Daybreak | IC Inbox.

[awooligan]

CLIFFORD NORMAN
UN: REDRIDINGHOODIE

STATUS: grade 11

ACCOLADES: n/a.

BIO: name's cliff. let me know if you'll buy cigarettes and shit for me, we can work something out.

© TESSISAMESS

Comments

[awooligan]

[He doesn't like this laugh nearly as much as the others he's gotten to hear from her. He's the worst.]

I don't know why you're so nice to me. I keep screwing up, and we barely know each other.

[But she was, for some reason.]

I'll... [Curled up as tightly in on himself as he is, he can't really take that deep a breath to calm his wired nerves. His whole being is screaming at him to stop, and even if it's silent screaming, it's much too loud for him to deal with right now.] I'll, uh. Try. To maybe talk to someone.

[kept_his_letters]

[She shrugs.]

You know a lot about me. You've done a lot. You've been kind. And I know just because someone's angry, it doesn't mean they're bad. There's usually a reason.

I hope it works out. I really do.

[awooligan]

[Cliff shudders a little, praying for his shit to calm the fuck down, but this was all -- a lot. He doesn't really know how to handle it. What else is new?]

Fuck. I'm gonna skip today, I think. My head is killing me. [It's not at all because he's worried that his emotions ramping up over the course of the day means that in addition to snapping at people, he's going to randomly burst into tears, which would be mortifying. At least if he stayed here, he could go out for a run whenever he needed to.]

[kept_his_letters]

[She smiles faintly.]

Probably a good idea. And you need water.

[awooligan]

[Good god, he needs water.]

Sorry.

[It...just felt like he had to apologize. For needing water. For the implication that she was going to be the one getting it, because she was too good to be around someone like him, and he was stupidly useless from getting stupid drunk last night. Well, too bad, he's not gonna let her, because he needs to get up anyway.]

Uh. This needs more sugar. [Vicious sweet tooth. Besides, he can get his own water then, and not burden her with that on top of all her worry. He pushes himself unsteadily to his feet, cursing under his breath at the new wave of pain hitting him, then picks up his mug while swiping his hand across his eyes just in case. The stinging in them could have been anything. Also holy fuck does he need to pee. Stupid drinking!!!

He pauses when he reaches the door, much to his bladder's dismay. Calm the fuck down, bladder, there was a bathroom off the common area, he's going...] Um. Do you, uh. What's the plan on your end?

[He doesn't want to be alone, but he also doesn't want to hurt her feelings again.]

[kept_his_letters]

[She doesn't know what exactly the apology is for. Her answer is the same either way.]

It's alright, Cliff.

[She settles in with her tea but pauses drinking ot to answer him.]

The same as every day. Though probably a nap at some point so Mamá doesn't ask why I look tired and get suspicious. So, really, no plans.

[awooligan]

[He gives a small nod, though even just that much kind of hurts and adds to his frustration, and continues out to take care of his short list of dumb immediate tasks. Cliff returns in a few minutes with his mug of tea sweetened to an unhealthy degree in one hand and a glass of water in the other. No sense of urgency, his mood has gone back to a slouchy, agitated teen. Don't like that. Trying to pacify it, he crawls back into bed and focuses on quietly nursing his tea. Once it's done, he realizes that maybe when his brain was being so overstimulated by everything already, dumping a bunch of sugar into his system maybe wasn't actually the greatest of ideas? Oops, too late now.]

I would fight a man for some bacon. [Comfort food. He's not sure how much he means what he says, but he knows it's more than he's comfortable with. There's a touch of impatience in his voice getting more obvious by the minute, now that he's sounding less like a thirsty, groggy mess of a man. He still feels shitty with every movement, but he's determined to do things for himself so as to bother a Coco as little as possible.] Do you want anything? Unless you...want... [To come with? Avoid being around him? Which sounds less like he's trying to coerce her into something, like some manipulative dick.] Look, I don't want to make you feel like you have to do anything because I'm being stupid as hell, so just say whatever's on your mind, got it?

[kept_his_letters]

[The suddenness of the statement throws her and makes her laugh. She looks away immediately, guilty and not wanting to set him off again.

And then he's really surprising her.]

Oh. Um. Okay.

[Stupid. Stupid.]

I mean, I didn't think you were making me do anything. So, that's not a thing you've got to worry about. I... would you... want to be alone...?

[Nailed it.]

