You Don't Have To Bend Until You Break

[Alice Hobbs]

So, it was no huge secret that Alice wasn't one for huge, romantic gestures. She didn't have a romantic bone in her body, and yet, here she was, about to ask her wonderful girlfriend to prom and she was winging it. Completely and utterly winging it. She had thought about all these magnificent and amazing gestures, but neither of them had seemed like her. So, instead, Alice had opted for something much simpler, and much, much more like herself; asking bluntly.

Knocking on the door, Alice bit her lower lip. In her hand, she held a bouquet of daisies, because obviously, roses were so damn cliche. And really, Alice hadn't known what else to get and then she'd thought about Zoe and how simple the girl and their relationship was, and her mind had immediately fell onto daisies, so... Here she was, standing outside her girlfriends room with a bouquet of daisies, feeling as nervous as she possibly ever could.

And she didn't even know why. It wasn't as if Alice thought that Zoe would decline her offer. Far from it, actually. No, it was more so that she continuously stepped out of her comfort zone for the girl she loved, and it wasn't as if that was a bad thing. Far from it, actually, but it was... New. Something she had yet to actually get used to.

"Zoe, are you in there? It's Alice."

Tag: Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

The knock startled Zoe. She'd been working on a homework assignment which meant mostly sitting cross-legged on some pillows and reviewing notes from various courses. She really wanted to make sure she did well, what with this being her first real year in college and all. She'd also started messing with her hair, which was starting to move from "shaggy" to "shoulder length," which, for Zoe, meant that she was dealing with the occasional loose curl and wondering what she was supposed to do to style it.

But the knock had her moving, unwinding her legs and springing up to the door. Zoe didn't even bother to adjust her frazzled hair or pull the loose tank-top down or adjust the sleeping pants or anything: she'd clearly been dressed for studying and it wasn't like anyone had actually contacted her or that she was expecting anyone.

Door open, slightly disheveled Zoe looking out. Then those brown eyes went wide. "Alice!" she practically squeed. She smiled wide, looking ready to kiss, before looking down and seeing the flowers. The eyes went wider. "With flowers!" Then up at Alice, then down at what she was wearing. Then Zoe flushed red and sort of shifted to try and get behind the door.

Because obviously letting your girlfriend see you when you were in comfy clothes and had been lounging around studying was just the most embarrassing thing ever.

[Alice Hobbs]

Offering Zoe an almost embarrassed smile, Alice stepped into the room, even though Zoe clearly shied away. "Don't worry, Zoe," she offered; it was obvious that Zoe's choice of attire made her a little self-conscious. "You look as gorgeous as ever. I promise." In fact, Zoe even looked even cuter when she was all disheveled and flustered, and stuff. It was kind of nice being able to see this side of her too. And her hair had gotten really long too. It looked incredibly cute. 

Handing over the flowers as she turned, Alice offered Zoe an almost shy smile. "I'm sorry for my lack of tact. I probably should have called first." She didn't want to put Zoe on the spot like this, but she couldn't wait a second longer. Otherwise, Alice would have driven herself insane with planning and going through it over and over again inside her head...

Handing over the flowers, Alice pursed her lips. "Right. These are for you," she said quickly. "Uhm, I didn't want to be cliche and go for roses... And these kind of... reminded me of you." She furrowed her brows a little at that. God, this felt so weird. Taking a deep breath, Alice let her brown eyes wander over the room. She needed to calm down...

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe flushed, her head lowering at the comment, knowing full well that Alice would have said that any way. Some part of her knew that her girlfriend would understand: girls didn't exactly hang around the house wearing lingerie and full makeup while studying or anything like that. Still, that didn't mean that Zoe didn't want to look like that for her girlfriend. Well, maybe not the lingerie part, though she did have some outfits that would cause jaws to drop.

Her hands were going up to her hair now, fiddling with the bits, wishing that it weren't growing out in the worst possible way. Focus on the conversation: she knew that. Zoe tried to pull her hand away, to straighten and look at her girlfriend. "it's okay: I love seeing you," she said honestly. Licking her lips, Zoe moved out a little. She reached for the flowers, taking them only a little quicker than was strictly necessary.

"I, um, don't like roses," she admitted, flushing. "The thorns bother me: something so pretty shouldn't be harmful," she took the flowers close, wondering if there was something else. She fidgeted for a moment before opening the door further. "Oh gosh, you should come in!" Zoe looked around for a moment, noticing that the room was marginally clean. As clean as a room owned by two very busy college girls could keep. "Vera's out right now..." she didn't know where, and she chewed on her cheek. Should she be calling her? Zoe's eyes widened and she flushed. Was this...

