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Post by NELL DOE DALE on Jul 22, 2011 19:17:17 GMT -5
[/color] for the love of god)[/font][/div][/center] She huddled into her thin jacket. It was warm, the Canadian winter now having thawed out, but up in the cliffs was a different story. There was a breeze picking up, which would either help or hinder her, she didn’t know. Under her arm was a shoe box filled with memories, the pictures clicking around as she moved. Her father apparently had even more pictures than what he’d given her, which was scary. When were all of them taken? Well, she knew the years but she couldn’t remember ever having her photograph taken. And yet her father acted as if it was something she should have known about or remembered. She bet Lèon thought he was getting somewhere with her when she’d asked to have the box of pictures—he was so very wrong, for the simple fact she had a lighter in her back pocket.
Reaching a high point in the cliff, Nell set the box down and kneeled in front of it, flipping off the top to find the collection of photos her father had given to her. She picked one off the top, her parents’ wedding photo. They’d eloped, got married by a justice of the peace. Her mother wore a black dress, her father a tux. They were smiling, leaning into each other and tilting their heads as if sharing a secret, standing on a lawn somewhere. This wasn’t her memory. But it still was something that shouldn’t exist anymore. Facing toward the cliff, she took the lighter out of her back pocket and it took a few times to get it thanks to the wind, but when she did she held it up to the photo and watched as the flames licked at the edges, steadily turning them a deep, dark black. She moved the lighter along the photo, until it curled up, the negative melting and her parents’ faces disappearing into black…
Another gust of wind, and the photo floated away, over the cliff’s edge. She bent down to retrieve another one, wondering how her father managed to collect this many. Nell couldn’t even remember pictures being taken, but now… Burning the photos felt like a release. Like she didn’t have to cry anymore if she just let go of the images. Or maybe she was just imagining it to make herself feel better.
Lighter fluid may have been easier, but she didn’t think she could get away with bringing that into school. Besides, mixed in with all these memories were pictures of her with Tilly. She wanted to keep those, and so she had to sift through and find them. Kneeling down again, she took another picture out with her sister and mother. She was noticing things in these pictures. If one looked close enough, you could see bruises on Nell—her arms and leg and sometimes a spot on her face just looked off. And that was before the real abuse even started. Those were just threats of violence. But it seemed like every picture depicted her with some sort of injury.
”Well, adios,” Nell said airily as she lit the picture on fire. It also felt like she was killing her mother even more. Though she couldn’t think about that if she wanted catharsis, and so she just mindlessly set pictures on fire, watching them fly away like burning birds.
---you hold my arms down i've been bad |
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Post by JOSHUA DONOVAN DALE on Jul 22, 2011 20:22:20 GMT -5
  ------- OFF IN THE NIGHT ,___________W H I L E_ Y O U_ L I V E_ I T_ U P_ I ' M_ O F F_ T O_ S L E E P* WAGING WARS ,__________________T O_ S H A K E_ T H E_ P O E T_ A N D_ T H E_ B E A TPeace. It was a word he'd never really taken too seriously before. When Josh thought of peace, he thought of quiet and calm. He'd never been that enthusiastic about wars--he loved learned about them in history, but he didn't like the idea that while he sat in class learning about the world wars that more were being fought in some other country. He wasn't a humanitarian and he wasn't even a highly sympathetic person, but there was something about going through an experience like the Academy's most recent war that could push you into rethinking some times. Like your choice in friends. He was incredibly tense and awkward around all of the other Fire elementals now, even though they'd first went neutral and then actually turned on their own allies.
The hostility of the Thunder elementals was something that unsettled a great deal of his Fire kin. They had never been without allies before, but since they had backed out and ended up supporting Nell in the end, Thunder was more than a little upset with them at the moment. The alliance had been declared violated and shattered, the war had been forced to an end, and they were now in a state of uneasy peace. But Nell was safe. That's all that matters in the end, Joshua reassured himself. He had betrayed his own element to make sure she stayed safe, and now that she was he was simply content to settle into this state of awkward confusion. It was like waking up after a party with a hangover and not really understanding what had happened but rolling with it anyway just because you could.
At least he had his dormitory back. If not for the fact that he had his laptop and his collection of textbooks in the room, he might have camped outside of the Fire dorms in irritable protest of their casting him out. As it was, his education mattered more to him than his pride at the moment. It's a nice day, he realised as he glanced out the window of the library, deciding that it might be nice to do some studying out on the grounds. He liked the library with its smell of ancient pages and its silence, but it had been a while since he'd been able to fully enjoy the grounds without worrying that a fight would break out. Making up his mind, the Fire elemental packed up his books and shot a friendly goodbye smile toward the librarian before heading outside.
He was giving the lake a wide berth when the small scrap of escaped photo fluttered by in the wind. Joshua made no grab for it, merely turned his attention from the direction whence it had came. It had been burned on the edges, by the looks of it. He could make out a very faint silhouette up on the cliffs, but even squinting he could not recognise anyone. He couldn't even tell if they were male or female from this distance. Curiosity twinged in his gut--what were they doing up there? Unlike usual, this time he allowed his curious nature to take charge as he veered away from the tree he'd been heading for, still skirting around the lake until he found the safest path up the mountainous cliffs. Unafraid of heights, he found that he was alright with being up here as long as he didn't look over the edge or wander too close to it. He really didn't want to entertain the idea of falling into the lake. He'd probably be dead from sheer impact, and he'd certainly drown otherwise.
No thank you.
He was surprised to find that it was Nell whom he'd seen, standing with a box of the photos she was apparently burning. I wonder why she's burning them...? Some people did ritualistic burning at the end of a year to preserve memories, others burned photos of their exes, still others just enjoyed burning things and decided that the pictures would be good fodder. He cleared his throat a little to alert her of his presence, smiling hesitantly once he'd gotten her attention. The smile looked somewhat out of place on his features considering it was an effort to form it, but it was better than his usual scowl. "Hi, Nell," he said in a friendly tone. "Need any help?" He nodded at the box and then snapped his fingers, a flame dancing above his fingertips. He was clearly joking around a little by the amusement that kindled in his colourless gaze even as the fire died. "What're you up to?" he asked, curious but not wanting to intrude. "If you're okay with sharing." The amount of secrets he kept from her could fill books of their own, so it was only fair.
Leaning against one of the cliff walls, he sighed and glanced lazily out at the surrounding landscape. The sight of the lake made him feel a bit sick, so he instead turned his attention to the trees. Spring was in the air at last. Fire student he may have been, but he enjoyed nature. Especially when it was after something so hectic. It was as if the snow thawing had also thawed out the violence and threat of the war. "I came out to study," he said, holding up the book for clarification, "but it's so nice out that even I'm considering a break." Glancing around until he saw a somewhat level enough boulder surface, he used it like a table in the way he set the book down. The teenager ran a hand through the back of his inky hair. "How have you been holding up?" he asked. The war was over, but was Nell alright?
I COULD USE SOMEBODY ,
_______________S O M E O N E_ L I K E_ Y O U_ &_ A L L _Y O U_ K N O W |
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Post by NELL DOE DALE on Jul 23, 2011 0:47:43 GMT -5
[/color] for the love of god)[/font][/div][/center] She started when a voice spoke up, lifting her finger from the lighter so she didn’t burn herself or anything as she turned to look at him. Her eyes were wide as if she’d just been caught breaking the law, but realizing it was Josh she calmed down to smile back at him. ”Hey Josh. You startled me a bit.” She did feel like she was busted for doing something wrong. Could burning pictures on top of a cliff be considered something…bad? Nell really wondered how far she was pushing her legal limits. With an amiable demeanor and his eyes dancing, he offered some help. She tilted her head. Well, he seemed to be in a pretty decent mood. It might have been the end of the war or the weather or something else she didn’t know about. But she was happy for it. ”Not only a space heater, but a human lighter. What can’t you do?” She guessed peace had a good effect on everyone. Well, this flimsy peace that did not provide much shelter from the real world that was her biggest concern. "That'd be great. Cut the time in half, actually." There were so many damn pictures. Piles of them and she didn’t know how her father had had them all. "If you see pictures where it looks like there's just two of me, keep them." Realizing she might have sounded a bit off, she amended, ”My twin sister. I want to keep the pictures with just the two of us.”
Well he certainly caught her at an off time. But she guessed that since she was in the process of letting go of memories, it felt less painful to mention the one person from her past that she wanted to keep. The only pictures she could look at and think of good things. Nell decided that she didn’t want Tilly to fade away—the only living people who knew her were her father and herself. And so the Earth girl would keep her alive as well as she could. He asked her what she was up to, and he was lucky Nell wasn’t a smartass, otherwise the answer would have been “burning pictures, what does it look like?” But that didn’t even cross her mind. She grinned and rolled her eyes, as if emphasizing how stupid this must look. "Oh, just being a cliché and burning pictures." After stating this, she knelt down to retrieve another photograph, just her and her father. If she were any other person she would have scowled. But she kept up her crooked smile as she shook her head. ”No, I don’t mind sharing. After all, this isn’t a very normal thing to do, is it? You deserve an explanation.”
Fussing with the lighter, her thumb becoming sore from running over it so many times, she thought of how to explain this. "You know how after a tragedy, people tear down the building that the tragedy occurred in because a place of unspeakable horror like that shouldn't exist? Similar theory." She was thinking of things like school shootings, where the building would be torn down or never used again because of the horrible events. "I understand that we have photographs of horrific things for history's sake, but this is more personal. These pictures are things I don't want to remember." The flame finally caught, and she held it up against a picture. With that one gone, she picked out another of her mother with two babies in her arms, her father's arm around her waist. Turning her face back to Josh, her smile slipping into a more straight face, she apologized. "Sorry, I'm rambling. I just don't want to look like an arsonist or anything. But apparently I am a bit of pyromaniac." Here she was, explaining this to a Fire student of all people. His whole deal was Fire, therefore her being an arsonist would be the least of his concern. But alas, that was how Nell thought.
