How come I end up where I started? How come I end up where I went wrong? Who: Adara and Calista Where: Their house When: 11pm
Calista had just plopped down onto the sofa to flick the television on, wearing a pair of boy shorts and a tank top with her hair back in a loose bun. The Daily Show had just came on and she needed a good laugh to end her day. Not that the day was horrible at all, but why not end on a good note? With a bowl of cheerios and bananas at hand, she munched away while watching the television, though her eyes wandered about as she thought she saw Adara walk on by. Looking over her shoulder, she blinked her hazel eyes and called out with her mouth partially full. "There's some leftover goodies in the fridge if you want any." Calista had baked off so many baked goods for Jace the other day that she was left with a mas amount of leftovers. She couldn't all of them by herself, so hopefully Adara could help out. And hopefully she wouldn't mind said treats taking up a fourth of the fridge. Oops.
Dressed similarly in red boyshorts and a white tank top, Adara wondered out of her room and into the kitchen. She caught Calista's comment as she went by and took her advice to heart. She grabbed a variety of treats from the fridge and arranged them on a tray. After grabbing a couple of beers, she went into the living room, plopping on the couch. "Mind if I join you?" She put the tray on the coffee table and gestured to one of the beers. "This is for you if you want it."
Adara settled herself into the sofa cushions, a sigh of contentment escaping her as she felt her body relax. She took a long pull off her beer before popping a tasty treat in her mouth. She was so glad Calista had moved in. "These are delicious, Calista... thanks for sharing them with me." It wasn't everyday that one landed themselves a baker for a roommate, and a generous one at that.
She shook her head in response to the question of Adara joining in on the excitement, having her mouth full of cereal at the moment. By the time Adara plopped on down with her, Calista swallowed down her food and reached for her beer. "Thanks! And I'm glad you like the baked goodies. I made a bunch the other day to meet up with a friend of mind. He just returned from..." Shit, where did he return from? Gah, words were so hard sometimes. "Uh.. I don't exactly remember where, but it was really far away and he met up with monks and shamans and things like that." Now why he did would take a while for her to remember, but in the meantime she took a large gulp from her drink. "So how've you been today?"
Adara raised an eyebrow, "Monks and shamans and things? He sounds like quite the interesting fellow. Why would he be meeting with those type people?" And oh how she needed to meet some guys. She'd only really met Graham and well, she hardly remembered much of that evening. "We should go out sometime - I need to meet some guys.... badly." Sex was a casual thing for her, something she used to exert extra energy and emotions so she wouldn't take that out by way of setting fire to something. Although sex could only curtail her for so long...eventually the fire setting happened and really Adara was unapologetic about it. Except when people got hurt, but she wasn't going to dwell on that - not right now at least.
"I've been good - Work has been killer with all this demon stuff going on. I'm glad to get a chance to relax before getting back out there again tomorrow." Adara sighed and leaned her head against the sofa cushions, her eyes closed for a second. She was beyond tired but her stress level was through the roof and she knew that if she tried to sleep it just wasn't going to happen for a while. Hence the hanging with Calista. "And how was your day?" Eyes still closed she took another sip of her beer, hoping the alcohol would relax her muscles further.
Going out in general sounded like a plan for Calista. Didn't matter if she met a guy or not, just as long as she had a good time, which from the looks of it Adara seemed to be great company for that type of thing. After another mouthful of cereal was down, she placed the bowl on a nearby table and snuggled some more into the sofa. "It was relatively good. Had a friend stop on by earlier, his name is Quentin. Had to show him the new place... well, it's new to me, I guess. He really liked it, so maybe he'll come back. Actually..." Calista took a long sip on her beer before continuing. "My friend Jace, the one I saw the other day is looking for a place to crash for a while and was wondering if he could use one of the couches or..."
Calista trailed off, staring off at the television for a moment. Jon Stewart was making some jab at the media as always, something about the decline demons in the area and that they were all on lunch break. She didn't quite get the joke, but she still smiled softly anyways. "Oh! They're having a battle of the bands thing going on at The Mudhouse this Saturday. Going to try and see if I can get a band together to try it out. Just need a guitarist, bassist, and drummer... that's like everything, I think."
Adara perked up at the mention of her friend Quentin. "Ohh, is this a boyfriend?" Her lips were curled up in a teasing smile, hoping Calista wouldn't mind the intrusive question. She liked girl talk and talking about boys was the epitome of girl talk. "And who is this Jace fellow? How does he fit into the equation?"
She thought about what Calista asked and as much as she jjust wanted to say yes, she couldn't. At least not yet. "I would need to meet him first, if we can work that out. There is actually an extra room that I've been using as an office. If it all works out, I could move my computer out of there and he could stay there for a while." Maybe if she was lucky, this Jace guy was cute.
