Main Campfire | Afternoon | Tuesday | June 7

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

Nathan wasn't sure how he felt about all this cabin shit. On the one hand, it was a bed and after sleeping on the floor in a community center for months, beds were always good. On the other, there was like no fucking privacy. There was less privacy than in the regular dorm rooms and those were pretty damn open and exposed.

Nathan sighed and lit a cigarette. He wondered if sitting around a campfire meant he was supposed to sing campfire songs or if he was supposed to join hands with someone and meditate. He'd never gone to camp as a kid and was kind of really glad for that. No one was going to get him into too short puke green shorts and no one was going to get him to sleep in the bottom bunk under some smelly kid named Clive.

Nathan gingerly touched his broken nose and the bruising under his eyes before grimacing and pulling his hand away. Kate was damn lucky she'd run away because Nathan had planned on...glaring intently at her. He didn't know. He just knew he owed her something for making his face look like it did.

With a groan, Nathan leaned back against one of the logs and blew out a few smoke circles. Cabins did make it easier for him to seem like a courteous guy with his smoking, at least. Maybe he'd get a reputation as a nice guy.

Yeah, right.

Comments

[dabblinginbitch.livejournal.com]

Ramona bit her lower lip, considering that. "I'd get it if people were mad at me after I did that," she said carefully, which was just basically an admission of guilt.

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, that's what I thought," he said, turning back onto his side. "Sure yeah, I get why people got mad but you can't deny that I had logical, valid reasons for not saying goodbye. The fucking suck."

[dabblinginbitch.livejournal.com]

"I would've been a bitch about it, too," she admitted, threading her fingers over his hair. "Probably. So, okay, I get it, but it sucked on my end. Didn't exactly make me feel...." And now she had to pick a word that wasn't too weighty or whatever, because god forbid, "...important."

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

Nathan started to say that no one got a fucking goodbye but he stopped himself before he could get too far into that potentially fatal statement.

"Important?" Nathan repeated, keeping his tone casual. Of course he was going to pick at her word choice. "Did you really want to say goodbye to me? Did you want to hug and cry and cling to each other like a bad soap opera?"

[dabblinginbitch.livejournal.com]

"Why do you always have to take it to the douche place?" she asked, instantly annoyed and removing her hand from his hair. Another remark like that and she'd get up without moving his head first. "Why can't you ever just take something nice that I say and let it be a nice thing? Yes, I wanted to say goodbye to you. And if I left, you'd want to say goodbye to me, too. Because that's how friends work."

Though all bets were clearly off with whatever it was they were, apparently.

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

Nathan hoped she didn't expect any honest answers to those questions because, while he might have had them, he wasn't going to give them. That would leave him way too exposed. It was one of those good ole protective instincts. He was sure she knew about those too.

"So, if I take things seriously, does that mean you're gonna stop measuring every single fucking word you say to me?" Nathan retorted because, yeah, he could tell by now.

[dabblinginbitch.livejournal.com]

"Depends on whether you're baiting me," she said honestly. "But sure. If you take shit seriously, I'll stop that."

She hadn't expected him to notice it that acutely.

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

Nathan was quiet for a moment before wincing. "I can't take everything serious. It's fucking impossible. It is literally something that cannot be accomplished even if I tried. I'm not wired that way."

[dabblinginbitch.livejournal.com]

"I wouldn't talk to you anyway if you were," she said, making a face. "Ew. Fuck that. Just don't be an asshole about whether I missed you or would theoretically, and you won't get the cagey answers that don't answer anything, deal?"

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

Nathan still thought he was gonna get a bunch of cagey answers, if he was honest. He'd taken things seriously before and gotten cagey answers and stalked off.

"You really think you can be straight up and honest and drop this mysterious allure that you love so fucking much?"

[dabblinginbitch.livejournal.com]

"I can try," she said, blowing out a breath. "I mean, I do the mystery thing for the same reason you do the jackass thing. Seems like a fair trade."

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

"The same reason?" Huh, maybe she was picking up on more of his defense mechanisms than he thought. It probably hadn't been that hard but he also hadn't realized she'd been looking. "What reason do I do the jackass thing? I thought it was just because it made me irresistible to the ladies."

[dabblinginbitch.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, that's definitely why we're talking about it," Ramona agreed. "Because I find it so attractive."

...even if that was true, at least a little. Damn her type.

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

"Oh yeah?" Trust Nathan to take something that was clearly sarcasm as complete honesty. It made him feel so much better about himself. "And what else do you find irresistible about me?"

[dabblinginbitch.livejournal.com]

Ramona arched a brow, a little smile playing about her lips. "Where would the fun be in just telling you?"

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

"Well, it would make me smile and I know that would just give you a tingle in your lady parts," Nathan said confidently. "That's why you should tell me."

[dabblinginbitch.livejournal.com]

"Lady parts tingling aside, since it's not happening," Ramona replied, "I'm not sure I'm getting anything out of this."

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

"Why the hell do you have to get something out of it?" Nathan asked, raising an eyebrow. "You can't do anything just to make someone else feel food. That's so selfish of you, Ramona."

Yeah, because he wouldn't do the same thing.

[dabblinginbitch.livejournal.com]

"I'm not being selfish, I'm demanding equality," she replied. "If I'm stroking your ego, I should be getting something out of it. It's only fair."

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

"I've got my head in your lap," Nathan pointed out, smirking even if she couldn't see it. "I could just shift around a little and you'd get plenty of stroking even if I would be using my tongue and not my words."

[dabblinginbitch.livejournal.com]

"We're at a campfire," she reminded him, even if she did experience a little tingle at those words. "Even I have limits to exhibitionism."

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

"You telling me you don't want me to do something like that?" Nathan asked, shifting again but this time it was so he could possibly (or definitely) run the tip of his tongue along the thigh he'd been resting his cheek against. He could do that and not bother his broken nose.

[dabblinginbitch.livejournal.com]

"...I didn't say that, I just said we're at a campfire," Ramona said, unable to keep from sighing a little. "Besides, you're injured?"

...why was that a question?

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

"Why was that a question?" Nathan asked, stopping his ministrations for the time it took to answer that question before restarting them.

[dabblinginbitch.livejournal.com]

"Because your tongue distracted me," she said, shifting that leg to stretch it a little. "If you want things to not be questions you shouldn't be licking me, I guess."