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 Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2013 4:22 pm
Social life was the last thing on Liberty's mind.
Even after a solid ten hours the night previous, Liberty had awoken tired, stumbled around for Tylenol, and made a huge breakfast to ease the stabbing pain in her gut she confused for hunger. At nine, she'd felt comfortable enough to send Avery a text message. The redhead wanted nothing more to crawl back in bed and stay there the rest of the day, but another morning had come and went and she still had not reviewed the class material. There was also the fact that, no matter how much she told herself it was silly, Liberty felt terrified of being alone.
The redhead's dorm had been cleaned top to bottom. If Avery asked, Liberty would say it had been no trouble, but the student had harassed her roommate to clean out the small dorm fridge for the better part of an hour. It was the most relaxing hour of the day, for the rest of it was spent in solitude, jumping at every loud noise outside the room. It was official: Liberty Marie Reever's nerves were shot.
It was a problem.
But not half as much of a problem as the complicated demand curves Liberty had splayed out on her lap. A cup of iced tea--she couldn't afford the beer right now--resting on the coffee table in front of her was fully condensed, nestled in a pool of water that was unable to soak into the coaster.
The redhead pulled in a deep breath, checked her watch, and glanced towards the door.
Avery had said 6. It was fifty after five. Liberty busied herself with spinning a pencil in her hand. Those were awfully jagged graph lines.
Was that a knock on the door?
Liberty pulled herself up from the couch, and swung the door wide. What did she expect? Thyone, standing there? A whole parade of Negaverse soldiers? No one, not even Avery, stood on the walkway that stretched along the second floor. Talking herself down to an easier state of mind, Liberty returned to the couch and her work.
Concentrate Libby.
The test was in two days, and in her current state of mind, Liberty would have been thankful to scrape out a B.
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Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2013 4:26 pm
At 5:59, the was a smart rap at the door.
Avery Hollister had come directly from her late afternoon dance class, with a pitstop for snacks and drinks, and stood waiting in the hall wearing a pair of loose sweats, sneakers, and a tank-top, chocolate hair secured in a bun at the base of her neck. While she'd have preferred to shower and change, she wasn't taking a chance on being late - again. When Liberty opened the door, the brunette took one good look at her, before pursing her lips in concern, a slight furrow touching her arched brows.
"Oh, honey." She shook her head, entering the dorm and glancing over Liberty's study station. "You don't seem stressed at all." Her good hand patted the tote over her shoulder. "I brought fuel." The other hand, of course, was firmly bound in a wrist brace, which shielded a very dark bruise that, while shaped like a hand print, radiated outward in an aura of discolored damage.
Avery, of course, wasn't very concerned about the upcoming test. It fell into her major, and as a graduating senior, she had this s**t down. But she had promised to help Liberty the night prior, and seeing her now... She felt more than a little guilty.
"I'm sorry about last night."
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Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2013 4:27 pm
"Thank goodness you're here." Liberty hadn't meant words so strongly in a long time. Her chest was beating steady, firmly thumping against her ribcage in a reminder of how nervous she'd been up until she'd open the door.
"I've past stressed."
The door was closed quietly and her eyes moved from 'fuel', to the secured wrist Avery was clearly favoring. Minding the injury, she gave Avery a quick, firm squeeze in greeting. Liberty hadn't meant it to be so tight, but in truth, she'd never been so happy to see the brunette. The redhead's eyes flicked nervously to the open practice test on the table. Fingers lingering on Avery's arm, Liberty gently suggested they occupy the couch.
"It's not your fault." Liberty had no idea how wrong she was. "Sports injuries are unavoidable." At some point in their life, everyone who engaged in physical activity was going to get injured. It was a life truth. "Are you sure a study session is a good idea?" Not that she wasn't desperate for the help. Liberty's eyes moved between the brace and hazel.
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Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2013 4:28 pm
Avery was tensing as Liberty reached for her, before she even registered her own reaction. It was tight, and her breath caught and she resisted the immediate urge to push Libby away from her body, awkwardly turning her resistance into a movement that brought her bag up to peer inside it.
What was she looking for in there? Perhaps her usual sense of ease with physical interactions.
She removed a bottle of water, and sat on the couch, tucking the tote near her feet, and found herself grateful for the homework that presented a distraction.
"My brain is fine. You might have to do the writing though." She laughed.
