Smile Time A-3, and then the Bathroom: Early Thursday Morning
...Bleeert.... Bleeeeert....
"Hmmmhummm? Mom? What? It's four a.m." That was a little fuzzy even for a morning person like Francine. Fuzzy enough that "Okay, timezones, yeah," worked as an answer to her mother's reply; it would take more sleep and possibly coffee to remember it was an hour earlier in Houston. "What's wrong?"
"I don't always ask what's wr---" Okay, so she had the last time. And this time. Two times was not always. "I'm fine, mom." I haven't been arrested yet, and my teacher's not mad at me for turning him into a stoner. That's sort of fine...ish. "You called at four in the morning just to ask me that?" Principal Washburn called her. I'm expelled. I'm flying home in the morning. I--
"Oh. You called at four in the morning to ask me which box your wedding pictures are in. That makes much more sense." At four in the morning with her hair in her face and sleep in her eyes, it almost did. "I think they're in the closet with the vacuum. Remember when Daddy cleaned out the basement? Think back. I was fourteen, Katchoo was spending the night..."
"Wait, how did we move from cleaning the closet to my boyfriend?" Go abrupt subject changes go? "Yes, he... okay no, he doesn't really clean his closets either. He cleans Arthur's, though. ...A good family man?" Gulp. Mom, have you been hitting the special brownies? "He makes adorable children, does that count? Would make, Mom. I said would make. I guess he would; he's a good person, Mom. I love him. He's good to me."
"Mom! We're seventeen. We haven't talked about that." Liiies, actually, but 'a date does not equal marriage, relax' was not what her mother was asking about. "That's not the point; of course I think about it, but--" But wow, do you not want to know how complicated our lives are. "But we're just kids. Right." Right. Just kids.
"I love you too, Mom." Beat. Beat. And waiting. And... "I love you forever."
*click*
Oh, like she was getting back to sleep after that. Francine rubbed at her eyes and stumbled out of her alcove towards the bathroom.
Even if she found herself walking past it for a moment to balance herself on the wall of the alcove just beyond, listening to the low, even breathing within.
Right. Bathroom.
Water.
Face.
Sleepy and confused.
[OOC: Fear the icons.]