callas devry (devry) wrote in mcdermott_game, @ 2009-09-24 01:26:00 |
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Entry tags: | callas, callas/chloe, chloe |
WHO: Callas and Chloe
WHAT: Some advice.
WHERE: their dorm room
WHEN: the afternoon of Wednesday, September 23
RATING: PG (language)
STATUS: Complete
She was putting absolutely, entirely too much thought into this. That was what Chloe decided as she looked over the books spread across her desk. She had homework to do. She knew that so therefore why was she prioritizing it as to what would be mist suitable to take over to work on at Tim’s? Homework was homework, whether it be a creative writing paper or her scene book to get all the paperwork done that was due at the end of the week for acting styles.
Realizing that though didn’t make the decision any harder and she was still staring at the pile on her desk when she heard the door to her room open and Callas walk in.
Callas was humming to herself, not entirely tunelessly (though she wouldn't by any means be auditioning for any of the singing roles in any play or for the music department anytime soon), as she walked into the room. "Hey, you," she said when she saw Chloe. "What's up, buttercup? Forgive the lame rhyme, I'm bored."
"Oddly enough I'm trying to figure out if acting styles or creative writing is more date appropriate homework. " Chloe mused as she turned to look at Callas. "And hi!" She added as she turned her attention to her roommate. “Why so bored?”
"Don't know! I'm doing okay in most of my classes, and since Michael came and went, I'm feeling a lot better," Callas told her, sliding her backpack off and letting it rest on her bed. "Care to inform me what 'date appropriate homework' is, by the by?"
"I'd love to inform you of what that is." Chloe shrugged as she flopped down on her bed to contemplate this question. "I will as soon as I figure that out. We're trying this whole seeing each other more than once a week thing, which means just hanging out while I do homework and he grades papers....and for some reason I've decided to obsess over which homework I should work on... I'm lame, Callas.
Just lame."
Callas fought a smile, really, she did. Except it didn't quite work, and so she stifled a laugh with her hands. "You're going over there to sit and do homework together? Oh, Chloe. I can't decide if that's sweet or just plain nauseating."
Chloe rolled her eyes at Callas’s reaction but a smile was playing across her lips as she did so. “I know!” She admitted. “It’s nauseating but on the other hand… The whole only seeing each other Saturday night isn’t all that conducive to getting to know each other better… and the only way we can hand out during the week is if we both get work done.”
"Well, at least you're being productive. And cute. Terribly, terribly cute. Hey, I want to bake a batch of cookies after last class tomorrow. Do you want me to give you some? If you promise to be honest about whether or not they suck, you can even give some to Tim." She shifted, unzipping the bag to grab the newest supplies she'd bought.
“I’d say there’s nothing wrong with being cute but… I’d tease us if I were you.” Chloe admitted with a laugh as she got up off the bed to go over her homework conundrum again. Acting styles was the most important and they were trying to be productive so that’s what she was going with she decided as she gathered the binder that she used a scene book up and stuffed it in her messenger bag. “And cookies? I would never, ever turn those down, Callas. EVER.”
"I figured you wouldn't, but I want to try a new recipe out, so I thought I'd warn you about that, too," Callas replied.
"As long as they don't poison me; I’m sure I’ll love them.” Chloe admitted with a nod of her head as she crossed to her closet and opened it so she could stare at its contents. “I’m pretty sure you can’t mess up anything with large amounts of chocolate and sugar in them."
"Well, I was gonna try you out on the vegan ones," Callas said, grinning to show she was teasing. "But if you really want chocolate...."
“Vegan ones!” Chloe exclaimed as she pulled an Oscar worthy face of shock. “That’s horrible to even tease about!”
"Hey, vegan cookies are surprisingly good if you do them right," Callas protested. "Of course I like cutting the recipe with sugar and butter, so that sort of defeats the purpose, but still!"
"Vegan things are horrible." Chloe argued. "Not that I know this for fact or by experience but I simply assume..."
"You know what they say about assuming," Callas returned, and stuck out her tongue.
"That it's really the only way to decide things?" Chloe replied quickly as she laughed at Callas and then held up two shirts to choose from. "Green clingy top or blue sweater?"
"If you intend on getting anything done, blue sweater," Callas answered.
"Good point." Chloe tossed the sweater on her bed and hung the other shirt back up. "Although if we're going with that logic I should stick to what I'm wearing and toss on his USC hoodie. We'd get a tone of work done that way..."
