Monochrome Realities

His thoughts are racing in circles of uncertainty over this very thing when Leo speaks up. Her words do little to ease his concerns. Teeth gnaw anxiously at their lower lip, their dark circled eyes flashing down to view her. They stare for a long time in complete silence, her words resting uneasily in the pit of their stomach.

“Sure yer ma won’t come fer me?” It’s said like a joke, but it’s obvious her wrath had put a bit of fear in xyr step. It’s not so much her, but the fear of hurting them again. Hurting Leo. Edie. Xe hates that xe ever hurt them in the first place and now? Now xe’s more afraid than ever of hurting anyone and leaving their son in the aftermath. So, xe grows quiet again. Thin arms fold behind xyr head, eyes drifting to the ceiling.

“I’m sure you could outrun Edie if she does.” Leo cracks a smirk while wiping underneath her eyes. She kind of feels like shit. Not that she exactly regrets sleeping with him, but that she’d done it without really thinking it through.

The drive back to her house is made mostly in silence. She looks out of the window, watches the other dimly lit houses pass them by until they reach her own. The porch light flickers on, which tells her that William was asleep, and Edie must have been just sitting by the door waiting for them to come back.

The weight of the atmosphere only grows heavier as the realization starts to sink in that maybe Leo hadn't wanted them to do what they'd just did. What if she regretted it? What if they'd only fucked because of the heightened emotions. What if that became something much larger than either of them could handle? There's a knot tying in their chest the more they think about it and the longer they think about William.

He presses his tongue to the roof of his mouth, eyes locked on hers when she tries for teasing, but his expression is stone-cold...serious. Maybe too serious. Serious in a way that screams it's more than just being squeamish. Clearly, though, they won't be elaborating anytime soon.

Then, she's licking the cut again with an exaggerated motion. Their eyes dip back to the road, swallowing the lump in their throat. Breathe. Their grip tightens on the wheel again. They turn up the radio. Drown it out, drown it out... Their stomach twists.

"You get some weird disease from that shit, ain't my problem," xe says plainly, like maybe that's an explanation for his pickiness. Xe certainly wouldn't go to a hospital for her if she did collapse. Xe sniffs, spits the gum out the window and then starts fiddling with the radio to find a station that's not playing long-winded commercials at the moment.

"Away," xe answers finally when she asks again. What sort of answer did she want? It's not like xe has a destination in mind. Xe'd need to find food in a few days, so...for now? They drive. They drive and hope they can park Lira somewhere before the hunger gets too strong to ignore. He meets her eyes in the rearview again, wrinkling his nose at her. The smell of dog is starting to overpower the smell of blood again...

The the mirror, they catch a brief glimpse of the blood on Lira’s hand just before she licks it off. Their gaze darts to the mirror, then back ro the road, shifting the gum in their mouth and swallowing back excess saliva. If only she realized how fucking dangerous they are… They clear their throat, grip the wheel a little tighter, and quickly go back to focusing on the music as the song reaches its close.

When she leans up to talk directly in xyr ear, xe flinches. Xe can’t help it, hadn’t been expecting the sudden loudness nor the smell of blood on her to get so much stronger. Xyr shoulders tense and xe presses a little harder on the gas, nose wrinkling with discomfort. So much for that good, pure moment. Still, xe doesn’t argue when she mentions skipping the next song. Lucky for her, it’s just the radio, which is why the quality is absolute shit. Xe’s got a few tapes in the glovebox, but at the moment xe’s rolling with the shitty radio static and whatever comes on this classic folk station. In fact, as the song ends and the voices of two country-sounding men cut in to talk and name the song, xe shoots Lira a glance as if to answer her question.

Their eyes narrow a little, noticing the panic in the waver of her voice, but they won’t ask. They don’t like people prying into their life, so why should they do the same to someone else? He respects the distance, leaves it hang unless she wants to bring it up. And as a commercial break begins, xe simply turns the volume back down, expression back to its usual seriousness, back to silence. Xyr fingers tap anxiously against the edge of the steering wheel.

“Okay, okay, you just… sit right there. Don’t move. I’ll be right back!” Without waiting for their response, Rooney takes off at a frantic walk towards the corner store a block away.

