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Post by Morgan Tyler on Oct 12, 2015 21:05:07 GMT
September was a pretty eventful month for Morgan. She'd registered to take the SATs for the first time, had decided to take an extra AP course at the end of the school year, and had gotten tipsy for the first time at a party. Oh, and she'd slept with Brody Finn and he'd asked her on her first date. Despite the fact that she was no longer grounded, she wasn't sure what was more stressful - her mother snapping pictures of her as Ellie helped her get ready for her date or wondering if her father was going to be nice to Brody or not when he came to pick her up. She'd attempted to tell Brody she'd meet him wherever he wanted to go, but her father had made the date conditional on the fact that she go along with however her mother wanted to document this 'special event.'
Morgan winced when the camera clicked again nearby. She was nervous for a lot of reasons. She wasn't quite sure if she was supposed to act differently on a date than she was the rest of the time she was with Brody. The days since their afternoon in his room had been spent business as usual - except for some kisses that had left butterflies in her stomach and her wishing she could sneak away to his locked bedroom again. When he'd asked her out, she'd been admittedly surprised. Brody was her best friend, and even though she knew he liked her back to some degree, she also knew that Brody had been on dates before - with girls that she might argue were more 'date-able' than she was. So she was nervous, for a myriad of reasons.
She pursed her lips and looked at Ellie as her sister did her makeup. "This is weird."
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Post by Ellie Tyler on Oct 12, 2015 21:43:04 GMT
Ellie grinned at her sister, "It's not weird, it's ... kismet." Taking a small step back from Morgan to survey her own handy work, she nodded her approval. For every ounce of her that was overjoyed about the fact that Morgan was finally getting the relationship with Brody that she deserved, an opposing part of her felt a twinge of jealousy. Both her and her sister's lives had been built around sharing more than just their toys, but sharing moments and milestones together too. They had started school in the same year, they had gone on their first vacations together, they had gotten their first cellphones at the same time, but now things were changing. Morgan was going on her first date before Ellie had ever gone on hers, and while she kept telling herself that she didn't care and wouldn't want to go on a date with anyone anyway, she wasn't sure that it was entirely true. Pushing the thoughts away, she set her makeup brush down with a flourish. "There, you look beautiful, Morgan."
Adam wasn't aware of it, but on some level he shared Ellie's dislike of Morgan's growing up. Knowing that all three of his girls were working on getting her ready for her first date, he kept trying to busy himself so that he wouldn't keep focusing on it. In part of it, his hesitation with this date was rooted in his feelings toward Brody Finn. He knew that it wasn't fair, but it was hard to separate Brody from Brandon based on the things that he had seen and heard about the teenage boy. Having seen the things that Brandon had put teenage girls through while they were in high school, his fear was that Morgan would have her heart broken too. That, he knew, he wasn't going to be able to be prepared for. In fact, he hadn't actually prepared for any of this. He smiled softly at all three women, thinking back to what it had been like when Morgan and Ellie were younger and Riley had helped them get ready for nights out, or ballet recitals and the like. It was going to be hard to let go, he knew. "Almost ready?" he asked softly, "He should be here soon."
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Post by Morgan Tyler on Oct 13, 2015 3:28:14 GMT
Morgan giggled at her sister, grateful that Ellie could at least romanticize it. For Morgan, it still felt surreal and she didn't want to get ahead of herself. Brody asking her out had been a surprise, not that she was complaining. Part of her still prepared herself in case he decided they were better off friends, because she'd long ago decided that some Brody in her life was better than none at all. She grinned at her sister and nodded. "Thank you," she said sincerely, leaning forward to pull Ellie into a great hug. The redhead was admittedly surprised it was her date they were getting ready for, given that her twin was really the more social and outgoing of the pair.
She smiled up at her father, beaming at him. "I'm ready, I think," she nodded, standing up and turning around with a grin. "What do you think?" she grinned.
Riley snapped a picture as their daughter twirled. 'You look great," she nodded. While it hadn't been ideal for Riley to hear that Morgan had slept with Brody, having watched the two grow up she'd always known Morgan liked Brandon Finn's son. And while it baffled her, she had to admit she thought they were cute, so she'd approved much more than Adam had. Reaching for her husband's hand, she squeezed it and smiled at him. "How are you holding up?"
