she knew what she was doing! "I'll give you my number after the movie." she assures him, since he hadn't asked for her number, and she wanted to make damn sure he had it. She wanted his, too, really, and actually dug her cell out and looked at him expectantly. "Your number?" she asked.

He chuckled a little, looking between her and the phone. "That was a quick movie," he joked, the edge of his mouth turning upwards a little, though he made no move to either get out his own phone, or tell her the number of it. Which, actually, he didn't know anyway. He'd have to look it up - especially since it was his third phone since he got here. Learning numbers had got old fast.

"I want your number now, silly." Janice said patiently. "I said I'd give you mine after the movie!" She gave him a bright if slightly frozenish smile, waiting. Once she had his number she could text him a lot, call him up, maybe have late night phonecall sessions...it'd be great! And okay maybe he was being a little weird right now, since he hadn't told her what she needed to know yet, and everything, but he was laughing and stuff and had his arm around her--all was well. it had to be.

There was no way to get out of this one without being rude, he knew. He couldn't lie and say he didn't have his phone on him - which was sure to be the next thing if he said he didn't know his number off the top of his head. And it was on, so he ran the risk of someone calling him in any event and then he'd just look stupid. So he pulled the damn thing out of his inside jacket pocket and thumbed to the screen where the number was listed, before reeling it off, thinking that he now understood the radio station back home that advertised a fake number for people to give out when they were faced with someone who was pressing for a contact number. Plus, he didn't really get why she was waiting until after the film to give him her number - but he wasn't arguing the fact either.

She arched an eyebrow. "Did you not know your number?" she asked, already keying in Dean's number and adding a little heart icon for next to his name--which she grinned and showed him. "And since you got your phone out, here have mine!" she immediately jumped on, rattling her own off and expectantly waiting for him to add it in.

"I dropped my old phone the other day, so I had to get a new one - new number," he explained with a shrug. "I'm the kiss of death to phones," he added, reluctantly typing in her number. But at least she might take the hint if he didn't call her. Nothing so far had made him believe that he'd be wanting to repeat this. She was just so... Everything he'd known she was already, he realised. There'd just been that deluded impression that nothing could really be that bad, surely. He reminded himself that the best thing for both of them was to just focus on the fact she was pretty and try and ignore the rest. That and wait for her to put her phone away. That was important.

"Well, let me know if you drop this one, I'll have to have your number somehow!" she sing-songed playfully, then she put her phone back into her purse. Then she of course turned her attention completely back on him. "So anyways, what are we seeing? And are we doing anything afterwards? We could like...go back to my house or something, for a while..." she invited. "I mean, you'll be walking me home anyways, right? I figured that we should have a little more time to talk and everything because if we talk in the theater we'll just get kicked out...not that I'd mind! But I just wanted to spend time with you, and really like, talk, y'know? I mean, I don't know you very well and everything, all I do know is what I see of you in art class, and what people say. But I totally wanna get to know the real you!"

"What do people say?" Dean asked, the words out of his mouth before he could think any better of it and he cringed a little. "Nevermind, doesn't matter," he averred, immediately afterwards as he thought a little and the battery in her phone silently died, producing enough heat to destroy most of the connector inside, plus her SIM card. Oops, didn't look like she'd be using his number any time soon, did it? Somehow he could imagine that she'd be the type who'd be texting him all day and night and, really, he could do without that.

She looked sympathetic for a moment, and awwed at him, reaching up to pat his cheek. "It's okay, I know it can be hard." she said. Which wasn't necessarily true, she was pretty popular, actually, but she worked for that. She knew how to get other people with school-talk. "And y'know, just...stuff. Like how you're quiet, which you totally don't seem that quiet to me," And it was clear there that she thought she was spectacularly special, and was giving him the nudge nudge, wink wink thing. "And how you like, lost your friend, and probably aren't over that yet. And like, that's okay!" Because sometimes people needed permission to do things like that, right? Especially guys? He probably had a ton of hidden pain. She'd just have to dig it out and help him with it. "And someone told me the other day that you were like, in a fight or something, but I only heard it from Shanna Miller? And she's always gossiping." And she was a pretty good source from time to time, but still. She didn't usually check her sources, either.

