|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2015 10:37 pm
"Way too much." His tone was casual enough and the smirk lingered as a quirk of his mouth. "My turn: how does it feel? The shaved head, I mean. Lopsided, right?"
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2015 10:56 pm
Chel looked disappointed, but was very well-versed in how to play Jack. Learning about his family was incredible in itself. Best to not bite off more than that. There was plenty to bite later.
She'd nearly forgotten her shaved head, but in bringing it up Jack reminded her once again of everything. "Yeah," she said in lieu of feeling. "Better than when. I um. Cut it off with a dagger. That hurt." A lot of things hurt, she recalled.
"Anything else?" She wanted to move on from the subject.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2015 11:05 pm
"Nope, go ahead." Jack was still a little curious, though, judging from the way his eyes drew towards the spot. Eventually he traded hands just so he could reach up and graze it with his fingers, the difference between buzzed off and normal hair for some reason fascinating. He didn't like the look as much as what she had before, but it had some merits.
"Wait. Where'd you put my glasses? Give 'em back, then go ahead."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2015 11:26 pm
Chel twitched and moved away from his hand because that was still her head and it was weird Jack but that only spiked her headache and left her with a low moan and cut eyes.
She fumbled for his glasses, which she'd set on the pillow behind her and although she'd initially wanted to put them on in some sort of romantic gesture what transpired was an awkward placement into his cheek as she road out the headache. Eventually her brain settled in one spot and she resettled herself.
"Go ahead with what?" she grumbled, sourness settling in where sadness had left gaps. But affection talked annoyance down and she turned on her side, making their side by side talk into something closer to an embrace.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2015 11:40 pm
He hid a smile and decided not to continue bothering her hair for now, just in case she got revenge with some well-placed pokes of his glasses. "I dunno," Jack said as he took his glasses back off and blindly set them on the little bedside table and by the water bottle. A small mmph left him as he dropped back down, moving to cozy up closer. "I've been following your lead here, Chel. You have one question left still if you feel like it."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2015 12:12 am
"Me? Leadin'?" She bumped against his nose and said, "Must be someone else yer talkin' bout."
She raised an eyebrow at his offer. Somehow she was used to a past Jack who would have already considered her four questions in debt. Maybe Jack was changing.
"Another question..." She had so many but a great number of them were small details she could learn another way. Her fingers jiggled under his shirt, a thinking fidget. "Pets...? No that's dumb. Gimme a sec, gimme a sec."
Finally she settled on something unimportant. "Embarrassing stories I can hold over you forever?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2015 12:42 am
There was something that could have technically counted for both questions, but he showed the same discretion he had about his grandmother. Jack hummed in thought and dropped his gaze, finding his options for answers strangely restricted: all his mind seemed capable of remembering were the worst parts, never the mundane and hardly the funny because embarrassing and humorous rarely crossed in his head when it came to him personally. By ignoring the memory, the event no longer existed and the past could be rewritten. That was the secret to being a perfect person. That was also the secret to leading a very bitter life as well, unfortunately.
He stroked the inside of her palm with his thumb. "I got held back in fourth grade," Jack said in a softer tone as if someone else would hear, the cavalier attitude fading. "That was the year I actually met one of them--not a shadow but something from Halloween proper. After that, I...grew obsessed." Even that felt like an understatement. His mouth twisted a little at what he could remember of it. "Needless to say, I didn't focus on school enough to pass."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2015 10:16 am
Chel had already begun her awkward smile she made when she was uncomfortable, prepared for some response about why he couldn't tell her anything. Certainly she would have rejected the question (mostly because she didn't have any she considered worth hiding- that was the life of a failure). Thus when he spoke she looked up at him with a startled expression.
Even Chel had never been held back. She sailed by on D's and the whiny plea that she was dyslexic two weeks from the end of the semester. More importantly, it meant Jack was becoming even more human.
"Wow. Failed the fourth grade. I didn't even know ya could do that." Her words had a mocking tone but her hand was firmly placed on his side. It's okay. "I know this might surprise ya, but doin' well in school ain't really high on my priorities list." This talk was nice. She was looking at his face (progress) and it wasn't about Chris. A conversation that was barely letting her cling to sanity. "My school record's more like a picasso paintin'. Try to hold in yer surprise."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2015 10:44 am
"I didn't fail," he snapped, pulling his head back a little to glare at her. "I just stopped giving a ******** for a year like a piece of s**t, that's different. I wasn't stupid—" Like he still needed to defend himself from the imposed stigma from his family years later.
Realizing how stupid that sounded, Jack took a breath and calmed himself, his lips pressed into a thin line for a moment. "How'd you handle school at all?" he asked.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2015 10:52 am
Chel flinched as he spat the word stupid, eyes back down tohis chest. Back to not making eye contact. Being in an already fragile state, she scrambled to kill the feelings rising to her eyes.
Sometimes Jack had to be reminded that his words had repurcussions. "Doesn't matter now," she mumbled back.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2015 11:17 am
The words might as well have been written on his face. Ah, ********> "Didn't mean it like that," he muttered. "Sorry."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2015 11:45 am
"You did," she retorted. "I'm just bein' a baby. Need thicker skin. S'okay." She put her head in his chest to hide the motion she'd made earlier as something with a more natural progression.
She took the time to remind herself that regardless of what he said he was still here and that had to be enough.
"I got dragged," she began with a sigh. "I didn't get s**t and they passed me anyways. Detention most days- never got why they thought that s**t would fix anything. You sit in a room a while 'n go home. S'free daycare, see?"
They'd been talking for some time and Chel wondered if this was considered free daycare too. "Anyways, it really don't matter now. Don't need essays to kill a mermaid."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2015 12:20 pm
At least she agreed. Sighing through his nose, he curled his arm around her tighter as he listened, idly curling his fingers around the ends of her hair. Here Jack would have asked why they didn't put her in a program or something if it was clear she had a learning disability, but it was as she said: it didn't matter now.
"Sounds like hell," he said, then had a slight pause. "But I wouldn't count homework out. You could bore them to death talking about the themes of To Kill a Mockingbird," Jack joked. "Melt their brains with a paradox: The next statement is true. The previous statement is false. Or you could throw a book at them, there's some in the library swear to god you could use for weight lifting."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2015 12:25 pm
"That's what you lifers are for," she retorted, not without an air of respect. Chel definitely couldn't get behind cunning schemes but she had to at least admire the lifers for fighting in their own way.
From where she was laying she could see Jack's slightly ajar closet. "You been collectin' shoes a long time?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2015 12:42 pm
"Exactly. Knowledge is power and s**t."
He followed her glance out.
"Not that long," he replied, either forgetting or ignoring the two question hard limit. "Three years or so now."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
