Phillip Wolfe | Phobos (inclinedfear) wrote in paxletalelogs, @ 2011-07-06 07:53:00 |
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Entry tags: | aphrodite, phobos |
If my parents are crying, then I’ll dig a tunnel
Who: Lia & Rylee
What: Another family reunion? Yes, please!
Where: Outside of Pax, on the beach
When: Saturday 5:30 pm
Notes: Placeholder for Gdocs Complete!
Rylee had his weekends to himself aside from when the Museum would start their Civil War events in the upcoming weeks to commemorate the 150th anniversary. Although he enjoyed reenactments and anything to do with the war, he also enjoyed time to himself, especially now that he had moved into the new apartment. It gave him an opportunity to be lazy or, if he gathered enough courage, investigate the area. By late afternoon Rylee had cleaned all of his laundry, made some meals for the week, watched a few hours of brainless television, and gotten bored enough to take a trip to the beach that Pax straddled and investigate the shore.
He hadn’t been outside for very long when he took a seat in the sand, watching the different birds that lingered by shores and listening to the waves. There wasn’t anyone else on the beach, which surprised Rylee for such a gorgeous sunny day, so he got to his feet and walked along to pick up some seashells he figured he could mail to his mother. She’d get a kick out of some hand picked objects and Rylee quickly became interested in the different seashells he could manage to find while being completely oblivious to the woman who joined him on the beach.
Lia was sorry to have missed such a perfect beach day, but usually they were so packed during peak hours on Saturdays that she didn’t regret sleeping late. Working every Friday night might have is disadvantages, but being able to go to the beach any other day of the week she wanted -- theoretically, at least -- made up for it most of the time. So instead, she’d woken up around noon (excusable, she thought, since she’d gotten home at four), wrote, read, and did a bit of yoga. and now, it was still beautiful enough for it to be worth walking up to the shoreline, letting the waves lap at her feet, and enjoy the late afternoon sun. And the beach was devoid of crowds, except for someone who -- was he collecting seashells? Lia couldn’t help but smile. Out-of-towners could be so sweet sometimes.
He wasn’t far from her, but the distance was respectable, and her attention was focused on the sky, the surf, and the sudden question in her mind if the waves were “gnarly” enough for Samuel to enjoy, immediately followed by the thought of what his expression would be upon hearing the word “gnarly.” She almost laughed aloud at that one.
Her reverie was interrupted, however, just as her gaze fell on that odd island in the distance. Clear as it was today, she felt like she could almost make something out besides a dark shape in the bay, maybe a glint, maybe --
And suddenly, a blow, some kind of force, like wind, only solid, or a wall, only invisible, slammed into her. It was so unexpected that she put up no resistance, simply fell to the ground in what felt like a cascade, or maybe slow motion. Her heart was pounding as for a moment, she couldn’t get up.
Then, suddenly, she could. Panic started to well up in her for no reason she could muster, and she turned to look at the one other person on the beach, unable to speak quite yet.
Rylee was inspecting a seashell to make sure there wasn’t one of those little crab things inside of it when he fell. He was a pretty big guy, not one to topple over by a little wind, but this didn’t even feel like a wind exactly. It was as if he ran head on into a wall that he couldn’t see, except he hadn’t moved, he was just hit by this force and thrown. And seeing that he was a big guy the few times he did fall, he went down with a bang. The seashells were tossed, he had sand in his face, and he lay flat on his back without being able to move his body. That was when his anxiety quickly developed and grew and it only teetered slightly when he regained mobility and realized that another person on the beach had been thrown down as well.
He looked at her and felt a sudden need to help her, to protect her with the same level of loyalty that he only felt for Charlie and his mother. Climbing to his feet he jogged up to the woman and crouched down by her, trying to cover the look of panic on his face to the best of his abilities. “Are you okay?”
