Adam Samuels (adamsammy) wrote in _fracture_, @ 2014-02-16 02:34:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | adam, chapter 1, kennedy, the regent hotel |
Won't Let You Be Boring
Who: Adam and Kennedy
Where: Around the hotel
When: afternoon
Kennedy had been wandering around, but that got old fast and she was bored. She tried to leave a few times, but only wound up spit out somewhere else in the hotel, and sadly, nowhere all that fascinating. She'd found the courtyard, however, and was sitting on one of the benches, painting her toenails bright red.
Adam had gone through an entire game of Magic with Norman and he was pretty sure he still didn’t understand it any, but he did try. After a while he managed to get away, but still had too many hours before he was supposed to meet Kyle, which led him back to the lobby, wandering around until he found a door he hadn’t tried and wound up in the courtyard. It was overwhelming at first, the roses, the overgrown feeling of it, like something out of a movie or a book, and he didn’t even notice the other person there as he walked around, one hand rubbing the back of his neck while he looked up, taking in all of it.
Kennedy noticed when she wasn't alone, pausing as she spotted some dude. She had opened her mouth to say something, but it was clear she hadn't been noticed yet. So, in the end she shut her mouth again, and just waited for him to get around to noticing her, light smirk on her features.
Adam’s eyes were roaming, taking in the place from bottom to top, over across and then suddenly he spotted her and realized he wasn’t alone and practically jumped out of his skin with a surprised little gasp. “How long have you been there?”
Laughing, Kenndy shook her head. “Since before you got here,” she told him. “Observant type, huh?” she asked rhetorically. “And jumpy.” She turned her attention back to her toenails, and kept painting them. “Got a name? Do I have to promise I won't bite unless aroused or asked?”
“Usually yeah, not so much right now,” Adam said. though she hit the nail on the head with jumpy. Apparently he just was. “I do have a name, Adam. And that shouldn’t be what you say, it makes you sound like more of a biter.”
“What makes you think I was actually trying to be comforting?” she posed, deadpan. “But hi anyway, Adam. So what's got you buggin out?”
Adam’s eyes widened slightly, but he let it roll past him. “Guess everyone has their thing.” He waved a little, though it seemed like more of a twitch than an actual thing. “I guess...I’ve never seen a place like this.” He wasn’t really familiar with gardens or out of control roses or anything like that or what he was seeing here.
“Never hit up a botanical garden?” she asked. “Though, you wouldn't get the overgrown bit, I guess. And I guess you didn't live across the way from Crazy Old Lady Magda who I'm pretty sure was constantly in the throes of dementia, and overgrew everything in her yard to a silly enough degree that you could mistake it for a set piece from a fairytale regurgitation.”
“Um, no to both.” When would he have gone to a botanical garden? He was sure there was something like that in New York, but he had no idea where. “Did you live across the way from Crazy Old Lady Magda?” That sounded like something she was too familiar with to have just made up on the fly.
“Yeah, I did. She was a batty broad. I mean, entertaining as hell, don't get me wrong, but for all the wrong reasons,” Kennedy shared. “She used to talk to people who weren't there a lot. And I guess some of them were absent family members? But some were outright imaginary friends.”
“Can’t hate on someone for having imaginary friends,” Adam admitted. Though he’d gotten rid of his at a young age, or at least stopped talking to them, for a kid with no friends for most of his life, he would have taken imaginary ones. “But batty, got it. Better than clinically insane, but not exactly someone you go out of your way to be around.”
“Oh, I don't think anyone hated her,” Kennedy said. “It's hard to hate someone if they're harmless, just way cooky. And on halloween she dressed up and gave out good candy,” she added. “She spent a lot of time at the park feeding birds. And talking to them, or whatever,” she shrugged. “So what are you about?”
Why did Adam feel like he wished he’d known this woman? Maybe because he could have become her at some point in his life if it weren’t for Jeffrey. “What am I about how?” he asked, not sure he got the question, though that might have been because he was thinking about being friends with kooky old ladies.
