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ax_main2018-03-22 06:04 pm
ax_diamondlil) wrote in ax_main2018-03-22 06:04 pm
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Lil and Warren - March 22
Hell freezes over. Pigs fly. A miracle occurs.
The brackets or whatever the fuck they were had just about killed Lil. She took it seriously at first, learning about the statistics and combing through numbers, trying to make sense of college basketball that way, but it was hard to see the connections when she just didn't give a shit. Give her RBIs and ERAs and a seaon of baseball and she'd be in heaven, but this fucking sport... Not even major leagues, just stupid schools going at it.
In the end she gave up, wrote the names of the teams on slips of paper and picked them out out of a bowl.
She was clutching the paper she'd written her picks on, ready to make Teddy cry by telling him how she'd decided, when she just about ran into Warren coming out of the rec room.
"Shit... um, sorry." She moved out of the way to let him pass.
Warren was doing the same, stepping out of the doorway for her, simultaneously. He just nodded and said, "Sorry," as well, straight-faced, blank. Overly polite.
Yeah, this wasn't awkward at all. Lil returned his nod and slipped by him. At least he'd said something, which was marginally better than the way than the way he and his boyfriends liked to pretend she didn't exist most of the time. Ah well, fuck 'em.
The next time Warren ran into Lil was in the cafeteria. They both reached for the breadstick tongs. Warren’s feathers ruffled, but that was the only indication he gave of his annoyance. He took a step back and said, “Excuse me. Go ahead.” Zero expression but perfect, polished politeness. Just like he’d promised himself.
The bread wasn't really worth the drama, but she could hardly back off now without looking like a turd, so she smiled, said thank you, and grabbed the tongs. She took three breadsticks which was par for the course for her, but she still enjoyed thinking that maybe Warren was steaming a little behind the mask as he waited.
He wanted to roll his eyes, but contained his impulses and waited. Still, except for the odd feather ruffle. Completely straight faced and polite.
It was another week before Lil had the misfortune of seeing Warren up close again. It was another basketball game in the rec room and this time it was Lil leaving, almost bouncing from the long chat she'd had with Teddy about how wonderful Nick was.
Warren narrowly avoided sighing when he saw her. He could go months without running into a given student outside the classroom, but not Lil. Of course not Lil. Literally the only student who annoyed him on sight. He stepped aside and gestured, this time silent. He didn't trust himself to speak.
She nodded and stepped lightly through, too occupied with thoughts of Nick to care that much. Or only just enough to say a cheerful something that she probably shouldn’t have.
“Why thank you, Frosty!”
If she wanted a reaction, she finally got it. Warren gave her his coldest seriously, man? look.
Lil smiled and continued down the hall. Hey, he could act like a twelve year old girl if he wanted to about the whole meeting thing, but she didn't have to play along.
Warren rolled his eyes and kept walking. Whatever. She was a giant child. It was fine, and after the Final Four was over he'd be less likely to run into her.
Except that left the time between now and the championship. And of course, he ran into her again, this time trying to get out the door from the one class they shared, proving him wrong altogether. Hand to hand. Dammit. Warren stepped out of the aisle as she stepped into it, politely saying, "After you," and maintaining the stony countenance.
Jesus Christ, this was getting tiring. Scratch her earlier thoughts that this was not as bad as being ignored - She'd take Simon's shunning over Warren's Big Boy act any day. Still, she smiled and quietly hummed a few bars of Frosty the Snowman as she walked by.
"Seriously?" Warren asked before he could stop himself.
Lil shrugged. "Not really. But until that icicle you've got shoved up your ass melts, it works for me."
Warren waited for another student to pass before stepping nearer, saying with a lowered voice, "What do you want from me now, Lil?"
That one line was probably as good a summary of how Warren saw her as she was going to get, and it made her wonder what the hell she was doing exactly. "I guess I want you to stop playing around at the polite thing. You don't even had the balls to tell me what the fuck you're upset about, so it's not like this is a maturity thing where you're taking the high road. If you want to ignore me, just do it."
