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“Come on, Rose, you’ve got to see it!”
Rose sighed and leaned back in the library chair to look up at Jack hovering above her.
“He’s just some idiot playing Rock Band in your dorm’s lounge. Why the hell should that mean that I need to go watch him do it? Sounds like he thinks enough of himself without my attention.”
“Because he’s actually really good,” Jack said, sitting down opposite her at the desk. “He’s working through the entire track list, getting 100% on every single song, every single level, every single instrument. He’s like a freakin’ Rock Band Doctor.”
“And I’m sure he’s never going to be a real one if he spends all his time playing video games rather than studying.”
Jack shook his head. “I’ve heard he’s brilliant, and that’s why he can do it. Like… he’s not even listening to the music, he’s just doing the calculations in his head.”
“Sounds like bollocks to me.”
“Come on, Rose. He’s a machine! Besides that, he’s hot as hell.”
Rose rolled her eyes. Jack could not be dissuaded from trying to set her up with every bloke they ran across. (Or at least those who had shown no interest in him.) Ever since things had ended with her boyfriend, Mickey, who went to school across the state, Jack had been relentless.
“You can’t possibly think I’d date someone who is more interested in Rock Band than, I dunno… school? Showering? Girls?”
“Maybe the right girl…” Jack insinuated, waggling his eyebrows at her.
“Jack.”
“Fine, fine,” Jack said, leaning back in his chair. “You don’t have to date Rock Band guy, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still think you should consider going out with someone. You said Mickey the Idiot had a new cuddle buddy.”
“According to Facebook,” she confirmed, turning her eyes back to her book. She wasn’t terribly interested in talking about it.
“So no harm, no foul, right? He’s got someone, which means you can get someone.”
“Honestly, Jack, just shut up, okay?”
“So what are you doing?” he asked, unwilling to give up and leaning over her book into her light.
“Homework.”
“Oh come on, Rosie! It’s Thursday night! You don’t even have class tomorrow!”
Several people around them looked up and sent annoyed hisses toward him at this outburst. Jack just glared at each of them until they turned back to their books, then returned his attention to Rose.
“Damn it, Jack, you’re going to get me kicked out of the library,” Rose hissed.
“Good. It’s not normal for a girl your age to be hanging out at the library on a weekend night.”
“What the hell do you mean, ‘my age’? You’re older than me.”
“Which means you’re far too young to be at the library. Come on, Rose. I won’t stand for it.”
Without further ado, Jack slapped her book closed, picked it up, and took off out of the stacks toward the front door, leaving Rose staring after him in shock.
“It’s probably best not to argue with him,” the guy at the table behind her murmured. “Jack’s not really the kind of guy you can say no to.”
“I’ve done it a few times before,” Rose said, turning to find a plain-faced blonde bloke sitting there, smiling resignedly at her.
“Yeah? I never could.” He offered a hand. “I’m Alonso. Jack and I dated for a bit last year.”
“Rose,” she said, shaking his hand. “Did he walk out with my book?”
“Was it a library book?”
“Yeah.”
“Then he’ll be checking it out. He does actually respect the library, even if he can’t figure out how to speak quietly. You should be able to catch up with him at the front desk.” He waved as she stood and slung her bag over her shoulder. “Good luck, Rose.”
Alonso was right, Jack was just finishing checking out Rose’s French book when she made it to the front and fell into step beside him out the door.
He handed her the book. “Don’t return it late, okay. My standing with the library is sterling, and I’d hate for you to ruin it for me.”
She snorted and did not dignify it with any further response as she tucked the book into her bag. The pair walked in silence together across the dark, mostly empty campus.
“So fine. I’m out of the library. What did you have in mind that isn’t studying then?”
She could feel Jack shrug beside her. “First things first, you have to see the Rock Band Robot Doctor Jedi guy. After that, I dunno… Movie Hits?” he referred to the video rental store across the street from the east side of campus that was open 24 hours and rented movies to anyone with a student ID for 25 cents a night. Rose was pretty sure the open secret marijuana trade out of the back room was what kept the lights on, but the place had the best selection of movies anywhere besides Netflix.
“Yeah, I suppose. Let’s grab shawarma on our way back too then, okay? And no porn.”
“You’re no fun, Rosie.”
When they reached his dorm, Jack unlocked the door and held it open for Rose to walk through. Once inside, she could already hear the video game strains of The Foo Fighters’ Learn to Fly from the lounge. She didn’t wait for Jack as she followed the noise to the room full of boys watching a single bloke standing in the middle, looking rather ridiculous with a tiny plastic guitar slung low on his hips.