“What are you into, what's your occupation, passion, whatever. Fill in the blank however you choose. What are you about?” Kennedy repeated the question. “It's not a quiz, don't over think the question, Jumpy.”
Adam made a little face then shrugged. “I’m a waiter.” And I’ve dabbled in illegal activities. Though those were more Jeffrey’s ideas than Adam’s, it wasn’t like he was going to let his best friend get into them alone. “I don’t know what my passion is, and I dunno. I guess I’m not about much.”
Kennedy stared at Adam for a few long moments, expression skeptical. “You don't know what your passion is? For real?” she asked. “Wow, that's fucked up. Most people can at least come up with something they're really into. But you've got nothing? Live a little.” Standing up, she started padding barefoot toward the door. “Come along.”
The first answer that popped into Adam’s head was Kyle, but he was about two hundred percent sure that wasn’t the right answer. “No. I guess not. And it’s not that fucked up.” He watched her go but with little else to do, wound up following after her. “Where are we going?”
“Uh, yeah it is,” Kennedy said. “Talk about boring. If you have no passion, and aren't about much of anything, jesus, what does that say? I'll tell you. It says you need a life, stat. Or at the very least, you need to do that hippie shit of 'finding yourself' or whatever. But the verbal equivalent of a shrug for an answer isn't acceptable.”
“You didn’t answer my question.” Adam didn’t like her response though. Sure, he wasn’t exciting, but it wasn’t as bad as she made it out to be. “I have a life,” he told her.
“I didn't answer because I didn't really have a destination in mind. Just somewhere that isn't here,” she told him. “And yeah? Tell me about it then,” Kennedy suggested. She didn't figure she'd be wowed, though. Which was just sad.
“Then why did we leave in the first place?” Adam asked, not following how her mind worked. “I live with my best friend. Well...lived I guess.” Already his mind forced him to think of that as a place he couldn’t get back to, just like all the other ‘homes’ he’d had that hadn’t lasted. “We both work part time, hang out with his family, get into trouble, throw parties, hang out. That sort of thing. It’s not a bad life.” And it sounded sort of pathetic when he spelled it out like that. So much so that he wound up blurting out one last part he hadn’t originally meant to say. “And there’s this guy…”
“Why not?” she posed in return. “And sure, not a bad life if you're a stoner loser with no ambition,” she said, though her tone didn't actually sound judgmental even if her statement certainly was. “And okay, tell me about 'this guy'. That sounds interesting.”
“What ambition did I need? I’m a nobody who was lucky I had one friend at all!” Adam felt his voice getting defensive and he instantly let it drop, looking at his hands instead and the tattoo that crawled up the inside of his arm. “He’s a guy. He used to come into the diner and I dunno. I guess I liked him. I didn’t think about it like that because I’ve never really like liked a dude before, but he’s here and it’s like...whoa.”
Kennedy glanced back at Adam at his outburst, then stopped and turned fully back toward him. “Okay, dude,” she said. “So, this is going to make me sound like a bitch? But oh well. What you just said - that's pathetic. Just truly, like, ugly levels of pathetic. You might want to see to that big ole self esteem problem, or whatever,” she advised. She didn't so much sound concerned as matter of fact, though there was a tiny pinch between her brows that looked a little concerned. “And yay for some dude you like being here, but yeah, first shit first.”
Adam watched her confused by at least half of what she was saying. “I wasn’t trying to sound pathetic. It’s not a..self esteem thing. It’s history. It’s better. I have...had Jeffrey. Now I have Kyle too.” He was watching her face, seeing that tiny bit of concern there. “I’m fine.” He sounded sure of that. “Which shit is first?”
