Hanging by a Moment [Completed]

Everything

Everything

It definitely, with no question of probably, sounds weird but watching a bat swoop around repeatedly in circles is a great way to end a date…or is fascinating, anyhow.

“I swear, that thing is high.”

He didn’t really believe what he was saying, but I felt the need to roll my eyes and make sure he saw it anyway. “Yeah, I somehow doubt that.”

“Then how do you explain what it’s doing?”

 His defensive take was just an act, argument for the sake of argument, but that was what we did.

“I don’t,” I replied, “but it’s definitely doing something. You’ve seen how it keep stopping on that corner, right? It’s probably building a nest.”

He took a moment to consider my alternative, then he shook his head. “I don’t think bats live in nests.”

“I don’t think they live on the walls of caves,” I retorted, “There’s got to be some…home structure thing for them.”

“I don’t know,” he was unconvinced, “a nest?”

“You asked for an explanation! It’s much better than ‘that thing is high’,” I mimicked, sticking my tongue out at him.

“I still think it’s high.”

“You’re high.”

We’d settled onto a bench when we’d decided we’d had enough of a walk, and Peyton had pointed out a bat that was perched – if bats do indeed perch – onto the wall. It hadn’t done anything at first, and we’d launched into a similar pointless discussion into vampires that had ended when we’d eventually agreed that people who believed in the Cullens were idiots (I blame Sarah for all knowledge I have of them), but that vampires were cool, if they did indeed exist.

Real, blood sucking, I-can-control-your-mind sort of vampires, that is.

After which I’d edged a little closer to him, and he’d smiled.

In the duration of our next pointless discussion about what it was the bat was doing after it had started flying about in circles, stopping where we’d first seen it on the wall every so often, Peyton’s hand had come close to mine, almost touching.

I didn’t say anything, but I smiled a little, and I think he noticed.

That was fine. We hadn’t settled into a perfect groove just then, but baby steps were good. And things weren’t awkward or weird in this way, which…is more than I can say for how things were at the start of our date. The problem arose from neither of us being too sure as to how to behave. I think we’d both decided to try and play it cool, with me, at least, making it a point to think about how he already knew the worst about me and so I had nothing to worry about if he were already on a date with me, but it hadn’t helped much. It was somewhat relaxing to think that if we were on this date, it was all good, yes, but at the same time, it was really awkward too, because there’s some things that you can’t do as you normally would as friends when you’re on a date, but because that’s what you’ve been for so long, you don’t know how else to conduct yourself either. Add to that when you do try to be a little different, you come across as phony, because the person already knows you.

We’d looked at each other for a moment when I’d arrived to pick him up, uncertain about what to say. He looked good, but that observation was more as a result of the nerves of the date having me over analyze everything , and it didn’t feel right to compliment him or, well, be flirty.

“So, how long did it take you to figure out what you were going to wear?” he’d asked eventually.

I couldn’t help but crack a smile.