[chapter nine]
Disclaimer: If you've heard of them, I don't own them. Everything else is mine, so no stealing, pretty please. ;-)
**
Alexa pulled herself out of bed and hurriedly changed out of her pajamas into a pair of jeans and a tee shirt before opening her bedroom door and wearily walking into the family room, where Robby was examining the framed photos of friends and family on the mantle.
"Hi." She said softly, making him whirl around.
"Hi." Robby said, taking a deep breath. "I just…"
Alexa held up her hand. "Let's go outside."
"Why?" Robby asked in confusion.
"Because gay boys are the nosiest on the planet." Alexa explained, then smiling as she heard a muffled "Hey!" from behind Roger's door.
Moments later, they were standing outside on the back porch, sipping coffee in extremely uncomfortable silence.
"Robby." Alexa finally broke the silence. "I'm really sorry about last night. I shouldn't have done that. It was unprofessional and broke all the rules. I apologize."
Robby turned to her, his gaze meetings her for a moment before he swiftly dropped his lips to hers in a searing kiss. Alexa was so surprised at his sudden movement, she didn't even close her eyes and had trouble not dropping her coffee.
After a few moments, Robby pulled back and watched for her reaction carefully.
"Okay. I'm confused." Alexa said, shaking her head.
"I'm sorry about last night, too." Robby said softly. "I kinda panicked."
"Kinda?"
"Uh, yeah." Robby said sheepishly. "But I had a good reason!"
"Which was?" Alexa asked, trying not to celebrate, knowing that she wasn't completely off base in the kissage, but also not completely out of the woods.
"Well, it makes sense in my head, but might sound…mostly, I'm worried about age."
"Age?" Alexa asked.
"Yeah. Like the fact that your age is way less than my age." Robby said awkwardly.
Alexa laughed suddenly, the sound filling the void between them. Robby stared at her for a moment, trying not to get caught up in her laughter.
"You're worried about the fact you're older? I've been panicking for weeks about the fact I've had this total schoolgirl crush on you for like, forever and a day, and then I meet you and you're even better than I thought, and super nice and we get to sorta going out and I totally like you, and I totally crushed on you before and now you're here and you aren't totally pissed at me and you're worried about age?"
Robby opened his mouth to say something, then shut it again.
"Um. Maybe I shouldn't have blurted all that out." Alexa said, blushing. "Oops."
Robby finally did laugh, to which Alexa breathed a small sigh of relief.
"You did?" Robby asked quietly after he stopped laughing. "Have a crush on me?"
"Why do you think I was so nervous about meeting you, Mr. Gordon?" Alexa's blush deepened.
"I thought…well, I didn't think that."
"Surprise." Alexa murmured.
"But let's go back to the part about you liking me, shall we?"