little bird ;

Finally spotting who he’d been waiting for heading for the car, Liam raised an eyebrow a little, and then laughed. “Took your time, didn’t you?”

“I can’t believe it’s gone.” She mutters, pacing around outside a store.  She looked around to see and walked up to someone, tapping them on the shoulder. “Excuse me, could I borrow your phone?”

“My phone?” Connie turned to look at the blonde, smiling kindly. “Yes, of course you can. Are you okay?” She asked before handing over her phone.

“I’m making pancakes for my kids, want some?”

“Mother’s day did not go great at my parents. At least my daughter gave me a really cute card, so  it evens out” Dominique replied with a half smile

“Oh, really? I’m sorry to hear that, Dominique. But hey, at least your daughter knows she has a good mom who deserves a cute card.”

“Bless the gods, The Fox Den is finally fully restocked. I thought it was going to take me till the end of month to get my hands on some of the top shelf liquor.”

“Listen, I’m almost done grading these papers. I just have one more to read through. Then we can talk, grab some food…whatever you want?”

“I know, I’m awfully unfair to you all the time,” said Ade with a smile, shaking his had for a moment. Maybe he was being a little secretive, but he was allowed to keep a couple of things to himself, wasn’t he? “Exactly, that’s exactly it,” he responded. “So where we getting this drink then?”

"Yes, you really are." She pouted, looking up at him with puppy eyes for a moment before she laughed it off. "Um, well... Where do you think we should go? Somewhere they probably won't card us. Well, card me, I mean. You should be more than fine."

“Yeah, honest without being mean. It’s always pissed me off when people are assholes, and they’re like, oh, I’m just being honest. Like, no, you’re being a bully and trying to cover it up.”

"Yeah, kids can be mean too, but it's usually not to actually be mean. They're just kids after all. Well, I'm a big believer in honesty, and sometimes the truth hurts, but there are definitely right and wrong ways to be honest."

Theron was nervous to say the least. Connie had said that they needed to talk about something and that usually meant something bad was going to be said.. So he was hiding, his knees to his chest and in a small ball in the corner of his room. Hearing the door open and the enthusiastic greeting of the girl he had come to care more about than anyone, followed by a bark from his favorite dog, Theron had to face the facts that maybe this was the end of their sneaking around. He couldn’t say that he blamed her for leaving - they weren’t even really in a romantic relationship and maybe he was really just too old or too much to deal with. That still didn’t appease the ache in his heart at the thought of her leaving. 

Sneaking out of the room, quiet in the face of the upcoming doom he could feel in his bones, Connie’s back was to him as he came up behind her. His hands finding purchase on her hips, not being able to help himself, Theron buries his nose in her hair. Inhaling her scent, his arms come around to wrap along her middle, pulling her firmly into him as he whispers into her ear. “Here.” 

As if her body already knew Theron better than she did herself, it instantly felt at ease when his hands came to her hips, pulling her closer. "Hey—" she whispered, forgetting all about the uncomfortable conversation she would have to initiate at some point, and just enjoying the feeling of having him close again. Her entire body simply melted into his, her eyes closing as she breathed him in and eventually turned around in his hold, reaching up on her toes to press a kiss to his lips.

"How are you?" She asked, looking at him for a moment. "You look a little tired, are you okay?"

“I love kids. They’re so innocent, you know? And a lot smarter than people give them credit for. I think that’s such a great combination. Intelligent, but totally pure.”

"Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. There's just something about them, you know? They're so...honest, and they see the world in a way we all should."

He remained silent at that one, the corner of his mouth managing to quirk up for a moment in some semblance of a sad smile. He already had found the right one - and promptly lost her. “Nah, I’m pretty sure I speak with some authority on that point…” 

Connie sensed the sadness and quickly realized she'd said the wrong thing. Poor guy. "Um... Well, you know, maybe someday." She smiled softly, trying to seem reassuring or encouraging at least.

“Well, somebody has to, don’t they?” mused Liam with a smile. He wasn’t entirely serious on that one, because he knew that Connie had someone in her life, even if he didn’t know any of the details. There was someone out there flattering her a whole lot more than he was. “Great! So I’ll sit back and watch you work, yeah?” He grinned, clearly teasing her a little as he settled onto the floor, taking a pile of records with him. “Well, obviously, I really want to be president… but I guess I’ll settle for–” H paused, thinking about it. “You know, I think I’d love to be a science teacher, but that would involve going back to school again.”

"Not necessarily, but I'm definitely not complaining." She laughed lightly, appreciating Liam a lot. He was a good guy, and definitely someone she loved spending time with— not to mention someone she'd had a huge crush on when she was younger. That detail wasn't something she was likely to tell him though. "You could do that, but that'll probably end up being really boring for you," she laughed, shaking her head at him. "But as long as you talk to me, then I'm fine with it. Hey, you'd make a great president." She said, shooting him a firm look when she looked down at him, joining him on the floor a second later. "A science teacher would be really cool. What's holding you back? "Just" the school thing?" She asked, genuinely curious.

Ade wrinkled his nose up and shook his head when she said what she did, because details were very much out of the question right now. “Nah, I don’t think so,” he murmured back, perking an eyebrow slightly and laughing. “Alright, I’m going to go with that, because honestly, anyone who disagrees with us is wrong anyway.”

"Well... That's just unfair," she laughed, putting on a pout for him so she seemed even more disappointed. In the end, it was obviously completely up to him what he shared with her, so she wouldn't push it any further now. She laughed lightly at his next sentence, nodding in clear agreement. "Yeah, we're always right and everyone else, well who cares what they say." She joked.

“You’re just saying that,” Kaylee answered, grinning and playing with the neckline of her hospital gown. “It’s so weird to feel a breeze on your ass every time you get up to pee though.”

"I wish I was! No one pulls off a hospital gown like you do," she promised, grinning lightly. "Weird or oddly nice?" She questioned, a teasing smile on her lips.

Connie told her parents she was going to a friend's house after class, having dinner there, but really... Well, she wasn't even sure she had the appetite for dinner. She had gone back and forth trying to decide whether to talk to Theron about her on-screen "romance" or not. Why should she tell him? It didn't matter, did it? Yet now that the scene was going to be shot over the weekend, she could feel it in the pit of her stomach— how much it gnawed. She needed to talk to him about it, even if they were just "fooling around" in his eyes. Not that she knew if that was how he saw it. She didn't think so, but how could she be sure?

“Yeah, not sure the ‘family’ route is for me,” he shrugged. It could have been, once upon a time, with Sophie, but he didn’t think he could ever get back to that place again…

“Oh, you say that now, but just you wait until you find the right one.” She smiled widely, shrugging her shoulders.

“Please pretend, because you probably wouldn’t want to know what else I’ve been up to,” Ade teased with a light smile. ”You sure about that? I know a few people who would disagree, but so long as you think it’s okay…” Laughing, he shook his head a moment.

"Oh, wait— what? Now I definitely want to know what else you've been up to!" She laughed, raising an intrigued eyebrow when she looked over at him. "Spill the beans." She elbowed him gently in the side, trying to get him to talk. "Yeah, those people don't matter. We say it's okay to be a little bit of a hypocrite, so therefore it is."