I can't let myself regret such selfishness.
Danny Smalls wrote an entry to people he knows. He said he was leaving, and he is. He's walking out the front doors of the Kashtta without anything but the wallet in his pocket. There's something to be said about having nothing, no possessions, no anything. It's freeing, isn't it? Nothing tying him down. Nothing to care about. He's not planning on
( Read more... )
Comments 103
How does one go from sitting at your hospital bed to just leaving and asking why not?
She hates him. Maybe it's true, maybe it's not, but in that very moment, she hates him and wants him gone. Phoebe doesn't want to be anywhere near the Kashtta tonight.
She opens her door and storms out of her room.
Where she's going is anybody's guess. She doesn't get very far, since she'll be colliding with Xander on the way over. "Oomph."
Reply
"Hey, just the girl I wanted to see..."
He is still in shock from future-talking to the point that it's easy to pretend like nothing's changed.
"You going somewhere, Pheebs?"
Reply
"Hey," she says, pasting a bright smile on her face. This is far easier than it should be. Smiling when you want to break something.
"Yeah, I'm kind of sick of staying cooped up in the Kashtta and was gonna...I dunno, do something. Wanna come along?" she asks, putting on her jacket while she's at it.
"We could break into a bowling alley again." That was fun.
Reply
There's some weirdness here that he's sensing even with the bright smile. It comes with being the guy that sees everything, but he knows that Phoebe isn't the type to want to deal with that stuff.
She never makes him deal with anything.
He smiles at her when she asks if he wants to come along.
"Hell yeah, lets get outta ghost-ville for awhile. Could kinda use an out myself," Xander admits and then grins at the thought of the bowling alley. It's one of those good memories that he has of this city. "Yeah, we could. That was kinda like our first unofficial date. Or something. Awkward wording is a go."
He reaches for her arm. "C'mon."
Reply
Instead, she waits until he's shooed it off in his typical Robin manner. Then she approaches him.
"What did that poor squirrel ever do to you?" she asks, sitting beside him. She's got a newspaper, her repertoire of everyday heavy tomes, and a styrofoam cup of coffee.
It's not your coffee, Robin.
She's cheating on you.
Reply
For some reason, he isn't at all surprised that she'd been near all along when she speaks.
"It was sniffing my shoes. It could have--"
The sentence is broken when he sees that cup of coffee.
There is exaggerated shock first.
He raises his eyebrows and fixes her with a very serious look.
"What is that?" Robin points to the cup, looking as offended as he possibly can. "Are you cheating on my coffee, Rachel?"
Reply
She lifts a brow in turn, failing to understand why the squirrel was so offensive or why he is staring at her in such a manner.
Yes, it's fairly easy to fall back into this pattern.
Rachel sighs patiently, looking back down at the near-empty cup. When she glances back up at Robin, it's with a very charming smile. "Would it help to know I was thinking of your coffee the whole time?"
No, no she was not.
Reply
He may like the sight of that smile of hers, but it doesn't make him feel any less aghast about this whole situation.
"No, it wouldn't," Robin says, folding his arms across his chest.
He has got the offended look down pat.
"My coffee is going to need weeks of recovery time, you realize?"
Reply
Enjoy your ghost, Xander.
It's floating down through the ceiling ahead of you.
...you may also, if you choose, enjoy the rapid thump-thump-thump from the direction of the stairwell, getting louder as it comes.
Reply
There is something floating through the ceiling.
And there's the--
There is definite thumping coming from the stairwell.
"That's... not a good sound." He isn't against talking to himself, especially when he's freaking out. "My creepy senses are tingling."
This would be the best time to run away, but Xander has dealt with the creepy before. It's usually in the form of a vampire or demon, but that's no reason to go running and hide. He remembers that he used to be kinda good at dealing with the creepy. He took out a whole zombie gang!
Xander steps forward. Everything is absolutely normal.
Reply
...TO THE FACE.
Sort of. She does manage to catch herself on the corner of the hall and skid to avoid any actual collision, but it's a near thing, and she doesn't seem to mind, as she's grinning ear to ear.
"You see that?" she says - Xander is looking at the ghost, she is looking at the ghost, and it's a good a reason as any to make friends on the spot. "That's not normal. I mean even for Chicago, that's not normal."
The fact that she's grinning ear to ear might temper that pronouncement, of course.
Reply
This is the part where he saves face.
"Ah...ha! Scared you, didn't I?"
Yeah, it's not working out well for him.
"There is definite seeing of the... swirly... that in the air. I was thinking that it's not exactly the most normal of-" He scratches the back of his head and makes a vague motion to the swirly... thing. "What is it?"
Reply
As for why she's in the hallway and not her room, well, she got into a fight with Jon, and decided she didn't really want to be anywhere near him. Nor did she want to go haunt one of the public hangouts of the Kashtta either. So the hallway it is.
It takes her a minute to notice that someone's coming down the hallway toward her, but when she does, she abruptly stops the flaildancing. For a minute she looks kind of sheepish, and then that's replaced by her usual half-defensive smirk as she pulls the headphones off her head. "Swear t'god, I wasn't doin' nothin'," she insists.
Reply
He laughs a little, not angrily.
"In that case, I saw nothing," Xander says, and then he smirks. "Nothing at all. Nothing that I'd want to tell anybody about."
He walks closer to her as casually as he can. "But hey... Not that I'm talking about anything specific, but who doesn't like a little alone time with their music to really feel the beat?"
Reply
But none of that anger shows on his face as he walks through the park. The only evidence is the fact that he's taking a somewhat extended break from work, and for all anyone knows that's because he found something interesting to fiddle with when he went out to get coffee. Well, Lily probably can tell, but that doesn't matter so much.
He almost trips over Elizabeth, because he's not watching his feet but the people around him. But he doesn't; instead, he's leaning over into her view with an amused smile on his face. "Hey kiddo."
Reply
Plus, she thinks there's probably some water in her ears or something.
"Oh! Hi," she says, and she smiles brightly because it's Kaden! She knows him. He's her friend, and she likes him a lot! It's always good to see a friend on any day of the week
She pushes herself up, but remains in the grass with her hands behind her, grabbing hold of the blades. Her hair is wet, perpetually curly but even more so now. It drips into the grass behind her.
"Hi Kaden! I fell in the fountain. How are you?"
Reply
Have we mentioned the fact that Kaden kind of hates the midwest?
"I'm alright," he says with a little bit of a shrug. Like he's going to tell her he's angry, or anything but perfectly fine-thank-you. That's just not what one does. "How did you manage to fall in the fountain?"
Reply
Also, the other time with the handcuffs. Christmas Eve. She locked herself to the bedpost in lingerie. Good times!
She nods at his answer. Elizabeth trusts him and has no reason to question his answer. Even if he isn't alright, she thinks people are allowed to not be honest.
"Um. Well, I was running backwards, which is never a good idea obviously. It's not like I'm that stupid that I don't know like running backwards is bad, but I just wasn't thinking about it at the time," she says. Epic ramble is what this is turning into. "Someone's frisbee like flew astray. They were throwing it for their dog so I tried to catch it. You gotta keep an eye on the frisbee while you run backwards, and ( ... )
Reply
Leave a comment