Kennedy was still staring at him in that same way. “You just said ...what was it? 'I'm a nobody who's lucky I had one friend at all' or something? Explain to me how that isn't self esteem issues out the wazoo. And just having one person in your life doesn't make anything better, unless you're one of those people who totally defines themselves by someone else, in which case, that's pretty pathetic too, and y'know, totally not the way to go. Individuality – it's a good thing.”
“I don’t totally…” Adam started, but the words fell short. Did he exist outside of Jeffrey? Sure physically he was there, functioning and alive, but he wasn’t much else. The realization left him quiet, not able to make eye contact. “Where were we going?”
Kennedy eyed him critically for a long moment, then sighed. “Come on,” she said for the second time in pretty short order. She nudged him along with her.
He didn’t hesitate this time in following her blindly. His mind was racing wondering if she was right. Maybe he was just one of those people who didn’t exist outside of someone else. Then what? Would he fade away like Marty McFly in Back to the Future?
Kennedy got them to the bar, and stole a bottle of Jack Daniels. She didn't bother with glasses, then she headed them right back out again, finding the elevator and hitting the top floor. “Give me something you're interested in that isn't another person, or something they are into.”
Adam just kept trailing after her, watching her take the bottle and then head to the elevator and push the button. He leaned against one wall of the small car and thought about her question. And he came up blank. “I don’t know.”
Kennedy stared. “Really? You've got nothing at all? Music? Movies? Stamp collecting? Excessive watching of those crime reality shows?”
“I like music, sure. And movies I guess too. Video games, whatever else guys my age are supposed to be into. No crime reality.” He’d lived crime reality. He didn’t need to watch a show on the million and one ways he could get caught doing whatever Jeffrey got him into.
“But those aren't 'interests'?” she asked. “You don't like them enough that you would classify them as being anything you're into?”
Adam shrugged again. “I guess not. I mean...I like old movies better than new ones. No one likes the old ones really so I don’t do much with it, but I prefer those. It’s nothing worth mentioning. I don’t do anything with the stuff I like. I listen to music and think ‘hey I like that song’, but that’s about it.”
The elevator came to a stop and she got out of it, looking around for any doors marked 'roof'. She also cracked open the bottle, took a swig, and handed it to him. “Well you totally need to figure out something to be into. And find a passion, or something. It's not cool to be a blank slate. Be an individual. You're stuck in a bottle episode of some weird tv show, basically. Use that. But yeah, just think of it this way! Suicide cults – full of people identifying themselves as a group.”
Adam took the bottle and took a hefty swig off of it before handing it back. “I don’t think of myself as a group,” he told her, but sighed anyway. “How do you even figure it out? What you’re passionate about? I mean...I don’t know. I wouldn’t know where to start.”
Kennedy considered the question, the list easily coming to mind. “The end of the world, flaws in humanity and the human condition, paranormal activity – not the movies, the 'real' or not real depending on your opinion stuff – blogging about paranormal stuff, phone sex, and finding weird news stories or rumors around the internet to make into overblown, ridiculous articles for a tabloid. Oh, and trashy teen dramas on tv, and music.” She glanced to Adam. “You start by picking something that sparks your interest, then start looking into it. Or, pick something at random, and see how that grabs ya, and if it doesn't, try something else. Like...the garden in the courtyard. That shit needs some tlc, why not see if that’s your thing?”
Okay so she was into weird things. “Phone sex?” he asked, not really able to get that one out of his head. It just seemed random when all the others kind of worked together. Sort of at least. Adam took another swig at the bottle and made a face. “I’m pretty sure gardening isn’t my thing,” he said. Then he thought about it before shrugging. “I like making people happy.” That was the thing that seemed to make him to most happy.
“Phone sex. Did you know pay lines are still a thing? You call someone up, they tell you how mm. Oooh, yeah, I love your big, fat cock? I'm totally a phone sex operator. It's actually really interesting if you get past the utter boredom it induces. Like in a social experiment type of way,” Kennedy shared. “And making people happy is all fine and good, but it's still something that fundamentally means all you're doing is catering to other people. Which makes it not about you. So, I veto that. Try again. Something for you,” she prompted, crooking her finger at him so he would give it more attempts.
