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The longer Temperance sat, the more anxious and jittery she became. She just didn't ******** understand anything. The notes she had, the information she'd been given - she couldn't make it all fall into place like puzzle pieces. It was like playing a game both blind and without a strategy book - no, harder, she decided.

She did look up, startled, as the pink haired girl from before approached. "Only every Friday - the murders get so dull after a while." The grin was a little infectious and she smiled back, scooting over on the seat if Chel wished to sit down as well. Chel was brash and not exactly girly, and that made her a little more comfortable.

She looked at the rose and realized belatedly it was being offered to her. She took it, flushing. "Apologize for, um, what?"

She laughed, an awkward, almost snorting thing. "Compared to the dicks I've had to deal with you're, well, a rose. Why wouldn't I have taken it? D-did you not want me to?" Temperance looked over at Chel, feeling a sudden spike in anxiety. But Chel's appearance quelled that spike effectively. Now that she thought about it, the girl didn't look any better - she was more mobile, sure, so..maybe a little better...

"Speaking of which, you still look terrible." She reached to towards Chel's neck, intending to stick the back of her hand there since she didn't have a thermometer.

"Hmm, it doesn't seen like you have a fever." She pulled her hand back."I'm still not convinced you are one hundred percent." Call it a nursing student's intuition, a hunch, a spot of tenacity.

"I called you a rose, didn't I? Did you want poetry - I'm no good at it, though." It was funny how, with her mask off, she overall was less anxious and her words didn't trip over themselves as often.

"This is the garden; colors come and go, frail azures fluttering....." She trailed off, flushing again. Temperance had meant to end it on something funny - she knew she only knew that much of the poem and no further - but she'd stumbled, felt too confident, perhaps. She tried to hide it with a shrug.

"Hey, I didn't write it. I don't remember the rest either." Temperance rolled her eyes at Chel's laughter.

"Let's see you do better. Oh, wait, I've got one.
Violets are red, roses are blue, I suck at this, I bet you do too."

Temperance choked a little at that pick-up line. It was just so terrible. But it was also straight-foward. "Like to, um, cut to the punch, I guess. Where's your sense of romance?" She supposed it fit the girl, though.

"Well, I got an invitation, much like you, I guess. And - What? Oh, oh no. I-I wasn't t-trying to pick up girls!" The last word came out more squeak than word and she clammed up, staring at Chel. This time, even the tips of her ears turned red. She.. she didn't want to pick up, she envied them, found them cute, beautiful, because she wasn't.

"Did... did it seem like I was...?"

Temperance expelled a breath she didn't know she was holding. "I kissed a girl earlier," she whispered. "Oh, god." And then she rubbed her hands briskly across her face. It was lucky that she was not a girl who wore much makeup, and what she did wear, she fastidiously picked out for it's wear and tear factor.Parts of her face were practically waterproof. It was a grand thing, otherwise, she'd have managed to smear halfway to Sunday with her hands.

She took another deep breath and looked up again. "Did you-" Cleared her throat. "-come with someone who had an invitation? Does that... that means you've not uh, been to that other Ashdown yet?" Just forget about kissing girls, Temperance, she told herself.

Temperance swallowed a groan. "Can't we just talk about spooky stuff?" But she already figured Chel wasn't the type to let it go, like a pink-haired dog with a bone.

"I d-didn't get down with anyone. I ******** up a friendship is what I did." Just then, the kissee (Temperance wasn't sure that was even a real word) entered the black hall and took a seat across the way. "She's here," Temperance sighed.