Room 323 [Tuesday, Evening]

[comeoutwrong]

Looked like it was threatening rain outside, so Effy was staying in for once. Every girl needed a night off sometimes, even if they were few and far between for this one. She'd been out and got things done during the day, and to her, that should count for something.

So between the odd text to Tony (whose evening was going far more interestingly than hers), she was flopped back on the bed, holding the book she was reading up over her. She'd even got into it enough her hot chocolate had gone cold. That was actually kind of rare.

[[Door is cracked, but the post can be open!]]

Comments

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"I'm not on the same level as your parents," he said, tightening his grip on her foot and tugging lazily. She was just lucky he wasn't tickling her or anything. "I wouldn't think that about you if you started calling me Alexander."

Mostly because his mother used Alex and his father...just didn't give a damn.

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

"So, what if I did?" Now she was a little curious. Not about to start, simply because it felt weird and formal to her, but she had to wonder.

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

Shrugging, Alex said, "You want to use my stupid full name, whatever. Not like I could stop you. But it probably wouldn't sound as good in some of those tones of yours I've heard before."

He tugged on her foot again, lightly, after saying that and smirked smugly.

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

"Didn't know you were such a big fan." Effy could be smug in her own way about that. If it bore mentioning like that, it was something.

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"Please, it's not like I make it a big secret," he replied, shaking his head and playing it off as something superficial. "It's hot, you know that. This is not earth shattering news."

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

"Not like you go around saying it all the time either." Maybe it wasn't earth shattering, but it was news. Something to remember.

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"I wasn't really aware you kept track," he replied, sitting up some and releasing his grip on her foot while he did. "How do you know I don't go around talking about it? Maybe I don't talk about it to you."

No, he rarely talked about things like emotions and the messes that his relationships were with anyone. Compliments tended to fall in there since he rarely gave them sincerely.

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

"Sounds awfully sharey." Something that she knew for damn sure Alex was not. "Wouldn't have thought that was very you."

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"And I wouldn't have thought keeping track was very you," he threw back. "But it sounds like you are."

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

"Got quite a good memory." Surprising, considering the amount of drugs she'd done in her relatively short life. Apparently so far none of them had done any permanent damage. "Especially for compliments."

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"Apparently so," he said, brushing fingers through his hair and shrugging. "Complimented you before. You shouldn't be surprised that I think of you that way."

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

That was true, even if they were few and far between, and she nodded slightly. Whatever else she was, she was also still a girl, and it was always going to pay attention to that sort of thing.

"Don't mind hearing it, though." Who would?

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"You get them out of me more than most people," he admitted, leaning back on his hands but keeping his eyes on her. "So what if I don't always say things out loud? I do other things."

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

"About what you say, not what you do, huh?" Considering Effy was rather the same, she could actually understand that. "Nothing wrong with staying quiet."

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

“Mmm.” Alex didn’t think he was ever going to be a vocal compliment giver but sometimes they slipped out. If that happened, he tended to mean them, at least. “If you’re as observant as you say you are, you shouldn’t have any trouble with how quiet I am on certain things. Or is this one of those things that slips by you?”

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

Effy shook her head. There were definitely things she noticed, yeah.

"You can say anything," she said after a moment. "What you do... A little more subjective, but a little more telling sometimes." Things were more likely to slip out that way, in her opinion.

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

“So what things do I do that are telling?” he wondered, reaching a hand over and sliding a two fingers across her ankle, taking advantage of the fact that he was lounging down there by her feet. It left him in prime kicking position for her but it also left him close enough to touch. “You say I’m not a sharer but then this. So, what is it? Or is this you just saying? I know you just say a lot. Got actual proof now?”

[hahahaha, and I didn’t even notice! I speak muddled, I guess!]

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

"It's never proof." It wasn't like it was an exact science. Pretty fucking sure? She could be that. "And I never said there was something wrong with not sharing."

Effy didn't like it a whole lot either, and it showed.

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

“Did you hear me say you did?,” Alex asked, pulling his hand away and shaking his head. “I wasn’t asking you to share, I wasn’t fucking offering to share, I didn’t say not sharing was a shitty thing to do. If you want to twist my words, whatever, go ahead. I’m sure it’s a thrilling hobby.”

[sorry for the SP! ugh, work choke hold.]

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

Not thrilling, just a comfortable thing to hide behind. One day, maybe she'd learn not to be so annoyingly cryptic in everything she did. One day.

Knowing that she'd managed to piss him off was one of the easiest things to read.

"That's something," Effy said, indicating his hands with a slight incline of her head. Both the touching and that instant retreat had their meanings. "Give it a minute you'll start tensing up your shoulders. Not trying to stress you out." Just did it a lot by accident.

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"I'm not stressed," he replied, shaking his head. He was just irritable, it seemed. Or, at least, moody but that was pretty much his default state.

"And my shoulders are fine," he felt compelled to add because now he was making a concerted effort not to let the stress gather there. "Is there a reason you like to put words in my mouth or am I just that lucky?"

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

"You asked what you did that was telling," she pointed out. "Or was I not supposed to answer that?"

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

Alex rubbed his temple with the heel of his hand, trying to keep the tension out of his neck and shoulders just because he knew she'd notice now.

"If I asked a question, I'm hopeful for an answer," he said after a moment. "It just seemed like you'd decided not to answer in favor of mucking up my words."

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

Had he really ever known her to answer a question straight off?

Effy resisted the urge to claim she'd done no word twisting at all and just shrugged as she watched him -- apparently Alex had dropped one tell and instantly picked up another one.

"Makes me fucking amazing at poker." Did it surprise at all that Effy loved poker? Probably not.

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

Of course not but he was ever hopeful that maybe one day, he'd get lucky.

"Good for you," Alex said sourly, trying not to let his halfway decent mood unravel like it wanted to. "It doesn't surprise me that you've got a good poker face. I could have guessed that the day I met you."

Alex shook his head though, still feeling the edges of irritation creeping in. "Probably just curiosity that drives you to pay attention me, isn't it? That's what it was before. Don't worry, I get it."

As flippantly said as that was, he still half believed that was the truth.