InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "where yo boyfriend at?"

Easton Brellick (east_winds) wrote in halcyon_halls,
@ 2008-05-25 11:59:00

Entry tags:

easton, sam

Week Ten - Friday
Who: Sam and Easton
Where: A little Italian place in town
When: Dinnertime
What: Discussing things

For the first time in a long time he was dreading dinner with Sam for a number of reasons, though the chief among them was rather easy to pin down. He'd felt a bit on edge all day, the anticipation of that evening's activities hovering over head all morning. He wasn't quite sure what to expect from their meeting, what either would really get out of it. It was still such a bloody mind fuck just trying to figure out how he felt about the whole mess. Alcohol seemed to be quite helpful in that department lately, though East was aware that he was starting to verge on pathetic drunken loser and drift farther and farther from that handsome broody guy at the bar. He hadn't had anything today, he wanted to have all his wits about him when it came to meeting Sam.

He hadn't shaved in a few days, not that the dark stubble lining his chin bothered him in the slightest, and his hair was growing out to an unruly point - again, not something he was overly concerned with. In fact, he didn't bother to try and fix either before he moved to get dressed in time to meet Sam in town. He pulled on a pair of blue jeans and a plain white button down, sliding on a tan blazer before he moved to grab a pair of shoes. Before long it was time to take a deep breath and set out for the night.

Thankfully it was easy to catch a cab, they were hovering rather close to the school now given that students would start leaving soon for break. It made the trip into town seem to go by that much quicker. East directed the cabbie where to drop him off, leaning forward to pay the fare as the cab rolled to a stop just outside the restaurant he'd agreed to meet Sam at. Climbing out, he took a quick glance around before heading inside. He hadn't spotted her yet and so he went ahead and got a table for them, one out of the way so they could talk, and ordered a drink while he waited.

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fatebites
2008-05-27 12:52 am UTC (link)

Sam was nervous. With everyday that brought her dinner with Easton closer, she found herself feeling anxious and on edge. Part of her wanted it to come and happen already and the other part wanted to keep putting it off. She was afraid that this would be her last meal with him, that he would walk away from her forever once the dishes were cleared and the check paid. If she had to, she could live without him as her boyfriend but what she could not live without, was her best friend.

What felt like hours were spent standing in front of her closet trying to decide on what to wear. Nothing too sexy, nothing too plain. It couldn't be too casual but at the same time it couldn't be overly formal either. To be honest, she couldn't remember the last time she fretted so much over something to wear to meet him. When her time finally ran out, she decided on a purple dress of a top and a pair of jeans. Her hair was then styled into loose waves and her make-up light but flirty. She really did want to look her best for him, but she was afraid that her best wouldn't be good enough.

With all of the second guessing herself, she ended up leaving later then she had wanted to and practically ran through the school to get out to the cabs. Her foot tapped impatiently on the ride over and she practically jumped out once they arrived. Her cheeks were flushed as she hurried inside and her heart almost stopped when she saw him.

Guilt caused her stomach to churn and it took a few moments before she could suck it up and step forward. "Hey," she said softly as she came up to the table. "Sorry I'm late." She took a seat across from and set her napkin in her lap. God, how was she supposed to even start this conversation? "So how did your finals go?" Smooth Sam, real smooth.

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east_winds
2008-05-27 08:12 am UTC (link)

"Hey," Easton greeted, moving to stand as she took her seat across from him at the little bistro table - just because things were rocky between them didn't give him a right to go forgetting his manners, after all. Once they were both seated, napkins in respective laps, the awkwardness of what was to come started to creep in. Neither was truly looking forward to this conversation, that was probably safe to assume, but it was something that needed to be done, they had issues they needed to talk about. At first, East had assumed that taking time to hash out his own thoughts over break was best, but now....now he didn't want all of this looming over the both of them so undecided.

Finals seemed a safe subject, at least to start, or safer than most things that could have been brought up first. "They were alright, I suppose. Not quite my best academic showing, but it won't be the end of the world." His inability to focus was understandable at best, though it wasn't as if he'd gone so far as to fail any of his respective exams. Oh well, it was all over now, there was no correcting what had been done. "And yours?" Perhaps she'd had better luck than he had getting through the past week. At least break loomed ahead now, some time away from school - regardless of the reasons - was bound to do everyone a heap of good.

