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Post by CAITLYN AUBREE SOMMERLOT on Aug 1, 2012 15:43:36 GMT -5
Caitlyn hadn't had a very good day... which was a shame, because her Sundays usually weren't bad days at all. She had very few students on Sunday, just two. There was rarely a rehearsal or a practice or a meeting to go to on Sundays, and for the most part it was a day for Cait to do all the homework she had due at any point in the near future, run errands, practice her saxophone... and if she ever got around to it, just relax. It was admittedly a busy day still, but at least it was a busy day that she got to herself. That was until Dubstep Guy made some kind of rude offhand comment while they were both downstairs grabbing laundry from the drier that morning, and it had apparently set a tone for the day. Valerie from her volleyball team had broken her ankle by somehow being under the impression that rollerblading downhill without padding was a good idea. Both her students were hyperactive and when she left the room for one minute halfway through the second student's lesson, he tried to jump off the piano. Caitlyn was just lucky she returned in time to just pick him up off of it (also lucky that he was so light and small she supposed) and set him down and panic and call his parents and... okay, it wasn't a good day all in all.
When she returned from work, Dubstep Guy was heading out at the same time. And Caitlyn considered herself a fairly patient person, but it took all her willpower not to bite his head off when he said that she looked like she'd been 'hit by a truck or something'. Cait didn't even look that bad, she thought, looking at her reflection in the glass outside, just... tired and frazzled. She took deep breaths as she headed upstairs, though she turned the opposite direction of her own apartment when she reached her floor and instead (kind of on impulse) wandered over to knock on Matthew's door. He was nice. They had spoken a few times by now (not much, but enough, whenever either of them...needed to rant, actually). And most importantly, she knew that he hated Dubstep Guy just as much as she did. When he opened the door, she puffed out her cheeks a little to show her frustration. It wasn't directed at him, of course. She was kind of glad that he was even home in the first place. Caitlyn didn't really have it in her to remember people's schedules besides her own. "Would you cover for me if your next-door-neighbour went missing for a very very long time?"
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Post by MATTHEW FUYU CHANG on Aug 1, 2012 16:37:09 GMT -5
Truth be told, Matthew wasn't doing much of anything to warrant a bad or a good day up until someone knocked on his door. Being caught up with his homework (for once!) Matthew had taken it to mean that he could (again, for once!) take the day easy and just kind of see where it brought him. He still woke up pretty early out of habit and, for the first time in three weeks, went on a jog that was a little shorter than he would have liked, but three weeks of no activity could put a pretty major dent in a person's physique. ...not like Matthew even had one, but it was the principle of it all. He came back, showered, made himself some breakfast and sat down to watch some cartoons, then laid around and watched more TV, and then made lunch and woke Sandra up because he could condone sleeping in for the morning, but he couldn't condone sleeping the entire day and if no one woke Sandra up, he was pretty sure she could do just that. After lunch, Matt painted a little, sketched a little, played a little video games, talked to his girlfriend for a few minutes, and now here he was, just laying around again and watching TV as he boiled some water for another dinner of -- surprise, surprise -- pasta. Except this time, he was making a four cheese sauce and adding chicken, not for any reason except that he could and wanted to try it. You can burn a lot of things while making pasta, Matt thought, and it would all taste horrible. But charring cheese and chicken both ended up with deliciousness anyway, so really, how could he lose?
At first, he thought the knocking was coming from Sandra's room, no doubt his little sister having drowned in a pile of pillows or her blankets and needed help getting up or something, but then it occurred to him that Sandra wasn't even home, having begged off to go out with friends or something, even though the voice on the other end of the phone call she received right as she walked out of the apartment was suspiciously male. (But no, Matthew decreed, he would not pry, for he had chicken to cut up and a tomato sauce to make. Otherwise, though...) Either way, when he finally realized that there was someone at the door, he quickly got up and turned the television's volume down a little and walked over to the front door, pulling it open to come face to face with a puffy-faced Caitlyn. Literally puffy-faced, not like puffy from sleeping or crying (thank the deities...), but puffy as in her cheeks were puffed up a little and Matthew just looked at her, amused. Before he had a chance to say anything, though, she barreled right on. "I would come up with the best cover up Interpol has ever seen. Uh...what did he do this time?" Matthew asked, stepping aside to let her in. He didn't know her well enough to know if the joke would go over well or if she was the type to get more angry when someone tried to make light of the situation, but he figured he'd see what her reaction was and then go with it. He closed the door, spinning around. "I'm making dinner...you can stay if you want and tell me all about what Dubstep Guy did."