She gave him her full attention now, both out of respect and to give her thumb a rest, as he placed his book on top of a rock. He leaned against the cliff, and she wondered how he was feeling. Was he well? Hopefully not getting sick or anything. But she could never know—or tell—with him. Josh was just as enigmatic as ever. "You were studying...up here?" She blinked, unaware that he had meant going outside to study. "Jeez, these cliffs are just being used for unconventional activities today." Shaking her head, she chuckled lightly. She was in a relatively good mood—her natural, default mood—even though she was now faced with all these memories in the form of physical objects. Memories like these should only stay in the mind of those who remember them. ”I’m sure you deserve a break every now and again with how much you study. Actually, you should take more breaks than you do.” After falling apart herself, she worried about others around her and the emotions they repressed and their stress and looking at Josh now, she felt the same way. The stress of war was hard on him too, of course, and with how little she knew about him she still realized that a breakdown might be possible for him. Or had he already been through something similar? Either way, working oneself too hard was never good.
He asked after her wellbeing, and her smile grew a bit. She scratched her head with her free hand and scrunched her lips to the side as she thought. The Academy was once again a safe place, but everything else remained the same. She was still a fugitive living in fear. "Honestly, I couldn't tell you. There’s a lot going on. But I'm doing much better now that the war is over. So much better..." Not that her father really cared, so it made her wonder why she even told him things. He simply said "good" probably realizing how much of a stress factor it had been and how it terrified her so much—but he was not a sympathetic man, even when it came to family."I'm almost afraid to ask you, but I’d still like to know how you’re doing." If he replied with a simple fine, then she’d just chuckle and leave it alone. The war was over, so it’s not like he could be a target of anything anymore. But then her thoughts always turned back to the people who had jumped him, and the fact that if they found out he was still alive… She didn’t want to think of those things, because doing so bloomed gooseflesh on her arms.
With Josh and his wellbeing now on her mind, she remembered something that had been bothering her. "How has assimilation back into your element gone? I hope they're not giving you too much trouble." That was one of her greatest worries about him, how well he’d be accepted back into the fold of Fire students after his betrayal. And as always—despite the fact that it had been his decision, made of his own volition—it made her feel guilty that he had chosen to do it. She tapped the lighter against her chin in thought, feeling the sting of the heat from previous lightings. "We're enemies again, it seems." But for Nell, this was merely nominal. Even though the Academy was easing back into its prior state, she still viewed Josh as a friend. She didn’t care that they were natural enemies, never really did actually.
---you hold my arms down i've been bad |
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Post by JOSHUA DONOVAN DALE on Jul 23, 2011 21:23:04 GMT -5
------- OFF IN THE NIGHT ,___________W H I L E_ Y O U_ L I V E_ I T_ U P_ I ' M_ O F F_ T O_ S L E E P* WAGING WARS ,__________________T O_ S H A K E_ T H E_ P O E T_ A N D_ T H E_ B E A T He grimaced apologetically when she gave a start and turned around, not having meant to give her a fight. She didn't seem too upset by it, but he still had the decency to reply, "Ah, sorry. I guess I should have been more careful." In all fairness, it was probably better than just standing here and waiting for her to finish. If she'd turned around and realised that someone had been watching her the entire time it likely would have been much more frightening than Joshua announcing his presence. He got over the flicker of guilt fairly quickly--Nell was talking and a soft chuckle brushed past his lips when she asked him a joking question. "Swim," he replied with mild amusement, and even though it was meant to mesh with the joke this was a truth about himself that he was telling her. There was a discomfort in his eyes as he scanned the lake in the background, but he was far enough from the edge that it only made him uneasy rather than physically ill. "And a lot of other things, but I doubt you were expecting a list." A bit of a smirk played across his lips, and he left it at that. He had admitted a weakness in himself--did she think he was joking, or did she realise it was the truth?--but he wasn't ready to spout every fact and figure surrounding his life and experiences.
Even though he'd been joking when he'd asked if she needed help, when Nell actually went along with it Joshua did not hesitate. His brow furrowed in mild confusion--two of her? Faulty photos? Edits? Mirror shots? What does she-- Her elaboration cut off his though, and his gray gaze softened with the understanding as he dipped his head. "Sure. I'll be careful." His mind flickered back to the time when he'd asked after the possibility of siblings. "No," she'd told him. "I used to, but... no." Had something bad happened? Joshua hadn't considered it at the time, merely assuming they'd been estranged or had otherwise stopped talking. But twins? That was a little different, wasn't it? His image of twins was what you seen in books and movies--inseparable. Of course, the Woods twins were a huge exception but they still interacted often. A frown played on his lips for a moment, but he pushed the idea from his mind. It would be rude to ask. So he didn't. Instead he just smiled. "Like this one?" He held up one of the photos of Nell and her twin, then gently handed it back to her.
He chuckled when she mentioned being cliché. While this much was true, Joshua really wasn't the type that would wrinkle his nose and think such things were stupid--instead, he only waited patiently after she said that he deserved an explanation. "Only if you're comfortable with giving one," he replied. As Joshua was a secretive person, he liked to frequently let people know--especially friends--that justifying themselves to him wasn't always necessary. Josh was a curious person, not a nosy person. Though he may have wanted to know what she was doing, he would also respect Nell's boundaries enough to let the subject drop should she not want to entertain the subject. As it was, Nell explained that the photos signified something horrible in her past that she wanted to forget, and it only made Josh feel better as he lifted one of the photos--this really must have been her family, he could catch the resemblance--and watched it burn under his touch. "Symbolic burning," he said as the last scraps of burning photo danced away from his fingertips. "It's better than just throwing them all away." A laugh couldn't be held back when she mentioned arson, however, and Joshua shot her an incredulous look. "Nell, think of who you are speaking to," he pointed out, holding out a hand and letting fire dance across his skin for a moment. "If anyone is a pyromaniac, it's me. I've nothing against it." Especially not when it was used to get rid of negative memories. He could think of several pictures of Patrick he wouldn't mind going up in flames. His thoughts turned dark for a moment as he considered the old man, but he pushed the negativity away in favour of his friend.
The hints of amusement manipulated his features for a moment, but it was not enough to deserve a full smile. "Merely outside, I hadn't a particular destination in mind," he corrected. His voice turned formal for a moment, slipping back into a speech pattern that was usually reserved for fancy dinner parties and trying to impress the people his father worked with. It was back to normal as he clarified, "I saw someone up on the cliffs, I was curious. Though I'll admit I was slightly surprised to find it was you, I guess that's for the better. I didn't plan what I'd have said if you were someone else." He wasn't exactly friendly or sociable, and he could bet she remembered this. "It's nice how the weather's clearing up, though. You're from New York, right? Is the weather similar there this time of year?" He glanced at the now mostly melted snow. His eyes caught patches of white on some of the higher altitudes, but the majority had been chased away by the warmth and the rain. Joshua had always been fond of the smell that spring carried--it was fresh, clean, and it told of the coming heat. His powers responded quicker, too, and that was never a bad thing. "Old habits die hard, I suppose," he remarked on the subject of studying. "It's definitely a relief than I can access my study material again. I was honestly about to go mad without it." Using the library resources infuriated him. The freshmen liked to dog-ear the pages or take the books into the mess hall and spill their lunch on them. "I'm surprised I kept up with my grades through the damned war. How'd you do on that front?" Such was Joshua, always one to be honestly concerned and curious about education when no one else would have been.
A lot going on. This statement was broad, very broad--so much that it worried him. "Are you handling things okay?" He didn't want to ask what was wrong, feeling that if she wanted him to know she would have told him. But he was a little concerned about her psyche, remembering the crying and the breakdown and the fact that she'd unknowingly confessed to him that she'd killed her mother. He was getting better about that. Her alibi and innocence had been proven to end the war, so he was confident once more that there 'had to be a reason'. "How's Pablo, by the way?" Though he wasn't much of a smiler even when he was in a good mood, he actually managed a lax grin at the thought of the cat. He'd seemed like he'd be a real crazy troublemaker in contrast to Picasso's serious attitude. Speaking of the latter kitten, Patricia had covered for him completely. She'd insisted that the kitten was an early sort of birthday gift. Sneaky as ever, his mother was. Donovan wasn't too pleased, but he also couldn't argue with his wife on how she chose to raise or reward her son.
Josh blinked. "Afraid to ask? Why?" He hadn't been thinking about the gang lately--it came back to him at that moment, and the teenager winced ever so slightly. Right, he'd forgotten she was there when they'd tried to kill him and all. "No trouble on my end," he assured Nell, attempting a smile to back this up. Unfortunately, he was going through flashbacks of how horrible it had truly been for him and that just made his lips twitch into a frown instead. He caught himself after a moment. "Things have been calm since the war." This was actually a lie--he was still in trouble about the incident with his father in the living room, but he didn't want to drag her into family drama. Was he looking forward to his birthday? No. Being stuck alone with his wretched grandfather did not appeal to him. On a whim, the boy got an idea--what would Nell be doing on that day? "Hey--are you busy on the twenty-third?" It was on the weekend and so she didn't have school, but Josh would understand if she had other plans. "I'm being forced to sit through an entire boring dinner with the family for my birthday, but considering it's my birthday I'm sure company wouldn't be totally disallowed. There'll be food and drinks and all that." He didn't sound nearly as hopeful as he felt, not wanting to make her feel pressured even though he was literally dreading the day.
"It's been... awkward." Josh shrugged as he admitted the truth, figuring that this was something he shouldn't be lying about. If he'd insisted that everything was peachy keen and golden she probably would have pegged him as a liar anyway. "Some of them still call me a traitor, others are apologetic, the rest aren't really sure what to think. I've had a few minor incidents with some of the more headstrong idiots, but now that they don't have the backing of an entire group, things have calmed down." The leaders had been forced to admit that they were wrong, and they even had a new female Fire leader now. So he was rather confident in the fact that they couldn't back him into the corner and assault him in a group like they had been when the fighting was still going on. "But I've done okay. Are you being treated alright? I know Thunder's not too happy..." They hadn't chose to end the war, they'd been forced to. Once Fire had announced first their neutrality, then their allegiance with the former enemies, Thunder had been forced to back down. Speaking of enemies, he laughed when Nell spoke. "Bah. I've never much cared for the alliances before, not even when I was forced to." He was referencing to his time as a leader.