"A battle of the bands? That sounds fun! Too bad I'm not musical or I would volunteer. I didn't realize you were musical too? Do you sing?" It actually sounded like a great time and Adara was curious now as to what Calista did. "Can I tag along?"
Boyfriend? Now that was something that Calista had not entirely thought of. She thought Quentin was a great guy and everything, but she wasn't sure if he was boyfriend material. Same with Jace. Actually, Calista wasn't sure what boyfriend material in general was. "Uh... I don't know..." Calista responded with a confused look. "They're both boys and friends of mine, so who knows. And Jace is really nice... oh! He has a bunny! He's a fire something or other, like you." Words were completely gone with her, but she hoped Adara knew what she meant.
Taking a long swig on her beer, Calista licked her lips before perking up at the thought of the music event being held. "Of course you can tag along, I'd love that. I do rock vocals. Can't play anything, but I love to sing. I used to have a band I was with, but..." Wow, where were they? Calista had forgotten they broke up with her after she was late for the tenth time at one of their gigs. Sadly she had forgotten about that tidbit. "Hmm, I don't know where they went..." Tapping a finger against her beer, she glanced on over to her bowl of cereal, realizing there was still more left. "Ooo, one banana left!" She smiled a bit at this small realization and shoveled a spoonful into her mouth.
Well this Jace was sound better and better. "A fire elemental? Really now?" Adara sat up and looked at Calista, interest definitely burning in her eyes. "I'm definitely going to have to meet him now."
Settling back in the cushions, she giggled at Calista's forgetfulness. She'd gotten pretty used to it by now but it never ceased to amuse her. "A rock singer, huh? That's really awesome! I can't believe I didn't know about that before." She reached over and patted Calista's arm in excitement. "I am really excited now!" And she was, it was nice to have a girl to go out with and such an awesome cool girl as Calista was too. Adara settled back into the cushions and took another drink from her beer.
"I can invite him over sometime so you two can meet. Do fire elementals like each other?" She wasn't sure if it was something like they would get along really easily or just butt heads. Calista had seen similar people not get along because they acted too much the same, but who knew, maybe they'd hit it off really well. "But I'm glad you're excited. I hope I can just find people to play with. Even if it's just a guitar player and drummer." She had done the whole no bassist thing before, and while some people thought that was so yesterday, she didn't mind it. As long as she had something good to rock out to, she could back it up with some powerful vocals no problem. "Do you play anything? Maybe you can join or something."
"Yes, fire elementals get along well," Adara answered. She remembered back to her meeting Graham and even though she didn't remember a lot of the last part of the evening, she definitely remembered some of it. And yeah, they got along quite well. "But definitely invite him over anytime... I look forward to meeting him!"
She giggled at Calista's question, which she'd already answered earlier. "No, I don't play anything, sadly. It would have been good times if I had." She much preferred playing with fire as her hobby than working on anything musical.
"Oh..." Calista pouted slightly upon finding out that Adara didn't play anything. Lame... This whole putting a band together thing last minute was harder than she thought. Taking the last couple of bites of her cereal, she took the pleasure to gulp down the remaining milk, then placed the empty bowl back onto the table and eased back into the sofa. "Ooo, your sofa is so squishy. I love it. Actually, I love just about everything here. I'm so happy to finally be out of my parent's place." She paused and thought about it for a second, then looked on over to Adara. "You don't have parents here, do you?" If she did, they had to be hiding in a closest or under a bed or something. Or maybe... "Are they ninjas?"
"I knoooow, I love my sofa!" Adara was sunken in the cushions as well, her legs pulled in and she sighed with utter contentment. Nothing cured stress like hanging with a cool girl and relaxing on her huge comfy sofa. "I'm really glad you like it here. I really like having you here. I was getting lonely by myself." Adara knew that was partially due to her fire elementalness - she needed to be around people and Calista was just the perfect person to have around.
Giggling at the air elemental, Adara shook her head. "No parents here... you're completely parent-free. Yay!" And ninjas? Really? Where had that come from? Adara knew better than to ask, so she just rolled with it. "They aren't ninjas... they're actually both dead, so no need to worry about them popping in." A small frown tugged her lips down, she missed her father so much that it hurt.
Her eyebrows furrowed slightly, not wanting to upset Adara. She wasn't sure what to say to cheer her up. Was a bit hard to make someone happy when their parents were dead. "I'm sorry," was all Calista could really come up with. Sipping on her beer, Calista's mind wandered away from the topic at hand and went elsewhere. Her eyes settled on the TV for some time until something popped into her mind. "We should get a kitty. Didn't we talk about that before?" A kitty would be a nice addition to the household. Would definitely distract Calista from time to time when getting ready for something.
