Mr. Average

Sittin' in A Tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.

It was Saturday, around noon, when my phone rang. A grin burst into my face and I raced across my room to snap it off the charger. I hit the answer button and held it up to my ear, "Can't stand a day without me, huh?"

"Excuse you?"

I deflated, "Oh, hey, Victoria. I was expecting Scott."

"Well, nice to see you too, you ass."

"MAMA MIA!!!" Screeched another voice on the line.

"Who's that?" I asked, sitting on my bed.

Vic sighed, "It's Jolly, she just found out she's Italian. Remind me never to show anyone my Ancestry account when they sleep over at my house, again."

"Will do, but Vic, you have an Ancestry account? I didn't know you were a middle-aged white man! Why on Earth didn't you tell me?" I demanded.

"Ha ha, very funny," Victoria grunted.

"OI!! WHAT A SPICY MEAT-A-BO-ALL!"

"I'm shocked you haven't kicked her out yet," I said, shifting my position on my bed. "Points for you, Vic."

"You're jumping around the point," Vic accused, "Spill about the date already!!"

I flushed, falling back into my bed. "The date... It was... perfect."

I heard a happy squee from Jolly; it could've been Victoria-- but let's get real, here.

"Well, don't just leave us at that!" Victoria protested.

I sighed, hesitant. "It's really soppy, I..."

"Excuses!" Victoria sputtered, "Tell us everything."

I sighed again, inwardly, before caving and launching into the story. The drive, the movie, the explosively amazing kiss, the cuddling... and the Adonis.

"He... what?!" Vic spat.

I sighed, "Yeah, Adonis was there."

Vic stammered, "Did he see Scott?"

"Yeah, but they didn't talk. I think he just saw him walk me up. I didn't even notice that he was here until he spoke to me in my room." I chuckled suddenly, "Lydia saw him, though. Mid-kiss, to be specific. She thought he was eating me."

Jolly laughed, "Buon Dio!"

"What did Adonis say?" Asked Vic.

I groaned, "He asked me who Scott was and I told him that we would never have worked out, and he told me to 'save it' and he stalked off."

"To where?"

I rolled over in my bed, "Finn's room."

"Finn forgave him that fast?" Vic sounded incredulous, "He's up to something."

"Yeah," I said, clawing my fingers into my hair. "Not to mention that he was there as soon as my date was finished, and Finn knew I was going on a date."

"Do you think he's going to attack again?"

I sat up, hanging my head. "I hope not. What he's doing is really immature."

"Yep," Vic said, I could imagine her shrugging. "Whoops, got-go, Kassi's calling?"

"What happened to bro's before hoes?!" I demanded when the line dropped with a beep. I sighed as I put my phone on my desk.

As soon as I set it down, it buzzed again. I looked up at the screen, Scott.

A grin persisted on my face, and I dragged my thumb along the screen and brought it up to my ear. "Hello, you have reached the number of your local w***e house, Blow Me Baby, for more information about Blow Me Baby, press one, for an erotic chat, press two--"

"I would like to request a prostitute by the name of 'Tully, Joel'?"

I laughed an ugly laugh, the type of laugh when the person who told it was so perfect that the joke was so funny, and you think 'Who else?' and the whole situation is so perfect that it sounds like two horses mating a baby horse.

I recovered myself, "Douche!" Before erupting into the chortles again.

Scott laughed too, "Joel, your laugh is unacceptably cute, and I called you a w***e. This is spectacular."

You're spectacular, I wanted to say, but didn't want to sound too cheesy.

We sat there for a few moments, I could practically feel his smile radiating through the phone receiver. "I want to take you on another date," he admitted.

My smile grew, "Jeez, needy much?"

He laughed again, "No, I just discovered a very indie cafe, and I want to take you to it."

I smiled, wanting to melt into him again like we did last night. I wondered if that would be a possibility again, I wanted to feel his breath tangling with mine, holding our waists together as if I was a floatie, and he was drowning. I yearned for that utter definition of 'perfect' again.

I laughed against the phone, lost in a river of memories that now seemed age-old, I guess that happens when you think about something so much. Like a song that you listen to, and after a while you can trace through the lyrics and make it something that just happens, like listening to it is a habit that you can't shake.

"What's it called?" I said, finally breaking the silence.

"It's called A Tree."

"Odd name," I muttered.

"Yeah, but their tea is really herbal and stuff, so I guess it makes sense."

I sighed, glancing at the time. "They better have really good coffee."

Scott laughed, gravelly as usual, "You're really obsessed with coffee."

I snorted, "Duh... And, I'm rather picky-- Don't let me be disappointed."

"Are you saying yes?"

I grinned again, "Yeah."

"Good. Because I'm at your front door."

A startled gasp fell out of my mouth, followed by a nervous laugh, "Let me get dressed first, you dweeb!"

_~_~_

The car ride wasn't nearly as awkward as it was before the first date, all of the tension was blown away as soon as we opened the door to go into the theater.

