Introvert

eight

"What do you mean you have to cancel?" Dylan asked as she walked back up the stairs to her room.

Everett was on the other line of the phone call. "Delilah went into labor 20 minutes ago and I have to drive Mom to the hospital cause Dad's at work."

Her eyes widened. "Oh my god. Yeah, of course. Wish your sister luck I guess."

Her best friend laughed. "I will, but I gotta go. I'll text you pics of my nephew when he arrives."

"Okay, bye. Love you."

"Love you." Everett ended the phone call.

Dylan threw her phone on her bed. Instead of going fall shopping with her best friend like they had plan, she was now going to be home alone on a Sunday afternoon. Not that she really minded. Stripping her skinny jeans and sweater from her body, she changed in her dad's old Bon Jovi shirt and a pair of black sweatpants.

Grabbing her laptop and burying herself in her blankets, Dylan got ready to start Howl's Moving Castle. Just as she got comfortable in her bed, the door bell rang. Deciding to ignore it, Dylan turned her attention back to her laptop. The movie played for two minutes before the bell rang once more. She was irritated, but still climbed out of the warm blankets to get the front door.

Reaching the door, Dylan swung it open. To her surprise, Austin stood there with a few DVDs and a bag of chips in hand. Holding up the goodies, he smiled his enormous grin at her.

She rolled her eyes at him while biting down on her lip. Then she spoke. "Brandon's not here."

"I know." Was all he said as he pushed past her and entered the home.

Austin plans were simple. He would ditch the band practice that he was supposed to be at, which was where Brandon was, and hang out with Dylan. Although he got to see her the day prior, it wasn't exactly what he wanted. The boy was excited that she got along with everyone else and was happy that they were all becoming friends. He just wanted to hang out with Dylan one-on-one, not at school. Austin wanted to get to know more about Dylan other than her liking anime and drawing.

Before she could register what he was doing, she was following the boy up to her bedroom. She watched as he set the snacks on her bedside table and made himself comfortable on her bed. His eyes fell on the laptop, noticing she was watching Howl's Moving Castle. He pointed his finger to the computer, looking back at her. "So are we going to watch or?"

Crawling onto her bed, Dylan sat with enough distance between them. Instead of watching the movie, she stared at him. It was a bit strange that he was already so comfortable doing this, but at the same time, it was comforting; knowing she could trust him.

Austin could feel her eyes on him, so he glanced at her with a small smile. "I really like this movie," he whispered.

"It's one of my favorites." Her voice was just as soft as his. Then she looked back at the screen.

After a few minutes, Dylan had unconsciously shifted to be closer to the blonde boy. Her body leaned onto his, her head resting on his chest while his arm draped over her shoulders, pulling her closer. The two continued to watch the movie in content.

When the movie ended, they decided they were hungry, so they went downstairs to make something to actually eat. Austin tried to get away with just eating chips, but Dylan claimed that they needed to eat something other than junk food. While the girl rummaged through the pantry to find something, the boy sat on a stool at the breakfast bar. "Hey Dyl."

His voice caught her attention. Looking away from the different food options, she looked back at him.

"What's your favorite food?"

She pondered the question for a moment. "I think ramen, maybe. Or pancakes. I don't know. Why?"

"Just make us ramen then. Or pancakes."

Shaking her head, she turned back to the shelves of food. Finding two packs of ramen she could use, she walked over to her fridge and pulled out the egg carton, some left over grilled chicken, and green onion. The boy watched as Dylan started to make their food. "Fancy." He laughed, partly expecting her to just heat up the Top Ramen in the microwave.

"Although I understand the want for fast ramen, I prefer it this way," Dylan said as she began to chop up the green onions.

Austin held his hands up in defense. "There's nothing wrong with that, but that's good to know."

For a brief moment, their was silence between them, until Austin thought of another question he could ask the girl. "What's your favorite movie other than Howl's?"

"Um, maybe New Moon. You know, the second Twilight movie."

The boy nodded. "What about your favorite song?"

"That's a hard question," the girl spoke. She turned away from the boiling eggs briefly to look at the blonde boy. "I guess, Buzzcut Season by Lorde. Right now, I've been listening to Walking in the Wind by One Direction on repeat, so maybe that too."

"One Direction, really?"

"Yeah." Dylan laughed a little. "Why do you sound so surprised?"

"I don't know. I didn't think of you as a One Directioner. You know, since you listen to all of that underground Indie stuff."

The girl moved the reheated chicken and green onion on top of the now-bowled ramen. "It's directioner, not one directioner. And I was one of the very first directioner's in the States because of an old friend. She watched their X factor stuff on YouTube and showed it to me." Dylan sliced their eggs in half, pleased that the yolk was the perfect amount of runny. "Anyway, most of my music isn't even underground. You just don't know it."

The boy shook his head in disagreement. As she handed him his bowl, he muttered a 'thank you' then continued their conversation. "Let me guess, you were a Harry girl."

Taking a bite of her food, she rolled her eyes. "No, actually, I was a Niall girl."

"Which one was he?"

"The blonde one."

"Oh, so you have a type."

Practically choking on her food, she walked away from the counter to get herself some water. "You suck, Porter."

"It's not my fault you have a type." He laughed at her a bit before switching to topic to not embarrass her anymore. "Besides One Direction, do you have a favorite band?"

"What's with the questions?" She asked as she made her way back to her food.

Austin shrugged. "I just want to know more about you."

"Well, I feel weird if you just keep asking me questions."

"Fine then you can ask me questions in return. Fair?"

Dylan nodded in agreement and the two went on to ask each other questions back and forth. Their was some discourse based off of their answers. Eventually, they ended back up in Dylan's room. They sat across from each other on her bed with the bag of chips Austin brought between them.

"Favorite anime?" Austin asked. He noticed that when he asked her a difficult question the brunette would bite her bottom lip and scrunch her nose.

"Ouran High School Host Club." She finally decided.

"Fair, mine's Naruto in case you were wondering."

"Also a reasonable choice," she paused trying to remember the question she was going to ask him. "Okay, ice cream or fro-yo?"

"Easy," Austin grabbed a chip out of the bag and popped it in his mouth. While chewing, he continued, "Fro-yo, 100 percent."Dylan shook her head in disagreement while his jaw dropped. "How can you prefer ice cream over frozen yogurt? It's fro-yo."

"It's literally so expensive for no reason. I rather just go to the store and get a tub of ice cream for the same price a cup of frozen yogurt costs."

The golden-haired boy narrowed his eyes and focused on the brunette across from him. He wasn't surprised that they hadn't really agreed on anything yet. He knew that they were different from each other, but he didn't realize how completely opposite they truly were.

It was simple. She liked ice cream. He liked fro-yo.