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Post by CAITLYN AUBREE SOMMERLOT on Aug 1, 2012 22:12:53 GMT -5
Bad day or not, Cait wasn't beyond humour...which was probably lucky for both of them, because this situation could have gotten really awkward really fast. She smiled. "No... it needs to be better than that so that they don't see it," she pointed out as she stepped inside, sighing a little as she released all the air she'd been holding in her cheeks still. She slipped off her flats at the door and followed him into the kitchen, which she remembered from her first visit... and a few subsequent ones. "But good. You should also help me come up with a plan." She would never actually do anything to anyone, even anyone as annoying as Dubstep Guy...but it was nice to have somewhere to go when she needed to rant, especially someone who actually knew what she was dealing with.
Caitlyn peeked over at the stove. "What are you making?" she asked curiously. Food was always a nice distraction...and she should really eat proper meals more often. "Can I help?" She liked to cook even if she didn't get to all the time. She was in a rush sometimes (or a lot of the time). Cait leaned against the counter where it was empty in waiting, trying to actually articulate everything she hated about Dubstep Guy and about the day in general, but it was pretty difficult to do this in any sort of brief, succinct way. Instead she crossed her arms over her chest. "He's just a jerk. And I think I hate him." Hate was a pretty strong word, but if Matthew was about to say so then this conversation was about to get very messy and probably a lot more ranty than it already was. "And people are just doing really dumb things today, and why doesn't the world have any common sense?" It was a rhetorical question...but if Matthew actually had a good answer, Caitlyn would be very impressed. And a little concerned. "This kid tried to jump off the piano when I was teaching him today," she clarified. She didn't even want to know how he'd gotten up there in the first place.
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Post by MATTHEW FUYU CHANG on Aug 7, 2012 20:16:56 GMT -5
Matthew opened his mouth to retort something in reply, but then caught himself. Well...damn. He hadn't even considered it like that. Oh, this Caitlyn girl was good. "Well...whatever, you know what I meant." Four for you, Caitlyn Coco. Four for you. "That is the plan! Don't knock the person helping you get out of a heinous crime, okay,"
[/color] Matthew griped, walking past the girl to get to the stove. The water was about boiling now -- he readied the box of pasta over it, waiting for the right moment before dumping the box's contents in. He quickly tossed in a teaspoon of salt and gave it a quick stir. "It's...um, it's just...penne with four cheese sauce and chicken."[/color] As he said so, he reached into the cupboard above and got out a saucepan. "You can just sit and tell me all about your issues, it's not complicated. I prepped everything before you got here."[/color] He paused. "You can get yourself a drink though, if that's not rude of me to say."[/color] He listened as Caitlyn went on about her day, and about how annoying Dubstep Guy was. To be frank, it just sounded like she was having one of those days and he wondered why she was letting it bug her so much, but he understood how one could have a rather lackluster and irritating day, and how it could be completely ruined even further by just one comment from some asshat who listened to shitty music. He knew this by experience. The process of making the sauce was a little harder than he had realized, but he had the recipe and followed it more or less exactly -- some terms he didn't really get so he winged it, and halfway through, it was starting to come along just like the recipe said it would. "To be fair, a piano does look like a jungle gym,"[/color] Matt joked, tossing in the cut up pieces of chicken breast into the mixture. "But I get you. I figure the last thing you needed at the end of a day like today was to deal with the idiot next door."[/color] Matthew heaved a sigh, covering the pan to let it simmer for a few minutes. He turned and looked at her, flashing her a sympathetic smile. "I'm guessing that he made some comment about how horrible you look?"[/color] He paused -- in retrospect, that sounded fucking awful. "Not that you do look horrible, but that's his usual m.o, so..."[/color] [/justify][/color][/font][/blockquote][/blockquote] |
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Post by CAITLYN AUBREE SOMMERLOT on Aug 14, 2012 1:23:38 GMT -5
Caitlyn couldn't tell if the griping meant that he was actually annoyed or not, but seeing as he hadn't kicked her out of the apartment or anything, she was just going to take it to mean that no, he wasn't actually angry at all. "Nobody said anything about a heinous crime! I could always bribe him or just... get someone to offer him a job he can't refuse far away. Or tell him he won the lottery. In Australia." She wasn't sure that most people would (or should) fall for something that transparent, but then again she was convinced that Dubstep Guy was, in fact, not an extremely intellectually advanced person. Caitlyn also wasn't sure if these would be considered "heinous" crimes by the rest of society. "Nah, not rude -- thanks!" She fetched a glass and poured herself some kind of tropical-ish juice from the fridge. It smelled good, whatever it was -- vaguely like mangoes and pineapples and other good things that she couldn't figure out. Then she seated herself at the kitchen table, drumming her fingers idly on the glass in her hand.
