Tony’s POV

That next morning…

“VIIIIIIIC!” I screamed. There was a heavy stampede of footsteps to my bed room. Vic was staying over at my house for the night since there was some weird scratching noises in his walls and he had called an animal control expert. Even though it would take the guy two hours to dig the animal out of his walls, Vic was scared that it would jump out an unleash the forces of nature on him.

That weenie.

“What…is…it…?” He panted as he got upstairs. I stood in front of the mirror in a pair of jeans and stark naked up top. Vic rolled his eyes as he burst through the door.

“What shirt should I wear?” I asked him. Vic frowned and started to walk out of the room. I caught his wrist.

“I thought a rabid raccoon had eaten your face!” He whined. I shook my head and dragged him to the bed and forced him to sit down. Vic pouted and held up one of the shirts I had chosen.

“What would look best?” I questioned for him. Today was a big day. Autumn was coming over in an hour and I made sure the house was clean for her. As soon as Vic had come over, I put him to work dusting the cabinets and straightening the blankets.

I should’ve made him wear a maid outfit, but I think he would’ve just gone back to whatever rabid raccoon was hiding in his walls.

“This one.” Vic threw the shirt at me. My room was kind of tidy today. I made sure that it wasn’t too bad for Autumn…

“Wear your black skinnies with this shirt and it’ll look clean, but casual.” Vic eyed. For some reason, he always had a good eye for this type of stuff.

“I’ll do that.” I agreed. Grabbing a brush, I straightened out my hair before going into my bathroom to change.

“Isn’t this what girls usually do? Dress up with a friend before their dates?” Vic muttered. Throwing my shirt on, I got kind of stuck and forced my arm through the neck hole. Needless to say, I wasn’t that coordinated.

“I can hear you and you have the hair of a girl so that counts.” I added helpfully. As I got out, Vic shook his head.

“I do not! Stop making fun of my hair!” He growled. I ruffled the brown locks and grinned. It was always fun to tease him. Downstairs, the doorbell rang. I gasped and threw a blanket over Vic.

“What are you doing!?” His muffled voice growled out in displeasure. I ran out of the room, calling back up to my friend in the process.

“I’m trying to hide the mess!” I giggled slightly.

“HEY!” Vic raged. As I reached the door, I reorganized myself one last time. Through the tinted glass, I saw Autumn through the other side. Her blue hair stood out against the sky. They were just two slightly different shades of the same beautiful color.

“Hi, Autumn.” I blushed nervously as I opened the door for her. She smiled shyly and walked inside.

“Hey, Tony. I see you cleaned up from yesterday.” She smiled, but her eyes were still down by the tile floor. I guess she was a lot shier than I expected. I think Jaime had warned me that Willow had warned him that Autumn was shy when you first meet her.

“Ha, yeah.” I rubbed the back of my neck. Vic came tramping upstairs to the balcony edge.

“Is that Vic?” She whispered to me. With a sighed, I nodded. My fellow friend and bandmate still had the plaid blanket over him like he was a Scottish ghost.

A very girly Scottish ghost.

“Is that Autumn?” The ghost asked me.

“Yes, Vic.”

“Hello, Vic-under-the-blanket. Um, why are you….why are you hiding under the blanket?” Autumn called up to the singer.

“Oh, Tony here was just trying to ‘clean up the mess’.” Vic muttered unhappily. I smiled and Autumn shook her head. The blue locks cascaded down her hair like a waterfall.

“Tony.” She scolded. I blushed a deeper shade of red.

“Well you two have fun on your date. I’m going to wander back to Tony’s room and try not to fall down the stairs.” Vic saluted and ran into a wall before he made it to my room.

“You abuse him.” Autumn finally looked me in the eyes. I laughed and let her take of her shoes before showing her down to the basement. That’s where I had my movie screening area and all the games stored in the cabinets.

“He still loves me.” I chuckled. She sat down on a couch as I knelt by the games cabinet.

Now, all the boys know that I have zero social skills around girls. Vic might have made his girl a delicious lunch and take her to go sit by a lake. Jaime might be taking her to a movie and slyly wrapping his arm around her shoulders. Even Mike might go take his girl to a night club and both get drunk, all while having fun in the process.

I decided that we should play a game downstairs. In my basement.

Yep. Turtle scores negative social points.

“So, do you want to play a game?” I asked her. She came over and knelt at my side. I shivered as her hair brushed my skin.

“Sure. NOOOO WAAAAY!” She squealed. I looked over at her like I looked at pickle sandwiches-kind of scared and slightly worried.

“What is it?” I asked. There were about a million games in here. I had no clue what she was looking at.

