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Megan had been helping her mom around the house when she had received a call from Seth, asking to meet him somewhere so they could talk.  She had not see Seth since Thursday, right before she had gone to find Kel and Dallas in that compromising situation.  He sounded somewhat odd, and she felt badly as she went to a coffee shop to meet him.  After the last few days, and particularly last night, she had felt she should talk to him about Homecoming, and how she did not feel it was best for her to go with him anymore.  She reached the coffee shop and made her way inside.

As Megan arrived, Seth felt his stomach clench a little bit.

He'd been thinking about this alot. And he had decided to do the gentlemanly thing,  so why was his stomach giving him fits now? It didn't seem fair.

Seth knew he was cute, intelligent, funny when he didn't try too hard, and that he was an exceptionally gifted musician. So "just friends". Seth was beginning to feel as if he wasn't g....He decided not to finish that thought. If Megan was interested in someone else, it wasn't exactly his fault. Right?

It wasn't exactly her fault either.

He raised his hand to waive her over. She spotted him quickly (ha!), and began to make her way over to the table.

Seth felt his stomach clench again.

Megan made her way over towards Seth when he waved to her.  “Hey Seth.”  She said with a smile, brushing back her hair as she came over to sit down.  “Was a bit surprised to hear from you this morning.”  She hated what she was planning to tell him, but knew it was really best for them all, but could not help but feel it was more for her.

She sat down...and then the stomach clenching went away. She brushed her hair out of her face and Seth began to feel funny in that way that only teen aged boys can when they are nervous in front of their crushes. (OOC-keep your minds out of the gutter)

And then the clench came back. He opened his mouth to speak, and then the coffee maid/waitress came by, and he was safe. Even if it were just for a few moments.

"Can ay get you two aneythang" she said in a polished southern accent that clearly identified her as a college student here from the south.

"Can I get a cup of the Savannah tea and one of your tuna salad sandwiches and then two of your biscotti chip cookie things" Seth asked plaintively

He looked at Megan before the waitress could. In a hushed voice "Order something please. Whatever you want. It's on me. Just do me that favor.He added quickly :Unless you're not hungry or something. "

He opened the menu unnecessarily and kinda browsed it without looking at it.

Megan looked up at the waitress that came over as she replied.  “I’ll just have a mocha.”  She said, looking over at Seth as the waitress left, speaking in a low voice.  “Haven’t seen you since Thursday, these last few days have been really busy.  We found the girl behind the arsons yesterday, Colin helped her, hopefully she will be okay.”

She then paused, and looked down feeling a bit badly, making herself look back up at Seth she spoke a bit louder.  “I had planned on talking to you soon Seth…about Homecoming.”

As the waitress disappeared behind the counter, Seth turned to Megan and said "I know" perhaps a little too forcefully, at least in his own mind.  It was probably fine

Actually, I called and asked you here because I wanted to talk to you about homecoming.

We can talk about all the other craziness in a little bit. But I have something I want to say. And I've gone over it and over it in my head. I probably won't get through it all, unless I can have time to make points and rephrase thing's I've said, and I don't know, take a little bit of time. So can I go first, and Can I just talk for awhile until I say I'm done.

That would be really helpful.

And then he looked at her waiting, for a nod, or a word or something. Girls were really hard to read sometimes. He tilted his head so his hair would fall down in his face. Only it didn't cause he had fixed it up with gel so that it wouldn't look bad. Now he had nothing to hide behind.

Megan looked at Seth a moment, hoping this was not going to be too hard.  She did not want to make this unpleasant for either of them.  She nodded in response to his request to want to talk first.  “Okay.”

Okay he replied earnestly. And the air and mood were quiet for a moment. Still.

"I've been keeping a low profile the last couple of days, cause there has been a lot going on with Mr. Fortune and my parents and this song I'm working on and yeah. I've been hiding out in the bandroom, but school news travels even there. Especially juicy school news about the school's A-list.

Look. I asked you to Homecoming for a variety of reasons. I really do like you Megan. Your attractive, yeah. So are plenty of other girls. Your sharp and witty, so are a few other girls" awkward laugh

"But you have that other quality about you. People watch you. Not in a creepy way. But there is just this aire of substance to you. I don't know. You are a good person. And everyone who gets to know you sees it. Good people are in short supply.

That's why I asked you out. And you said yes.. But as just friends. And I was frankly ok with that, because I wasn't....Ahhh...That doesn't make all the sense. Ummm. I was ok with it, because i had this idea, that i would show you a hell of a time at homecoming and then you might not want to be "just friends" with me. Because I think I could be really happy dating someone like you.

But that wasn't fair to you. Secret teenage boy plans. Two people have to have a will to date. And for me to all Chivalry it up and woo you is kinda a little dated and not fair to you. If that was something you wanted you wouldn't have put the clarifier on your acceptance."

He takes a breath and settles back in his seat.

"Enter John. Enter all the gossip about you and John. I didn't really want to believe it. Cause I had my own stupid little designs.
But, and you can't tell anyone: I was at the Football game. I saw everything that happened.  And i watched you two flirting and it seemed genuine and cutesy, and exactly what would be, you know, expected of kids our age who are getting along together pretty well.