They were spared from moving on to the next conversational topic, for a brief interval, as their waiter approached to see if they were set to order for dinner. East waited for a moment, making sure that Sam was ready before the two put in their requests for dinner, their server whisking away their menus once all of that was said and done. It left them alone again and all those things that needed to be talked about seemed to be closing in. "So," East leaned forward, resting his elbows atop their table, "I suppose we ought to talk about things...." Though where exactly they should start was still a mystery.

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fatebites
2008-05-27 02:04 pm UTC (link)

The last thing that Sam wanted to do over break was wondered about how things were going to end up between them. It was bad enough wondering as long as she had. No, if he wanted to break her heart and make a clean break then she needed to know now, that way she could plan out just which bakeries she was going to hit up while in New York. Oh, and of course any and all depressing movies that might be playing. And candy stores. Yup, she was going to come back fat if he decided to leave her for good.

"Oh, well that's good." Cue even more guilt for knowing that she was the cause of him not pulling off perfect grades this quarter. "Um, they were okay. Pretty sure I failed my control class though." Eyes and ears everywhere had probably seen to that. But it wasn't like she didn't deserve to fail, as much as she wished that wasn't the case. "There's always next quarter, right?" She had sworn to herself that she was going to beat this monster beneath her chest, no matter what the cost.

With their orders placed, there was only one other way to take their conversation and East went ahead and dove right in for both of them. Well there went waiting until after they had eaten. A slow nod was given as she fiddled with the hands that were placed in her lap. "I don't know what to say other than "I'm sorry" and I know that's not good enough." Her words were soft and almost distant sounding as they fell from her lips. "I just...I need you to give me a second chance so that I can make it all up to you."

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east_winds
2008-05-27 07:38 pm UTC (link)

It probably would have helped if Easton had been able to decipher how he felt during what little time they had already set apart. Unfortunately it seemed emotions didn't like to be so carelessly pushed aside so he could try and cope in a more intellectual way with what had happened between them....with what Sam had done. Did he understand the whole loss of control bit? Well, as much as a human with his abilities could. It helped that he'd been around her during a full moon before, that he'd seen first hand just how difficult it could be. But the heart was rarely a logical organ and it seemed to be particularly hurt in this whole mess between them.

Easton couldn't have waited till they were through eating, not when the pressure was already building to a level he didn't like. The wine he'd ordered before she arrived that sat before each of them now seemed to help, a sip every now and then easing his nerves a bit. "I know you're sorry, Sam, but it's not quite as easy as all that....I know you wish that it was, hell I wish that it was. It's just....not." He couldn't move on as if nothing had ever happened, especially not when it seemed that she and Kiernan hadn't made any effort to put any space between themselves. So where did that leave them? Well...that's why they were here, now wasn't it.

"If the situations were reversed and I'd ended up sleeping with Frankie or someone close to me, I don't think you'd settle for a simple 'I'm sorry' and you'd be right not to," he was trying to make her understand where he was coming from in all of this, trying to make her see. "The fact of the matter is that Kiernan is still around, still a part of your life and...I don't know that I can deal with that, Sam, that I can handle that let alone ever trust you anywhere near him during a full moon again. I know that you feel like I haven't the slightest idea what went down that night and maybe I don't, but I'm trying with everything I've got. I'm not a were, I'm not a vampire, I'm not wired that way. It isn't all that easy for me. If you were sitting on this side of the table, you'd understand that."

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fatebites
2008-05-28 12:25 am UTC (link)

If only Sam had been able to read his thoughts, she would have corrected him. She and Kiernan had avoided each other physically like the plague. Hell, the first few days after the incident she had turned and bolted the other way. And more than a few times she had hid out in the bathroom in between classes just to make sure that she wouldn't run into him. Surely that counted for something?

When he tried to turn the situation around for her so that she could see where he was coming from, it just didn't work. His sleeping with Frankie (ew) would be a conscious effort on his part. It wasn't like Sam and Kiernan got drunk together and decided they were horny enough to have sex. No, there was the moon and the blood and it just got out of control. It was completely different then Easton cheating on her.

