[Derek] Pause

[DEREK EDWARD PARKER]

Derek crossed his arms when she asked about the door, "That's my brother's room, but he's probably sleeping."  He laughed a little when she commented on that too, "Yeah his sleep schedule is a littel off.  A combo od extreme jet lag and playing late gigs.  His brain thinks he's still on tour."  Derek shrugged, watching her knock on Dylan's door.  Dylan probably thought there was a fire or something.  Derek leaned against the bar, "His name's Dylan," just as Dyl was opening his door, shirtless and rubbing his eyes.  he looked like a gremlin.  Dylan greeted her with a 'sup' letting her pick a cheetoh out of his hair, "Oh hey whoa, I don't know how that got there."  Derek rolled his eyes, Dylan was such a moron sometimes.  "You're a friend of Derek's?"  He looked over at Derek and then back at Bobbie, "Like a friend with benefits?"  "No," Derek said, shaking his head like, dude shut up.  When Bobbie mentioned sharing her world with Derek, Dylan's eyebrows went right up into his hair line, "Are you both sure it's not friends with benefits."  Derek reached over and punched his brothers arm, who had come out of his room and picked up a bowl and proceeded to pack it.  Derek shook his head and looked at Bobbie, "Oh you really don't have to smoke if you're not into that."  But apparently she was into it today.  And so that was how Derek was seated around the coffee table with his older rocker brother and Bobbie Bryan, smoking a bowl and trying to show her not to burn herself.  It was just easier if Derek lit it for her, which he proceeded to do so she could take a hit.  She definitely had never done this before.  

[BOBBIE JACQUELINE BRYAN]

Bobbie held her breath in again, not because of the smell this time. But because she was genuinely wondering how the hell she had gotten to this point in her life. Why was she doing this? But she looked over her shoulder at the guy standing across from her. Yup. That was why. She didn’t need to smoke to be friends with him. But she did need to do it if she was going to let him know that she wasn’t going to judge him or ever throw it in his face, even if he thought she was trying to do it subconsciously. Because she did give Nick shade for it, she was constantly lecturing him. She didn’t want to lecture Derek, she wanted to help him. “ Oh does he have a lot of those?” she asked seriously with a slight tilt of her head towards Dylan when he questioned about them being friends with benefits. “ No, I actually have a boyfriend, so…” she said, shrugging her shoulder slightly as she sat down. Bobbie looked at Derek as he reaffirmed to her that she didn’t need to smoke. “I know,” she said, giving a nod before continuing, “ But …I want to understand you,” she said, thinking that was explanation enough. She watched his hands as they moved, trying to listen to everything he said. Jesus, she should’ve recommended baking it. But she did as she was told, doing her best to hold it in, coughing a few times and almost losing all of the smoke while trying to keep it in a little longer each time Dylan told her not to exhale yet. Holy hell this burned. So that continued for a while, trying to get used to it. She thought a little while later she had finally figured out how to inhale it without choking. But each time she went to exhale, Derek had such a cute little look on his face that it just made her smile, or laugh. But it was just because his face was so cute. “Stop…” she said, holding her hands up. “ This is clearly not working for me,” she said, while covering the smile on her face with her hand, keeping her other hand tightened against Derek’s arm. “ Did I….or did I not hear your mother say she was making tacos for dinner….because I need oreos” she said, trying to cover her laugh as she moved closer to his side. “ I don’t know why you guys waste your money on this. It doesn’t even do anything…” she said, tapping her nose before she pointed at Dylan like she was making some philosophical point. "Oh my god," she said, looking at her hand that was still on Derek's arm, " So much more muscle than I thought..." she said, keeping her hand gripped against him.

[DEREK EDWARD PARKER]

Derek held the bowl for Bobbie, lighting the hit and held the carb until the chamber was full. It was kind of strange, growing up with Dylan and Drew, how normal this was for him, like second nature, and even stranger to think some people had no place for this shit in their life. Which was cool, he figured, the longer you went without ever having done it, the better off you probably were. Although he sort of felt like he was corrupting her a little bit, because she seemed… fairly straight laced. Derek held his hands up when she told him to stop, “I’m not doing anything,” he smiled slightly, hearing her say it wasn’t doing anything. Derek took the bowl back, taking a hit, adding, “It will.” She probably wouldn’t even realize when it hit her. “Yeah, you’re talking about food. You’re high.” He laughed, sitting back against the couch. Derek just looked at her as she leaned into his side, Dylan looking at him pointedly, “Uh huh. Not doing anything.” Derek just shook his head at her comment about his arms, not even sure how to respond, “Yeah, they’re… arms,” he said lazily, feeling instantly chill. Dylan looked so smug over there watching them, Derek was glad when his phone rang and his brother got up to answer it, “Oh hey babe,” and went to his room and shut the door. Some chick. Derek looked back at Bobbie, “Bet you weren’t expecting this when you woke up today.”

