Room 323 [Tuesday, After Classes]

[comeoutwrong]

This was just exactly the reason that Effy avoided phone calls home, (except for the ones to Tony) like the plague. Couldn't manage one sodding five minute conversation without going off on one about something.



... "Now Elizabeth, it's important for you to remember, your mother and I still love each other--" Like she was five. Seriously.

"No, we don't." Her mother's quieter offering from the background.

"... No, that's right. We don't." At least they were being honest, right? Effy shook her head, even if they couldn't see that.

"And that's why you're leaving."

"That's why I'm leaving. That's why I am fucking out of here, woman." Ah, there was the yelling and swearing. Right on cue. They didn't even need her for this. "I am on a fucking plane, you're dead right.... So little imagination you have to shag my fucking boss. Could've fucked the turd from Tesco, but no--"

Didn't take much of that back and forth before Effy deliberately hung up and threw her phone down onto her bed and cranked up some music in the hope that might drown out her thoughts. Ten quid said it took them a good twenty minutes to even notice she wasn't on the line anymore.

Just when she thought she was four thousand miles away and they couldn't keep fucking with her emotions. Just fantastic.

[[NFB on the contents of the parental conversation, which once again was taken with some modification from Skins 3x05, because I can't just let her be yet. Door's cracked, and the post can be open, sure, if someone actually wants to deal with her emo.]]

Comments

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"Don't act like you don't like it," he said idly, finally pushing towards her bed and sitting next to her. "What's the deal here, Effy? I don't think this is some random off day. Your phone break or something? Get a text message from a secret lover? Lose badly at Tetris?"

[i sleeeeeeeeep!]

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, being shit at Tetris really cuts me deep." Or not. Effy sighed, a little frustrated, and shook her head. "Just your average call home. Always a picnic."

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"Ah." Hey, phone calls home tended to make him moody too. He should have guessed that. "Not to your brother, I assume. What'd your parents say?"

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

"To me?" Effy shrugged. "Not much. Got bored and hung up somewhere between dad saying he was leaving, and the yelling about sending each other's shit to 'cunting Oxfam'."

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

Nice. Good to know that parents still liked to stick kids in the middle of shit to this day. Stupid.

"What a pleasant conversation that sounds like," he said sourly, shaking his head. After a moment's silence, he asked, "You all right?"

Didn't really expect an honest answer but it was one of those questions that just had to be asked for the most part. It was mandated somewhere.

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

"Will be," she answered simply, forcing herself to stop fidgeting and slide her phone onto her bedside table. "Not like it's anything new."

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"It's not like it's anything you should have to deal with either," he retorted, glancing at her from the corner of his eyes. "So saying you will be okay is telling me, right now, you're not."

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

Effy looked back over at him, and considered trying to backtrack. In the end, decided it was far too much effort, and he'd only call her out on it anyway.

"Not perfect, no." Which was as close to that admission as he'd get. Not 'not okay', just not quite right. "I'll get over it." Or at the very least, put it right to the back of her mind where it didn't get to her nearly as much.

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"It's cute that you think so but no, you probably won't," he said and shook his head. "Get past it? Sure. Get over it, really? No. What's going on in your head? You pissed? Or upset?"

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

Effy dragged her eyes away from him again and down to the bed, and firmly kept her mouth shut. Not talking had been so much easier when she just didn't. Now she had to concentrate on it, and not letting too much show.

Be a hell of a lot easier if she was just angry at them. Didn't mind seeming pissy as much as she did seeming like it really got to her.

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"Aww, decided on the silent treatment, did you?" He laughed humorlessly and looked away. Could've predicted that one, really. "Fine, wanna hear about my day?"

He didn't even wait for an answer and, when he spoke, his tone had become flippant and sarcastic.

"I got to write dirty poetry in class," he started, sounding amused too. "And then a girl I know, a goddamn telepath, challenged me to a game of seeing who could make the other blush first via mental dirty images. So she stuck a whole bunch of shit in my head and I did the same thing and I ended up winning. Awesome, right? Got myself a free night at the bar."

He didn't really know what he was doing but it was this or just leaving and his feet hadn't gotten started towards the door yet.

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

"Dumb idea to challenge you to a dirty-off," Effy remarked. Even she could admit that. May not seem it, but getting the topic of their conversation off her issues and onto the more mundane stuff was a relief.

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"That's what I told her," he said and shrugged. "She didn't listen. She should've known though. I've shown her and told her how dirty I can be. She took it up anyway. Nobody believes me when I tell them I'm good. Always gotta prove the shit."

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

"You say something like that," Effy said, looking over at him, "people are always going to want to see the proof. Natural curiosity."

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"Maybe," he said, catching her glance and shrugging. "She got her proof. I won, free night at the bar, whoo hoo. You ever get curious?"

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

"Depends," she answered. "More likely to get curious about some things, than others."

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"Fair answer," he said and shrugged his shoulders. "So, tell me, what are you curious about? Let's hear it."

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

"Lot of things," Effy said. "This place, people, sometimes even you." Wasn't like he was full of the sharing. They were rather similar like that.

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"Me?" The people and place he could get but curiosity about him was rather new. "Why?"

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

"There's a lot you don't say," she said simply. Which for someone who actually did talk a fair amount, it was noticeable to her when he suddenly got cryptic on certain things.

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"And here I thought I said plenty," he said, shrugging a little slowly. "You're curious about what I'm not saying? Why?"

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

"Because you're not saying it." Or, not saying it outright, at least. It was knowing there was something there, and having some idea that did it.

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"And you never ask," he said, having a feeling at what she was hinting at. "I'm not going to do all the damn work for you. You wanna know, you fucking ask. Don't expect me to lay it out on a red carpet for you."

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

"I don't think you really want me to ask," she said. There was a reason he kept it to himself, after all.

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

Alex could already feel that tension creeping up his neck and across his shoulders and he tried to shake it out and off.

"I doubt you wanted me ask about your shit either," he pointed out, trying to turn it back on her. "I did anyway and you were more than willing to share. What's that mean? Were you just waiting for someone to ask?"