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Tweak says, "A horse is a horse, of course!"

Summer Victoria Stone (summerwantsit) wrote in halcyon_halls,
@ 2008-12-26 16:04:00

Entry tags:

noah, summer

Week 23: Friday
Who: Summer and Noah
When: Late Afternoon
Where: A trail in the woods
What: A chance encounter

Summer had been back at Halcyon for a week now. Again, she had ended up showing up right at the end of a semester, a semester during which she had missed far too much to make it up, so she was going to have to wait a couple of weeks and start classes again after the break. But it should be easier for her now. She had a lot better control over her emotions now than she had when she had left here. Hell, she had been around quite a few people since her return, even during the stress of finals, and she had yet to have any outbursts of uncontrollable emotions. She had learned a lot while she was gone, enough to recognize that there was still a lot more for her to learn.

But for now, she was just focusing on the things that helped her to maintain her inner peace and enjoying the quiet of the island, something that she couldn't say she had experienced the last time around. The best way to enjoy it, at least for her, was to take a nice long run, work up a sweat, lose herself in the middle of the forest on a well-trodden path and inhale deeply the scents of the woods, something she had missed while on her little adventure overseas.

She had jogged perhaps five miles before she had to stop and take a breather, slowing to a walk for a bit before finding a tree to rest against while drinking deeply from her bottle of water. Voss had to be some of the best tasting water on earth. She wiped the sweat from her brow and then gave herself a bit of a stretch, rolling her shoulders and then leaning back to massage her own shoulders a bit.

Summer was just about to take off again when she noticed her shoe was untied and she bent down to tie it. Just as she did, she heard footfalls on the path behind her, someone approaching rather quickly, fast and hard. Running partner? Maybe. She started to jog in place waiting for them to get closer so she could see if they even wanted company.

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quarterback
2008-12-26 09:06 pm UTC (link)

Noah was fairly certain that he had spent the last couple of weeks running, doing little else other than running. And man if it didn't seem to be doing what he wanted it to be doing. It wasn't about exercising or making any part of him more fit (the whole were thing helped to take care of that more than he ever thought it would) rather he was hoping that it would clear his mind and settle his thoughts. It didn't seem to be actually accomplishing that though. Only brief moments of respite while his feet pounded against the ground, but the moment he stopped... they all started right back up again.

Damn.

It didn't seem to matter though, he was out on the trails again. Noah had tucked his shirt into the waist band of his shorts around mile 3. At this point he wasn't even feeling the burn like he used to in his human days. That could be a royal pain in the ass when one wanted to tire themselves out enough to sleep well. There was a damn drawback to the whole supernatural thing. Fuck.

Noah was well and focused on each footfall, placing it out to lengthen his stride, pushing his legs to run just a little faster. He didn't smell anyone up ahead until he was only a few feet away, rounding the bend and catching sight of someone... he knew. Summer. He hadn't seen her since she returned. And somehow a sinking sense of deja vu settled over him. Here he was, fresh off realizing that Natalia was always just going to be his friend and that was for the best and here was Summer. That brief thought alone was almost enough to make him turn around mid-stride. But he didn't let it control his actions and tried to wipe it all from his memory, but the lingering sense of unease and guilt didn't quite disappear.

He came to a stop, blinked a few times before nodding his head. "Hey..." He coughed slightly to clear his throat. "Summer." He finally got out, wiping a hand across his brow.

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summerwantsit
2008-12-26 09:18 pm UTC (link)

Hmm. Well. Noah wasn't exactly who she had been expecting. She had expected a stranger or perhaps an acquaintance, not someone that she had known for far longer than she had known this place existed. And there was that moment, that initial sense of dread that washed over her every time she saw him, but she made a conscious decision to bite back that bitterness and focus on something else instead. He was here. She was here. Might as well make the best of it. She was trying to be a better person these days than she had perhaps been before and one could only be better if they let go of the past.

"Hey." Maybe that wasn't a huge improvement, but it wasn't said with a seething scowl and leering gaze. That part was better at least. "Nice day for a run, huh?" Small talk was never her forte. She offered him her bottle of water, noticing that he hadn't seemed to have remembered his own, either that or he had finished it off already, and then went about fidgeting with her hair, taking it down from the ponytail that had managed to let a few strands escape, and using her fingers to comb it back and put it up tightly once more.

And now it was just quiet, perhaps only for a moment, but it felt like an eternity. Awkward silence always did. It was at least less awkward to bump into him now that she knew to expect it than it had been when she hadn't been expecting it at all.

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quarterback
2008-12-26 09:35 pm UTC (link)

They had that in common, neither of them had been expecting to come across the other on a run of the mill jog outside. Noah had probably run across ten people or so during his past couple of weeks of his exercise binge. None of them had been Summer or any other people that he had a more than complicated past with. Thank god for that. He'd healed from the fight he'd had with the other person he had a complicated past with and well he was trying to be smart enough to not get into anymore brawls even it had been satisfying.

It was almost too much, to try and control everything he was feeling in front of her. But he had to try out of common decency to her. And he didn't exactly want to scream out to the world his particular brand heartbreak. He didn't need that. In the end he settled for focusing on not letting the sweat get in his eyes and for a simple non-threatening greeting.

It ended up in just plain awkwardness. Good times. He looked down at the bottle of water that was offered. Noah hesitated before he realized just how thirsty he was and no he hadn't bothered to bring a water bottle. Not his smartest moment. "Thanks," He took the bottle and a small swig before handing it back to Summer.

"Sorry, didn't mean to interrupt your run," he went for the apology first. "Do you- how's it going now that you're back?" There that was simple and despite the sour past that existed between them he did want to know if things were going well for her.

