Night's Omen

"No, but it's a pretty good start," she laughed. She knew she was pushing buttons now, so she let it go. Both of them seemed to be having a little bit of a difficult afternoon, so she didn't want to antagonize him too much.

"Maybe. I wonder if catnip works, then," she said thoughtfully. She tried not to look at Dez out of the corner of her eye quite so deviously when she said it, but she failed, and ended up giving him a top notch evil smirk. "I guess we'll have to wait and see."

At least Dawn could find something to entertain herself with, it seemed. The previews had ended, though, and she settled back into the couch, becoming engrossed in the movie enough to stop teasing Dez entirely for the moment. She'd come back to it later - and she would find out about the catnip.

He snorted at 'being a guy' being a good start to why Kevin was so creepy, but then she hit on the idea that he'd actually been worried about.  The catnip.  Nooooooo, not good!

"I'm sure it doesn't," he told her confidently, wanting to throw her off that subject fast, though he didn't get the feeling it had worked.  He met her evil smirk with a worried look, and shook his head.  Finding out about the catnip with her didn't strike him as a good idea, considering how much of a dumbass he'd been earlier.

He might have argued further, but the previews ended, and she settled down into the couch and focused on the movie, so he let it go.  Even though his thoughts kept returning to just how much trouble he was probably going to be getting into with this mess, he tried to keep up with Scream.  At least it wasn't a deep movie.

Deep, no, not precisely the word for it, although Dawn had found that every time she watched it, she saw other little signs that pointed out the ending of the movie. She enjoyed it; she never got tired of it. It had the right balance of horror and comedy, which was just dandy for her.

She was trying to pay attention to the movie, but she was exhausted. Flipping out earlier after a, for lack of a better term, catnap, had drained her a little more than she thought it would have. She shifted around on the couch so that she could stretch out, leaning on Dez for support to keep her sitting mostly up. It was an innocent sort of thing, at least, and given the way she felt and his current standing, it was probably about all she could muster.

She was surprised to find how warm he was. She struggled to remember if he'd always been that way, or if it was something recent. Maybe the cat part of him had something to do with it? She wasn't certain, but either way, being warm and wrapped up in a blanket was the perfect recipe for her to start to drift off, which she eventually did.

Trying to pay attention seemed like a common trend with both of them, though he seemed to have a better time of it at first.  He didn't shift around as much on the couch, and he was actually noticing things that he'd missed the last 8,000 times he'd seen the movie, right up until she stretched out and leaned against him.  He didn't move at first, not sure if he was supposed to, and turned his head just so much that he could look down at her.

Whatever, his shoulder couldn't possibly be comfortable. 

The next time he moved, it was to pull his arm out from under her and wrap it around her, completely oblivious of her musings about his body heat.  He didn't say a word, just letting her get comfortable, and just tried to keep his focus on the movie.  That almost worked, but he definitely didn't miss it when her breathing steadied.  She was asleep.

Desiré may have even followed suit, and definitely considered it, but he also remembered the fact that Sebastian and his mom would be home before long, and Dirk could show up at any time.  Better to hear them enter and nudge her awake than be passed out for who knows how long while someone snickered at them. 

Something in the movie woke her up - probably the gunshot at the end. She opened her eyes, yawning. "Oh, wow," she said softly. She looked down at his arm, and then frowned a little. She glanced back up at Dez and then sat up more, pushing away from him. No, that wasn't fair.

"I'm surprised you didn't go all fuzzy on me again," she laughed. "I missed most of the movie. Figures. I guess now I'm ready to practice my lines - or when it's over, anyways." She yawned again, and reached up to fix her hair into a ponytail. "Want a soda?"

She stood and folded the blanket, waiting for him to answer her.

He was almost dozing himself by the end of the movie, and didn't entirely remember certain parts, which meant that he'd been slipping out, but he hadn't actually fallen asleep.  Close, but not quite.  Dawn pushed herself up and off of him, not something he objected to (he had no right to), and he simply yawned as she woke herself up and stood to fold the blanket.  He gave her a 'look' about him going fuzzy, but it didn't have much feeling behind it.

"I thought about a nap, but 'going fuzzy' would have been a bad idea.  My mom still hasn't seen the 'mystery cat' Uncle Dirk claims Sebastian is hiding, and trying to get away so that it wouldn't look like you were just chilling in here alone would have been almost impossible," he explained.  He would have totally fallen asleep if he'd been a cat during that whole thing. 

Given that he still didn't mind the idea of falling asleep, a soda sounded good.  Caffeine just generally sounded good, and they probably should get something resembling practice done.  That was why she'd dropped by, after all.  "Sure, that sounds good.  Soda first, though."

Dawn laughed aloud when he mentioned the mystery cat. "Sebastian takes an awful lot of crap from him," she said, shaking her head. "Although I think it's sort of funny that Dirk probably will lose his mind over this ordeal if Sebastian wants to take advantage of it. Ever see Bewitched? You remember the nosy neighbor who would always witness Samantha doing crazy stuff, and nobody believed her?" She laughed again and walked into the kitchen.

