HEY!
Soo, it's like nearly 3 in the morning, and I've finally finished this story!
It's kinda what you get when you always write after midnight while listening to the Grey's Anatomy soundtrack...
Anyways, I think they are not enough RYAN/LULU storys out there. I found 1 (in words: one!) good story. But I'm crazy about those two! They are like the new Loliver!
However, this is just my second story, so I'm sorry if it sucks.
And I want to apologize for possible grammatical mistakes or inappropriate words. I'm not a native speaker (Germany rules! ;D) so, yeah...
Enjoy and review if you want to. (:

Oh and it's basically about True convincing Lulu to go on a double date (oh REALLY?) with her, Ryan and Jimmy. So minor True/Jimmy, too, but they barely get mentioned. :p

"Lulu, you HAVE to go with me! I'd be lost without you." True Jackson, from whom you expect to be all tough and clever, whined at me.
"Oh, like you can't go on a date alone. Seriously: You are going to be fine! He's just taking you out to dinner. You are gonna survive that." I knew exactly, what I would see, if I looked up in True's face. But I had a simple strategy to not fall for her puppy look: Not. Look. Into. Her. Eyes.
While I arranged files on my desk, True continued complaining: "But I when I'm alone with Jimmy, I start to babble and babble and babble and he'll think I'm some crazy chick. Please, Lulu. You can take Ryan with you if you don't wanna come dateless."
Oh yeah, I nearly forgot that I'm a lonely single girl. Thanks for reminding me, True!

Eventually, she was right. She would kind of turn insane, when she had alone time with her mail delivery crush. And True would probably do the same for me.

But taking Ryan on the date? First, having Ryan and date in the same sentence was freaking me out just a little and secondly, he was probably going to behave really weird and childish. On the other hand, was there any alternative? Oscar? Eeehr, no. "Okay, can you finally say something? Your everlasting thinking times drive me crazy." I shot her a bad look, but then agreed to accompany her on what was now a double date.

She ended up dancing around happily. And I wouldn't be Lulu, if I hadn't started going along.

For once, it was actually a pretty slow day at MadStyle. Max was in Dubai for some kind of job he did there and so everyone was doing what he or she wanted. Amanda and True were constantly picking on each other and thinking about designs occasionally, Oscar was saying his monotonous "MadStyle, please hold"- phrase every now and then and I… I was laying head down on my desk because I pretty much had nothing to do anymore. I randomly grabbed a pencil and started scrawling on a paper.

The date was set up for tonight. I didn't really look forward to going, since I was just doing True a favor. Nevertheless, I didn't want to ruin the date mood, so I couldn't just turn up and mope. Maybe, it wasn't such a bad idea to take Ryan with me after all. At least, I would definitely have fun. With Ryan, I always had. It was just too easy.
In fact, I almost felt like he was closer to me, than True was. With her it was like she was superior of me. I mean, she was my boss, so she was probably the superior one, but even when it wasn't about MadStyle, it was obvious that she was smarter, more creative and prettier.

Ryan, in contrary, was more... equal. I mean, I was clearly beating him in studying and calculus, but we had the same kind of humor and admittedly, we were both a little slow from time to time.

It was only then, when I realized, I had drawn a chubby-faced boy with a slightly big nose, nice eyes that shouldn't be closed for more than five seconds and great looking longer hair. Excuse me; did I just say great looking? I meant shabby. REALLY shabby looking hair.

Suddenly, there was someone rolling towards me on an office chair. "Soooooo, what are you wearing tomorrow?" I quickly crumbled the paper, tossed it in the bin under my desk and sighed. "I don't know yet. I'm actually not really thinking about that, True. What are you considering to wear?" I knew she wanted to hear that. She immediately started to give a lecture on the pros and cons of her new blue top, which looked much better and her yellow dress, that was just way more comfortable. I paid attention to every of her explanations, 'cause basically that is was girl friends do. I was aware she would choose on her own in the end anyways.

"Hey, does Jimmy even now, there's four people on the date, now?" I asked True after she had finished. "Sure, I told him. But Ryan doesn't know, yet." As if he heard his name mentioned, or smelled carrot muffins somewhere, Ryan stepped out of the elevator and waved at us. True poke me. "You should go tell him, we have a date." I giggled. He will so not like that. I stood up, stretched and went to True's office, where Ryan was probably already playing some kind of computer game, curious what he might say to our plan.

"Oh come on! When did I sign up for that?" Ryan exclaimed; eyes still glued to the computer monitor. I took the chair beside him and tried to convince him. I was certainly not going there on my own with those two love birds. Although… Due to my realizations before True showed up, I felt kind of uncomfortable. What if he thought that I like him? What if he thought it was my idea to ask him out? That would probably be even worse than being the odd one out.

"Please, Ryan. True doesn't wanna be alone. She practically begged me to come with her." He snorted, "And what do I have to do with that?" I still preferred to concentrate on the aliens he was currently blowing up than on me. "Well, it is a double date. So True told me to tell you that you're coming with us." I left out the tiny detail, that True suggested taking Ryan with me, on purpose. I didn't want him to think I'm completely desperate.
"Fine. Whatever." I exhaled in relief. Mission accomplished. "But I do have a condition. We're not going to some cheap Asian beanery. I hate Asian food."
I rolled my eyes jokingly. "Like I don't know."
Ryan snuck a peek at me. "You're right." For one moment, he had the sweetest smile on his face. But as soon as he realized that he was just getting his ass kicked by some alien boss, this smile turned into a grim expression. I took my chance to escape from the firework of swear words which was no to be heard from True's office.

