Room 324, Monday Afternoon

[vanillajello]

After the arrest and everything, yesterday had continued to be just as moodswingy a day as many of the others before it. On one hand, her video had gained more than 250,000 hits in a single day, and Lynda had invited her to the Crossroads art shindig this Friday. On the other, she and her brother had had to listen to their parents fighting for like two hours in the evening. That always made her feel like an orphan. It sucked.

As did having to leave Marshall alone with the mess she could escape, especially when it was going to be his sixteenth birthday tomorrow. But Kate was still insanely glad when she finally managed to convince her parents to unground her so she could come back to Fandom.

She flew back, her parents paid for the tickets. She was too late for her classes, and probably would've skipped them anyway, so once she made it into her room, she just dropped her bags on the floor and fell over onto her bed, burying her face in her pillows.

Home sweet home, or something.

[ooc: Door is cracked, post is open, girl is... a lot of things.]

Comments

[therewaslife]

Well, she had so he was glad to hear that. He shrugged but added a nod to say it was fine, he wasn't going to hold a grudge. He was pretty sure he'd done the same to her so it wasn't one sided.

He just couldn't express apologies without talking and he wasn't talking.

[vanillajello]

"And thanks for staying," she added, after chewing on her lip for a bit. "You didn't have to."

Even though she didn't want to think about how shitty she would've felt if he actually had gone away.

[therewaslife]

Bod nodded at her. If she hadn't said anything, he would have left without a word. If she hadn't asked, that is. It would have hurt but he wasn't going to stay when he didn't think he was wanted.

So, he nodded again and smiled a little.

[vanillajello]

Kate smiled even less, but at least she smiled that much. And then she looked down.

"And, y'know, for next time?" Because there was going to be one. There was always a next time. "If I come back with this much crap all around me, just... Just see my side, okay? Like, I know Mom didn't do it on purpose. I know that. But everyone expects me to just understand. And I don't always want to have to understand."

She just wanted someone to tell her it was okay to be upset and hurt.

[therewaslife]

Bod pursed his lips at that and, for the first time, really struggled with not talking because he had a response to that. He kept quiet though even if it was difficult and managed a small nod.

[vanillajello]

"And I know you couldn't have known that," she added, in case it sounded like she was blaming him. She wasn't really looking at him. "That's why I'm telling you now. Don't get logical when I'm just... irrationally angry."

[therewaslife]

Bod got a little stiff at the instructions mostly because he really did want to talk or defend himself or say something and that want went right into his body.

He bit down on the inside of his cheek and kept quiet though, breathing slowly.

[vanillajello]

"You're going tense."

She couldn't help noticing. She also wasn't all that surprised.

[therewaslife]

When his tension got noticed, he shook his head and forced himself to calm down. The tension ebbed away slowly and he shook his head again.

He'd get over it.

[vanillajello]

"Okay," she said to that, a little sceptical but letting it go anyway. Today was not the the day for pushing things more than they already had.

So she stared up at the ceiling some more, just thinking for the moment.

[therewaslife]

And since he couldn't stare at the ceiling without hurting his neck, Bod found himself glancing around her room idly. He wasn't really looking for anything specific. Just looking to look.

[vanillajello]

And unfortunately there wasn't even anything all that eyecatching anywhere. Just her usual crap, along with Bobby's. Though her side of the room may have been just a touch neater than it tended to be, because she'd cleaned last week, and hadn't been around much to make a mess yet.

But it was still better than the ceiling. There was absolutely nothing there, and still she kept looking.

[therewaslife]

Eventually, Bod just settled on staring down at her sheets. He wasn't talking and she'd gone silent so there wasn't much else for him to do besides let her use him as a pillow and stare at the sheets.

[vanillajello]

Such interesting sheets they were, too. Solid purple. She sighed.

"What are you thinking about?"

[therewaslife]

Bod didn't know what he was supposed to do when asked a question like that. He didn't have that many options. He shrugged a shoulder, going with that universal sign of 'I don't know' for the moment.

[vanillajello]

Kate sighed again, but it wasn't frustrated or resigned or... anything, really. Just a sigh.

"Yeah," she said, glancing at him, "I kinda expected that."

She didn't even know what other kind of answer she could've expected.

[therewaslife]

She'd told him not to talk so he didn't know if she wanted him to suddenly start talking or something else. The easiest thing to do was just to shrug and go with that.

He did meet her gaze and tried to look apologetic or something close to it but his mouth remained shut.

[vanillajello]

"I didn't, like, permanently revoke your right to talk, you know," she pointed out softly. Hadn't even meant it quite that literally, not at first. But it had worked out like that in a weird way.

[therewaslife]

He knew that but she'd told him he wasn't doing any good with words so it was easy to retreat back into himself and just not talk. It'd made him feel bad, yes, but he also didn't want to keep doing that.

He shook his head. He didn't want to talk right now.

[vanillajello]

"You don't wanna?" Well, she couldn't blame him. Not after everything. "Okay."

She pushed herself up to sitting again, then stayed that way for the moment, running her fingers through her hair.

[therewaslife]

Bod hadn't expected her to do that so he looked momentarily surprised before adjusting his position since she wasn't laying on his thigh anymore.

He watched her, wondering what she was going to do now.

[vanillajello]

Funny, Kate was wondering the exact same thing herself. She didn't really know. She didn't feel like talking anymore, like coming up with inane things to say just to feel normal. She just felt like all her exhaustion was coming back to her.

She rubbed at her eyes again.

[therewaslife]

She probably needed to take a nap like she'd been trying to do when he'd arrived. He'd interrupted that and hadn't made anything better happen so maybe she did need just to sleep a little.

[vanillajello]

That was the conclusion she was coming to, yes. As became somewhat apparent after she'd just stared straight ahead at nothing for a while, and then closed her eyes and unceremoniously slumped back against the bed with a muted 'oof' sound.

Didn't know what else to do. Except maybe to cry.

[therewaslife]

Bod watched her for a few moments before he stood up. He tried to motion that she should sleep and that he'd leave her alone to do so since she seemed to really need it.