I COULD USE SOMEBODY ,
_______________S O M E O N E_ L I K E_ Y O U_ &_ A L L _Y O U_ K N O W |
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Post by NELL DOE DALE on Jul 24, 2011 6:57:34 GMT -5
[/color] for the love of god)[/font][/div][/center] ”Don’t worry about it, I just felt like I was being busted,” Nell said airily, her voice a proverbial hand-wave. She now realized that this was probably something she couldn’t get in trouble for. And so she wasn’t half as cagey when she searched his face for a few minutes when he responded something he couldn’t do was swim. Josh said it with an edge of humor, so she didn’t really put too much thought into it—Fires had a natural aversion to water, after all. She followed his gaze down toward the huge lake and laughed a bit. “That makes two of us.” She had barely mastered the art of dog paddling with Tasmin, and she hadn’t tried that again since. There were so many things she needed to learn, including how to ride a bike. Which would happen as soon as possible. She raised an eyebrow at him—it was really hard to tell when he was joking and when he was serious now. Because apparently he had a sense of humor, which seemingly came out of nowhere. But she took his admission for what it was—a simple explanation of something she didn’t even connect with a phobia. It just made her better that she wasn’t the only young adult who didn’t know such a simple activity.
The explanation she now realized was more than necessary—it simply felt weird explaining to him that she had had a twin sister, something she never told anyone. Nell smiled gratefully as he dipped his head and told her that he’d look out for them. It was amazing that he went along with her so much. Get rid of her phone? Sure thing. Burn old family pictures? Of course. Josh never even questioned it, just accepted these things as if they were completely normal. She liked that, that she didn’t have to explain herself. He didn’t even ask her more about Tilly, most likely out of respect. It made her think of the time when she had admitted the fact she had a sibling to him. Did he suspect the girl’s death? Probably not, and that was why she had been so vague. She didn’t like to think of her twin’s death. Taking the picture he held out, her eyes turned fond as she looked at the photograph. ”Yeah…” she murmured. Nell never realized how much she missed her sister until looking at these photos—she saw now how empty her side was without the other girl attached to it. But she simply pocketed the photograph in her hoodie, careful not to bend it or screw it up.
And again, he allowed her to her own strangeness. Why didn’t he ever ask about these things? She was surprisingly comfortable with admitting it—it was personal, yes, but not so much so that she felt the need to put the top back on her pictures and run away. And there were no more questions as he burned away one of her memories and she was glad to be without it. Laughing as he spoke of the symbolism, she said, ”Yeah, figured I might as well get rid of them with dramatics.” Josh should know—he was the one who threw her phone into the damn lake. ”Thank you for entertaining my eccentricities, Josh. I promise there’ll be no more picture burnings up here after this.” She held up three fingers for ‘girl scout’s honor’, still feeling breezy. Which was weird around Josh. It seemed like they’d bypassed the whole awkward phase. Which was great, since her awkward relationship with her father was pretty much all she could handle.
She smiled a bit sheepishly—which was amazing, considering shy wouldn’t usually be a word to describe anything about her—when the fire appeared in his hand. But she recovered quickly enough. “Think of who you’re talking to,” she said with a wink, and to match his own show of power, she pulled out her parlor trick and unclasped her hand to show a flower. Usually, creating something from nothing exhausted her greatly because of her lack of discipline, but with spring’s arrival she could now pull off such stunts without too much drain. She tucked the lily into her hair before continuing. “Earth students usually have an aversion to fire.” And so it may have seemed suspicious for her to be doing this in the first place. But she’d never minded fire, even burned those paper cranes so many years ago. But that had been a mistake. ”I have to admit, burning things does have its charm—makes everything disappear, rather than just disposing of it all in the trash.” And she wanted no proof that she was ever with her parents.
She picked up another picture that at first she was going to keep, thinking that it was her and Tilly. But it was really faded, and she flipped it over and found a date scribbled in childish handwriting. It was her mother and aunt, looking as if they were completely happy. Probably because they were together. It must have been something Mia took with her and then her father had taken it when he left. She kept pictures too. The resemblance between their lives was unsettling to her, and so she quickly burned it away. And the next picture was also with Tilly, but when she noticed a bruise on her shoulder and a bump on her forehead, she realized that these pictures may also come in handy for later on… The abuse was merely threats and nothing major when Tilly was still alive—the woman still did things to her no mother should have done. If she wasn’t a ‘pussy’ just like her father as Jane claimed, some pictures would be able to help her case. But she didn’t want to think about that right now, and so turned her attention to both burning and Josh.
Her assuming of his decision to take a book up in the cliffs apparently sparked some amusement in him, and she couldn’t help but pick up something odd in his speech patterns. Kind of like when she met him sober for the first time and he was cursing every other word. Josh sounded more…dignified, was it? She laughed when he explained how he was surprised to find her. ”Be glad it was me, then.” It was funny thinking of how strange it would have been for Josh had he happened upon a stranger in his place. ”I guess you could have just walked away.” He brought up the weather and she had to stop burning pictures because of the excitement that wound through her. In contrast to his calm observations, she was grinning stupidly when she answered, ”Don’t even get me started on the weather! It’s so wonderful! All the plants are coming out and it’s so warm and…I’ll stop now.” When he questioned New York during this time of the year, she had to think about it a bit. ”The winters are usually shorter, but generally it’s the same. It’s nicer here than in the big city, though. You can actually see the plants growing.” British Columbia was a lot different than where she’d come from, and she was truly starting to consider it her home.
She laughed a bit as he said he was just about to go mad without studying. And she thought she had eccentricities. It was amazing how highly he held learning and academics, but it wasn’t a bad thing at all. “Right, all your stuff must have been in your dorm…” And again, she felt bad that his decision to defect meant leaving everything that was there behind. ”You got everything back though, didn’t you? No one messed with your stuff or anything?” She wouldn’t put it above the Fire students to do something like that in Josh’s absence. What with how much he clearly missed his books—it almost made her laugh even thinking about it—she could only imagine how well that would go over with him. As for her own education… She turned away as she began fussing with the lighter again. Why did she feel like she was going to be chastised like a teacher to his student? ”I…uh…skipped a bit during the war. And there was a lot of stress…” Of course, he saw her breakdown and assumed it was because of the war, so that made sense. ”Let’s just say I have a lot of catching up to do.” As if it wasn’t bad enough that she needed supplementary classes and she was way behind her peers—now she had much more to burden. ”But thankfully I have you.” She probably wouldn’t have gotten this far through the year if it weren’t for his help.
Nell thought about it. “I’m dealing…” She wanted to be honest all the time, but she also didn’t want to make him concerned. Well…she wondered if he really did worry about her like she did him. Not like she got jumped all that often. But since he had sided with her during the war, there must have been some concern there. He had even stayed with her when she had pretty much fallen apart. A lump rose in her throat. She really wanted to explain to him why that had happened, because of the whole honest thing—and because she had asked him to get rid of her phone without any explanation. While on that thought… ”Got a new phone,” Nell said as if that could measure how well she was dealing with life. Now she actually wanted to call others. ”That’s a good thing, I guess.” Good that she could now communicate with others. She didn’t regret it as much as she thought she would have, especially when her father came over that day and asked her what had happened to her phone. The answer was “ask the lake” and he assumed the rest. Then the next day he came back with an Android that was already turned on, his number in it. Her lips flickered down a bit, thinking of how crafty he was getting. He knew that she wouldn’t have gotten his number otherwise.
Even his demeanor brightened with the mention of the kitten, and Nell smiled back at him wondering why she was seeing him grin and if this was some kind of weird alternate universe. But she’d already seen him around cats enough to know they usually got this sort of reaction from him. “Well, Pablo has begun a campaign to climb the drapes all the way to the curtain rod. And he also enjoys fighting with the vacuum cleaner. Aren’t cats supposed to be scared of that?” No, she wasn’t complaining about these things—it actually amused her, all this energy running around her apartment. She didn’t even care about the runs in her curtains or the claw marks on her couch. If it weren’t for Pablo’s company, any thoughts of recovering from her crash would have been defeated. ”And Picasso? Not half as much trouble as his brother, I’m guessing.” Nell was beginning to wonder how she lived so long without the company of a pet—now that she had Pablo, she didn’t know what she would do without him.
Nell took a second to observe him as if she could actually figure him out by his face alone, and silently nodded. He was probably lying. Maybe. She didn’t know. He wasn’t dead though, so that was good. Even as she wished to know more, she kept politely silent. He’s fine, Nell, don’t get worked up. But he used a similar phrasing as her that made her a bit suspicious, that things were better now the war was over. Of course there was probably personal stuff going on, but… She didn’t think too hard on it. ”I’m glad,” she said, tone sincere as ever. ”Peace has done good for the both of us, it seems.” As well as it could do. The question caught her off-guard and she blinked a few times before she got it through her brain that it was his birthday. ”No, I don’t think so,” she said, and the she was grinning. He mentioned food. ”I’d love to come! Oh, oh, this means I need to get you a gift! What would you like? And keep in mind: money is no concern, so don’t even worry about it. And how old will you be?” She was on the verge of forgetting her own birthday, but she loved celebrating others’.