Dean arched an eyebrow and that and withdrew his arm, removing himself to a little further down the bench, because his immediate, gut reaction to what she'd just said was 'Yeah, whatever,' and to just take himself away for a few. But that was difficult, because, well, he'd asked, hadn't he? And what she'd told him wasn't anything new, or false, and she'd put in a few 'I'm okay with this's - but they were really the root of his issue with that. Her tone, the suggestion that he needed her permission or something. That getting that would validate things, or something. Which just annoyed the hell out of him.

Ohhh crap. She'd said something wrong. She immediately crowed back over, reaching out for his hand, wanting to take it and possibly put it on her knee. "I'm sorry, did I say something wrong? I didn't mean to, I just...that's what people say." What she didn't ask was if it had been Mary or Lulu that had been his friend. The events had kind of blurred together in her head, dead sophomores--creepy and scary. No one she knew had been positive either, though she remembered seeing him with Lulu. So she was going to guess maybe it was her? "If you want to talk about it, we could always skip the movie and go someplace private." she suggested.

"Look, no offence but I really don't need your okay to grieve," he told her, moving his hand away a little as she reached for it. She'd irked him and the fact that he wasn't grieving for Thia didn't seem particularly important right now. "It's not even been three weeks, just..." He didn't know where to go with that, so he just left it hanging.

She settled her hand on his arm instead, she wished she'd got his hand but oh well. "I'm sorry--I didn't mean it like that." she said. Even if she kinda had, he was a guy, most guys were weird about that kind of thing. Okay, apparently not him. She'd remember that. It was all just part and parcel to the package that was Dean. She'd deal. "I just meant...if you want to talk about it or anything, I'm here, so you can." she finished, hoping that made up for things. Then she tried a little smile, half leaning around him so he could see her face, since he was being all closed off right now. "Forgive me? I promise I wasn't meaning to offend you."

"I don't want to talk about it," he told her, looking across at her because he always looked at people he was talking to, unless he was specifically trying to make a point. "Look - let's just... What movie did you want to see?" he asked her, realising that things were going downhill very fast and that was his fault. She was obviously trying and his taking offence about things wasn't helping anything. He should be making more of an effort, show her a good time, play along and then he didn't have to see her again. That was the right thing to do. He even gave her a smile, one that would actually be classed as a smile by any normal person.

She smiled back at him, happy that he was back to smiling. Okay, mr. broodypants had made an appearance, but apparently it was all good now. So she would take it! "Um...anything you want to see?" she asked, standing up, and she looked over at the board. "Really, I'll go watch anything!" she added cheerfully, trying to be pleasant and to keep him in the more upbeat mindframe.

Dean pulled a slight face. "Honestly? I'd just kinda planned to go with your choice, so I'm easy," he admitted, telling himself that whatever he chose would be the wrong choice no matter what he said. And since he'd decided that the least he could go was make sure she enjoyed herself tonight, there was little point in him choosing anyway, was there. So - lady's choice.

"Really?" she asked, smiling brightly at him. So she pointed, choosing the romantic comedy. "Let's go see this one!" she declared, then seemed to be waiting for him to get up, and come with her. Possibly offer her his arm. Her mom had given her money in case he didn't pay for her, but she was really hoping that he did. That and got them popcorn and everything. Though she was more than happy to share that sort of thing. Of course.

Dean stood, resigned to the romantic comedy, and started toward the entrance, walking slowly at first so she could fall into step beside him, another habit of his he didn't even think twice about. He didn't make any moves to take her hand or put his arm around her though.

Janice wasn't to be put off so easily, and when she did fall into step with him, she glommed onto his arm well enough all on her own. She grinned up at him, smiling pleasantly, then headed into the theater with him. This was going okay...she'd just have to take some other steps to make it better!