"Then wear that," Callas said practically, though she grinned. "Come on, though, Chloe. Let's not lie, you two would be distracted if you were wearing a paper bag."
Wearing that would also mean she didn't have to bother changing which, right then, Chloe saw as a total plus. "That is completely and totally--" Chloe raised her voice as if to deny it and then shrugged as she bounced onto her bed tucking her feet underneath her. "—True. Okay it's true, hence the whole studying idea."
"Pretty much. Don't worry. I'm sure this way you'll be able to concentrate," Callas assured her. She set her papers on her desk and looked back at Chloe. "Everything is okay with you two, right?"
It'd make it easier to concentrate, that at least Chloe was sure of. "Yea." She nodded. "Things are great...too great I'm starting to think, I don't really know."
That made Callas offer her a puzzled glance. "Explain?"
"Things are amazingly great." Chloe assured her as she pulled a face at her own confused thoughts. "I like him a lot. We get along well. We're past that whole first few months infatuation thing I think... I don't know. I'm trying to figure out how I feel about him." She shrugged. "I mean, I told him i wanted to slow down the physical stuff and concentrate on figuring things out and he understood and... I think I'm just worried is all. Which is stupid right?"
Callas could understand that. Perhaps better than most people could, quite honestly, given how foolish she'd been with Eric. "Why are you worried? It's not stupid to be worried. Things are moving pretty fast and you want to know if that's not just physical chemistry. Right?"
"You're right. I mean that's it exactly I want to make sure it's more than physical before we get to physical but...I don't do extremely serious relationships." Chloe admitted. "I used to think that wasn't by choice but lately... i don't know if I'm ready for anything that serious and it's heading that way and.... i can't stop it. And that worries me."
Callas stopped, sitting down on the edge of the bed. "Why can't you stop it, if you don't want it? I'm not trying to criticize you. I'm just asking."
Why couldn't she stop it? Chloe knew that that was a valid question and yet to her it was so obvious that she couldn't stop the incredulous look that crossed her face as she thought about it. "I've always been a firm believer that you can't stop something like this." Chloe explained after contemplating how to explain it. "I could say, i don't want anything serious and push Tim away but it wouldn't be stopping anything it would just be denying something that was happening."
"If you're falling in love with him," Callas pointed out, "then let it happen. I mean, yeah, it's a scary thing, but ... it could be the best thing that ever happened to you. And it's not like you're in high school, either. It's not going to be some fluffy hearts and flowers thing. It's... real."
"I don't have a choice, is what I'm saying." Chloe countered. "I mean... I'm not scared of the being in love thing or getting hurt or anything like that I just.... I don't think I really like not having a choice." She shrugged. "I do like him though, I can't deny that. I really, really do. "
"Why don't you have a choice? If you like him but you're not prepared to love him, then why not tell him that? Why not back off for a little while and just ... not let it be so intense?"
"It doesn't stop anything." Chloe pointed out. "I mean I can tell him that and that's what will happen. I more or less have and that's what's happening. It doesn't change the base fact that I'm falling hard for him, though. It only slows it down. "
Callas frowned at her. "Chloe, I like you to bits and pieces, you know that, right? But ... still. I'm not sure if I'm getting you. You don't have to marry the guy here. You don't even have to tell him you love him. You don't have to do this if you don't want to. Yes, it'll hurt. But you don't have to commit to anything. So why are you if you're not ready?"
"I'm not, that's the thing!" Chloe was fully aware of the fact that she was talking circles and probably only made sense to herself. It was why she would never have brought it up on her own. "I'm not telling him, I'm not committing anything yet. It just feels so damn inevitable that it scares the hell out of me." There it was, the basis of fear no matter how ineloquent her words. "It's going to happen, It IS happening and I can only slow it down and... I tend to worry over the future." She shrugged. "I'm not as bad as Jeremy with assuming the worst case scenario and all but... I look about four steps ahead of wherever I am and worry about that."
"Well, stop it, would you? You're going to drive yourself crazy," Callas pointed out rationally. "I know, easier said than done. But still. You like him, and he likes you. And if that's a good thing ... well. It's a good thing, you know what I mean? It doesn't have to end up anywhere you don't want it to. You can be in love and let it happen as it comes. If it ends badly, okay, that sucks. But I think it's more important to have the journey than to not have had anything. You're so damned lucky, do you realize that? You have someone who genuinely loves and appreciates you, not because you're Chloe freaking James, but because you're you. And loving that man? Won't be a problem if you don't make it one."