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summerwantsit
2008-12-26 09:44 pm UTC (link)

"I don't have cooties." Summer said in response to his reluctance to take the bottle from her. He took it though, and she left it at that, having done her best, even in that remark, to keep the tone as neutral as possible. She took the bottle back from him once he was finished and her hair was back up out of her face.

"Always with the apologies." She was making an effort to just keep things friendly, though maybe picking on him wasn't exactly the right course of action to take. She was never good with human interactions, however. "Whose to say that I didn't interrupt your run instead?" She offered him a smile, then glanced down at her feet, noticing how dirty her shoes were.

Summer gave a small shrug of her shoulders in response to the question. "It's better." She said, then glanced back up at him. "I learned a lot while I was away. I mean.. not everything I need to know, obviously, else I wouldn't even be here but..." She nodded her head. "It's been a little easier for me since I got back." She smirked a bit. "Haven't turned into a total basket case at all."

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quarterback
2008-12-26 10:07 pm UTC (link)

Noah paused, one corner of his mouth curling up just slightly in a smile. "You don't? And here I thought I got my cooties from you." He surprised himself with his actual ability to say something lighthearted. Had to be something about the use of the word cootie. Reminded him of his sister, made him smile every time. His hesitation had mostly been about the gesture. Something intimate about sharing water with someone else or maybe that was just his mind going to places it didn't need to be going.

His shoulders tensed just briefly. "Yeah, it's what I do." He said shrugging to forcibly relax the muscles there. He knew he had a problem with the apologizes and well that wasn't likely to change anytime soon it seemed. "Let's go with no one interrupting eh?" He offered as a way out of the whole blame game that he'd started. "Needed a minute to break anyway, hadn't since I started." At least to stretch something, if not to get his breath back.

"I'm glad," He said with all honesty, hazel eyes watching her as she spoke about her time away from the school. "I honestly don't know how-" his hands lifted in a helpless sort of gesture, "you did it before. All that... shit," for lack of a better word. For all the awkwardness that was ripe between them there was also something normal about talking to her. Though that was a slippery slope and one that Noah was doing his damn best to keep from going down each and every second. "I don't think you were ever going to turn into a basket case," he added with a slight frown crossing his features. He didn't like hearing that coming from her mouth. "Don't say that."

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summerwantsit
2008-12-26 10:20 pm UTC (link)

Summer arched a brow slightly on that one. "Hmm.. must have happened after me, Noah, cause I'm clean." She smiled a little as she rolled her eyes. Yeah, playing nice was definitely better than yelling and screaming and crying but before it was hard not to do any, if not all, of those things.

"Mmm, same here." Summer said, taking out the bottle of water to have another drink of it while she was just standing there, giving her legs a bit more of a stretch. "That last little hill just about did me in." It was a good trail if you really wanted to break a sweat, which they both had. He always did look good sweaty. She smirked a little at the thought and then inwardly chided herself for having it. That was a road best left untraveled.. again.

Summer gave a small laugh followed by a slightly incredulous look. "And that's not what you call what I was before I left here? Cause that's what I would term it." Things had gotten exceptionally rough for her before the wedding. Especially after Kristi left. She really liked him. And he was good for her, good to talk to. "What about you? Things good?" She thought it was only polite to ask, and she wanted to know, there were just some things that she could do without hearing about, but he'd probably have enough sense to leave those details out if there were details of that nature to be had.

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quarterback
2008-12-31 05:18 pm UTC (link)

It was kind of odd, not having that instant animosity. It had become almost familiar since he's seen Summer here. But questioning why that didn't exist here and now... Noah wasn't about to do. Something about not looking a gift horse in the mouth. Noah pressed his lips together for a moment. "Well shit." Because really who had been there after him? Noah wasn't exactly big on the whole dating scene.

Noah gave a short nod of his head. "This trail's got a few of those." And Noah would know, wearing a hole in the path the way he had been the past week or so. he could practically run it blindfolded. Though he really wasn't going to try that. Talk about bad life choices. "But not really worth if it it doesn't just about do you in." In his humble opinion that was, for what it was worth.

A sheepish sort of expression crossed Noah's features. "Just a little fucked up? But you kind of had a lot to deal with." Noah attempted to phrase it better. Why? Hell if he knew, maybe he thought he had the market on self-depreciating behavior. His features though immediately shut down as Summer posed the question back at him. He really was doing his damn best to control the fact that he had his own basketcase issues when it came to his best friend at the moment. Noah shrugged his shoulders. "Getting by I guess. Things are a little fucked up, but when aren't they. Trying to figure out if I need a break from here like you did."

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summerwantsit
2009-01-01 06:10 pm UTC (link)

It was odd, even Summer could admit that. It was kind of.. difficult, almost, to be nice, but she was putting forth the effort at least. Sometimes it was easier to just go with what was familiar even if it might not be what you really felt anymore. She was still hurt, yes, still a little angry about what had happened, but really it all seemed unimportant now. Being a bitch wasn't going to change what had happened any more than being civil would, and while civility was slightly straining right now, it may prove to be more productive in the long run.

"If you didn't want to be left exhausted, why would you run, right?" It made sense to her. But then again, they were both probably running for the same reasons, or similar ones at the very least. It really had nothing at all to do with health like it did for some people.

It was nice to see him smile again, if that's what one could call the look that adorned his face as he spoke. But it was short lived, and he looked like he had just lost his best... Oh. Maybe it was best not to assume but if she had to guess, she'd probably guess that he was having issues with Natalia and that was why he suddenly looked as gloomy as ever.

"Just.. make sure if you go that you go for the right reasons and not the wrong ones." She knew all about the wrong reasons. "And, for what it's worth, if it matters at all, I'd hate to see you go." Even if there was still a part of her that had never wanted to see her again.

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