fandomhighdorms | The roof, Wednesday night

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The roof, Wednesday night

If Cal knew she was smoking he'd probably kick her ass. Which made her snort because that thought was entirely too amusing. Most likely he'd just give her a look and a shrug of his shoulders. But it's not like she was really huffing and puffing on a cigarette. They were cheap and to be honest with herself, they kind of sucked. How did people smoke and actually enjoy it? Uhg. But whatever, she was doing it anyway.

She was also thinking about that story, and more importantly that girl. The one with the freckles. All day long Amber had tried putting herself in her shoes, but with the advantage of knowing that someone was so infatuated with her. No.. it went beyond infatuation she thought.

The ashes on the end of her smoke was long and with a careless flick of her wrist, she knocked them off.

Amber wanted to be Antigone.

[The roof, it is open.]

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Normally Katchoo would've just smoked in her room, since she got the feeling Bender wouldn't really care one way or the other. But hell, there were icebergs out there, and how often did a girl who'd grown up in Chicago, Houston, and Hawaii get to see icebergs that close?

Besides, Emma hadn't, and Katchoo felt somewhat obligated to see them for her. God knew she didn't have much time left before --

The thought was too morose even for her, so she wandered up to the roof to light up there, leaning against the wall near a bed of spiky plants that amused her, somehow.

With a brief, wordless nod to the other girl, she leaned back and exhaled a long stream of smoke into the sky.

Ah, another smoker. Amber tried to act like she knew what she was doing; holding her cigarette just so, just like her ma and Loretta and the entire population of Mount Rose, Minnesota. She thought she looked cool enough, even if her ash was getting dangerously long again.

"Hey," she called out, quietly, giving the girl a nod in return.

Katchoo hid a small smirk; she'd been smoking since she was thirteen and she could tell her rooftop companion didn't really know what she was doing, what with that long ash dangling off the end of the cigarette.

"Hey," she replied dispassionately, the rasp of her voice almost disturbing in the quiet.

Long time smoker too, what by the sound of her voice. Amber knew those types too; the ones that's been smoking forever. More than not by the time she reached thirty, she'd sound a grovely fifty-five.

"New student?" she asked, taking another huff off her cigarette.

If she lived to see thirty, which Katchoo wasn't counting on much; she pretty much operated under the specter of a ticking clock these days. Yes, at the age of eighteen.

"Yeah," she added, sticking with the monosyllabic approach for now.

Not too chatty. Her and Cal would get along great. She could add a shrug in there and they'd be damn near twins.

Hah, Amber's thoughts cracked her up. She snorted, pulled her cigarette back and studied it. These things get you high? Ma never mentioned nothing about that.

"I'm Amber."

The last couple of girls named Amber that Katchoo had known had been obnoxious rich girls, so she couldn't help a reflexive twitch. Well. She probably would've twitched anyway.

She still wasn't particularly interested in making friends, not exactly being inclined to trust anyone, but that promise she'd made to Emma weighed on her about as much as the sensation that she, too, was running out of time.

"Katina," she offered after a few more drags -- had to show her how it was done, after all -- and look at that, three whole syllables.

Rich? Hah, Amber was hardly rich and she seriously wouldn't want to be. Rich equaled Becky Leeman and her fat ass ma. Even so, Amber wasn't sure what the twitch meant; she caught it, though barely. People had tics. She wouldn't judge.

"Nice meetin' you, Katina." Nice name too. She didn't say that out loud of course, no sense in sounding cheesy.

Amber puffed on her cigarette, trying to hide the fact that she was staring at the other girl.

[Zomg BAD lightning storm. Power keeps going out!]

That would be a relief. You know. If Katchoo could be bothered to inquire. Or make niceties, which she wasn't either, particularly when she could tell someone was staring at her.

"Somethin' interesting?" she asked, maybe showing off just a bit when she puffed a smoke ring into the air.

"Just... tryin' to check the brand," she thought fast, raising her brows at the smoke ring.

Wow. A real veteran there. Amber was impressed.

"Right," said Katchoo, who smoked Parliaments because they were fairly cheap. "Can you tell if these are Nat Sherman regulars or milds from there?"

No. No she couldn't tell.

"Well, it's kinda like... night, y'know?"

Ah, Katchoo loved this sort of thing. Totally worth the trip up to the roof, now.

"Little detail like that shouldn't stop an old pro like you, though, right? Thought you'd be able to tell in the dark. You know, by the consistency of the smoke."

