Getting All Mature Who: Andrew and Gwen When: Wednesday Night, Oct. 28 Where: Chloe's Sugar Shack, then Avarice
Today seemed like a good enough day for Andrew. He had his good and bad days, but this was a good day. He was idly flipping through one of his school books and sipping at some frothy coffee mix that he had gotten from Chloe's Sugar Shack, and was now sitting in one of the corner booths there. He was supposed to be working on homework, but that bored him, so he was flipping ahead in the chemistry book to see what he was supposed to be learning in the next class or something like that. He could have tested out of a lot of it, and some of it he had, but he was already here a year ahead of when he was supposed to be, so he hadn't felt the need to try testing out of too many things.
"Heeey, Andrew! Sup bruthaaa?" For once, Gwen looked like herself again. She was dressed like her old self (denim shorts, combat boots, mesh top over a black tank, and her hair and makeup done nicely), had a bounce to her step again, and just really looked, well, much like she back before she'd ever met Skylar. Repressing much? Yeah.
Andrew looked up and smiled a little when he saw Gwen, especially Gwen looking and acting much more like her old self again. "Hey," he said back to her, shutting the book he was flipping through. "Not too much, honestly. What about you?"
"Trying to get back the old me. Trying not to be upset." She grumbled, thinking of her talk with Catherine. "For the sake of the Slayers, trying not to call my ex every skanky name in the god damn book. How're you, hon? Holdin' up ok?"
"Well, you certainly look more like your old self," he said, blushing a little. "I'm doing alright, though. Hanging in there."
"Good. Cos its time you start being YOUR old self again too. Me and you? We're gonna start hanging more again." She nodded, as if deciding on this definitively. "Like back in the Sunny D, when I was single, and you were pinin' after Summers."
"Because me pining after Dawn while she went for everyone but me was so much fun," Andrew deadpanned. He knew what she was doing: acting like everything was OK. He had gotten good at doing that lately himself. He wasn't going to call her on it, though.
"At least we can try to have fun again..." She grumbled, giving his shoulder a playful shove. "We're gonna start living again. Because neither of us deserve to be miserable. Although I seriously wish Skylar would have shit happen to her that makes her regret this forever."
"I'm OK with having fun." At least he thought he was. No one was ever sure of Gwen's idea of fun. "Neither of us need to be miserable." Wishing bad things on your ex? Not so great. If she actually started living, though, maybe she'd quit that.
"You know what? We're going out. Me and you. And we're gonna both vent to each other and get allllll this shit off our minds." Because to Gwen? What could possibly go wrong with that?
"Go out where?" Andrew wasn't one to 'go out' especially not the going out that Gwen tended to do. Still, he was miserable. She was miserable. Why not be miserable together? Better than sitting at home alone.
"Cool yer jets, man... I just meant go to the club or something and talk." Yes, she meant Avarice. Was she really getting THIS ok with it? "We both need to vent. And... I know you got some venting to do to me, too." Yep, Gwen might not be a rocket scientist, but she could tell when someone was mad at her. She knew Andrew held her at least partially responsible for all the timeflip crap... and it was high time someone finally heard HER side of it. "Busy right now?"
He nodded. "Fine, that's fine. I got a little venting to do, but it's nothing serious I hold against you or anything." He had been aggravated at Gwen because, for some reason, her leaving had screwed with his memories of Cassie. Of course, if he had been with her, he never would have been around Ami. So...well, it was all very confusing. "I'm not really busy at all."
"Good. Let's blow this popstand." She said, hopping to her feet with a grin.
Andrew had actually never been to Avarice before. He was probably the only person in the city of LA who could say that, but he just wasn't the club going out type. Which, of course, made him feel all the more uncomfortable there. Still, Gwen had wanted to go, so he was going to put up with it. "So, having fun yet?"
"Honestly? It feels weird being in here." Gwen admitted, sitting back, finding SOME comfort in the fact that they'd at least gotten a table in one of the more private corners of the place. "Mostly because of who's currently getting fucked by the owner. But damn. I'm not letting that skank scare me away from my favorite hangout spot. Not anymore. Not like I'm gonna get a chance to hear Cannibal Corpse or Slayer at another decent club." With a sigh, she finally just let it out. "Look... you can say it, Andrew. I've read it on your face since shit came undone. You wanna know why I fucked with everyone's memories."