Was this a booty call?

[Alice Hobbs]

"Oh." Well. At least Alice had made the right call in not picking roses then. That was a good thing and it actually helped the brunette relax, if anything. But the hardest part was yet to do, and she didn't even understand why she was getting so damned nervous about it. Maybe it was because it wasn't something she was used to - and had never done before. Alice didn't use to be the girlfriend type, and here she was, about to ask her girlfriend to go to prom with her.

Exhaling, a faint chuckle fell from Alice's lips as she did as she was told, stepping further into the room. She nodded absentmindedly at the words Zoe offered; the roommate wasn't here. Good. At least she didn't have to worry about that.

"Uhm," Alice began, "Any idea when she'll come back?" She asked then, her eyes moving to look at Zoe's. Maybe it would have been better, had she asked for Zoe to come meet her somewhere else. Maybe she should have made the whole thing a lot more romantic than this.... ah well, she was here now. No point in going back.

"Because I uhm, had something I wanted to ask you, and uhm, maybe we should... Be alone for that?"

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

The flowers had been good, yes. Though if Alice had walked through the doors with roses instead, Zoe would have simply lied and insisted that they were quite beautiful and nice and likely would have ridden the lie straight into the ground, not flinching or pulling away from it all the while.

Thankfully, there were other things to deal with. "Oh, I think it'll be a while?" Zoe said, putting on another apologetic smile. "I wasn't paying much attention, studying and all," she flushed a little at that. Mentioning a desire to actually study and do well in school wasn't exactly "sexy," and Zoe wasn't sure she should be adding onto that, given everything.

In fact, Zoe felt that wondering growing. She turned a deep shade of red, her eyes going wide. "oh, um, I don't... we should be alone for quite a while. At least an hour. I could always text her. I think there are..." Zoe walked toward the door, "we could, um, always, I think the symbol is," she looked back at her girlfriend, her cheeks so red she looked like her head might pop, "a hanger on the door?"

[Alice Hobbs]

Alice brows furrowed slightly. A hanger on the door? What on earth was she on about? "What?" she asked, blinking slightly. She looked from the door to Zoe, and back to the door again. Wait, symbol... Oh god, she thought she was here for a booty call? A smile quickly spread over the brunette's lips and her head shook faintly, as if in disbelief. "You surely know how to break the ice, don't you?" she laughed, her head still shaking. Well, damn. Who would have thought her girlfriend had such a one tracked mind?

"I'm here to ask you to prom, not..." She gestured awkwardly at the door before chuckling. Well, at least Zoe had taken away the last ounce of nervousness and replaced it with something akin to awkwardness. Well, that wasn't at all how she'd expected this to turn out, but hey, it did make for quite the... interesting story, she supposed.

Clearing her throat then, Alice moved her hands to place them upon Zoe's shoulders. "Zoe, would you like to go to prom with me? I know it's kind of lame of me to ask this way, and I would have done something more romantic, but..." she trailed off. But romantic wasn't Alice's style. She was far much too forward for that, sadly.

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

"What?" Zoe replied, her eyes wide, looking almost panicked now. Had she misread? She must have misread. Though it wasn't that bad of a misread, right? Seeing as Alice was her girlfriend and they had recently both confessed love and they'd been going out for a while and Zoe had given Alice the preventative and...

"I didn't mean to--" Zoe fumbled, only to pause and let out another "What?" again as Alice explained. Zoe gawked as Alice cleared her throat, stared as Alice put hands on her shoulder, and let out a little squeal as Alice actually asked. Zoe hopped up and down a few times before flinging her arms around her girlfriend (likely sending some flowers flying in the process). She circled those arms right around Alice's neck and shot up for a quick, intense kiss before pulling away.

"I didn't think you'd ask!" she said, eyes shining. "You didn't really seem all that interested and, sure, I love dressing up and going and dancing and," she let out another little squee, hopping up and down. "I can't wait to see you in a dress! You are so dressing up, by the way," Zoe ran her hand around her girlfriend. "We've got to look quite pretty for it. Which means dressing up and doing makeup and having a perfect night." Zoe let out another little squeal and shot up to give her girlfriend another kiss before hugging her tight. "Thank you so much for asking me! You really don't know what it means!" she pulled back, almost seeming about to cry. "I'm an awful prom date though. I get drunk quite easy, but I do dance and are you---no," she shook her head, tapping her girlfriend's shoulder, 'you asked: I'm not letting you out of this. I want to go too badly," she let out another little squeal and hop.