At first, Lia expended most of her energy trying to keep her own escalating fear in check. Normally, a good-looking, sweet, -- was that accent Southern? -- gentleman coming to her rescue would be enough to initiate the flirt sequence on basic principle. It wasn’t a matter of manhunting -- Samuel kept her more than happy and satisfied -- but not only did Lia view a little light, low-level flirting as an utterly harmless exercise, she often enough didn’t even realize she was doing it. It was inherent to her nature.
However, things were off in this scenario. One was the fact that despite taking deep, subtle breaths and telling herself there was nothing to be afraid of, her staccato pulse would not slow down. The second was the fact that despite her current emotional distress, this Southern gentleman was inspiring warm feelings, yes, but they were of an entirely different kind than Lia was used to.
Looking up at him, she managed a tremulous smile and said,
“I... I think so...”
But it was a lie. It was a lie and it became more of a lie the more time that passed. Having someone else near by should have made her feel better, but it didn’t. It didn’t, instead, it only seemed to...
“OK, not fine,” she said, the pitch of her voice all wrong - higher than its usual smooth, radio tone. “Not fine.”
She tried taking another breath.
“What was that?” She looked at him, then cast a look at the island, then back at him.
“Did you feel that?”
Rylee nodded, his face filled with concern as he offered a hand to the woman and attempted to help her to her feet despite that he wanted to run screaming. He felt his nervous system twitching throughout his body, his entire form was vibrating with a course of anxiety and panic. “I did feel that, I... I don’t know what it was.” He looked wearily at the island, feeling that whatever had happened was from there, then quickly turned back to the woman. “Can you get up? Let me help you. I don’t know if we should stay out here much longer.”
His fright was heightening at a quick rate, sand was in his hair and falling into his eyes from toppling over, and he felt this intense desire to just help this woman and make sure she was safe. He wanted to protect her and lead her to safety and while Rylee was typically quick to help someone in need he felt this particular desire taking complete hold of him. What was worse was seeing the fear in her own pretty eyes and Rylee wanting desperately to calm her. With another uneasy look to the island his voice came out with a quiver. “We should really get out of here, I think.”
Lia swallowed and nodded and pulled herself to her feet, her body trembling with trepidation. It felt like a physical effort to suppress the terror that kept welling up inside her, crashing in stronger and stronger waves like the tide coming in during a hurricane. She felt it emanating from her body like a tuning fork, but even if she’d been able to register that and analyze it, she’d have been convinced it was just the fear talking. Even so, that fearful energy seemed to roll around her, out from her, and she tried to take calming breaths to mitigate it, but it hardly seemed to be worth it.
“Can -- Jesus, where -- what should we do?” she asked him, unable to think entirely clearly. Unconsciously, she stood closer to him, suddenly feeling a powerful urge to protect him, which made almost no sense since he was obviously a strapping man and probably capable of handling himself quite well. Despite this logical train of thought, there was something -- maybe his voice, maybe that vulnerability in his eyes, or maybe something else -- that awakened the understanding that he had to be taken care of.
“C’mon,” she said urgently, and grabbed his hand. “C’mon!”
She wasn’t even sure where she was running, but run she did, pulling him along behind her. He quickly caught his stride and followed close behind the woman, holding her hand tightly and feeling almost relieved that she was taking control. But still, he wanted to protect her, make her safe, and despite his own feelings of anxiety he wanted to take away hers. He didn’t want her upset or worried and this was a sensation much stronger than one he had ever felt for any random individual he had only just met. But still he ran and could have easily outrun her, but he kept beside her, holding her hand tightly as they neared the overhang of the apartment building.
Calm down, calm down, calm down, he was thinking to himself, wishing he could make the woman relax. He wanted the frightened look in her eyes to go away and then maybe he could concentrate on taking away his own growing anxiety that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up straight. “What was that?” Rylee repeated. “What the hell was that?”
He looked down at the woman and squeezed her hand, stooping slightly to meet her eye at a more equal height. “Are you okay? You aren’t hurt, are you?”
There was something, then, that she felt slowly unwinding in her as he held her hand, as she looked into his eyes, even though she was still shaking slightly. The pounding of her heart slowed a bit, and she forced herself to even out her breaths: in, out. In, out. His presence was reassuring, even though she was sure she’d never met him before. But it made no difference -- him being there was a comfort, and it felt like more than just having another person there after a strange event.
