Ethan arrives at the appointed meeting place at quarter of seven. He takes advantage of the time to lean against the next building and smoke a cigarette. Every few puffs, he glances at his watch.
At two minutes past, a slim dark-haired figure in denim edges through the crowds and taps him on the shoulder. "Hi."
"Hi yourself." Ethan smiles at him for a moment, then blinks and looks away. "You hungry?"
Jesse looks at him anxiously. "I guess."
"You guess?" Ethan looks at him again, bemused, then puts a hand on his shoulder. "I can't talk you into eating with me?"
He blushes, predictably, and grins. "If you twist my arm."
"Is that so." Ethan takes a step toward him and lowers his voice. "Violence isn't my thing. How 'bout if I just -- " he kisses Jesse's cheek.
Jesse goes scarlet, ducks his head, and looks up again with eyes sparkling. "Well, if you put it that way..."
"Okay." Ethan touches his hair gently. "You know what? You're gonna hafta stop doing that."
Jesse tucks his hands in his pockets. "Doing what?"
"Turning red every other minute." Ethan shakes his head.
Jesse hesitates, looking as though he might apologize again, then leans in to kiss his cheek in turn. "I'll try."
"Good enough for me. -- Um. Dinner?"
"Sure."
"Okay." Ethan starts walking toward the door of the restaurant, glancing over his shoulder every once in a while to see if he's lost Jesse.
But the boy keeps close behind him, dodging effortlessly around the passersby.
Ethan holds the door open behind himself for Jesse. He hardly has time to glance at the other patrons before a bored waiter asks, "Two?" and heads for a table without waiting for an answer.
Jesse slants a grin at him before they follow.
The waiter tosses a pair of menus onto the table and goes back to lurking by the door. Ethan sits down and picks one up. "The lousy thing about smoking is they don't ask you where you want to sit. Sorry."
"S'okay." Jesse slides into a seat and grins at him cheerfully. "I'll try not to pass out from the fumes."
"Sounds good to me."
Jessica Emerson walks into the restaurant, babbling about everything and nothing to the girl beside her. The waiter assumes a pained smile on his face.
With a minimum of fuss, the girls are seated and handed menus, Jessica still babbling away.
Jesse smiles across the table, and drops his eyes, flipping the menu open.
A high-pitched giggle rises above the background noise of the restaurant. "Oh, you didn't, Jess! You naughty girl."
Ethan reaches across the table and touches his wrist, lightly.
Jess laughs delightedly. "You bet I did, chica! How could I not have? Thank God Mark didn't walk in."
Jessica's friend Lupita pokes her, snickering. "Mi hermano would kill me if he knew I acted like you do."
Jesse glances up again at once, bright-eyed, and rather shyly squeezes Ethan's hand for a moment.
Jess pokes Lupita back and grins. "I'm evil. I know. It's a gift."
"You are, chiquita, you are." Lupe giggles. "What are we going to do with you?"
Ethan grins. "You didn't blush."
Whereupon, of course, he does. "No? Progress."
Ethan sighs melodramatically. "I shouldn't have mentioned it."
Jess gets an evil gleam in her eye. "Lock me in my room with a bunch of cute guys?"
Lupita giggles again. "That wouldn't make you better, now would it?"
"No, but it might make *them* feel better." Jess smiles innocently.
"I think you'd just get tired." Lupita throws a napkin at Jessica.
Jesse chuckles, glancing down again. "Sorry."
Jess ducks. "Yes, well. I'm a *very* bad girl so I'm sure I'd be locked in my room for a very long time."
Ethan laughs. "It's okay. I'm mostly teasing."
"I bet you would, Jessita." Lupita shakes her head.
Jess grins at Lupita. "You can't tell me you wouldn't do the same thing."
"I kind of figured." Jesse gives him that crooked grin.
"Would I admit it?" Lupita grins back at Jessica.
"Well, good." Ethan watches him for a few moments. "God."
"What's wrong?" Instantly worried.
"Nothing," Ethan assures him. "You're just -- cute."