Adam’s mouth fell open as he stared at her. “You’re joking.” There’s no way that she was. No way. He knew there were still phone numbers and whatever, he’d seen the ads on tv with the stereotypically gorgeous girls that were supposed to be waiting around for you to call them, but there was no way this girl was one. No. Freaking. Way. He was too flabbergasted to actually answer her question.
Kennedy laughed. “Wow, your face is awesome right now,” she told him. “But yeppers, that's totally me. The people who call in are...all over the place,” she told him. “Men, women, people I think would be serial killers if they weren't crazy shut ins, totally normal sounding people who just want to do something dirty for a little while...” she trailed off, shrugging. “And hop hop little bunny. I asked you a question.”
“How...how do you get into that? How do you get good at that?” Adam was still staring, trying to put her into the right light and it just wasn’t working. When she called him ‘bunny’ he gave her a look and then shook his head. “I don’t know. My brain is too busy imagining you talking off some serial killer.” He took a deep breath to try and shake that image then took another pull off the bottle before properly handing it to her. “I like..video games. Never got to play the really cool ones outside of like Halo, but sure those are fun.” And he wasn’t bad at them either which was why he’d wanted to try some different ones, but Jeffrey hadn’t wanted to.
“What, never talk dirty to someone?” Kennedy asked. She got in close to Adam. “Close your eyes,” she told him, then got so close she could whisper in his ear. “God...just hearing your voice makes me hot, hearing you breathe...I'm here, all by myself, and all I want is you. You, with your hard cock, I want it, need it. I want you to fuck me. Fuck me hard, so hard I can't breathe, I can't see, all that there is is you, and what you do to me.” She purposely used a breathy voice, one like she was longing, yearning, truly on the verge of begging for him. “Please,” she said, upping that a notch as she gasped in a shakey breath. “Fuck me...tell me how to touch myself, how you’re touching yourself...please...”
Adam did as she said, though he was a tiny bit anxious that she was that close. Then she started and yeah, there was no doubt in his mind that she was good. Really good. Like, he stupidly got a damn shiver up his spine and felt that really weird uncomfortable that also felt really good and that, thankfully was enough for his eyes to shoot open and he jumped back about three steps from her. “I…” God, why was his own breath a little short? “Fine you win. Don’t…” Do that again? That sounded rude so he didn’t say it, but he couldn’t make eye contact with her and went back to the bottle of whiskey even if he was already starting to feel that buzz in the back of his mind.
Kennedy just smiled when she got a reaction from him. She also glanced downwards just to see if she could spot a physical reaction as well. “Don't what?” she asked, tone innocent. She took another drink of whiskey herself, and winked at him. “You'd be fun,” she told him.
Adam caught her looking down and immediately shifted away waving to get her attention elsewhere. “Stop that.” The last thing he needed was that image stuck in her head, even if there might have been something worth seeing. Might. “Fun? What? How?”
“What? Are you ashamed? You shouldn't be,” she told him with a shrug. “And just fun. You seem really reactive. Like everything could get strong responses. What's not fun about that?” she posed. “I'd have to really play around with that, for a while. It'd be enjoyable.”
“Yes. I mean no. I mean...I don’t even know you!” Adam drug his fingers through his hair and stared at her. “You’re...you’re still talking about sex.” Maybe. Maybe not. Adam legitimately wasn’t sure.
“You don't have to know me,” Kennedy said. “I don't really go much for the whole idea of intimacy requiring some deep personal connection. It's all chemistry. You're hot. I really like your eyes, you've got a nice frame, and the curve of your mouth is something I can appreciate. Then there's that whole responsive thing which is intriguing. So many people are jaded these days, their tastes get weirder and weirder. And sure, you could have some weirdness in there, and it's not like I mind weirdness, but still. You seem to be a blushy sweet type, right now.” When he said she was still talking about sex, she nodded.
