vanillajello | Room 324, Saturday Afternoon

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Room 324, Saturday Afternoon

Originally, Kate had been pretty thrilled to find herself alone in 324 for the weekend. She liked having a roommate, but she loved having the space to herself, with the freedom to hang out in as little clothes as she wanted to. What was there to not love about that?

And that was how it had worked for most of the evening. But then late night, after going to bed, she'd just become super aware of being alone in the room. Alone in the dark. She'd told herself it was just stupid and ridiculous and sad to be scared but the feeling didn't leave her alone. It was the first night she'd slept all alone (or at least without a territorial, protective vampire in the same house) since... all that traumatizing, life-threatening crap. She knew she'd get used to it with time, but knowing that didn't help with the fear at hand.

She'd done most of her sleeping in the morning, sleeping way in, and was now seriously considering luring someone into spending this next night with her. Right now, that mostly consisted of having her door open with music drifting out into the hallway. She wasn't feeling like going out to find people, though she did at times wander over to stand in the doorway, just... watching. It was that kind of a day.

Occasionally, she fiddled with her phone and wondered whether she should just call someone over, but she wasn't sure that the phonelines weren't still messed up, and anyway, how desperate would that have looked?

[ooc: Door and post are open, people who come by may or may not be subtly roped into having a sleepover.]

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"Hello to you too, Nathan," Kate replied after a mandatory eyeroll, glancing over at him from where she was standing by her desk. "Like your room is any better."

And did his room have a wall pretty much covered in flyers and pictures and drawings and random crap? She thought not, so hers was better.

"How would you know what my room looks like?" Nathan asked, leaning a hand against her doorjamb. "It's not like you ever visit me. I'm all alone up there, so high up on the fifth floor where no sane people seem to tread."

He wiped an imaginary tear away and sniffed.

And Kate had such compassion for his imaginary grief, really. Or not. "I don't have to visit to know your room is exactly the same as everyone else's," she replied, shaking her head. "And I don't generally go up past my floor a lot."

Well, not anymore.

"And why not?" Nathan asked, wandering in without an invitation. He didn't feel like he needed one. "What is so bad about the fifth floor? It's not gonna give you herpes if you visit, you know. If it would make you feel better, though, I can loan you a condom."

Yes, because that would work. Nathan knew it wouldn't work even but he didn't care either.

Kate made a face at him, then shook her head, not bothering dignify that last part with a verbal response. "The fifth floor doesn't really agree with me," she said lightly, putting away some of the papers she'd had strewn about on her desk. "So I'm staying away."

"So, does that mean you will never come and visit me?" Nathan asked, frowning at her. "Are you trying to make me cry? If you've never seen an Irishman cry, I suggest you make me feel better right away. It is not a pretty thing."

"I've seen an Irishman cry, actually." What a random thing to share, but there you go. Wasn't like she was getting stuck on that topic, when there were far more amusing things to focus on. "I thought I broke your heart yesterday, and now you want me to visit?"

"Oh, I've forgiven you for that," Nathan said, waving a hand and glancing around at her room. "You think you're the first person to lie to me? Please. My own parents have made a game of that."

"Oh yeah, that's fun for all the family, way better than Monopoly." That sudden dry tone was maybe some indication of 'yeah, I know how that works'. She turned to lean her hip against the back of her desk chair, watching him, as she went back to a lighter tone. "But, you also broke up with me yesterday. With a voicemail, no less."

She knew how that had worked, too, but she was allowed to poke fun at it.

"What?" Nathan asked, idly digging a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket since he knew they were there and maybe she'd be nice and let him have a smoke in her room.

"I didn't call you at all," he added, shaking his head. "That must have been in your dreams, dear Kate who is not Valerie. Were you fantasizing about me? Say yes and I'll make those fantasies a reality."

Kate snorted. "I know you didn't actually call me," she said, shrugging a shoulder. "Doesn't mean I didn't still get your message. Something about makeup sex and a tiger?"

A pause, her eyes flicking to that pack of cigarettes. "And you can't smoke here unless you intend on doing it by the window and sharing."

"That message went to you?" Nathan asked, padding over to her window as requested. See, he didn't make everything difficult. Just most things.

"Hey, what was I supposed to do, Kate?" he asked, pulling one out for himself and then another for her. "When someone leaves me a kinky message, I feel it is a moral imperative of mine to return said kinky message with a kinky response. It's only fair."

Kate grabbed a hoodie from her bed to pull on over her tank top as she crossed the room to join him by the window.

"Well, I know it's not a newbie thing to think, but you could maybe stop and think whether it's a phoneline thing that you were even getting the message," she suggested, as she was pushing the window open some. "Not that yours was in any way the worst I got yesterday. At least I knew what to expect when I could tell it was you."

"You knew what to expect?" Nathan asked, withholding the cigarette for the moment. "So, it's happened before, I take it?"

"Once, about a year ago," she shrugged, glancing out the window. She found herself liking the cool air flowing into the room. "Gremlins nibbling on the wires or something, I guess."

"And did you, oh wise one, think the weird message had something to do with the phone lines?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Was that something that even entered the thing that's about a foot above your moderately sized rack?"

"It wasn't the first one," she replied with an eyeroll, holding out her hand for a cigarette. "So, yeah, I did."

Well, she'd started to suspect it by then, and that was good enough.

"I'm not going to give you a cigarette," Nathan decided, lighting them both up and sticking them both between his lips. He'd put the blame on her for that one.

"And really, if people want to call me and leave such amusing messages, who am I to argue? I thought it was just an unique way to welcome the new kid to the neighborhood. American hospitality, if you will."

Kate drew her hand away and pouted briefly and in a rather exaggerated way, then went back to looking out the window. Fine, no smoking then.

"Well, I doubt they'd waste their hospitality on you."

"And just what in the hell is that supposed to mean?" Nathan asked, totally offended now. "What's wrong with hospitality being spent on me?"

"Just that you don't seem to need it," Kate replied, glancing over at him with a lopsided smirk as she wrapped her arms around herself. "I wasn't offering any hospitality when you decided to waltz in here."

"That's called taking initiative," Nathan decided, taking one cigarette out of his mouth and tapping some ash off it. "You didn't seem in any rush to invite me in, after all. Honestly, if I'd waited for you, I'd still be standing out there like a lonely t-shirt left out on a clothesline too long."

"Well, I don't bother with invitations," Kate said with another shrug. "I like seeing if they want to come in on their own, and I figure I can get rid of unwanted people easily enough if they get annoying."

"And if you're not going to come to the fifth floor because you're afraid of getting a sexually transmitted disease, what am I left to do but invite myself into your room?"

Nathan shrugged because obviously there was just no answer but his to that conundrum of a question.

Obviously. Kate shook her head, amused.

"You this fond of everyone you meet, or am I just special?"

She drawled that last word, just because.

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