Jesse gives a little breathless laugh, half flattered, half annoyed. "Really," with dry humor.
Jess shakes her head. She glances around the room briefly and notices two guys sitting at a table. One looks vaguely familiar, the other cute. She nudges Lupita. "Look at those boys over there."
"Yes, really." Ethan shrugs. "Sorry."
Lupita looks at the guys. "Jessy, they're holding hands."
Jess blinks. "They're what?"
"Why?" Jesse says softly, letting go his fingers; then glances toward Lupita in momentary confusion.
"They /were/," Lupita says, poking Jessica. "And /he's/ cute, but."
"'cause you look all weirded out," Ethan explains. "What, doesn't anybody tell you you're cute?"
Jess jumps. "Are you sure? 'Cause all I saw is cuteness and someone who looks familiar."
"Sometimes," Jesse admits, looking back at him, "just not, you know..."
Lupita nods. "I saw them, chica. Besides, you think a guy that cute would be straight?"
"Not since you were five?" Ethan grins.
Jess sighs disappointedly. "I can dream, can't I? Oh well."
"He might be bi," Lupita suggests.
Jesse's sudden chuckle overtakes him. "Pretty much, yeah."
Jess tilts her head. "Ooh. Now there's possibilities."
"Tell me about it," Lupita says in a deliberately low voice. "Should find out." She pokes Jessica.
"Well, you ought to be reminded," Ethan decides.
Jess pokes Lupita back. "Do you think I should? Really? What would I say?"
"Do /I/ know?" Lupita giggles. "I don't hit on, on mariposas."
Jess attempts to look innocent. "Did I say I was going to hit on him?"
Jesse grins, coloring a bit. "If you say so."
"You didn't have to," Lupita says, snickering.
"Well, yeah." Ethan shrugs. "Unless you don't want me to."
Jess blushes. "That obvious, huh?" She thinks (amazingly enough) for a bit. "I'll go up and see if I can figure out where I know the other guy from and see how things go from there."
"Didn't say that," half-audibly. The blush is back.
"Okay, muchacha. But be careful -- if he's /with/ that boy, he's gonna be touchy."
"All right," Ethan says gently. "I'll stop teasing you."
Jess nods. "Gotcha." As casually as she can, she gets up from her chair and walks towards the boys.
"Sorry," Jesse murmurs. Then, glancing up, he catches sight of the blonde girl approaching and blinks, wide-eyed.
Ethan's eyebrows rise. "What's up?"
Jess gives the cute boy a winning smile. "Hello there."
He blinks again. "Hi," guardedly.
Ethan turns in his chair. "Hello?"
Jess looks over at Ethan. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but you look so familiar. We haven't met, have we?"
"Um." Ethan frowns. "Got me." He glances back at Jesse.
Jesse shrugs, bewildered.
Jess wrinkles her brow. Where could she have seen him? Wait... that party that one of Mark's friends had invited her to and she had accepted because she was mad at Michael and Mark had been elsewhere... She blushes. "Ethan, is it? I think we did meet. It was a party a couple months ago.."
"A couple of -- okay. Whatever." Ethan shrugs. "Nice to see you again. Or whatever."
Jess's initial goal accomplished, she turns her attention to the cute boy. "But, I don't believe *we've* met." She smiles. "I'm Jess."
Jesse glances from one to the other quizzically, then blinks again and summons a smile. "Yeah? I'm Jesse." With the same matter-of-fact gesture as once before, he offers a hand.
Ethan clears his throat and coughs.
Jess eagerly shakes his hand, holding it a little longer than is healthy.
Jesse extricates himself gently, glancing swiftly at his tablemate. "You okay?" Solicitous, yet.
"Yeah, I'm okay." Ethan half-smiles at him. "Cancer sticks, you know."
Jess wrinkles her nose. "Cigarettes? Ew!" She blushes as she realizes what she says and scrambles for a less offensive remark.
"Nice to see you, too," Ethan says dryly.
She winces. "I really didn't mean to say that, it was a reflex."
