Thomas (formerlywicked) wrote in onewaythreads, @ 2018-02-04 17:15:00 |
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Thomas had noticed that Brenda had been keeping her distance from him and he didn’t like it. He knew it had to do with what was said over the network since this whole distance thing started not long after it. He didn’t mean to hurt her, if that’s what he did. He had said sorry, but it didn’t seem to work since Brenda and himself had barely spoken since. No more! It had gone on long enough. He left his bedroom and went into the living room and sat down on the couch. Eyes on Brenda. “We need to talk.” * Yes, Brenda had been avoiding Thomas. Yes, she’d gotten snippy about what he’d said about having nothing to smile about. She’d slipped up, shown a vulnerability. That was what pissed her off the most. She wasn’t supposed to be such a girl about things. Jorge had raised her better than that! So...avoidance. Because she hadn’t been hurt. Nope! Not one bit. Right now she was slouched on the sofa flipping through channels because television and cable were neat! Then Thomas had shown up. Brenda sighed. “No we don’t.” * “Yes, we do,” he told her as he leaned over and grabbed the remote control from her hand. He put the TV on mute and set the remote down once again. “You’ve been avoiding me. Why?” He knew why. Or at least he thought he knew why, but he wanted to hear Brenda actually say it. They needed to deal with whatever was going on and move on or things were going to get really awkward and that just wouldn’t be a good thing. * “Hey!” Brenda turned a scowl on Thomas when he stole the remote THEN muted the tv. She glared for a moment before she rolled her eyes. “I haven’t been avoiding you,” she said then got up from the couch to escape. “We have our own lives, Thomas. Just because we woke up in this place together doesn’t mean anything.” OBVIOUSLY. * Brenda could give Thomas that look all she wanted and she could get up and try to run away, but he was just going to follow. Because they were going to fix this. There was no way in hell he was going to let this weirdness continue on. It had gone on long enough. “Yes, you have.” Why couldn’t she just admit it? It wasn’t like he was making it up. “It means we’re living together and whatever is going on…we can’t let it keep on or things will get worse. I don’t want that. I doubt you do either. So, stop trying to get away from me and let’s talk about whatever this is.” * “It’s fine, Thomas.” God why couldn’t he just let it go? She was moving on, or trying to. It had been easier back home with Jorge and the others to talk to. Now, here, with Thomas following her as she tried to walk away from him, Brenda felt a little trapped. It annoyed her...because it frightened her. A left over from home. “It’s nothing.” She tried to give him a smile, but that just reminded her of what he said. Nothing to smile about. “I’m over it. Relax.” * “No, it’s not.” It wasn’t. It really wasn’t and why was he only one seeing that? Why couldn’t she just stop trying to run away and avoid whatever it is? He quickly went around her and stopped right in front of her. That should get her to stop unless she turned and went back the other way. “It’s something,” he told her. That smile didn’t make him feel better either. It seemed forced. “Apparently you’re not. Or you would be talking to me. You wouldn’t have gotten up and tried to get away from me. Are you still mad at me for what I said? The whole smile thing?” * Damn it! Why did he have to be so stubborn? She’d even told him he needed to learn when to walk away back home. Apparently, that didn’t sink in at all still. Brenda huffed when he got in front of her to cut her off. No, she didn’t turn to walk back the way she came. That would be giving ground, and she did NOT do that. Avoid confrontation? Hell yeah. Run away? No. And yes, there was a difference. Fine. She glared at Thomas and crossed her arms. “Yes! Okay?” * Thomas was stubborn and yeah, Brenda may have given him the speech, but he wasn’t going to change. Not over night. And not in a week. He was going to be a pain about this until it was dealt with. And that was that! “I knew it!” So, he had been right. Great! They were making progress. She admitted that it still bugged her. Now they needed to talk about it and move on. “I said I was sorry. I didn’t mean…didn’t mean to hurt you with what I said.” He hadn’t been thinking when he wrote it. And if he could take it back, he would. * This time when she rolled her eyes she rolled her whole head. “Great. Congratulations. Revel in your victory.” This time instead of retreating she pushed past Thomas to go flop back down on the couch. God, he was an ass. She snorted as she put her feet up on the coffee table. “You can’t hurt me, Thomas. You pissed me off.” Welcome to Bullshit 101. * Thomas just ignored the comments. This was exactly why they needed to talk. He watched her for a moment before he walked over and sat right back down on the couch. They went in a circle. Hopefully Brenda didn’t feel the need to get up and run away again. “Hurt you, pissed you off. Either way, I didn’t mean to do any of it.” Why couldn’t she just take the apology? This wasn’t going to be as easy as he thought. “How do I make you not pissed off at me?” * Why couldn’t she just take the apology? Because Brenda was just as stubborn as Thomas was in some ways. Jorge could tell stories. She glanced at Thomas then sighed. “I know you didn’t.” Thomas wasn’t the type to be mean on purpose. Brenda had met enough of that type in the Scorch. Usually she or Jorge put them in her place. The last question was the tough one. How he could make her not pissed off he wouldn’t be willing to do. “I’m not pissed. Not really. I just need some time. I wasn’t expecting anyone to be here.” Let alone him and his adoration of a traitor bitch. * Two stubborn people trying to solve a problem didn’t always work out well. They needed to make it work. “Okay…” If she knew that, then why was she continuing to push him away? “When you accepted the invite, right?” That is what she meant, right? It wasn’t like he had expected to wake up to anyone from home being here in Preya. He thought he was getting away from everyone and everything as well. But here Brenda was. “If you want me to leave you alone, I will.” If that’s what she really wanted, then he would leave her alone for a while. Not that he really wanted to do that. * God, he was thick. Or still