Catching Up

Hushed laughter echoed throughout the space of the living room. Alan and Beth were both laying on the couch facing each other, their legs slightly overlapping in the dimmed light of the space.

“Oh god I thought Lena would never forgive me after that” Alan sipped a beer

Beth was also drinking “Well if you ruined my birthday party by accidentally dropping a birthday cake from the second-story balcony, I’d be pretty peeved too!”

“Which only happened because she and her friends tried to hose me from the lawn!”

“Ah yes, but you’re the big brother it’s your job to be harassed by your siblings and accept it.” Beth nodded sagely

Alan play tossed a pillow over “Spoken like a true only child.”

“Can you blame my parents for stopping after me? How could they possibly improve on perfection.” She downed her drink amongst chuckling

“More like they were afraid of their problems growing exponentially” He put on a face of mock horror “ ‘Dear we cannot bring more evil into this world”

Tossing the pillow back Beth continued laughing “You jerk!”

They laughed a bit longer before Beth gave a pleasant sigh “This is nice, It’s been a while since we’ve had a chance to just hang out.”

“Yeah since I started this new job, I’m lucky if I see daylight let alone any people I actually like…” Alan swirled the remnants of his drink in the can.

A slightly worried expression comes onto Beth's face “Do you get to see your friends at all?”

Alan responded with a light shrug, “We keep up via text and discord, but seeing each other in person? Nah, it’s been a hot minute. Can’t blame them though. After the tenth time I had to say no to hanging out, I would have stopped asking too. At least there’s Karaoke.”

Beth leaned back “Oh yeah, Lena mentioned you had a particularly good time last night.”

“Oh did she now? No surprise there, she had a lot to say about it…” Alan grumbled as he finished his drink.

“I mean I’ll be real with you, Alan Ward pulling a one-night stand? If anyone else had told me I’d thought they were lying. I mean after all a big portion of our conversation before-” She let the words hang “Well, it’s just new.

Alan looked over at Beth. Her expression was guarded and assessing. It was true when they had discussed why they couldn’t date, a big proponent had been his inability to have a simple fling. After all, sex was one thing, but if they had a long relationship that ended in a messy break up that would be more damaging to everyone involved.

He paused. Things WERE different now, he had more control. He thinks that was the difference. This safety net the power gave him, it allowed him to do things he hadn’t felt the ability to control. He never did hookups or flings because he could never predict how they would end up. That made him nervous. But now he had power, and he liked it.

He moved closer to Beth and he could hear her breath hitch, “Yeah, no I can’t tell you what it is but things are different now.” He looked her in the eye and sent a wave of eagerness toward her. “I’m different now, I’m not afraid anymore of things blowing up. More willing to take risks” He punctuated that last word with need, staring Beth down

She grinned and stumbled on her first word, her voice tinged with disbelief “S-Sure, like I’d believe that, you’re just winding me up. Like you always do.” She leaned in, putting her hands on the couch, her faces inches from his, her voice growing more confident “We play this game of chicken all the time, and it will be a cold day in hell when you- show- me- up” She accented those last few words, moving in closer with each one, eyes half-lidded.

Alan knew, normally this would be when he would back off, that they’d stumble back and laugh. But that was before. He lunged forward and gripped her head on either side and brought their lips together. He saw her eyes flare open in surprise, but it wasn’t long before her lips opened and their tongues met. After nearly a minute passed before they separated

A bit of saliva dribbled at the side of Alan’s Mouth as he smirked at Beth “Cold enough for you?”

“Oh you are a bastard, but you are not just teasing me with that Mr. Ward” Beth said before lunging back at him.