I stop in front of Jean's door. I take a deep breath and raise my hand to knock on the door. I can literally feel the sweat starting to bead. I'm not sure if I have the guts to do this. God, I sound like I'm 13 or something. For Christ's sake, Scott, you're 18 now. You're practically an adult, and if you can't knock on some girl's door, you're pathetic.
<Scott, you can just come in.>
Oh God. How much did she hear? This telepathy thing makes the whole situation much more awkward. Nonetheless, I open the door and walk in. Jean is making the bed.
"Couldn't you just do that in like one second with your mind if you wanted to?" I ask, trying to start some form of a conversation.
She smiles. It melts me, but I try to keep my composure. "Just because I have abilities doesn't mean I always have to use them," she reminds me. "What's up?"
I shrug, putting my hands in my pockets. "We've got a new student."
She doesn't respond. Instead, she focuses on fluffing her pillow.
"He's cool, I guess," I admit. "I didn't know if I'd like him at first, to be honest. But after talking to him, I see that he's not bad at all."
Jean steps back and examines her bed. After a second, she readjusts her pillow about a nanosecond. Once she's satisfied, she turns to me with her hand on her hip.
"Scott, besides the fact that I'm a telepath, I'm not stupid. You came here for something else," she responds.
Crap, she's caught me. Here, I'm just trying to make small talk to conceal my motives. Well, that didn't work too well at all.
"Oh...yeah," I reply, trying my best to pretend like I really did lose track, "Well, we're doing some repair work, and if you weren't busy, I was hoping you could help out."
She raises an eyebrow. She knows that's not all, but she's content to let me think I'm off the hook.
"Yeah, give me a second. I just want to finish cleaning up," she explains, her voice returning to a normal tone.
I nod sheepishly and bite my lip. With both hands in my pockets, I turn to leave.
<Scott, what's the worst that could happen if you just opened up?>
I look back over my shoulder. There's no better way to get someone's attention than to talk in their head.
"Who knows? You might get lucky," she says without looking at me. Is she implying...?
<What if I am?>
My knees start to buckle. This is hardly what I expected to happen. Not that I'm not pleasantly surprised...but the operative word is 'surprised.' I've never been all that lucky in that department, and I guess I just doubt myself when it comes to that kind of stuff.
"Look, Scott," Jean begins. Now she's turned to look me right in the eye. "Telepathy or no telepathy - it's obvious that you get butterflies in your stomach around me. At first, I thought it was just cute and flattering."
My heart sounds like a bass drum. I'm doing my best not to pass out right here in her room. Strange that I can stand up against the Brotherhood, but one read-headed girl gives me goosebumps.
"But the more I thought of it, the more I thought of you," she admits, moving closer to me. I just want to back down, but my feet are frozen in place. "And I realized that you weren't so bad yourself, Mr. Summers. I mean, I see how you take charge out in the field. Confidence is attractive, Scott." She has one hand on my chest. I'm sure she can feel my throbbing pulse. It's pretty embarrassing. "But the thing is, I don't see that kind of confidence in your personal life. You seem...shy around people. I just don't know if I can be with a guy who's so passive. I need a man, Scott."
In that instant, I know what I must do to prove myself to her. It will go against everything my brain is screaming at me to do, but I've got to man up and do it. And I have to do it without thought, lest I blow the surprise of it by having Jean hear me think it.
I grab Jean's head and pull her in swiftly for a kiss. The first few nanoseconds are the worst. That's the time when you don't know how she's going to react once the shock subsides. I just pray that I didn't blow it.
Then, I feel Jean move her hand, and I hear the door slam. Yahtzee!
Oh God...please tell me that she wasn't just in my head right then. Her giggling signifies that she did. We break the kiss as she starts to giggle harder.
<Was that so hard?>
Not at all. And the payoff was definitely worth it.
Jean pulls away and returns to her cleaning. "Like I said, I'll be down in a second," she states as if nothing extraordinary just happened. I can clearly see the smile on her face though.
For the time being, I'm untouchable. I feel like I could take on anything right now.
