Legally Blonde the Musical Appreciation Week - Day 2: Favorite Lyrics
Paying tribute to a few of my favorite lines in the show while staying true to the way I write! Also uses prompt #89: “You are the best thing that has ever happened to me.”
“Big Sturdy Book”
Whoever said that Elle wouldn’t continue to find ways to excel in Cambridge was seriously underestimating her. For example, she was about to face a huge personal triumph in her apartment. As soon as she could stop her hands from shaking.
Big…sturdy…book,” she whispered to herself, one of her heaviest law school textbooks clutched in her hands and held aloft by her head. She took another tiptoed step forward towards her kitchen. “It’s a big, sturdy, book. Big wordy book, but big and sturdy and going to protect me, and not just because I understand law now.” She backtracked two steps, grimacing. But she could do this; she had to do this.
If her feet would just keep moving her towards her kitchen. Okay, she could work with this, too. She allowed herself to pause, shaking her body out to be less tense. “Remember. Big, sturdy book. You can face your fears.” Her personal pep talk wasn’t working.
Her apartment door opened, and a sigh of relief gushed out of her as she dropped her arms down to no longer hold the book aloft and spun around.
Emmett was putting down his work bag and closing her door, sending furtive, confused glances in her direction. “Emmett, oh, thank God.” She rushed to his side, skidding to a stop to accept his kiss hello before she tried to hand him the book. Though he took it out of her hand, he seemed bewildered.
“Uh. It’s a little early in the semester for a meltdown. Why am I holding your Constitutional Law textbook?” He asked, frowning at her as he set it down on her side table.
“Because it’s the biggest, sturdiest book I have.” Emmett gestured with his hand to encourage her to go on. “Omigod, Emmett, I was cooking dinner, and and…there’s a cockroach in my kitchen.” Her wide, frightened eyes begged him to save her.
He pointed at the book. “And the book is because…” He shook his head, either deciding it didn’t matter or having figured out Elle’s train of thought. “Your building is pretty new, it would be unusual for there to be…” Emmett started to rationalize, but his eyes turned sympathetic as she merely continued to stare at him. “Okay. Why don’t you –” he handed the textbook back to her “– go hide in your study, and I’ll deal with the cockroach.”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she breathed, beginning to head towards the safety of her study before she rotated back to face Emmett. “Don’t you need this?” She offered him Con Law again.
Ugh, he was trying not to laugh at her. Charming. “No, Elle, I don’t think Con Law is going to serve any purpose in dealing with a cockroach.”
She shrugged. “Your battle. Personally, I think it would have been very useful.” Without waiting for a reply, she fled to her study, placing her textbook back on the shelf and looking around the room as if an army of cockroaches would emerge to finish her off.
She heard the toilet flush, and then Emmett’s footsteps back out into her living room. “It’s safe now, Elle.” He called to her, tone wry.
Joining him in her living room, she stepped right into his arms. He held her tight, the rumble of his chuckling vibrating against her cheek. “Don’t laugh, butthead, it was a very trying experience, I’ve never had to deal with a cockroach in my life.”
Emmett only laughed harder, squeezing her. “It wasn’t a cockroach.”
Elle blinked, leaning her head back so she could see his face. “It…it wasn’t?”
“Some type of beetle. Not a cockroach.”
She scrunched up her nose, placing her head back against his chest. “Still ew.”
“Well, it’s all gone now. Your knight in ratty corduroy has slayed the beast and rescued the fair princess. He’d like to be rewarded with mac and cheese.”
She hummed in response, tightening her arms around his back and cuddling closer. In reply, he stroked her shoulder with his thumb. “Mm. Do you know where my favorite place in Cambridge is?”
“I’m guessing it’s not your kitchen, where you could feed your hungry boyfriend.”
“Shhh. I’m serious.” She swatted his chest lightly, but her arm immediately wrapped back around him.
“Hmmm. You know, I know a lot of your favorite places, plural, but I don’t know which one I think you would choose as your one top favorite,” Emmett reflected. He’d started to sway the two of them, and Elle nuzzled into the side of his neck, inhaling the faint lingering scent of his aftershave and closing her eyes.
“Right here,” she replied simply.
“Your apartment?”
Elle grinned, pressing a quick kiss against his skin. “Your arms.”
Emmett chuckled. He put his mouth close to her ear, sending a pleasant shiver down her spine. “That’s soppily romantic, even for you.”
“Nope, just true. You are the best thing that has ever happened to me.” Taking another few moments to enjoy his embrace, Elle let her hands slide up to his shoulders and then down his back as she withdrew from him. “Come on,” she finally breathed through a giggle, grabbing his hand. “Let’s go make your mac and cheese.”
