Yo Ho

Talking herself into coming had been hard, but now that she was here, Zarina didn’t even regret it that much. And that surprised her. She was really making progress, and when Hook admitted to boasting, she could let out a hearty chuckle as she sat down. “That’s it? You broke a part of the window? That’s literally nothing,” she laughed. It dawned on her that he might be trying to impress her like before, but he hadn’t resorted to lying then. “The people here really don’t care that much. They’ll just send someone to fix it, if they even notice.” She had a wicked grin of her own, then, and didn’t even notice how big of a step that was. “We could just not say anything and take bets on how long they’d take to notice. Or take, like, really crappy glue…” she noticed how much she was talking already, and although Hook probably didn’t mind, she did. So she trailed off mid-sentence and cleared her throat, only able to look back at him for a moment because of his intense look. “Yeah, well. You’d better not screw it up,” she warned.

James shrugged his shoulders and ran a hand through his hair. "You’re right. I’ve broken a lot more expensive things a lot worse than that window sill. They can probably get a guy to fix it by the time we wake up in the morning!” He laughed at his own stupid joke. It was probably true though, the complex seemed to be just magical that way. A small smirk appeared on his face and he nodded his head.”I’ll take you up on that bet, actually. What do you say? Ladies first after all,” he waved a hand dramatically at her before letting out another short laugh. He hadn’t thought that the two of them would be getting along this well and it was making him unsure of himself which was something that he also didn’t like. Hook kept his gaze on Zarina as he leaned on the arm of his own chair, leaning just a little closer to her but not close enough to make her complain about him getting into her personal space. “I’ll do my best, I promise.” He pursed his lips and tapped his fingers on the arm of his chair. “So...how’s everything been going? Have your parents tried to contact you lately?”

#ForTheAesthetic

Zarina wanted to be a person who forgave and forgot, but it would be foolish to say that was the kind of person she already was. She didn’t forgive and forget, she held grudges and refused to move on, so her showing up at the roof was a big, big step already. They had a truce, there was some sort of peace, and he was really trying to remain in her good graces, so she did have to give him some credit for that. “I would ask, but I don’t think I wanna know. Okay, that’s a lie,” she admitted, throwing away her ‘I don’t care about the shit you do’ facade. “What exactly did you do to get the chairs here?” He probably didn’t steal them, since Astranauts were free to do what they wanted with the furniture (or at least, that was what Zarina assumed). As she sat down and glanced up at the stars, she made her decision; “Yeah, definitely the stars. But you’re here anyway, so I guess I could also grace you with my presence.”

Hook was trying to tell himself to not get his hopes up. If she could hold a grudge for him from across the world, then she could hold one now while he was still trying to make things right. Still, he could do his best to show her that he was really trying to be better and if she still hated him after, he would just have to accept it. The only bad thing was, accepting defeat was as rare for him as dropping grudges was for Zarina. A wicked grin was on his face as he shrugged his shoulders. "Okay maybe I talked myself up a bit for that. I did break a piece off the window sill shoving one through the window, though. They might actually try to get money from me for that, but good luck with that.” He let out a laugh. Even if she wanted to seem like she totally hated him, he could still tell there was a part of her that cared. Probably too much for her own liking. Taking his own seat next to her, he focused his gaze on her instead of the sky. “I figured as much. Still...it means a lot that you actually came.”

Zarina never thought she’d say yes to an invitation from Hook ever again: especially not to one that was so obviously intended to be a date, or at least a little romantic. But she had said yes, and now she was debating whether or not she should go. They had a relatively decent time at the gala (or the time they spent together, because Zarina kept running from place to place to help her friends), and he was trying to show her he’d changed. So to find out if he really had, she showed up at the roof like he asked, standing behind him at the window for a little while to see him brooding. A serious case of déjà-vu, if anything; how many times had they spent their nights together like this, mocking any of Hook’s friend who implied otherwise? “Calm down, I’m here,” she mumbled as she climbed out the window. “They’ll sue you for damaged property if you do.” When had she become a goody two-shoes?

James wasn’t going to deny the fact that his heart jumped a little when he realized that Zarina had actually showed up on the roof. Honestly, he thought there was a fat chance in hell that she was going to show up. At least the small grown up part of him did, but the bigger part of him that wanted things to be the way they were before felt victorious as all hell. He whipped around quickly just in time to see her climbing through the window, a hand shooting up to run absentmindedly through his hair. "I think they can probably find worse things to sue me for if they actually watch security cameras. Like what I had to do to get these chairs up here in the first place,” he exclaimed as a playful smirk grew on his face. “I’m glad you decided to grace me with your presence. Or was it the stars you were gracing?”