[awooligan]

[Oof, he doesn't like that and frowns -- not the laugh, the laugh is nice to hear after he'd upset her, but the way she expects him to not like it... Just another reason to be annoyed with himself. Having the question turned back around on him just makes his grimace worse.

No. Of course he doesn't want to be alone. That's why he'd been doing this, so he wouldn't be some horrible monster no one wanted, so they abandoned him. But...]

I don't want to be a jerk to you. [Also he smells kinda bad... Greasy meat first, but shower was getting moved up the list he's making up as he goes.]

[kept_his_letters]

So...

[She frowns.]

I don't know if that's a yes or a no.

[And her uncertainty is making this into some big stupid thing.]

I'll come with you. Then you don't have to worry about bringing me anything.

[awooligan]

[He doesn't know either!!! But he doesn't have to argue with himself over it because she makes a sensible choice and he nods a little before looking down at his feet. At least he hadn't slept in his shoes, even though he'd passed out before thinking to change into sleepwear... Food, shower, clean clothes. He shoves his hands in his hoodie pockets and his feet in his green and orange shoes as he leads the way out.

What do you say to a girl that you flipped out on but was being kind to you anyway, and who was obviously concerned about your drinking but you were going to go ahead and drink more later because then at least it was just the mornings that were bad?]

...We haven’t really just hung out lately, huh? I’ve got this thing I’m dealing with right now, but after... We should, uh, do something.

[kept_his_letters]

[She smiles faintly. She wants to ask what the thing he's dealing with is. (She really, really wants to ask.) But he said he'd talk to someone and she wants to be the friend he can trust. They'll hang out later. And it won't revolve around her problems for once.]

That sounds good. I'd like that.

[awooligan]

[It's a good thing she didn't ask, because even if he felt bad about it, he wouldn't have told her -- she doesn't have to worry about it. It isn't her problem, and he doesn't want it to be. She had too many already.

This is why when October 1st rolls around, he doesn't tell her that he won't be coming home. The idea, if he gave more than a passing thought to it, would have sent his heart into a painful race, so instead he doesn't think about sharing his burden, same as he's always done. Cliff checks himself into the isolation room, keeps the wolf contained and away from anyone he might hurt, and finally, blissfully falls into an unaided sleep. Well into the next day, when the moon has risen yet again, he manages to wake up enough to drag himself back to his dorm, looking for all intents and purposes like the drunk, tired teen he'd been returning as recently. For the first time, he's thankful to be on the first floor so he doesn't have to make any effort beyond turning the doorknob.]

[kept_his_letters]

[The turning of the doorknob in the night has her sitting bolt upright in the bed. She starts at the door, watching as it opens, feeling like she's just lost the chance to be the final girl in the horror movie and is stuck with victim number three.

But the door opens up and there stumbles victim number two.]

Cliff!

[His name is a near-sob of relief. She rushes forward, arms opening like she's going to hug him and only stopping at the last minute. Her hands waver mid-air, then pull close, and then hug to her chest.]

You're okay...! Where were you?

[awooligan]

[The sound of his name and sudden movement towards him gets him to wake up a little more, panic jolting briefly through his system. If she'd kept reaching out, he's not sure what he would have done. Now more than ever, he felt strange in his own skin, or like his skin might be the strange thing, really. If she'd tried to touch that and could feel that everything was all wrong, then she probably wouldn't want to be coming at him for a hug ever again. But in the end, it's just Coco, wonderful and respectful Coco, and she's upset, oh god -- ]

Coco? What happened?

[It takes another moment, but her words register, dull sounds breaking through the panic, confusion, and heavy blanket of exhaustion. Oh. The less he talked about this the better, so...]

Why? What's going on?

[kept_his_letters]

[The realization hits quickly. Nothing. Nothing happened. He was just out. He didn't say anything and went out and stayed out. He's got his own life and it's not like hers.

In that moment she feels so, so, so very stupid.

She laughs even though she wants to hide.]

Oh. Ha, Oh no, I'm just... I just... I was being dumb. And silly. Discúlpame. It's nothing.

[Calm down, calm down, calm down. Turn around and find something to do. Like fixing the bed.]

I just got worried is all. Totally nothing.

[awooligan]

[It's something he's done before -- to her, in fact -- this dismissal in order to move on. He'd like to be able to grin and call her such a bad liar, but smiling is just about the furthest thing from his mind. Instead, Cliff crosses the room and interrupts her busywork by taking a seat on the bed she's trying to neaten up.

