love letters
Author: Nathalia
Rating: PG
Challenge:
Candy Bar Crunch #17 - out of my hair
Milk & Honey #3 - love letters
Extras / Toppings: caramel, sprinkles
Word Count: 647
Story: Misfits
Summary: Ripley confronts Helena when he catches her reading old love letters.
Notes: I still don’t understand how their relationship works, especially during this, when they start to secretly hook up but I can’t see it going any other way.
Helena kept them all in the back of a drawer in her apartment. In a small cardboard box were notes, little doodles on the back of recipes Max had written down for her, even one love letter or another. She was sure she still knew them all by heart, that's how much she had read them when she and Max had broken up. Even into this most recent development with Ripley, she still longed to curl up and read them anymore. No matter what she pretended, no matter how much she tried, she doubted that anything she could ever have with Ripley would come even close to what she and Max had had, even after things had stopped being perfect.
She had barely taken them out of their secret hiding place when none other than Ripley came into the bedroom.
"You reading those again?" He asked. "You know, you really need to stop doing that if you want to get over him anytime soon. I seriously doubt that what you are doing is healthy."
"Yeah, 'cause I'm known for doing things the healthy way." She sat down on the floor. "Go away and let me be depressed about all of this."
"Stop pretending," Ripley instructed her, leaning against the door frame. "I know you well enough to know that if you really wanted him back, you wouldn't have waited to see him with Kennedy. They've been together for much longer than you ever were with him. You just hate that he has a stable relationship and you don't. And it's probably your fault that you don't have a healthy relationship because you cling to this crazy notion that no guy in the world could possibly be as good as Max."
"What are you now, a psychologist?" She rolled her eyes. "And since when do you, Mr. I-don't-talk-about-my-feelings, try to talk to other people about their feelings?"
"I'm sorry, I just feel like I'm a tiny bit responsible for you, given everything that's been going on. Besides, everyone else I might be doing something with instead of talking to you is out of town anyway, so I'm pretty bored."
Helena looked down at the letters Max had written to her over the years. "You're probably right. Think that explains why I'm with you of all people? Instead of someone who's actually my type and who I actually like, I mean? Because I try to sabotage myself by just going after guys I know I can't possibly like?"
Ripley shrugged. "I've been thinking about that. Not as much why you seem to like me but why I put up with you and I haven't been able to come up with a response for it."
"You're horny?" Helena suggested.
"I doubt it. For that, I can pick up better girls. Seriously, I have no explanation for what's been going on here."
"Welcome to my world," Helena sighed. "You know, sometimes I wonder if you and I are just too fucked up to look outside our very small world. And sometimes I think we just want to punish ourselves for something. Can you imagine what people would say if they actually found out about us?"
"Don't remind me of that possibility. That's just too disturbing. I have a reputation to maintain."
"Losers don't really have a reputation to maintain," Helena pointed out. "Me on the other hand ..."
"Well, put away those letters and try to get over him so you can meet someone who's actually worth your time and we can get past these weird secret hook-ups."
"I'll work on it. Getting rid of you should be motivation enough," Helena promised. Maybe he wasn’t so wrong about this after all.
Rating: PG
Challenge:
Candy Bar Crunch #17 - out of my hair
Milk & Honey #3 - love letters
Extras / Toppings: caramel, sprinkles
Word Count: 647
Story: Misfits
Summary: Ripley confronts Helena when he catches her reading old love letters.
Notes: I still don’t understand how their relationship works, especially during this, when they start to secretly hook up but I can’t see it going any other way.
Helena kept them all in the back of a drawer in her apartment. In a small cardboard box were notes, little doodles on the back of recipes Max had written down for her, even one love letter or another. She was sure she still knew them all by heart, that's how much she had read them when she and Max had broken up. Even into this most recent development with Ripley, she still longed to curl up and read them anymore. No matter what she pretended, no matter how much she tried, she doubted that anything she could ever have with Ripley would come even close to what she and Max had had, even after things had stopped being perfect.
She had barely taken them out of their secret hiding place when none other than Ripley came into the bedroom.
"You reading those again?" He asked. "You know, you really need to stop doing that if you want to get over him anytime soon. I seriously doubt that what you are doing is healthy."
"Yeah, 'cause I'm known for doing things the healthy way." She sat down on the floor. "Go away and let me be depressed about all of this."
"Stop pretending," Ripley instructed her, leaning against the door frame. "I know you well enough to know that if you really wanted him back, you wouldn't have waited to see him with Kennedy. They've been together for much longer than you ever were with him. You just hate that he has a stable relationship and you don't. And it's probably your fault that you don't have a healthy relationship because you cling to this crazy notion that no guy in the world could possibly be as good as Max."
"What are you now, a psychologist?" She rolled her eyes. "And since when do you, Mr. I-don't-talk-about-my-feelings, try to talk to other people about their feelings?"
"I'm sorry, I just feel like I'm a tiny bit responsible for you, given everything that's been going on. Besides, everyone else I might be doing something with instead of talking to you is out of town anyway, so I'm pretty bored."
Helena looked down at the letters Max had written to her over the years. "You're probably right. Think that explains why I'm with you of all people? Instead of someone who's actually my type and who I actually like, I mean? Because I try to sabotage myself by just going after guys I know I can't possibly like?"
Ripley shrugged. "I've been thinking about that. Not as much why you seem to like me but why I put up with you and I haven't been able to come up with a response for it."
"You're horny?" Helena suggested.
"I doubt it. For that, I can pick up better girls. Seriously, I have no explanation for what's been going on here."
"Welcome to my world," Helena sighed. "You know, sometimes I wonder if you and I are just too fucked up to look outside our very small world. And sometimes I think we just want to punish ourselves for something. Can you imagine what people would say if they actually found out about us?"
"Don't remind me of that possibility. That's just too disturbing. I have a reputation to maintain."
"Losers don't really have a reputation to maintain," Helena pointed out. "Me on the other hand ..."
"Well, put away those letters and try to get over him so you can meet someone who's actually worth your time and we can get past these weird secret hook-ups."
"I'll work on it. Getting rid of you should be motivation enough," Helena promised. Maybe he wasn’t so wrong about this after all.