Adam was left staring at her. He opened his mouth to answer, but nothing came out and he really wasn’t sure what he was going to say in the first place. No? That didn’t make sense. She was just expressing an opinion and it was kind of a nice thing to hear. And maybe he could argue that there should be a personal connection with sex, but hadn’t every person he slept with been close to a stranger? So in the end nothing came out, just staring with his mouth a little bit open, not sure what to do with himself at all.
Kennedy closed the distance to him again, waving her hand in front of his face. “Helloooo, Earth to Adam, come in, Adam,” she said, tone amused. She eyed him. “Yes. I firmly think you would be incredibly fun.”
Adam jolted out of the little trance when she waved her hand at him, giving her a little bit of a look. Why was she so close again? That was making it a little harder to think. “Well..I’m not some...toy,” he said, though he didn’t really sound all that sure about it.
“Course not. Toys are inanimate. They certainly aren't interactive, and you are. Y'know, when you aren't spacing on me, but still. I just think you would be fun. For instance...” she moved in front of him then dropped to her knees, putting her right at a certain level, and she leaned just a hair closer. Which she was guessing was going to have one of any number of reactions, but he wouldn't just be stoic about it.
“I wasn’t spacing out,” Adam said, trying to save some of his pride, but then she was on her knees in front of him and his eyes went wide. Without even thinking first he stumbled backwards half a step. “What are you...what was that for?” Part of his mind supplied the answer, that she was probably just trying to get a rise out of him, but honestly he wanted to know what her response would be and didn’t trust his own mind any at the moment.
She gestured to him. “Interactive,” she said. “So, no, you aren't a toy. I'm not saying you are, you aren't being compared to one,” she assured him. She sat back on her feet, eyes on him. “How come you're so jumpy?” she asked. “And it's a serious question, I'm not teasing you.”
He felt a little better not being compared to a toy even if she seemed like she just wanted to play with him. “I’m not used to...this.” Not at all. The amount of physical contact he got in his life was extremely limited until Kyle showed up and everything about Kennedy was going against that.
“What open conversation about sex?” she asked, curious. “Or just someone like me? Or someone clearly making it known that you're attractive in their eyes? D, all of the above?”
“D. And you’re...close.” Adam shook his head. “Open conversations about sex that aren’t a group of guys yelling about who they hooked up with at a party, someone like you and anyone at all moving me into attractive and saying it and you um, close.” And on her knees. Which had Adam reaching out a hand to help her up.
When he offered her the hand up, Kennedy took it, standing. “You're right, those don't count as open conversations,” she agreed. “Maybe you should, though. It's pretty freeing, honestly. Gets all those pent up feelings in the open, means your dreams may come true...” she said. “And you are attractive. At least to me, you are. I think you fit well into the parameters of society's definition of the word as well. So it's pretty super weird to me to think that you aren't told you're hot or cute or something often, that you've got self esteem issues like that. As for the close thing...it's kind of nice, isn't it?”
"Who would I even talk to? And I'm not sure I've got dreams to come true. Nothing out of the ordinary at least." Everyone had those kind of wants but outside of wanting Kyle Adam's were probably boring. "And no, no one says it. I know I'm not ugly I'm just not usually anyone's thing." He paused before answering about her being close. "Maybe."
“Who says dreams have to be out of the ordinary?” Kennedy asked. “And anyone, I suppose. I'm offering up myself,” she told him. “And I'd say you are probably a lot of people's thing,” she said. “Maybe you just haven't put yourself out there or something.” Kennedy looked at him and smirked very faintly. “Just maybe?”
"You want to talk to me about sex? With or without trying something?" Adam asked. "Maybe. Maybe all my friends were better looking." He shook his head at her slowly. "Maybe. You were teasing me for half of it."