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Post by Adam Tyler on Oct 13, 2015 18:32:38 GMT
Ellie grinned and hugged her sister back. "You're welcome!" She knew that this probably wasn't how Morgan saw her first date, considering the fact that their parents were actually treating this like it was a prom date and not just any other weekend. She laughed at her mom as she kept snapping photo after photo of the entire event.
Adam smiled softly at Morgan, "I think that you look beautiful. And that he better be nice to you." He didn't know why he still felt the need to warn her about Brody, or why he was warning Brody without him even being here. The truth was that no matter how nice Brody was to Morgan, or to anyone else, Adam was still going to worry about whether or not anyone was good enough for Morgan, or Ellie. He sighed, deciding that it was best for him to just continue to grin and bear it. Taking Riley's hand and smiling at her, he gave a little shrug. "Better than I expected, but I'm still not a huge fan."
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Post by Morgan Tyler on Oct 13, 2015 18:48:41 GMT
Upon hearing her father’s warning about Brody, she sighed softly. “Dad,” she said gently, looking up at him pleadingly. “I said okay to mom making me buy a new dress and taking picture like it’s a dance recital. Can you be nice to Brody when he gets here?” She didn’t really understand what her father had against him, but it didn’t help her nerves in waiting for her night to begin.
She had a sinking feeling the entire thing could implode within moments of him arriving, somewhere between the first photograph and her father’s first reminder of her curfew
Riley nodded, squeezing Adam’s hand and pressing a quick kiss. “It’ll be fine, sweetheart,” she reassured him with a bright smile. Stepping back, she lifted up the camera and snapped a picture of him with a laugh. "Morgan, go easy on your father - he's having some trouble adjusting," she nodded.
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Post by Adam Tyler on Oct 13, 2015 21:03:32 GMT
It probably had more to do with Morgan's pleading than anything else, but Adam matched her soft sigh and nodded. "I'm always nice," he argued though he knew that recently he had struggled to say nice things about Brody Finn. It had taken him a long time to mend whatever bridges had been burned between himself and Brandon, and while he wouldn't say that they were in full repair, he had tried to at least be tolerant of the man. Particularly when their children were concerned. In some way, he blamed himself and Riley for the new relationship that Morgan had forged with Brody, it probably wouldn't have happened if they hadn't arranged so many play dates. But, there was no point in dwelling now, he reminded himself. Morgan was happy and he supposed that was the important part.
He smiled at Riley before giving a small, teasing frown at her statement about him having trouble adjusting. "If they would have both stayed little like I asked them to, none of this would have happened." Though he said it teasingly, part of him was being entirely truthful. When the girls were little, small enough to still need to hear bedtime stories before they could go to sleep, he remembered watching them drift off and asking them if they could please stay that small and innocent forever. Naturally, their inherited stubbornness had kept them from complying.
Ellie laughed at her father, "Sorry, no such luck, Dad," she chirped. At the sound of a knock at the door, she declared loudly that she would get it. "Morgan, you have to make a grand entrance otherwise the whole stereotypical teenage date is ruined!" With a wide grin, she rushed to the door to let Brody in. "Hi! Morgan will be out in just a minute."
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Post by Brody Finn on Oct 13, 2015 21:04:01 GMT
Brody wasn't sure that he would have called it nervous, considering the fact that it wasn't his first date. It wasn't even his first evening alone with Morgan, but for obvious reasons this just felt different. He had barely even mentioned the outing to his parents before heading out the door to meet her at her apartment. It was all very strangely the same as any other time he had stopped by to spend time with her or to take her homework that she might have missed when she was sick, but he kept having to remind himself that it wasn't the same. Sleeping with someone changes things, and the thing that he was the most aware of having changed was the fact that he was even more aware of his feelings for her. He just didn't know how to act on them. Aside from a few quick kisses at school, he wasn't sure that she really was anyone other than Morgan Tyler, his best friend. It was that reason which had driven him to ask her out on an actual date. And knowing Morgan the way that he did, he knew exactly what kind of date he wanted to take her on. Seeing that it was Ellie who was greeting him at the door, he realized how much things really were going to change after tonight.
Smiling at Morgan's sister, he stepped inside the apartment as her motion to do so. "Hey, Ellie. Thanks for letting me know."
