About Freaking Time [izz;closed]

Simon had to admit, he was a bit nervous.

Granted, he was almost positive that no one had asked Izz to homecoming yet, even if that did shock him a bit. Still, the feat he was about to commit wouldn't be reached easily. Two thousand balloons, he found, were incredibly hard to transport. It wasn't that they weighed anything, of course. It was more of a matter of figuring out how to keep dozens of garbage bags filled with said balloons as inconspicuous as possible. He had left it up to Isaac to keep Izz as for away from her dorm as possible, which shouldn't be very hard. It was considerably easy to keep Izz distracted. Meanwhile, Simon tied bag after bag filled with various balloons to a shopping cart and pulled his good ol' skimask over his face and wheeled towards the girl's dormitories.

Fitting the cart filled with balloons into the elevator turned out to be even more of a challenge. Simon quickly found that elevators weren't designed to hold such contraptions as a practically bubble-wrapped shopping cart, and, with a defeated sigh, turned towards the stairwell after ten minutes of trying to fit himself in there and numerous girls screaming and yelling. Simon only had to look up at the twisting and turning cement stairwell to realize that bringing the entire cart up there wasn't something that could be accomplished. One by one, then, he untied the bags of balloons from the shopping cart and carried them up to Izz's dorm. One by one, then, he dumped the bags onto the floor of the dorm until each of the bags were emptied.

And it wasn't until after Simon had dumped all of the balloons that he remembered that he needed to lay his poster out. Grumbling curses under his breath, he did all he could to maneuver through the balloons and lay the poster across the carpeted floor.

A good fifteen minutes later, he was ready. The room was almost entirely filled with balloons. Standing in the hallway, Simon admired his handiwork, and left. Now Izz would just have to find the large painted message, "Will you go homecoming with me?" that was scrolled across the poster. Simon chuckled happily as he imagined Izz rummaging through the balloons.

After a long day of dragging Isaac around sweater shopping, purchasing everything she wanted at his insistence, Isabelle was beat. Her brother had been acting strange all day, though that had not really bothered her; Isaac was always acting like a weirdo. She just chalked it up to PMS and continued looking in mirrors and holding sweaters up, disappearing into changing rooms, while he checked his phone repeatedly and most suspiciously. Who else could he be texting? Isabelle was right there with him...

Exhausted from the arduous trip, Izz was excited to go back to her room and file away all her new clothes in their proper drawers. Even though their birthday was coming up, she still felt the need to purchase some good fall clothing; after all, it wasn't like she was going to get a bunch of clothes for her 16th birthday for pete's sakes. You got car-type stuff for that one. Duh.

So it was a most confusing surprise to the sophomore when she could barely open her room due to a sea of multi-colored balloons. Most perplexed, she ran through the list of possible culprits in her brain. It surely wasn't a hate crime, since balloons didn't exactly scream loathing, so she quickly cut out the list of her enemies. Jane could've done it, but she and Isaac had run into her with Katz on the town, which also meant Micah wasn't responsible. Audie wouldn't waste her time pulling some stupid stunt like this; neither would Sophia Ann. Kaylor would never trash her own dorm, and Alicia might, but Isabelle knew for a fact she was away for the weekend.

After she'd waded her way to the very center of the room, Isabelle managed to throw her bags towards the general vicinity of her bed before pulling out her cell phone and texting Simon viciously. Of course it was him. She hadn't seen him at all that day, and normally he loved going out with her and Isaac. Simon had guilty written all over him. Once she got his text back that he was going to help her clean up, she pulled out two sewing needles from her kit in her dresser drawer, which she'd had to practically swim through balloons to get to, and started popping balloons, jumping a little with each loud pop!

Okay, and Simon thought he was nervous earlier.