"It's not your fault," was Adara's automatic response. While she missed her father more than she could express, she was used to the gigantic hole in her heart where her father used to be.
Grateful when Calista changed the subject, she sat up eagerly, "Yes a kitty! We so need to go kitty shopping. Can we get a girl kitty? And do you have a preference on color or breed?" Adara herself wanted a really fluffy tiny kitten and she didn't really care what color she was... just that she was really cute.
Calista showed off a bit more of a smile than usual, which spoke leaps and bounds for her. She was rather excited about a kitty, even if she wasn't flailing about like crazy like most people would be. The girl was always calm and collected, though inside she was definitely flailing about. "Um... the pretty kind...?" Calista hadn't put much thought into what type of cat to get, which was apparent. She just wanted one that was cute and fluffy and playful. That didn't seem too difficult to find, right?
"Good then, we agree!" Adara was really excited about getting a kitten. "And we get to go shopping for all the cute supplies, like a collar, food bowls, a bed, a scratching post." Adara sipped at her beer, her mouth curving up in a smile. "When do you want to go kitty shopping?" Hopefully her schedule wouldn't be so busy and she could go sometime later this week maybe. "Do we get one from the Humane Society or look for some in the newspaper?"
Oh geez, there was a lot more to taking care of a kitten than Calista realized! Here she thought buying it some food and a couple toys would be good, but from the sounds of it it wasn't going to be that simple. At least Adara was more prepared than she was. "What's the uh... humane society? Is that like a society of kittens or something?" All she could picture was going before a council of kittens and pleading before them to have one to take home. If that was the case, then maybe she could convince Adara to do the talking. Calista wasn't good at the whole begging ordeal... but damnit, she wanted a kitten!
Adara giggled again at Calista. "No it's a place for abused and abandoned animlas can go to have a home until they are adopted. I like the idea of rescuing a cat, but I really had my heart set on a kitten. I suppose we could always go and look to see what the humane society has for adoption and then we can decide for sure." If Adara only knew what Calista was thinking, she would have been rolling on the floor laughing by now. Not laughing at the girl, just at how her head works.
"Oo, a kitten is good. As long as it's cute and fluffy and nice and playful and... hmm, I think that's it. That's not asking a lot, is it? That's only three things." Wait, no... "Er... four?" Academics were never her strong point and she constantly struggled with the basics. Well, she was bottom of her class for a reason. "But we should go soon before they run out." Poor kitten needed and home and Calista was determined to be a good kitten momma. With Adara's help, of course. They could have joint custody over their kitten kid and give it lots of love and attention. Hell, if it was there with them right now, it could be curled up on the sofa watching Jon Steward, because honestly, what kitten didn't love Jon Stewart? Made total sense in Calista's mind.
"Yes we need to go soon... what's your schedule like this week? I'm off work for the 4th of July but I'm thinking the Humane Society might be closed. Sometimes they let us out early the day before a holiday so maybe we can go the afternoon of the 3rd?" If they wouldn't let her off, Adara knew she had plenty of comp time saved and could get off if she wanted to. She was so excited about a kitten! "What if we see two kittens that are equally as cute? How will we choose just one?!" Adara wasn't sure she could see two cute kittens and leave one behind... especially if they got them from the Humane Society.
Oh dear god, this was not good. Presenting a choice to Calista was a sure bet that she wouldn't be able to figure it out for a week, and even then she still wouldn't be sure. At first the psychic parted her lips, then closed them as she furrowed her brow slightly. She looked away to eye the television, trying to think of what they would do when two kittens we presented. For a minute she was distracted by some weird faces Jon Stewart was making, giggling in amusement to herself. She might not have understood any of the jokes he was making, but some visual humor always hit home with Calista. No one could go wrong with that.
Sipping on her beer, she looked back to Adara, tilting her head to the side as she thought up of something. "Can't we get both...?" Ok, so it wouldn't be one kitten, but if they were equally cute, then perhaps they could sum up to one massive ball of cuteness...? Maybe? It sounded way better in her head, that she was certain of.
For a second there, Adara had forgotten that Calista was just terrible at making decisions. After watching her get distracted by the television and then she came up with the solution Adara was hoping for, she gave her a winning smile. "Just what I was hoping you'd say!" Noticing that she didn't mention a date that would be good for her, Adara tried again. "What about going on the afternoon of the 3rd?"
As usual, Calista had forgotten about the whole date thing. Fluttering her eyes, she nodded to Adara. "Yeah, that sounds perfect." They could pick out a kitten or maybe even two and have enough time in the evening to introduce them to the new home. Calista hoped she didn't get too caught up with the kittens, knowing that the battle of the bands would be the next day. Finishing off her beer, she placed the empty container onto the table and lied down on the couch, eying the tv once again.