Before he started the engine, I leaned over and dropped a kiss on is cheek.

"Y'know, if you do that while I'm driving, I'll probably crash." He warned.

I kissed his cheek again, "I'll take that risk."

Throughout the drive, we were talking and playing music, and laughing until we were hoarse. This was now the normal, a normal that I was sometimes used to, but sometimes I still needed to adapt to the fact that Scott was mine, despite how amazing it is.

A Tree was roundish in shape, make with real bark surrounding it, plastic leaves on the angular roof, and a tinted metal on the inside.

"Man, the architect really went all out on this place," I said as we walked in.

Scott shrugged, grazing the interior metal with the back of his hand, "That they did. Check out the seats, though."

I glanced at the tables. The tables were shaped like upside down trees, with the stumpy bottom as the face of the table. The seats were spiral shaped, sort of an 'X' shape, but with a flattened plastic seat on top, labeled 'A Tree'.

"Wow, this is actually really cool," I murmured, meeting the eyes of a stiff waitress, with thick hair and a plastered on porcelain smile, surrounded by her red-painted lips.

"Hello, and welcome to A Tree, I will be your server. My name is Cindy. Please, sit."

I gave a half smile back to her, "Thank you," and let Scott take my hand and guide me to a seat neighboring a window.

I glared out of it, sizing up the scattered buildings and cars, and back at Scott, who was glaring back at me.

"Stalker," I whispered to him.

A grin spread on his face again, and he hid it with his curled index finger. I yearned to kiss him again, but the threat of making a scene pulled me away from it.

I glared into his chocolate eyes, which was as necessary as walking a dog in the morning now.

He caught me looking and mirrored the look back into mine, his hand extending back to mine. "Your hands are really warm."

"So are yours."

Scott chuckled, "Shut up, I need an excuse."

I breathy laughed, "You don't need an excuse."

"Good," he said with a grateful squeeze of my hand.

"Are we ready to order?" Came Cindy's overly enthusiastic voice.

I looked up at her, "Vanilla mocha please, 2% milk."

"Okay," Cindy said, scribbling on her notebook. "And for the other brother?"

Scott and I looked at each other, with the unspoken realization: everyone thinks that we're brothers. Scott's eyes flashed to out hands, still holding each other, his thumb roaming over my knuckles. And yet these people still couldn't get a clue.

Scott chuckled silently, looking down at the table. "Oolong tea, please. With lemon and honey, if it's not too much to ask."

Cindy eyes him wearily, before scribbling it down with a passive aggressive "Hmm...."

"Okay!" Cindy said suddenly, snapping her notebook closed. "Will that be all."

Scott's eyes fell to me again, and I answered him with a smirk and a nod. "Yes, thank you, Cindy."

"Not a problem," Cindy murmured, half under her breath as she clicked away.

He looked back at me and back to our hands. "Do you crack your knuckles a lot?"

I snickered-- almost silently, "Yeah. How'd you guess?"

Scott shrugged and brought them up to his lips and kissed them softly. "They're really swollen."

I buried my face in my shoulder, laughing against it. "You're so typical."

He made an exaggerated face of pain, clutching his chest as if I'd shot him. "Good Lord, Joel, words hurt!"

I plucked out a packet of Splenda and tossed it at him, and it hit his nose, but he just laughed.

A few moments later, the coffee and tea came, and we sipped it, rarely taking our eyes off each other.

I took a gulp of my mocha, there was a slight burn when it hit my tongue, but it wasn't nearly enough for any harm. I looked at Scott's lips as the cup of his Oolong tea hit his pink, terribly soft lips. He sipped it gratefully. Suddenly, I didn't care about causing a scene.

I fell under the table and crawled out on the other side, and immediately dropped a hungry kiss to his cheek. He turned and pressed his lips to mine, tilting his head to be at a better angle. Our tongues explored the others, I felt his hands steady me on my waist. Our lips were like the opposite ends of magnets. We pressed against each other in the small seat of the booth and he held me, and the feeling of his hands on my back was like two pieces in a puzzle, no other hands would fit there like Scott's did.

As we reluctantly pulled away when Cindy tiredly cleared her throat, I realized what I didn't know I was wondering ever since I met Scott. I loved him. I had always known I loved him in a teenage romance sort of way, but in A Tree, I realized truly that I loved him more than a silly teenager, I loved him with all my heart, with all of my brain, even the parts that I could not and would not ever use. I loved him every time I tasted air, every time I drank coffee, every time I was in his general vicinity I achingly loved him with every hair on my head and every bone in my body. I didn't love him with a frail childish love, I loved him with a love so rare and unique that it could only be ours.

I looked at him with doe eyes, and rested my head on his chest. He asked for the check and kissed my head. "I love you."

He glanced at me, he heard the words, but he heard how much effort and how many words that could never be outspoken were put in behind it.

He said it with the same unspoken words, "I love you, too."

I cuddled into him, so comfortable that I could've fallen asleep, right there in that little cafe.