Now that she was actually saying her problems aloud, they didn't even sound that bad, but Caitlyn was just... easily frazzled sometimes. It was the pressure of having so much to do in a day, honestly, or at least this was the defense that she would use if she were ever asked. All the same she felt just a little bad for coming over and bothering Matthew with it, but it was kind of a give and take -- or rather, she'd be very willing to let him into her apartment anytime he needed to rant about Dubstep Guy or life in general... assuming she was ever at home at these times. "But at eight years old, I don't think they should be climbing on them... or maybe they should be... I hope that's not normal." Now she just looked concerned -- mostly when she'd handed the child back over to his parents, she'd been panicky, but Cait knew that this was the kind of thing she could get in actual trouble over, leaving the room. Leaving a kid in there alone even for a few seconds hadn't been one of her better ideas. She was about to say something about that when he spoke next, and Caitlyn visibly cringed.
"Do I actually look that horrible?" She glanced at her reflection in the glass and then decided that her question was a little unfair. "Never mind, you don't have to answer that. But yeah... yeah, more or less. I think his exact words were 'good thing you're home, you look like you got hit by a truck or something'." She gave Matthew a frustrated look, though it wasn't really meant to be aimed at him, then took a sip of her juice -- of that strange tropical-ish variety. "Basically just don't be surprised if he ever mysteriously needs to leave for a really long time." Cait knew that it was petty and stupid to get so wound up over something that some idiot said, but it all culminated... and things were never pretty when that happened.
(i'm sorry idk where the length came from, this post just randomly swelled. D: don't feel obligated to match at all~)
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Post by MATTHEW FUYU CHANG on Aug 29, 2012 16:27:16 GMT -5
In the middle of all of Caitlyn's rambling and self doubts, Matthew went about his business with dinner, technique improving as the number of times he cooked went up. It actually de-stressed him some, something that he thought could actually help Caitlyn's tendencies to get all frazzled, but he wasn't going to mention that now, not when she had sharp kitchen utensils in the near vicinity. Not that he thought she would actually be able to cause much harm -- she was positively tiny -- but really, it was better to play it safe than sorry, especially when emotional girls were around. "Or the other easy option is to just tell him to leave you alone?" Matt suggested, though a little voice inside him told him to shut it -- he could take his own advice and go and actually demand that Dubstep Guy turn down his music for once. He ducked his head as she swung the cabinet open to get a glass, then went back to the stove, checking the pasta over to see if it was overcooked or not as he let the sauce simmer a little and piling the cut up pieces of chicken on a spare plate, set to the side to use later. He reached into the fridge and pulled out a pack of sliced mozzarella -- definitely could not be called home without some, right? ...though maybe it was only him who thought that way.
"You know, it could very well be normal in this kid's household, but at eight years old I'm not sure any kid would do well being told to sit and stay still and plunk away at keys."
