Room 512, Wednesday late afternoon/early evening

[heromaniac]

Momoko was on her bed, trying not to cry and staring bleakly at the phone she'd just hung up. And turned off. And set far far away from herself.

She'd told Dinah. She hadn't wanted to! The stupid island had made her! Now Dinah knew about her feelings for Jaime. Dinah, who was still in love with him herself and hurting horribly because of it. Now

Comments

[weldedtomyspine]

A few minutes later there was a knock on the door. After his little... revelation on Monday, Jaime had realized that he really should tell Momoko the truth.

And, for some reason, this seemed the day to do it.

[heromaniac]

Momoko wasn't in the mood to see anyone, sorry. "Go away!"

[weldedtomyspine]

Well, great. Now Jaime was worried!

"Momoko, it's me. Are you okay?" He almost just opened the door to check, but... he waited.

For now.

[heromaniac]

She groaned into her pillow. Jaime was the last person she wanted to see right now, besides Dinah.

Okay, really, he was the person she wanted to see most, but that totally wouldn't help anything.

"I'm upset and angry and not very okay at all!" Well, she'd meant to just say 'yes'. The island was totally not in her good graces today.

[weldedtomyspine]

"I'm coming in, then," Jaime announced. Maybe he'd hold of on telling her, at least until she'd had some candy. He'd brought some. He figured they'd need it to get through, well, what he'd had planned.

[heromaniac]

Oh no. She sat up and rubbed at her eyes, hoping to seem at least partially okay.

"Jaime. Hi. What's up?"

[weldedtomyspine]

Jaime shook his head. "You first," he said, frowning. Momoko looked... well, pretty upset. He wanted to help with that if he could before going on to... other things.

[heromaniac]

Hmmm.

"I had an upsetting phone call." She shrugged and made another swipe at her cheek. "Sorry. For some reason I'm not able to pretend to be cheery."

[weldedtomyspine]

"Hey, it's okay." Jaime walked over and sat down on Momoko's bed, reaching out to gently touch her shoulder. "I don't want you to think you have to pretend around me. I mean, if you're not cheery, you're not cheery. You don't have to be, you know."

He held out a small bag of jelly beans. "Sugar?"

[heromaniac]

She probably should have moved away from his touch, but she didn't want to. She did reach into the bag for a jelly bean. "I have to pretend around everyone, not just you."

[weldedtomyspine]

"Not around me," Jaime insisted.

He studied her face for a moment. "Please?"

[heromaniac]

"I don't want to pretend around you..." She gritted her teeth. Stupid island. She was NOT GOING TO SAY ANYTHING MORE THAN THAT! She didn't want to lose Dinah and make things weird with Jaime.

[weldedtomyspine]

Jaime's shoulders sagged just a bit in relief. "Then don't," he said quietly.

"And... I don't want to pretend around you, either. Okay?"

He wasn't really sure that this was a good time to bring this up, but... if he pulled back now, Jaime suspected he might never get around to it.

[heromaniac]

"You don't pretend, Jaime." Momoko raised an eyebrow at the suggestion, but was happy enough to move attention from herself to him. "Except when we're just joking around. I can usually tell when you're upset; you take things apart, for one thing."

[weldedtomyspine]

"Not about that," Jaime shook his head. "I mean... about other stuff." How was she supposed to know? He'd kind of been keeping it secret...

[heromaniac]

"Okay, now I am totally confused," she shook her head.