“I -- I’m not hurt. Thanks.” Another breath. The weight of her fear seemed to lift a little more. “I think I’m OK. I don’t know what that was, though.” She cast a quick glance back toward where they’d come from, then looked back to him. “Are you OK?”
Rylee frowned and ran a hand back over his head as he glanced uneasily at the shore. “I’m all right. Just have a lot of sand in my hair and a good dose of confusion.” Mixed with panic, but Rylee didn’t mention that. He was beginning to relax as soon as this woman relaxed. “I... I don’t know what that was. What should we do? Is this something common around here? I never heard of California having really strong winds like that. I haven’t lived here long enough to witness anything like this.”
He shifted on his feet uneasily and glanced at the apartment complex, wishing they could go into the lobby and hide there but he wasn’t exactly willing to adventure up to his own apartment just now.”
“No, no,” she said, shaking her head vehemently. “Nothing like this. Earthquakes, sure, but that...” Suddenly, she wanted the island to be out of her line of sight -- and for them to be out of its line of sight, if it had one. Which obviously it wouldn’t. Couldn’t. But Lia couldn’t help but feel a burgeoning sense of foreboding every time she even cast a glance in that direction. Looking back up at him, she took a breath and nodded. “I’m glad you’re all right,” she said, taking his hand again. It was familiar -- maybe too much so. But so was he, and it felt right. Natural. She felt that strange sense again -- protectiveness, affection, concern -- even stronger now than before, intensified by touch, and she realized it was something downright maternal, which made absolutely no sense, because he was obviously around her age, maybe even a little older. Even still, maybe it was the sort of country-boy vibe he put out that made her want to take him under her wing. Either way, his safety was clearly a major priority.
“Why don’t we go inside. We can hang out by pool. Or just sit in the lobby and relax. Or something.” Anything to get that island out of sight.
Rylee squeezed the woman’s hand and gave a short nod. “Yeah, let’s go into the lobby. I don’t feel really safe out here.” His panic had all but vanished which surprised Rylee. Usually when he was near a panic attack it didn’t just go away. This time was different but Rylee wasn’t going to ask any questions. He began to move towards the lobby, pausing for this woman to walk with him, with all intentions of matching her step. He looked at her again, feeling comfortable holding her hand and strangely relaxed by her presence. It was all too strange. Rylee wasn’t one to relax near strangers. Even with Charlie he was usually nervous and he had known her for fifteen years. But this woman was different, he felt that he knew her, and her presence made him happy.
“After all this I don’t think I introduced myself. I’m Rylee Ekholm. I just moved here a month ago. I live in 706.” He was trying to keep it casual despite the odd feelings he had suddenly developed for this woman and that lingering feeling that the island behind them was an angry being. Don’t look at it, keep your eyes on this woman, Ekholm.
Lia was as surprised by the calm that had overtaken her as she’d been by the panic. Generally, she was a woman of strong emotions, and they weren’t generally so easy to dispel. But the comfort Rylee felt in her presence was mutual; it was the strangest thing, and unlike anything she’d felt before. Her fingers were threaded with his, and for someone of savvy when it came to relationships, it literally did not occur to her that anyone might find anything untoward about it. The contact was entirely platonic -- in fact, familial, if anything. She gave him a little smile, pushing the island out of her mind and focusing on him.
“It’s nice to meet you, Rylee. I’m Lia Valencia; I live in D3.” As the moved into the lobby, she took a seat in one of the sleek, comfortable chairs, motioning that he should do the same. “When did you move into Pax?” she asked, genuinely curious about him.
