it's driving me mad

[andrew barret]

I want you so bad
it's driving me mad

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Closing down the computer, Andrew scratched his neck before he rose from the chair. A sigh escaped his lips as he tried to decide what to do. Only 5 minutes ago Andrew had been looking through his photos on one of the school’s computer and actually he had a very little idea of how he had suddenly ended up on the school’s homepage checking what class Ella Torres was having at the moment. Something that he should never, never have done. Now he was debating with himself whether or not he should go there to see her.

But as always Andrew wasn’t really able to just make a decision. For a second he stood and stared into the ground. There were a couple of other students in the room, but no one he knew well enough to ask for advice. Actually there was only one person he was so close to that he would ask for advice concerning a girl. Yes, he knew it was stupid and he knew that he was being pathetic. But this wasn’t just any girl. This was Ella Torres. Okay, so maybe he didn’t really know her, but that didn’t mean that he didn’t know her. He knew her name and he knew that she was a drama major. And sometimes he even said ‘hi’ to her or smiled at her if they walked by each other in the hall.

He still remembered the first time he noticed her. He had spent an entire afternoon taking photos of people on campus. It was nothing special, it was something he did quite often actually. But when the lens of his camera caught her face he almost lost his breath. He wasn’t sure if he had actually seen her before, but seeing as they had been at the same school for three years, he probably had. Andrew didn’t now why it was different this time and at first he had just put it out of his head. But then when he had developed the film and put the photos up on his wall, the photo of her just stood out next to all of his other photos, which where hundreds of photos. Ever since that day he had just pricked up his ears every time he heard someone mention her name, or he heard her voice

Picking up his phone he called the only person, who knew about his crush, Lachlan. He could probably help him decide whether he should go to the place where she had class or if he should just stay away, but Lachlan didn’t pick it up. Whether that was good probably depends on who you are and Andrew himself couldn’t quite decide whether he was happy that Lachlan hadn’t answered or not, but he left a message on his answering machine.

”Hey, I just called to hear your opinion on whether or not I should go to the place where Ella has class right now. Just so I could, you know, talk to her or something. So pick up your phone… now…” he waited for a few seconds before he continued speaking. ”Pick up your phone if you think I should not go…” For some reason Andrew always made the longest voice messages in the world. ”Okay, so I guess that means that you think I should go…” Closing his phone, he put it back in his pocket and picked up his bag pack.

It wasn’t until he stood outside the building where she had her class that he realized exactly how stupid this was. What was he going to do? Walk by her and just say hi? It was not like he had the courage to actually stop her and start talking. No, he couldn’t do that. He sighed before he decided that this had been a horrible idea. Shaking his head he walked over to the coffee cart close by and got in line while he still kept glancing towards the front door of the building, hoping to catch a glimpse of her whenever she came out from class.


tag: Nic
Ooc: Stalker much? I love the sig btw <3 thank you!!!

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[ella clemintine torres .]

let me take you down

because i'm going.

Ella Torres missed the high school bell. There was something completely poetic about hearing that bell that signalled the end of class and being able to just stand up and walk out. Even now, Ella found herself fantasising about hearing that bell ring. See, she wasn’t in the mood for that particular class as she had been up all night finishing off an essay for it. She’d then crawled into bed for a few hours sleep before her class. Needless to say that she had woken up to her alarm clock feeling very resentful towards her essay, and the class it was for. Ms Torres liked her sleep.

Her mind was really not on the class at all. Her teacher was painfully going over what the essays they had just handed in should have been like. No offence to the teacher, but that was really the last thing Ella wanted to hear. In fact, she couldn’t imagine anyone wanted to hear about the little things they’d done wrong after they’d spent a lot of time on the stupid thing. Certainly not after they’d just handed it in anyway, and couldn’t do a thing to change it. She supposed the whole point was to learn from mistakes, but honestly? All she wanted was sleep.

At long last, the teacher wrapped up her speech on the correct way they all should have written the essay and bid them all farewell. Ella shot up out of her chair. While the rest of the class lazily readied themselves to exit the room, Ella jammed her note pad, text book and pencil case back into her nap-sack and through it over her shoulder. The promise of getting out the stuffy class-room had fuelled the young woman with a fire she hadn’t had before. Bidding a hasty good-bye to her friends and classmates, Ella was out of the class room, out of the building and into the fresh air.

In her rush however, Ella was neglecting to be very careful. As she swerved passed someone, to get around them, Ella brushed past the coffee cart. As she did, her back strap caught itself on one of the edge of the cart. Without realising, Ella continued at her quickened pace. With Ella’s weight tugging at it, the caught strap ripped away from the bag, tearing a hole in the fabric and causing the bag to start to fall from her shoulder. It happened so fast that it was on the floor, with her belongings spilling everywhere before she had even turned around.

“….crap..”