Although he hadn't made any move for contact, he didn't shy away from it either - all that time spent with Thia had definitely changed him as a person and physical contact was something he could cope with without having to think about it. Generally, actually, it was only when he did actually start to think about it that it became an issue. Either way, having a girl hanging off him was something he was more than used to, so he simply adjusted his position slightly to mean they were both more comfortable and bought a couple of tickets for the movie she'd chosen, tucking them into his pocket for now. "Did you want popcorn or anything?" he asked her, looking across at her. that, he realised, was a little weird. He'd almost automatically gone to look down. Thia was substantially shorter than he was. Janice, with the addition of her heels, wasn't, so he'd had to quickly lift his eyes or else he'd've been speaking at her chest.

"Yes, thanks!" Janice said, giving him a happy sort of smile. "I'd like some pop and liquorice too." she added, looking over at the counter. She was looking around a little, then settled her eyes back on Dean. Dean, her new shiny boyfriend, and there were some ticks, but she'd take care of them. She was confident all she really had to do was put up with a little weirdness, but then it would all be fine! It was just a sacrifice she was going to have to make, to date the dark broody boy from another country. And that status boost would be worth it!

"Sure," Dean agreed, walking them over to the concessions counter and buying her popcorn, soda and liquorice as she'd wanted. He didn't get anything for himself - he'd actually managed some food before he'd left. He'd been feeling generally better lately and the thought of food hadn't been turning his stomach so much over the past few days, though he still never actually felt hungry. "So, erm - have you always lived in Marquette?" he ventured as he put his wallet away.

"Me? Oh, yes. Born and raised. It's so small town, I hate being stuck here, I want to go down state when I go to college. Probably U of M or something. I mean, I could probably get into Western, or Central if I wanted, and my parents of course want me to go to NMU, because they want me to be stuck here in nowhereseville, but I have bigger plans than that. I'm not going to be stuck here forever! No way, it's city time, for me. I thought about trying out for the cheerleading squads there, since I cheerlead now. I'm good, too, I got a medal in cheerleader camp, and my squad has a trophy from a local competition!" she said excitedly. Then something occurred to her. "Where are you from, anyways?" she asked. All she really knew was 'probably England'.

"Manchester, north England," he told her, adding the location because he was positive she wouldn't have a bloody clue where that was. "It's a city - one of the major ones, so..." He shrugged. "Yeah, this place seems kind of small. but I'm getting used to it." God, he really wouldn't want it to be any bigger - with the amount of shit going down, if this was a sleepy town, he dreaded to think what it'd be like as a proper city.

"That's cool--so you should totally come to one of the games!" she said, taking the candy, but having him carry the other things. "There's one this Friday, you can come watch me cheer!" It was a freshman football game, but...well, he wasn't going to be going to see the game. He'd be there to see her. Hopefully. "Tickets are only like, a dollar fifty or something, it'll be fun!" She started leading them up the steps, since the theaters were all up there.

"So, okay, I don't get it - the whole 'cheerleading' thing," Dean said, wondering if this was going to be a bad subject to get onto. But it wasn't like they had that much in common, apparently, and he didn't think that talk of preparation for the zombie apocalypse was going to cut it, so see him picking a subject he knew she could talk about! "I mean - why? The whole thing. It's not something we have back home and I never really understood the point," he admitted, honestly.

Janice gave him a look like had sprouted another head. "You don't understand cheerleading?" she asked, aghast. "Oh, you poor thing." she said, tsking and shaking her head. "They don't have it back home? What the hell? It's--it's spirit! It's energy for the team! It's being in charge of the crowd, and keeping everything going and excited!" she cried, apparently very passionate about the subject. "What's not to get??"

Dean blinked and then chuckled in spite of himself. "Well, for a start, at home, the crowd at a footie match generally take care of themselves. They don't need energy - half the time it's quite the opposite, actually. point of pride for the fans, having their own chants and songs and shit," he shrugged. Really, as far as he could see, the only point of cheerleading was to have a bunch of girls in short skirts looking pretty at people - which seemed a waste of space and a distraction from the important bit - the sport.