Giving an uneasy glance over his shoulder Rylee took a seat beside Lia. He rolled his shoulders, trying to get himself to stay relaxed, then leaned his elbows on his legs, hunching his back forward. Her smile caught his attention and the remnants of his anxiety vanished as he returned a crooked smile to the woman. “D3? Those are nice apartments in that section. Saw a glimpse of them when I was pickin’ one for myself. I moved in at the end of May but I’m still really tryin’ to get to know people around here. I’ve been busy and I guess you could say I’m not really the type to just throw myself into the mix of things.” He licked his lips, feeling the taste of sand on them and with a frown he realized he didn’t have any tissues with him to wipe the sand away. He was incredibly unprepared for this which was a disappointment. Looking back to Lia he arched his blond eyebrows.
“You’re sure you’re okay, Miss Valencia? Do you want me to get you a drink from the vending machine or anything?” He spoke to her with ease and although now he felt safe in the lobby, the danger he had found himself quickly being forgotten, he was still concerned about her and, in some way, wanted the reassurance from her that she was all right.
Lia shook her head with a smile. His gallantry was truly endearing. It was strange to meet someone so genuinely sweet, but terrifically refreshing. “No, thanks, Rylee. I’m OK, promise. And please, call me Lia. We’re neighbors, no need to be formal.” Her own fears and pattering heart were calmed in Rylee’s presence, and that was a great reassurance. If she thought about it, doubt and concern still lingered when she focused on that island, but her thoughts seemed to slide around the land mass like oil over water. Instead, she shifted her focus back to Rylee.
“All the apartments in the building seem really lovely, from what I’ve seen,” she said, easing away from the topic of her deluxe apartment. Her smile widened, though, as she expressed her next thought.
“Hard to believe you’d have trouble making friends, though,” she smiled. “Sweet guy like you with an accent like that -- are you sure you’ve talked to anybody besides me?”
Her grin was a bit mischievous, granted, but a blush developed on Rylee’s cheeks as her grin went unnoticed. Rylee looked down at his hands then turned his gaze back to Lia, smiling and rubbing his hands up and down his thighs. “I know a couple of people,” he replied, feeling like he had to point this out to Lia. “My childhood friend Charlie lives here and I’ve met my neighbor Samuel. I’ve also met a man, Philip, and a few other people very briefly.” His smile grew as if to say, see? I’ve made friends.
“I just get a little flustered when I meet some new people,” Rylee continued, his voice softening to a near whisper. He was quickly slipping into exposing all of his secrets to this woman but he felt they were safe with her for whatever reason. Maybe it was the gentle look in her eyes or the soft smile she had but Rylee felt comfortable with her, just as he had fallen into a comfortable friendship with Samuel only after meeting him once. It was weird, Rylee had never been so calm around new people, but maybe it was the new location mixed with maturity.
Lia’s face couldn’t help but break out into a much wider grin at the mention of Samuel and Philip. Of course, being on the seventh floor, it made perfect sense that Rylee would have run into them both by now. That he seemed to like them pleased her inordinately for some reason; she felt both a sense of absurdly deep pride and pleasure at the idea.
“Well, you’ve already met some of the best ones,” she said. “Philip and I are childhood friends, too, and Samuel...”
Lia grinned and shook her head, thinking of her SuperCop. “Well, Samuel and I have been seeing each other, I guess you could call it, since...” Now that she tried to put a date on it, she realized the unconventional progression of their relationship made it sort of difficult to pinpoint dates. “Last fall?”
She laughed. “Don’t worry, it seems like lots of new people have moved in, which makes it easier to meet people, I think. But tell me about this Charlie,” she said with a little smile. Her relationshipdar was going off.
“Oh,” Rylee smiled, displaying his surprise easily mixed with his happiness that the few people he had met he had connected with Lia. “They’re both nice. Samuel is really welcoming. I enjoy his company. And now I’ve met you too. Maybe I’ll see you when you visit Samuel.” Slowly the bright smile faded into a shy one and color rose to Rylee’s cheeks.
“Charlie... Charlie lives on the first floor. She, uh, she works with security. We lost touch for awhile so it was a surprise to see her here in California.” He smiled at Lia and gave a slight nod before lowering his gaze to his hands on his knees. “We’ve known each other for fifteen years. She’s one of my closest friends.” She’s my best friend, Rylee thought to himself. “I guess you haven’t met her? She’s... short, skinny, long brown hair.”