"Wasn't plannin' on it," he snaps, tossing a hand in the air. "Fuck..." He sniffles, lets the drool simply drip from his mouth as he leans forward over the pavement.

The time it takes her to return feels like an eternity and for a moment xe wonders if she's just left xem there. She has no reason to trust xem, after all, even though xe'd said xe just needed directions. Clearly, though, xe's incapacitated. Pepper spray...works. If ever anyone needed proof, here it is.

He flinches hard when the milk jug bumps his foot. A hand blindly reaches for it, managing to find it with only a little difficulty. they pick it up, making sure the cap is off before simply dumping it onto their face. "Holy..fuck..." they breathe with a bit of relief. It won't last and they know it, but for now it's helping. A splash of milk, a splash of water...cycling back and forth and doing their best not to touch their face in the process. They heave a sigh, which turns into a dry cough.

"Christ..." Another slow breath through xyr nose, then xe spits onto the pavement again. When xe hears her ask about a hospital, though...

"No!" Xyr whole body tenses. A hiccup. Then another. "Fuck, no, it--" Xe hiccups again, coughs. "It's fine. It's fucking fine, I've done this before..." Yeah, not exactly making a good case for himself with that one.

"I've been sprayed...before. Long story." More milk. A sniffle. It takes a while, but after a minute or so xe's able to peel xyr eyes open, squinting at the girl through blurry vision.

They're not listening to her, though it's mostly due to being very good at pretending not to be able to hear her talking. Between the blaring music and the wind whipping through the broken window, any normal person wouldn't be able to hear shit. They can, but...That's besides the point. The sharp smell of blood hits their senses, too, when she cuts her hand on the broken glass. He sniffs, his nose twitching slightly as he grimaces against the smell. When she starts whooping and hollering, they simply roll their eyes, glancing at her in the rear view and saying nothing. In fact, the instant she asks where they're going, they turn the radio up to maximum and start to sing along.

"..A song will lift...As the mainsail shifts! And the boat drifts on to the shoreline..!" Surprisingly, he's not a bad singer, the country twang to his voice only intensifies when he sings, but his voice is certainly more on-key than Bob Dylan's. "And the sun will respect..Every face on the deck...The hour that the ship comes in!" the smell of her blood is giving him a headache, so the window is rolled down all the way, the back ones opened about halfway to let the air drown it out. He grabs a pack of nicotine gum from the center console, taking a moment to slide a piece into his mouth before going right back to singing along with the music...

Xe doesn't start to back out, only stops because she mentions them running into each other. It's been, what? Twice? Hardly feels incriminating, but...If she wants to play that game...

"Oh, so now yer stalkin' me, too," they grumble, frowning at her from beyond the window. Broken window, which is a whole other issue they don't wanna think about right now. "Ya know there're better ways to get into a truck," they point out as they flick some glass off the window frame. Then, she's up in the truck be4d with all of her shit and they're ignoring anything else she has to say in favour of backing up--full speed. No hesitation. If she falls out, it's not xyr problem. If she stays? Well...At least she's in the bed, where xe can't hear her yapping or smell her dog as much.

"I knew that, I was just about to do that." she mumbled when they jump started their own truck with no more than a few moves. Her impulses wanted to make fun of them. Their stupidly mysterious nonchalance, the way they lit their cigarette, the effortless movements. She did have a knack for teasing people like that. But this time she didn't really mind it. She almost kind of...liked it? Ew, no, gross.

"Still a people person huh?" an eye roll when Arthur reminded her of them 'not being friends'. "What, you're too cool for me now, lone wolf?" she asked, blowing out smoke as she stepped away from the vehicle slowly. Yet, her hand was still casually laying atop the open door.

Arthur went on. Lira fumbled with the lighter in her pocket to keep her hands busy before she could kind of explain herself: "Man, seriously, if I remembered that it was yours, I would've never...I swear." probably the first genuine, true thing Lira had said today. She ended it with a sigh.

"So, uh...wanna give me a ride? I could try and bribe you with weed for the inconvenience? If you're not gonna rat me out." Lira wouldn't accept an awkward silence between them. She couldn't let it happen. Instead she inhaled "You know, like good friends do?" and exhaled some smoke along with those word right into their face, a teasing, crooked smirk crossing her face.