And thank God for the wine because without it her jaw would have dropped at the next words to come out of his mouth. Okay, she totally understood the part about not trusting her around Kiernan during a full moon but was he honestly asking her to cut him out of her life completely? A long sip of her wine was taken and she blinked as she struggled to keep up with him. Surely she was hearing him wrong...

"East I know you don't understand what happened, we probably wouldn't be sitting here if you did but are you really asking me to cut Kiernan out of my life completely?" Sam would have walked to the ends of the earth if he had asked but Kiernan was her friend and she was probably the only real one he had at the school, so she couldn't give that up. Then of course there was Alana and there was no way she was turning her back on that little girl.

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east_winds
2008-05-28 08:26 am UTC (link)

Had she corrected him, had they been able to read minds, she surely would have gotten some brownie points for the physical avoidance. Of course, there was the matter of not truly avoiding one another in any other sense that might still have been an issue. How was he supposed to be understanding about continuing contact with the person you'd cheated with? Easton doubted few men had evolved to that point yet.

Ok, perhaps he was asking for a bit more imagination in reversing the whole thing or maybe the effort wasn't being made to see the other side of things. Damn psychic connection would have been handy right about now, especially given how little the two were really telling one another. East had yet to make sense of most of it in his head and letting that mess loose into the universe hardly seemed like the best idea.

"Maybe I'll never completely understand...maybe that's a reason to think about whether you do really want to be with me any longer." If he was never going to be able to truly grasp just how different from humans weres could be, no matter how hard he tried, if it was going to continue to be an issue for her....why would she want to be with him?

For a moment, when talk turned to what she thought he was asking, East glanced away, diverted his attention out the window to his left. There was the slightest clenching of his jaw before he turned back, "I don't know, Sam.....maybe I wanted to hear that what we have is more important to you than a friendship, maybe I wanted to know you really would do anything to try and fix this. Hell, maybe my bloody ego needed to know I really was more important to you than Kiernan. But that's not what I was asking and you've made it quite clear where everyone stands in that situation anyway."

Did that revelation sting just a bit? Definitely....like little barbs creeping under his skin that would refuse to be shaken loose for awhile.

"You can't expect me to ever be ok with him, in any sense," he did warn, after a moment. If the two of them worked their way back to one another, if she insisted on keeping Kiernan around, Easton would never be 100% ok with it. He hadn't liked the guy to start with and now he had a real reason to loathe him. As far as he was concerned, the guy would probably always be something that stood between them - perhaps didn't ruin anything, didn't end their relationship, but would be a constant reminder for as long as he was around.

"Perhaps we just took things too quickly," East mused after a moment, looking a bit more defeated than he had earlier. None of this was easy, it had definitely taken a toll on him in more ways than a slipping grade point average. He'd been drinking too much, he knew that, had become a bit apathetic about everything....hopefully break would kick him back into gear. Home tended to do that to people, put you back into your comfort zone. "We were friends so long, perhaps we just rushed into things beyond that a bit too fast." They're relationship had been speeding along, perhaps that had set them up for failure more than anything.

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fatebites
2008-05-28 11:41 am UTC (link)

Whoa, when did this get turned around on her? She was supposed to be here begging for forgiveness, not listening to Easton tell her that she needed to figure out if she would want to stay with him if he never understood her issues. Okay so maybe he had a point but she wasn't going to throw away what they had just because he couldn't grasp the control issues she had as a were. She loved him too much for that.

"You are more important to me. The most important, but if our romantic relationship means cutting out friends that I care about then..." Maybe Sam was in the wrong here, but that little blond girl with the bounce in her step had found a place in her heart and she couldn't shake that. Maybe it was just Sam trying to make up for neglecting Jax in some weird way or maybe it was her biological clock using Alana as a substitute but she couldn't hurt her just because a mistake happened with Kiernan. And unfortunately Kiernan was part of the package since it was his daughter.

"I'm not asking you to be okay with him." Sam might have made some terrible mistakes, but she wasn't stupid. She never expected to try to work things out with Easton while trying to get him to become Kiernan's new best friend. "I'm asking you to give me a chance to prove to you that I can learn from my mistakes and get my problems under control."