She grabbed two Dr. Peppers from the refrigerator and came back into the living room, giving an underhand toss of one in Dez's direction. "Ready to go read?" she asked. She still had little butterflies about the scene they were on, but she figured that she'd have to do it in front of hundreds of people, so alone in Dez's room really couldn't be any worse.

She wasn't kidding about Sebastian taking a lot of crap from Dirk, but Desiré definitely got his share, as well.  Dirk had relaxed on him a little since the accident, but he was pretty sure that was because the man was afraid of breaking him if he pushed at him too hard.  Dez definitely wasn't going to break, but he wasn't telling Dirk that.  Let the man worry.

"Don't tell Sebastian that.  He's likely to figure it out on his own, and he doesn't need the encouragement," he warned her, and he meant it.  A 'war' between Dirk and Sebastian would get ugly fast. 

He caught the soda without hesitation, but waited to open it.  He wasn't stupid, and he wasn't taking a Dr Pepper bath right then, thanks.  "Sure, are you?" he asked, just checking.  She was the one who'd wanted to stop the scene.  Really, he understood, but they had to do it eventually.  He wouldn't push to get this one done, though.  It was true that they'd have to in front of a LOT of people, but perhaps that would be easier than alone in his bedroom.  It'd feel less personal.  "We can stay in here, if you want."

He might as well offer her a way of not being alone and reading a romantic scene with him in his room.

"Nn-" Dawn started, and then stopped. She shook her head. "No, it's fine. I don't want everyone coming in and making fun of us, anyways. Well, your mom will probably pull up a chair. If I have to hear how great a Romeo you are one more time, I'll barf," she said with a mock gagging sound. "If only dear Kevin thought so highly of you," she added wistfully.

"And besides, I left all my junk in there anyways." She just turned and headed that way, soda in hand, damned what Dez would say. If he insisted again, she'd probably comply, but honestly, she figured she may as well get it over with. They couldn't stop practicing in closer quarters just because of this stupid... stupidness. She'd never make it to opening night if she couldn't learn to read him.

The fact was that they got along well, but in character the repertoire was just awesome. Convincing. Dawn, well, she was a drama queen, so that was her thing, but the fact that Dez actually had a brain somewhere up there made her feel a little better about her life in general. If all football players could think, she'd find one worth snagging yet. Lawl.

"If you have to hear it?" he asked, aware that Dawn couldn't possibly have a clue what Dez had to listen to from his mother all the time, including anything from how the play practice was going to what he thought of his 'pretty friend'.  Like most moms, she seemed to think that her boys were better behaved than they actually were, but in a case like that, she didn't need to worry.  Even if Desiré displayed and pursued an interest in Dawn, he wouldn't be stupid about it.  His mom thought it was cute, especially that they were playing Romeo and Juliet.  "If Kevin thought as highly of me as my mom, I'd be kind of freaked out, I have to admit.  He probably thinks as highly of you as she does, though."

He wasn't kidding.  That kind of interest from that creep would be freaky.  He definitely pitied Dawn, and wasn't far away from scaring Kevin away from her. 

Without a reason to refuse, he shrugged and followed her back up to his room to do their practicing there.  He agreed with her on the issue of his mom pulling up a chair, since he definitely didn't want that.  It'd be bad enough that his mom would be at the play when they did it for real, and he'd have to listen to it after that.  Moments like those made him wonder how he'd let the ex of his talk him into the drama class, even though he was enjoying it (for the most part).  He'd taken some flack from the other football players, but their complaints only went so far in his opinion.  Actually, part of that problem was the fact that most of them couldn't think, which he didn't know was an issue of Dawn's.  He got along with them because he got along with almost everyone, and he played ball with them.  They definitely weren't there for conversation.  He had people like Dawn for that.

Regardless, he'd found it kind of surprising that he could pull off the drama class, though he probably shouldn't have.  If you were to ask his brother, Desiré was amazing at 'pretending', and what was theater except pretending? 

"So, ready?"

Dawn glared at him from over her play book, eyes narrowed. "Ew. Not funny," she warned. She sighed and tossed aside her long brown hair, eyes scanning the scene as Dez prompted her. "Uh, let's just go from Act Three, Scene Five again. This time no interruptions, I hope."

She was silent for a moment while he flipped pages, and then finally, she spoke. "So, like, if you see something like a laser pointer, will you chase it?" She looked absolutely serious at first, and then grinned at his astonished sort of expression. "I'm kidding. But I will arm myself with one in case you do," she said, a warning note in her voice.

With a quick clearing of her throat, she began:

"Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day: It was the nightingale, and not the lark, that pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear; Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate-tree: Believe me, love, it was the nightingale."

Dawn laughed internally. It basically translated into, "Oh no, that wasn't the 6 AM bell you heard, it was the 6 PM. Men could be so stupid.