"What is it about me that makes you feel like you're entitled to tell me how to do--anything?" Warren asked, eyes narrowed, feathers ruffling with frustration. "Is it like a hobby with you, or what?"
Lil rolled her eyes. "Holy shit. We've only really talked three times, Warren, and the last time barely counts."
"Three times is a pattern," he said, only narrowly avoiding rolling his eyes right back. "Maybe if you don't like the fact that I'm polite even when I think someone is a total pain in the ass, you should ignore me."
"The last time I was thanking you. The second-last time you came to me with questions and we managed to work shit out, so tell me again about patterns?" Lil crossed her arms but managed to keep her tone calm. A couple of months of therapy seemed to be paying off a little in that department.
"Okay, if we're counting that half-assed thank you, it's actually four times that we've spoken," Warren said with a sigh, yanking his hand through his hair. "So that's still three times you've seen fit to give me shit about things that were none of your business, minus that one time I pretty much ignored you. My mistake, I guess.
"Do you seriously not see it? Or are you just trolling me? For real?"
It occurred to her that this might be one of those moments Kurt was talking about with the whole, 'try listening' thing. She frowned and tilted her head to the side. "The dance. I'd forgotten about that. I gave you shit then?"
Warren narrowed his eyes suspiciously, wings tucking up tight. This was exactly the kind of situation he'd been trying to avoid with Lil. Goddammit. Talking to her was like banging his head off a brick wall--he ended up with a headache and she... was a fucking brick wall.
Ah, fuck it, he was in it now. "You kept your disapproval mostly silent then, at least. But you made it pretty damn clear the bisexual polyamorous dude was freaking you out. Which, okay, cool, I kept my distance. Until the next thing about me pissed you off."
"Oh shit. Oh." Lil put a hand up over her eyes for a second before dropping it again. There was absolutely no way to deny that. "Yeah, it did freak me out. I mean, you being sorta drunk and friendly did too 'cause... well, stuff that's got nothing to do with you, but you're right. I was an asshole about that."
Warren... was just more and more confused, brow furrowing. "Okay, that's fair, I get that I can be kinda frat-boy and it's--not for everyone. But--yeah. You were. So then you come at me and mine and act like it's okay to lose your shit on us, but we have to be all sweetness and light... like, pattern, man."
Lil nodded. Taken on the heels of her being an intolerant jerk, yeah, she got why it looked that way. "Okay, especially with you thinking I had a problem with you, and well, I pretty much did so... " The rest she wasn't so good with because there were reasons for why she'd been like that and she wanted to hammer away at them until Warren understood, but when had that ever worked for her? She was doing better with Kurt's advice in her head, so why not grit her teeth and keep going? "I see that. I mean, it looked different in my head, and I'm itching to tell you that's not what I meant, but then I got a hard time getting what's in my head out of my head and still have it make an sense. Especially back then."
Warren blinked a few times, feathers ruffling. "Okay... and then nothing I could offer you was good enough, because it had to be me doing what you wanted--and then you went and did that stupid door to door thing yourself, just to prove a point. And then you didn't even bother to show up to support the kids you were supposedly so concerned about having a voice, after all that bullshit you fed me...
"Are you fucking with me? Please, just... don't. I'm done with it, okay?"
"No! Honest I'm not!" Lil shook her head in earnest. "I just... I've been trying to get myself sorted out - therapy and stuff - and then Kurt came and talked to me, and I'm getting what he said right now. That's all. I mean, you're dead wrong about why I did the door thing, but if I stand here yelling at you about it, I never find out why you think I did it, right? And I get why me missing the meeting upsets you now. This listening shit is pretty decent."
Warren still didn't look convinced. With most people, he would've thought the slightly TMI explanation was overkill, but... it actually seemed in character for Lil. Entirely. And yet... "Yeah, Kurt and I talked about it. Not that everyone else wasn't already annoyed about it, but it turned out we were all kinda thinking the same thing.
"Why did you do the door thing?" God, why was he asking? What was wrong with him!
