Against The Odds

The Kiss

The next day it was back to work. I was at a school which was being used for filming. I was carrying two large boxes down the hall, I didn't see anything in front of me unless I poked my head sideways.

Of course I bumped into someone, almost dropping the boxes of the person wouldn't have caught them.

"Thank you." I say shakily, hoping nothing didn't break.

"Why are you in such a hurry, Alice?"

It was Ian. I set down the boxes on the floor and shook his hand. His hand lingered on mine for a second, but I pulled it back quickly.

It isn't going to be that easy, Somerhalder.

"Why are you stalking me?" I say jokingly.

"Uh, I'm working and there's about twenty people in this hall." Ian waves a hand around, indicating all the crew.

"I knew that. I was joking." I laughed.

"Really? You were so serious." He says.

"I just like messing with you." I say.

He rolled his eyes, "Hey, there's something cool that I want to show you."

"What?" I say confusedly as he took my hand and led me the opposite way I was supposed to go.

He smirked at me before opening the gym door. We walked inside and I started to laugh.

"Are you serious?" I say laughing as he walked backwards towards a very tall rock climbing tower.

"Yep, I figured you'd like these kind of things." Ian says as I took off my coral colored heels. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to climb it of course." I say jumping onto the soft mat that was underneath.

"Wait, no. I came to show you not actually do it-- hey, at least put the harness on! Alice!" Ian started to worry, but I was already halfway up.

"Relax, Smolderholder." I say, looking down at him and grinned when he passed a hand through his face in concern.

"You daredevil. Get down!" Ian snapped, looking back constantly at the door for anyone who would enter.

"Okay." I say and jumped backwards. Ian opened his arms out while cursing away, but I landed on the balls of my feet behind him after a back flip.

"Ooh, I haven't done that in a while." I say slightly out of balance.

"Don't ever do that again! You scared me." Ian scolded me and I laughed, pushing my hair back.

"I did that all the time when I was in school and there's a trampoline at my house. You don't have to be scared because I wasn't going to sue you if something happened." I say and slipped my heels back on.

"You think I'm that kind of person? God, and you think I'm stereotypical." Ian says in exasperation.

"I'm sorry, that was mean,"I sighed. "I just get defensive when people underestimate me."

Ian's expression softened, "I was just worried. I didn't want you to get hurt." He touched my cheek with his fingertips and I felt as all the blood flowed to it.

"You didn't have to. She was perfect."

We turned around, not noticing someone had walked in. He was obviously a crew member. I had seen him a couple times working with the double stunts.

"Hey, Chris, we were just leaving..." Ian says nonchalantly, like nothing happened a few seconds ago.

Chris ignored him, "You. You're the new girl. That trick you did was pretty cool."