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Post by Morgan Tyler on Oct 13, 2015 21:20:10 GMT
Morgan took a moment to check her reflection one more time, she tried not to chew on her lip to avoid ruining the lip gloss her sister had told her to wear. She laughed albeit nervously when Ellie ran off to answer the door, insisting that she make a big entrance herself. Taking a deep breath, she turned to look up at her dad, smiling at him. "Dad," she said softly before leaning up to kiss him on the cheek. "It's going to be fine," she told him. "It's Brody," she stated, as if it was supposed to be reassuring - and to her it was, Brody was her closest friend and she knew he would never hurt her on purpose. He'd been a part of her life for so long, she couldn't imagine it without him, even if this date didn't pan out. "And I'm always going to be your daughter, Dad, no matter who's asking me out. You're my number one guy," she grinned before peeking out into the hallway.
Pushing the butterflies out of her stomach, she walked out of her room and towards the door. However she could not stop her very determined mother from getting in there first.
"Hi Brody," Riley greeted brightly, lifting up a camera and taking a picture.
"Mom!" Morgan exclaimed as she walked in behind her. She gaped at her mother for a moment. "This isn't prom."
"It's your first date," Riley pointed out.
"Yes, thank you for making that obvious," Morgan added, plastering on a grin and walking over to Brody. She smiled up at him. "Hi," she said softly before gesturing over. "Sorry, this was part of the condition of me staying ungrounded." She cringed as the camera whirred again.
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Post by Brody Finn on Oct 14, 2015 1:42:50 GMT
Adam knew that she meant for it to be reassuring, but hearing her remind him that it was just Brody did nothing to make him feel more comfortable with the entire situation. It was just Brody, and that was the problem though he didn't feel that it was necessary to rehash all of those concerns just now. The thing that he was focusing on instead was the fact that one of his daughters was about to go on her first date. He smiled at Morgan before she followed Riley out of the room. Trailing behind them he greeted Brody with a small nod.
Brody smiled at Morgan, ignoring the continuous click of the camera. "Hello, everyone," he said in response to the greetings from her family. Turning to Morgan, he nodded. "It's okay, it's worth it if it means that you get to go out tonight." He added softly, "Should we go before it gets any worse though?"
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Post by Morgan Tyler on Oct 14, 2015 1:58:14 GMT
Morgan grinned brightly up at Brody when he assured her that her mother's over the top celebration of her first date was worth it. She found herself wanting to lean up and kiss him. But she wouldn't push it in front of her family. Instead, she blushed a bit, ignoring the way her mother continued to photograph the evening.
"Sure," she nodded. Her purse was still sitting on the couch from earlier in the day, so she reached for it and beamed at her sister, mouthing a silent 'thank you' at her for helping her to get ready. Reaching for Brody's hand, she looked at her mother and father. "Can we get going?"
Riley sighed, nodding and smiling at the both of them. "I guess so. Have fun! Call if you need anything! Make good choices!"
Morgan winced, flushing bright red as she walked towards the door.
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Post by Brody Finn on Oct 14, 2015 18:00:34 GMT
Ellie gave her sister another big grin and gave a small wave while Adam nodded at Morgan's question. "Just be sure to stick to your curfew, and call us if you're running late." He was expecting that he wasn't going to be able to get to sleep or focus on much of anything until she was home, but he refused to voice that out loud considering the fact that he was sure his family already thought he was weirdly overprotective.
Brody gave Morgan's hand a small, reassuring squeeze. If she was feeling nerves anything like he was, he was sure that they were only amplified by the current behavior of her parents. Not that he necessarily judged them for it, but he couldn't imagine what it would possibly be like to have parents that documented every single moment of a person's life, whether or not that documentation was a condition of becoming ungrounded. His own parents documented a lot of the big things as well, and he grinned and bore it to the best of his ability, so he figured that the least he could do for Morgan was be a good sport and try and get them both out of there as quickly as possible. "Have a good night," he said with a smile before following Morgan to the door.
Once it was firmly closed behind them he gave a small sigh. "Are they always like that? Or is this just because of the whole being grounded thing?" He gave her a smile before adding quickly, "Not that I mind, I just hope it's not like that every morning when you leave for school. That would get exhausting." He had known the Tyler family for a long time, but he figured that under the circumstances things might have changed, or maybe it was just around him that things were changing now that they knew what sort of relationship he and Morgan were starting.