Lil squinted a little. Did he honestly not remember or had he just discounted what she'd said at the time as bull? "I did tell you why, waaay back. Some kids need to be told face-to-face that they're welcome, especially to something popular kids are organizing. When school social stuff is here," Lil drew a circle with her left hand, "and you're way out here," She poked a finger into the dead space way outside the circle, "You just take it for granted you're never welcome. I didn't think passing out some flyers to all the kids in case there's one like that was a big deal."
"No, I heard what you said and entertained it--obviously." Warren still looked confused and suspicious, though. "But then you fucking bailed, so I took that for confirmation of what I suspected all along: that your concern for other kids was all just bullshit so you could talk me into jumping through some more hoops."
"Ugh. I didn't bail, and I really don't sit around thinking up ways to make you jump through hoops." The irritation was sneaking up on her. Trying to work around Warren's assumptions without getting angry was really hard work. She sighed. "I thought I was doing the right thing. I didn't trust myself so I thought it would be better for those kids if they didn't have to worry about me blowing up over something. Plus, I'm out here," Lil again poked a finger at that dead space in the air, "when it comes to you and the Activist Club and I just sort of went back to old habits and assumed that if you weren't saying I should be there, you probably didn't want me there." She stared at the spot her finger had abandoned. "I should have just checked in with you, or we should have been talking more or something. I don't know, but I am sorry for not understanding what people were expecting."
Right, okay. Warren was almost starting to believe she wasn't trolling him, if only because her frustration, at least, seemed genuine. And she was really, really awful at talking--that much, he knew. But, "Okay, but see, you put it like that and it sounds like the problem is with their expectation. It's not. I'm not the only one who spontaneously thought it was shitty that you didn't show up--because the blow up that everyone is completely aware inspired that meeting? That was you, and it was in public. People I never even talked to about our planning meetings noticed.
"This isn't about us expecting anything wild and crazy, it's about you putting your shit on everyone else. Maybe you're not going out of your way to jerk me around, but you keep putting a lot of shit on me in particular, and I'm tired." As he said it, he realized it wasn't just Lil that made him tired. Fucking... everything made him tired. And he should've just ignored her like he planned to, but now he'd opened his mouth... ugh.
"I know I fucked up," Lil said slowly because she was coming to the end of her patience. "I know that people think it's shitty that I didn't go. I know it's not wrong that they expected me to be there. I get that. I was telling you why I didn't get it before so that you knew it wasn't 'cause I was upset or being a bitch to you. If I'm talking about what should have been, like us talking a bit more, it doesn't mean it's not my fault I didn't show, it's just... I don't know, part of working it out so it doesn't happen again."
For just a second, Warren stood in stunned silence. Then he finally managed, "Okay." And ruffled his feathers. "I... get it. I think.
"I didn't actually mean to unload on you. That's pretty much exactly what I was trying to avoid with the polite indifference."
"Oh my god!" Lil smiled and relaxed. "All right, and I get why you wouldn't want to do that 'cause my track record is shit with taking that sort of thing, but the other thing is so much worse. I'd really like to be able to share Teddy and not have to fucking tiptoe around each other." And okay, maybe she really did think he still bore a little more responsibility then he cared to admit in the whole meeting fiasco, but it seemed not taking her usual approach of airing every grievance might get her farther along after all. "And I do apologize to you for not being at the meeting."
Warren nodded, relieved but still surprised at how this was going. "It's not that I thought you owed me an apology, but thanks. I just--I mean, did you really think you weren't wanted? You gave out all the invitations and then needed one yourself?" This was a sincere question, causing a furrow in his brow. Because... that hinted at a level of fucked-upness that... was probably accurate, actually, considering everything she'd just said. But still.
"I didn't think you guys were being mean about it or anything, just that... I dunno. Passing out those flyers is the most I've ever done for a school thing, so I don't know how this stuff goes." She couldn't help the red flush creeping up her cheeks, because she had no idea what he looking for but was sure that what she offered wasnt' anything a Worthington would understand. "I was way outside the circle, remember? I'm doing a lot of catching up."