Kennedy shrugged. “Whatever. Why don't we not decide, and just see what happens? I don't like a lot of restrictions.” She eyed him up and down again when he suggested his friends were all better looking. “Statistically impossible, unless you like, hang out with models, or actors or something. And possibly not even then,” she told him. “And was I? I was showing you what things were about, you were the one inquiring about it. I don't see where I was teasing you. Being amused and teasing are different things.”
Adam wasn't entirely sure on that but he didn't say no. She was enticing despite his infatuation with Kyle. "I don't know. They got the girls and I only lucked out occasionally. I don't have an explanation. And I'm not that good looking." He leaned towards her but only to take the bottle. "They aren't? How's it work that you're amused and not laughing at me?"
“Okay, you don't get to talk about that when you have clear low self esteem. It means your opinion on yourself is utterly invalid. So, shut the fuck up about 'I'm not that good looking', and listen to what you're being told,” she said firmly. “And seriously? You don't get how someone can be amused with circumstances, but not be laughing at someone? That's...odd.”
Adam took a pull off the bottle and made a face at her. “Fine. I won’t weigh in,” he said shaking his head. He still thought she was crazy or over exaggerating but he didn’t say it since she’d told him not to. “It’s not odd...is it?”
“Yeah, it is.” Kennedy said. “Or, I think it is anyways. Just because someone's smiling and shit doesn't mean they're laughing at you. I'm amused. You're fun, and interesting, and you amuse me, but I'm definitely not laughing at you. Laughing at someone implies that you're mean. The intent is totally different. Plus, not everything is that pinpointed. A phone sex operator hanging out with a shy repressed guy is amusing as a whole.”
“I’m not repressed!” Adam ran his hand over the back of his neck, thinking about that. “I guess I’m just used to people being the target, rather than just being amused.” That was how it had been. Jeffrey and his friends had ragged on people, laughing at them instead of the irony of things.
“You were a Mean Boy?” she asked, arching a brow. “How's that work with the low self esteem thing?” she asked, honestly wondering. “And okay, if not repressed, then how about...prudish? But that doesn't seem like the right word...”
“No, I’m not a Mean Boy,” Adam said shaking his head. “I guess some of my friends might have been.” He frowned to himself, sipping off the bottle again as he thought about that. Jeffrey probably was. That was unsettling. “Not prudish...inexperienced.”
“If your thought process is that all laughing has to be at someone, then I'd say you either were a Mean Boy or you had friends that were, yeah. Which, honestly, just a guess here, but think maybe that could have something to do with you not thinking you're hot or not worth anything?” she posed. “And sure. We'll go with inexperienced.”
Adam glanced at the ground, then up at her. “Maybe?” He was quiet for a moment then shrugged. “They liked me. I didn’t really need anyone else. I had friends, I didn’t need to be hot or whatever. It wasn’t like I could change something. This is as good as it got.” He pointed to himself, half tugging at his shirt that was easily a size too big.
“There's more to life than friends, or people liking you,” she told him. She sat down on the floor, and leaned her back up against the elevator gate. “And by the way? You sound like you're trying to convince you, not me.”
“You shouldn’t sit there,” he said there, holding out his hand for her. “What if the door opens?” He looked away and didn’t say anything quickly. “I guess…maybe. I’m not as sure. It’s harder when he’s not here.”
“I'll be fine,” she told him. Then she paused, took his hand for the help up, and she called the elevator to their floor again. When it got there, she leaned in to push the 'stop' button, locking the mechanism on the top floor. Then she headed for the steps, hooking her arm through his on her way to drag him with her. “Well how about this,” she started. “How about you start thinking for yourself, not justify things to people, and start accepting that you're totally fuckable, and not a waste of anyone's time?”
Adam had no idea what to do with her locking the elevator on that floor, but beyond a curious look he just let her drag him down the stairs. “Isn’t thinking of myself as totally fuckable, make me like more of a dick?” he asked, though it was more just teasing.