She didn't entirely pay attention to the television and instead let her mind wander. Calista had an odd way of coming full circle with bits of information, and right then her mind relapsed back to Adara's question about boys. She was still unsure of how to feel about all of it, especially seeing that she never truly had a steady boyfriend. Flings and friends with benefits seemed to suit her far more. The concept of having someone stay with her for an extended period of term was foreign to her. That in mind, she rolled onto her back and tilted her chin up to eye Adara better. "Adara, what's boyfriend material to you?" Maybe it was crushed velvet or pure cotton, who knew.
"Yay, it's a date then," Adara enthused. She was so excited to get their kitten or kittens. It would be a great addition to their house.
When Calista turned to lay down, Adara's hand immediately went to her hair, absently running her fingers through it. If Calista minded, she'd stop, but Adara was a naturally touchy person and that extended to men or her girl friends. So when Calista spoke, it jarred Adara from her thoughts. "Boyfriend material?" What a weird question... and random. But Adara was learning to accept that about Calista. "I'm afraid you're asking the wrong person. I don't do boyfriends. I do friends with benefits or one night stands, really." She gave a small apologetic shrug. "Why are you asking?"
Oh awesome, they were both in the same boat in that perspective, except Calista didn't know how to steer. "Sounds like me," Calista stated apathetically. So much for trying to get solid advice on boys. Maybe she just wasn't meant to have someone special in her life. Perhaps she was just destined for all these fleeting relationships. The thought lingered in her mind, making her relatively sad, but she didn't display any negative emotions on the outside. She almost never did. "I don't know, I just would like to think I know what I'm doing when it comes to guys, but I really don't. Never really given any thought to how that would all-" Peering up at Adara, she noticed the girl had a stray hair poking out and proceeded to reach out and try to fix it, completely forgetting where she was trying to go with her thought process.
And she got distracted by Adara's hair. She smiled at the other girl and kept smoothing her hands over Calista's hair. "I would think that boyfriend material would be someone you can be yourself around. Someone who gets you and accepts you, all of you. It'd be someone you wouldn't want to keep secrets from, someone you'd be able to tell anything to and they'd still love you." Of course, that could just be Adara's wish of a perfect man because her past and present? Pretty tough to accept once you broke through all her barriers. Not many men or women would stand by someone who set fires to homes. And the fact that those fires had caused injuries and even deaths and yet she was still doing them? Yeah, pretty unforgivable. But for Adara, it was her drug, her addiction. She couldn't not set fires. It was how she deals with stress, anger, sadness, change and she didn't see that changing anytime soon. "Do you have someone you think might be boyfriend material?"
Calista lied there with her signature deadpan expression on her face. Adara's words perplexed her so much. Someone she could be herself around and not keep any secrets from? For the most part Calista was too mellow to let anything get to her, but some things did upset her, like when Jace hadn't called her back or when the band she had been playing with for a month broke it off with her abruptly. She wouldn't let people see her reactions right then and there, and for the most part it probably didn't bother her at the time being, but it wouldn't be until all those little things piled up inside and constantly plucked at her brain that she would show a different side. When Calista emptied out her bottled emotions, she didn't uncork it - she smashed it to pieces. And it always took longer to put a shattered bottle back together. She didn't like people seeing that side of her, nor did she like revealing her true emotions, and preferred to keep it that way.
"... I don't think so," she finally replied after letting all of that sink in. She thought that maybe, just maybe she had found someone, but if that was the case, then perhaps she was never meant to be with someone. As always, Calista took the thought and pushed it away. She slowly sat up and smoothed out her hair while looking over to Adara with a soft smile. "I think I'm going to head to bed. You want me to grab another beer for you? Or a cannoli?"
Adara had gotten used to Calista's non-expression expression but she knew it didn't mean that nothing was going on behind that non-expression expression. But Adara had no idea what she was truly thinking and she wanted to because maybe she could help. So when she got up slowly and seemed a little sad, she was quick to lean forward and hug the other girl. "Don't listen to me, Calista... I really do not know what I'm talking about. I've never had a boyfriend and what I said was what I would want... but it's not the same for everyone. So don't get discouraged, please." She sat back and gave Calista a soft smile. "I'm fine, thanks. Sleep well, girl."
The hug was unexpected, though highly appreciated. Calista savored the contact with Adara, smiling a bit more as she brought up a hand to pat the fire elemental's arm. She hadn't known her that long and she was already a good friend. Hell, they were going to go out and find kittens together, not to mention Adara was going to see her performance at The Mudhouse on Saturday. What else could she ask for? Looking over to eye the other woman, she nodded to her and slipped on off the couch. "Thanks, Adara. I appreciate it more than nothing at all. You take it easy, too. Night." And with that she shuffled on off upstairs to her bedroom, thoughts of what she was going to do with herself and the boys lingering in her head.