That sounded like a lot more of the "putting her shit on other people" thing, but Warren would leave that up to her therapist to resolve. "There's less of a circle than you think, but okay. I mean--if you want the secret to social interaction in a place like this? That's it. There's always less of a circle than you think. Just, take it from someone who grew up in boarding schools."
The sum total of Lil's knowledge of boarding schools was contained in the Harry Potter movies, so she wasn't sure exactly what that had to do with anything. She shook her head. "Nothing personal, but I've spent 12 years of public school being on the outside, and the only people who seem to think it's not a big deal dealing with the social stuff are people who who can deal with the social stuff. Which sounds stupid now that I said, but it made sense in here." Lil tapped the side of her head and sighed.
“No, actually, you’re right.” No one was more surprised than Warren. Had he stepped into opposite world? Shouldn’t she have a goatee, if so? “I just mean that when a bunch of kids live together like...”
He chuckled and shook his head. “Never mind. Doesn’t matter. Glad we figured out how to share Teddy before the championship game.”
Holy fuck. His acknowledgement felt like a goddamn miracle. Not that she was ready to be friends or anything - she was well aware that the first time she fucked up, everything they'd talked about could dry up and blow away and he'd be right back to thinking she wasn't worth talking to - but at least for now, things were better.
"Yeah, 'cause I think I'm not gonna be able to get out of watching that, so we'd be passing snacks back and forth in stony silence and driving him up the wall."
"Teddy totally doesn't deserve that," Warren said with a snort of a laugh. Poor guy was way too nice to deal with their shit. "Right. Well. See you there." He gave a little mock salute.
"See you!" Lil returned the salute and turned away. How the fuck they'd managed this, she wasn't quite sure, but she'd stayed calm, kept Kurt's advice in mind, and yeah, Warren had stepped up too. And maybe he could do that because she'd given him the room to with that listening bit. Who knew? She'd dissect it later, but right now she wanted to grab some chocolate, find Nick, and snuggle in to share the extremely good mood she was suddenly in.
The brackets or whatever the fuck they were had just about killed Lil. She took it seriously at first, learning about the statistics and combing through numbers, trying to make sense of college basketball that way, but it was hard to see the connections when she just didn't give a shit. Give her RBIs and ERAs and a seaon of baseball and she'd be in heaven, but this fucking sport... Not even major leagues, just stupid schools going at it.
In the end she gave up, wrote the names of the teams on slips of paper and picked them out out of a bowl.
She was clutching the paper she'd written her picks on, ready to make Teddy cry by telling him how she'd decided, when she just about ran into Warren coming out of the rec room.
"Shit... um, sorry." She moved out of the way to let him pass.
Warren was doing the same, stepping out of the doorway for her, simultaneously. He just nodded and said, "Sorry," as well, straight-faced, blank. Overly polite.
Yeah, this wasn't awkward at all. Lil returned his nod and slipped by him. At least he'd said something, which was marginally better than the way than the way he and his boyfriends liked to pretend she didn't exist most of the time. Ah well, fuck 'em.
The next time Warren ran into Lil was in the cafeteria. They both reached for the breadstick tongs. Warren’s feathers ruffled, but that was the only indication he gave of his annoyance. He took a step back and said, “Excuse me. Go ahead.” Zero expression but perfect, polished politeness. Just like he’d promised himself.
The bread wasn't really worth the drama, but she could hardly back off now without looking like a turd, so she smiled, said thank you, and grabbed the tongs. She took three breadsticks which was par for the course for her, but she still enjoyed thinking that maybe Warren was steaming a little behind the mask as he waited.
He wanted to roll his eyes, but contained his impulses and waited. Still, except for the odd feather ruffle. Completely straight faced and polite.
It was another week before Lil had the misfortune of seeing Warren up close again. It was another basketball game in the rec room and this time it was Lil leaving, almost bouncing from the long chat she'd had with Teddy about how wonderful Nick was.
Warren narrowly avoided sighing when he saw her. He could go months without running into a given student outside the classroom, but not Lil. Of course not Lil. Literally the only student who annoyed him on sight. He stepped aside and gestured, this time silent. He didn't trust himself to speak.