When she swears she wouldn't have tried to take it if she'd known it was theirs, the tension in their shoulders eases just a little. Still, their eyes are dark and angry, narrowed and judgemental as they try to sus out her real intentions here. They aren't stupid. They can see where this is going. Lips part, only for her to drop the question. A ride, yeah...makes sense. She had been looking for a vehicle, after all. It's just convenient she failed to steal one from a man who wasn't going to call the cops over it.

At first, xe purses xyr lips, rolls xyr eyes, but there's something about it that says xe's actually contemplating it. If xe gives her a ride, then xe can travel in the opposite direction. Xe has control over those variables. So what harm would it do?

Only, before xe can open xyr mouth, she's tacking on a teasing like good friends do. Suddenly, xyr mood does a 180 again. They suck in their cheeks, taking a deep breath. A long inhale of smoke, then they pluck the cigarette from their lips and step right up to her.

"No." He puffs a ring at her face as he says the word, then flashes her a smug smile before pushing past her to get into the truck. It takes no effort at all to nudge her out of the way, their strength far greater than hers. They give a whistle to the dog in the back.

They shuffle down the sidewalk with their hands shoved into their pockets, the tip of their cigarette glowing in the blackness. Puffs of smoke release from their lips every now and again, eyes glued to the ground until…

“Hey!” Their head lifts, eyes narrowing when they notice someone crossing the pavement just ahead. The cigarette is plucked from their lips, stamped out on the ground, and they wave a hand to try and get the person’s attention. They catch up to her eventually, striding towards her probably a little faster than they should at this time of night. “Can you, uh…Help me? I’m a little lost,” they admit, only to find she’s got headphones in and can’t hear them. A small frown, about to say something else when xe’s suddenly blasted in the face with pepper spray.

“AGH!! FUCK! JESUS CHRIST—!!” Xe stumbles back, hands flailing to try and shield himself from anymore of the spray. “I JUST— STOP!! STOP! Ah, fuck!” It hurts like hell, she’d hit xem right where it counted. Xe’s trying to shield xyr face while also not rubbing at xyr eyes. Xe’d been sprayed before, xe knows it won’t be good. Just have to ride it out. Xe’s cursing as xe stumbles sideways into a dumpster, leaning against it and trying to breathe, but it’s in xyr lungs. Xe feels like xe could puke…

“Shit, I’m sorry! But like-“ She waves his hands like he might see her. “Who fucking approaches a woman in the middle of the night to ask for directions?!”

She swings her backpack off and rummages through it like she will have the magical cure for being blasted in the face by pepper spray. Honestly, she sort of couldn’t remember what flushed it out of the eyes. Definitely not milk, right? Or was it milk?

"I'm sorry, fuck!" A wave of their hand, her question completely fair, but...Well, they were a little drunk, just enough that they hadn't realized until too late that she was a small woman. not to Mention, she's the only one around. A blind hand reaches out, refusing to open his coated eyes. He sniffles, grumbles some more profanities.

"Gi-- Give it here," xe shouts, xyr hand flailing until xe can feel the bottle pressed into xyr palm. As soon as xe's got it, xe splashes it on xyr face, slowly pours it to try and wash out the surface layer. They need milk, but for now? Just getting it off xyr face is a start.

"Aahhh, fuck," they hiss through their teeth, the burning intensifying with the water dripping down their cheeks. They grit their teeth, remind themselves to breathe. More spit on the pavement, then they're slowly lowering themselves to sit on the ground.

"Well, yer right about one thing," he says slowly after what seems like an eternity. The zippo is flipped shut and tucked back into his pocket as he takes a long drag from the cigarette, puffs smoke his lips as he continues,

"I don't believe you." Plucking the cigarette from xyr mouth, xe runs xyr tongue over xyr top row of teeth, eyeing her for a singular frigid moment. Then, xe reaches past her and grabs the two cut wires, striking them together and bringing the engine rumbling to life.

"But I ain't yer friend." A reminder she clearly needs with how many times she'd thrown that word around. They don't make friends. They don't have any desire to. She was nothing more than a stray that had followed them home...The fact they'd run into each other again? Pure coincidence. They take another quick drag, then spit onto the pavement. A sniff as they replace the cigarette in their mouth.