I actually wondered where True was at the moment. I needed to make sure the date wasn't going to be held at some Chinese restaurant with lots of spoiled food. Now that I think about that, I could have asked True before. Of course, I knew he hated Asian food. Nearly as much as he hated broccoli, incense sticks, that Fred died in Harry Potter Seven and sleeping with the heating on.
On the other hand, I was pretty confident, that he knew I was a sucker for ginger marmalade, bollywood movies and rhymes. That might sound cheesy, but we really understood the other one.

""""""

I collapsed on my bed. I was veeery exhausted from exploring every inch of my wardrobe for something appropriate to wear at a "quite fancy restaurant". (Those were True's words! Indeed, very helpful.) Currently, I was wearing a white dress with a blue batik pattern. But I was still considering that cute purple dress, which was laying somewhere under the piles of scattered clothes.

Man, I really shouldn't care that much. It was just going to be a future couple and two best friends. And I wasn't part of the couple. It wasn't important what I would wear. Jimmy wouldn't waste time glancing at me and True was a girl, which makes it a complete different thing.
So the only one who would MAYBE pay attention to what I wear, except me, was Ryan. But, and here comes the error in this picture: I should not give a freaking damn! I shouldn't feel like I'm supposed to impress him. And for sure, I shouldn't be looking forward to seeing him this much.

It was about ten minutes to when the other guys would come an fetch me. Not much time to do anything special with my hair, so I stayed with the loose curls I had at the moment. I quickly changed into the purple dress which was not easily found and put on some lipgloss and mascara when I heard someone honking. Time to have fun, Lulu. Remember: Just a couple and two best friends. And you're one of the friends.

The location for True's future-defining project was actually quite cute. It was a pretty Italian restaurant called "The Da Vinci" and it made a really good first impression, when we entered, although I had never heard of it before. (There again, show me one person that knows all restaurants in New York City!) The room with all the tables and stuff was out of dark wood and the chairs had red cushions on them. Moreover, I saw a lot of typical Italian green silk curtains allotted to slightly seperate each table from another one, but still with enough place for everyone to get through.
I liked it. And in my outfit, I felt neither under- nor overdressed, which is always pretty mood-determining.

After we had ordered (True virtually forced Jimmy to take a Lasagna for two people, so they could both eat from one plate. Oh, how romatic!), all of us got into a nice conversation. There was never this awkward silence. That was the good thing about double dates. And the food turned out to be delicious, man. Although it took them forever to prepare it.

As a good friend, I knew, that True would want to have a little alone time at some point.
Okay, fine. She pretty much kicked me and Ryan out of the restaurant by using those clichée phrases like "Lulu, don't you have to tell Ryan something really important. In private?"
I must admit, I felt oddly uncomportable sitting there on the lawn outside the location, almost in complete silence. Just me and Ryan. Yay.

"So, what's the important thing you gotta tell me?" He asked curiously. I have to say, he looked good as hell in one of his blue checked shirts and that black sports coat. It didn't make him much smarter, though.
"Dude, True made that up to get us out of the picture."
"Ohhh. Now I get it." I laughed at his stupidity which caused him to jostle me a little, in a friendly way though. But instead of letting go off my shoulder, where he pushed, he rested his hand there for a brief second and then slid it down my arm, only to draw it away swiftly. Ryan let out a sigh, however he quickly turned it into a hawking.

Wow, apparently, someone was feeling uncomfortable here. And this time it wasn't me (or rather not only me!).

He cleared his throat once again. "Erm, you look pretty good today." Ryan smiled at me. That smile reminded to the one he showed me in True's office. Kind of sweet.
"Thanks." I said sarcastically. He maybe wanted to be sweet, but 'pretty good' is not exactly the phrase a girl wants to hear when she's described.
"I mean, you look exceptionally great, tonight." He said grinning and realizing that he didn't choose the right words before.
I liked how his eyes sparkle when he grins at me like that. And I liked how I even notice that in the dark.

Suddenly, I gave in to the urge to grab his hand and started fiddling about with his fingers.
He stared down at our hands. Still smiling.

Ryan breathed in. "You know... There's something I wanted to do this afternoon, when you asked me to accompany you.."

"And how come you didn't? Didn't the evil alien boss let you?" I smirked at him while I continued playing around with his hand.
"Well yeah. That and there were just too many people around."
My eyes widened. Was he really going to do this particular thing? Before I could do or say anything, I noticed his face moving closer and suddenly his soft lips (oh, they were soft!) carefully brushed mine. He was about to retreat again, but I clearly had something against that.
I raised my hands to bury my fingers in his hair and didn't allow him to draw back by that.

He didn't seem to mind. His hands were now holding my face as he leaned in. If I hadn't been into the moment like that, I would've probably been happy dancing. That felt so fantastilistic! I've kissed guys before, but this time was.. different. It just felt so meant to be. And we hadn't even started yet.
I slightly opened my mouth, so that we could get that kiss on the next level. And he didn't seem to mind that either.
My tongue tingled from excitement and now I slung my arms aroud his neck to bridge a possible gap between us.
Nevertheless, I eventually receded, because of a unfortunate lack of air.

I had always feared this moment after a first kiss. I didn't want it to be awkward. But what to do afterward? Look him into the eyes, cuddle, laugh? Sure, this wasn't my first first kiss, but after my actual first kiss, I practically turned and ran home.
This time, on the other hand, plainly felt so natural.
I nestled up against his shoulder and touched his neck with my nose, while he slowly caressed my arm.

And I never wanted this moment to

END.