She nodded and stepped lightly through, too occupied with thoughts of Nick to care that much. Or only just enough to say a cheerful something that she probably shouldn’t have.
“Why thank you, Frosty!”
If she wanted a reaction, she finally got it. Warren gave her his coldest seriously, man? look.
Lil smiled and continued down the hall. Hey, he could act like a twelve year old girl if he wanted to about the whole meeting thing, but she didn't have to play along.
Warren rolled his eyes and kept walking. Whatever. She was a giant child. It was fine, and after the Final Four was over he'd be less likely to run into her.
Except that left the time between now and the championship. And of course, he ran into her again, this time trying to get out the door from the one class they shared, proving him wrong altogether. Hand to hand. Dammit. Warren stepped out of the aisle as she stepped into it, politely saying, "After you," and maintaining the stony countenance.
Jesus Christ, this was getting tiring. Scratch her earlier thoughts that this was not as bad as being ignored - She'd take Simon's shunning over Warren's Big Boy act any day. Still, she smiled and quietly hummed a few bars of Frosty the Snowman as she walked by.
"Seriously?" Warren asked before he could stop himself.
Lil shrugged. "Not really. But until that icicle you've got shoved up your ass melts, it works for me."
Warren waited for another student to pass before stepping nearer, saying with a lowered voice, "What do you want from me now, Lil?"
That one line was probably as good a summary of how Warren saw her as she was going to get, and it made her wonder what the hell she was doing exactly. "I guess I want you to stop playing around at the polite thing. You don't even had the balls to tell me what the fuck you're upset about, so it's not like this is a maturity thing where you're taking the high road. If you want to ignore me, just do it."
"What is it about me that makes you feel like you're entitled to tell me how to do--anything?" Warren asked, eyes narrowed, feathers ruffling with frustration. "Is it like a hobby with you, or what?"
Lil rolled her eyes. "Holy shit. We've only really talked three times, Warren, and the last time barely counts."
"Three times is a pattern," he said, only narrowly avoiding rolling his eyes right back. "Maybe if you don't like the fact that I'm polite even when I think someone is a total pain in the ass, you should ignore me."
"The last time I was thanking you. The second-last time you came to me with questions and we managed to work shit out, so tell me again about patterns?" Lil crossed her arms but managed to keep her tone calm. A couple of months of therapy seemed to be paying off a little in that department.
"Okay, if we're counting that half-assed thank you, it's actually four times that we've spoken," Warren said with a sigh, yanking his hand through his hair. "So that's still three times you've seen fit to give me shit about things that were none of your business, minus that one time I pretty much ignored you. My mistake, I guess.
"Do you seriously not see it? Or are you just trolling me? For real?"
It occurred to her that this might be one of those moments Kurt was talking about with the whole, 'try listening' thing. She frowned and tilted her head to the side. "The dance. I'd forgotten about that. I gave you shit then?"
Warren narrowed his eyes suspiciously, wings tucking up tight. This was exactly the kind of situation he'd been trying to avoid with Lil. Goddammit. Talking to her was like banging his head off a brick wall--he ended up with a headache and she... was a fucking brick wall.
Ah, fuck it, he was in it now. "You kept your disapproval mostly silent then, at least. But you made it pretty damn clear the bisexual polyamorous dude was freaking you out. Which, okay, cool, I kept my distance. Until the next thing about me pissed you off."
"Oh shit. Oh." Lil put a hand up over her eyes for a second before dropping it again. There was absolutely no way to deny that. "Yeah, it did freak me out. I mean, you being sorta drunk and friendly did too 'cause... well, stuff that's got nothing to do with you, but you're right. I was an asshole about that."
Warren... was just more and more confused, brow furrowing. "Okay, that's fair, I get that I can be kinda frat-boy and it's--not for everyone. But--yeah. You were. So then you come at me and mine and act like it's okay to lose your shit on us, but we have to be all sweetness and light... like, pattern, man."