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[andrew barret]

I want you so bad
it's driving me mad

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He saw her right away. In the exact second she came through the doors his eyes caught sight of her. Wow, she looked… he couldn’t find words to describe it. She wasn’t like Amanda Amos or Callie Vanderbilt – beautiful blondes that basically every single guy on the University wanted to date. Or hot like Jaclyn Forroster, which every guy, and probably also several girls wanted to lie down. No, it was different with Ella and better. Much better. Because she wasn’t the kind of beauty that a guy saw every day… on TV at least. It was just when she was there the entire world seemed brighter and less scary.

Stop staring, he told himself as he saw her walking towards him. Quickly he looked down, took a handful of coins out of his pocket and started counting. Actually he couldn’t really afford a cup of coffee. He had bought a new camera, again, in the beginning of the month. It wasn’t a very good one and it had been cheap compared to other cameras, but it was a camera that was missing in his collection, so Andrew absolutely needed to buy it. Not the smartest thing to do when you already live on oatmeal. He hadn’t been able to buy food every day this month and now he was going to spend 3 dollars on coffee. But he didn’t know what else to do. It would seem stupid to leave now when it was almost his turn.

When it was almost his turn he suddenly noticed Ella walking right by him. He watched her from the corner of his eye, as she rushed passed him. She didn’t look too happy, actually, not at all. Instead she looked tired and rather sad, which wasn’t a state that he had seen her in before, but it didn’t matter. She was still beautiful no matter what mood she was in.

It was finally his turn and Andrew ordered a medium sized coffee – might as well spend some money now he was at it. But just before he handed over the money, he noticed how the strap of Ella’s bag had caught itself on the edge of the cart, but before he could do anything he saw how her bag was ripped open and all of her books, papers and lots of other stuff fell out and onto the ground. He saw the look on her face as she turned around, seeing all her things all over the ground. For a second he stood completely still then he nervously shook his head. This was his chance. She was standing right in front of him, all he had to do was say ‘hi’ or help her pick up her thing or something. Anything.

It seemed like forever, at least for Andrew before he was finally able to do anything. ”Make that two,” he said and gave the guy behind the cart all the money in his hand, before he bended down to pick up some of the books that had fallen out of her bag. When he couldn’t hold more books in his arms he rose again, not sure what to do next. ”Ehm..” He said uncertain whether he should give her the books. Was her bag okay? Would she be able to put them back in there or should he carry them for her? Could she carry them on her own?

But before he had time to back a decision the two cups of coffee that he had ordered was held out for him to take. Unfortunately his hands were already full. Looking at Ella, he didn’t quite have the courage to look her straight in the eye. ”I bought one for you.” He said, nodding towards the coffee. ”Looks like you could need some,” Oh wait, did that sound like he thought she looked horrible? Why did he just say that? He just wanted to be nice to her, and now he had told her that she looked tired. And yes, she did, but you don’t actually tell a girl that. Do you? ”Not that you look bad or anything. Not at all actually…” Okay, shut up now!

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[ella clemintine torres .]

let me take you down

because i'm going.

Really. Ella should have expected something like that to happen. She had the worst luck, and generally if she was having a sucky day, everything that could possibly go wrong would go wrong. In fact she should have been surprised she had successfully handed in her essay without some huge disaster. Her bag breaking was probably the universe’s way of saying ‘hold on Ella Torres. That’s too much good luck for one day, lets even this out a bit.’ She must have killed puppies in a previous life to deserve so much miss-fortune.

Bending down, she started to gather up her things. Groping for the more personal items first, and shoving them back into the broken bag. The last thing she needed was for her female hygiene items to be on display for everyone to see. She hadn’t noticed that someone had bent down to help her either. Ella was too stressed over the whole event to pay much notice to Andrew. However if she had of, she may have realised just how nice it was of him to help. Considering no one else was helping. Not unless you counted standing and gawking. Which she didn’t.

As he spoke, Ella was slightly startled. She stood up, shoving books and loose-leaf paper into her bag. Eyes darting around to find the owner of the voice before they rested on Andrew. She’d seen him before. Actually a lot. He always seemed to be around. She’d passed him in the halls and smiled politely countless times. However they’d never really spoken before. She always thought he looked like a decent person though. Sometimes you could just tell by the look of a person. This kind act was only proof that his looks were not deceiving and he was in fact a genuine person.

Ella looked at the coffee as though Christmas had come early. That was exactly what she had needed and she’d probably be eternally great-full. “Oh God. I love you!” she explained without really thinking. Ella threw that word around somewhat casually. “Thank you so much!” She returned her gaze to Drew and noticed he was holding some of her things. “Oh!” She flushed slightly, stepping over closer to the boy so she could take her things off him a few at a time, settling them back into her bag. Ella heard his comment about her looking ‘not at all bad’. However she said nothing. Merely letting her cheeks flush in response.

