Jocks ain't got nothing on l33t's

[Lydia Faust]

Lydia had never been the best person at keeping up with everyone all the time, she tended to fall out of touch for small periods of time when she got caught up in an interesting subject, a crush, or a series of anime or something. She was the type to get addicted to games or shows and watch or play them in a marathon until they were thoroughly complete. However in the case of a certain friend, who had accompanied her to prom, she felt she'd done them disservice.

If she was being entirely honest with herself, it was also her nerves that had cut of contact with this particular girl, even if the cut of contact hadn't been complete, still occasional text messages and such but at the same time, she still felt a pang of guilt when she thought about how long it had been, a kind of knot had formed in her stomach over it, it wasn't a nice thing.

So she had messaged Erin a little while ago, asking her to meet her here, at a large entertainment centre just outside of kalispell, Lydia being 18 seemed to give her a bit more freedom, especially now that she was going up into college. She had heard of this place from a friend a little while ago, it had only recently been completed, but it was the kind of centre which had a large atrium sized arcade, several cinema screen, and carnival style games.

Lydia was most interested in the arcades and café's that resided there. She stood against a wall, just on the edge of the arcade, while a few people bustled past. She looked up occasionally, then would swiftly look down to her watch. She had invited Erin for around 10am, but would Erin show up? Lydia's nerves getting the better of her again, the twisted feeling in her stomach on her mind, she exhaled slowly and continued to look around at the passing stream of faces.

The Blonde was wearing skinny jeans and a sleeveless top, in the current heat it was quite a sensible choice, though it showed off more of her slightly pale skin than she normally would. Her hair was tied into a neat pony tail and she may or may not have been wearing a teeny bit too much make up.

[Erin Hackett]

It had seemed like forever since Erin had seen the girl by the name of Lydia Faust. There were a few texts here and there but she had not seen the girl in a long time. Part of her wondered if perhaps she didn't spend enough money on the other girl to get her to stick around. Apparently the whole going to Prom with her and making sure that they had photos of it was not enough to keep their friendship. That was how it felt to Erin, but she was not too torn up about it since Lydia did text from time to time. It had to mean that the girl didn't hate her and perhaps just didn't want to be around her.

Erin didn't know what the true reason behind the other girl just basically up and vanishing, but she blamed herself a little. Then came that text, one that asked if they could actually meet up with one another. In person. Was Lydia going to say that she didn't want to be friends anymore, to her face? Erin wondered and debated for moment if she should show. She didn't want to be told that she was not a good friend or something along those lines. That and she was a little iffy about going so far away from campus without being with her farther.

"At least give it a shot. You don't want to be a zeta slow loser all your life." Erin told herself in the car that was giving her a ride. She did have money to buy her own car and could have borrowed one from the school but she felt a little more at ease when she was being given a ride. Less panic about things happening and if something did happen, she would not be at fault for it. It didn't take long to get there and Erin was a little excited to check the place out. It was not hard and didn't take long for Erin to spot the blonde girl she had not seen in so long. She hesitated a moment before approaching the girl once she was dropped off. "H-hi Lydia. Sorry for the wait." Erin spoke up, already feeling a little bad.

[Lydia Faust]

Lydia felt a fleeting wave of panic as she thought about whether or not Erin would be turning up today. She wondered what reason Erin could possibly have for not actually turning up, maybe she was annoying with Lydia for having not kept in touch as much as she definitely should have, maybe she just didn't like Lydia at all.

The somewhere else in the maelstrum which was Lydia Faust's thought process, another voice, but not one of discontent or fear popped up, but one of confidence, if she was able to master something as terrifying as her power, even if she'd only been able to gain concious control over it, she could manage this. She could beat her nerves. Erin would be here, surely, she was still Lydia's friend.

All of the thoughts twisting around kinda melted when Erin actually showed up, and Lydia noticed her taking a moment to approach, her stomach did a flip. She unconsciously felt a slightly goofy smile spread across her lips. She shook her head at the other girl's apologies and struggled for a moment to find her voice, before clearing her throat a little and speaking up. "No problem at all Erin! Thank you for coming."

She paused for a second before continuing, blushing lightly. "I'm sorry." She said simply, the words to follow it hadn't come up into her brain just yet, the girl looked down.

[Erin Hackett]

Erin really did feel a few mixed emotions about this meeting, but was just mostly worried about Lydia saying she didn't want to be friends. Were they even friends now? It was not like the other girl made a show to try and keep in contact with her. Yes, the little text did help a little but Erin wondered if perhaps it was just because Lydia was bored. Or maybe because she knew Erin would notice that they were not really hanging out anymore and was trying to avoid it being brought up. Erin still didn't know but she was wondering what was behind why Lydia wanted to meet up with her again.

