The Causeway, Sunday Evening

[vanillajello]

Despite the progress she'd been making in a variety of things, walking around alone after sunset was still not something Kate was particularly fond of. She'd been pretty keen on spending time with Zach, though, so that meant it had already been dark when she'd made back east. And that... had quickly led to going through a mental list of options of what to do.

She'd picked calling Nathan before catching a cab back to the island. She had her reasons. And she also had a little brown bag of takeaway in hand when she stepped onto the causeway. Like she'd promised.

[ooc: For that one guy who could never ever protect her from an angry vampire or anything else, really.]

Comments

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

"Tennis?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "You went on a date to play...tennis? What, is this guy like fucking sixty and in diapers already?"

[vanillajello]

Kate snorted, and shook her head. "He's twenty...something." Look, she hadn't wanted to ask Zach for the specific number. No reason. "And sophisticated, so no wonder you don't get it."

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

"Sophisticated?" he repeated like that was a bad word. To him, it kind of was. Sophisticated meant boring. "Since when are you sophisticated? I have seen no evidence of that."

[vanillajello]

"Maybe I'm multifaceted," Kate suggested, smirking. "Maybe I show different sides of myself to different people. I'm capable of being sophisticated, but you don't inspire that in me."

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

"You're not sophisticated," Nathan said with some confidence. "Don;t be a great pretender, Kate. No one likes a faker. Leave the sophistication to those that drink wine instead of booze and eat caviar instead of sardines. We're bottom dwellers and we like it that way."

[vanillajello]

"Hey, speak for yourself," Kate replied, somewhere between amused and genuinely offended. "I drink wine on occasion. I'm not out of place at an art museum."

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

"So, you telling me you prefer looking at pictures of fucking farmhouses and milling around, eating cheese and crackers, rather than going to some club where you get sweaty and drunk and fucking wasted off the good shit?" Nathan asked skeptically.

[vanillajello]

Kate shrugged a shoulder. "Maybe sometimes I do. Except that I like modern art better. And I've never been much for the whole going to clubs thing. I'm from fucking Kansas, remember?"

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

Nathan just didn't believe it. He shook his head and ate another nugget in silence. "So what, you gonna start playing tennis and going to museums and maybe even a yacht club now? All because of this guy you're in love with now?"

[vanillajello]

"I'm not in love with him," she replied immediately, making a face, seeming pretty confident on that point. "But other than that... Why not? I mean, I've been involved in worse things."

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

"How does that even sound fun to you?" Nathan wondered, shaking his head. He didn't even want to think about wearing deck shoes and sitting on a boat in pristine white shorts while some dick named Harold and his jaunty scarf steered the ship.

[vanillajello]

Kate shrugged again. "Well, it sounds better than just sitting around moping in my room, waiting for the next time the island decides to hurl something horrible at me."

Maybe her standards had gone down at some point.

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, that's real healthy," Nathan said, rolling his eyes. "You do know that you can have fun here, don't you? The fact that you're not allowing yourself to is no one's fault but your own, Katie from the Midwest."

[vanillajello]

He had to have predicted her hand smacking his shoulder for that name, right?

"I do know fun is possible here," she said. "I used to have it, even. I think I've just... I don't know, lost my interest in it."

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

"Well, that's disappointing," Nathan said, making a face. "Why?"

[vanillajello]

"Too much stuff," she shrugged, looking away like it didn't matter. "Different priorities. I don't know."

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

"So, you've given up on life here?" Nathan asked because that's what it sounded like to him. "How fortuitous that you've found yourself a new one then, isn't it? Us bottom dwellers will just go on with things here."

[vanillajello]

Kate rolled her eyes and didn't immediately respond. Maybe she had given up, a little bit. Wasn't like there seemed to be a whole lot keeping her on the island anymore.

"I only have a few months left here, anyway."

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

"Well, congratulations to you," Nathan said dryly. "I hope you have tons of fun staring at the walls in your room and feeling sorry for yourself. Kudos for sounding pathetic there, by the way."

[vanillajello]

Kate glanced over at him, then looked ahead again, shaking her head. "You know, you're just setting yourself up for getting more of my unpleasant oversharing bombs dropped on you."

At least she was learning to recognize some of the moments where she wanted to lash out with just what exactly had gone wrong for her lately.

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

"Yeah?" Nathan asked, crumpling the empty box and bag up and sticking his hands in his pockets again. "Really, Kate, does anything go right for you? Or do you enjoy wallowing in your self pity so you have something to complain about? I've rarely seen you do other things."

[vanillajello]

"Well, you don't really know me all that well." Maybe that was a lie. Whatever. "And you didn't know me before."

She shook her head again. "What is it that you want me to say, Nathan? I mean, you clearly have something against my realism but you seemed to have a problem with what I think is currently the good shit in my life, too. Either I'm boring or I'm wallowing in self pity."

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

"I don't have a problem with it," Nathan corrected, shaking his head. "If you want to sit and act like life's beaten you down to the point that you sound like my fucking asshole father, that's your choice. I just think you can do better. I mean, what's the point of life if you aren't going to make it your bitch?"

[vanillajello]

"Well, I think surviving it is a pretty good goal too," Kate replied dryly. "And my goals change with whatever happens to be going on. Sometimes they're set a little lower."

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

"So, why are you even still here?" Nathan asked, sincerely curious. "Why? You don't want to be here. Why haven't you run off to go attend knitting parties and get your country club membership?"