I kinda wanted to be mad at him. But I don't really have any claim over you. Claim isn't the right word.... I mean to say we aren't dating. There's been no real flirtation. And then I realized I can't be mad at him. Because if you are those things i said about you before, any boy would be an idiot not to be interested in you. So I can't fault him for that.

Then i wanted to be vengeful or stupid or something, and just hold you to the fact that you agreed to go with me. But then i thought for all of say a minute, and just realized that would make me about the biggest jerk in the world.

So I am gracefully, or maybe not so gracefully, stepping out. I don't want to cause any friction. I don't want to be a jerk. I hope not to be those things, so maybe i should act on them you know.

Megan, you should take who you want to homecoming. And if you want to take John, you should take John.

The reason i've said all of this, and been so completely, probably unnecessarily honest is because, in all this pontificating, i realized, I still want to hang out with you, and be friends with you. Because you are all of those i said earlier, if not more. And you said it. Just friends. I think I can handle it. But not if all of what i just said hung over our heads.

Maybe I'm reading way to much into it. But I just want to be honest and open, because if we are friends i want it to be based on trust and something real.

I have a present for you. And then I'm done talking.

Seth takes an envelope out of his jacket pocket and slides it across the table. You recognize it as two homecoming tickets in the little decorative envelope they sold them in.

I bought them when I was being all sneaky romantic. Take them.

I'm done talking now.

And then the waitress was back with the food. Awkward moment of silence, then she was gone, and their were drinks and food and silence.

Megan listened quietly as Seth spoke, explaining his reasons for wanting to take her to Homecoming, finding his reasons flattering to say the least.  She could tell what he was doing was not the easiest for him, and respected him for what he was doing.  When he mentioned being open and honest, she could not help but smile, given John had said the same things when he had told her about his powers on Thursday.

Looking down at the tickets when Seth put them down, she waited till the waitress had left, and put a hand on his.  “Seth, I, well, first I want to thank you, though don’t you think you might need these?  There are sure to be plenty of girls out there that would love to go to Homecoming with you, and well they should.  It is a rare guy that would act so mature about something like this, particularly at our age.”

“I should likely be the one to apologize Seth, when you asked me to Homecoming, I had set my mind to trying out dating a number of different guys, sort of a, see-what’s-out-there sort of thing, not let anything get too serious.  I don’t know if I can really say why that changed after I met John, there are lots of reasons really.  When I first met him, and he took me out to coffee, though he seemed interested in me, I had not really changed my mind, at first just putting him on the list of guys to go on a date with.  But the more I was around him, the more that changed.”

“You should not feel badly about wanting to woo me Seth, lots of girls would love to have a guy want to do that for them, to make them feel special.  Part of me would like that, but overall, I don’t think it is quite who I am.”

“I would very much like to stay friends Seth, not may of our peers can fully understand what is going on with all of us, so sticking together is important I think.  John is one of us as well, so he will be around a lot, I hope that won’t be uncomfortable for you?”

"Thank you" He said in response to her flattery.


I agree...And yeah. Lets be adults about this....As for John being around alot. It will probably be uncomfortable. But then I'll get over it. And i'm not even that competitive of a person, so you don't have to worry about a lot of jealous one-upsmanship or anything.  I'm only competitive with myself.

So yeah we can stick together. and let this go where it goes. I'm not going to steer anything in any direction because when it comes to girls...I don't know what ocean I'm in.

As for the tickets, take them. I bought them for you, and that still hasn't changed. If I go i could always ask my mom to pick out some model or something. Some real interesting conversation would ensue i'm sure.

Unless you know anyone..."He offered, smiling.

Seth took a big bite of his sandwich. It was really good, and he said so, as soon as he was finished chewing. "This is really good" He proffered his little bisto sandwich in one hand "You want a bite? It's realllllly good."

And his smile was earnest and worry free.   

Megan smiled as Seth mentioned things should be okay with John there, hoping that he was right.  When he mentioned his mom setting himself up with a model as a date, she laughed.  “I am sure that would make you the envy of a large number of guys.”

“As for if I know anyone, I’m not sure, I can always ask around if you want.”

When he offered her some of his sandwich, she shook her head.  “No thanks, I ate not that long ago, slept in a bit, had a really busy night last night.”  She looked over, and decided she might need to clarify that.  “Besides the near miss at the game yesterday, I helped take care of one of the problems at school last night.”  She leaned towards him, lowering her voice.  “Not sure how this is going to be reported in the news, but last night I helped catch the photographer that had been taking pictures I the girls’ locker room showers.  He could turn invisible, and came into my room to try to get pictures of me, which put him right in the trap I helped other members of the Con Debate team set for him.”

She sat back and returned to a more normal voice.  “Going to have to run when I finish this as well, Sarah should be coming by soon to work on her costume.”  She grinned at the last, being close to Halloween, it was easy enough to talk aloud about things like that.