Who: Cato & Shiri What: A funny thing happened on the way from the bookstore Where: In & Near the University of Miami Bookstore/Student Union When: Early Afternoon, May 5, 2011 Warnings: None. Part 1
Shiri leaned against the side counter of the campus book store, drumming her fingers along the artificial wood counter top, watching the student worker trying to carefully balance the pile of books that had formally been hers. She no longer needed any of those books. She hadn’t truly needed them previously but professors are so persistent with their “readings” and “assignments”. But now, with graduation so close, she certainly would never, ever need a book about the history of such and such or the best breathing exercises or whatever else the University of Miami had made her purchase and read over these years.
She watched the student worker with a bit of pity, knowing exactly how heavy those books were but only a bit. She had managed to get those books not only from her home on her motorcycle but to this bookstore. He’d have to manage to bring them to the back.
But in her wait, she rubbed the side of her head. It felt like she had her iPod on for hours, how her headache was taking root in her skull, but she knew her iPod was abandoned at home. It was the National Day of Prayer. She remembered this from last year. It would be a day of extreme buzz but extreme headache. It just made her drum on the counter more.
Drumming made everything better.
Gently, teasingly, another form of drumming appeared on the back of her head on one little spot, just begging for attention.
Spinning around, she swatted both her hands at whatever was drumming on the back of her head. “Get away from --- Oh, Cato.” Her swatting at least stopped.
Her younger brother gave her a big grin in response and pocketed his pencil. “Sorry, couldn’t resist,” he offered, even if his tone was completely unapologetic. “How goes?”
“You messed up my scarf,” she murmured as she pulled the pale red scarf back over her hair before leaning backwards now against the counter with a renewed smile. Her little brother was silly. But she was silly, too, so maybe the silly gene was on their father’s side. “All my finals are done and my books are slowly making their way to the back room to become money in my pocket.” Casually she pointed over her shoulder to the student worker who had just managed to disappear through a back door, “You selling your books, too?”
He nodded and held up a backpack near bursting with books. “Ditto. Another student’s book despair will be tonight’s dinner. I’m thinking something English.”
Her pink eyes narrowed in minor confusion, “Like to eat...?” His phrasing was strange but then again, she had just finished thinking about how they had both gotten the silly gene. Even the thought of eating English food struck her as a little silly when surrounded by Spanish food all around.
Cato’s eyes glazed over as he imagined. “I’ve been craving shepherd’s pie so bad ever since I had some at Madeline’s. Mmm.”
”Madeline? Did you finally find a woman you were interested in?” Shepherd’s pie was pretty good in spite of it being part of English cuisine. But something about that name in his sentence caught her further attention after she spoke it, which was a welcome distraction to both the pulsing ache that continued in her skull and the pent up energy that forced her to return to drumming against the counter with the flats of palms so she didn’t have to turn away from Cato. She really wished they were having this conversation in front of a piano or something... Did he mean Demeter? “Or is this the same Madeline as before? If so, that means you are pining for her.”
The comment snapped Cato right out of his food-related daydreaming. His face colored and he stammered, “No! I mean, yes it is, but it’s only her pie I’m pining for!” He paused. “Gods, that just sounds worse.”
Shiri nodded with an amused, teasing grin, “I think you protest too much.”
He tried to smile back, like he shared in the joke, but the embarrassment within it gave him dead away. “Well. Er. Hm.” And under his breath, he added, “Shit.”
Never ceasing her drumming, she simply brought her hands higher on the counter wall so she could shrug, “Is it really a problem?”
“It’s not a problem,” agreed Cato. “Just, I don’t know... odd.” He shook his head and said, “So, um, what are you doing after this? We should get food.” Anything but pie though, now. Ugh.
“Odd is not a reason not to pursue, especially if she stops you in your tracks like this.” These young Sons of Zeus were so polite when it came to approaching women. Shiri idly wondered if Demeter would have to take Cato by the hand and lead him into her bed before he allowed himself to even think of the possibility of it. She knew she had been naked in Adam’s bed with him under the sheet with her with his hands on her skin before she was able to completely convince him to sleep with her their first time. It must be the American air but no matter. It really wasn’t important. Instead she shifted to answer his other question, “Something. Anything. I put myself in temporary exile of my house because I was becoming such a pest. Nothing was getting done.”
“Not at risk for... what do they call it. ‘Bridezilla’?” He rolled his eyes at the term. “Heh.”
“No, no. I am remarkably laid back when it comes to weddings, but...” Shiri toyed with her wedding ring as she considered her next few sentences. While it would be weird on the one hand to tell a man who had all the memories of her father anything about her sex life, on the other hand Cato was not her father and she was actively encouraging him to get with anyone... “If I was staying home, Adam was going to have to tie me up and that was just going to distract him, too. He was not going to be able to work on any art with me in that house, so I left for a little bit. Let him have some peace.”
Cato’s face flushed, but he laughed it off easier than he would have in his earlier days. It was just a conversation between him and his sister... no longer between someone who didn’t know who he was and a former daughter. It was getting easier. Bit by bit, at least. “Not enough ropes then?” he teased.
Shiri couldn’t help but giggle at how Cato flushed. This was a fun game. “No. Ways to restrain me are not something lacking in my house but if he tied me up and left me, I would be a pest, trying to call him back to me and he would get no art done.” She stopped drumming with hand and extended her hand as if weighing that option and then did the same with her other hand as she began to speak again, “Or he would be distracted with me and still get no art done. So I am here.” And her drumming resumed immediately.