[/color] He paused -- ugh why did he always manage to say the things that could always be construed in a negative manner?! "Not that uh, it's boring or anything...kids are just hyperactive. For the most part. Maybe you just need kids who are more willing to pay attention to things on a musical scale, rather than those who see a piano as a potential jungle gym."[/color] Did that even constitute as a good save? He doubted it. What was wrong with his mind to mouth filter these days??? "Anyway, honestly, I don't think whatever happened is your fault. I mean...did he end up hurting himself? You can't expect to be on top of him every second that he's with you. You're human, I'm sure you need to use the bathroom like everyone else."[/color] He began to layer the cheese over the sauce, letting the stuff melt for a few seconds before gingerly mixing it into the sauce, hoping that it wasn't too much cheese or else he'd have to probably add a little more tomato and adjust everything again, and damnit he was hungry. He mixed the cheese and the sauce together, then dumped the chicken into the pan with it and began to mix it all, the sauce coming out to a nice yellowy orange color. He added a few roasted red peppers for color. "No, you don't look horrible, you just look frazzled,"[/color] Matt replied honestly, pausing for a second to give her a proper look. She really didn't look awful, but he definitely could tell that it had been a very long day for her. "And I wouldn't lie. If you looked awful, I would probably tell you so."[/color] Probably, unless she looked ready to tear his head off. Then he'd probably keep it to himself. Sauce done, he checked the pasta for readiness then strained it and served it onto three plates. "I'm probably the last person you need to concern yourself with the whereabouts of Dubstep Guy...you might want to contact next of kin, at least."[/color] He spooned sauce onto the plates, calling for Sandra for dinner. When she didn't respond, though, he assumed that she was sleeping or on the phone or something, and merely took two plates and forks to the dining table, setting one down in front of Caitlyn. "Wait, you're not allergic ot anything, are you?"[/color] Matt asked as an afterthought, making sure, blinking a little at how he forgot to ask the most rudimentary of questions to a dinner guest.[/justify][/color][/font][/blockquote][/blockquote] |
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Post by CAITLYN AUBREE SOMMERLOT on Sept 21, 2012 22:07:19 GMT -5
Caitlyn mostly just watched as he kept on with his cooking and all that business. She was still really frustrated, she couldn't deny that, but okay -- there was something super nice about getting to rant at someone, especially someone who at least kind of understood. Well, at least, she was pretty sure Matthew understood about certain things, like how much it sucked sometimes to be busy, and how annoying and rude Dubstep Guy was. Either way, it was reassuring to have someone who didn't just tell her she needed to stop doing so much random crap, because this was the way many people tended to react. It was also nice to have somewhere to sit down and relax a little bit, and whatever he was making smelled really good too, so of all the places she could come to rant to someone, it was a decent one all things considered. Even so, his suggestion made her sigh a little. "But I don't think he would even if I did ask," she said, shifting a little, and that was the truth. "I mean, it'd be nice if he did, but..." He'd been doing it for so long she didn't think it was possible, honestly.
Now she just felt bad for assuming that it wasn't normal, even though it hadn't been too long ago that the twins in her family were eight (literally just last year), and they definitely hadn't been the types to climb on pianos. Both of them also took piano lessons already, though, so maybe it was a bit different. "I mean, I guess it's a little boring, but lessons aren't even that long," she said, thinking this over in her mind. Were her lessons really that boring that kids wanted to get up and jump off the piano? No, she was pretty sure they weren't. "But maybe, yeah. I might talk to the kid's parents later, but I mean..." She wrung her hands out a little. She shouldn't really be turning away students or anything, even if some of them were pretty terrible. She even liked kids, too, so it wasn't like it was a bad thing overall, but things like this were pretty awful. "No, luckily. I walked back in when he was about to jump and I just picked him off. So that was just really lucky timing." Caitlyn just shook her head a little, but at least she didn't take any offense to anything he'd said. Then again, she was mostly wallowing in a little bit of self-pity, something she didn't let herself do often, but on days like today, it felt very warranted.
It was at least some kind of small comfort that she didn't actually look horrible, though, moreso when he said that he wouldn't lie. He could have been lying about that, too, but he sounded honest enough and she smiled, legitimately grateful. It was the little things! She wasn't even usually this self-conscious or anything, either, but bad days did that to people -- she was pretty sure that people always thought they looked better on good days, and vice versa. "Thanks. I guess I just shouldn't take his word for anything. But I could probably use a nap." She didn't really take naps so that would be honestly really weird and she was pretty sure she'd just wake up crankier, but it happened sometimes where she just felt like curling up for the rest of the day. Caitlyn was usually running around too often for that. "Do you think they'd miss him if he disappeared? I mean, he lives alone too... I think, at least. I don't think there are two people who listen to such awful music." The dubstep wasn't really the problem -- blasting it at ungodly hours? That was terrible. She did brighten up when he brought her over a plate, though. "Thanks! Nope, no allergies. Not food, anyway." Caitlyn hadn't realized how hungry she was until this moment though, honestly, and she was happy to have an actual meal in front of her. "But uh -- seriously, thanks for dinner, by the way. This is really good!" She made a mental note to thank him somehow whenever she was able -- whenever their schedules ever lined up, really, so probably five years from now.
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