James never thought he would be someone who would be sentimental ever in his life but sometimes life makes you do funny things to get what you want. It was exactly that which had made him walk up to Zarina in the hallway outside of their rooms earlier that day and ask her to meet him up on the roof that night. No matter how good they were getting along, he felt like it was a long shot that she would even show up. Still, he was sitting up there in a lawn chair he’d managed to haul up from the pool area with an empty one sat right next to him. He’d been up there waiting for what felt like forever when he finally decided to light up a cigarette, “I swear if I dragged these chairs up here for nothing I’m throwing them over the side of the roof.”

Her first day in Sacramento and Kelsey was just finding out how different everything was here compared to New York. For example, she hadn’t figured out where to get cheap, lukewarm coffee. The stuff at the compound was definitely outside of the brunette’s purse strings, at least while the girl didn’t have a job. Kelsey had spent the last hour scrolling down her phone trying to find a job, but was quickly giving up and soon found herself muttering. “How the hell does anyone get a job in this town?”

Hook wasn’t someone to care about what other people thought...most of the time. But something about what he heard the dark haired girl mumbling to herself struck him as funny and he couldn’t help but let out a sharp laugh as he shook his head. "You don’t, that’s how. Or maybe you make your own job.”

It was a pretty well-known fact that neither Hook nor Zarina were really into the mushy sappy dating thing. They’d never gone on an actual date, one of those dinner and a movie types, but they made out, hung out, and had fun instead. She had to admit, this wasn’t her scene and she wasn’t ready for it, and she wouldn’t have been ready for it even if they were dating. Which they weren’t. “Just because a little paper said you’re my date doesn’t mean we’re back together, okay?” She was still unsure about her feelings, but she rolled her eyes playfully at his compliment. “You know I don’t do long dresses. This was a good compromise. Even if people keep staring.” To make her point, she flipped off a girl in a princess dress with a disapproving look.

One of the most appealing things about running away was that it potentially meant he would never really have to get too formal, yet here he stood in his second suit in all of six months. Just great. But he couldn’t keep his eyes off of the woman who had just so happened to be picked as his date."I mean, I guess you could say it was written in the stars! But if you want to keep acting like you aren’t happy about this, go right ahead.” He shrugged his shoulders and couldn’t help but smirk. “I think it’s more of a compliment to you than anything that people keep staring at you, Z.”

@jamesjhook

Zarina didn’t want to go to the gala in the first place, but when her note with her ‘date’ for the night arrived, she was dead set on not attending. They were just starting to patch things up, but this was a big step up. She had replied in the negative when he requested to pick her up, but when she received a text from Tink, asking where she was, Zarina decided that she had to at least show her face (and her outfit. She hadn’t worked on it that long for nothing). So there she was, extremely late, making an entrance way more dramatic than she intended. But she wouldn’t be herself if she didn’t stare back defiantly at anyone who dared to throw her dirty looks because her dress wasn’t ‘gala-appropriate’. Deciding to just get it over with, she walked over to Hook as soon as she spotted him. “I need a drink.”

James wasn’t at all surprised when Zarina refused his offer to be picked up so they could go to the gala together. Why would he even think she would accept that in the first place? Oh well, at least he’d given it a try in the first place. He’d wasted no time when he got there and made his way right over to the drink table. He was already halfway through his first drink when Zarina showed up and his heart almost stopped in his chest. Coming to his senses, he moved away from the table as he looked his date up and down. "Of course you do, why wouldn’t you when we’re here? But I should be a good date and tell you that you look amazing before I get you a drink.”

Well, there was the floodgate of emotions she’d held back for so long. There was no hiding it anymore - bits and pieces had started to fall out before, but this was different. She wasn’t drunk, she was just too tired to be angry anymore. Vidia was going to have so much fun drilling her after this was done, but Zarina was probably going to lock herself in her room for a good while to try and get her shit together. She knew he’d respond like this, hell, she’d say the exact same thing, but he obliged. It wasn’t perfect, but when had anything ever been with him? “You shouldn’t have left,” she repeated after him, as her eyes finally welled up with tears she tried to hold back for so long. She was still in this mess with Peter, but she had to cut that loose, because it wasn’t fair to him either, no matter how shitty Hook made him out to be. She cleared her throat and wiped her cheeks. “Yeah, I’ll uh- turn off the music.”

Hook was someone who almost never knew what to do when he was confronted with someone showing actual emotions at him but it was something he was going to have to get used to. His heart sank a little more as he could read the emotions on Zarina’s face and he wanted nothing more than to just hold her but he couldn’t help but think about what a risk that would be. "I know I shouldn’t have, but I did. There’s nothing either of us can do about it now,” he said quietly. Before he could stop himself, he reached out and wiped one of the tears off her cheek. “I’m sorry...you don’t have to.”