Log: Matt & Sue (backdated)

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Matt and Sue sit together at graduation and...take a nervous step further



It wasn't Matt's graduation day, but Xavier's was small and two of his old suite mates were graduating, so he was there. Given how small the school was, everyone was there actually. "Hey, Sue!" he said, picking her out of the various crowd of people as they all took their seats. "Wanna sit with me?" it was kinda juvenile, but whatever. He wasn't sure if he was flirting or not.

Sue felt a little out of place, someone had said that graduation was today and it looked like everyone was here; but she'd only been here a few weeks and still didn't know all the faces. So she had just been standing in the middle of the path when she heard Matt's voice. "Matt, hey" she smiled gratefully at the boy as she slipped into the seat next to him. "Thanks, I didn't think that this many people would show up today."

"Well...sure," it seemed to him that everyone who could physically get there was there, though he didn't recognize all the heartbeats. "It's graduation and it's a pretty small school. My old suite mates are both graduating," and others of course.

"So you have a suite all to yourself?" the blonde asked before realizing what it sounded like, "I mean it must get a little lonely in there by yourself", she clarified in a rush, her face blushing red in embarrassment as she looked anywhere but at Matt.

"Yeah," Matt agreed, "I'm actually the only guy in the high school right now," Go him. Hopefully. "No roommate because of my powers and now no suitemates either. I get to live the awesome life." It was lonely sometimes, but he didn't add that.

"Somebody mentioned that," Sue replied thoughtfully, "Artie I think? So you get to be the one surrounded by teenage girls as we talk about shoes, and hair and our clothes. You know the important things in life," she teased. "You only need to be in your room to sleep," she continued, "seems like you can't get away from people here when you're not there. You can't even go to the library to be alone here." she reminded him with a smile.

"Oh yeah, I care about all that stuff," Matt agreed dryly. Not only was he a teenage boy who could care less, he was a blind teenage boy and therefore couldn't even off fake opinions. "I like my room, actually," he said easily, "it's my quiet space even when I had suitemates. It's sound-proofed and odor-proofed and all that. It's not completely silent, but it's a lot better than anywhere else," the library was quiet, but not that quiet. Plus, well, he had met Sue there.

"It must be nice to have at least one place in the mansion where you can relax." Sue noted. She remembered Matt describing his powers and couldn't imagine how it would feel to always have her senses working overtime. Sue looked around excitedly at the decorations for graduation ceremony before she turned back to Matt. "Do things like this and the dance tonight happen often here? she asked Matt curiously.

"Well, I guess graduation is only once a year. It's only been once a year since I've been there. There're dances a couple times though, depends on if people want to plan them, I guess. Usually after graduation though, yeah," he paused, "Normally graduation's in June, too, but there was stuff happening then. So they moved it," this seemed like a random day to move it to, but whatever, it worked.

"A couple of times a year?" Sue repeated turning in her seat she was directly facing Matt, "Seriously? That's awesome!" she grinned at Matt aware that he couldn't see it but unable to help herself. "We got one at graduation at my old school and that's it." She sometimes got to go to social events with her father, but people there weren't trying to have fun, they were there to be seen and make business deals.

"It is?" Matt thought she was nuts, "You're one of those girls who likes to dance and all that, aren't you?" Great. He was...not really much for dancing. Her enthusiasm was pretty cool though, he liked it.

"Maybe," Sue hedged nervously wondering if she'd said the wrong thing. "I'm not really that good at dancing," she admitted, "but I mean it's just fun to go meet your friends and let your hair down once in a while. You know do something that we wouldn't normally do."

"Yeah, that's true," sometimes something a little different from the norm was good. "I think you're just being modest though about the dancing. I bet you dance really well," she seemed to have a sort of natural grace. Maybe Matt was reading into things too much.

Sue blushed faintly, "Thanks," she replied softly as she smiled at Matt. How does he keep doing this to me? she wondered, somehow he had her blushing again. "I think you'd be pretty good at dancing too. You're light on you feet and have the perfect build for it."...not that she'd been looking, Sue thought as she looked down shyly.

"Nah," Matt denied, blushing nearly as red as his hair, "I don't know how to dance. Never much cared, you know?" but...maybe if Sue was his teacher, he could be persuaded to learn a little. "Done gymnastics for years though."

"Gymnastics is kinda like dance," Sue pointed out, "at least it looks that way on TV. If you can do one you can probably do the other. You know there's a dance tonight," she began as she looked back up at Matt and saw his bright red face. The blonde's voice trailed off as her face turned as red to match his as she swallowed and looked away quickly.

Only girls gymnastics was like dancing. Sometimes. "Guys gymnastics is very different," Matt assured her, trailing off. "But uh...yeah, there is. I assume you're going. I'm going. There's food and stuff." Yeah. He was going for the food.

Sue took a deep breath and looked up at Matt, "Yeah, I'm going." she confirmed, "You know good food and meeting new people," Steeling herself Sue turned in her chair to face Matt again. "Save me a dance tonight?" she asked as confidently as she could while her hand's nervous fidgeting gave lie to the front she was trying to portray.

It wasn't her fidgeting that belied her nervousness, but her heartbeat as it reminded Matt of a hummingbird in her chest. "Yeah, sure," he agreed, sort of tripping over the words, nervous himself. "Sorry in advance if I step on your toes."

"No worries," Sue replied beaming at Matt, the rush of relief that passed through her leaving a feeling of euphoria behind. "I'm sure you'll pick it up quickly, besides the man is supposed to lead in the dance so you should be the one worrying about me stepping on your toes." she teased. "It's a 40's party, but they should have a nice slow dance so we don't have to worry about treading on one another's toes to start with."

A slow dance, huh? Well. That did not really make Matt feel all that better, actually. "Sounds good," he agreed, lying through his teeth. Well, he did want to dance with Sue and a slow dance sounded nice, but it was still something he was nervous about since it would be his first time. He'd never been much for school dances. Biting his lip, he reached out, taking her hand and trusting that if he was going too far she'd let him know.

"It'll be fun," Sue replied happily before she felt something touch her hand. For an instant Sue's world seemed to crystallize as she felt Matt's hand take hold of her own. The instant seemed to draw out for hours, but what must have been only a second later the blonde felt her face begin to flush and her heart hammering as if it wanted to leap right out of her chest. Returning the gesture she intertwined her fingers with Matt's and smiled as she looked down at their hands unsure what to say next.

They didn't have to say anything as the ceremony began. It was fairly short as there weren't many in the graduating class, but Matt didn't move his hand from Sue's. He knew she was nervous and excited, he was too, but it was cool, having that effect on her. It wasn't until it was all over that he released her, "I'll uh...see you tonight, then?" Matt asked.

Sue nodded shyly, "I'm looking forward to it," she replied with a bright smile as she stood up up as the audience around them started to file away from the stage. The girl knew it was just a dance, but the swarm of butterflies in her stomach didn't show any signs of settling down in the near future.