ugh!

I’ve also mastered the perfect amount of peanut butter to put in a peanut butter sandwich, so if any of you are in need of a snack, I’ve got you.

Sophia frowned as she looked around at everyone in the basement, shaking her head slightly. There was no way that this space could be up to code. It worked in an emergency setting, maybe, but she was definitely going to contact her mother about the conditions. Surely there was something the state could do to improve the basement so it wasn’t so – seemingly unsafe even in a natural disaster. 

She had brought down spare blankets and put them up in a corner, along with a couple packs of bottles of water just in case anyone decided they needed a little something to help get them through the rough time they were experiencing. Once she had done a personal scan through the room and deducted that no one seemed to be seriously injured, she went off to find her best friend. Because if she was going to be stuck in a basement, she needed her girl with her.

Finally scooting her way past some neighbors, Sophia caught up next to Jo and linked arms with her, a bright smile on her face. “I brought goodies to pass the time. Who really wants to be stuck in here sober?” She pulled a bag out of her pocket, shaking the joints within slightly. “You down?”

She closed her sketchbook before she could take a look at what she had been drawing and turned her gaze towards her other half, unable to help the smallest hint of a smile that curled the ends of her lips once she saw her own -- something about Sophia, her energy, it was infectious. Even when all Jo wanted to do was close the door on everyone, keep them all in the dark from what was brewing inside, Sophia managed to find a way in. 

“Am I down?” she reiterated her words, giving a small ‘tsk’ in response while she reached for the baggie she was offering. “Baby girl, the last thing I want to be is sober right now.” She pulled out a joint and the pungent smell of the cannabis wafted around them, raising a brow as she said, “How is it that you know me so well?"

Whatever it takes.

When he noticed the headphones he sighed, chewing on his bottom lip. He didn’t want to call out to her again — didn’t want to cause a bigger scene than he probably already was with the trail of his phone flashlight. It was a small room, and with the sun setting it was already attracting eyes on his moving form. He didn’t want to bother her — she was clearly busy, distracting herself from the storm outside or the people inside, or both, for all he knew. 

He stood for a moment, quickly turning off the flashlight of his phone as he watched her sketch. But instead of the neutral expression she usually held, this time, it seemed she was frustrated. Determined to get something down on paper only to have that furrowed brow that showed that nothing was coming up right. The pile of paper balls next to her only further proved it, but for a moment as he looked at her, things felt a little bit okay. 

He pressed himself against the wall next to her, allowing his back to drag across the harsh cement walls until he was sitting on the floor. He was close, but not close enough to touch her. Not to upset her; not to accidentally send himself into a panic. It seemed like she hadn’t noticed he was there — hadn’t noticed his gentle leaning over her shoulder to see what she was drawing. 

With shaky hands he leaned back, picking up the first of the paper balls. Because while she clearly didn’t like her own work, he liked everything she did, and he wanted to save it. That, and it proved enough of a distraction to keep his thoughts at bay. So he unfolded the sketch paper carefully, smoothening it out on the knee of his jeans before setting it gently in his lap and starting on the next. If she wasn’t able to talk to him, the least he could do is preserve her work for her. 

From her peripheral vision, Jo saw a pair of hands reach for the balled-up pieces of paper she had carelessly tossed to her side, and she immediately turned to face whoever it was, pulling her headphones from her ear as she prepared herself to unleash the fiery temper she had tried so hard to keep a lid on since she started living there. However, before she could even get a word out, all irritability, all scornful words -- everything she had prepared to say and do -- vanished into thin air as she laid her eyes on Silas. 

When had he gotten there?

He had been smoothing down her sketches, and with furrowed brows, she wrapped one hand around his wrist, pulling it from his task. “It’s not worth it. They’re all shit. All of it.” She tried to smile, tried to summon that sarcastic tinge to soften her words, but it came out flat anyway, and the smile never quite reached her eyes. 

His skin felt tight; a bubble of panic building in his chest. He didn’t do well with small, cramped spaces — not to mention that he didn’t personally know half of these people. They were passerbys at the most; strangers that he talked to once or twice online or in the elevator when he was visiting a friend. And now to be cramped into a small, damp basement while the world turned to chaos outside — well, it took everything he had not to let the chaos in his own head out. That wouldn’t help anyone. If anything, it’d make things a hell of a lot worse. 

The claustrophobia was settling in with his anxiety — something that, prior to this, hadn’t been that big of a deal. A little bit of hyperventilating during an intense traffic session; a fidget of the fingers during a fury-raising conversation where he was in the wrong. But now — now that he felt trapped, well, it wasn’t going in his favor. 

He used the light of his phone to find her — Jo, that is. Because if there was anyone in this damn room that could help keep him calm, it was her. She knew him inside and out — both literally and figuratively — she would be able to calm him down, right? She’d be able to silence the chaos in his head. 

At least, he hoped. 

“Jo?” He whispered out, his voice shaking.

@jomeeks

It was as if her body acted without conscious thought to guide it, leaving quite a bit behind that would prove to be useful later. All Jo brought with her was her phone, her sketchbook and some pencils, her headphones, and her comfiest blanket to wrap around herself, which would potentially also double as a barrier between her and everyone else once she pulled it over her head at some point in the night. 

She was uncharacteristically quiet, that much she knew, but she couldn’t bring herself to speak when there was absolutely nothing she could think to say to anyone when she hardly even wanted to hear herself think. It was then that she turned to the only solution that could quiet her mind, if only for a moment -- turning her music as high as it could go without fully blowing out her eardrums, she blared Metallica while she sketched. The scene at the end of her pencil was as bleak as their surroundings, but when she couldn’t fathom proper words for what she was feeling or thinking, she allowed her art to speak for her. 

Only this time, she found she hated everything she drew, huffing under her breath as she ripped it angrily out of the notebook and crumbled it, leaving it in a growing pile beside her of balled-up pieces of paper filled with her shitty, shitty drawings. Jo was too busy trying to drown out the world around her that she hadn’t even noticed she had subjected Silas to the same fate as everyone else around her, unable to hear him over her music as he called for her attention. 

Unless someone would like to help me out with another earworm?

How about you fight fire with fire and play your own song as high as it can go to drown it out? Might I suggest Gangnam Style by Psy? Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen? Or if you really want to rub it in, All-Star by Smash Mouth is a classic. 

And they’re also nature’s gay kiss, so that’s awesome too.

It’s a beautiful day outside, I need someone to enjoy the last of this sunshine with.