derry snapshot #2
y'all remember when i actually had something to say? me either. heh.
have a derry snapshot. this is like the second part of the first one, and a bit longer. like, there's even some dialogue.
Derry draws Will sleeping - he looks upside-down because of the angle - and then tries and fails to draw from memory Petula and her one roommate who likes him. He doesn't spend a lot of time with that roommate, which might explain why he can't get her face right, but he's still vaguely disappointed in his memory failure. He adds a little stick figure with horns and a forked tail, to represent the third roommate who doesn't like him, and then draws a little storm cloud over her head.
He draws cartoony versions of Mike and his roommate David playing Nintendo, with their other roommate Leland standing behind them rolling his eyes. He sketches Sil's roommate Koro, because his dreads are fun to draw. He gets about five minutes into a Celtic knot before deciding he really does need some graph paper to do it right, and ends up covering the page around Mike and his housemates and Koro and his dreadlocks with curls and swirls and vines with curvy leaves.
Derry draws until he runs out of light, but by then there's noise in the rest of the house and he has to pee, so he slides carefully off the mattress and tiptoes out of the room. Will doesn't even move.
Derry takes his sketch pad and pencil with him, just in case there's a light on somewhere and Joy's not around. There's no lid on the toilet tank, which seems not just unhygienic but also kind of stupid, but at least the door locks and the toilet works.
Joy and some people he doesn't know are sitting in what he guesses would be the living room, on a broken-down couch and some folding chairs.
"I know you," Joy says from the couch.
"Yeah," Derry says, "Rhodi's friend." Joy makes a dismissive noise. Derry wonders if she knows Rhodi's sister put her in rehab because Rhodi spiraled down so fast after Joy left her. He wonders if Joy would even care.
"Make yourself at home," Joy says, grinning and waving at the room.
"Nah, I just had to pee." And he goes into the kitchen before she can say anything else.
There's a girl asleep at the card table in the kitchen, her head down on her arms and her works laid out neatly by her elbow. Derry is sorely tempted to take the syringe and dump it somewhere, but he doesn't know the girl and it's not his place to play anti-drug crusader to strangers. If it was anything else he wouldn't care, but just the idea of shooting up makes his skin crawl, and he's never understood why people would want to get high that way.
He runs the water in the sink but it's brown and kind of scary, so if he decides he's really that thirsty he'll have to leave the house and find a corner store or something. He's kind of at a loss for what to do now, but maybe Will is sound asleep enough that Derry can turn on the light in his room and not wake him up. And if he does wake up, maybe they can do something. Derry doesn't feel right leaving him while he's still sleeping, though.
As it turns out, Will is so dog-tired that nothing will wake him. Derry settles himself back on the mattress and tries the Celtic knots again, this time lightly sketching a grid on the paper first. It's an interesting experiment, but he gives up after about twenty minutes and tries some stylized animals, dogs and deer and horses. He has no idea what he's doing and no frame of reference but it's fun and keeps him occupied until his back and shoulders start to pull from the way he's sitting. He lies down on his stomach on the bed and draws Rhodi and Sil as cheesy heavy metal warrior princesses, which he thinks would crack them both up, and gives them a mountainous background with clouds and lightning and bare-branched trees and a tiny figure way up a cliff shaking its tiny fist.
Eventually he runs out of steam, gets up to turn off the light, pulls off his shoes, and climbs under the blanket. Will hasn't moved at all since he lay down, and if it wasn't for his chest rising and falling you might think he was dead. Derry gently pokes his shoulder and says "You so owe me breakfast for making me talk to Joy," and then he closes his eyes and drifts off.
have a derry snapshot. this is like the second part of the first one, and a bit longer. like, there's even some dialogue.
Derry draws Will sleeping - he looks upside-down because of the angle - and then tries and fails to draw from memory Petula and her one roommate who likes him. He doesn't spend a lot of time with that roommate, which might explain why he can't get her face right, but he's still vaguely disappointed in his memory failure. He adds a little stick figure with horns and a forked tail, to represent the third roommate who doesn't like him, and then draws a little storm cloud over her head.
He draws cartoony versions of Mike and his roommate David playing Nintendo, with their other roommate Leland standing behind them rolling his eyes. He sketches Sil's roommate Koro, because his dreads are fun to draw. He gets about five minutes into a Celtic knot before deciding he really does need some graph paper to do it right, and ends up covering the page around Mike and his housemates and Koro and his dreadlocks with curls and swirls and vines with curvy leaves.
Derry draws until he runs out of light, but by then there's noise in the rest of the house and he has to pee, so he slides carefully off the mattress and tiptoes out of the room. Will doesn't even move.
Derry takes his sketch pad and pencil with him, just in case there's a light on somewhere and Joy's not around. There's no lid on the toilet tank, which seems not just unhygienic but also kind of stupid, but at least the door locks and the toilet works.
Joy and some people he doesn't know are sitting in what he guesses would be the living room, on a broken-down couch and some folding chairs.
"I know you," Joy says from the couch.
"Yeah," Derry says, "Rhodi's friend." Joy makes a dismissive noise. Derry wonders if she knows Rhodi's sister put her in rehab because Rhodi spiraled down so fast after Joy left her. He wonders if Joy would even care.
"Make yourself at home," Joy says, grinning and waving at the room.
"Nah, I just had to pee." And he goes into the kitchen before she can say anything else.
There's a girl asleep at the card table in the kitchen, her head down on her arms and her works laid out neatly by her elbow. Derry is sorely tempted to take the syringe and dump it somewhere, but he doesn't know the girl and it's not his place to play anti-drug crusader to strangers. If it was anything else he wouldn't care, but just the idea of shooting up makes his skin crawl, and he's never understood why people would want to get high that way.
He runs the water in the sink but it's brown and kind of scary, so if he decides he's really that thirsty he'll have to leave the house and find a corner store or something. He's kind of at a loss for what to do now, but maybe Will is sound asleep enough that Derry can turn on the light in his room and not wake him up. And if he does wake up, maybe they can do something. Derry doesn't feel right leaving him while he's still sleeping, though.
As it turns out, Will is so dog-tired that nothing will wake him. Derry settles himself back on the mattress and tries the Celtic knots again, this time lightly sketching a grid on the paper first. It's an interesting experiment, but he gives up after about twenty minutes and tries some stylized animals, dogs and deer and horses. He has no idea what he's doing and no frame of reference but it's fun and keeps him occupied until his back and shoulders start to pull from the way he's sitting. He lies down on his stomach on the bed and draws Rhodi and Sil as cheesy heavy metal warrior princesses, which he thinks would crack them both up, and gives them a mountainous background with clouds and lightning and bare-branched trees and a tiny figure way up a cliff shaking its tiny fist.
Eventually he runs out of steam, gets up to turn off the light, pulls off his shoes, and climbs under the blanket. Will hasn't moved at all since he lay down, and if it wasn't for his chest rising and falling you might think he was dead. Derry gently pokes his shoulder and says "You so owe me breakfast for making me talk to Joy," and then he closes his eyes and drifts off.