There were... smoke patterns, consistencies, whatever... that detailed the type of cigarette one smoked? Huh. The things you learn when not living in a trailer park.

"I'm not exactly, um, old, you know?"

Well, not really ~~although the player did discover that sometimes with American Spirit regulars the smoke's so thick it sinks, WTF~~. But Katchoo was totally waiting to see when Amber would figure out she was BSing.

Had to stay in practice at that, after all.

"Got started late in life, then? Like thirteen?"

Mwahaha. This was actually kind of fun.

[[There was no OMGFAIL at HTML here. *waves hand*]]

Edited 2008-07-10 15:36 (UTC)

Amber had no idea about the BS'ing. She was just going with the flow, acting like she knew all this crap 'cause she was suddenly a badass smoker.

Thirteen was late? Oh my gosh.

"Uh-huh. Been in the family forever," which wasn't much of a lie. That latter part.

[Yes. Hello. I do it ALLTHETIME omg]

"Had your vocal cords reconstructed then?" Heh heh heh.

...

...

"Uh, hm, no; must have been one of the lucky ones."

Amber mentally flailed and shoved her cigarette back in her mouth. She didn't realize she was down to the filter.

"Yeah, I'll say." Katchoo put a little extra rasp into her own voice for effect. "Boy, you really like to get the most out of your smokes, dontcha?"

"Yah," she managed a snicker. "I don't have a lot of money, y'know?"

What was wrong with her? Amber was lying like there was no tomorrow!

"I... sometimes, mostly, I just smoke for kicks."

"Yeah." Katchoo thought, briefly, of that untouchable Swiss bank money. "Know the feeling."

And because that was more than she really wanted to share, she shrugged one shoulder. "Isn't that why we all do it?"

No money. Amber didn't ever complain. Why complain when you didn't know what it was that you were missing? Figured she'd take everything for granted if she had money to blow.

"...or to look cool," she said, thinking that was a good reason too. Or so she thought. Probably not for hardcore smokers though. They made fun of the kids who were trying to look cool smoking and... oh my god.

Amber looked sharply at Katina.

Look cool? Seriously?

She tried to stifle what could only be described as a gigglesnort behind her hand, and ended up snorting cigarette smoke up her nose.

"Ow, sonofabitch!"

"What? Are you alright?" Clueless Amber asked.

"Sonofa --" Katchoo still had a hand clamped over her nose so it sounded more like "Sssmfbuh!"

Amber raised her brows and took a step closer. "What's wrong with your nose?"

"It's fine, geez," Katchoo said defensively. "You oughta know what happens when you accidentally get smoke up your sinuses, right?"

Whoa. Veteran smoker was also one touchy chick. Amber nodded, making a face. "Yah, geeze, pfft. But I haven't done that since I was like... thirteen."

Touchy was an understatement, yeah. "So long you forgot what it was like?"

...

"Totally. Brr. Gettin' kinda cold out here, isn't it?"

Katchoo took one last, lung-capacity-defying drag off her cigarette and flicked it over the edge of the roof in a long glowing-red arc. "I dunno. It's kinda nice for bein' surrounded by icebergs."

Amber dutifully tried to suck the last drag off her own cigarette but having nothing to work with, she just tossed it, looking slightly embarrassed that she'd even tried.

"Nice but cold. Why are you here, at Fandom? Everyone's got a reason."

Katchoo sat down on the edge of the roof and dangled her legs over the side, looking away from Amber. "Got sent here. Someone thought it'd be a good idea," she said in the flat tone of 'I'm not talking about this.'

Clearly, with that tone, the poor girl needed to get it out of her system.

Amber thought to help her. "Yah? That kind of sucks. So you're here against your will, so to speak?"

That got her a piercing glare, maybe made a little more piercing by the flame of Katchoo's lighter as she started on a fresh cigarette.

"'s not goddamn therapy, y'know."

Hm. Amber settled her hand on her hip. "No need to get lippy, geeze. I'm a friendly sort, and sometimes that's just all you got around here. So... just... just put that in your pipe and smoke it!" She snorted and raised her chin a notch, heading for the door.

Aw, hell. She'd gone and hurt the girl's feelings, which she hadn't -- okay, not actively set out to do, but there were questions she didn't want to answer, and --

Katchoo got, for one moment, a mental image of herself as a cornered rabbit trying to bite and choked down the impulse to laugh, flicking ash off her cigarette hard instead.

"'s what they all say at first," she muttered under her breath.

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The roof, Wednesday night

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