...oops (Independence Day Fanfic)

You Learn New Stuff Every Day, Right?

As soon as Julius told David and I the news about the nuclear strike authorization given by the President, David stormed off.
I looked at Julius, and just looked back with a concerned look on his face.
This was literally the worst idea the President could have had. First of all, if none of the military's efforts could get through the spaceship's shield, then why the hell did they think a fricken nuclear bomb would do the trick. Second of all, there are still people alive (well I really hoped so, at least), and fricken nuking right over a major city would just level the entire city, and kill any survivors that might still be there. Yes, fantastic fricken idea, I don't think the aliens did their job well enough, how about we kill whoever they missed, right? Yeah, wonderful idea.
I was pissed, and I knew that if I was this pissed, David was probably at least 100 more upset. So I turned around and followed after where he had left. Honestly, I kinda didn't want to see David angry, but I wanted to try and help somehow. I wasn't sure how, but I hate when people are upset.
After about five minutes of walking around the hidden base, searching for him, I finally heard David's voice coming from a break room of sorts that we had passed on our way in. I slowed my pace down, and stopped just outside of the door, however, when I heard Connie's voice coming from the room as well. I wasn't planning on eavesdropping, but that's kinda just what ended up happening.
"Toast, to the end of the world," I heard David say.
"Well, he...he didn't come to this decision lightly. He didn't have any other choice," Connie defended the President.
"Yeah. Well, you still believe in him."
"Yeah. Well, he's a good man."
"Oh, he'd better be. You left me for him. Or, you know, for your career." I cringed when I heard David say that. I mean, when you say it like that, it sounds absolutely awful.
"See, now, it wasn't just my career. It was the biggest opportunity of my life. I wanted my life to make a difference. I wanted my life to mean something," Connie argued, defending herself.
I shifted my position, leaning against the wall. I felt bad for David, but at the same time, Connie had a good point, and if it was her dream to do that, then good for her for following that dream, I guess.
"Yeah, and, um, I wasn't, um, ambitious enough for you?" David asked sarcastically. I cringed again, biting my lip.
"David, you could have done anything that you wanted. research, development. You could just..."
"Oh, honey, I was happy where I was," David insisted, once again sounding sarcastic. I agreed with him here, just cuz it was Connie's dream to do something bigger, that didn't mean that it had to be David's dream to do that too. If he was happy doing what he was doing, then that should be enough for her, ambitious in her mind or not.
"Haven't you ever wanted to be a part of something special?" Connie asked, exasperated.
I jumped when I heard something slam. I peeked just in through the door to see that David had slammed his glass of alcohol against the surface of a table. I quickly pulled my head back before either of them could see me.
"I was part of something special."
My heart broke at David's words. I had heard this tone of voice only once before, this just completely broken sound, and it was when I had asked about his ring, and he had told me about Connie. I knew he was still heart broken about it, and to have Connie say that to him had to have been just like twisting the knife for him. Part of me wanted to just go in there and hug him, and the other part of me kinda wanted to slap Connie.
Both ideas were dumb, and I knew it. First of all, I wasn't just gonna walk in there and intrude on there conversation. And second of all, although Connie hurt David so much, I knew that she didn't necessarily have bad intentions. I mean, I was still pissed that she had left him because "he wasn't ambitious enough", cuz it was his choice to do what he wanted with his life, but I knew she didn't want to hurt him necessarily.
So I didn't walk into the room, or hug or slap anyone. I just continued to eavesdrop like the awful person I am.
The room was still absolutely silent after David's statement, until I heard footsteps coming towards the door.
I panicked, quickly looking around to see if there was something I could do to make it seem like I was just casually around the area, and not listening in on their conversation.
Thankfully, there was a vending machine just across the hall, and on the side of the door that I was on, so I wouldn't have to cross in front of the door to get to it.
As quietly as I could, I walked over to it, pulling my wallet out of my back pocket.
I had always hated how large girl's wallets and purses were, so I had a folding one that was typically seen as a guys wallet, but it was so much more convenient.
I pulled a dollar bill out, and put it in the machine, selecting a Mountain Dew to be dispensed, all the while, still trying to hear what was going on in the room behind me.
I heard the footsteps pause, like Connie was going to say something else, but then they continued, and I turned my head to see her walking out of the room and heading down the hall.
I grabbed my Mountain Dew and then stood there for a moment, debating what I should do (or should I say...what I should dew ...haha...get it....nevermind).
I peeked inside the room to see David sit down on a chair and just stare at his glass of alcohol.
I bit my lip; he looked really upset, and I wanted to go in and see if he was okay.
But then an idea struck me.
I turned on my heel and started running down the hallway in the same direction that Connie had just gone.
"Hey! Hey, uh, Connie!" I called after her, trying to get her attention as I caught up.
She turned around to look at me as I slowed down to a stop in front of her.
I caught my breath for a second and she waited for me to speak.
"I, uh, I have a question," I started nervously.
"Look, David is really broken up, and I know that like you two probably obviously split up for legit reasons, I don't know what, but he still really loves you, and I just wanted to know if, uh, if you two might possibly get back together. Just so that he could know, ya know?"