"You guys just..make up your own stuff? What about the dance? And the cheers?" Janice asked, blinking at him like he was clearly missing something, or she was, one of the two. But she was a cheerleader, and she was feeling slightly defensive over it. "I'm really good, I've gotten awards, and I'm important to the games! We all are! It's a lot of work, those cheers! They have to be choreographed, and set up perfectly or it doesn't work right, it's all about teamwork. We do ours, the team does theirs."

Actually, he was quite enjoying this, he realised. the look on her face was worth it alone, and they actually appeared to be having a discussion about something. Amazing. "Yeah, we just make up our own stuff," he told her, amused that this should be an apparently radical suggestion. "Whole stadiums full of people - you should watch it some time. Things start in little pockets, then just grow, until one side's singing as loud as they can and the other's trying to combat it. It kinda ebbs and flows. And no dancing," he added, firmly. He really didn't get what dancing had to do with sport anyway. Crowd noise, the singing and chanting, that was important to atmosphere, that the players could hear and it would help them on. Dancing on the sidelines would just be distracting. Or some silly bint would get a football in the head.

"Well, that's just--!" she started, then broke off, appearing to take a second to compose herself. "That's fine for over there with big stadiums and stuff, but for here, we've got cheerleaders. Maybe you just need to see me in action to understand better. Definitely come to the game on Friday." she said firmly, as they walked into the theater. She was just ignoring the fact that he'd just stomped all over her sport.

"Oh, right - so you just have them for, like, small games and stuff then?" Dean asked, fairly sure that wasn't the case, but playing the clueless card anyhow. He knew he probably shouldn't, but damnit, he couldn't help it. He was feeling evil, even though he'd promised himself she'd have a good evening. Which meant that he should probably shut up. But.... It was just too damn tempting.

"Well---no," she said, a little flabbergasted. "There's like, professional cheerleaders and everything too, but they're important too, and plus, they entertain at half time, and everything like that..." she tried to explain, but she felt like she was running out of explanations. "Just come to the game already, you'll get it then!"

"Maybe," he allowed with an amused half-smile, deciding he should really give her a break - but he was feeling a lot more upbeat after that little set to as they set down and he automatically slouched down into his seat and rested his feet against the back of the chair in front of him.

Janice sat down next to him, and opened up her candy, offering him some. She also sort of adjusted herself so she could lean down and rest her head on his shoulder. "Maybe you'll come to the game?" she asked. "It's at six, the field behind the school. The team sucks, but hopefully, you won't be there to watch the boys run around..." she tried.

Dean turned down the offer of sweets and looked over at her as she spoke, his eyes, of course, darting to her lips to watch the movement there. "Yes, maybe I'll come to the game. Do lots of people go?" he asked, not having a clue. Generally hardly anyone really turned up to school sports events back home, not unless you were involved with the team somehow, and people generally had better things to do on a Friday night than stand at the edge of a muddy pitch, after all.

"Some people do." she said, shrugging, not really giving a committal answer there. It was freshman football, of course no one went. But he was her man, he was kind of expected to be there. She noticed he was watching her lips, and he had been a lot since the date had started. It made her smile, and she was glad she'd picked out the slightly shimmery lipstick she was wearing. Maybe it had worked. "I would like you to come." she said sweetly, in a bit of a purr. Or what she thought was meant to be a coy purr.

"We'll see," Dean told her, glancing from her to the screen - not that the film was showing any signs of starting yet, but he always had a twitch like that at the cinema, as if glancing from time to time at the screen would make any difference at all. He looked back at her and reached over to grab a piece of liquorice, more for something to do with his hands than any suggestion he wanted any as he took the tiniest bite off the end before starting to twist the rest round in his hands.