"T-thanks for the invite. I thought...well I thought you didn't want to have anything to do with me anymore." Erin said, letting out a nervous chuckle. One that basically showed that she was worried that was what Lydia wanted at this very moment. It would hurt to have come all the way out here just to be told something like that. Lydia never really seemed the type to do that sort of thing, so Erin had some hope that this trip here was not going to turn sour. Her guard was still up and she was ready to use her power if she felt that emotions would try to surface.

Then there was the apology. Here it came. She was going to say she was sorry and that she didn't really want to be friends anymore. Yet the latter never followed the sorry. Just an apology that came with a small blush and a gaze looking down to the ground. Erin didn't know what to say, already starting to fidget with the end of her shirt a little. "It's okay...I understand." Erin said, still convinced that what Lydia meant was that she didn't want to be friends anymore.

[Lydia Faust]

Lydia's eyes slowly raised back up, feeling a little shocked at the other girl's words. Was that really what she'd thought Lydia had meant for today..? She felt something horrible sink into the pit of her stomach. Guilt. Everything in her straightened out a bit as the other girl carried on speaking, the blonde's mouth was hanging open just ever so slightly.

Lydia shook her head vigorously, she wasn't usually emotional but she felt awful, she was pratically on the verge of tears when she spoke. "N-no! That's not what I meant!" She stammered. The girl took a moment to take a deep breath, steadying herself. "I-I wanted a chance to a-apologise to you in person. I got nervous." She admitted, rather ashamedly. The girl struggled to raise her eyes to Erin.

Eventually when their eyes were level, she looked into Erin's and continued. "I'm not u-usually very good with others, unless I'm competing..." the unsaid words that echoed in her brain filled the gap, for her at least. "I got nervous, because we were becoming really good friends... I can't even claim it's because I was scared of hurting you. I..." she froze for a minute just short of saying. 'I like you'

She continued on. "I kind of got caught up in stuff, seeing my family for a bit, gaming, binging anime. And it got harder to message you because I felt awkward leaving it so long." She paused again, taking a deep breath. "You're an important friend to me, Erin. I'm so so sorry for being scared." She said, her voice rather low.

[Erin Hackett]

There was a lot of head shaking then; followed by words of the way Erin was currently taking it was not what the other girl meant. Erin didn't say anything as she looked at the blonde, still playing with the end of her shirt. She listened closely, allowing the other girl to explain that she wanted to apologize in person and what she was actually sorry for. Okay, so she did realize that she had left Erin high and dry. This was so weird, being apologized to. She was still getting used to the thing, only really ever having to deal with it from Quinn when it came to someone else 'hurting' her in some kind of way.

Lydia spoke of how she was not very good with people. Quinn had said the same thing. Did the two of them not realize that Erin was not good with people either? Hell, she was using money as a way to keep her friends because she literally thought that was the only way she could hold onto them. Even now she was blaming not spending enough money on the blonde before her as to why the other girl had stopped hanging out with her. Lydia could not claim that she was trying to avoid hurting Erin. Erin could not even think how the other girl could hurt besides doing what she had done already. Not that Erin was really going to hold it against the girl when she heard the reason.

She could understand things with family and the other things. It might have hurt a little to hear that video games and anime were more important their friendship but Erin didn't say anything. That was what it basically sounded like by the girl speaking of how she got all caught up in those other things. not to self, don't ever say video games or anime was keeping me away, even if that is the case. Erin made a note to herself, taking how she felt now and wanted to keep it in mind for when she would get caught up in those things as well. "I-it's okay...I understand. I'm uh...sorry that I didn't do a better job at uh...well being your friend." Erin responded, still feeling like this was still her fault a little bit.

[Lydia Faust]

Lydia felt the words leave her and finally stopped to take a proper breath. She needed to face this properly, apologise and see if they could move past it, but when Erin spoke, the words that came out, without sarcasm, or sass or anything, it made the pit in Lydia's stomach deepen. She took another breath to steady herself before speaking, shaking her head more now.

The blonde bordered on tearful as she spoke. "N-no it's not your fault. It's mine. You are an amazing friend..." She lingered on the word friend, as if it sounded wrong, there was another word she'd rather took it's place. Now wasn't the time or place for that. "You make me smile. So much. You are a big part of the reason I worked so hard to get better control of my power, and now I can touch people without being terrified that I'm going to zap them..." she lingered there for a moment, looking into Erin's eyes and then looked away from them before continuing.

"It's not because you weren't good enough. It's... It's the opposite." She croaked. "It's me. I- Well-um." She stammered some more before forcing herself to find the words, to look Erin face to face again. "You're awesome. You're one of the absolute coolest people I know. We were getting closer, making progress with being friends, the whole prom thing was amazing... I- I got... I don't know if it works in this way but I guess I got jitters?"