He really should have arrived earlier. Even worse, now that he hadn’t arrived earlier, he realized he knew he should have arrived earlier and he hadn’t.
With a weary sigh, he checked his watch again. “Elle…”
She stuck her head out the door of her bedroom. “Just another five minutes, Em, I swear.”
“You said that ten minutes ago,” he objected, but she’d already darted back into her bedroom. Nevertheless, Emmett was a patient man. He waited another five minutes, hearing random noises from Elle’s bedroom. Then he stood from the couch. “Okay, Elle, five minutes are over.”
Her voice sounded muffled and far away. “Emmett, please, I just need a few more minutes.” Something clunked onto the floor, and he peeked his head cautiously around the door.
Emmett wasn’t prepared for the disaster area that was Elle’s room. There were clothes everywhere, shoes on the floor, unidentifiable hair products scattered across one side of her bed, barely leaving space for Bruiser, who was curled up asleep on one of her pillows. A mountain of clothes covered the other side. Emmett was pretty sure he’d never met someone who had as many clothes as Elle did.
He really should have arrived earlier.
The woman in question dashed out of the closet, strap of one high heel not closed and muttering to herself. She passed by Emmett as if he wasn’t there.
Tucking his hands into his pockets, he cleared his throat. “Elle. We need to go now.”
Elle whirled around, nothing short of pure panic painted on her face. “Go? No, I can’t yet, I need a few more minutes. I…I can’t wear this.” She darted past him back to the closet.
It took Emmett a moment to process what she’d said, so surprised by her expression that his reactions were slowed. He followed her. “What? Elle, you look beautiful, you don’t need to change, but we do need to leave.” He dodged the top she’d been wearing as she threw it out of the closet. In Elle’s hands was a dress, light pink and colorful but much more muted than the clothes she’d worn when she’d first arrived at Harvard Law. He knew instantly that she’d look stunning in it.
Elle kicked her skirt off, pulling the dress over her head and completely ignoring Emmett. Silently, he stepped up to her, waiting as she pressed the dress down to seat it correctly before he brushed her hair to the side and zipped it up. When he was finished, he couldn’t resist placing a small kiss at the back of her neck. “We need to leave, or we’re going to be late,” he murmured.
“We can’t leave yet,” Elle said with mounting hysteria. “I…need to change, and I should really make some bruschetta to bring with us, and pick a bottle of wine. Maybe I have a box of brownies, too, I should bake those.”
Emmett grasped her shoulders, gently turning her to face him and speaking calmly in hopes of getting her to relax. “Elle. We’ve run out of time.” He left his hands on her shoulders, squeezing them as he locked eyes with her. “One of the five bottles of wine on your table will be fine. You don’t need to bake brownies or make bruschetta, you’re already bringing wine and a zucchini casserole. And you definitely don’t need to change, you look gorgeous.”
Elle made a half-hearted effort at wiggling out of his hands. “No! I need to –” She didn’t finish the sentence as she reached over and grabbed at a shirt, pulling it off the hanger.
Emmett’s eyebrows scrunched together. “Talk to me. What’s going on?” Elle seemed to deflate before him, dropping the shirt to the ground and meeting his eyes again.
“I need to make a good impression,” she explained weakly. “She’s your mother.”
He shook his head slowly, not comprehending. He kept his words light. “You’ve met my mom before. She loved you. What she doesn’t love is tardiness, so, we should…”
“Emmett.” Elle looked ready to cry.
Emmett dropped the carefree tone, turning serious though he was still confused. He brushed his fingers across her cheek. “You don’t need to make any impressions, you just need to leave with me. You’ve already met my mom.”
“Not as your girlfriend.”
Oh. Now Emmett understood. He cupped her face between his hands, leaning closer to her. “My mom knew long before you did that I love you.” Elle inhaled quickly, opening her mouth to speak, and Emmett covered it with his own in a quick stolen kiss. “She won’t think any differently of you now that you’re my girlfriend. You don’t have to impress her. She’s just excited to see us.” Elle moved forward to rest against him, and he wrapped his arms around her, running his knuckles up and down her arm with one hand. He quickly looked around the closet, spotting a white cardigan sweater and freeing it from the hanger before bringing his arm back to hold her again.
“What if she doesn’t approve of me?”
“She approves. Trust me.”
Elle nodded into his chest, seeming to take a moment to draw strength from the embrace. When she pulled away, he held the sweater out to her. She wrinkled her nose. “No, not that one.” And onto the floor it went. She reached for a black sweater, slipping her arms into it before she grabbed his hand and led him out of the closet.
“Does this mean you’re ready to go?” Emmett asked hesitantly.
Elle took a deep breath and led him out of her bedroom. “I’m ready. Let’s go.”