His eyes darted down to her drumming. Assuming she was growing impatient with the clerk, he noted, “They always take forever here, don’t they?”
“They do have to check how much the resell prices are...” Which was a very tiny fraction of the original price, she found but she followed his gaze to her own hands. Oh. Oh. “I am just on a rush. Do not mind me. This is the only thing I can do while still being able to talk to you, you know?”
“A rush?” he repeated curiously.
“Have you ever drank ten or twelve cups of coffee all at once?” she asked.
“Not really... that sounds a bit ill, no offense.” He paused, considering. “Is it your, ah, specialty?”
“No, I was just trying to make a metaphor between caffeine and how I feel right now.” National Day of Prayer... This was probably like drinking all that coffee at once. Only she would have a stomach ache instead of a head ache. That and she wouldn’t feel like she could create a reasonably sized cult dedicated to whatever she chose with the power coursing through her veins like electricity.
Cato looked concerned. “You’re not going to crash, are you?” After having been introduced to energy drinks via his uncle and then college, he’d found out himself just how painful that combination could be.
"Never have before. Usually it just run its course." Shiri shrugged a little and then reached out to place a hand on his cheek, "You worry too much. Going to make yourself all gray on top."
From behind her, she could hear movement and leaving her hand upon his cheek, she glanced over her shoulder to the student worker. Now he was at the register. Soon she would have the meager amount of cash the university decided the buyback value was.
“Gray’s always been my color,” he replied with a chuckle before she turned away. Once the worker had handed over the money to his sister, he hauled up his load onto the counter. Dismayed at the sight, the weary worker took them into his arms and toddled off.
"We are ruining that person's day, I do believe," she whispered into Cato's ear, leaning in close as if this had all been a planned conspiracy. Part of her wished it had been. She also wished that Cato was a musical type that carried a guitar around. Then she could steal it. Instead, she swooped around him and lightly drummed along the top of his head as he had done to her, "After this, what do you want to do?"
“Join me for shepherd’s pie?” he offered, closing his eyes when she started out the rhythm on his cranium and bending over just enough to let her do so.
Oh, Cato. Just because she was the muse of eloquence doesn’t mean you should leave yourself open for dirty jokes. Her sister was pretty much the muse of them. “Join you? You sure? I did not think Madeline was into that sort of thing...”
A sputtering sound temporarily took place of Cato’s usual grasp of the English language.
Win. Shiri officially took his spurting as a win. And to think she had momentarily thought the crudeness of the sentence may not have been worth the reward. It had been. Without a doubt. She ceased her drumming and did a half twirl to be side by side with him and to look up to his eyes, “I will relent. Promise.”
“You... are an evil sister,” he groaned but with a smile.
She bobbed him lightly right on the head, “Shhh,” But then she giggled as she took another step away from him. “That is a secret. You will have go through all the hazing again if you keep breaking the club’s secrets in public like.” Then with a clap of her hands, she glanced over at the door where the student worker had disappeared in. He was taking too long. “Make you a deal. When you are done here, meet on the second floor. There is a piano there I can play on for a few minutes...”
He nodded. “See you in a bit,” he said, turning back to the counter to wait.
Shiri dashed off, out of the bookstore and half way down the stairs before the pounding in her head grew louder. Somewhere in the country, probably in the actual city, a great number of people had gathered together on this National Day of Prayer all at once . Their prayers echoed in her mind, like fists slamming against her skull. Carefully, she lowered herself down on the step, gripping her own fist tightly. Her eyes clenched shut...
A few students noticed, whispering among themselves about that ‘one albino girl’. At the words, Cato looked up from a brochure. “Shiri?” he asked, stepping forward out of his spot in line to put a hand on her back. “You okay?”
The students whispering were completely lost on her, far too quiet for her to hear above the pounding in her skull. If Cato hadn’t touched her, she probably wouldn’t have heard him either but the touch on her back snapped her attention up and behind her, which only made her dizzy. She reached out to him and shook her head no.
Ack. That didn’t look good. “Hold on,” he said quietly, scooping her up into his arms. He could hear the worker at the register telling him he had to come back and get his money, so he quickly wheeled around and snatched it out of the boy’s hand, leaving the change behind as he walked out with Shiri tucked into the crook of his arm.
Breathing deeply and yet never managing to catch her breath, she hid her face against his chest, clutching at his shirt. Shiri hoped that if she held onto him, it would help her hold onto her bearings like a metaphor become true, but it was not working. It was just too much all at once. “Call Adam,” she murmured against him, “Call Adam. He knows this is happening. He has --” She didn’t get through the sentence before she passed out in his arms.
“Sister!” he gasped. But she was still breathing, still warm. Oh gods, what was going on. But she had given him instructions and he was quick to obey. Sitting down on a bench with her laying against his side, he fished out his cell phone and sent out a message.
Shiri made no reply but limply laying against him.
Summary: Both Shiri and Cato had this great idea about going to the campus bookstore to sell back their books for a little cash money. Both Shiri and Cato decided that hanging out after they got said cash for a little bit would be a good idea. However, Shiri passing out in Cato’s arms wasn’t in the jointly decided plans.