➹BEEPER

[intheblanks]

"It had better be an emergency."
→ PAGE
→ TEXT
→ CALL
→ ACTION
→ TROLL

Comments

→ TEXT

[intheblanks]

now i'm sure you're hitting on me.

→ TEXT

[hexuality]

i'm trying to hang out with my friend.

→ TEXT | 10 minutes later

[intheblanks]

sorry.

→ TEXT

[hexuality]

unless you want me to be hitting on you. i told you i've never had to do the wooing.

→ TEXT

[intheblanks]

no. i mean. hanging out's good.

→ TEXT

[hexuality]

well when you put it that way.

→ TEXT

[intheblanks]

ginny.

i've just... gotten used to a certain way of relating to people. women. and it's hard to get back out, even when i should.

→ TEXT | 1/2

[hexuality]

that's okay.

→ TEXT

[hexuality]

want me to call you?

→ TEXT

[intheblanks]

if it's what you'd rather do.

→ CALL

[hexuality]

[Ring ring.

Because texting sucks.]

→ CALL

[intheblanks]

[He's a fan of the written form, but he'll take her this way, too.]

Hi.

→ CALL

[hexuality]

Look, if I said anything I shouldn't've, I'm sorry.

[Merlin, she's horrific at this.]

It's dinner, Chase, because I've been awful about the other times. It hasn't got to be any more complicated than that. Not even sure how to do complicated, anyway.

→ CALL

[intheblanks]

You didn't say anything you shouldn't have. Uncomplicated dinner is fine.

[Oh if only he didn't know how to do complicated.]

It's great.

→ CALL

[hexuality]

Great.

[A pause. Then, a little more gently,]

Hey. You alright?

→ CALL

[intheblanks]

Of course. Look, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable.

→ CALL

[hexuality]

I'm not, I promise. Just wanted to make sure. I mean—

[She doesn't want to throw around "friend" again and she doesn't want to throw in "concerned," either, though both are true. So she goes with - ]

I've known you the longest here. [ - which says a bit of both.] I know it doesn't feel like it to you, but whatever the case, I'm fond and I miss hanging out with you properly. That's all.

→ CALL

[intheblanks]

[It doesn't really feel like it to him, no. However many little fragments of a history here he's collected.]

You've known me the longest, really? I don't think I've asked how long it's been.

→ CALL

[hexuality]

[She has to pause to think how long, exactly. She hit four years in December.]

Definitely before I got to my first year here. [She breathes out a laugh.] I've been acquainted with other people from around then, but actually known? That's you. Would've been Amory if he hung around.

[He showed up barely a month after her. Odd that she kept track of these things, but what else can you do here?]

→ CALL

[intheblanks]

I didn't realise.

[There's the squeak of an office chair as he sits, a slow exhalation.]

Sometimes, when I stop by [Building 12, he means, the apartment that never really belonged to him] ...it feels like other people are there.

→ CALL

[hexuality]

[She shakes her head on her end, though he can't see her. Not his fault. The next thing has her smiling a little and it leaks into her voice a bit, but it's quiet.]

Still feels like that to me, too.

→ CALL

[intheblanks]

You'd probably be able to tell me who some of them are.

...Am I different?

→ CALL

[hexuality]

I might, yeah. Just say the word.

[Pause.]

I don't know. [Honestly.] A little. Loads of things happen in four years.

→ CALL

[intheblanks]

Tell me about it. [And it's been six years, really, for him. Three years he barely remembers, here. Three more years he'll never forget, back home. He's missing the first three, everyone else is missing the latter.]

I don't know if I can be whoever I was to you.

→ CALL

[hexuality]

I wouldn't ask for that, anyway. A little unfair, don't you think?

[And she's living four years she shouldn't at all. She's meant to be sixteen, meant to be finishing school, meant to be living this completely different life. It's how it works here and she knows that (doesn't mean it doesn't suck sometimes).]

I'm not about to pretend you're the exact same bloke from before any more than you are, Chase. So call it getting reacquainted.

[She chuckles.]

Too sappy?