[BOBBIE JACQUELINE BRYAN]

“ No,” she said with a lift of her eyebrows. This was definitely not what she had expected when she woke up today. She honestly never expected to have a full on conversation with him, let alone be in his basement. She never expected to like the way his skin felt beneath her fingertips. She never expected to find it completely adorable that he was obsessed with all different types of movies. Bobbie looked up at him, though never reaching his eyes as her own hovered over his lips, taking in almost every detail of how tempting they looked. Bobbie looked down, pulling her hand away from him instantaneously as she stood up. Bobbie placed her hand on his shoulder to steady herself as she moved past him, gathering her hair together at the base of her neck and putting it into a ponytail. “ I have to sleep here,” she said, thinking for a moment before she gave a nod of finality. She looked over her shoulder to make sure Dylan had left before she started to take off her jeans and shirt, looking around the room. “ Wait where’s your dresser?” she asked out of confusion. He was saying words or something, but it seemed like it was upstairs. ‘ Wait,’ she said not wanting to seem indecent. Bobbie moved her way towards Dylan’s room, trying to find something, anything, that didn’t have some sort of spill or stain on it. She placed on a pair of his sweats and her former t-shirt before looking at Derek. “ Lead the way,” she said, giving him a small smile as she held her hand out to hold onto the wall beside her. She felt smiley, that was weird. But she just wanted to smile. And a cupcake. Bobbie waited a moment before following him upstairs to go to his room, which upon stepping inside, she realized was a lot more cleaned up. “ Oh,” she said, going towards his closet instantly to find something more suitable to wear.

[DEREK EDWARD PARKER]

Sleep here?  Well, okay, Derek's parents were.... really open.  Hell, Derek's mom had smoked pot with them before.  He knew not everyone's parents were so chill about it, so he was guessing that Bobbie couldn't go home high and smelling like his basement.  "Yeah, sure... I mean.  Stay as long as you want."  He blinked a few times, standing up because she had, feeling funny from the weed and a little bit curious every time she looked at him like he was this, confusing new thing.  And why the hell was she taking her clothes off, was she that high?  "Hey, Bobbie, we haven't even had dinner yet..."  Derek said scratching his head, "My dresser is upstairs in my room..."  He looked around, anywhere, trying to find something she could put on, trying not to look at her half undressed.  She found something of Dylan's near his door, because obviously he thought the entire basement was his room, dumping things everywhere.  When she said lead the way, Derek nodded gratefully, "Yeah you don't want to wear those for very long," he added, leading the way upstairs, all the way up the back stairs in the kitchen where luckily his mom had temporarily abandoned while she set the table in the dining room.  Derek went to his room, flipping on the light, knowing the air up here was so much cleaner.  He went to his closet, pulling a clean pair of sweats from the shelf and tossed them to her, and then turned away.  They really had a bad habit of putting themselves in compromising situations.  He glanced over the pictures on his desk, ones of himself and Drew, Dylan in a few as well.  Derek never wanted to be that person that ignored it, nor did he want to forget him.  He wanted to look at pictures.  When he figured she was done changing he turned around, motioning to his desk top apple monitor and a few various film stuff.  "I've been working on some video stuff.  Music's first but one day I want to do this too."  Derek shrugged, sitting in the desk chair and watched her.  

[BOBBIE JACQUELINE BRYAN]

Bobbie changed in his closet, already feeling more comfortable in his clothes than she did in Dylan’s. When she stepped back into his room she traced her fingertips against his comforter. Textures were so weird right now. She smiled as he started to open up a little more to her. As foggy as her mind might be, she could still recognize when he was being a little more open. She laughed quietly to herself. Who named a computer apple? A hungry person. That was who. Which is what she was. “I wanna see,”she said, moving towards him. She had shown him her world, surely he had some of these videos already put together on his computer. If he loved it this much , it had to be a hobby, right? “ You can make a video of me,” she said, putting her hand on her hip in a faux dramatic pose. “ Or maybe role reversal, I make one of you,” she said, opening one of the cameras that looked a lot like the ones that her father owned and never used. She smiled, pushing the button to record as she came to sit in his lap, turning it so that they were both in the frame. “Wow you look terrible,” she teased. “ Video diary… day one in the friendship of the diva and the greaser” she said, wiggling her eyebrows up and down slightly, before looking over her shoulder to look at him. “ Day two’s existence, yet to be determined,” she said jokingly, narrowing her eyes at him in the most playful way she could. She stared at him for a moment before smiling, " You're really cute," she said, laughing quietly to herself. " I mean we're friends so we cant date. But if I was single," she said, giving a low whistle. " We would have to put pause on our friendship a lot... to not be friends," she said before smiling again.