"Easton..." It hurt her to hear him giving up like he was but she supposed she had that coming. "This thing between us has been coming on for years. I love you, only you and if I could turn back time and do things over I wouldn't have followed him that night." Okay wait, that made her sound even more guilty. "I just thought that he was getting himself into trouble." Dammit she didn't want to bring up the getting bit thing but she was going to have to if she wanted him to understand.

"Look, Kiernan has been having issues with feeding...drinking the bagged stuff and I just happened to catch him paying a donor so that he could get it fresh. Well I got angry and then he got angry and since he hadn't fed and the full was a day away...It was the smell of blood that pushed me over the edge. After that it was just like I was having some sort of out of body experience and watching myself do things that I wouldn't have ever dreamed of doing." Sam felt ashamed for what had happened but there it was.

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east_winds
2008-05-29 08:45 am UTC (link)

It was less that he was trying to turn things around on her and more that it was yet another issue that he'd just realized. He truly was trying to understand just how drastic the loss of control was, but Sam seemed convinced that he had no clue, that he might never be able to grasp the difference between weres and humans - that seemed to have the possibility to remain a problem for them in the future, if she always felt that way. He'd been around her on full moons in the past, he tried to pull from that to understand, but maybe they truly were more different than he'd ever realized in the past. What if he could never really make sense of the whole 'animal' side of her? For now, he pushed it aside...they didn't need yet another thing to worry over.

"This isn't about cutting out friends, I wouldn't ask that of you, but you can't quite blame me, a part of me, for wishing that you'd voluntarily distance yourself from Kiernan." He wasn't asking her to end friendships, but anyone in their right mind in his position could hope that their significant other would cut ties with the 'mistake' that had been made. He understand she was close to Alana, that she cared about her, but they would always disagree that that meant a relationship with Kiernan was absolutely necessary. After all, divorced parents made similar things work without ever truly having to be anything more than civil? Maybe it was just wishful thinking on his part, the result of a wounded ego, of a deep hurt now inflicted that he would have to relive with every mention of Kiernan that occurred from that point on. He was so ill-equipped to deal with this sort of thing....if anything positive had come out of this whole mess, perhaps it was that Easton was developing whatever abilities he needed to overcome this level of hurt.

Mistakes, control, a chance...to his head, it made sense - that didn't excuse it, mind you, but at least logically he could see that cause and effect chain that lead to what had happened. It was his heart that seemed to have a hard time seeing things that same way, it was his heart that stubbornly held on to that betrayal the way all wounded ones do. Bridging that gap between the two was key, wasn't it? If he wanted to move past this, if they were ever going to get back what was between them, he'd have to do it.

He wasn't necessarily giving up.....he was just feeling a little overwhelmed, a little understandably beaten down by everything. He wasn't one to give up, but he did apparently wallow every now and then. To hear that she'd followed Kiernan definitely didn't help, his gaze averting for a moment as he listened, focused out the window again as she went deeper into what had happened that night. It was only the mention of the blood sent his gaze flying back to where Sam sat across from her, "You let him bite you, Sam?" Ok, that was not really helping things. For a moment the difficulty he was having processing that extra tidbit was clear on his face. Sitting back with a heavy sigh, he scrubbed his hands over his face, let them trail into those wildly lengthening curls of his hair. "If there's a part of you that wants that, that needs that....we both know you won't get it from me, Sam, that I'm not capable of that." If a part of her craved that roughness, that violence, the blood.....that just wasn't Easton.

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fatebites
2008-05-29 01:29 pm UTC (link)

So maybe Sam was being a little unreasonable on her end, but the "mistake" wasn't a conscious one so in her mind it was totally different. Now if she had been sneaking around with Kiernan purposefully then yeah, she could totally see needing to cut him out of her life. "But I have distanced myself," she tried to explain. "I haven't met with Kiernan in person since that night and have only talked to him online a few times just to make sure he was okay and then about his daughter because he needed some help. That's it." Not that they hung out all the time before or anything, but this was certainly less contact then they had had in the past.