Jesse's face darkens. He leans back in his chair, folding his arms, and regards the girl patiently.
"Yeah," disbelieving. "Have a nice night."
Jess surveys the two boys and thinks her flirtation has failed due to her brilliant remark. That and Ethan's rude dismissal. She ignores Ethan and reaches for Jesse's hand. "It was a pleasure to meet you." She leans over and whispers in his ear, "Hope to see you again. Soon."
Ethan frowns, but says nothing.
Jesse politely refuses to let her have his hand. "Maybe," he says, soft and sweet and quite, quite distant. "Bye."
Lupita giggles very loudly.
Jess smiles flirtatiously and saunters back to her table.
Ethan blinks twice, then laughs as quietly as he can. "This happen to you often?"
Jesse reddens. "I-- sometimes. --You /know/ her?"
"I don't have the first idea who she is." Ethan shrugs. "Just some wandering -- bitch."
When Jessica gets back to her table, Lupita hits her arm. "Look at him /blush/, chiquita. And the other's pissed off. What'd you /say/?"
"That's a relief." Jesse lets out a breath, and smiles lopsidedly. "I'd hate to think all your friends were like that."
Ethan snorts. "She's not my friend. Don't worry."
"Ow," Jess says as she sits down. She grins. "I said hi. And a few other things."
"Jessie, you perdida. What did you say?" Lupita purses her lips.
She shrugs. "I made a stupid comment about cigarettes, apologized, and whispered into CuteBoy's ear that I hoped I'd see him again soon."
Lupita squeals. "You /didn't/!"
"Okay." Jesse blinks once at him, and leans forward, reaching out a tentative hand to smooth back his hair. "I won't."
Ethan catches his hand with a grin. "Well, good. At least not about her."
Jess smirks. "But I did."
"His poor date!" Lupita says, clucking her tongue. "I'm almost embarrassed to be seen with you."
"Hey!" Jess says and pokes Lupita.
Jesse laces their fingers together. "Yeah? What should I worry about?"
"Talking about flirting -- well, everyone does that. But Jessita -- " Lupita waves a hand at the oft-observed table and glances over. "Bueno, doesn't look like you broke anything."
"What you want for dinner," Ethan suggests.
Jess looks over. "Guess not. Twas fun though, particularly when I imagined Mark having a heart attack."
Lupita giggles. "He would, no?"
Jess laughs. "Oh yeah! He has no sense of adventure."
Jesse grins. "Okay."
"Que lastima. He's such a pretty boy." Lupita winks at Jess.
Jess rolls her eyes. "The prettiest boy in all of creation. Except for Luke, maybe."
Ethan squeezes his hand gently. "I think I know what I want -- when we get a freakin' waiter again, anyway."
"Luke? Which one is that?"
"The one from Australia. He's nice but terminally shy. He won't me fix him up either."
Lupita giggles. "You should be happy they're not running off with nasty girls all the time like mis hermanos."
Jesse nods. "Okay, good." And falls silent then, gazing at him.
Jess nods. "True. Whatever happened with that one... uh, can't remember her name. The *really* skanky one."
After a few moments, Ethan asks, "What? Do I have somethin' on my face?"
"Yes, well." Lupita shrugs. "Boys are dumb."
Jesse laughs (all right, giggles is not too strong a word) and drops his eyes. "Sorry."
Jess nods. "Oh yeah."
"Why?" Ethan's eyebrows rise. "What'd I do?"
"Nothing!" He looks up again, eyes wide. "Nothing. I just--"
"What?" Ethan asks.
Jesse smiles shyly. "You're worth looking at."
"Oh, god." Ethan rolls his eyes, chuckling. "Thanks, but yeah, right."
"I'm serious." Indignantly. Blushing.
"You're sweet."
Jesse ducks his head in embarrassment, chuckling a little. "Oh, c'mon."
"Oh, c'mon, yourself. Flattery will get you nowhere you haven't been. -- Where the hell's the waiter?"
*fade out*
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