Awkward, huh? ”I didn’t expect you to be welcomed back with hugs and kisses and gift baskets,” she said with a grin. No, he was a traitor after all. But at least he could go back. Even if it was accompanied with awkwardness, it was where he belonged. Even though he was a loner, everyone liked to be with their kind. ”But now that everything’s calming, I guess as time passes they’ll forgive and forget.” That’s what she was doing anyway. Now that no one was outwardly trying to murder her for revenge—she had a feeling that if she was killed it would just perpetuate the war with more vengeance—she was ready to move on. With enough problems in her life, she didn’t need any grudges to be piled on top of it. “They have some leftover bitterness, but nothing too bad. No one’s trying to go for my throat anymore, which is all I can really ask for.” As long as she thought everything half-full, then she wouldn’t have to focus on negative. And she was happy that Joshua didn’t put much merit into alliances—which was made clear when he defected. ”Uh…I know I’ve probably told you this a thousand times already and it’s annoying by now, but thank you. For everything.”
---you hold my arms down i've been bad |
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Post by JOSHUA DONOVAN DALE on Jul 24, 2011 11:41:56 GMT -5
[... didn't even count it, didn't wanna know o.o -hides from Josh muse-]
------- OFF IN THE NIGHT ,___________W H I L E_ Y O U_ L I V E_ I T_ U P_ I ' M_ O F F_ T O_ S L E E P* WAGING WARS ,__________________T O_ S H A K E_ T H E_ P O E T_ A N D_ T H E_ B E A T Joshua chuckled before shaking his head. "Nah, the pyromaniacs in my element do stuff like this all the time. Mind, it's usually stuff like homework they're burning." His gray eyes were light with amusement, but he was being serious as well--some students really did torch their homework for the hell of it if they decided it was not for them. He would never do something to his homework, he was just too much of a good student for that. They called it being a brown-noser or a teachers pet, but Joshua had long since learned to shrug off such insults. He didn't really mind being a loner, an outcast, that bookworm in the back of the class that no one really talked to. If they were going to behave in such childish and ludicrous manners, he was actually glad they didn't try to befriend him. "Though, why did you choose the cliffs?" he wondered curiously. "Privacy? Boredom? Felt like it?" Josh himself didn't often come up here unless he wanted his solitude. A lot of kids were afraid of heights and that scared away a good part of the student body, and the others just poked up here every once and a while. There was a sign proclaiming them as dangerous and that they really shouldn't be climbed or anything, but no students paid attention to things like that. The sign didn't forbid the kids from the cliffs, merely suggested that they really shouldn't be up there. He liked how lax the Academy were on rules pertaining to the grounds. Except for the forest, and he knew that it was only warned against because the school was literally in the middle of nowhere and you could really get lost if you didn't know what you were doing. He remembered an incident in his first year when the older boys had dared him to go in at night and he'd gotten lost. It had been honestly terrifying and he'd never done something so stupid as that again. Peer pressure had affected even Joshua, the stoic and stony loner that now wouldn't take most stupid dares if you paid him (or he was drunk).
Nell couldn't swim, either? Joshua's colourless eyes displayed a hint of surprise as she revealed this bit of information about herself, something he'd never known before. "Really? I guess I'm not as helpless as I thought, then!" This time his joking side was made a little more clear as he grinned. Even though his teeth flashed and he seemed cheery enough, there was always something guarded about Joshua--secrets he was keeping. Right now he was withholding the fact that the water really did terrify him, it wasn't just that he was unaware of how to swim. "Annabel took to it immediately, I wondered if I was just the black sheep of the family." Despite being Fire elementals as much as he was, his parents were not afraid of the water unless it was being used to attack them. Annabel was the opposite of afraid--she was a natural! She swam like a fish and never seemed to understand that her big brother was absolutely terrified of the very thing she loved. On the subject of sisters, he saw Nell's expression shift and wondered once again what had happened. Swallowing the urge to ask, he said, "It's never really bothered me much, not knowing. It's not like I have a life's dream of becoming a lifeguard." He laughed slightly, not sounding as amused as he was trying to act, but still pretty convincing (he hoped). He'd thought once about trying to overcome the hydrophobia, but that had been a thought quickly squashed. No. He'd never be brave enough to face it, he didn't think.
Perhaps he should have questioned Nell more--she really did have some strange habits and reactions when he was around. But then again, he knew more than she was aware, didn't he? Joshua knew about one dark little tidbit of information that she probably kept buried for a reason, and perhaps he was afraid of prying because he didn't want to upset her or bring these sorts of things to the surface. Joshua could be an amazing confidant and secret keeper if you needed him to be, but he wasn't the sort of person that thirsted after everyone's life story. It was not fair to beg for something when the other person wasn't getting something in return. "You seem to enjoy dramatics," he remarked with a characteristic almost-smile--a twitch of the lips that never quite turned into anything. He was also remembering her phone and how he'd helped Nell dispose of it by literally chucking it against the cliffs. How had he managed to get so close to the water without absolutely wigging out? Adrenaline, probably. Anger. He knew that he sometimes became blinded to some of his fear when he was in some sort of a mood. He still wouldn't have been able to swim or even wade partway into the lake, but he'd probably been more concentrated on getting rid of the phone and helping Nell than how close he was getting. Not to mention that Joshua's version of 'close' was much farther than your average person would judge. A good ten feet back and he'd still be uneasy about it.
He was amused by her little signal even though he didn't understand what it meant--he wasn't a part of the girl scouts or anything, and thank goodness. Given that he was male it would have been quite alarming. "Eccentricities? Please! You haven't seen me on a bad day!" All of his quirky comments and joking around was designed to make her feel more at ease with this situation, assure her that he wasn't judging as he picked up another picture (this one didn't even seem to have Nell or her twin in it at all) and watched it burn under his careful touch. He wasn't really sure when he'd passed over the awkward phase with Nell. Maybe when he'd seen her in her vulnerable state with shaking and crying and sadness, maybe that had been about the time. He remembered a bit of awkwardness when he'd given her Pablo, but that had been because he was acting completely under impulse and he'd been uncertain as to how she would take the gesture. She'd reacted well, thank goodness. But they were past it now. He didn't feel as uncomfortable as he used to. And that was a good thing, Josh decided. "Really, though, I'm not one to talk." He'd done some strange stuff in his lifetime--including, but not limited to, giving someone a cat to cheer them up.
Something akin to delight flashed in his gaze when he watched a flower appear in her hand, grinning a little with the amusement. Joshua was fascinated by all of the elemental powers--it probably had something to do with how curious he was. "That's neat," he said earnestly, watching as she tucked it behind her ear. "And from out of nothing, too! You really are getting good at this." He liked to watch his friend improve, and it surprised him as usual to know that he admitted to the friendship so easily now. Hadn't there been a time when he avoided the very word in association to the pair of them together? Well, that didn't matter now. "It's fun to play around with once you can do whatever you want, isn't it?" His lips twitched, and this time he managed an actual smile as he held his hand flat, palm out. The fire came together on the palm of his hand to form a swirling sort of cocoon, which then twisted and melded itself into a butterfly that fluttered away from his hand before becoming smoke against the wind. "Something my mother taught me," he admitted quietly. It was something else personal, but a small thing--an insignificant one. Such things were almost becoming easy to talk about. "I remember being a freshman and never understanding how it responded to her so easily..." His tone was filled with a sort of reminiscing.
As Nell busied herself with the picture of her mother and her aunt, Joshua handled another picture. The woman who must've been Nell's mother unsettled him, a strange twisting in his gut that reminded him of what Nell had said. "I killed my mother." Had she really taken the life of the woman? It must have been an accident of some sort. Car accident, stove malfunctioning... something like that. Even with pictures staring him straight in the face, Joshua would not allow his views regarding Nell to shift too terribly. Nell seemed too busy examining another picture to notice, thank goodness. Joshua noticed a bruise on one of the girls--he couldn't really tell the twins apart, not at all--but he thought nothing of it, his mind immediately passing it off to childhood injury. He couldn't count the amount of times he'd tripped over things or crashed his bike as a kid. Even for someone like Joshua that didn't bruise very easily, he had his fair share of childhood mishaps. So he let the picture burn as the others had, not wanting to spend too much time examining the photos. They were Nell's pictures, Nell's memories, he was just here to help her be rid of them as she'd wanted to. His amount of respect for his friends and their privacy was amazing.
Nell seemed very excited about the weather, and it made Joshua chuckle as she gushed over the warmth and beauty of the spring. "It's my favourite season," he confessed, another fact about himself that slipped off his tongue much easier than it once would have. "I guess you wouldn't expect a Fire elemental to care much for nature, but..." He trailed off, allowing her to infer that he truly did find it a sight to behold. He remembered how his mother used to spend hours gardening, how he'd helped her sometimes when he was yearning for the company. Patricia had quite the green thumb for an elemental of her classification, but she also had an Earth elemental as her gardener. He remembered her saying that she didn't so much make him grow the garden for her, he just helped by ensuring that she was using the right sort of environment and that the plants had everything they needed to grow beautifully. "It's just... always been something that fascinates me, I suppose." He nodded and laughed a bit when she spoke of New York in contrast to where they both now lived. "Well, the Hollow is in the middle of nowhere," he pointed out in amusement.
His cheerful disposition vanished when she asked if anyone had messed with his things, the darkening of his expression saying most of it before he'd even opened his mouth. "Unfortunately they decided to make their distaste clear," he said stiffly. He was not angry with Nell in the least, but he was furious with his fellow students. Heat swept through the area in the usual indication of his rage, a single and searing wave. "Never before had I counted them as being so... childish." It had taken several hours and a lot of soap and water to scrub the word 'traitor' off the wall, and the fact that his dormitory was trashed had greatly enraged him. If he found the bastards responsible they were dead. "I'll have to replace some of my study material, but the more important books were salvageable." He wasn't the school butt monkey in the sense that they'd knock books from his hands or trip him on his way to class--no, they knew that Joshua Dale would fight back, and fight back fierce. But they would certainly delight in crafty and childlike behaviour behind his back. Shaking his head to try and clear it, he said, "But I'm managing, at least." Nell seemed almost awkward as she mentioned skipping class, but Joshua seemed to understand. "Stress is a killer, you probably would have done even worse if you'd showed." Stress could seriously cut back on your efficiency in class, he knew. He remembered the day during the war when he'd kept zoning out in class, and it was not a fond recollection in the least. "You do indeed," he agreed. "And if you need any help in catching up, well... you know who to call."
