No response; the club was incredibly noisy, so if you wanted to get attention, you had to be louder. "Excuse me! hey" he finally got her attention. "What's your name?" "Jennifer." "Are you with here anyone?", "A couple of friends." For someone who hadn't done this before, Derek was doing quite well. Of course, socializing with others isn't something people are naturally bad at, as it's ingrained in our DNA. However, as we all get older, we accumulate a lot of bad socializing habits from various sources that hinder the natural ability, like turning a molehill into a mountain."I'm Derek, by the way. I'm a dwarf," Derek said, not taking the situation seriously despite the fact that five points were on the line. He knew, he could always get them from another girl.
"What?" she asked.
"Nothing," he replied.
"No, not 'nothing.' I heard that. Did you just say you're a dwarf?", she wanted to make sure she wasn't hearing things
"Yeah, I did. I wanted to say something out of the blue."
"Okay," she said. "Have you ever met a dwarf? I almost met one once when I was a kid, but I was a little bitch I didn't want to go to Yolhiem. I thought they ate people."
She let out a laugh. "Actually, I've been there."
"Oh, really? With who?"
"My ex."
"Um, how old are you?" he boldly asked. Either he was born yesterday, or today was his first time talking to a girl.
"You can't ask a girl that," she chided.
Derek wasn't intimidated. "Well, only if she's old. You're not over 30, right? Because I like them young," Derek joked with a little smirk.
"Haha, you're funny. You say whatever you want, don't you? I kind of like that," she said.
"I kinda like you," he responded. "So where are you from?" he probed with casual suavity, the words barely carrying over the pulsating, electrifying thrum of the club.
"I'm from Yolhiem, didn't you notice?" she shot back, an edge of playful defiance lacing her words.
"Ha, yeah right," Derek scoffed with a smirk, riding the wave of their budding banter. "If you're from Yolhiem, then I'm the king under the mountain, a goddamned dwarf."
Her eyebrows arched in mock surprise, the electric air between them crackling with more intensity. "Wait, you're not?" she teased, diving deep into the role-playing game with gusto.
"Alright, Miss Tall-as-a-Mountain Dwarf, what do you do?" he asked, leaning in to close the gap forged by the cacophony surrounding them.
"I work in enginee…. Pffff , I think I should stop before I really turn into a dwarf. I'm kinda a model",
"Oh, cool," he replied, nonchalant, but intrigued.
"What?!" she yelled back. The music and the sea of gyrating bodies seemed to swallow her words whole.
He leaned closer, "I said—" But Derek, bless his clueless heart, didn't realise this probably cause this was new to him but almost no girl is gonna stand there at the middle of the club (where there's loud music and people bumping into you) talking to some dude for hours upon hours, it's just too inconvenient, If he wanted to keep this electric connection alive, he needed to relocate her to a more comfortable place, an intimate pocket away from the jostling nightclub jungle. Jennifer, being the pragmatic soul that she is, realized that if she intended to continue their engaging conversation with Derek, they would need to find a more suitable location.She said "hey the club is so loud you wanna go outside?" "ok".
After arriving outside they talked some more then he followed her back to her place After she invited him acknowledging that staying out any longer would mess with her sleep cause she had an early commitment the next day,—as if she wasn't out late enough already—Derek mulled over the invitation. She seemed pretty cool, and more importantly, nice. So why the hell not? Though he hadn't completed his mission, just chilling with people without the constant buzz of anxiety was good enough for today. In the past, being invited over to a girl's place—especially one he'd just met—would've sent him into a full-scale freakout.
They arrived at her place, she hopped in the shower, and chatted with him while he browsed her house. As she emerged, towel-drying her hair, she threw an unexpected question his way.
"So, Derek, what's your plan?" She arched an eyebrow at him.
'My plan? What the hell is she talking about?' Bewildered, he asked, "What do you mean?"
"Never mind," she waved the question away with a flick of her wrist. "Hey, you wanna go upstairs?" she was referring of course to her bedroom
"If you want to see the souvenirs I brought back from yolheim, they're up there."
"Cool, I'd love to see them," Derek replied, "and I'd like to hear some more cool stories about your trip there too",
"Just so you know, I went with my ex-boyfriend," she mentioned.
Derek, teasing, said, "That's fine, just leave out the bits about him."Derek said, she let out a light chuckle as they went upstairs.
After showing him the souvenirs, she got on her bed and told him some more stories about her trip, Derek, not wanting to awkwardly loom over her as if he had some sort of bed-phobia , climbed on beside her. Before long, Derek recognized that if ever there were a perfect opportunity to kiss a girl, this was it. However, the idea of swooping in for a sudden kiss felt inappropriate, so he sat there, ensnared in an awkward silence, racking his brain for a smooth approach. Then, an idea struck him. "Hey, close your eyes - I've got something incredible to show you," he suggested, and as she willingly obliged, the anticipation of what was to come hung in the air like a thick fog.
The moment it hits you, you never forget the feeling.It begins as a heaviness, a burden of such weight that it seems to compress the very air from one's lungs. This weight, as though a leaden anchor, descends from the heart, where it rests with suffocating insistence, and plummets with an unyielding gravity to the pit of the stomach, a sensation that defies words, yet etches itself upon the very body and mind.
'this again, I thought I was immune now', derek was not, he was just better at coping with the anxiety that's all doesn't mean it's impossible for him to feel it, in the future it really would be impossible but not now. "common what's going on, I don't like surprises" she cutely said, 'Fuck it,' Derek resolved, steeling his nerves as he leaned in. The sound of victory chimed in his mind, 'Bing bing,' as the system acknowledged his daring move.
'Yes,' he inwardly celebrated. And oh, she was more than just receptive, plunging her tongue into the depths of his mouth with fervor. A dance of passion ensued, punctuated by bouts of fervent groping as one shirt thudded onto the floor, swiftly followed by another. 'Holy fuck,' Derek thought, his heart pounding like a war drum.
In the heat of the moment, as Derek eagerly removed his pants, her voice sliced through the thick, electric air, "Wait."
'what' ,"I don't think we should do this we just met", "oh" Derek said disappointed as she said "but I really like you and would like to see again",
"ok". So they got dressed and exchanged numbers and Derek left.
Arriving home Derek fell on his bed and went straight to sleep, as his mom came to check up on him she saw a gleaming smile on her sleeping sons face that made her happy, "good night Derek, seeing you like this makes me glad" she said silently.