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Post by Morgan Tyler on Oct 14, 2015 18:46:44 GMT
Morgan smiled when she was out of the apartment and looked up at Brody. She laughed softly. "A bit of both, my mom's big on being an 'active parent,'" she admitted. "Her mom wasn't really around to do that, so yeah, there are dozens of books of photos of me and El. If you hadn't grown up with us and weren't in a decent amount of them, we'd still be in there while she showed you," she added teasingly. "But I think some of it is probably because of the being grounded thing."
Part of her wanted to kiss him, but another part wondered if a member was on the other side of the door looking through the peep hole. So she decided she would wait until they were at least inside of the elevator. It was really the first time she'd been alone with Brody since they'd slept together because she'd been grounded, and the realization made her curious about how different things would be. She knew that, to an extent, sleeping with someone changed something. But at the same time, she hoped nothing with Brody ever changed too much because of how much he'd always meant to her.
"So," she started softly. Talking had never really been a problem for Morgan, but somehow she found herself a bit tongue tied. She chewed on her lip for a moment and then let out a small, nervous chuckle. "What happens now? How do you normally charm a girl on a date, Brody?"
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Post by Brody Finn on Oct 14, 2015 19:36:00 GMT
She made a valid point, he knew. They had spent a considerable part of their childhoods together and that had kind of set the precedent for things being somewhat different than they would have been had she been any other girl. He was torn between feeling like he needed to do things differently for her, to be different for her, and feeling like he shouldn't go above and beyond because she knew him better than that. It was hard to be yourself when you felt like you were suddenly under a microscope. Whether or not she was watching every one of his moves, he wasn't sure, but Brody took a second of silence before he decided to just be himself. She saved him from having to figure out how exactly he was supposed to do that by speaking up first.
Grinning at her, he took her hand and traced a small path down her thumb softly. "Well, if I'm being entirely honest, I don't know that I've ever taken a girl on a standard date before." At least not one like this. Most of his dates in the past had consisted of accompanying girls to parties or other social events, but he wanted to take a much more traditional path with Morgan. Besides, he highly doubted that she would want to just go hang out at a party surrounded by a bunch of people they went to school with. "But, I was thinking that maybe you'd like to go to dinner and then to a movie?"
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Post by Morgan Tyler on Oct 14, 2015 19:42:41 GMT
Morgan smiled brightly at him and nodded. "That sounds really nice," she told him. She was a bit glad to hear that she was really his first traditional date, it seemed that the two of them were pretty good at experiencing firsts with each other lately and she wasn't complaining about that. When they stepped onto the elevator, she chewed on her lip while she waited for the doors to slide closed before taking a step closer to him.
Leaning up on her toes, she pressed her mouth against his in a quick kiss and smiled. They'd seen each other at school, she'd joined him sometimes there for lunch or during a shared study hall, but it was entirely different outside of school, it felt like. Remembering the last time they'd been alone together, in his bedroom, she blushed a bit and wrapped her arms around him. "It's very sweet of you to take me out, Brody," she nodded, pressing her mouth against his again.
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Post by Brody Finn on Oct 14, 2015 20:01:02 GMT
He couldn't help but smirk at her as she wrapped her arms around him. Brody would have been lying had he said that he hadn't given some thought to ways that he could find some time for the two of them, alone, in a way that was reminiscent of the last time they were together. While he was sure that he would be able to sneak it past his parents and welcome her back into his bedroom, he thought that it kind of ruined the romance of the whole evening if he had to try to sneak her into and then out of his apartment at the end of the night. The idea of getting them a hotel room had crossed his mind as well, but he didn't want it to come off as being too forward. Truth be told, as much as he couldn't wait to get her back in that situation, the memory of her lying on his bed was holding out for now. He just wasn't sure how much longer it would. "I wanted to do it," he told her, kissing her back.
Somewhere in the midst of what he had intended on being an innocent kiss before the elevator reached the ground floor, he had deepened the kiss and gotten caught up in the moment. Reaching out to press the stop button, all he had been thinking was that he needed just a few more minutes with her before they carried on with the rest of their date.
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