Once everything was in her bag, Ella undid a huge safety pin that was in the flap of her knapsack for decoration, and used it to secure the bag enough to last til she got back to her dorm. It looked like it was beyond being sewn up so she’d probably have to get a new one. Which wasn’t nice, considering she was rather attached to the now broken one. Once she was happy with her efforts on her bag, Ella looked up. Cheeks flushing, yet smiling, the brunette took her coffee and sipped it. It was really very good.

“Oh!” She frowned slightly. Ella opened her bag and one handedly dug around for her purse. “How much do I owe you for the coffee?”

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[andrew barret]

I want you so bad
it's driving me mad

[/size][/center][/b]

Andrew almost lost his breath when she stood there in front of him. Ella Torres possessed the kind of beauty that could not be found within every corner of a street. He watched her as she picked up the rest of her things, but he didn’t see what the things were. He didn’t really notice the people around them, he didn’t focus on the coffee in his hand or anything else.

That was how beautiful he considered Ella.

He took in another deep breath and with it, came a faint and yet delicious scent from her. An unmistakeable scent. But when she announced the three words: I love you, Andrew froze. Wait what? Did she just say that? Looking around he made sure that she was actually speaking to him and not anyone else, but there was no one standing behind him. No, Ella was talking to him ”Ehm…” What the hell was he supposed to answer? Did she mean it? Off course she didn’t. They had only just met. He didn’t love her. Not a lot. It was just a silly crush She didn’t even know him. She probably just something she said. Maybe she had said it to the coffee. I love you coffee. Yeah, sure. God, he hated himself for not being wittier or faster. Andrew hated himself for not being charming. How he wished, he could have come up with something to say. Anything really.

As she stepped closer to him and took her things her fingers stroke his hand, and instantly he felt as if he was walking through a burning house. He was still unable to make words pass his lips. Why was it so damn hard to just say something? He’d seen other guys flirt and talk to girls they liked. They always made it look so easy, why couldn’t he just do the same?

He smiled uneasily and took a sip of his coffee just in order to do something instead of just standing there. Right now he could have shot himself several times or stabbed himself with a knife. It was unbelievable how he always managed to get himself into horrible awkward situations like this. At least he himself thought it was awkward, the silence was bugging him and this time more than it ever had before. For God’s sake, this was the first time he had actually gotten a chance to speak to her for real, and he just stood there.

But it made Andrew happy to see her face when he gave her the coffee. At least he had done one thing right. Reaching out for the milk on the counter, he opened his mouth in order to ask her whether she wanted milk or not, but she was already drinking it, so he quickly closed his moth again and poured some milk into his own coffee. A sigh of escaped his lips as she spoke again. Scratching his neck he finally managed to speak: ”Don’t worry about it.” he said and once again he fell silent. Say something he thought to himself over and over again, leaving no room for him to actually think of something nice or witty to say to her. Finally he gave up. ”Your name’s Ella, right?” He asked, stupid question, he already knew her name. But he just wanted to keep her there for a little while more.

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[ella clemintine torres .]

let me take you down

because i'm going.

Ella frowned slightly. She considered it for a moment. She could either force him to take her money or just accept the nice deed. Sure, she was somewhat feminist in her ideas and she believed women were equal and independent and all that sort of thing, but this was different. Some girls took it too far and didn’t allow men to be chivalrous anymore, or people to do something nice for them. In Ella’s opinion, the feminist movement had a lot to do with why Chivalry was basically dead. Of course, it wasn’t dead in the young man standing in-front of her.

Ella offered him a warm smile. “That’s really sweet of you.” She looked back down at her coffee, taking another sip. It was really doing the job in perking her up. “Well if you won’t let me pay you back with money, at least let me pay you back some other way… What are you doing right now? We could go sit and drink these together, or walk and drink them together? Either way.” Ella realised that words were flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup. What she didn’t understand was why. Perhaps the coffee was giving her a slight buzz.

Or maybe, just maybe, she wasn’t as collected as she’d like to think. The inner romantic in Ella recognised the highly adorable situation she was in. Not to mention the guy was highly adorable too. He had that gorgeous, without knowing it thing working well for him actually. Which, for Ella was actually a huge turn on. She hated guys who knew they were good looking and played up to it. She wasn’t one to enjoy the cocky bravado like other girls. Of course, as taken as she was with the situation, she didn’t expect it to lead to anything. Adorable boys went for adorable girls. Not Ella.

Hearing him say her name, Ella felt slightly taken aback. It surprised her actually. “Uh… yeah.” She shook her head slightly, before realising that was the wrong motion and nodded. “Yes. I’m Ella.” She bit the inside of her lip. Had they met before? Was she supposed to know his name? Oh god, that was completely embarrassing. Her cheeks flushed slightly, as she looked up at him. “Uh.. I’m sorry, but I don’t know your name?” Ella took a step away from the cart, still holding eye-contact with Andrew. She hoped to God he wouldn’t be too upset that she didn’t know who he was.

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