[DEREK EDWARD PARKER]

Derek clicked through some files, looking for something he could show her that he'd been working on.  Her motioned her over, pulling up a few clips, hearing her say he could make a video of her.  "I could," he agreed, and laughed a bit when she said or she could make one of him, "Oh? And what kind of filming experience do you have?" he joked.  Derek moved his arms so she could sit on his lap, looking pointedly at the camera and shook his head, disappearing half way out of the frame.  "Thanks so much," he muttered, smiling a bit, and opened a specific video file.  Derek laughed out loud when she said day two's existence was yet to be determined, smiling broadly and leaned back into the frame, "Updates to follow." Derek turned to look at her, listening to her talk about how if she was single and how they'd have to pause their friendship, "Oh really?  Just pause it?"  Derek looked away, taking the camera from her hands, "I think I'm in trouble," he joked, turning it off.  "Okay," he said, shifting in the chair so they could both see the monitor well, "This is something recent I made last semester for my film production class.  I had to write a script, direct it, put it together, all that.  I mean, it's nothing too serious, just a school project."  Derek started the video, turning the speakers back up so they could hear, waiting while she watched.  Maybe she'd think it was stupid.  It was just a school project after all.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmq321zjkvs

[BOBBIE JACQUELINE BRYAN]

Bobbie narrowed her eyes at him as he shut the camera off and brought their attention to the computer. “ No fucking popcorn?” she asked quietly as she nestled back against his body and watched the screen. She became quiet as she watched the screen, smiling at what was happening and how it was all playing out. Though being high, for the first time, she wanted to watch it again so she didn’t forget it. Bobbie leaned forward, clicking the button so that it would start over before resuming her place back against his body. Have you ever had your heart speed up and slow down at the same time? Because for the first time ever, that was happening to Bobbie. She felt this immense sense of pride for Derek over the video. He was so young, yet so talented. And to write something so beautiful at their age… it definitely tugged at her heart to know the talent and character he had. Bobbie stayed quiet, pushing her hair behind her ear before she looked back at him, smiling slowly. ”I think I’m the one in trouble,” she said before looking down, placing her hands on the armrest and stood up. “That was beautiful, Derek,” she said, moving across the room so that she wasn’t too close to him. Too close right now would equal bad decisions. In fact being in the room alone with him right now might be bad. Because all she wanted to do was touch him. And that was weird. And wrong. And not what their severely new friendship was about. “Uh…tacos” she said, before turning and walking straight into the door. “ Oh my god!” she yelled out, grabbing the top of her head where she had hit it before opening the door and stepping out.

[DEREK EDWARD PARKER]

Derek shrugged when she said she was the one in trouble. “Nooo.” Bobbie stood up, complimenting his work, “Thanks. I get pretty into it,” he said, biting his lip and stood up, hands in his pockets. He was showing her a lot more than he thought he would when she dragged him out of school. Okay, maybe didn’t drag him. He’d skip willingly any day. “Right, tacos. Those do sound really good…” Yeah they did. Damn munchies. Bobbie had turned to go, walking directly into his door, Derek cringing a bit, “Ooh, yeah, you gotta open the door to go through it,” he said, walking over and followed her out. Right on cue he could hear his mom calling them down for dinner through the intercom, and shook his head when she added to Dylan that he put on a shirt. Derek followed her down the stairs and sat at the dining room table, motioning that Bobbie could sit beside him. Derek put the plate of shells between them, taking multiple and looked around when Dylan joined them from down stairs. “There’s everybody,” his mom smiled, taking her seat herself and waited for everything to be passed around, “Hope you kids are hungry,” she added, smirking a bit. Well, at least she wasn’t in denial. Derek’s dad was away on business for another two days, and…”Wait, mom where’s Dani?” “Oh!” she said, scooping sour cream onto her plate, “Dani is at a play date with one of the little girls in her class. I’m picking her up after dinner.” “Oh. Well, that’s good she’s making friends,” Derek said. His kid sister was better at it than he was. “Dani could make friends with anything,” Dylan laughed. “So Bobbie,” their mom said, looking at her, “Have you lived in Cleveland your whole life?”

