Sit Back and Enjoy the World

She wasn’t scared of him - not physically, at least, but she did notice how he took a step or two away. He was very conscious of what he did, where he was, what he said to her, and she couldn’t blame him after her trainwreck of a response - if you could count a short-circuit as a response. 

“What? N-no, no, I’m not gonna tell you off. You didn’t - do anything wrong, why would I…?” She sighed, pressed the heels of her palms hard against her eyes, trying to ebb the oncoming headache the was spreading down her shoulders. Hypertension wasn’t kind to her, especially now. 

She stayed like that for a minute, before she let her shoulders drop. She looked up again, the shaky sort of shock released from her frame, and when she smiled again, she looked a lot less terrified. 

“Travis, I really appreciate this. You’re a sweet guy and it’s been a great summer getting to work with you. Don’t talk about yourself like that, okay? Telling me took a lot of courage. Believe me, I know it did.”

Well, now he was smiling easier too. Except.. he did notice she seemed to be suffering a headache, and the medic in him immediately wanted to do something to help, but.. He held back. No, don’t change gears right now. Keep to the conversation, and only act if you’re needed to. Not every ache or pain is a crisis, Travis..

“I am sorry if I kind of came at you too fast with it, though.” He admitted. “I mean, really, for a guy with a psychology degree, I am pretty dumb sometimes.” He chuckled, already relaxing considerably. He turned his gaze up to the sky for a moment or two, just smiling quietly, before he suddenly burst out laughing. To most people, it probably would’ve seemed alarming, even worrisome, but then..

“I’m… sorry?” 

It was the first thing out of her mouth, probably not the most tactful and definitely not the most intelligent. 

Immediately, she felt her heart lurch, her head a little fuzzy as she tried to process what he’s said. That last bit rang loudly in her ears, like a super-amplified echo that ricocheted through her head. 

The thing most people don’t know about Daisy, is that she’s got a more complicated relationship with feelings than… most people. Maybe things would have played out a little differently if he’d just stopped at Justin writing the letter, but he kept going and about twenty different red flags were raised out of pure instinct. 

No - no, no it’s not, you can’t know that, you’re wrong - there’s a difference, she knew, but did other people? Other people, people not like her, used that interchangeably, did he know? He couldn’t possibly know, that was stupid, that was stupid, no. No. 

I love you. 

She swallowed thickly, and forced something that resembled a smile onto her face. She wasn’t entirely sure it worked. “That’s - really sweet of you, Travis,” she started, “I - I mean, I’m flattered, really, but… ba– but we haven’t really… known each other that long… I’m just sort of… surprised, I guess.” 

His hands were already shaking just doing this, and.. maybe that was funny somehow. After all, he’d been a combat medic in war, he’d been under way more stress than this, right? But- Well, relationships were complicated. Very complicated, and he knew it. And not just because of his education in psychiatry either.

“I- Right. I know it- it hasn’t been that long, but..” No. No buts. Everything that came before ‘but’ was bullshit. That was what Justin always said. He shook his head, taking off his beanie to run a hand through his hair a moment. Say something, stupid. Just say something!

“Right, uh..” He paused a moment, thinking about it. Was.. was he really going to do this? He didn’t have the note Justin had written for him to use. He was flying in blind here, and just- No. No, he was going to go for it. It was now or never, right? Right.