“YOU HAVE TMNT MONOPOLY!” She cried out and pointed at it. I laughed and pulled out the box. As the other game attempted to free themselves, I shoved them into the messy cupboard quickly and set the box down. Her eyes were as wide as dinner plates.

“You like monopoly?” I asked her. I had at least three different versions of this game but never used them because no one liked to play monopoly with me.

“Well yes, but I like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The combination was perfect.” She blushed and looked down at the ground again, as if the carpet was as interesting as the turtles themselves.

“I didn’t know you liked them. I really like them to.” I chuckled and added. She glanced up at me again and let out a little grin. I opened the box and started to set up on the carpet in front of the big TV screen on the wall.

“I see why they call you Turtle now.” She giggled. I smiled and let her pick out her character as I dealt the money.

“We can watch the movie afterwards if you want.” I offered. She nodded, glowing with excitement.

We started playing and I constantly looked up to watch her. She had the cutest little expression as she focused on the game. It was like it was a life or death situation for her metal pawn. She took Michelangelo and I took Donatello. I really liked that turtle ninja.

I barely lasted twenty minutes into the game. Autumn wiped me out in less than fifteen times around the board. She was the champion.

“You owe me two thousand in debt. I can tack it onto the other thousand if you want.” She offered. I shook my head. I was out of property, I was out of money, and I was out of options.

“I can only offer the shell on my back.” I sighed and fingered the little pawn in my palm. Autumn beamed.

“Then I guess it’s game over!” She chuckled.

“This would be the point where I flip the board in rage and storm out of here.” I stood up. She smiled and laughed. The blue haired girl put the board away as I searched for the disc to the movie. As soon as I found it, I went back to the couch. Autumn bent down to put the box away.

I plopped down on the couch. The cushion screamed.

“Vic!?” I asked in shock. I hadn’t even noticed that he had come down here in the middle of our game! I was so focused on Autumn that I didn’t even see the plaid blanket on the couch.

“Hell, who else?” He grumbled. It sounded like I had just woken him up.

“Sorry, I thought it was the ghost.” I muttered sarcastically. Taking a pillow, I beat my friend over the head and he attempted to shield himself.

“STAHP!” Vic complained.

“Come on, Vic! I’m with Autumn.” I complained to him, whacking him one more time. He emitted a squeak under the blanket.

“And I’m here to supervise your date! Come on, I’m just trying to be the responsible parent here!” Vic shot back. Autumn put a hand on my shoulder.

“Maybe we should leave him?” She whispered.

“Hold on a sec.” I told her. I sat down on him and he let out a loud grunt. Since he was the shortest of all of us, we all physically abused our midget friend. He didn’t mind.

“Tony…can’t…breathe….” He gasped as Autumn sat down next to me. Vic whined.

“OKAY! I’LL GO!” He gasped. I gave the girl a high five as Vic snatched the blanket and walked upstairs grumbling.

“USE A CONDOM!” He yelled at us from upstairs. I saw Autumn look at the floor and blush again. I clicked the button on the remote and the movie started.

Halfway through it, I felt Autumn start to fall asleep. I had a major anxiety attack as I tried to figure out what to do. Hey, I was a socially awkward Turtle! Should I put my arm around her shoulders? Should I do nothing? I reaalllly wanted to put my arm around her shoulders, but I was afraid she wouldn’t like that.

“Tired, Autumn?” I asked her. She nodded and looked back up. It was obvious she was trying to hide the fact she was yawning.

“Yeah, sorry, I always fall asleep during movies.” She apologized. I took my chance and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Surprisingly, she didn’t move it.

“It’s okay.” She murmured. Soon enough, her eyes were close and her head fell into my shoulder. It seemed to fit perfectly. Twenty minutes later, my back was starting to hurt, but I didn’t care. I might as well deal with it because this joy that filled me was finally blocking out the awkwardness.

Hey, I wasn’t so socially awkward anymore!

“Autumn?” I whispered towards the end of the movie. Her breathing was even and I knew she had fallen asleep. As she adjusted her position, a piece of blue hair fell into her eyes. I pushed it back and smiled.

“Tony?” She murmured after another minute. I turned down to hear her whispers better.

“What is it?” I asked her.

“I really, really, really like ninja turtles.” She yawned. I chuckled and wrapped my other arm around her. She snaked her own little arm around my waist.

“Me to.” I whispered back and kissed the top of her head as we slowly started to drift off. She hummed in pleasure quietly.

What a nice moment of serenity.

“Ehh, not so much.” Vic’s voice rang behind me. I glared at him and threw a pillow at his face. He went away giggling.

Notes