Monty & Grayson

8 - Three Years Ago

Three years ago, on a Friday night...

After changing into comfortable sweatpants and a green hoodie, I walked back downstairs.

The corners of my mouth twitched when I saw Grayson sitting on the couch in my oversized Christmas sweater. It was the only thing in my closet that was big enough, though.

"Do you want tea?" I asked.

"Were you watching Ten Things I Hate About You?"

I pushed up my glasses. "Yes."

"Can I watch it with you?"

"Uh..." I said, momentarily surprised. "Yes, of course. Do you want tea or not?"

He was quiet for a while, staring down at his hands as he was wringing them nervously.

"I just don't want to think for a minute," he whispered.

My heart clenched. "Yeah, of course. I'll make some tea and we'll watch the movie. It's not very good, though."

Finally, he looked up.

Though his dark eyes looked sad,
there was a small smile on his lips.

"Aren't those the best kinds of movies sometimes?"

I returned his hesitant smile. "Yeah."

***

Three years ago, on a Friday night, half-way through the movie...

"I don't like how they're talking about the girls," Grayson commented.

I looked up in surprise. He was right, of course. It was the reason why Aria never wanted to watch this movie with me.

"Yeah, it's not okay."

"They're depicting them as shallow, even though what they're saying isn't dumb. I mean, why is there an overwhelmed and an underwhelmed, but no whelmed? That's a legit question."

As I stared at the frown on Grayson Rogers' face, I still found it hard to believe what I was hearing.

Obviously, it wasn't out of the realm of possibilities that Grayson Rogers cared about the depiction of women in movies, but it also... wasn't high up on the list of things I had thought he cared about.

"Yes. I have no idea, actually." I pushed up my glasses. "Do you want me to Google it?"

He turned to look at me. "Yeah."

If only I knew where I'd left my phone.

I searched my side of the couch, but found nothing. After checking the kitchen and hallway table, the only option left was Grayson's side.

"Sorry," I said, and gestured to the cushions he was sitting on. "Maybe it's under there."

"Oh, yeah, no problem." Grayson got to his feet. "I'll help you look."

It didn't take long. Reaching underneath the cushions, my hand closed around the mobile at the same time as Grayson's.

"Oh, sorry," he said quickly.

"Got it," I smiled.

He straightened and sat back down on the couch, but his movements were kind of awkward. It made me feel slightly awkward, too.

I focused on looking up the answer.

"Found it. It's an archaic word. It means to submerge, or to overcome utterly. I think overwhelm actually took over that meaning though."

"So, now, whelm would just mean normal?" Grayson asked.

I put away my phone.

He was looking curiously at me. It looked much better than the total devastation from before, and something inside my chest felt lighter.

"Yeah, that sounds about right. To feel whelmed is to feel normal."

Grayson fell quiet. He looked down at his hands again.

"I get why it isn't used a lot," he said quietly. "I don't think a lot of people feel normal."

That was true.

I rarely felt like I fit in. It wasn't until I met Aria, Craig, and Regan that I felt like there was a place I could be myself. But that didn't mean I thought of myself as particularly normal.

"Yeah," I said quietly. "I feel the same."

Grayson looked up, and even though he didn't say anything, I understood that this, our conversation, us watching a movie, made him feel just a little bit better.

I unpaused the movie.

A/N:

Sorry it's short. I just wanna clear some things up on how they met for the first time. Leave a vote and comment if you liked this chapter ❤