Speaking of calling, Nell had apparently recieved or bought a new phone from somewhere. His mind flickered to the old one that was now resting at the bottom of the lake, but he nodded when she said that it was a good thing. She sounded almost uncertain by the way she'd 'guessed' that it was a good thing. Why wouldn't it be, he wondered? Were her previous problems still plaguing her? He remembered getting a new phone after the gang had found the number to his old one and being in constant fear of having it ring. Mind you, they'd found and beat him anyway, but that wasn't something he liked to concentrate on. "Mind giving me your new number, or did you get it transferred?" He had changed his entire number so that they couldn't reach him, but he'd heard of people whose phones had broken continuing on the same plane and number.
He was glad that her kitten seemed to be filling her with good cheer, even if he accomplished this by destroying everything in sight. "Tell me about it," he laughed, shaking his head. "Sneaky little rascals, kittens are. Eris was a nightmare when I first got her." He couldn't leave anything out without it ending up on the floor the next day. She'd scratched furniture, tore up toilet paper, ate the most ridiculous of household objects, clawed the curtains... it sounded like Nell was having a similar experience. But he respected that Nell seemed amused rather than angry. A lot of pet owners recieved their animals for some sort of holiday or birthday and then got rid of them as soon as they were past the cuteness of the puppy stage. "Picasso is quiet," he replied. "Sometimes I swear he's more serious than I am. I've noticed he's taken pretty well to Apache, and even Chester tolerates him." The blind cat really needed the companionship, even if it came in the form of a small kitten. As for Chester, well, he'd always been more independent. The three-legged cat was usually very abrasive and cold, so it was good to see them getting along.
Joshua was actually surprised when she agreed to show--surprised enough that it showed for a moment in his features before he caught himself and managed to smile. "Don't feel too pressured about gifts," he insisted, shaking his head a little. Unlike a lot of teenagers, Joshua was very easy to buy gifts for considering material things had never been an issue. While a lot of guys his age wanted gaming systems and things of the sort, he was just as happy with some obscure novel to add to his growing collection of books. "If you really insist, though, just surprise me." He chuckled a bit. Joshua wasn't accustomed to having friends he was close enough with to invite over or hang out with outside of school. Jake was an exception solely because they could rarely meet in school without being targeted. He decided that he would likely enjoy the company of Nell; it would help to shift his focus away from his grandfather. "Nineteen," he replied. "I got the short end of the stick when it came to my age at the Academy." He was kidding--half the student population were of the younger sort. "I like that my birthday's in spring, though. Like I said... favourite season." He knew that didn't always ring true, however. Donovan was born in the winter and he loathed the snow. Personal preference, Joshua supposed.
He arched an eyebrow at Nell's words, however. "They'll forgive?" he repeated, blinking. "Nell, they tried to kill you. I don't regret my decision in the least; it's they who'll need to await forgiveness. Not the other way around." And Joshua? Well, he wasn't ready for move on just yet. It wasn't that easy for him. Nell was his friend and it was a bit hard to be all chummy with someone who had previously been trying to off your friend. "Nah, you're not annoying," he insisted, smiling a bit. "I'm the one who should be giving thanks; this is the longest an Earth elemental has ever put up with me." He grinned a little.
I COULD USE SOMEBODY ,
_______________S O M E O N E_ L I K E_ Y O U_ &_ A L L _Y O U_ K N O W
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Post by NELL DOE DALE on Jul 26, 2011 5:15:47 GMT -5
[/color] for the love of god)[/font][/div][/center]
Nell snorted at the thought of Fire students burning away their homework, still trying to decipher Josh and his easygoing demeanor like he was a riddle. Sounded like something they would take a liking to, but it also sounded like something Josh would disapprove of. "Do you ever burn anything of yours?" she asked, the lingering suspicion in her head telling her that even this may be too personal for someone like him. While it probably wouldn't be homework, she could imagine him getting rid of something he didn't want through his element. Pictures weren't the only thing that people might want to go up in flames--there were other catalysts for memories, perhaps notes from past lovers or old stuffed animals, or as she had experience with, paper cranes. Josh questioned her choice of location and she shrugged a bit. “Well, at first I was going to do it at my place, in the trashcan or the bathtub. But I didn’t want to burn down the apartment and the smoke alarm would probably go off and it would have been just too much trouble. There's not much damage that can be done up here.” Besides, burning things in the bathroom or the wastebasket would bring back too many unwelcome memories. “Besides, I like being up high.” She found herself liking the cliffs for that reason, just like how she enjoyed climbing trees (well, that and the fact that she had an affinity for Earth). But she found that since she loved wide open spaces and heights, the cliffs were perfect for her. It made her feel free.
She caught his surprise and gave a half-smile, the one usually attached to her face. "Nope. We're in the same boat, so I guess we shouldn't tip it over." Nell rolled her eyes at her own pathetic joke. Since his smile and overall nature was so off-putting, there was no way for her to pick up on anything else. Nell grinned goofily at the mention of his younger sister. While his weakness could be considered cats (and his little sister), hers would be children. And food. "I still find it somewhat odd that Fire elements like to swim." In her mind, since she was new to this deal, Fires would avoid water like cats did. But she guessed that didn't deter them too much if they really enjoyed it like Annabel seemed to. "And there's nothing wrong with being the black sheep." She should know. Nell couldn't be happier that she turned out as Earth--it distanced herself from those people even more, and that's what she really wanted. To space herself from them, afraid at how similar she could sometimes be. The vindictive Fuentes nature and the manipulative Sinclair style, both emerging thanks to her father. Spending all his money out of bitterness would make her family proud, but she didn't want to think of that. Instead, she thought of swimming and how she in fact wanted to learn whereas it seemed Josh did not. "I guess swimming is not a necessary skill. Just an interest. A good thing, considering I wouldn't think being a full-time lifeguard as being a reliable career." But hell, if someone enjoyed it, why not. Still, working just over the summer, not a viable career option. It was amazing how serious Nell thought of certain things--perhaps Josh was rubbing off on her.
Nell gave a devilish smile at his comment, always much cheerier than he seemed to be. They were polar opposites in some respects. "Why be simple about something when you can do it big?" Certain dramatics she didn't enjoy--starting a war because of a murder was way too dramatic for her liking. The actions of her family were full of dramatics, her aunt was simply fueled by her love for being over-the-top. Probably explains all her husbands and her showing off of the wealth she accumulated through history and illegality. But when it came to things like having fun or letting go, why not take the extra step into going out with a bang? Why simply burn pictures in your bathtub when you can add even more symbolism by watching them fly away on the breeze. Though it had been Josh's prerogative to throw her phone into the lake--she had to give him kudos for that one. There was probably a trashcan nearby that would have done just as well, but she had seen him go off in the direction of the lake and assumed that to be where he got rid of the thing. And she also remembered how grateful she had been even through the haze of tears. Now that breakdown too had been something dramatic--simply because it was held in for so long that everything built up to the brink.
She didn’t look at him, focusing on a picture of her father, but her eyebrows raised all the same. I haven’t? She wondered what he considered a bad day if getting completely hammered and stumbling home alone wasn’t one. "I hope to never see the day," she joked back, by now figuring that must have been what he was doing. Joking. She did it with all her other friends, but with Josh it was a new experience. And even now he still pulled off his half-expressions that made her wonder about his seriousness. But she hadn't minded the lack of humor or anything like that. Some people were just generally serious, like Josh. That wasn't a bad thing. She could deal with anything in the vein of aloofness or stoic behavior, even though she herself always liked to have fun. "I guess everyone has their eccentricities. Makes people interesting, methinks." She laughed at her finishing word, thinking of Josh's quirks that she'd come to recognize. His OCD tendencies his love for his cats, his almost religious study habits--it's things like those that made her so drawn to people, made her want to interact with others. If everyone was the same, she didn't think she'd be a people person like she had turned out to be.
Nell was pretty surprised by his enthusiasm when she created the flower, especially since to her it was more like a little trick, like what she did with her cards. It actually made her blush a bit as she blinked, trying to determine whether or not he was serious, since his demeanor was throwing her off a bit. But because this was Josh, she took him for being as serious as he usually was. She grinned. "Thanks." Taking a second to pick out another picture and burn it, she went on. "There's still a lot to learn though, and I think that's the exciting part." Always discovering new paths and destinations was her thing. Nell could related to the Fire graduate in that respect--learning was a nice experience. "It really is fun, starting to experiment a bit." Though she never too it too far. Tree roots still frightened her quite a bit, and she was still trying to figure out what her style would be like when she graduated from high school. That's why Nell decided she'd enter college--Josh had told her that there she could learn to develop her own way of doing things, and plus, she wanted to get stronger. No more mistakes then.
The show of fire practically made her heart stop as she gazed with her eyes wide and pleased. It was absurdly thrilling watching him form the cocoon and then metamorphosing into a butterfly. It was amazing enough that Nell could only utter a breathy, "Whoa." And he shocked her further with the mention of his mother. She never heard him talk about her...well, at all, so this little thing was actually impressive. She wore a crooked smile. "Kind of makes me want to be a Fire elemental." She was half-joking--though she was impressed with the display, she loved her element too much to consider ever being anything different. Josh was probably the same way, as was everyone in the Academy. But one never knew--there could be a person out there who just didn't like their element. But it was pretty inconceivable for Nell. "It's nice that we can see real butterflies now. They're flitting around all the flowers that are starting to bloom." Of course, she probably sounded like a total hippie, but Josh probably understood Earth students by now, especially since he spent so much time around them during the war. Though it was disheartening to think of, considering the fact that Nell couldn't have a garden outside. She was thinking of perhaps buying a house, but for a girl who lived with one cat it was a bit too much, even though she could plant flowers and see all the butterflies around.
