That Moment I First Saw You (TFF Fanfic)

Chapter 5: Check Mate

       Delilah awoke with them still traveling on the bus to the sounds of faint music which sounded vaguely familiar to her. What is it with always waking up to music? She thought half  annoyed yet half intrigued. Turning over onto her other side, she started to feel the pain in her head once more, but she could tell it was dying down. Hearing the word dying in her mind, Delilah's thoughts flashed back to the events the day before leading up to when Roland had saved her from the bus. Reliving the whole event again, the thought of his body being pressed up against hers made her heart do a small jump that she wasn't expecting.
       Blinking rapidly, she shook her head in annoyance and bit her bottom lip. No, no, I will not feel any butterflies for this man. This should not happen. But yet, no matter what she tried to convince herself of, she couldn't help but feel that she belonged here, especially with him.
                                ...
       Roland spent the rest of the day, half of the night and a portion of the morning after saving Delilah playing his guitar. He usually had trouble sleeping until very early in the morning, but last night any sort of sleep was nonexistent. His mind wouldn't shut up, especially when it came to the moment where he had pinned Delilah up against the bus.
       For a second he smiled at the memory but the grin didn't last long. His smile reminded him just how right it felt to have her body up close to his and this bothered him.  He had just met this woman. He had just learned her name yesterday for crying out loud. Delilah. He sighed and then looked down at the french blue guitar he was picking at.
       It's just a physical attraction he told himself. She is a very beautiful girl. And he was right. She was a very beautiful woman who was tall, with steely-blue eyes and golden blonde hair. He had always liked blondes. He smiled again, and at that moment he knew that he had to promise himself that he would not fall for her no matter how much he thought he liked her, or how pretty she was. With that, he heard her stir on the couch and felt a little bit of the same feeling he had experienced yesterday stir in his chest. Now he thought. If he could only make her promise not to fall for him either.
                                  ...
       "You can't do that Ian!"
       "Yes I can! Read the rules to the game." Manny slammed his fist down on the table where they played which caused the pieces to scatter everywhere. They had been playing the incredibley competitive game of chess for 2 hours while Roland concerned himself with writing a new song, Nicky made it her life mission to glare at Delilah every two minutes and Curt and Delilah spent a good amount of time in deep conversation. Through that time, Delilah had thoroughly learned about his and Roland's early lives and their beginnings in music.
      Born in Bath, England, they practically had been best friends from birth and had started Tears for Fears right after leaving a band called Graduate. Curt had even told his adolescent stories of thievery from the school in which he stole violins.
        "Ahhh," Delilah had cried when she first heard his admittance to the crimes. "So that's why you said that you guys might be criminals when I accused you of being kidnappers the first time I met you. " Laughing abruptly at the realization, Curt laughed along with her causing them to gain an annoyed glare from Roland.
       "Do you think that you guys can get any louder? I'm trying to concentrate here. This song might be good enough to actually become our next single." It was at that moment that another cry of dismay rose up from the losing Manny who then pushed all the chess peices off of the board.
       "Manny, what the h-".
        "Does anyone even listen to me anymore?" Roland growled flying up from the chair and beginning to walk into the adjoining room of the bus.
        "Ro what's wrong?" Curt called jolting up from his relaxed position in the booth.
       "Nothing, nothing." He shook his head but yet still continued walking in his original direction. "I'm-" he then looked over at Delilah which gained him a confused glance. "I'm just tired. Goodnight everybody." Without letting Curt or anyone else get out another word, he then walked out of the room and left everyone quiet.
       "What just happened there?" Delilah nearly whispered to Curt who sighed and then sat down to hug a single knee to his chest.
       "I don't know. He sometimes can be moody and unpredictable. But I do  have to admit, I've never seen anything that minor work him up before." Sighing, Delilah could feel restlessness begin to fill her head. She somehow felt connected to his dismay, almost responsible for it, but she knew that she couldn't blame herself. She had to distract herself, find something else to think of.
       "Alright. That's it!" Being pulled away from her thoughts, Delilah snapped her attention towards Manny who was shoving down the chess pieces again.
       "Oh c'mon man," pouted Ian. Don't be a party pooper."
       "No, I'm done. You win." Manny threw up his hands defeatedly.
       "Well, you heard it here folks. I'm the champion of the band!" cried Ian. "Anyone else wanna take on all of this?" Grinning cockily, Ian was able to gloat for about a minute and a half before Delilah took on his offer.
       "Ok ok fine. To take you down a peg I'll play you, and win."
       Raising his light brown eyebrows at her, Ian answered, "Ok fine. Let's see your moves." The game was well played yet quick and it probably only took about 10 minutes to finish.
       "What the-?" yelled Ian as Delilah sent his king to the ground with a bishop.
        "Haha yes! You go girl!" jeered Manny while doing a little victory dance. "Turns out, Ian, you aren't the best player on the bus." Manny grinned and then pointed at Delilah. "She is."
       "How did you learn to play so well?" Curt asked walking over towards the table and putting his head in one of his hands while still standing.
       "Well, I'm not that good," she answered. "I just was in my high school Chess Club for about 3 years and I am taking a little chess in college as well." Curt raised his eyebrows.
       "So, you're in college." Delilah cringed at the mention of it.
       "Well yeah, I am. I'm just taking a bit of a break from it right now, especially with my birthday coming up in two days on the 26th...It's been a hard year." To that then Curt nodded and patted her on the shoulder.
       "Well don't you worry about anything now. We won't give you any grief in this bus...unless it's Ian being beaten by you again in chess." To that Ian then hopped up and began playfully beating up on Curt which allowed Delilah's thoughts to drift off for a minute.
       Well, almost all of you won't give me grief.