Worrying people isn't something new to him, but it's different from a friend. Not...worse, because there's an instinctual shame from disappointing his mother. It made him feel smaller and reminded him just how much of a child he still was and how hard he'd have to work to make it up to her. With Coco, it's guilt and his own worry that rise up and make him frown at her.]

Don't. It's not nothing. [Not with how frayed around the edges she still was after knowing he was here and fine. And why wouldn't he be? More confusingly, why would it...matter so much to her... He feels like this might be something he'd be able to work out, if only he wasn't so tired and useless right now.] I'm okay. And I'm not -- I'm not going to get mad anymore, I promise. [If that was why she was trying to hide it.] What did I do?

[kept_his_letters]

[She stops her work the moment he sits in the middle of it. In all truth, there wasn't much work to be done anyway. She hadn't slept.

But now she has no shield and she flounders in place, not quite able to look at him.

It brings another pang of guilt and shame to hear him say he won't get mad. She's made him feel like that. That's her fault. She wishes, so badly in that moment, that she could be more like Mamá, stronger.]

It's not you. I really am just being stupid.

[Her hand goes to rub at her arm, he gaze on the floor.]

You were gone. You've been helping me and we know it's dangerous and then you just... didn't show back up. And I worried.

You've helped so much... I want to be someone you can count on. But I blew it. And now I'm going to seem like the crazy girl who freaks out when people leave for five minutes.

[She laughs and sniffs and finds a new place to stare that isn't at him.]

[awooligan]

Oh.

[The word is breathed more than said, and he notes how strange it is that he feels heat behind his eyes while his hands go cold. Useless hands that won't even reach out to her to reassure her. Stupid.]

It wasn't five minutes, though... Sorry, I was so wrapped up in my own shit, I didn't even think about that. I didn't think anyone would...notice. I guess. [Which sounded ridiculous, now that he thought about it for two seconds. Who just doesn't think about it when someone they're living with doesn't come home? And to do that to Coco in particular...

Cliff, as is his habit when awkward and nervous, brings his foot up to pick at his shoe, and averts his gaze as well.]

I had to go to the infirmary. I wasn't, uh, feeling well. I should have said something.

[kept_his_letters]

[She shakes her head.]

No. It's okay. I don't need to know your business all the time. Not everything is a big conspiracy. I just need to learn to relax.

[In the future... that's what she'll do. That's what she tells herself that she'll do. Though she doesn't know how anyone could simply go without notice.]

Um. Are you feeling okay now, at least?

[awooligan]

[She says it’s okay, but is it... The way she’d looked hadn’t been okay at all, and he feels rotten as hell about it all. He gives a tiny bob of his head.]

Yeah. Just tired now, but I’m okay.

[He looks from his shoe to his own bed, which seems far away and doesn’t smell as nice, because he’s a weird guy that smells a girl and thinks about how nice she smells, now. Stupid idiot wolf. But it’s even weirder to stay here.]

I really should have at least texted. [Not that he could have, for a good chunk of that time.] You aren’t being...any of those things you said. If I really had been missing, I don’t...know what I would do. [His family wouldn’t know. They might not ever know, if he disappeared the same way her dad did.] I’m sorry...and thanks. For caring.

[kept_his_letters]

[She nods.]

That's good.

[It's good. He's okay. It's fine.

She doesn't mind him lingering. At last, she takes a seat herself, leaving just a bit of space between. She starts to say that things happen and texting doesn't always work out, but her words die when he defends her from herself like that.

And then the what-if...]

If you really went missing then... then I'd find you. [She looks up, looks at him, even if the boldness of the statement is a little scary.] That's what friends do. Right?

[awooligan]

[He takes her sitting by him to be a good sign, switching to resting his cheek on his knee so he can watch her. When her eyes meet his, he can’t help the smallest, awkward smile. She shouldn’t have to take something like that under her wing, just like she shouldn’t be having to deal with her father’s mysterious disappearance, but...it’s nice to hear. And he doesn’t doubt that she’d try, if she was able to remember him.]

If you say so. [She’s too good... Soft sleepy dog brain wants to curl up beside her, but just thinking about that is mortifying.] Thanks. I’d find you, too.

[kept_his_letters]

[I think you already did.

The thought passes through her mind unbidden. She doesn't let it out. It sounds like too much to her, if it even makes sense at all.

Her foot swings from over the bedside and she bumps her sandle-- showing off her painted nails the way she likes-- against the side of his bright neon shoe.]