Rose was somewhat surprised to find that Jack was right- the Rock Band Doctor-Robot-Jedi-Ninja-Samurai-Super Hero-Wizard (Jack had added several qualifiers on their walk) was actually good-looking. He was tall and skinny as a rail, wearing a pair of pinstripe brown trousers that looked like they were painted on his bum, a Beatles t-shirt, and a pair of ratty white Converse high tops. His brown hair looked like it had been styled to attract a hedgehog, and Rose thought he might not have shaved in days. Most compelling of all (though Rose would walk off the roof of the English building before saying as much to Jack) were the black-rimmed spectacles that were sliding to the end of his nose as he frowned at the screen. She noted, with some interest, that he had a dimple in his right cheek when he frowned and wondered if it also appeared when he smiled.
“I told you he was a bit of all right, didn’t I?” Jack asked, making Rose jump and squeak. She hadn’t known he was behind her.
Apparently her noise distracted Rock Band guy, because the television let out a discordant note, and every voice in the room except Jack and Rose’s gave a lusty groan.
Rose looked up to find the skinny bloke with the tiny guitar staring at her, and was surprised to find that he had brown eyes.
~?~?~?~?~
“He’s been asking about you,” Jack said, sitting down across from Rose in the dining hall, three bowls of different flavors of cereal on the tray in front of him.
“Who?” Rose asked.
“Rock Band Wizard.”
“You’ve settled on Wizard? Does he play by smell.”
Jack ignored this. “He hasn’t been playing at all, actually, and he’s been asking about you.”
“Probably to tell me off for ruining his streak.”
“His name is John,” Jack continued, completely ignoring Rose.
“Good for him.”
“He asked if you’re single.”
Rose looked up from her lunch in horrified shock. “You didn’t tell him, did you?”
Jack gave her an exasperated look. “Of course not, Rosie. I told him that was your business, and if he wanted to know he should ask you.”
Rose sighed in relief.
“I did tell him your name, and that you like movies though, you know… in case he asks you out.”
“Jack!”
~?~?~?~?~
Considering he was purported to be a genius, it took John a surprisingly long time to try to find Rose at Movie Hits. It was nearly three weeks after their first encounter that he found her crouched down to see the bottom shelf of the science fiction section.
She reached for a movie and flipped the case over to the back to read the blurb.
“If you want a happy ending,” John said before he could stop himself, “that one won’t do. He’s gay and she’s an alien, after all.”
Rose toppled over from her precarious crouch and found herself looking up, up, up at him towering above her.
“I’m sorry,” he said, crouching down and offering a hand. “I’m so sorry. Should have announced myself. John. John Nobel. I could have given my surname first, like James Bond, but I’m afraid I’m not nearly that suave. We met the other night.”
Rose just sat on the floor, blinking at him.
John pulled his arm back, wiping it on his trouser leg as she continued to stare at him like he was an alien.
“Um… you might not remember, but you… um… I was playing Rock Band in the lounge of the boys’ dorm and… um… you came in and I saw you and… um…”
“You fumbled your fingering,” Rose supplied when he couldn’t seem to find the phrase.
“Fumbled my fingering,” John said, tasting the words against his tongue. “That’s fun to say. You’re right clever, you are. How’d you think of that?”
Rose settled herself tailor-fashion on the floor and shrugged.
“Well, anyway, I um… got a bit distracted from my game because… well…” John licked his lips and took a deep breath. “Because-you’re-the-most-beautiful-girl-I’ve-ever-seen-and-I-didn’t-know-what-to-do.”
He could feel his face and ears flaming and knew he must look like a tomato. He couldn’t meet Rose’s eyes.
“Look, Jack wouldn’t tell me if you’re single, and given that you’re friends with him, I can only assume he’s more your type than me, but I had to say something because… well… because it needs to be said. That’s all. Okay, I’ll go now.”
John was up off the floor and halfway through the documentary section before he felt a small, warm hand grab his, pulling him to an abrupt halt.
“Hey,” Rose said, when he turned to look at her, “not so fast. I’m Rose, Rose Tyler- I’m not as suave as James Bond either. I’m single and I like coffee. There a shop on campus that I like, if you want.”
John let out the breath that he hadn’t realized he was holding, and grinned, even knowing he must look like a maniac.
“Rose Tyler,” he said, finding it even better against his tongue than her alliteration. “That sounds brilliant.”