[BOBBIE JACQUELINE BRYAN]

Bobbie kept her hand on the side of her head as she walked into the kitchen. Except it didn’t really hurt. She just knew she hit it. “ Holy shit,” she said at the display of basically a taco buffet. Ugh, her manners. Bobbie looked at Derek’s mom, “ I’m sorry, I meant holy shit” she said, trying to correct herself. Nailed it. Bobbie looked over at Derek, moving to sit by him before she crossed her legs indian style in the seat. “ Tortilla shells are basically edible taco meat backpacks” she said, looking at Derek. She nodded, before going to put the rest of the toppings on it. She looked up, realizing that someone was talking to her, focusing back on his mom. “ Um…” she thought, contorting her face into one of extreme thinking , closing her eyes tightly. Finally she opened them and gave a nod of finality. “ So far, yes” she said, taking a big bite of the taco. That was cute that he had a little sister. She should meet her sometime when she wasn’t so… hungry. Or high. Or both. Derek was busy eating his taco, so he wouldn’t hear her as she looked at his mother, basically yelling in a whisper tone, “ If I wasn’t dating someone…” she said, giving a thumbs up, looking at Dylan. “ I mean, Dere-bear is super hot. And grungy but not like… you, gross, grungy. He’s sexy grungy” she said before turning to pat Derek on the head. She gasped quickly, putting both of her hands over Derek’s ears. ” Wait don’t tell him I said that, he’s my project,” she said, moving her ears away from Derek’s ears and winking at Dylan. Nailed it again, cause Derek probably didn’t even notice.

[DEREK EDWARD PARKER]

Derek took a big bite of his taco, glad that this was about as normal as dinners went around here. So if Derek brought a high friend to the table, no one thought it was weird. Because his mom was a good sport. Like she was being now, talking to Bobbie about living here. Derek stopped chewing, listening to Bobbie talk about him, thinking, hey, I’m sitting here, I can here you. But apparently she didn’t think he could. Telling his mom and Dylan all about how he was ‘sexy grungy’ and how if she wasn’t already seeing someone… Derek turned to look at her as she tried to cover his ears, mouth full of taco like, YEAH HI, I can hear you. He just shook his head and kept eating. His mom scooped some food off her plate with a fork, “Well that’s nice, I’m sure you can show Derek around town then. We lived in Miami, I’m sure he told you,” she smiled. “Yeah she knows,” Derek added, looking at her pointedly. Bobbie didn’t need to hear the whole story of how they ended up here. His dad got a promotion, end of story. Lots of people parents did, causing the family to have to move across the country. It happens. “Mom, is it cool if Bobbie stays over, so she doesn’t have to go home…?” he asked, hoping his mom got the hint. “Oh!, Well sure, Bobbie, stay as long as you like. You can sleep in the guest room if you’d like, or… with Derek I guess, just as long as you both keep it PG,” she said, more toward Derek with a stern look. Dylan snorted a laugh, and Derek kicked him under the table. “I know we’re a little… chill around here as you kids might say. A little more than other parents,” she offered an understanding smile, and then continued eating.

[BOBBIE JACQUELINE BRYAN]

“ Our couch came from Miami. I want to lay on that all the time, too” she said, basically talking to her taco before she took a bite. She was super glad that she spoke quietly like a ninja. Bobbie lift her eyebrows to look at his mom as he questioned if she could stay the night. It was her childhood all over again. When she said yes, Bobbie tilt her head back, “ Yes!” she said with a slight fist raise. “We’re going to do so many activities,” she said, smacking her hand on Derek’s leg. “ Keep it PG” she echoed, nodding as she put together another taco. Seriously, she was never this hungry. “Seriously though Mrs. Parker.. these tacos are bomb.” she said, making a slight face at herself. Bomb. Who said bomb? “ Don’t worry about us. I’m like…. Super awesome” she said before she started laughing and covering her mouth. “ What I mean by that is that I’m …I’m really cool. And awesome.I have a lot going for me. So even if he didn’t want to keep it PG… I mean your sons could knock up worse. And.. “ she said, lifting one of her hands away from the taco to point as she spoke. “ I have really nice hair. I mean… really nice. I’m crazy blessed,” she said, nodding. “ But I have to have this taco recipe. Like yesterday.” Bobbie made a slight face at herself before reaching her hand out to touch her arm. ”I feel like I can just talk to you…”.