"You, Callas Devry, make a hell of a lot of sense." Chloe informed her with a grin after she let her words sink in. She was lucky, she got that, she really did she was also scared though and couldn't turn that off. "Does it make me strange that I'm not worried about a bad ending to it all?" She mused after a moment. "I mean it'd suck but I'd deal. I know this.... that should be what's scary, right? Not the fact that it might be serious... I should want that, shouldn't I?"
She was met by a shrug and a grin. "Sometimes the prospect of a serious relationship can be scarier than a break-up. You're right. At least with a break-up you can predict how you'd react, you know? You'd have Jeremy and Bexy and me to get you through it, and you'd eventually move on. But if it turns serious ... well, that's scary. It's unpredictable."
“Damn it, and here I like the only thing in my life being unpredictable to be me." Chloe was speaking lightly, making a slight joke, but there was a hint of truth to the statement.
"Ha. Me too," Callas agreed. "But ... men are so not like that. Relationships aren't." She thought briefly of Eric, of Michael, how both of those things had gotten way out of her control so fast.
"Which is possibly why I've never had a long term one." Chloe decided. "Things get too unpredictable and it's done." Plus there was the whole no sex thing that usually cut them short but that was an entirely different conversation.
"I've never had one, period," Callas reminded her. "So I think I might be romanticizing that element of unpredictability. Besides ... Tim's trustworthy. What's the worst that could happen? In five or ten years, you could marry the guy, or in five months, you could break up. It's not so bad, when you think about it."
Chloe had to giggle at Callas's words. Not because they were particularly amusing but simply because that was always what she did for Jeremy. pointed out the worst that could happen and go from there. "I'm sorry." She explained when she saw Callas's curious look. "You're totally right it's just...well it's something I'd point out to anyone else."
"Well, then, dummy, use it against yourself, too." Callas reached over and threw her pillow at Chloe with a grin.
Chloe laughed as she caught the pillow and tossed it back. "Hard to use your own advice on yourself...I KNEW there was a reason I kept you around." She teased as she got up off the bed and gathered her bag together. "Okay It's almost time to go spend some time with a guy who is perfectly willing simply sit and let me study at his place and when i told him we weren't having sex was all...okay." She paused as she thought about it and then grinned not caring how it looked as she reached for the hoodie that was hanging over her desk chair and then hung it back up when she saw that it was one of the ones she'd stolen from Jeremy and she rummaged through a drawer full of them for Tim's. "I kind of lucked out... didn't I?"
"There's no 'kind of,'" Callas said dryly. "You did. Trust me. As someone who very nearly almost slept with Tim's complete and total opposite, you utterly, wholly, one hundred percent lucked out."
"Hey, wait, very nearly slept with Tim's opposite?" Chloe asked as she continued to rummage through the drawer. It was however full of the stuff she'd stolen from Jeremy and Greg and oddly enough Auden. She really had a problem she decided as she shut the drawer and crossed to the closet. A wide grin on her face as she found Tin's sweatshirt hanging over the door where it was easily accessible. "Do share." She announced as she pulled it over her head and pushed the sleeves up so her hands could be of some use to her.
"Eric," Callas answered; it was a simple enough reply, but fitting. "And you have too many sweatshirts for your own good, girl. You know this, right?"
"Eric..." Chloe thought about that for a moment and then shrugged. "Palmer, right?" She asked and then shrugged at the sweatshirt comment. "i have a hoodie stealing problem. Not a one of those I bought for myself."
"Yes. Palmer." Callas dug out a notebook and contemplated which aspects of the new recipe she wanted to try were going to be possible, given the size of the Keaton kitchen and its less than stellarly stocked nature.
Chloe took Callas pulling out her notebook as a sign that the subject of Eric was pretty much closed and she accepted that as she reached for her car keys, surprised that they were on her desk in the first place she looked. "Okay, I’m off to see Tim, I'll be back later. Shall I turn on the lights and make all manners of noise to try and be totally annoying when I get back? You know only if you're asleep of course."
"Of course. And while you're at it, let's have a pillow fight," Callas agreed cheerfully.
"Oh awesome I do love pillow fights." Chloe laughed as she opted to pick up a pillow and toss it at Callas for good measure before heading out the door before she could throw it back.