I was nervous to ask, but honestly I just didn't want David to be wasting his time pining over Connie still if there was no chance. Who knows, maybe she has a boyfriend or something now. Either way I just didn't want him to have to go through more heart break.
"I don't think that's gonna happen," she answered slowly, looking at me curiously. "We split up because of career choices, I wanted to pursue a larger job, and David wanted to stay in his small cable job. It just didn't and wouldn't work," she explained.
I raised my eyebrow. "What, so he wasn't ambitious enough for you? His job is what he loves, and anyway, who's to say that its not important? First off if he wasn't doing that, he wouldn't have figured out the signal and saved a crap ton of lives, and not to mention that its because of cable people that anyone was able to be warned about the crisis in general! C'mon, he's, he's sweet and nice and funny and he hangs out with his father like everyday, and he's hard working and he's great, and smart- smart yet not condescending which can be rare, and he loves the planet and recycles and all that stuff, I mean, you can't do much better than David. And he would do anything to fix things with you, he just wants a chance," I explained adamantly, trying to convince her.
For some reason, somewhere in my chest panged as I tried to get her to date David again, but I pushed it aside.
Connie just stared at me for a while after my speech, and I couldn't quite read what emotions were flashing through her eyes.
"You love him, don't you?" she finally asked, looking at me knowingly with her eyebrows raised.
My jaw dropped and my face flushed, and I immediately began fumbling for words.
"I don't, no, I uh...no, I'm not...that's not..." I stomped my foot in frustration as I stumbled over my words, blushing even harder. "That's not...I'm not...that doesn't even matter right now! I don't matter right now, what matters is that David was obviously happy with you, and now he's not happy, so I need to know if you two will get back together so that he'll be happy again," I finished lamely, finally meeting her eyes.
Her face looked regretful, maybe sad even. She held up her left hand for me to see, and I saw the ring on her finger, and somehow I knew that it wasn't David's.
My heart dropped. I knew David would be crushed by this, and I really didn't want to be the one to have to tell him.
"I moved on," she said quietly. "He works on the White House staff as well, and I met him here. Before you ask, we didn't start dating, or hardly even properly socialising until a year after David and I split up, so that wasn't a factor at the time. We just had the ceremony two months ago," she explained, happiness playing across her face despite the guilt that was there.
I was speechless for a moment, as so many thoughts and emotions fought for dominance in my brain. I didn't know what to think.
"Uh, well, congrats," I told her, half smiling for her benefit.
She nodded, and placed her hand on my shoulder.
"I can tell that you love him, or at least like him a lot," she told me sincerely. "Don't make the same mistakes I did, and don't let him go."
She dropped her arm back to her side, smiled gently at me, and then walked away.
I ran my fingers through my hair. Was I in love with David? I didn't even know that I was, how the hell could she know?
I leaned against the wall, before my thoughts were interrupted by another voice.
"You should tell him."
I jumped when I heard Julius speak, and turned to see him standing just a few feet from me.
"What-"
"I heard," he interrupted me, gesturing in the direction that Connie had just walked off in. "I heard all of what you both said. I see it too, I see how you look at him. And how he looks at you, when he's not thinking about Constance. He's being holding onto that for too long, and you two need each other," he explained softly.
My mouth opened and closed repeatedly like a mute fish. Was it seriously that obvious? I didn't even know that this was a thing, how does everyone else??
"You're good for each other," Julius continued. "Like peanut butter and jelly! No...not like peanut butter and jelly, nasty sandwiches those are, way too sticky," Julius trailed off.
I laughed, grinning at his weird comparison.
He smiled back at me, before turning serious again. "With what's happening now, you need to tell him soon. You never know what could happen," he advised me wisely.
I nodded. "I will," I said quietly.
"Also, you get to be the one to tell him what Constance told you, because I'm not gonna be the one to break that to him," Julius added, turning around and quickly walking away.
I threw my arms up in the air and groaned loudly. Julius's laughter echoed down the hallway as he walked away.
I leaned back against the wall, sliding down it into a sitting position, and rolled my still unopened bottle of Mountain Dew between my hands absentmindedly, thinking.
Was I actually in love with David? Heck I didn't even know, I mean I hadn't thought about it before. The two of us had always gotten along really well, and we "bickered like an old married couple", and I mean just within the last hour I had wanted him to kiss me, but I had never consciously thought about liking him like that.
The more I sat and thought about it, the clearer it became to me. I loved the way he loved the earth, I loved the way he laughed and smiled and joked around with me, I loved the way he called his dad 'pops' and kept in touch with him so much, I loved the way he tapped his chin with the eraser end of a pencil when he was deep in thought, I loved his thick glasses, and the way his hair kinda curled, specifically one chunk that hung slightly in front of his face. Hell, I loved everything about David, and I had never even really realized it.
A phrase from a book I once read came to my mind. I couldn't remember the book's name, or even the author, but I had always loved the quote, and now I know why.
"I fell in love the way you fall asleep; slowly at first and then all at once."
And that's what I did.
I'm in love with David.

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A/N: Okay, so that quote is from The Fault In Our Stars by John Green, I just didn't say the name in here because that book wasn't actually out yet, and timeline and yadayadayada. But yeah, so credit to John Green.
I'm home from camp!!! So here this is!! ^~^
I'm still busy a lot this summer, but I'm trying to update as much as I can, I promise!!
<3 you all!!