Nell didn't really mind Josh looking at these pictures. For one, she asked him to help her out, it would be pretty impossible for him not to look. Another thing, it was difficult to tell that these memories were bad. He wouldn't be able to see her history behind the smiles and the hugs. Even if he picked out the bruises, that wouldn't be enough. Even if he noticed that one of the twin girls stood further away from their mother as opposed to the other, he wouldn't be able to tell the story. Pictures say a thousand words, but most of them were invisible to outsiders. It made Nell rest easier knowing that he wouldn't be able to pick out anything not normal, and even if he did she had a feeling that he wouldn't ask. He never asked.
Again there was another surprise when Josh told her spring was his favorite season--with every other word he managed to give her a shock. "Spring is by far the best season," she agreed enthusiastically, thoughts now away from the pictures and imagining one of her greatest fantasies--a huge field full of tulips of different colors. It filled her stomach with such a good feeling just thinking about it, probably something that Josh wasn't able to relate to. She was pretty sure a lot of her leanings toward nature was because of her element. But that may not have been a complete truth. If Josh enjoyed the season so much then who knew what other things a Fire element may enjoy outside of their element. Though she couldn't really imagine him gardening. "I guess anyone can like the season, even if you're Fire or Thunder or what have you. It's the world coming back to life. I can't think of anything bad about spring." It was temperate and warm and a middle ground between the extremes that are winter and summer. She had an idea with his comment, her mind coming back round to gardening. "You know, since there's a lot of wilderness around, I can probably find a good place to make a garden nearby. Even if it's not near my apartment, it would still be nice." Thinking of this actually made her pretty damn gleeful, considering now that she could hunt down a good place to plant her tulips. "Do you have a garden?" she asked, now going back to her pictures and still giving him her full attention. That was one thing about Nell--even when it seemed like she was being flighty or ignoring you, she still was all ears. "Or am I just being a complete hippie in going on about all these flowers and boring you?" She wondered how much he could relate to something like planting a garden.
He returned back to standard Josh behavior she was used to with the mention of anyone vandalizing his possessions. She sighed, feeling truly bad about what Josh must have returned to. She figured the Fire students would do something like that, which brought her to ask. The spike that denoted his anger made her tense a bit for the fact that she was always discomforted and felt a bit of drain with it. "Everything about the war was childish," she said. And she supported being childish in some aspects--like her enjoyment in building a snowman or going to a playground. That was different. That wasn't screwing around with other people's possessions. He told her of how some of his books were vandalized, and she softly said, "That's terrible." Even though he brushed it off, it still wasn't fair. At all. Actually, it was just...ridiculous. Nell could understand his anger with that. She watched as he shook his head and smiled a bit. She wanted to apologize for all he'd been through--and she was pretty sure she had before, but she kept silent, thinking she'd just be annoying him. Nell was simply glad for the lack of admonishment when she admitted her truancy. "Perhaps. I still feel like a bad student though. Hopefully my professors won't be too upset with me." Nell was as good a student as possible, and always wanted to do good by others, including her teachers. She was sure they would understand, though, hopefully even be a bit lenient with make-up work since more stress was the last thing she needed.
Nell's smile formed into a frown for a moment with the thought of her new phone. She was truly concerned about what her father was doing behind her back, not being able to forget that he'd called her aunt and that she may or may not be coming up to "civilly" converse with Nell. Nodding, she took out the phone from her back pocket and tossed it to Josh, not caring if he didn't catch it and it accidentally broke. "It's a new number. Unfortunately, I had to go around and find everyone that had my old number and tell them that it changed." Her expression still pensive, she struck the lighter up and burned another picture. "Just a warning, I may just have to ask you to get rid of this one too some time. I'm sure my phone problems won't just go away." Even though he didn't understand what those phone problems were, she felt she should tell him about the chance of another necessity to throw out a phone. Right now, she really wanted to chuck this one down into the lake and get a new phone herself with a new number and not tell her father. But alas, she had been too slow this time and didn't think her father would be that clever.
She quickly recovered from her lapse in cheer with the mention of his cat. "True to her name, I guess. Eris is the goddess of discord and strife, right? Did you name her before you even realized what she was like?" He probably noticed her behavior and named her because of it. Nell was luckily learning about certain things that others would usually know, such as information regarding Greek mythology. She made sure to gloss over certain basics, such as reading children's books like Charlotte's Web and the such before moving onto pop-culture readings like Harry Potter. All so she could assimilate and wouldn't feel so ignorant when these things came up in conversation. She giggled when Josh spoke of Picasso. "Well, I see the kittens are taking after their owners then." Though Pablo caused a lot more trouble than Nell, the had the same energy and rambunctiousness. And when he mentioned two of his other cats, she asked after them too. "How are the other three doing?" She actually remembered the three of them and their separate personalities, especially Apache who had taken a liken to her.
Now Nell was faced with a bit of a dilemma. What do you get a guy who probably had a lot of possessions considering his father was a doctor? What didn’t he have? This is where knowing so little about someone got in the way. Well…she knew he liked studying and cats and his little sister. Books. That seemed like a good idea. But it'd have to be a lot of books. Like a wheelbarrow full of books. But she also wanted to give him something thoughtful to show that she had put some consideration into it. No pressure at all!" she said enthusiastically, grinning wide. "I love giving people gifts! And I'll definitely make sure it's a surprise!" As she continued to go through gift ideas in her head, her mind always returning to the idea of books, she stalled. "Wait, wait. Is this going to be a formal deal? Like a black tie affair?" Birthday celebrations were one of the many things she wasn't used to and since she figured that his family was well off it was a great possibility. It didn't make a difference to her though--Josh had invited her and so she would accompany him. "Jeez, you're old." She said. Even though certain papers said that she was nineteen, it was of course not true. "You're like a flower, being born in spring! ...You should totally disregard that statement." God, she was terrible with these jokes today. At least it wasn't a pun for once.
Nell was a bit worried about Josh saying they were the ones who needed to forgiveness, because she just wanted it all to drop. She’d be lying if she said she couldn’t hold a grudge. In general, it was a truth—but the exception would be her father. But still...she didn't want this to become a problem for Josh. "I've forgiven them," she said quietly, looking over at him and then bending for another picture. "I...life's already difficult enough for me without holding grudges." Besides, this was how she always did things. Forget and ignore them. "And I don't want something to happen to you because you hold one for your affiliation." Nell didn't want to think about the war anymore. She had too much on her plate, which is why it seemed that she so easily overlooked the attacks against her. When he said that she didn't annoy him, she was quite surprised. But her smile grew as she said, "That's because you don't annoy me, either." Though it was basically impossible to annoy her. She was busy focusing on Joshua and forgot that she was in the process of burning a picture, so when the flame met her thumb she jumped, letting it go. "Holy Mary, mother of Marcello." She successfully avoided Spanish curses, which was a good thing. As she shook her hand out, she said, "Good thing we're almost done." She looked down at some black marks on her hands and her gut twisted a bit, thinking of the day Tilly died.
---you hold my arms down i've been bad |
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Post by JOSHUA DONOVAN DALE on Jul 26, 2011 9:29:49 GMT -5
[Our word counts are honestly starting to scare me xD Honestly, go ahead and disregard entire paragraphs of this post if you'd like them to drop certain things. I won't mind. At all. It'd probably help. -pokes post in fear- o.o]
------- OFF IN THE NIGHT ,___________W H I L E_ Y O U_ L I V E_ I T_ U P_ I ' M_ O F F_ T O_ S L E E P* WAGING WARS ,__________________T O_ S H A K E_ T H E_ P O E T_ A N D_ T H E_ B E A T Joshua didn't answer immediately, thinking. While it was true that he was uncomfortable with sharing, there was a sort of a trust being established with Nell. Instead of shooting her down immediately, he gave pause and then actually dipped his head. "I have, a few times," he confessed. His tone was honest. "When there are things that you want to get rid of and fire at your fingertips, why not?" His lips twitched again, but this 'smile' was more sombre than the last, more serious. For he had taken her question seriously--even though he joked around sometimes, Joshua was capable of being level headed. "So you'll get no judgement from me about disposing of things in this way." He held up one of the burning pictures as clarification. What had he burned, you ask? Well, he had definitely torched the phone that the gang had managed to reach him on. He'd tossed it into the fire and used his elemental gift to keep it burning hot and bright until the offending piece of technology was no more. And there had been smaller things, too. Photos, notes, souvenirs from his past that he had not wanted to hold onto. Yet he'd kept the pocket knife. It was purely psychological, but in thinking of the knife he swore he could feel his scars ache and the weight of it resting in his pocket like never before. Sometimes getting rid of such things was a healing process, but he couldn't bring himself to part with that knife.
He nodded as Nell explained her reasoning to him, deciding that it made sense. After all, not everyone was afraid of heights--Joshua certainly wasn't, else he wouldn't have been stupid enough to come up here. "Smoke alarms are a pain," he recalled. "The one in my apartment would go off for the most ridiculous of reasons." He'd be taking a shower and suddenly the alarm would start wailing incessantly, attacking his eardrums and probably catching the unwanted attention of his neighbours. At the mansion, with its high security and high-class systems, the smoke detectors were a part of the alarm system. They were placed strategically so that it was less likely to go off when someone did something as innocent as showering--a good thing, considering what a bother it would be to disable the home security system every time you needed to get clean. "Is there anything you are afraid of?" He was joking, and he added, "Heights don't scare you, but what about spiders? Claustrophobia? Roller coasters?" A bit of a smile played on his lips. "Just messing with you. It's good that you're not afraid of heights, actually." Fear wasn't a good thing. He had never liked his hydrophobia and actually somewhat envied those that could fearlessly enter the water.