She watched him, and wondered if he was nervous or something. Or, if he just had things on his mind, and she should do something about that. She settled in closer again, sort of half getting her arm around his, even if it took a little work. "I'm so happy we're finally going out." she said. "It's that connection, thing. I'm sure we'll have a lot of fun together. When do you want to go out next? There's a party next Saturday, I think, I mean, I think it's out at someone's camp, so it'd be an over-nighter...."

Dean blinked, giving her a momentary 'deer in the headlights' look before he managed to shake it off. He hadn't expected that. At all. That... Surely it wasn't meant to happen that way! Surely they were meant to, like, get actually through the first date before the subject of a second even came up!! that wasn't fair - that was cheating. "I, er..."

"Don't worry, I'm sure you can find someone to cover for you." she said. "Your...friend probably could." she said, half hesitating on the word for the guy he sat with in art class. The crazy, sort of creepy guy. She wasn't a huge fan. She'd heard a lot about him and none of it was good. "Then we could go, have a great time...."

It took Dean a minute to catch up on what she was meaning, wondering firstly why he'd need cover and then who the friend was. Because his initial thought for 'friend' was Thia, especially with that tone she used, which had him blinking again, until he caught on to the fact she must mean Caleb and he took the out she probably hadn't even noticed was there. "You don't like Caleb?" he asked, innocently.

She made a little bit of a face. "He's...well, I don't wanna say anything if he is your friend. I know you talk to him in art but I've never seen you guys like, hang out or anything, but I've heard things about him." she said. "But I'm totally sure that he'd cover for you! So we could go, it'd be great. I have a tent."

"You've heard things about me as well, remember?" Dean pointed out, doggedly sticking to his out. He saw it, dammit - he was bloody taking it! “Caleb's okay, he's a good guy - you shouldn't believe everything you hear.”

"I don't know, like, he stole Isaac St. James' girlfriend over the summer, and then, like last week or something, he stole Thom Harkin's! And I heard he was like..." she leaned in closer to his ear to whisper into it. "In the psych ward." She did in fact say it like it was a dirty word. "Like, that's why he wasn't in school for the whole first week."

"He didn't steal Thom Harkin's girlfriend," Dean told her firmly, coming to the defence of his friend, though he had his own reservations about what had happened there. But they were his and he wasn't going to let that stop him from defending Caleb against rumour. Fuck that noise. "Those two were broken up anyway. And the other girl never told him about Isaac - and anyway, from the way I heard it told, Isaac and the girl were never dating anyhow," he added, leaving out any comment about the psych ward, since he knew that was true and he couldn't think of any way to put a positive spin on it for his friend.

Janice pouted at him a little. "I didn't mean to like...diss your friend or anything. I just heard he's weird and like...kinda creepy and crazy." she said. "That's all...” she tried puppy eyes while she was at it. "Forgive me?"

Dean decided in an instant that her puppy dogs weren't a patch on Thia's - and then chastised himself for that very thought. He was here tonight to try and get away from that kind of thing, wasn't he? "And I just said that you shouldn't believe everything you hear," Dean shot back, but he modulated his tone to make it playful and amused, trying to keep the atmosphere light. "After all, you've already decided you don't believe what they say about me - why should you believe what they say about him? You've got brains enough to make up your own mind..." he added, throwing her out a compliment, even though he was fairly sure it was a lie.

She did take it as a compliment, and looked placated. "Well, so he's cool then?" she asked. "You know, my friend kinda thinks he's hot." she added. "I only had eyes for you though." she added, keeping up that playful thing. The theater started to darken, the trailers started to play, though she didn't lean back away from him at all.

Dean wasn't so sure about that, he'd thought she had a thing for Caleb at first, but if she wanted to say she'd always had a thing for him, then she could say that. Thia would probably argue that he wouldn't have noticed, or would have discounted her interest until it was obvious anyhow. And she'd probably be right. And there he was again, he realised, sitting in the dark with a girl, on a bloody date, and his mind kept going back to Thia. This really, really had to stop. He needed to be in the moment, or something. "Yeah, he's cool," Dean told her, his voice dropping to a whisper as the room darkened.