Rylee turned his gaze back to Lia. Charlie wasn’t exactly the most welcoming of people so Rylee didn’t really assume anyone knew her.
“I’m sure you’ll see me when I visit Samuel,” she said with a little grin. “He’s always making me come over there.”
This was not an entirely false statement. Samuel did make Lia come over to his apartment, but certainly no more often than he accepted her invitations to her own. These days, they rarely slept apart; in fact, Lia couldn’t quite remember the last time they had.
Lia listened to Rylee’s description of Charlie, smiling a bit at the way he talked about her, at his body language. It was clear the boy had it bad. That the description matched perfectly a certain security guard she’d recently encountered didn’t register at all; after all, small, skinny brunettes abounded in SoCal. Instead, she focused on his words, and stored them away.
“As for Charlie, it sounds like she’s a great girl for you to have around,” she said with a different sort of smile. “Have you guys had the chance to hang out much since you’ve been here?”
A small part of Rylee wondered why he was being so open with this woman, wondered why she was so interested in his getting to know people, and why she had a special interest in Charlie. But that part was quickly hushed by his overall emotions that were proclaiming it was okay and this woman had him in her best interests. “We’ve hung out a little bit, yeah,” Rylee said with a smile. “The fourth of July we were setting fireworks off in the parking lot. Did you happen to see them? Hopefully we’ll be doing more stuff together but it’s hard ‘cause she’s always on call with her job and I’ve got my job too.” And she had a tendency to run away from Rylee at least once a week, but that was something that didn’t need to be mentioned. “Maybe you’ll bump into her at some point on the way to Samuel’s. She’s visited my apartment enough.” When she wasn’t running away or mad at him, Rylee added silently. He fought back a frown and scratched at his hair before changing the subject. “So what do you do, Lia?”
Lia nodded, contemplating this development with Rylee. The urge to take things in hand was overwhelming. It wasn’t surprising -- advice was her stock in trade -- but it was the strongest urge she’d felt in as long as she could recall. She usually understood well enough that people needed to be left to their own devices, and only offer advice if it was asked for, but she felt, for a moment, as though she would burst if she didn’t say something about it.
Fortunately, she was able to suppress the inclination, and instead smiled slightly when he asked her what she did. “I’m actually an advice columnist,” she said. “And I also host a radio call-in show where people ask questions about sex and love.”
Her grin broadened a little. “So you know, if you ever want advice, I’d be more than happy to help. Strictly confidential, of course.”
It was hard to believe she’d gone from the state of panic she’d been in outside to such a strong feeling of contentment and genuine affection for this stranger she’d just met, but there it was.
“What do you do, Rylee?”
“Oh,” Rylee laughed slightly and his hands twisted together briefly before they parted and he gripped the edge of the seat. “Well, thank you. I’ll make sure to think of you if I need some... advice.” He smiled at her and the coloring in his cheeks remained. There was something about her that made Rylee believe he would go to her for advice. That if things didn’t manage to work out with Charlie, this woman would be able to comfort Rylee, and not in some rebound type of way. The very thought made Rylee frown. But somehow he knew that she would bring him comfort or tell him everything would be okay.
“I’m a junior curator at the LA museum,” Rylee chirped up, happy to have the distraction from his meandering thoughts. “Thinking of getting my PhD at some point but not rushing it. I love studying history, especially the Civil War. That’s my area of expertise.” He grinned now, his voice gaining confidence and the normal spark entering his eyes like it did when this topic was at hand.
Something about his tone and his smile made her believe he’d come to her if he needed to, and that in itself gave her a sense of comfort and relief that she hadn’t expected. Once again, she found herself wondering what made her feel so powerfully connected to and invested in him, and once again, concern about it seemed to slide away. Whatever it was, it felt right, and that made it easy to let it be what is was.