[DEREK EDWARD PARKER]

Even though Derek knew his mom wouldn’t mind Bobbie staying over, and knew they wouldn’t be getting into any trouble, he at least knew it was nice to ask. He didn’t, however, think it was necessary to continue the topic of non PG activities, so while Bobbie talk about him knocking her up, Derek was choking down his taco and Dylan was just sitting in his chair laughing. No, they would not be pausing their friendship tonight. No matter how tempting a child with nice hair was. Derek cleared his throat, “You should just eat your taco.” At least now she seemed to be talking about getting the recipe and telling his mom that she could just talk to her about anything. Well that was great. Wonderful. All the things he didn’t mention to his mom about his personal life, Bobbie could just tell her. In his fuzzy head he wasn’t sure how he felt about that, somewhere in there he thought it could be either good or bad. He wanted his mom to like Bobbie…. But then whoa, don’t talk to my mom about my sex life. But he shouldn’t have to worry about that, because Bobbie made it known there would be none of that. Even if she continuously went against her own statements. Derek’s mom smiled brightly, taking Bobbie’s hand, “Oh honey, you can talk to me whenever you like, I’ll have to give you my cell number.” Seriously? Derek stayed quiet for the rest of the meal, letting them chat it up and finished his tacos, clearing everyone’s plates. Derek looked over at Bobbie, “We could watch a movie down stairs,” he suggested, shrugging. “You boys should really crack a window down there, air it out. I’ll be back, I’m gonna go get Dani.” Well good. They could watch a movie in peace without his mom embarrassing him or something.

[BOBBIE JACQUELINE BRYAN]

Bobbie frowned when Derek cleared his throat, making it clear that she needed to stop talking about whatever she was talking about. She watched him for a few moments before looking away from him, pushing her hair behind her ear and slightly moving in her chair away from him. Bobbie gave a small smile at his mom, nodding as she said that she would give her, her cell number. “ Thanks,” she said quietly, making sure to keep her mouth shut for the remainder of the meal. Bobbie got up from the table, clearing her own dish and making sure it was put away, making sure to keep quiet. She gave another nod at Derek as he said that they could watch a movie. She still hadn’t gotten her Oreos, and as delicious as they sounded, she almost just wanted to go home now. Bobbie moved away from Derek, going back downstairs to where her purse was. She had a habit of keeping a toothbrush with her. Besides, it would give her at least a moment to be by herself and collect her thoughts. Bobbie leaned against the sink, brushing her teeth slowly as she tried to figure out what was going on in her mind. Maybe he thought she was spoiled and entitled after all. Maybe she was wasting time trying to open up to him. Bobbie pulled her hair to the side of her shoulder before rinsing her mouth out. Once she finished she came out into the basement, moving past Derek again before smiling at Dylan. “ You can help me pick a movie,” she said, going over to the collection.

[DEREK EDWARD PARKER]

Well, great. He was bound to ruin things eventually, so he shouldn’t have been so surprised when she just iced him out for the remainder of dinner. And after that when she retreated to the bathroom. And after that when she when to pick out a movie with his brother, who Derek knew really could care less because there was a good chance he was gonna go out anyways. Derek took the opportunity to go upstairs and get snacks and grabbed a couple of water bottles before setting all of it on the counter and then went upstairs to put sweats on. Derek tossed his jeans in the hamper, pulling on a pair of sweat pants, peeling his shirt off and flipped his light off, going back downstairs. As he came into the kitchen to grab the snacks he heard his mom come in, keys being dropped on the entryway table and little shoes being kicked off. Dani walked into the kitchen with a picture torn out of a coloring book, jumping for a magnet that was just almost out of her reach on the fridge. “Well hey,” Derek said, looking at her expectantly, “Not gonna even say hi?” “Look at my picture,” she said, pointing to it. It was a picture of a kitten wearing a tutu. It looked like every other picture she’d ever put on their fridge, but Derek still smiled, “Oh wow, Dani, that is beautiful, a work of art.” “Dani, sweetie, say goodnight and go get your jammies on, I’ll be right up to tuck you in,” Derek’s mom said putting a few things in the kitchen away. Dani walked over to hug him, Derek picking her up and hugged her and gave her a kiss, “Night,” “Night,” she said back whimsically before squirming out of his arms, rubbing her eyes tiredly and went upstairs. After she’d gone, his mom mentioned, “So dinner got pretty quiet there.” “yeah.” “Derek, honey. I know you don’t normally talk about that stuff, but she means well. I think she likes you an awful lot.” “Well she’s got a boyfriend, so.” She shrugged, “So? Every good relationship starts from a friendship. Be nice to her, let her in. You can’t push people away forever.” Derek stood there, thinking about it. She was probably right. “You like her?” “Does it matter?” “Do you?” Derek shrugged, “Yeah, it's stupid to lie and say i don't.  It’s really hard not to. She’d pretty awesome.” He nodded decisively and then took the snacks downstairs. Derek sat down on the couch next to her, no too close though that might piss her off, but close enough so she knew he didn’t think she was repulsive or anything, because she wasn’t at all. He set the Oreos between them and opened his water, “What are we watching?”