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 Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2015 12:24 am
the scar
That morning, Stormy opted to leave the room for once. She'd snuck out of bed without waking Gale, which was a feat in and of itself given how tightly she curled herself in bed and how much he liked to spoon, and was intent on trying to surprise him with breakfast in bed. A show of good faith, an attempt to say she wasn't all bad. (Which maybe might allow her to get away with some very bad days in the future, which she was very sure would happen.) She just needed to pop out to borrow something from Evan, who always seemed to have stuff stocked for food while she needed a list of things to do to remind her to do a grocery list at all.
But when she swung the door open, she stopped dead when she saw the gash. And Stormy stood there for she didn't know how long just looking at it, feeling her fragile positive motions crumble into little shards of glass the longer she did.
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Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2015 12:43 am
ashes to ashes
She perched on their bed in a nest of sheets, sweaty and listless. The only light within the room came in slits through the window, the glow of the cigarette, and what reflected in her eyes. When the door opened, she didn't bother hiding it this time. She stayed perfectly still, like a gargoyle overlooking a church, gazing into nothing, the stick balanced in her fingers (peeking from the longsleeved tops she had taken to wearing) and grazing her lips. Caught red handed but too caught in her haze to care.
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Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2015 1:12 am
vent
"And that's why," she whispered, eyes bright and sleeves unfurled as she hid the scars on her arms once more, "that's why I'm scared, Gale, because I don't know what else I can do. Lex is the only one I can talk to about this right now. But he--" She paused and licked her lips nervously and went back to looking down at her now cold tea. "He means well I-I know he does, he just..."
Her face wrinkled in distress. The words were harder to find. "Sometimes I think he only sees people as their problems," she continued, feeling horribly guilty for admitting her thoughts.
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Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2015 10:59 am
the scar
The transition from moving out of the towns and into the dorms again had been surprisingly easy for Gale; he had thought that his tendency towards sentimentality would have been a hindrance, after all - but so far he'd managed to slip simply into the routine of coming back to 221, to falling asleep with his arms around Stormy.
It was not always so pleasant. He wished it could be, but then the relationship would not have been as precious to him as it was.
He blinked slowly and groggily awake, the distinct lack of warmth the indicator that Stormy was no longer in bed. Gale pushed himself up, the right side of his vision as blurry as ever, blinking sleep from his eyes as he tossed the sheets back.
The door was cracked, just a little. Gale padded over to it and pulled it farther, the thin, frail form of his girlfriend becoming visible, her eyes focused laser-like on something. He turned his head, and his stomach twisted, his chest tightening, mind trying desperately to not jump to conclusions about the culprit (though he had suspicions).
"Stormy," said Gale quietly, and reached out, threading his fingers through her cold, thin ones. "Come inside."
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Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2015 11:03 am
ashes to ashes
He should have been surprised, but he wasn't.
It was hard to hide smoke, after all; even after laundry and soap and washing, little bits of it still clung to the skin and to hair, and since he slept so closely next to her, it was not hard to deduce. Gale had seen the cigarettes himself in the process of moving, but had pushed it out of his mind, out of sight.
Now, however, it was harder to do that. He closed the door quietly behind him, his bag slipping from his shoulder to land near his feet. Gale crossed the room towards her and stood in front of Stormy, his gaze resting on her pallid face, how thin and small she looked.
He took his sleeve and wiped her brow gently with one hand, while the other reached for the cigarette, Gale slipping it away and lifting it to press between his own teeth without inhaling, holding it steady while he watched her.
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Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2015 11:06 am
vent
He was scratching at the eyepatch, because it itched, but there was no longer any need to actually keep wearing it, other than the fact that it hid his milky, blurred eye from vision. One of Gale's hands was resting behind Stormy, fingers idly stroking up and down her back while the other was wrapped loosely around his own cup of tea.
"Lex is one of those people that doesn't exactly know how to be a person sometimes," said Gale, lifting his mug. "He's a decent guy, and you're right, he does mean well, but sometimes he puts his professional side of things before the emotional side."
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Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2015 11:41 am
the scar
She stared at it for a little longer. "I wanted to go out," she said distantly, unresponsive to the touch at first. "That's all. I was going out. I was going to make something for you. I was going to do something." Increasingly in the spaces between her words was the notion that she was begging for something, though she didn't know what could possibly help.
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Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2015 11:47 am
ashes to ashes
At least he wasn't Evan, imposing moral authority by taking away her choices. She could pull the cigarette back if she really wanted. But she didn't. Stormy just gave him filmy, sorrowful look as he wiped her face. I'm sorry for smoking in the bed room. I'm sorry for making our place smell bad. I'm sorry if I've disappointed you.
"D'you think weed might be better?" she asked in a rusty voice.
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Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2015 11:54 am
ventDoesn't exactly know how to be a person. She felt the phrase keenly sometimes, as she was sure everyone did at some point. "But should I try asking him anyway?" she asked Gale, trying her hardest not to drift and look at the eye patch like she sometimes did without thinking. She'd yet to ask what happened; she'd been afraid to.
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Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2015 12:16 pm
the scar
He knew better than to push, than to demand, and so he just stood there with his hand gentle around hers, not forcing, but supporting. "That was very kind of you," said Gale softly, and he gave her fingers a squeeze. His gaze drifted towards the mark on the door again, and a flinch passed very briefly across his eyes before it disappeared again.
"We'll fill it in," he said. "It'll just take a bit of plaster."
At least for the scratch in the door. He wasn't sure about the ones in her heart yet.
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Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2015 12:19 pm
ashes to ashes
The smoke curled around them, and still he kept the cigarette between his teeth, breathing evenly without inhaling too much of it. It tasted dark and black in his lungs, and it was taking a lot of effort not to cough, in spite of his attempts at not breathing the smoke in.
The mention of weed made his lips quirk, just a tiny bit for the briefest of seconds, because he recalled Nora talking about the exact same thing on Twitter; and now it was ironic, because he knew she did not approve of Stormy, that she thought lowly of her.
"Depends," said Gale calmly, continuing in his ministrations, now brushing down the side of her face. "On what you want to accomplish, I suppose."
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Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2015 12:21 pm
vent
His fingers smoothed against the small of her back before his palm flattened there a brief moment.
"You can," said Gale, mulling this thought over as he blew a gust of breath over his cooling tea, which was not quite as cold as Stormy's but was rapidly becoming lukewarm. "He cares a great deal for you, even if he doesn't always know how to show it properly."
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Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2015 12:32 pm
the scar
Plaster. Okay. Plaster and then paint it over. She nodded her head slightly and followed the tether of their arms back in, closing the door behind her.
"D'you think it's him?" Stormy asked quietly. "Should I ask?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2015 12:40 pm
ashes to ashes
"It's medicinal," she went on, slowly encouraged more and more with each touch. "I-I think. Smokes aren't. Smokes just taste bad and make you forget for a while. Weed still smells bad but it relaxes you. That's what I remember reading." There was shame still written on her face, but Stormy was reveling in it, digging up everything she could to show. "I wouldn't do it in here. I'd find someplace else. If...If I do it."
She paused and scratched at her sleeves with an extra crease in her brow forming.
"Evan and Tuck wouldn't like it, I think," she added lowly. "Evan already wants to take the smokes. Says I should drink instead. But drinking doesn't help me, you've seen."
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Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2015 12:48 pm
vent"Not can, Galestorm. Anyone can. That's not the question." She turned to look at him fully, in all her unshowered, eye-circled splendor. " Should I?" she asked, leaving the decision in his hands.
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