Third Floor Common Room [Monday evening]

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

Celia was not sad that the little girl had left. Not at all. She was relieved -- she'd been exhausted by Margaret's exuberance, and mystified by who her father could be, and all Celia could talk about for the last two days was how much she was looking forward to sleeping the rest of the week.

But now that she was gone, and she'd touched her hair and asked Celia to come with her, and Celia could still remember the feel of her daughter in her arms...well. It was a little different, and she found herself wishing she could take back some of her complaining.

That was why she was sitting on the common room couch with a bowl of strawberry ice cream -- she'd picked a gallon up on her way back to the dorms, after saying goodbye. There had been other flavors, but the selection was overwhelming. She was vaguely watching the television, too, but she couldn't have said what was on.

She wasn't sad. She was just -- regretful, she supposed.

[open cr is open, come be sad or not-sad that your kids are gone. also: ice cream.]

Comments

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"Hey, Celia," Jessica said. She didn't have any kid sadness, but she did have some pretty weighty topics on her mind. So she could use some social behavior tonight. "Watching anything specific?" She didn't look like she was.

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

"I have no idea what this is," Celia admitted, gesturing vaguely at the screen. "Feel free to change it. How are you, Jessica?"

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"Conflicted and carrying the full weight of the world on my shoulders, just like all high schoolers," Jessica said, mock-dramatically. "You know how it goes."

She probably didn't, actually. But Jessica wasn't exactly sharing specifics about being asked to join a black ops team.

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

She could guess, at least. Though Celia's conflict usually came from an entirely different source than it did today. "Is it typical for our age, then?" she wondered. "I've never been around other teenagers before. I didn't know we were generally so angst-ridden."

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"Turn on the CW. Odds are you'll get some kind of dramatization of how angst-ridden fictional teenagers are. Real teenagers aren't as bad in some ways and way worse in others," Jessica explained.

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

"I mean, I know how I feel," Celia said, flipping to the channel with the little C and the little W in the corner. "I always just thought I was a bit dramatic."

Not any more than the average teenager.

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"You probably are," Jessica said. "But that just puts you in good company. Or miserable company. Depends on how you look at it, but I prefer to be positive."

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

"It's miserable company at the moment, I'm afraid," Celia replied forlornly. "Did you have children this weekend?"

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

"Oh, thank goodness, ice cream," Joker said upon entering the room. "Please tell me that's for sharing?"

Because, let's be honest, if he started drinking tonight he probably wasn't going to stop. Ice cream was a good substitute. This fucking island.

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

Joker waved a hand vaguely at Jessica. "Kids, amirite?"

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

Eleanor had noticed the sudden quiet settling on the dorms. She could guess at its cause; selfishly, she was relieved, even if most of the other students were possibly heartbroken.

"Margaret left?" she asked, lingering in the doorway. "Are you all right?"

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"I dodged that bullet this weekend," Jessica said. "I did have last year, though. Was today the day they left?"

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"You're right, there were kids," Jessica joked. "I didn't have any, though."

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

"Oh, man, how are you not just laughing at the rest of us? I had an abomination straight out of the darkest depths of bad self-published sci-fi."

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

"I can even make more appear with very minimal effort," Celia said with a small smile. "Share away."

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

"I'm all right," Celia said after a moment, sighing. "I spent most of the weekend wishing she wasn't here, and now that she's not...."

She trailed off. "Ice cream?"

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

"A few hours ago, yes," Celia said, eyeing her. "The ice cream-and-sadness reaction is also normal, then?"

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

"Why, thank you!" Joker told her with a grin. "Are we commiserating, or celebrating, here? Because, let me tell you, I am all KINDS of relieved."

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

"I'm mostly relieved," Celia decided. "Because I definitely do not want to permanently have a six year-old clinging to my hand. But she was sweet enough that I miss her, a bit. Same for you? Or did you have a little terror running around?"

She could see it going either way, honestly.

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

"Well, hello!" Joker called to her. "Did YOU get saddled with anything this weekend? I am so glad for that to be over!"

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"It wasn't for me, but I'm probably not the person you want to go to for normal reactions," Jessica said. "I cope with all things using my sense of humor or working on my cardio to a crazy degree. Or both. But most people hit the ice cream hard."

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

"I'm not even that sad," Celia insisted, flailing her spoon around a little. "Your way of dealing with this sounds much healthier, honestly. I think I'm mostly just tired. Do you know how exhausting a single six year-old can be? I'm not sure she slept if I was looking at her. I think my eyes alone woke her up."

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"A combination of empathy and not wanting to test the fates," Jessica said. "I mock you for having a bratty kid, who knows what happens to me next."

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

"Yes, please," Eleanor said, quickly. "She seemed very sweet. I imagine it would be hard saying good-bye to your own child. Do you still know nothing about her father?"

Anyone else, she might ask if it was perhaps someone she knew from home, but Celia's childhood had been as isolated as her own.

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, try 'unnatural abomination'," Joker declared. "Well-behaved, wicked sense of humor, and utterly fucking creepy. In order to miss him, I'd have to acknowledge his potential existence, and that? So not gonna happen." He shook his head dismissively.

"But... hey, you miss your kid, I get that. Maybe yours might actually happen one day. Who knows? Besides, with a mother like you, I'm sure she was adorable."