Lil nodded. Taken on the heels of her being an intolerant jerk, yeah, she got why it looked that way. "Okay, especially with you thinking I had a problem with you, and well, I pretty much did so... " The rest she wasn't so good with because there were reasons for why she'd been like that and she wanted to hammer away at them until Warren understood, but when had that ever worked for her? She was doing better with Kurt's advice in her head, so why not grit her teeth and keep going? "I see that. I mean, it looked different in my head, and I'm itching to tell you that's not what I meant, but then I got a hard time getting what's in my head out of my head and still have it make an sense. Especially back then."
Warren blinked a few times, feathers ruffling. "Okay... and then nothing I could offer you was good enough, because it had to be me doing what you wanted--and then you went and did that stupid door to door thing yourself, just to prove a point. And then you didn't even bother to show up to support the kids you were supposedly so concerned about having a voice, after all that bullshit you fed me...
"Are you fucking with me? Please, just... don't. I'm done with it, okay?"
"No! Honest I'm not!" Lil shook her head in earnest. "I just... I've been trying to get myself sorted out - therapy and stuff - and then Kurt came and talked to me, and I'm getting what he said right now. That's all. I mean, you're dead wrong about why I did the door thing, but if I stand here yelling at you about it, I never find out why you think I did it, right? And I get why me missing the meeting upsets you now. This listening shit is pretty decent."
Warren still didn't look convinced. With most people, he would've thought the slightly TMI explanation was overkill, but... it actually seemed in character for Lil. Entirely. And yet... "Yeah, Kurt and I talked about it. Not that everyone else wasn't already annoyed about it, but it turned out we were all kinda thinking the same thing.
"Why did you do the door thing?" God, why was he asking? What was wrong with him!
Lil squinted a little. Did he honestly not remember or had he just discounted what she'd said at the time as bull? "I did tell you why, waaay back. Some kids need to be told face-to-face that they're welcome, especially to something popular kids are organizing. When school social stuff is here," Lil drew a circle with her left hand, "and you're way out here," She poked a finger into the dead space way outside the circle, "You just take it for granted you're never welcome. I didn't think passing out some flyers to all the kids in case there's one like that was a big deal."
"No, I heard what you said and entertained it--obviously." Warren still looked confused and suspicious, though. "But then you fucking bailed, so I took that for confirmation of what I suspected all along: that your concern for other kids was all just bullshit so you could talk me into jumping through some more hoops."
"Ugh. I didn't bail, and I really don't sit around thinking up ways to make you jump through hoops." The irritation was sneaking up on her. Trying to work around Warren's assumptions without getting angry was really hard work. She sighed. "I thought I was doing the right thing. I didn't trust myself so I thought it would be better for those kids if they didn't have to worry about me blowing up over something. Plus, I'm out here," Lil again poked a finger at that dead space in the air, "when it comes to you and the Activist Club and I just sort of went back to old habits and assumed that if you weren't saying I should be there, you probably didn't want me there." She stared at the spot her finger had abandoned. "I should have just checked in with you, or we should have been talking more or something. I don't know, but I am sorry for not understanding what people were expecting."
Right, okay. Warren was almost starting to believe she wasn't trolling him, if only because her frustration, at least, seemed genuine. And she was really, really awful at talking--that much, he knew. But, "Okay, but see, you put it like that and it sounds like the problem is with their expectation. It's not. I'm not the only one who spontaneously thought it was shitty that you didn't show up--because the blow up that everyone is completely aware inspired that meeting? That was you, and it was in public. People I never even talked to about our planning meetings noticed.
"This isn't about us expecting anything wild and crazy, it's about you putting your shit on everyone else. Maybe you're not going out of your way to jerk me around, but you keep putting a lot of shit on me in particular, and I'm tired." As he said it, he realized it wasn't just Lil that made him tired. Fucking... everything made him tired. And he should've just ignored her like he planned to, but now he'd opened his mouth... ugh.