Kennedy smiled. “Nope. It makes you confident. Plus, something tells me you wouldn't actually get there for a long time? So I was shooting for a middle ground of 'I'm pretty cute'.” She took the stairs by hopping down one at a time with him, getting them to the next floor pretty fast either way.
Adam was half jogging to keep up with her, one hand on the railing to keep from falling over. “Oh, so I’m really just supposed to think I’m tolerable at best,” he said with a smile.
Laughing, Kennedy lightly elbowed his ribs. “Well yeah, at first, we'll get the rest of the way after we get you all rolling with hot sweaty sex!” she insisted, getting them through the door to the next floor, and she headed straight for the elevator.
Adam stopped for a moment in the doorway. “Sex...sex with who?” he said, staring at her as she headed towards the elevator. “Wait...no. No, no, what are you doing?”
“I dunno. People,” she said with a shrug. “I wouldn't turn you down.” She didn't stop until she got to the elevator gate, and she pulled it open with ease that really shouldn't have been in place. It should have given her more trouble, but someone had pried these open before, it looked like. She leaned out then glanced up, seeing above the elevator car. Then she looked down.
He stared at her. “I wouldn’t turn you down.” That wasn’t the right answer. Nor was that smooth. That was as far from smooth as it got. Then she was opening up the elevator and he forgot his stupid answer to that question, following after her and catching her around the waist. “No, no, no.”
Kennedy glanced back at him. “We should find someplace fun then, shouldn't we?” she suggested. She turned around in his arms, locking eyes with him. “You. Me. Some fun?” she asked, weighing her next move on his answer.
“Please tell me by somewhere fun you really don’t mean down there.” She was in his arms kind of wasn’t she. This was going to get weird wasn’t it? “Sure. Not down the elevator shaft.” He pulled back, taking her with him.
“Oh, that was something else I wanted to test out, not anything to do with you and me,” she explained. She went with him, however, letting him get her farther away from the elevator shaft. “But, if you're thinking along other lines...” she trailed off, lightly trailing her fingertips across the back of his neck.
“What’s there to test out?” he asked, looking past her, but her hand on his neck drew him back to her. “Do you...remember the guy thing?” he asked. Maybe she didn’t. “Anything that’s not the elevator shaft.”
“I remember. But I also remember you reacting earlier, so maybe you're like me. Genitals...sorta 'whatever'. It's whether or not there's chemistry with the person,” she said. “Plus, you did just tell me you wouldn't turn me down, didn't you? Or did I misread, and you were just repeating what I said?”
“Wait...like you?” He pulled back slightly. He was still figuring out what it meant for him in general. “No I was...not thinking really…who could say no to you?” But the date with Kyle and Kyle in general.
Kennedy didn't try to stop him from stepping back at all, not into throwing herself at people. She put herself out there, but she wasn't going to beg, or talk him into it. “Alright...” she said, not actually following what he said to her well. She felt like she'd missed a beat or something. She didn't feel confused often, but she was at the moment. But oh well. She smiled and stepped away from him entirely. Sure, it would have been nice to get laid before she tested out her little theory, but she wasn't going to cry because it wasn't going to happen. “Anyway, see ya on the flipside?” she said with a smile and a wave.
“No..wait..What?” Adam had screwed that up hadn’t he? Did it matter? He was waving but not realizing why he was waving, but something seemed wrong. Really wrong.
She gave a half laugh. “I think your wires are crossed right now, Adam. Might wanna see to that,” she said, stopping in front of the elevator doors. She turned to him, then smiled. Then she snapped both of her fingers, and dropped down into the shaft, having seen something similar on The Lost Boys forever ago, and it stuck in her mind.
Of course his wires were crossed. They were crossed three times over, but that hardly mattered when she disappeared down the shaft. “Ken…” Fuck! Adam jumped forward, barely catching his hand on the edge of the opening and looked down. “Kennedy!” Why was he yelling? She was probably dead. He knew he was squinting in the dark trying to spot a mangled body.