Lydia felt a smile spread across her lips, she knew exactly why she had jitters. She felt her cheeks burn scarlet. "It's not some stupid social thing, or me being bad with people. That's me being jittery again. I've never had a friend like you before." She repeated the line she'd spoken before, with clear sincerity in her voice, pride. That she had a friend like Erin.

[Erin Hackett]

Erin didn't say anything as Lydia started to speak again, almost sounding like she was about to cry. Erin hoped she didn't cry, she never knew what to do when someone started to cry besides start to freak out herself. Plus then people would probably start looking at them and wondering if it was Erin's fault that the beautiful blonde was crying. Would it be her fault since she was talking to Erin about how good of a friend was and that Lydia felt guilty. That was what Erin was mostly getting out of what the other girl was saying as she started to say more words then Erin thought she would ever hear from the other girl.

It was certainly surprising, but not a bad surprise. Either way, Erin didn't say anything the whole time, listening to what Lydia had to say and trying to not blush too much as the other girl was giving her a lot of complements. A good friend, made her smile, one of the reasons why the other girl had worked so hard with getting better at her power, and so much more. Wow, didn't think I had that big of an effect on anyone. Erin thought to herself, still not fully relaxed yet but at least was not freaking out or thinking that Lydia didn't want to be friends anymore. This was looking more and more like the issue that Erin had with Quinn.

Now Erin was tempted to ask the other girl if she knew Quinn and if not that the two of them needed to meet. She had a strange feeling that they would probably get along really well together. She got jitters because they were becoming closer? Erin could have sworn the purpose of a friendship was to grow closer but she could relate with the whole freaking out about it in some ways because she too was freaking out when they were getting closer. "Well...I'm sorry that it got uh...hard to be around me but uh...I'm happy that you reached out to me again. D-does that mean we are friends again now?" Erin spoke, stuttering a little along the way as she tried to get the words out.

[Lydia Faust]

Lydia smiled a little more sincerely as Erin seemed to come to grips with what she'd said. Lydia was glad that Erin was no longer blaming herself, a wave of elation seemed to pass over her, lifting the cloud that had been hanging over her recently every time she thought of Erin, or throughout the start of their conversation. She felt her muscles relax a bit more.

She was definitely glad that the tension had passed a little, because it also meant she was much much less at risk of an accident with her power. Erin's blushes seemed to indicate that she was either flattered, or had not been expecting just how much of an impact she'd had on Lydia. Lydia had started to clamber out of her from over the wall she'd built inside herself after her power had reared it's head, then when she had gotten scared she dove back under it for comfort. She wasn't going to let this happen again.

She let out a very soft giggle at Erin's words. It was so silly. The whole thing was silly. "Of course. D-does that mean you forgive me for being scared though?" she murmured, keeping her gaze slightly low of Erin's face.

[Erin Hackett]

I mean, I know I'm some super awesome and so very l33t and smooth online but in person...so does she really think I helped her? Did I really help her? She said I did and I don’t' have anything that would prove otherwise. Erin thought to herself as her mind wondered a little bit. It was just odd to hear someone say that she had such an impact on them. That was the big difference between Lydia and Quinn, the fact that Lydia at least could admit that Erin was important to her and that they were friends. Well, that they were at least friends once more.

At least that was what Erin was assuming but she asked to just make sure. Thankfully at the response she ended up getting but it cause her to chuckle and look away for a moment. Yeah, it did pretty much seem like a dumb question now that she thought about it compared to everything that was just said. "Y-yeah! Of course...cause like it's only fair. I mean....like I get it. Just...let me know next time. Please. So I don't think that I did something wrong...and think that you hate me." Erin managed to get out with a bit more fumbling.

She tugged at the end of her shirt for a moment longer before taking a deep breath. Okay, that was out of the way so that meant that Lydia had to have invited her down here for more than this talk. There was the building behind the other girl that was obviously meant for the two of them to go inside. Unless Lydia actually wanted to go somewhere else and just so happened to think this was a good meet up spot. "Are we going in there to game, then?" Erin asked, looking over the place before looking to Lydia.

[Lydia Faust]

Lydia felt her cheeks flush in, the tumbly feeling of the butterflies in her stomach returning as she gazed up at Erin again. A gentle grin slowly spread it's way across her slightly reddened face. She didn't say anything for a few moment, listening to what Erin had to say.

She her smile softened a little bit and as Erin finished speaking, when Lydia didn't think she was likely to be heard she murmured in a very low, soft, and sincere voice. "I could never, ever hate you." She smiled to herself knowingly.

At Erin's comment she blinked slowly and smiled to the other girl. "Well of course! I thought an arcade seemed like great fun!" she added hastily "I've got us a bunch of tokens to play with... Maybe a little too many. But then we can go for lunch at one of the little places around here afterwards. I thought we could like, play some games, catch up, while I kick your butt" she winked.