What did it take to get this guy's attention, a trainwreck? She was practically hanging on him, talking in his ear, the lights had just gone out, and he just wanted to go on about his friend, when she was telling him she was all his??? She'd really kind of imagined that he'd be smoother than this. A lot smoother. But it felt practically like she was talking to herself! She would have to think of another way to get attention. She pushed her chest against his arm again lightly, like she was readjusting her position to something more comfortable. It was just the trailers playing. Maybe her choice of movie would get him going. That's why she'd picked it, there was bound to be sex in there somewhere, and lots of romance. Maybe he'd grab a clue. "I think you're cool." she said in his ear.

Dean turned his head toward her, which, of course, left them face to face. Which was close enough to make him swallow, since he wasn't an idiot and he wasn't entirely clueless as to how these things went - or how she'd be wanting them to go, at least. It'd be so easy, he knew, and would definitely take away some of the stress and frustration he'd been feeling lately. On the flip-side, it was hardly fair on the girl. it'd be leading her on, making her think that there was actually something here, something more. Dean was torn, hesitating, unsure.

Janice didn't hesitate. When he turned towards her, in her head, what he was going for was a kiss, so that's what he got. She didn't really notice per se that he hadn't actually made the move to do it. It was just what happened, right? Sure it was. So, she kissed him. And she hoped that he appreciated the fact that her shimmery sparkly lipstick was a tiny bit watermelon flavored.

Well, that took the decision out of his hands very firmly and he decided in the moment just to go with it, shifting in his chair to return the kiss properly, hoping that he was doing it right and wasn't making a complete mess of this. he noted, absently that she tasted a little, well, weird - kinda synthetic, in a vaguely fruity way. That was just a little odd, but he brushed it off as one of those things.

Her heartbeat picked up a lot. There, alright, they were back to fine. This was officially a good thing! So she kept kissing him. She deepened it, too, after a few moments. Because kissing was all fine and good but it only really got truly fun when it could do that cool stomach butterfly thing. And that happened when there were tongues involved.

He closed his eyes and deepened the kiss in return, slipping his tongue between her lips experimentally, reaching up and putting an arm around her, bringing her in. He felt as nervous as all hell and there was part of him that was still screaming that this was a stunningly bad idea that should be stopped right now, but then there'd been part of him that had been screaming that since the moment he got up to go across and ask her out and he'd gotten very good at ignoring that part of him. Sure, it was a lot louder right now, but it could still be ignored, especially when faced with the purely physical sensation of finally kissing a girl. that was taking fairly mind blowing precedence right about now.

Janice made a soft little sound, and more than happily let him draw her in closer. Her arm slid up around his neck, wanting to keep him close too, like he was going to pull away. (ha!) She moved to get as close as she could manage while remaining in her seat, the trailers of the movies coming soon going on unnoticed for the moment.

He decided that it didn't matter who he was kissing - that little noise just hotwired straight into him, encouraging him in ways he couldn't quite define and making him sit up a little more, running a hand up into her hair, only to be oddly frustrated when he remembered that it was all tied up.

She half reached up to grab his hand--not really wanting him to wreck her hair, it had taken like the better part of an hour, and instead she moved it more to her side...high side, however, just in case he might glean some ideas from that. But she liked that he'd done that! It was encouraging! Yeah, this was all good now. No two ways about it.

He drew back as breathing became necessary and he broke off the kiss, his heart beating hard now. Okay, so that hadn't been that difficult and, apparently, she had no complaints. Which was good - maybe he wasn't terrible at this or anything. that was a plus. Of course, he knew he'd have to deal with the fallout of having actually made out with her. Which was bad, since he'd carefully side-stepped the whole 'second date' subject on purpose, being that there wasn't going to be one.

She had to draw in some shaky breaths of her own, then she smiled at him. She licked her bottom lip, then looked at him some more. Sure, the movie was actually starting now, but she wasn't that interested in it. Instead, she started to lean in for more of those kisses.