Sam had wanted to avoid bringing up the whole biting part of that night because she just knew how it was going to sound and how he was going to react. "That's not what I- It wasn't like I let him, it just happened." A frown tugged at the corners of her mouth as she stared down at her fork. Obviously she wasn't explaining any of this very well. "I told you things just got out of hand. We were arguing and he went to push me away but I ended up falling forward instead and..." She paused as she tried to figure out a way to word everything. "He's been starving himself, Easton. And since I interrupted his dinner he did what any starving creature would do."

The next words out of his mouth caused her eyes to go wide and her jaw to drop. There was no way she could be hearing him right, was there? "You think that I wanted that to happen?" Sure during the last full moon things had gotten a little rough but he couldn't honestly believe that she was looking to get herself bitten. "Easton that's not me. Come on, you have to know that." The old Sam would have never been drawn to such a situation so clearly this was that beast part of her that she was fighting to control.

Their food arrived a moment later, interrupting whatever words would have been exchanged next. Even though the smell was divine, she couldn't get herself to feel hungry enough to pick up the fork. All of this had completely killed her appetite and she honestly didn't know what she had been thinking when she thought that doing this over dinner would be a good idea. "Look, the night my mother and I were attacked, I was changed for the worse. But...but I'm here trying to get ahold on that darker side so that it doesn't take away from who I really am but it's hard. It's so unbelievably hard and I just wish you could see that I'm trying."

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east_winds
2008-05-29 02:05 pm UTC (link)

Everything was such a mess....if he didn't end up with one hell of a headache by the time they were through, it would be a miracle. He listened though, drained what was left of his wine in the glass before him and paused only long enough as their server returned to check on them to order a glass of scotch. His nerves needed a little settling and that was definitely the best way to do it. Easton didn't move to speak again until they were left alone once more. "And if you knew he'd been bloody starving himself, then why put yourself in that situation?" He knew all the obvious answers....they were friends, she was worried....but to risk your life over that? This wasn't an everyday thing they were talking about, this was a hungry vampire. Maybe Kiernan should worry about being more responsible in the future. What if it hadn't been Sam, hadn't been someone so ready to forgive him? What if he'd hurt someone? There wasn't anything remotely 'cool' or 'broody' about that, or whatever the fuck that wanker liked to play at, that was stupid and risky to anyone around him.

"I didn't say that," he was quick to stop her from accusing him of saying she wanted to cheat - he wouldn't go that far. If he thought that, he wouldn't be here now. "I said that a part of you might crave that...I know it's the beast part or whatever you'd like to call it, but that's part of you now, Sam. It isn't going to go away and if that's the type of thing it wants, it's going to be continually dis-satisfied by me." Sure they'd been rough with one another during the last full moon, hell he'd had the rug burns to prove it for weeks, but it hadn't been anywhere near the level of violence between she and Kiernan that night.

Their food arrived and so did his drink, their conversation ceasing for the time it took their server to deliver everything. It seemed neither had remained very hungry...even after the food had arrived neither one moved to dig in. "I know that..." he assured her, leaning forward a bit. "I get that you're trying, I know that it's hard...I understand that as much as I can without ever truly having such issues. Up here," he raised a hand to tap lightly at his temple, "I get it....I see every little thing that lead to what happened with you and Kiernan. I still don't like it, I still don't excuse it, but the logic is there." His hand dropped to his for a moment, resting over his heart, "It's here that hasn't quite caught up to that yet." East reached for his drink, downing a swallow to calm the emotion that threatened to overwhelm, "I'm hurt, Sam, and I trying to work though it the same way you're trying to control this new part of you. It's hard, I've never had to do it before and I'm fully aware that I'm bloody awful at it. But I'm doing the best that I can."

"I still love you," East added after a moment, "that doesn't shut off like a light switch just because my head's gotten all buggered up or because you made a mistake. It does make it harder to trust you....it does mean that things will take time before they could ever be what they were again....but I'm trying. Really and truly."