The whole competitive side of gaming, wanting to prove that she was as good as she claimed to be was a huge way to bring herself into confidence and have more fun when she was round pretty girls like Erin, especially around Erin.

[Erin Hackett]

Erin heard the murmured words. Well, she didn't actually hear what the other girl was saying but she heard the sound of her murmuring something. She was tempted to ask what Lydia said but figured if the other girl had wanted Erin to hear her, and then she would have spoken up. It could have also been that Lydia was doing something Erin did; which was talking to herself, so she figured it was best to not point it out. Especially considered what happened to the last girl she was talking to and pointed out that the girl had said an inside thought out loud and loud enough for Erin to hear it.

"I...I have not been to one in a while." Erin pointed out with a small smile on her face, mostly to hide that she was nervous. She really didn't do the whole public thing unless she had for whatever reason. This reason had to just be that Lydia wanted them to hang out and have fun together so Erin was going to give it her best. She was just going to have to focus on Lydia and the games and do her best to ignore the fact that there were others around. It would help once they actually got to the gaming and Erin was able to show off her mad skillz.

Maybe a crowd would even gather around and be amazed...one second thought that would be bad. Now she was going to have to make sure that she didn't play too good so she could avoid attracting any unneeded attention. "Is that a challenge I hear?" Erin asked, getting a little bolder due to Lydia's comment about kicking her butt. As if. The other girl was good, but Erin was still very confident when it came to her gaming skills. She was already moving to go in, waiting for Lydia to go in first so she could follow behind her. It was time to game.

[Lydia Faust]

Lydia very gently gestured towards the open doors of the atrium which led to the arcade and pulled out a couple of zip locked bags that had been provided at the counter and handed one to Erin. She was grinning. She had probably gone overboard considering they had something like 100 games each, but she didn't care, she was just happy to be hanging out with Erin again.

If Erin insisted on paying for something, as Lydia assumed that she would, she would inform her that she could pay for lunch, and no take backs on the tokens. As they slowly started to walk inside, Lydia knowing Erin's own slight social phobia leaned a little closer and murmured in a low voice. "It's early and this place hasn't caught on too much yet so there shouldn't be too many people here yet." She smiled reassuringly.

At the girl's retort her grin broadened. "And what if it was, Ms Hackett? What are you going to do about it?~" She asked, in a teasing tone. She was very much throbbing with excitement now. It wasn't often she got to game with someone like Erin, who could really compete with her.

[Erin Hackett]

The motion had Erin blushing a little and thoughts returning about how cute Lydia was started to float back into her mind. It had felt like forever since she felt herself heat up just a little bit because of the other girl. Then again, she honestly should not have been all that surprised given what girls could so easily do to her. Curse having pretty much a crush on every one of them that she met for the first time that were not jerks to her. The only people that she met that were jerks were males thus far, one being Quinn and the other being Karsen.

Well, Karsen was not so much of a jerk and more of a 'with the machines' kind of guy. That was literally the only thing that made Erin not go talk to the boy since their one meeting. She did suppose she should contact him at some point since he was Tim's best friend and all. "Oh? G-good. I don't really like being out in public if I can help it. Don't really come to arcades unless I'm competing in a tournament." Erin responded, relaxing just a little at hearing that not many people where here yet. Looking around she could only see a few people here and there, so that really did help calm her down even more.

There was a raised brow followed by a small amount of laughter when Lydia handed over the tokens. "You really did go overboard. How much do I owe you?" Erin asked. She fully expected and wanted to pay the girl back. She never really let anyone buy things for her, it just felt weird when she had money to buy whatever she wanted for herself. There was a tease, that still had a hint of a challenge to it. "I'm going to have to show you I'm the Leet Master. I'll even let you pick the game." Erin spoke up, her confidence already helping her ego build and her to be proud of her skills.

[Lydia Faust]

Lydia noted Erin blushing and grinned, she didn't say anything, she wasn't going to go out of her way to make the other girl blush. She led them over to a bunch of fighting cabinets, she didn't recall how good Erin was at fighting games, but it was always a good start. She found herself rocking back and forth slightly as she walked, it was one of her little hyperactive quirks which she displayed.

She grinned at the other girl. "I thought you might say that. Tell you what, if you're set on repaying me something, you could get us lunch after I've wiped the floor with you?" She asked with another wink at the end. To anybody who knew Lydia, it would be pretty damned obvious that she was excited.

Lydia moved to the street fighter cabinet. "Lets do this." She grinned. She would probably pick Chun-Li, and then someone like Dan, just to impress Erin at how adept she was. Dan was considered by a large number among the fans to be the worst character. He wasn't really, he was mostly just a comic relief character.

The blonde popped a token into one of the slots on her side of the machine and giggled. "This is gonna be freaking awesome." She exclaimed to herself.