JeffMads Modern AU | Year 1 {Complete}

Wingman 101 with Maria Lewis

Charles was transferred to the regular patient ward and John to the intensive care unit.

Charles was admitted out at 10 a.m. and I paid for bus tickets so we could get back to campus. He didn't talk to me, not on the bus, and not during the night.

When I got to my room I immediately put my phone on its charger as it died early in the night. I had only one missed call from Thomas, and no texts.

It was a Saturday so there was no class. I didn't know what to do with myself. I paced around the room for a bit, then eventually went on Twitter. There wasn't much going on, I mean besides literally everyone was talking about Shane Dawson, yet again.

I wasn't much for YouTube. I preferred watching tv shows and movies on Netflix. My parents were paying for my account because there's no way I could afford that in college without a job.

There was a knock at the door.

"Who is it?" I called out.

Their response was another knock.

"Okay, I'm coming." I threw my blankets off and walked to the door.

When I opened it, there was Maria. Her hair was up in the worlds messiest bun, it wasn't even a bun, just her curly hair on the top of her head with a hair tie to secure it.

"Maria? What're you doing here?"

She didn't answer, she just came inside. I closed the door.

"Maria... do you need something?"

She was just staring at me. She broke eye contact and scanned the room, her eyes landing on the tv. "Err... actually yea, can I play your Xbox?"

I was confused. "Well sure, but-"

"Cool thanks." She was already grabbing a controller and turning on the tv.

"Maria, What're you doing here?" I asked again.

"Xbox."

I rolled my eyes. "Why would you randomly come over to my dorm to play Xbox? What if I wasn't even here?"

She just shrugged her shoulders.

"Okay, be that way then." I sat down next to her.  A few minutes passed.

Then five.

And eventually, ten, of us just sitting in silence, me watching her play the Xbox.

"But, seriously, why are you here?"

She glanced over at me, then back at the game. After a while, she paused it and addressed me,  "I sold my soul to a demon and this is my punishment."

"What? Maria, that's a lie." How idiotic could I be? Of course, that was a lie, she wasn't Dean Winchester.

"God James, how dense can you be? Wait that was mean, sorry." She didn't take her eyes off of the television. "Obviously I didn't sell my soul, I'm doin' a favor for someone."

"By playing my Xbox? How is that doing me a favor?"

She hesitated before speaking, "For you."

"Me?"

"So you don't die of loneliness. And this isn't your Xbox. It's your roommates, isn't it?"

"How'd you know that?" I squinted at her. "Maybe you did sell your soul."

"Nah, a little bird told me. That's all. Hey, do you got any soda?" She had
turned the tv off.

"No..."

"Damn. How about we go to Starbucks?"

"No." My voice came out harsher than intended.

Maria looked a little surprised. "Okay, that's fine. Well, we've got 20 minutes to spare, so I'm up for anything."

"Maria, what's going on?" I was growing more and more suspicious of her with every word she said. I mean I hadn't known her for long and she just, out of the blue, decided to come play my roommates Xbox, that's peculiar. I figured, soon, I'd have the whole secret out of her.

"Oooooooooo, nothing at all is going on. Don't you worry." 

"Sure."  I didn't believe her one bit. "So what do I do for the next 20 minutes?"

"How about we have a dance party?" She suggested.

"What? No way, I don't dance."  

"Aww, come on, I got a fire playlist, all the showtunes."  She had her phone out.

"Are you a drama major, too?"  

"No, James, I'm in your political science class, pay attention. And you don't have to be studying theatre to like theatre."  A smile broke her face, suddenly. "Man I love this song."

The samples won't delay but the cable
There's another way
Say something, anything

She was singing along. 

"What is this from?" 

She laughed at me. "You haven't heard of Rent? Oh man, James, you've got lots to learn." 

"Apparently..." 

"OOoOoh, I know what song you should hear. It's called-" Maria was interrupted by a knock at the door.  She paused her music. "That's my cue, but it's not 12:00, is it? Oh, it is, I'm just bad at counting."

"Maria..." 

"Just open the door."

"I- well, okay." I got up to open the door.

Oh god.

Holy crap.

My cheeks flushed.

There he was in my doorway, holding flowers.  

Flowers, for Christ's sakes. 

It was cute though. I liked flowers.

Before I had the chance to say anything, Maria shoved pass me, whispered something in his ear that made him smile, then proceeded to practically skip away.

"Hullo, James."

"Thomas-" What was I supposed to say? So many thoughts raced through my head; what was he doing here? What was he planning?

He looked gorgeous. And nervous. Gorgeous and nervous. 

"So, I was thinking, do you want to maybe, uh... maybe go to lunch with me?" Was it really that stressful for him to ask me out?

My answer was obvious.

Yes. 

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

"Uh..." 

"Well it's okay you don't have to, I mean it's up to you." He gave me an awkward smile.

"Sure." I returned the smile.

He let out a deep breath. "Great. Because if you said no I'd have to give my reservations up to Maria and Theo."

I chuckled at that. 

He offered the bouquet to me, and I took them. 

"I'm just going to put these back in, on the counter, okay?" 

He nodded as I went and put the flowers away.  

We made idle talk as we went to the bus stop. And we hardly spoke on the whole ride. I didn't know where we were going, and there was this cloud of awkwardness surrounding us. I mean it was our first date and we hardly spoke to each other. Hopefully, that would change soon. The first date with the most beautiful person in the whole world. nothing could go wrong, right?