He chuckled when she mentioned finding swimming Fire elementals odd--it was humourless, but that was nothing new. Normally humour was undetectable in his tone because of his serious demeanour, so the fact that this assosiated itself with his fear was not obvious. He hated water and doubted that he could ever overcome his hydrophobia, he wouldn't even consider trying to work through it. It was not as strong as that of some--he didn't panic when he had to take a shower, he was fine with rain, and the simple sight of water didn't bother him if it was from a distance. But the idea of going into the lake or getting too close to it made him very ill, and the time his father had convinced him to go out on the boat had been disastrous. His parents had suggested a therapist to try and help him work around it, to which Josh had flat-out refused. He would acknowledge the problem, but he couldn't bring himself to acknowledge the need for professional help. "It's mostly a stereotype, I suppose," he shrugged, as if his mind was not violently protesting any thoughts of swimming or drowning. "I just never really learned to swim, and it's not like I'm going to start so late when I've got no need to." He wanted to be a doctor, and doctors didn't need to swim. "Unreliable indeed," Josh agreed on the subject of lifeguards. "Unless you worked at an indoor pool or something, but even then... eh, it's just not for me." He wanted something that could provide the wealth and stability his parents had given him throughout his life. Donovan had informed him that he was the heir to a very large fortune--he would not name the exact amount--and that Joshua and even future generations could live comfortably and never work a day in their life, but it had not been how he was raised. Donovan had taught his son that being rich didn't mean that you had to sit around on your ass all day, only that you could afford to do so if you wanted. It was a comfortable place to be, and that was what Joshua wanted--to know that if he had to stop working for whatever reason, that it would not be the end of the world.
Nell was usually so smiley and cheerful compared to Joshua, and maybe that was something he liked about her--respected, even. It was such an effort for him to play pretend around people all the time that he usually reserved his charming side for parties and social events where his parents demanded he impress their friends. But someone like the gentle Earth elemental seemed to be smiling all the time, attempting to cheer others up even when she was unhappy. He almost envied her the ability. How was she so kind to everyone? He didn't think he'd ever understand, let alone come to terms with the fact that she was nice to him. Of all people, he didn't feel he deserved a second chance. He couldn't remember it--he hadn't lied about that--but he had apparently threatened her life when they'd met. It was a low point for him, so much that thinking of it made him feel sick to his stomach. So he tried not to dwell on things like that. "I suppose you're right," he agreed, nodding. "Sometimes dramatics are a good thing." After all, his lifestyle was full of them. A mansion, a sports car, enough money to live the high life for the rest of his life. Those were nice dramatics. But things like the war were overdramatics, and of the worst kind, too.
Leaning against the cliff for a moment and holding a picture in his hand, he said sincerely, "You know, we should study together sometime. Not for school, or anything like that. But I'd like to see what you can do." He was honestly intrigued by Nell and the extent of her Earthen powers. He'd watched Earth elementals perform little tricks for classes and the like, but he'd never had an honest friend in one before. Perhaps it was solely because of Nell's patience and even bravery that she'd stuck around. She seemed frail and delicate on the surface, but when he looked back he realised that she had every right to be terrified of him. He was a Fire elemental, to which her kind had natural aversion, he was stoic, and what was worst: he had threatened her life. How did she know that he wouldn't get drunk some time and do it again? She didn't. Hell, she'd even hung around him when he was drunk. He remembered a fair bit of that night, though not enough to be embarrassed by his flamboyant actions. He recalled drinking, poker, and video games. The memories were not negative ones, but looking back he was shocked at her composure. Why did she trust me? Sometimes I don't even trust myself. He knew a moment of respect for the girl, and then he was moving on. "You'll love college, then. It's all about experimenting and increasing your stamina." He was building up an impressive amount of the latter, now that he was a good way into his second year. He enjoyed elemental college, but he also took some of the online classes to further his skill in the real world.
Joshua smiled at Nell's enthusiasm about spring--he supposed it made sense, considering her element, but it really was nice to have someone that shared his own liking of the vibrant, life-filled months. Most of the Fire elementals preferred summer, and he didn't know that many Thunder elementals when he concentrated on it. He had known Cynthia, but it had been a strained friendship built on little communication and an intimate occurrence. Thinking back to these times he'd spent with women he barely knew, it made Joshua feel self-conscious and strange. He never focused on it at the time, but it was really demeaning to think that he'd only ever be able to spend time with girls that were likely as interested in sex as he was. Hollow, even. Again, mind over matter. He shoved the negative thought from his mind--curse my train of thought--and kept his attention on Nell. "That's a great idea," he said with an encouraging nod, seeing as she seemed cheerful about it. He always liked to see his friends in high spirits, so he'd fuel their ambitions if it made them happy. "There isn't much greenery downtown, though--would you find somewhere close to the school? I know that plants need a lot of sun if you want them to stay alive, so a forest isn't your best bet..." His tone was thoughtful, honestly pondering this. Even if he didn't get excited over gardening as much as Nell did, he was capable of involving himself in something for reasons other than personal gain. He usually opted not to, but it was the thought that counted. And right now he was being genuine. "What sort of things would you plant in it?" She seemed to enjoy talking about flowers and gardens and everything of the sort, so why not entertain the subject some more?
He shook his head at her question, but still managed a smile. It was a little more of a smile than his usual, as he thought of his mother when she brought up the subject. He may not have paid as much apt attention to Patricia's words as he did his father's, but he still considered himself as being close to his mother. The woman had done a lot for him in her lifetime, after all. "My mother does," he said, remembering the tall flowers and elegant statues. The fountain in the centre was his favourite, and she'd even gotten a couple benches so that one could sit out and enjoy the garden whilst reading a book or eating a sandwich. He liked spending time in the garden. It smelled like home to him, and the company of the plants his mother had so lovingly raised was hardly rejected when he was involved in his studies. "It's not boring," he promised, light amusement kindling in the depths of his gray gaze. He was entertained by the mere fact that she thought she might be boring him. He hardly ever had company like this, she could probably go on about nothing at all and he'd still be listening to her. "I could show you around when you come over," he offered, "my mother won't mind. Hell, I reckon she'll even like to tag along and explain each and every species that grows in it. Which is a lot, mind you. It's quite a generous garden. I remember it growing up, so she's had it for a while I'd think." It was remarkable how easily the words were starting to flow from his lips now, admitting things about himself and his upbringing and hardly getting so much as a twist in his gut. Trust, this must have been what it felt like. It wasn't an unwelcome feeling. Though this might not have seemed so personal to someone else, it was a big deal to a guy like Joshua--hell, he'd once had qualms about his diet choices being made known.
Childish. It was a word he couldn't often associate with himself, in any aspect. Even as a literal child, he hadn't entertained a lot of the usual habits and haunts of youth. When most children would be doodling on the walls with markers, he'd be admonished severely for even thinking about things like that, so he'd stayed quiet and just observed his family. He'd learned to read quite young, and even as a kid he'd enjoyed it. The fact that it had come so naturally to the child had made him proud, specifically when he grew older and his teachers would compliment the Dale's on their choices in raising him. Because when they complimented his mother and father, he got the satisfaction of hearing it bragged about to friends. Despite all this, he hadn't often went to parks and playgrounds. He hadn't gone through a phase of wearing saucepan helmets and conquering dragons with a wooden spoon. He had watched Annabel go through such things and had taken her to the parks and playgrounds on which he had missed out, but it hadn't been his sort of thing. As for petty things like the war, well... "I hope they realise how stupid they look, in hindsight." It made his stomach curl. "And if your professors admonish you for slacking when an entire school was out to kill you, then they're more idiotic than the students." There was a hint of fierceness in his tone, a suggestion that he was greatly opposed to the idea of the teachers being out to get her. It was true that several of the professors were unsympathetic and childish on that front, but it angered him to think of them treating Nell badly.
He didn't so much as bat a lash as he said, "The minute you want rid of it, give me a call." He entered his number into her phone and gave a bit of an amused smirk as he handed it back, though he was being completely serious at the same time; it was obvious given the hard edge to his expression. Even though it was a waste of money to break, waterlog, or burn technology... he understood that sometimes it had to be done. He doubted that Nell was on the run from a gang that was trying to kill her, but even if their circumstances were different the results were the same: if she needed help, Joshua would give it without hesitation. "I don't have my phone on me, unfortunately. Left it charging at home, but I'll save your number if you call later." He had a relatively good memory, but he doubted he could retain a ten digit number for several hours until he got home and had access to the cellphone once again. Speaking of his phone, he had to pay the bill before his father got onto him about it. He used to be terrible at remembering bills, but being forced to live on his own had somewhat forced him into bettering his memory of such normal requirements.
A nod confirmed her question. "Yes, that's right. I needed a name and the first thing she did after she'd ate her fill was claw my couch. I figured it'd go well." The kitten had been thin and scraggly when he'd first taken her in, yet she'd paraded about proud like she'd owned the place already. Joshua hadn't the heart to get rid of her, so suddenly they'd had three cats to share a home with. Now it was four. He remembered Donovan's comment on their house not being an animal shelter, and his lips twitched. Well, it was certainly large enough to hold all the animals and then some. She asked after his cats and sounded genuine, which just made him feel even better about the fact she was a good person. "They're all good, though it took them a moment to readjust to the extra space," he chuckled. "My parents don't live in an apartment, after all." He'd never said that it was a mansion, though it was not purposefully withheld. He was just so used to saying 'my house' rather than 'my parents mansion', considering the latter usually made people assume he was some stuck up and egotistical rich kid. He hated such stereotypes and usually did his best to avoid them.
The question on formality made him stall for a moment. Indeed, the birthday dinner tended to be very formal and flashy--any excuse for his parents to throw an extravagant party was one not wasted. Trish got angry with Donovan for paying full price on things like the yacht and the cars, but she loved celebrations and usually helped her husband whole-heartedly when it came to parties. At the same time, he didn't want Nell to feel intimidated. But wouldn't it be better to warn her? "Well, you can dress up if you want," he decided at last, flashing a smile. "There's not too much pressure, though." He was thinking of how she lived downtown and probably didn't have the money to go over the top like most of the women who showed up to those fancy affairs usually did. Of course, Josh didn't know about her father and his fortune and the massive amounts she was determined to spend. He was actually, inadvertently, giving her an excuse to spend more. Her joke managed to coax a laugh out of him. "Good one," he complimented.