"It's not even taking yourself from people's memories that I really got messed up about," Andrew told her. "A couple of other people got the memory wipe treatment as well. I don't understand why I forgot Cassie. That's something that really screwed with the both of us for a while, although I think she's well past it now." He didn't mention himself. "I'm not angry with you or anything. I just sort of wanted to know why people like Cassie got mixed up in it."
"I can tell you everything, you know." She smirked, realizing that while everyone cast blame, and looked down on her... not ONE person had ever actually asked her to explain it. "Just... nobody ever cared to actually ask ME what happened."
"I am asking you," he pointed out. Kind of strange that he was the only one, but he sort of was the nerd of it all, so maybe it was more fitting for him to just be curious. "What exactly happened? What went on?"
"It's like this. I didn't sit up there like OH HAY, GONNA WIPE MEMORIES NOW." She rolled her eyes and laughed. "Everyone thinks I just decided to be God or something. Basically... I was given control of the time-space continuum. To put it in terms even *I* can understand, imagine someone took a big vase, and smashed it. Then handed you a fuckload of glue and said 'here, just put it back together as best ya can'. That was me."
He nodded. "Of course, when you're trying to put back together a vase, sometimes pieces go missing or maybe they don't get glued in quite right, so somethings were just unintentional consequences."
"Dude. That's exactly IT. I had to put things together. Some things... went missing. Or got put back together in different ways. I know you don't wanna hear this right now, but Ami really... really fucked shit up, man. Bad. She almsot ended our entire reality with all the things she changed by accident. The only two changes I PURPOSELY made were these: I erased myself from everyone's memories. Mostly to help you all not miss me, AND because I knew you'd all not rest until you found me. And if one of you plucked me outta there before they were ready to lose me... well, that would have been me dropping the vase. The other change was, since I was a Slayer, I had to make someone ELSE one to make up for my absence. And me, being all sentimental and shit... chose Skylar."
He sighed. "I know she did," Andrew told her. "She knew it, too. At the end, she already knew that she was turning into Bella. Her hair was starting to change color, and one time she rattled on and on about some vintage fashion line that I couldn't understand what she was talking about, and she realized that she didn't really get it, either. It got very confusing." He looked at Gwen. "It's not your fault, though. It's just kind of what happened. We all got screwed on that, you included."
"I know. I just don't want you thinking what everyone else does: that I was able to pick and choose what people forgot. Because I didn't. It kills me, man... to see what happened to you and Cassie. Especially now." She felt like hell over all of this... especially Ami. "And... I feel like I'm the reason Ami's dead now."
"Ami's dead, I hate to say it, because of her own mistakes," Andrew pointed out. "Even she realized that in the end. I think she realized it before any of the rest of us could have put it together." Andrew reached across the table and squeezed Gwen's hand. "Ami is definitely not your fault."
"But I feel like me and Skylar falling apart was what started her spiral. And me leaving... was what started us falling apart." She felt her eyes well up again. DAMN IT! "Shit... I never used to cry, you know that? Fuckin' hell."
"No, what started Skylar's spiral was a chemical imbalance that happens after some women give birth." The sooner Gwen understood this, the better. "The fact that she then went nuts and left you for someone else? Well, that was just her being plain crazy. Say she was mad at you for leaving. You two could have went to some sort of counseling, or you could have just talked about it, but instead she just kicked you to the curb! That's not how you treat someone that you love, Gwen. What she did has nothing to do with you."
"I hope not, Andrew. Because while I'm done moping, and making everyone else miserable... we're close enough that I can be honest with you." Gwen closed her eyes, shaking her head softly. "I feel broken. Like my whole marriage was a lie. Like the guys back home were right: I'll never be in anything lasting, and nobody will ever REALLY love me."
"Now that's not true," Andrew said. "Maybe you and Skylar really weren't meant to be." What he didn't want to say was that, with the changes in the time line, maybe that had messed up their relationship. Of course, that would be a fault of Ami's, not Gwen's. He didn't want to say that, though. "If you really want something lasting someday, you'll find it."
"You too, you know. I know you and Cassie were like, made in nerd-heaven, but trust me... you're a good guy. Dorky as hell, but a good guy. You'll be FINE." That really WAS meant to sound better than it did
"Well, you know more than anyone that you can't really just snap out of it and be all normal again," he said, looking away for a moment. "It's one of those works in progress things."
