Only You - [Lip Gallagher]

bruised egos

"Hey." I greet Lip in the shop, a smile takes over his rugged demeanor, "Hi, baby." He smiles and picks me up by my waist, kissing me, "How was history and english?" he asks sitting me on a table next to him and going back to his laser, "Shit." I scoff and then my head quickly turns toward the sound of the door opening; it's the college counselor, Mr. Healy. "The hell is that?" He asks Lip as he is sharpening something, "Uh, this is a helium-neon laser." Lip explains, oo he's so sexy when he talks about this thing, "What you doing this summer?" He asks Lip, "Probably pretty much what I did last summer." Lip says and gets back to his project, "Yeah, well, you're gonna pad your résumé for your college apps this summer." He says and Lip shakes his head, chuckling, "You're a poor kid from the south side and you got a 4.6, that's great and all but, you're gonna need a full ride." The counselor explains, Lip continues to chuckle, "What's so goddamn funny?" "It's just everyone thinks I'm going to college?" Lip asks, looking up at his counselor, I roll my eyes, here we go. Healy smacks Lip's head with a folder, "Dummy. You're going to college and you're gonna graduate and then get your masters and your doctorate. Then you're gonna make a boatload of money." Mr. Healy yells over Lip continuing to sharpen metal, "Pad your résumé." He finishes and shuts off the machine, "With what?" Lip asks, "I don't give a shit." Healy turns towards him and says, "Well I already have my sights set on a couple hundred hours of community service." Lip says as he lines up the sharpened piece of metal to his project, "That's good, use it." The counselor says and leaves the room. "Lip you-" I start and he cuts me off, "Not hearing it." He says sharply while still working on his project, I roll my eyes and grimace at him, he's a pain in my ass.

++

"Bot fighting, Phillip?" I scoff as we are walking to this event, "You almost went to jail for bot fighting?" I complain, "It's fine." Lip says, "I think it's awesome!" Carl says as he is helping Lip carry the machine. I groan and Ian takes my hand, "He's a big boy, remember." Ian mutters to me and I throw my head back, "He acts like a toddler." I whisper back as I grimace the back of Lip's head, "I know." Ian laughs, "Trust me, I know." He wraps his arm around my neck.

"Looks like this battle is almost over!" I hear over the loudspeaker as soon as we walk into the building, Ian and Carl are hauling the machine down the steps as Lip and I go to registration, "Back for yet another round of ritual humiliation, Gallagher?" The boy at registration says with a mockingly huge smile, "Finally gonna win this time, Geoff." Lip says, leaning on the table, "College entries only today, it's on the website." Geoff says and pulls the paper away from Lip, "Afraid a teenager is gonna kick the shit out of one of your half-assed bucket of bolts?" Lip antagonizes, "Your engineering can't compete at the Black Bot Championship Trophy level, Gallagher." Geoff scoffs, "Who'd you steal your design from this time, Carnegie Mellon or MIT?" Lip questions and  pulls the paper back over to him, registering himself, "Entry fee is one fifty and we don't take food stamps." Geoff says, I flip him off and throw 150 into his little trophy in front of him, "Let's go." Lip says and we all follow him.

He sets his laser down in the entry point of the bot ring, "Piece of cake." Lip says to us over the loud cheering. I hold his arm and rest my head on his bicep, "I got this, baby." he mutters to me and his competition begins, it's Geoff, "Kill him." I say to Lip and get off his arm so he can do what he needs to do, he kisses me quickly as the announcer speaks, "In this corner, the Terror of Northwestern U, Rent-A-Raptor!" The crowd cheers, "And in this corner, representing South Side, Frank!" The crowd boos and the bots move onto the floor, "Ladies and gentlemen, let's get ready to rum-bot!" The announcer commences. The announcer groaned into the mic as Lip's bot got tumbled by Geoff's. "Ooh! Frank is in trouble early. Wait, Frank gets away!" The two bots collided against one another, Frank being completely covered up by the other machine. "Frank is loose! Rent-A-Raptor -watch out, Frank is on the run. Ooh, looks like Frank is down for the count. Rent-A-Raptor is coming for the kill." I bit my knuckle in nervousness as I watched the fight go down, "Babe, laser?" I mutter, he nods, "I got it." he mutters back to me and just then a green light lit up from Frank, and the laser shot out from the front of the machine and Geoff's  robot was blown up. The crowd erupted into cheers, "He did it! We have a new champion!" The announcer screams, I jump up and down in excitement then I jump on Lip and give him a big fat kiss, "You did it! I'm so proud of you!" I say as I hold his cute smiling face, "I couldn't have done it without you," Lip says to me and then embraces Ian and Carl, "Or you two." Lip says, putting me down and walking over to get his award.