His entire stroll sprint jog to the girls' dorms, he flipped his phone open and closed anxiously, absentmindedly making remarks about clothes being taken off or something of the likes as he made his way through the brisk November weather. Even with the blustery and chilled weather, Simon felt like he could break out in a light sweat at any second. Damn. He was really. nervous. What bothered him the most, though, was that he really had no reason to be so unnerved by this all. After all, he was only asking her to homecoming. He could've asked any other girl in the school no problem. But then again, Izz always had a way of being slightly different, now hadn't she? Simon had always felt this dangerous level of comfort around her, and it seemed that now that he was finally feeling comfortable around all of the other girls, Izz just haaad to move up the ranks enough for her to make him fidget a bit.

A little bit out of breath, he hustled up the stairs towards Izz's dorm. He hesitated a bit, though, when he got to the door that led to her hall. Now, this is it, he reminded himself as he leaned in the door frame. Granted, you don't know what this is, but it's here. And you can't ignore it here. No more freaking denial now. Simon flipped open his phone and eyed a text from Isaac earlier in the day, asking just what he was up to. He chuckled awkwardly, and finally pushed himself out into the hallway.

Finding Izz's dorm was, of course, nothing difficult. After all, he'd been there a thousand times before. But still, he felt this ever-so-slight floaty feeling as he proceeded, not bothering to announce his entrance as he heaved himself into the wall of latex. The pop! pop! pop! of the balloons resonated and echoed through the surviving balloons, doing unimaginable damage to his eardrums as he searched out his damsel in distress.

Finally, the popping noise led him to her. On a sudden nerve of confidence, and certainly without considering the fact that Izz must be holding something sharp and pointy if she was murdering balloons, Simon threw one arm around her waist and the other over her mouth and shouted an obnoxious "BOO!" before letting her go.

As soon as she was assaulted, Isabelle was also assaulted, hur hur, by a bevvy of strange feelings. True, she'd been feeling all kinds of weird things towards her shared best friend lately, including heavy guilt for the possible wedge she may be forming in their little three-person family. The feeling of his arm around her waist, however surprising it was and however sharp the objects in her fingers were, she still felt safe and a little warmer than usual.

After a moment of enjoying the feeling of him next to her, even with his hand over her mouth, she scoffed obnoxiously as soon as her lips were free and gestured around the room before handing Simon the sharp needle and going back to her popping.

"You're ridiculous. What was the point of this? You got me, good job..." she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes as she thwacked him on the arm to get him to start popping balloons.

After a good ten minutes of work, Isabelle's bare foot found something in the middle of the floor that made her slip around a little on the carpet below. She reached through the balloons, now about knee-height, and groped blindly until her fingers curled around the edge of a poster board and pulled it up out of the sea of balloons.

Isabelle held the neon poster up to read it carefully. Written in Simon's familiar scrawl were the words 'Will You Go to Homecoming With Me?' It took her a long moment to understand what was going on, but once it was processed she turned her large blue eyes slowly to look at her best friend.

Oh. It made sense now. A slow grin spread across Izz's face and it was nearly impossible to be mad at him anymore. Really, it was almost kind of funny that he'd put so much into this when she would've just said yes if he'd just asked, but still it made her feel special in a sick kind of way. With a squeal of delight Isabelle flung the poster to the side, bounding forward and throwing her arms around Simon's neck.

"You're so mean! This is wonderful!" she said, beaming before pulling backwards and smiling with her face inches from Simon's. But all at once her breath caught as she realized how close to him she was, standing on her tippy toes with her arms around his neck and his body next to hers. After a long moment she managed to breathe out, her heart pounding a million miles a second all of a sudden. "Um... y-yeah..."

Carefully, and delicately, he held her there.

His arms hugged tightly around her waist; her arms wrapped roundly along his neck; the onset of panic and the dizzy swaying feeling that was brought with it - it all melded into a strange sensation, as if they were rocking back in forth in a cautious, gentle dance. As Isabelle fought to regain her ability to think, Simon searched for his breathe. With slow delicacy, he reintroduced his lungs to oxygen, and just stared. And she stared back. It registered with the two of them in unison just what exactly they had just landed themselves in. Far back in his skull, thousands of reasons not do follow through with what they both knew was coming leapt and scampered and screamed frantically about. What about Isaac? What about when you move on? What if she's a bad kisser? What if YOU'RE a bad kisser?

