WHO: Rory and Eisen. SURPRISE. WHAT: Hanging around and talking. And awkwardness. WHERE: Eisen's apartment. Shock, I know. WHEN: After play practice on Tuesday. RATING: Likely not that high. STATUS: Incomplete.
And in disarray, you just want to live one more day. Cause you just want to be happy now.
Eisen should have been ecstatic. Bouncing off the walls and singing about how absolutely happy he was. But… he wasn’t. Or, it wasn’t that he wasn’t happy. He was. Or he should have been. But something felt off. He’d gotten barely any sleep last night. He’d gone to bed when Lexie had and laid there for a couple hours, tossing and turning and unable to sleep, so he gathered his phone and texted Rory.
For a good percentage of the conversation, it felt strained. Awkward. Maybe it was only Eisen, because of whatever these odd feelings he was having were, but it just felt strained. He told Rory everything. Everything. And ironically, because talking to Rory had helped? It also hadn’t helped. At least not in the morning. He got a full night’s sleep after he and Rory said goodnight. At the time, it was nothing to worry about. But after Lexie left to go home and change her clothes, it started to hit him, the strangeness of it. He hadn’t been able to sleep until he’d spoken to Rory.
Not just that, but even after an amazing evening spent with Lexie? All he’d been able to think of as he lay there in bed, before he’d picked up his phone to text Rory and ask how his night had been, was Rory’s crush on Mal. Mal wasn’t good enough for him. Anyone who was friends with Cait Baines wasn’t good enough. No, Mal wasn’t a bad person, but… she wasn’t right for him. She couldn’t banter back and forth with him about Shakespeare or old movies and she hadn’t seen him at his best and worst. She just… she wasn’t right for him. The only person he knew who could do all those things was…
Well, the only one who could do all those things and had seen all those things was him.
He’d somehow managed to dispel those thoughts and focus enough to put up a normal front for play practice. He was getting good at this. He’d memorized his lines and could call them up on command, something he’d never expected to be able to do, and managed to sort of make Benedick his own. He was sure Rory was pleased with him, which made him smile.
The walk home was filled with chatter of Shakespeare, as was customary for them ever since they’d started going to play practice every Tuesday. Once they got to Eisen’s, however, he walked into the kitchen and tossed the Spanish rice he’d mixed together earlier that day on the stove to heat up. Rory knew to make himself at home at his place. “So,” he called from the kitchen, opening the shutter that looked out into the living room. “What’s this Bailey related drama you were telling me about, anyway?” he asked. He was actually surprised at how into town drama Rory had been lately. Generally, he thought Rory liked to stay out of these types of things.