"Yeah. I do know that." She grumbled, suddenly wishing she hadn't given up getting hammered. "You've always been there for me, you know. Even back when Warren gave me shit, and nobody believed in me."
"Well, you're one of the few people to believe that I wasn't a complete and utter waste of space, either," Andrew pointed out. "Wouldn't trade that for anything."
"Nah. I only thought that for the first couple of weeks. Then you conjured a flying monkey and won my heart forever." She shrugged with a grin. "Cos who DOESN'T love monkeys?"
"Too bad I had to leave Han Simian there, though," Andrew said. "I think he would have kept a lot more people in line when it came to being a Watcher." Scare the daylights out of any wayward Slayer, anyway.
"Hey. You're gonna make a GREAT watcher, man. Once you got some experience? A brain like that? You're gonna be AWESOME. And you got a bad-ass Slayer, too." Gwen honestly couldn't think of anyone more born to a watcher, really.
He shrugged. "My Slayer doesn't hate me, but I don't think she really respects me yet." He hoped that she would some day. "She's a year older than me, too. You'd think they'd give me one of the younger ones, so I'd at least have age on them."
"Look at the bright side. At least you didn't get Weirdo McCrazy." She of course meant Selinda Todd.
"I don't think I'm anywhere near qualified to handle her," Andrew said with a shake of his head. "No, a girl named Hope got her."
Gwen actually burst out laughing there. As in almost crying from laughter. "Is that a joke? That's AWESOME! You neeeeed Hope to handle that chick."
"No, I'm serious." It took him a second. "Wow! I never realized that before." He started laughing. "She really is the person for the job then, isn't she?"
"Dude. No shit here. Selinda walked up to me during training, said that 'staaaaars surround me'..." She said it in a tone somewhat mocking the younger girl, "and walked away! She's batty!"
"Well, then let's hope that Hope is a good influence on her," Andrew said, sounding just a little weirded out when he heard that.
"So..." Yeah, she was trying here. She DID feel bad. "Anyone you like right now? That maybe I can talk to for ya?"
He shook his head. "Not particularly," he admitted. "I mean, I haven't even thought like that, though."
"You're a teenaged boy, for fuck's sake! There's not ONE girl you're attracted to dude?" She laughed, giving him a skeptical look. "C'mon... My heart is SHATTERED here and I can still admit there's plenty of ass out there I wanna hit, man..."
Andrew briefly thought about pointing out that, while Gwen's wife had merely left her for another person, the girl that he had been with was DEAD. D-E-A-D. If he were the type to wear more black, he would be covered with the color he was still so far in mourning. "No, Gwen, there's really not." He looked away for a moment. "There's really no one that you can talk to for me." Besides, the few females friends that he had? They were all either taken (Cassie), still recovering from memory loss (Dawn), or, well, Gwen and everything she was going through.
"Ok, ok... I get it. Just trying to make ya smile, hun. I feel bad, ok? Like I'm the reason yer so hurting right now." Gwen knew his pain... part of her was just hoping they could magically make things how they used to be. "So... Wanna go get blitzed and watch Monty Python?"
"You're not," Andrew pointed out. "If anyone could be to blame, it's Ami, and she was only doing what she thought was best." Hell, Andrew had been a part of the group that had sent her back. If anything, he felt that *he* was at fault more than Gwen. Gwen was just the one who picked up the pieces. "And you know it only takes a wine cooler to get me falling on the floor and giggling."
"At least you never ran away from a stripper, and no more shall be said about that." Gwen replied with a little smirk. "Never thought I'd miss the old days, ya know?"
"No, I just stared, slack jawed," he replied. "I may have been tormented at Sunnydale High, but some things were a lot easier back then." He shrugged. "Can't go back to yesterday, though."
"Wow..." Gwen said, reaching over with a gentle smile to place a palm on his cheek. "You're really growin' up, honey."
"Happens to all of us eventually," Andrew told her. "Might even happen to you eventually," he added with a smirk.
"Never. Maybe there was a chance when I thought I was married, but..." She scoffed, shaking her head vigorously. "I know my place now. I'm meant to be America's booty call. Can't well do that if I'm all mature."
He just shook his head. He just prayed that she'd learn the truth someday. Everyone deserved someone to come home to at night.