"I know I fucked up," Lil said slowly because she was coming to the end of her patience. "I know that people think it's shitty that I didn't go. I know it's not wrong that they expected me to be there. I get that. I was telling you why I didn't get it before so that you knew it wasn't 'cause I was upset or being a bitch to you. If I'm talking about what should have been, like us talking a bit more, it doesn't mean it's not my fault I didn't show, it's just... I don't know, part of working it out so it doesn't happen again."
For just a second, Warren stood in stunned silence. Then he finally managed, "Okay." And ruffled his feathers. "I... get it. I think.
"I didn't actually mean to unload on you. That's pretty much exactly what I was trying to avoid with the polite indifference."
"Oh my god!" Lil smiled and relaxed. "All right, and I get why you wouldn't want to do that 'cause my track record is shit with taking that sort of thing, but the other thing is so much worse. I'd really like to be able to share Teddy and not have to fucking tiptoe around each other." And okay, maybe she really did think he still bore a little more responsibility then he cared to admit in the whole meeting fiasco, but it seemed not taking her usual approach of airing every grievance might get her farther along after all. "And I do apologize to you for not being at the meeting."
Warren nodded, relieved but still surprised at how this was going. "It's not that I thought you owed me an apology, but thanks. I just--I mean, did you really think you weren't wanted? You gave out all the invitations and then needed one yourself?" This was a sincere question, causing a furrow in his brow. Because... that hinted at a level of fucked-upness that... was probably accurate, actually, considering everything she'd just said. But still.
"I didn't think you guys were being mean about it or anything, just that... I dunno. Passing out those flyers is the most I've ever done for a school thing, so I don't know how this stuff goes." She couldn't help the red flush creeping up her cheeks, because she had no idea what he looking for but was sure that what she offered wasnt' anything a Worthington would understand. "I was way outside the circle, remember? I'm doing a lot of catching up."
That sounded like a lot more of the "putting her shit on other people" thing, but Warren would leave that up to her therapist to resolve. "There's less of a circle than you think, but okay. I mean--if you want the secret to social interaction in a place like this? That's it. There's always less of a circle than you think. Just, take it from someone who grew up in boarding schools."
The sum total of Lil's knowledge of boarding schools was contained in the Harry Potter movies, so she wasn't sure exactly what that had to do with anything. She shook her head. "Nothing personal, but I've spent 12 years of public school being on the outside, and the only people who seem to think it's not a big deal dealing with the social stuff are people who who can deal with the social stuff. Which sounds stupid now that I said, but it made sense in here." Lil tapped the side of her head and sighed.
“No, actually, you’re right.” No one was more surprised than Warren. Had he stepped into opposite world? Shouldn’t she have a goatee, if so? “I just mean that when a bunch of kids live together like...”
He chuckled and shook his head. “Never mind. Doesn’t matter. Glad we figured out how to share Teddy before the championship game.”
Holy fuck. His acknowledgement felt like a goddamn miracle. Not that she was ready to be friends or anything - she was well aware that the first time she fucked up, everything they'd talked about could dry up and blow away and he'd be right back to thinking she wasn't worth talking to - but at least for now, things were better.
"Yeah, 'cause I think I'm not gonna be able to get out of watching that, so we'd be passing snacks back and forth in stony silence and driving him up the wall."
"Teddy totally doesn't deserve that," Warren said with a snort of a laugh. Poor guy was way too nice to deal with their shit. "Right. Well. See you there." He gave a little mock salute.
"See you!" Lil returned the salute and turned away. How the fuck they'd managed this, she wasn't quite sure, but she'd stayed calm, kept Kurt's advice in mind, and yeah, Warren had stepped up too. And maybe he could do that because she'd given him the room to with that listening bit. Who knew? She'd dissect it later, but right now she wanted to grab some chocolate, find Nick, and snuggle in to share the extremely good mood she was suddenly in.
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Great log, guys!
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Scott will get a full account of course.
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Oh honey, you don't get to take jabs at other people's maturity when you're the one name-calling. Glad to see Lil finally got a half a clue, though.
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Because Tam has no patience, and has even less when they’ve spent so much time ignoring what she’s told them about each other.