When she saw his eyes light up while talking about history, her own face was illuminated. It wasn’t that the Civil War was one of Lia’s secret subject of geekish obsession, but rather that Rylee’s expression of passionate enthusiasm was quite contagious. She found she wanted to hear about it just because he clearly enjoyed it.
“That sounds like a fun job for someone who’s got a passion for the material; what exactly do you do there? And what do you love about the Civil War?” She leaned in, asking with genuine interest.
Rylee was growing excited and couldn’t help but move to the edge of his seat, inching closer to Lia to discuss his favorite subject. He was feeding off of Lia’s interest, it seemed, and it only made him all the more excited. “I give tours mainly. Private one’s most times but I also help with artifacts and putting together programs. With it being the 150th anniversary since the start of the Civil War I’m sort of the go to person at the museum. My father got me into it as a child. He took me to see the Gettysburg reenactments and we started making it a tradition. That’s my favorite battle. To think of how much happened during those three days is completely amazing. You go to the location today and you just can’t fathom that so many people died and that the ground was literally soaked in blood for months afterwards.”
Rylee stopped quickly, closing his mouth tightly and blushing. “I... I’m sorry, sometimes I get a little carried away with the details.” He looked shyly at Lia then dropped his gaze. It hadn’t been just his typical excitement about battle talk that embarrassed him, it was that he felt pride in showing this woman just how much he had learned and that feeling of pride confused Rylee but also embarrassed him.
Lia canted her head to one side and quirked a little half-grin. “No need to apologize,” she told him. “Don’t forget, I’m dating a former Army Ranger who retired to become OC SWAT. I’m used to stories and details.” There was a thread there -- it wasn’t obvious, but something about the enthusiasm with which Rylee described Gettysburg that reminded her distinctly of Samuel, even though she had some difficulty pinpointing how that was. In reality, Samuel and Rylee were about as different as she could imagine two people being, and yet there was something in common....
“I think it’s really impressive to know that much about anything,” she told him, “and to be actually working in a field you’re passionate about is pretty rare, too. I think it’s fantastic.”
She gave him another smile. “Maybe I could come see something you’re working on sometime.”
Rylee relaxed slightly and made a small smile, looking at Lia almost bashfully. “That would be very nice. Charlie came for a visit one day, we had fun. I told her the same thing but you could come and ask for a private tour. That way I could show you around without having to talk to other people.” He blushed slightly at this and bit his bottom lip. Thinking for a moment a thought popped into his mind and he brightened a little. “You can bring Samuel as well.”
Rylee ran his hands up and down his legs again for a moment and glanced nervously back out to the beach. As much as he wanted to continue sitting with Lia he felt like he was still too close to the beach and still could be seen by something. “I think I’m going to go up to my apartment. Would you like me to walk you to yours? You’re sure you’re okay after all of that out there?”
Lia quickly nodded. “I think Samuel would love a private tour -- all that blood and battle,” she smiled. “And I’d really like it, too. I’ll talk to him about it, and we’ll all figure out a date that’ll work. I can contact you through our forum addresses.” Casting a glance behind her in the direction Rylee had been looking, she shivered slightly.
“As far as what happened out there goes, I think I’m fine,” she said with a smile as she turned back to him. “Though I can walk you to your place, if you like. I think I’m going to go say hi to Samuel.”
“Then we’ll walk together,” Rylee said with a calming smile. He got to his feet, stretching his lengthy body slightly and brushing at his clothes once more. He still felt like he had sand on him and a creeping feeling from what had happened earlier. He’d go home, lock himself in his apartment, shower and treat himself to something unhealthy for dinner. It sounded like a perfect way to ignore any lingering thoughts of the beach incident. “You can just stop by too, you know, since I’m just across from Samuel. I wouldn’t mind if you dropped in.” He smiled shyly, feeling some strange sense of pride that he may have the opportunity to show Samuel and Lia both what he excelled at, which was strange seeing that he only just met them both. “I promise I’ll make your visit to the museum well worth it.”
Rylee turned to Lia and offered her his hand to lead her up to Samuel’s apartment like the gentleman he had been taught to be.