There was a thud far down below, and Kennedy blinked as when she hit, she sank down softly. The impact kinda sucked, but she didn't go splat. She was on some inflated...something. She gazed upwards from her back, and saw faint light up there. And she heard her name. “I'm okay!” she called, laughing as her voice echoed up the shaft.
It wasn’t until she called back up to him that Adam was sure his heart was beating again. “Jesus Christ.” He’d almost been the reason someone jumped down an elevator shaft hadn’t he? “Why are you laughing?” he yelled back. “What the actual hell is wrong with you? Why would you do that?” He squinted again, just barely making out movement at the bottom.
“Oh, probably a lot of things!” she called up to him about what was wrong with her. “And I'm laughing because this scenario wasn't one I had thought of at all! I love it when I'm surprised!” She sort of skipped the question about why she'd done it, instead bouncing slightly on the whatever-it-was she'd landed on, and then she spotted a sign on the wall, barely lit by...an opening down into what looked like a creepy basement. “...please don't try killing yourself again. Thank you, Maintenance,” she read to herself quietly. Huh.
“Was the original plan one where you’re a mangled mess of dead on the ground? Because I didn’t want to be a part of that.” At all. Ever. Adam was glad she hadn’t jumped with the whiskey because he was going to need that. She’d fucking just...jumped. Like she was some super villain in a movie. He paused a moment then looked down again. “You didn’t answer my question.”
“There's a sign down here saying 'Please don't try killing yourself again, thank you, maintenance',” Kennedy called up. “So obviously? I'm not the first person to try to jump, even if I wasn't actually trying to die,” she added. “And I did it because the laws of physics don't seem to work here. I'm not sold on the idea that we're even really in a hotel, I'm wondering if this is Limbo or something. I was curious what would happen if I jumped.”
Adam needed to sit down. He wound up sitting with his feet dangling down the shaft, still holding on but finding the whiskey bottle with the other and nursing that a little bit. “Why would you jump if you weren’t trying to die? Why not try from a lower floor?” he asked, realizing it was weird to be having this conversation like they were, but he wasn’t about to jump after her. “What’s a Limbo?”
“Sometimes, you just got to go for something. I tend to. Plus I figured if I waited it out too long, someone – if there was someone messing with things – would fix it, to change the outcome. But if I just jumped when I felt like jumping, no one would be able to prepare. Only that theory is blown, because apparently Maintenance has had trouble with suicides or something,” she said, looking up at where she thought she saw his shadow. “And Limbo...sort of a middle place some are thought to go to after death, who haven't really been assigned to hell or anything, but who also aren't welcomed into heaven.”
“I noticed the going for things,” Adam pointed out considering she’d put herself right out there for him to take. Maybe he should have gone with that option. He had a feeling though he wouldn’t feel any better about that decision than he did about her jumping down the elevator shaft. “We’re stuck in a freaking hotel after getting pulled from our beds at night. Jumping would seem appealing to a lot of people I guess.” He shook his head as if she could see him about the Limbo thing. “I really don’t want to be dead and waiting to go to hell.” He got up then looking down at her. “Are you gonna hang out there all day? Because I’m not jumping after you.”
“I hadn't been planning on it, but you were talking to me, so I figured I'd finish the conversation, anyhow. If I'm keeping you, by all means. Head out. Go find something fun to do,” she suggested.
Adam leaned on the entrance and let out a sigh though he was pretty sure she wouldn’t hear it. “It’s not that you’re not fun Ken...you’re just crazy.” He smiled even though she wouldn’t see that either. “You owe me that conversation though. You promised. I’m holding you to it.” Because if things went well with Kyle he had a lot of things he probably needed to talk to someone about. Even if it was her and she maybe was more than a little crazy. He shook his head and took the bottle with him, considering closing the gate before he headed to the stairs, but opting not to. Just this once and just for Kennedy. She’d appreciate it.