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Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2013 4:33 pm
The result were two pair of eyes searching for something to drown out the icky, unnatural feeling that was beginning to grow in the room. For Liberty, it involved a stern gaze that lingered on Avery even when the woman had relaxed herself on the couch.
"I've been on problem four for the last hour," she offered. The redhead had not yet taken a seat herself, unsure if a comment on Avery's tension was appropriate.
"I can do that." If a smile could heal whatever Avery was feeling, Liberty sure tried with hers.
"Do you want any tea? Water, maybe?" she asked as she entered the kitchen. The small fridge left little room for a full-bar of drink options. As she waited for Avery to make a decision, Liberty pulled a plastic bag from the cabinet and began to fill it with ice.
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Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2013 10:56 pm
Avery laughed.
It was a refreshing sound, that eased some of the tension that had kept her body tight throughout the day. Her gaze shifted from the bottle of water already on the table in front of her to her tote bag, with a shake of her head. Later.
"No, I'm fine." Libby would definitely see it when she got back, and turn a delightful shade of pink. Shifting, she leaned a bit to peer at Liberty's text book, and raised her brows.
"Oh, Libby, you know this. What are you doing." Her calm, somewhat amused tone let her study buddy know that this test wasn't going to be the end of the world. The redhead must be frazzled. Avery would do what she did best and inject the girl with some confidence.
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Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2013 11:12 pm
"You're sure?" Liberty called back over her shoulder. Tilting her head slightly to the side, she surveyed the bag of ice, and turned off the faucet. It was zipped tightly, placed into a larger ziploc, and Liberty snatched a towel on her way out of the kitchen.
"Ah." The excuses rolled right off her tongue as she re-entered the common space. "Freaking out." Did she tell Avery that just her presence was calming her mind? That within thirty seconds of the woman's presence, her mind had focused enough that it had a solution for the problem at hand?
Reever grin in place, Liberty settled into the cushions next to Avery.
"A few minute break will likely do me good." Her eyes caught on the water on the table, and the redhead's face flushed lightly. Okay, she was just going to ignore that. "You look like you could use this." Liberty slightly shook the bag of ice.
"Can I see?"
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Posted: Mon Apr 08, 2013 4:15 pm
"Super freaking out," Avery's amused tone accompanied a nod as Liberty joined her on the couch, and she handed a pencil to the younger woman to let her fill in the answer on her own.
Of course, Liberty hadn't gotten any drinks, she'd brought ice for Avery. What a darling, even if the brunette wouldn't readily admit to any pain. Was it that obvious? Maybe. She hadn't quite handed it over yet, and it quickly became apparently that she expected to examine the injury.
"No," Avery hadn't meant the word to come out so quickly, instinctively pulling her wrist closer to her body, then correcting and softening her reaction with a "It's fine, really, just a little sprain."
Something told her that Liberty shouldn't see the bruises, if at all possible.
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Posted: Mon Apr 08, 2013 4:21 pm
The redhead's eyes widened just slightly, for the briefest of moments. It wasn't like she'd asked to smash Avery's wrist with a hammer. Never the less, Liberty pushed her tongue against the roof of her mouth and forced her curiosity to stay at bay.
"You know what my mother used to tell me when I refused to let her see my bruises and scrapes?" Liberty, took a quick sip of the warming iced tea she already had on the table. "She told me, 'What's more important to you, your pride or your mother's happiness?'"
Liberty's hand gave Avery's leg a gentle squeeze, and she reached over to hand Avery the bag of ice.
"I caved every time."
By the way that Liberty picked up her book, the problem set, and leaned back into the couch, it was very clear that she wasn't her mother. "So, here, are they asking about rate per year for twelve years, or average rate for the entirety of the twelve year span?"
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Posted: Mon Apr 08, 2013 4:47 pm
Avery felt her face flush briefly with the heat of embarrassment for her reaction, before she laughed dryly, "My mother just had the physician look at me." As if Tamrin Hollister had the time or desire to be eyeballing her brood's scrapes and bruises.
The relief she felt over Liberty's clear respect of her personal space was palpable, and it made her eager to remove the awkwardness her reluctance had created. Her left hand touched the one on her knee, squeezing back before she glanced over the problem set.
"The former." She paused. "I got you something." Hazel eyes indicated her tote bag.
