Fifth Floor Common Room | Morning | Sunday | March 20

[therewaslife]

Most mornings, Bod's breakfast consisted of cereal or some toast. This morning, he'd splurged a bit and gone into town for a dozen donuts. He didn't know why he had a particular craving for sugar of the donut variety this morning but he had the extra money and he had the time so there was nothing stopping him.

Of course, he wasn't going to eat them all in one sitting. He'd done that before and ended up with an awful stomachache and a few learned lessons. Never again. He'd eat just a few and he'd do so while lounging lazily on one of the couches, watching some early morning news program. It wasn't that exciting but he hadn't bothered to find the remote so laziness it was.

[Open, yep]

Comments

[therewaslife]

"Good morning," Bod said, sounding a little amused at how groggy and not awake Jeremy was. "Long night?"

[stars_and_money]

"Hard morning," Jeremy corrected as he made his way to the kitchen area and started fumbling with the coffee machine. "All mornings are hard, I hate them."

[therewaslife]

"I don't think they're that bad," he said, chuckling at poor Jeremy. "Why get up and face the mornings if you dislike them?"

[stars_and_money]

"Well --" He didn't get further than that because he'd just nearly dropped the pot but had caught it just in time, and being startled by that deserved a pause. "There's... stuff to do, and people to meet."

In short, he had no idea. Mornings were pointless.

[therewaslife]

"Well, I've sugar over here if you need an additional aide in awakening," Bod offered, waving the box of donuts over his head. "There is absolutely no way for me to eat them all so please help yourself."

[stars_and_money]

"Thanks, dude," Jeremy replied sincerely. "Definitely saves me a trip into town. Not that I was gonna be able to make one anyway."

[therewaslife]

"Have you at least had a good weekend to warrant a long morning?" Bod asked, settling back down against the couch and reaching for another donut. "It's not as stressful as last weekend, I hope?"

[stars_and_money]

"No way, this weekend's been heaven compared to last," Jeremy said, emphatically, as he sent impatient looks the coffee machine's way now that it was actually doing something. "Last weekend I had to tell my dad and my sister I was doing an experiment for a social psychology class, it was a major nightmare."

[therewaslife]

"Did they believe you?" Bod asked hopefully, turning to glance over his shoulder. "Was that a good enough reason for them to explain away the random oddities?"

[stars_and_money]

Jeremy leaned against the counter, crossing his arms. "No dude, that was my personal excuse for acting a little weird," he clarified, shaking his head. "I don't think they noticed the island's wackiness, but I'm pretty sure they thought I was baked."

[therewaslife]

"Baked?" That slang had not yet reached Bod's internal dictionary. "They thought you were a cook of some kind?"

[stars_and_money]

It was too early in the morning for someone to not understand something Jeremy was saying. It made him look quizzical for a moment. "... Oh. No, I mean they thought I was high. Probably."

[therewaslife]

"Oh!" Bod looked apologetic for a moment. "Sorry, Jeremy. I haven't yet learned all of the slang of this place as of yet. There's so much of it. Did they leave angry with you?"

[stars_and_money]

Jeremy shrugged. "Don't know, they didn't say." Wouldn't have been anyrthing new even if they had. But then again, Karen had also been drunk through parts of the weekend. "I was sorta more concerned with making sure I didn't screw up cinema girl's weekend, since she asked me not to."

Despite the fact that he still didn't know her name.

[therewaslife]

"Someone asked you not to ruin their weekend?"

Bod hadn't picked up that he meant Kate and he'd been repressing that weekend so much that he hadn't yet recalled why Jeremy's face was almost making him...uncomfortable. It was just a nagging feeling but it was there.

"Why?"

[stars_and_money]

"Well, it's a Fandom freaky thing," Jeremy explained, oblivious to any and all discomfort he was about to cause. "Her boyfriend came to visit, and he looks just like me, but a decade older and with bad hair, and she didn't want him to see me so he wouldn't flip out. And I can totally respect that wish, dude."

And Jeremy had a tendency of doing whatever pretty girls asked him to, anyway.

[therewaslife]

"Oh my God," Bod said when the realization finally struck him. "Oh my God, you look like my ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend."

As soon as he realized it, he couldn't help remembering that entire weekend. What he'd seen, what Silas had done, the conversation with Kate, everything.

"I cannot -- wow. It is an uncanny resemblance. You're far younger and...not kissing my ex-girlfriend in front of me. I cannot believe I didn't see this before."

[stars_and_money]

"Huh?" Yes, it took Jeremy a moment longer to get up to speed. Sure, he knew Bod had a big ex lurking on the island but seriously, of course this possibility hadn't crossed his mind.

"Wait, cinema girl is your ex?" His face fell. "Oh, man, I'm sorry."

[therewaslife]

"It's not your fault, you didn't know," Bod said, rubbing his forehead and laughing humorlessly. "You're not him, you're not...dating her right now. You just have a similar...look about you."

It was almost uncanny but Bod was trying not to make Jeremy feel worse and trying to desperately differentiate the two of them in his mind so he wouldn't see Jeremy kissing Kate when he closed his eyes.

[stars_and_money]

"Well, at least I didn't say anything about, like, wishing she'd trade him in for the younger model?"

... This was just one of the many reasons Jeremy shouldn't have been allowed to talk to people before his coffee. He winced once he realized what he'd said. "Sorry."

[therewaslife]

Bod laughed again and rubbed his eyes, wondering just how his life had gotten so comically awful over the last few months. It was ridiculous and humorous all at once.

"You've no need to apologize," Bod insisted, shaking his head. "I'm sorry that she asked you to do that, to hide. She shouldn't have. It's not your fault that you look like him and it's not your fault he apparently can't stomach anything unusual."

[stars_and_money]

Jeremy pursed his lips and frowned a little, not quite agreeing. "Well, I wouldn't have wanted my dad to see him either, and she was taking care of that too," he said. "It was a two-way deal, she didn't force me into it."

[therewaslife]

Bod nodded. "He apparently insisted on coming. She didn't invite him so that makes me feel a little better about it not being intentional on her part, me seeing him with her and all."

[stars_and_money]

"I'm sure she didn't mean to bring you down or anything." Not that Jeremy knew, he just wanted to be sympathetic and reassuring. "I mean, she didn't seem thrilled he was coming, either."

[therewaslife]

"I don't think she meant that either." After putting some distance between himself and the weekend, he could admit that now. "I'm trying to forget that weekend happened. I can never seem to make it through one of those unscathed and it wasn't just Kate either."