Still, he held her there. He held her carefully and delicately, a timid smile creeping out between his lips.

She was so perfect. She always had been, too. Always. So natural, warm, and sweet. She, really, had always been a part of him, Simon reminded himself. Nothing had ever been left unsaid between the two of them, and Simon was well aware that damn near nothing could ever ruin what they had. Plus, this had been lingering in the distance for so long. And he had certainly always known how he felt about her. So logically, emotionally, naturally, this is what came next. There was no way of denying it. Not that he wanted to in the least bit.

His smile grew momentously as Izz let out a nervous croak. Good, she felt the same way then. Once again, Simon took in a deep breath. Now, though, he wasn't nervous. As a matter of fact, he felt more complete than he had in an incredibly long time. The only thing wrong, was that it had taken him this long to muster up the courage to do this. But so things were with Izz. He knew very well that she had a way of defying all of his standards, morals, in habits in a way just drastically enough to keep him interested. She had a way of dancing away from him just at the right moment to keep him almost entirely mystified with how she worked. But, after all, that's what he liked about her.

Flowing with the natural swell of anticipation, he held her closer.

At last, their lips met. His head bowed gently towards hers, he kissed her just the way he'd always intended to in the back of his mind. The anxious yelps and caws quaking in his skull were lulled instantly, and human instinct in its purest form took complete control. He gently drew her closer to him, their lips parted slightly, and every ounce of fear that could have been found in his head only moments before now dwelled in delighted thrill in his chest.

It was all happening so fast and, cheesily enough, not fast enough. It felt like Isabelle had been waiting years for this to happen, and all of a sudden, when she hadn't even been anticipating it, it just kind of was. Here they were, in the middle of a sea of balloons in her dorm room, and in slow motion Simon was leaning in to kiss her just like she'd always imagined it.

A flood of thoughts made her light headed before his lips had even found hers. She could remember all the way back to sixth grade when he'd broken through Isaac and Isabelle's twin barrier with a stupid smile and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Through the years he had been their shared companion and confidant, and Isabelle almost felt selfish for wanting him to be hers. But she and Isaac were older now, and what had been childish feelings of possession and greed had become much deeper. Isaac had Sophia now, and other friends. Simon wasn't the only person in their lives. So it wasn't so horrible to want to call him her own, now that they had grown up.

It was very easy to be selfish with his face moving down to hers, his warm body holding her so close. This was all she'd wanted for years. After every failed relationship and every disappointment, Simon had been there. After any small failure and always during any joy, Simon had been there to share in her grief and happiness. He had slowly and without her realizing it become her life, and had always been her best friend. The small bug of fear in the back of her mind screamed against it, terrified that anything she would do would eternally ruin their friendship. But how could anything so perfect be a bad thing? With a small smile she finally closed the last amount of space between them, moving her hands up to rest in Simon's hair gently.

It wasn't like electricity was shooting through her body, but it was still perfect. Izz let her eyes slide closed, her eyebrows knit together lightly and her heart pumping loudly all over. As Simon's lips pushed hers open just a little, she couldn't help but respond, letting her tongue slip out and run once over his bottom lip. Her entire body was buzzing rather than being stilled by his touch, and she felt a sense of urgency and need that was highly overwhelming.

With a small sound in her throat Izz breathed in deeply, sighing into his mouth and pulling away very reluctantly. A wide smile split her face when she realized she was panting, and she rested her forehead against Simon's cheek, trying to catch her breath. Kissing her best friend had been even better than she'd imagined.

"Yes," she said breathlessly, finally pulling away too look up into Simon's eyes and beaming widely, "Yes, Simon, of course I'll go to homecoming with you!"

Isabelle kissed him again, fervently and far less gentle than before, years of waiting and want breaking the dam of highly uncharacteristic self control. She'd always been forced to hold herself back partially as far as Simon was concerned, and it felt so good to not have to settle for things as they were. An immense feeling of satisfaction swelled in her gut, as well as some other intense emotions, and Izz couldn't help but pull him a little closer, a deep sigh resounding completeness in her throat again.