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fatebites
2008-05-29 04:44 pm UTC (link)

Sam sighed. "I didn't know that he had been starving himself. At first I thought he just wasn't playing by the rules." Wanting fresh blood rather than the bagged stuff was like some sort of drug addiction or something and Sam thought that maybe by calling him out on it that it would help things. Unfortunately she didn't realize what was really going on. No, she didn't figure that out until it was already too late. "He tried to get me to leave but I was stubborn and thought that I knew what was going on and obviously I didn't." Kiernan may have fed on her but she didn't want him to be the villain in her story.

"It doesn't matter what it wants. If it did then I wouldn't be sitting here right now. I would be out running around and not caring about anything. What matters is what I want and that I'm willing to tame this thing inside of me as a means to keep you." Once a month the beast inside of her could hate her for not allowing it to take what it wanted. She just wasn't about to let it get the best of her.

Tears welled up in her eyes as she listened to him speak, her own heart breaking as she watched him struggle with the pain. Everything he was feeling was her fault, there was no getting past that huge fact. She wanted to reach for him, comfort him some how but all she could do was let her gaze fall to her hands as a few tears slipped down her cheeks. If it meant keeping him from feeling this way, she would gladly rip out her own heart.

"I'm willing to wait for as long as it takes," she whispered softly. "I just need you to come back to me." Brown eyes turned up to look at him again, her lashes damp with tears. "I will do whatever it takes to make this right....I can't lose you."

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east_winds
2008-05-29 09:43 pm UTC (link)

It seemed easy to sit there and discuss how she was going to tame this new beast inside of her, but truthfully nothing was that simple. If anything, that 'other half' of her was going to be have to be integrated to some degree. It was obviously possible, it seemed to be something that all the weres at the school were striving for...some even seemed to have achieved it. With any of their abilities it seemed that control came with age, with working at it - hadn't he mastered his abilities through practice? He knew Sam would manage to do the same, she was so determined, fill with such drive to do so that he knew she would. Hadn't he watched her succeed a million times before with things because she wanted them badly enough? Why was this any different? The answer was that it wasn't. He knew Sam, he knew that if she wanted to beat that out-of-control part of herself that eventually she would - it was getting to that point that would suck.

He may have been working to deal with his own pain, but he wasn't unaffected by hers. Seeing her cry had never been an easy task and even now, when many would argue that she deserved it, he couldn't bring himself to completely shut off at the sight. Had he not been struggling so much to reign in his own raging emotions, he might have been able to offer her some comfort...reach over and take her hand, anything. For the time, he needed to focus on himself, to get his own hurt under control. He knew she understood, Sam undoubtedly knew him well enough to know exactly how he was coping with all of this.

"We'll work on it," he managed after a moment, nodding. Easton leaned forward to rest his arms on the table, fingers toying lightly with his silverware for a moment. It may not have seemed like much, but it was a secretly profound statement - hidden amongst those four little words what truly what she'd wanted from tonight, he was guessing. He'd agreed to try again, to work through all the issues that had arisen between them, to find a way to forgive her for what had happened. It wouldn't be easy, it wouldn't be quick, but if she was willing to hang in there, then he loved her enough to try.

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fatebites
2008-05-30 12:20 am UTC (link)

Sam hated that she was crying but it couldn't be help. There was just so much pain, frustration, guilt and sadness swimming around inside of her that it just overwhelmed her and came out. And she wouldn't lie, it did hurt that he didn't make any move to comfort her. She knew that was completely selfish and that she didn't deserve it but it still hurt just the same.

At the sound of his next words, her eyes found a bit of their light and she smiled as she reached up and wiped the tears away. "Yeah?" she asked almost out of disbelief. Her heart swelled with joy and she couldn't help but smile. "Thank you." He was giving her a second chance. She wanted to reach for him, to wrap her arms around his neck and kiss him until they both couldn't breathe...but she didn't. Things weren't going to return to normal overnight and she didn't want to push too hard or too fast. "I love you, East."

The smile she had been wearing continued to tug on the corners of her mouth as she finally reached down and picked up her fork. It was like a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders, even though there was still much work ahead. Her food was eaten in relative silence, only a few safer conversation topics touched upon. Once they were finished and the bill was paid, she followed him outside, still too afraid to touch him for fear that he might vanish under her fingertips.