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Posted: Mon Apr 08, 2013 4:49 pm
The former.
Biting the right side of her tongue, Liberty narrowed her eyes at the problem. After a slight headtilt and a briefly tensed jaw, she began to write words and numbers onto her pad of scratch paper.
"That makes more sense," she mumbled out in thanks.
The next problem was written on her paper, and Liberty began to flip to the back of the problem set to make sure her answer matched. The cogs in her brain clicked into place.
"You didn't."
Liberty hadn't exactly made a public announcement about her birthday, but it had certainly come up. Not to mention, if Avery was really interested, she could easily have extracted it from Kesslan. Still, Liberty didn't actually expect Avery to remember, and even if she had, usually a 'Happy Birthday' was appropriate at their age.
Placing the pencil inside her book, she closed the entirety of her study materials and set it aside. "Do I have to wait until tomorrow?"
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Posted: Mon Apr 08, 2013 5:14 pm
"Of course not," Silly, her voice implied but didn't say as she bent to reach into her bag and pull out a box. It was relatively thin and flat, black, a perfect square with a simple green ribbon tying it closed.
Avery offered it to her friend, raising an eyebrow. "Don't be so surprised." Why wouldn't she get her a present? She liked her. Maybe it would make up for ditching out the night prior, or her weirdness since she arrived. Of course, she'd bought it a week ago, so "making amends" wasn't actually a valid reason for the purchase.
When Liberty finally opened it, she'd find a decorative belt buckle. It was obviously old, but a well cared for collector's item, and wrapped in a thin, soft cloth for protection. When Avery had spotted it in the window of a shop downtown, she couldn't resist.
"Is it okay?" To Avery, it looked like it belonged on Liberty's belt, but they didn't know each other that well.
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Posted: Mon Apr 08, 2013 5:23 pm
Liberty Marie's rough hands barely pulled at the ribbon holding the box together. It was set on the table, curled, and Liberty used only her fingers to lift the black lid. That, too, was set on the table.
When she finally got around to peeling away the thin cloth, Liberty simply stopped breathing. If she had been careful with the gift before, she downright babied it now. A muted, golden glint winked back at her under the dorm lights.
The bronze had darkened around the edges, making the gently worn, curled, framing designs pop. In the center, a bull resisting a rope around its horns and leg, and the two cowboys that had caught it. The central engraving was detailed; whoever had made it had put in time, energy--it wasn't the fake sort of plated silver and gold with sloppy edges that was handed out so often in modern roping competitions and shows.
"You have a really good eye." Resting the cloth in her hand, she turned it to the other side. It was worn there, too. Perfect. It had a story.
"There's one problem." Liberty locked serious eyes with Avery Hollister. "The other belt buckles might get jealous."
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Posted: Mon Apr 08, 2013 5:46 pm
Hazel eyes followed every careful movement of Liberty's strong hands, and Avery found that she liked the way the woman touched beautiful things. Her gaze flicked up to watch Liberty's face as she began speaking, before she laughed.
"You are ridiculous." Avery was delighted with Liberty's response, and reached out to touch the inside of the wrist that held the buckle, catch the attention of those green eyes. "It reminded me of you."
Scale it back, Avery Emmerson.
She flashed a smile, settling back onto her side of the couch and flicking the textbook back open. "Birthday plans for tomorrow?" Super casual.
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Posted: Mon Apr 08, 2013 5:55 pm
Avery brought Liberty's grin from broad to a subdued, perfect curl of lips. "I know." The edges of her cheeks pinkened, a shade lighter than her ears. The flashing smile made her own twitch, and her chest swelled. It wasn't quite pride, but an undeniable excitement that made her slip a few fingers around the edge of the belt buckle.
The daring, quick attempt to casually return the touch down the underside of Avery's wrist and arm fell short when the woman leaned back. Liberty remembered how to breath again. Shoulda kissed her.
"Studying," Liberty responded with a laugh. The redhead leaned over the table and plucked up the pencil. They couldn't have Avery trying to write, now could they?
"Maybe I'll buy a slice of cheesecake from the bakery during the day." She so rarely spoiled herself. The belt buckle was carefully refolded inside its protective cloth and placed back in the box. It could go on the shelf when they took another break, where it would be safe. Bronze may have been hard to bruise, but Liberty was taking no chances with her new gift.
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