Log: Prelude to a Road Trip
From Literepetition
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It's early evening, and Jane's walking out of Bartos. She has a carefully blank face, but her shoulders are tight and her body language betrays a state of mind that's less than tranquil. She's carrying a textbook and a notebook, and nothing else. She heads down the sidewalk, towards Astor.
Here comes Ian. Looks like he's coming back from the gym. He's got wet hair and a duffle bag thrown over his shoulder. "Jane," he says to get her attention. "Are you all right?"
It takes a couple of seconds for Jane to realize she's been addressed, or focus enough to realize that she got asked a question? "Fine, I'm fine," she replies. "Hello, Ian," she says. Her voice is blank, much like her face, until she manufactures a greeting smile that lacks any kind of the emotion she usually puts in it.
"Oh yes, I can tell," Ian says as he turns and falls into line with her. "Highly believeable. I'm a very good listener, you know."
Jane looks up at Ian, and nods at him. "I'm sure," she says, and then looks forward. "I..." She stops, realizing that her mind is blank. "I forgot what I was going to say," she finishes, lamely.
Ian says gently, "Jane, what's wrong? Please don't say 'nothing', because I'm pretty sure that's a total lie. I'm going out on a limb to say that, but I'm going to trust my instincts on this one."
Jane winces. "Oh, just witnessed a blow-out argument between Hemi and Dot. It wasn't pretty." She pauses, as the pair continue to walk. "Dot's dating Hemi's roommate, now. Did you know that? Assuming Hemi doesn't stand me up, they're all going to be at your party, too." A thought occurs to her and she says, "I'm sorry, Ian, I had no clue that there was so much volatility likely to happen when I invited Hemi."
"That's perfectly fine, Jane, I think I can handle it," Ian tells her. "I didn't know that about Dot and Hemi's roommate. What did they fight about?"
Opening her mouth, Jane suddenly realizes that she has no clue. "I don't know. Dot knocked on the door and suddenly it was all tension, all the time. I don't understand what just happened, at all." After a few more steps, Jane says, "Can we go get some coffee or something?"
"Of course," Ian replies. He begins to steer them towards the coffee shop. "So, she knocked on the door, looking for the roommate, and then tension?"
Jane nods. "Loads of it. And insults." She pauses, and feeling disloyal, admits, "She didn't start it, either." They get to the coffee shop and Jane reaches for the door, opening it for Ian.
"Thank you," Ian reaches out for the door, "Please," gesturing inside. "Sounds like there's a lot of emotion still there."
Jane nods. "Yes, it does. It really, really does." Jane goes in, and walks up to the counter. She looks at the menu and then orders a hot chocolate, extra whipped cream, with a shot of peppermint syrup. It's comfort drinking, that's what it is.
Ian orders a coffee and something horribly full of sugar and chocolate, before pulling out his wallet to pay. "Go find us a seat, I'll bring everything over."
Jane nods, smiling a tight smile of thanks at Ian. She goes and sits down, putting her books down and fidgetting with her fingernails.
The order completes and Ian brings everything over to the table. She gets the coffee and the dessert. See, he knows girls, while he gets the coffee. He adulterates the coffee with a few sugar packets.
"Thanks," says Jane. She puts both her hands around her cup, looking moodily at the whipped cream. Mmmmm. Whipped cream. She doesn't start drinking, yet, it's still too hot.
"You're welcome," Ian replies. He sips his coffee, content to be quiet til Jane feels a little more comfortable.
Jane sips her chocolate for a few minutes, studying it. "I wasn't expecting that," she finally says. "He was so...angry." It really shook her, although that isn't the only thing bothering her about the entire sequence.
"Did he hit you? Or her?" Ian asks. This would not surprise him at all.
Jane looks up, shocked. "No," she says, as though that's unthinkable. "He never...I never even thought he'd hit Dot, and that's who he was angriest at." Never mind that she asked Dot if he'd ever hit her, when they first discussed Hemi.
Ian nods a little, "That's good." Another sip, "So, why was he angry with her? He's got you, why shouldn't she be happy?"
"That's what I'd like to know," replies Jane, somewhat more plaintively than she'd intended. Then again, she never intended to actually discuss this with anyone.
Another nod, "That must have been difficult to witness," Ian echoes. "I can imagine that leaves one with a lot of questions, spinning out from that."
"That would be accurate. And he's too angry to answer any of them, of course, which means that...that I get to deal with it." Jane looks down at her chocolate. And sips it.
"Too angry even to discuss it?" Ian asks. "Huh." Then, "So what happened at the end?"
Jane says, "Dot and Bill left. I tried to talk to him, but he was too angry and he asked me to go, so I did." She shrugs and tries to look nonchalant about it, instead of hurt.
Ian reaches out to touch her hand briefly, "I'm sorry. That probably hurt your feelings a great deal." Who knew? He can understand human emotion and be nice about it.
Jane smiles that same, tight, small smile, briefly there, then gone again. "It wasn't particularly great, no."
"Well, as I understand it, chocolate in some form begins to help one to regain some footing," Ian tells her, indicating the plate and the fork. "Do try it."
Jane sighs, and then goes ahead and takes a bite. She chews, and then puts the fork down. "I don't think I'm recovered enough for that to take effect, yet." She sips her hot chocolate, instead: same idea, different format.
Ian mmms, "Note to self, minimum recovery time before offering chocolate. Improve comforting skills." He asks, "So, is this one of those cases, where only time will make you feel better? Or is there anything I can suggest to take your mind off things?"
Jane says, "I wouldn't mind some kind of distraction," rather wistfully. "Otherwise, I'm likely to brood. And that's not good for the constitution."
Ian considers this for a long moment, before suggesting, "We should go on a road trip. Have you ever seen Niagara Falls?"
Jane blinks. "Never? What?" Welcome to Distraction 101. She's thrown.
Ian smiles a little, "Day trip, to Niagara Falls. Have you seen them before?" Well, that works and he didn't even have to resort to offering sex.
Jane shakes her head. "No, I haven't. I've always wanted to, though. But it'd have to be a day trip. I'm working, when I don't have classes." But she wants to go, from the look in her eyes. She takes a bite of chocolate-pastried-goodness. Not bad.
"You could skip, missing a day of classes won't hurt, and I'll help you study for anything you've missed that isn't music," Ian promises. "We could just leave now, you know and just go."
Jane blushes. "I have to go to work this weekend. I can't miss that." She sounds mildly downcast. "Maybe Tuesday? I don't dare miss French. But I'm doing well enough in algebra and PE, I could miss then."
"You don't dare miss French? With a French speaker with you?" Ian asks dubiously. "Jane, let's just go now. You're only young once. I /promise/ to have you at work tomorrow morning, on time, if you insist on it. But for now, do something spontaneous and distracting."
Jane says, "You'll have me back here by six a.m.?" She's wavering. She wants to go. "Won't that mean getting there when it's too dark to see anything?" Ok, that might not be an issue, but she's curious.
Ian holds his hand up, "I promise I will have you back by six am. You can sleep in car." He shrugs, "I'd expect there are lights at night. Either way, it'll be fun. Why don't we go to find out?"
Jane, you ignorant slut. "Ok." She puts her fork down, and smiles. It's a real smile. Distraction has been achieved. "Let's go."