"So I guess I will see you after break then," she said as she looked out across the street.

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east_winds
2008-06-01 12:18 am UTC (link)

Crying was to be expected really, given everything that had gone on between the two of them, everything that had been said. Given how hard they were working to try and start rebuilding things between them, not crying probably would have been less helpful. At least this way, he was yet again reassured that she truly was affected by what had happened. He could almost feel the relief that washed over her when he admitted that he was truly prepared to try things again. They both seemed to understand that nothing would be instant, that it would take awhile to see where things would end up, that it was unlikely things would be as they were before - not that that didn't mean they couldn't be better, of course, simply different was all. It was nice to have things resolved somewhat, to not have that unsurity hanging over the both of them.

Finally it also seemed like they could eat, that each had released enough tension to enjoy the food that they had ordered earlier. Easier conversation followed, topics a bit more suited to a shared meal than what they had already gone over. He was glad for the change of tone, for the chance to just let go that weight that had surely settled on both of their shoulders in recent days. Things would still take time, of course, but for the moment it was nice to get the chance to somewhat enjoy one another's company again. When they finished, he moved to pay the bill and walked with Sam outside, the two standing side by side for a moment as each undoubtedly wondered what was next.

"We could share a cab back, if you'd like..." he offered after a moment, turning to glance down at her, guiding his attention away from the street. They were heading back to the same place, after all, it seemed to make sense.

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fatebites
2008-06-02 04:21 pm UTC (link)

Sam had to bite back the full on grin that threatened to eat her face. "I'd like that a lot actually." When her door was opened for her she slipped in and waited for Easton to settle in after her. After giving the driver instructions to head back to the school, they were off and driving off into the night. "Thank you again for coming to dinner," she said after a moment. "It really meant a lot to me." Everything he had done had meant a lot to her, most importantly his willingness to give them a second chance.

Along the way, Sam debated the pros and cons of trying to hold Easton's hand. If he allowed her to do so then that was just another step in the right direction but if he didn't, then that would be like a kick to the gut. After a good minute or two of mentally arguing with herself, she reached over and grabbed it. Her grip was firm yet gentle as if to tell him that he better not pull away.

Once they made it back to the school, they both exited and walked up to the entrance. "Have a safe trip, okay?" she said as she looked up at him. This was going to be the longest two weeks of her life, she could tell already. "And I'll see you when you get back." Hopefully the time apart wouldn't see him changing his mind.

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east_winds
2008-06-03 09:32 am UTC (link)

Sharing a cab was a small step, but it was still a step nonetheless. Easton moved to open the door for Sam once he'd managed to hailed one of the blasted things, letting her slide in first before he joined her. "You're welcome," he assured her with a slight smile when she thanked him for dinner. It hadn't exactly been the most fun they'd ever had together, but it had been necessary - something that needed to be done. And now it was over and he, for one, felt tons better than he had prior. It was as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders...now at least he was free of it and open to enjoy break. They could continue to work things out once each returned and hopefully some time on neutral grounds would be beneficial.

He hadn't expected her to reach over and take his hand, the move surprising him on the otherwise unremarkable trip back to Halcyon. East wasn't cruel enough to pull away, and truly he didn't feel the need to. He laced his fingers through hers, the quiet that surrounded them this time noticeably free of the tension that had surrounded the early half of their dinner together. They were taking things slowly, working their way back to one another, after all, and so far it seemed they might be alright. Perhaps that was wishful thinking, but it seemed within reach.

Easton climbed out of the cab as it rolled to a stop, leaning in the passenger window to pay their fare. The car sped off, leaving both standing before the commons, forced to part ways soon to head to their respective houses. "You have a safe trip too....try and have some fun even though Jax is tagging along," he teased, flashing a bit of that familiar grin. He was happy for her, truly, that she and Jax were spending some time together - he knew how much Sam wanted to forge some sort of bond between the two. "I'll see you after break," he assured her, leaning in to press a kiss to her forehead, wrapping her for a moment in his embrace. Eventually, Easton drew back and offered up one last 'good-bye' before the two parted, each headed towards their rooms to prepare for the break that awaited them. At least things were looking up now.

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