too stuck on Teresa to see reality. Brenda knew it was most likely the latter which didn’t make things any better. But the suggestion of dealing with all of this without him, now that he was here, well that wasn’t an option thanks. “No.” She huffed without looking at Thomas then reached out to grab his hand tightly. It gave away what she was about to confess. “Don’t leave me alone because to be honest this place is fucking scary as hell.” * Was he stuck on Teresa? Yeah, he was. He just watched her die when she had been so close for them to save her. He’d move on. In time. It was all just too fresh in his mind to move on. Thomas looked down at their hand and then grabbed a hold of her hand as he looked up again. “I would never leave you alone.” It was the furthest thing he’d ever want to do. “We’ll get used to it here.” Maybe. It was what he was hoping. It was still weird being here. And they still had a lot to learn. “As long as we stick together,” he said as he gave her hand a squeeze. * Her grip on his hand was almost desperate. It gave away how much fear she was hiding inside. That was the real reason she was pissed. Sure, Thomas had hurt her feelings, but more than anything, Brenda hated to show fear. “Not much choice, huh?” She dared a glance at Thomas. “No one else understands what we’ve been through.” * There had to be more to all of this and the way Brenda was holding his hand only proved it. He still didn’t let go, though. He kept a hold of it, no intention of letting her hand go anytime soon. “No, not really.” They were in this together whether they liked it or not. And she was right. Nobody else in this place could ever understand the things that they had gone through. “They don’t and they never will, which is why we gotta stick together. We can’t push each other away. I think from this point on if we something is bothering us we talk. We don’t keep it inside.” * Brenda felt jittery inside. Well. In for a penny… She glanced at Thomas out of the corner of her eyes, took a deep breath then spoke. “I like you, Thomas, and you deserved better than her.” There. Bomb dropped. Now cam the explosion. * That was not what he expected to hear when he said that they should start sharing whatever was going on inside of their heads. He wasn’t exactly sure what to say. He was kind of just frozen. She liked him and she pretty much pointed out that he deserved better than Teresa. Maybe so. But he couldn’t ignore the connection that he and Teresa had even if he didn’t completely understand it. His brain was seriously failing him right now. Every time he thought of something to say, he decided not to say it. He didn’t want to say the wrong thing. Not again. He opened his mouth intending to say one thing and instead he said, “I like you, too.” Not what he meant to say, but it wasn’t a lie. He did like Brenda. A lot. He cared about her. Where that would lead to, he didn’t know. Only time would tell. * Silence. Lots of silence. Great. She sent his brain flying off the track and over a ravine. He hadn’t released her hand, and she was so not moving. But as the silence drew out Brenda go more and more nervous that she’d totally put her foot in it and she should maybe look for somewhere else to stay. Then he said THAT. Brenda felt like her heart started beating. She hadn’t even noticed that it had stopped. Despite wanting to remain stoic, she looked more at Thomas in surprise. A small smile toyed with her lips. That was enough for now. She gave his hand a squeeze then looked back to the muted tv. “Then fix the volume and shut up.” * THAT’S IT? Thomas thought there would be more to it, but that seemed to be it. Brenda wanted the TV to have sound again and he wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. He had no idea about any of this. And mostly it was just confusing. But he grabbed the remote and pushed the button to unmute it. Sounds from the TV show that was on now filled the apartment with sound. He handed the remote back to Brenda since she had been the one watching the TV and then leaned back on the couch. “Now what do we do?” he asked after staring at the TV for a moment. * She was getting swiftly hooked on stupid TV. Game shows. Game shows were hilarious. If there was any indication on the level of decadence in a society it was their game shows. That didn’t mean she was so sucked into them that she wasn’t aware of Thomas sitting next to her and their hands still linked together. “I don’t know,” she answered then turned her head to look at him. “I know what I do next.” * Thomas really hadn’t watched much TV since their arrival. He had been going out and exploring a little more than just staying in and staring at a screen. But he sat and watched wondering why people found this entertaining. He glanced over at Brenda when she spoke. “What would you do?” She couldn’t just leave him hanging like that. He wanted to know. * “I didn’t say I know what I would do,” she corrected. “I said I know what I will do next.” Her lips tightened into a thin line for a moment then she let out a breath. “I wait.” He had things to deal with. She couldn’t be part of his life...or whatever...until he got past things. * “Oh, sorry, I misheard you.” Which was the truth, he had. She still told him what she was going to do. Wait. Okay, waiting was fine since he still wasn’t sure about all of this. And he seriously needed to get past everything that happened. “Okay,” was all he sad as he looked at the TV again. He didn’t let go of her hand, though. It felt…nice, safe, so he kept on doing it. * “S’ok.” Brenda pulled her legs up onto the couch and let silence fall between them again. Some guy on the TV kept telling people to “Come on down”. She hadn’t quite figured this one out yet. Just like she probably wasn’t going to figure out her and Thomas any time soon. Eventually, daringly, Brenda leaned against Thomas without saying a word. * This game show was stupid. It didn’t even seem that hard. If he guessed right, all the contestants had to do was guess the price of certain items and whoever was closest won. That’s how he was understanding it. “How many more times do we have to hear so and so come on down?” It was kind of annoying. The longer they sat there, the more he sunk down into the couch until it looks like he was half sitting and half laying there. He did look over at Brenda for a moment when she leaned against him. He didn’t say anything. Didn’t do anything. Just went back to the stupid game show. |