"I don't?" It surprised him, not accustomed to the fact that someone could tolerate him with as much ease as she. After all, too many of his friendships had crashed and burned--such as the one with Harley. This war had been too much for the thin basis they'd held their friendship on, and the cord connecting the two had been cruelly severed. He hadn't spoken to her since their argument and given how stubborn Joshua was, he didn't plan to. But he managed to smile, relieved that he didn't irk Nell as much as he did many others. "Well... thank you," he said, the smile lingering for a moment before it disappeared behind his normal and default mask of neutrality. Then Nell was burning herself, however, and Josh winced in sympathy. "That looks like it hurt," he said, brows knitting together as his features slipped into a frown. "May I see it? I might be able to help." After all, it was fire. Joshua had an affinity for fire and as long as a burn wasn't too severe--which this was not--he believed he could cure it. Or at least ease the pain, which was better than nothing.
I COULD USE SOMEBODY ,
_______________S O M E O N E_ L I K E_ Y O U_ &_ A L L _Y O U_ K N O W
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Post by NELL DOE DALE on Jul 26, 2011 16:38:44 GMT -5
[/color] for the love of god)[/font][/div][/center]
Josh blatantly admitted to burning a few things in his past, and because he didn’t specify exactly what they were, she didn’t ask. It was simply reassuring to know she wasn’t the only one who had these ideas and carried them out, and she supposed the best person to relate to was a Fire elemental. A temperamental Fire elemental no less. She wouldn’t be too surprised if she found out he burned things often. He certainly had no qualms with helping her burn pictures, didn’t even ask if someone would miss these pictures or anything. Her father had given her what must have been all of them, except the ones he has out around the mansion. She’d like to take those and burn them too. Who was he trying to impress, exactly? Why would he have pictures of a family he abandoned around his house so that when guests visited they wondered how come he was living alone?
Nell laughed pretty hard, since she could relate. ”It must be a thing with apartments, I’m telling you! Unfortunately, whenever get hungry at one in the morning and try to make something on the stove, you can guarantee nine times out of ten the alarm will go off. I’m sure my neighbors enjoy that.” Well, they probably thought it to be revenge, maybe realizing she could hear everything they were doing through the thin walls. Everything. The couple were still going through the honeymoon phase, and she’d actually talked with them a few times as she was friendly with everyone in her apartment building even though quite a few of them weren’t in return. And it was unimaginable uncomfortable talking with a couple after hearing their intimacy and knowing that they knew you knew…It was just incredibly awkward. More so than a sensitive smoke alarm. Now she was decently assured of his joking demeanor, she tapped her chin as if thinking about it real hard. ”Claustrophobia sounds like me, yeah.” She finished this with a nod, as if deciding it was perfectly right. And there was definitely truth in it—she did not like enclosed spaces and couldn’t stay in one room for too long, especially if it was small. And she absolutely did not like doors being locked from the outside.
Still completely oblivious to the fact that Josh had a major case of hydrophobia, she simply nodded at him. All she really had were stereotypes for everything. It wasn’t like she’d experienced much of the elemental world in her lifetime, so that was to be expected. ”I remember, you want to be a doctor.” Yes, she remembered the time where he actually admitted something about himself no matter how awkward it had been. Nell thought it to be completely admirable of him, even though his reasoning may not have been completely admirable. It didn’t matter. Ambition was usually a good thing either way, and something else she admired. Well, as long as that ambition didn’t become like her family’s drive, where manipulation, bribes, and illegality became an issue.
He actually wanted to see her display her powers? That…what? Nell didn’t really know why it shocked her so much. Maybe because it was Josh and he was usually so stoic, or maybe it was because she never had anyone ask that before. It was probably a mixture of both. ”That would be interesting, actually, especially now that it’s spring. You said that warmer weather is good for Fire too, right? Then we can have a…contest of sorts.” Nell giggled, not being serious about any sort of contest. After all, he was a sophomore in college and there was no way she could compare. And besides, she didn’t want it to be a competition. And whether he believed her or not, she didn’t mind his company. In the beginning it took some effort to even communicate with him, but that didn’t mean she would avoid him. Even though it probably did mean she should have avoided him considering he threatened her before. Thinking back, even being with him when he was drunk the second time was a pretty stupid decision. But nothing bad had happened, and she actually trusted Josh. Plus, now she would know better than to try to help him when he was drunk like he had been that night.
She was seriously considering a good place to plant a garden, since he was right about the forest unless she found a clearing. ”There has to be somewhere around the Academy that would be untouched by others… I guess I’ll have to scout for a location.” Nell wouldn’t want her plants to be trampled, and so she’d probably have to build a fence and all that. But it would be worth it. Her apartment was full enough with plants already, and they weren’t really getting much sunlight. Even though her powers acted as steroids, it still wasn’t enough, especially since Pablo also liked to target the flowers with his claws. When he asked her about what she would like to plant, she was more than happy to fill him in. ”Lots and lots of tulips! Have you ever seen a field full of them? I’ve only seen pictures, but they are so beautiful and pretty! Of course, there would be other flowers—irises maybe, and I like hydrangeas too. Oh, I could even try to grow vegetables and eat from the land! That sounds so cool, don’t you think!” Her excitement only grew when considering the option of food and by now her pictures were completely forgotten for a moment as she looked off, imagining what the end product would look like.
”Your mother’s a fire elemental too, right?” she asked, assuming simply because he had said before that his entire family was full of Fires. It was quite impressive that the woman enjoyed gardening, then, though she supposed it might have been a mother thing. Although her own mother never did so, but most likely because she lived in the city and she hated to go outside anyway. The woman was such a hermit she rarely even saw sunlight, and since thoughts of these things gave her a pain in her stomach, she shifted her mind back to Josh’s mother and what her garden must look like. ”I would love that!” Of course she would, it was a goddamn garden. ”I could get a few tips from her, actually. Even though I’m Earth, I’ve never had a garden before and I’m not too sure on how to go about it.” Her garden had been a flower bed hanging from her window where she bloomed the tiniest blue flowers when she first discovered her powers.
She was surprised about Josh’s amount of animosity, but simply nodded at his words. She just wanted to forget about it. About the whole ordeal and the childish rashness of it, about the fact that she had half the school after her. Right now, she simply needed to focus on catching up on what she missed and working harder than ever. Which also meant burying her other personal problems once again. Nell’s life had truly become a mess, but she was keeping it together quite well after the episode that Josh witnessed. She was surprised that he even wanted to deal with her after that, after seeing how emotional she had gotten. How did he not know she was always like that? Did he have so much faith in her that he merely assumed that she was well-adjusted? In her opinion, Josh had too much faith to the point where he didn’t even doubt that she wasn’t a murderer. He just didn’t know.
Nell’s lips flickered into a grin at his words, successfully erasing the previous thoughtfulness in her expression. It was amazing how easily peeved she could when usually it took a helluva lot to even get her to bat an eyelash. One of the only times she had grown frustrated with anyone was when Josh was drunk the first time. And though there should have been more fear than that, it was frustration at his stubbornness that she’d felt. However, when it came to her father, every innocuous statement upset her to the point she didn’t even know what to do with the anger. Except throw her phone. She nodded as she took the phone back. ”Sounds good,” she remarked simply, now unable to tear her thoughts away from her father. Stupid man, why did he have to come back into her life and act like he could do whatever he wanted? He was basically taking control, and it reminded her so much of her mother and there were so many deep-rooted psychological issues that she couldn’t get into it as she stood on the cliffs and held a picture on her hand.
She giggled at the tale about the cat who was a bit of a terror. Though it was obvious Josh loved her greatly. ”I’m sure they enjoy the extra space. I still feel kind of bad about keeping Pablo in my studio apartment, even though he doesn’t seem to be too bothered by it. They find the most amazing places to hide. Well, the fact that my apartment has basically become a jungle helps.” Nell was pretty sure the kitten enjoyed that part, but he also found sport in jumping off high places and landing on her head, giving her a heart attack. And there was also the fact he managed to squirm his way under a freaking couch, which was pretty much beyond her. But she had grown to love Pablo so quickly, and was not one for discipline, luckily for the cat.
He said there was no pressure to dress up, but she assumed that she couldn’t go in a t-shirt in jeans. Nell smiled thinking about how much money she could spend on Josh’s birthday. But more than bitterness toward her father, there was actual joy in celebration of the event. Nell wondered what he would think of her if he knew that her family was decently rich and she was feeding off her single father’s wealth. Probably think she was a horrible person, which is why she wasn’t telling him why money wasn’t a problem. It actually mattered to her what he thought, and she didn’t want Josh to think of her as some selfish daddy’s girl who’s taking advantage of a poor man. She rolled her eyes, and shook her head when he complimented the worst joke possibly ever told in the history of the universe. ”Oh please.”
He seemed skeptical about the fact that she didn't find him annoying, and it made her laugh. ”’Course not,” she said, as if it was the most obvious thing. Of course, he had temper problems, was difficult to hold a conversation with, and was very close to injuring her once but luckily for him she wasn’t easily fazed. Though it was probably more naiveté than bravery. But really, he’d proven to her over and over that he was actually a good guy that it was hard at times to think badly of him. He’d taken her side when his affiliation accused her of murder, and that was probably the greatest show of faith she’d even known. Plus, how can a guy who loved his baby sister and cats so much be too bad? Yeah, mostly naivete. Still, after the things he'd done for her, how could she possibly find him annoying? Sticking her thumb in her mouth, she grinned. ”It’s a little burn, I can handle it.” She just needed to make sure to be more prudent when burning the remaining pictures that were steadily waning.
---you hold my arms down i've been bad |
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