Shelby Thomas (leaven) wrote in remains_rpg, @ 2017-04-10 23:18:00 |
|
|||
By now Sasha had become fairly familiar with Shelby’s house, he wouldn’t say that he was over all the time -- but he was over enough that her Gram had told him he really needed to stop knocking and just go ahead and come inside. Sasha tried to listen to Shelby’s Gram, but every once in awhile he would find himself lifting his hand to knock before he stepped inside the house and announced his arrival -- he figured that last part was a good idea just in case they took him for a walker who learned how to use a door. He had done just that -- calling out his arrival -- just minutes before, but now he was sat across from Shelby at the kitchen table, donut in hand as they began to catch up -- him in the middle of a retelling of his last tattoo client before he had come over to Shelby’s. “So the dude comes in and he’s jacked, like not quite as big as my dad, but close. I didn’t know him though, he wasn’t a Hellhound, so I sort of figured maybe he was a soldier or something. Anyway, I’m expecting him to ask for something hyper masculine or something and instead he pulls out this picture of a like a teacup poodle and asks for like a portrait tattoo of the dog,” he paused. “The dog literally had a pink bow in it’s hair. I might lose cool points for saying this, but the dog really was kind of adorable.” Sasha paused then to take a bit of his donut and wait for Shelby’s reaction. Sasha found that he needed to do things like that -- pause for people’s reactions -- when he was recapping his day. If he didn’t he’d ramble on for what probably felt like hours and overwhelm the other person. “You’re not serious!” Shelby exclaimed through her own soft laughter. “I love that! It’s totally unexpected, and way more badass that he doesn’t care what other people will think about him for his choice.” She’d had plenty of people that had raised their eyebrows at her when she explained what she wanted to do. Like women couldn’t photograph and study sharks. Her experience with the field -through her dad- said otherwise, but still, people were weird. “Dead serious,” Sasha countered with a laugh. “Pretty sure the dude could do whatever the hell he wanted,” he paused. “I don’t think anyone would have thought of messing with him or giving him a hard time.” Still it was pretty impressive that the guy didn’t flinch away from getting the kind of tattoo he wanted, even if it wasn’t your stereotypical ‘manly’ tattoo. “Was he happy with the result?” Sasha nodded. “Yeah, he seemed pretty happy when he left,” he answered with a proud smile. “You should come into the shop sometime and look at my portfolio, I’ve got a picture of the tattoo in there now.” He tried to get photographic evidence of all his work as it gave people a broader idea of the what he could do. “Anyway, I could literally talk your ear off about my day for like the whole evening,” He said with a laugh. “So, before that happens why don’t you tell me about your day?” “Nothing exciting happens in mine,” Shelby folded her arms, amused. “I work in a doughnut shop.” There weren’t even any funny anecdotes from earlier in the day. “And you don’t want to hear about all my college classes.” They were kind of stressing her out, on top of everything that Max had found out yesterday. Actually, she hadn’t told Sasha any of that, and she didn’t think Max had either. “Max found out some stuff about my mom, though,” she told him. “He was over yesterday, being all sleuth-y for me.” Sasha had had some crack about sugar crashes on his tongue, but when Shelby mentioned Max having done some digging for her on her mom, the remark died on the tip of his tongue and instead his eyebrows rose. “Firstly, I’d be all ears to listen to whatever is going on with your classes,” he paused. “But I think I’m going to tackle asking you about Max digging up stuff on your mom instead.” Sasha looked across the table at Shelby, studying her closely. “What kind of stuff did he find out?” His brother hadn’t said anything to him about any of this, but then again it wasn’t really Max’s information to share so he wasn’t resentful of the fact this was the first he was hearing about it. “I mean, you only have to answer if you’re up for it,” Sasha tacked on, not wanting to push Shelby into sharing personal details if she wasn’t really comfortable with that. Shelby chewed on her lip. “He found a phone number,” she explained. “And an address.” She was still a little blown away that Max had been able to find anything at all. Especially after the search for her dad hadn’t brought anything up. But, she was so grateful for the effort that her friend had put in. “Leave it to Max to sleuth better than anyone else,” Sasha remarked with a note of pride in his tone. If anyone could dig something up on the internet it was his brother. “So where is she?” he continued while he reached across the table and gave Shelby’s hand an encouraging squeeze. This was exciting news for her, really exciting news. “She’s in Toronto, according to the address.” Toronto seemed so far away. “I haven’t told my Gram’s yet. But I called the number an hour ago.” It had taken that long to get up the nerve, “I left a message.” “Canada? Wow,” Sasha breathed out, his hand still holding hers. “Do you know what you’re going to say when she calls back?” He couldn’t even begin to piece together what it was like to find a parent after you thought they were gone. Sasha had lost both his biological parents, sure, but he knew exactly when and how they had passed -- there wasn’t any ‘what ifs’ attached to that loss. Shrugging, Shelby flipped her hand over and twined her fingers between Sasha’s. Even after a day, even after hearing her mom’s voice on the voicemail message, it was impossible to wrap her head around. Her mother was alive. “I think I’ll cry,” she admitted after a prolonged pause. She swallowed the small bubble of emotion threatening in her chest to break out and send her to tears at the table. Even if they were the happy kind, she’d really rather wait to shed them until after. Sasha gave her hand a squeeze. “I think I’d be concerned if you didn’t,” he remarked in what he hoped was an encouraging sort of tone. “I mean getting a parent back, that’s a big ass deal.” Even if that parent lived in Canada, at least they were still alive. “Every time my phone chimes I jump.” Shelby tilted a smile towards him. “I might just let it go to voicemail that first time…” The number was already programmed into her phone, if her mom called back she’d know. “Super adult of me, right?” “Hey, I really don’t have a place to judge when it comes to super adult behaviour.” Sasha had had his own share of moments when he didn’t exactly act as grown up as he should have. “But, what if you let it go to voicemail and you end up playing phone tag with your mom for days?” That would drive him insane, but maybe Shelby could handle something like that better than he could. Picking at a loose hem on her shirt, Shelby shrugged. “It seems less scary than having to figure out what I’d say,” she admitted, glancing at Sasha, then away. She was braver than that, it was her mom, and deep down she knew that she was being stupid. “I don’t know, maybe I would start with hi,” Sasha said with a ghost of a smile, he was trying to ease Shelby’s obvious concern about all of this. It earned him a short, half-hearted scowl from her. That was so not helpful. “I mean, I’m pretty sure your mom doesn’t care what you say, you’re alive, that’s probably more than she expects.” Or maybe it wasn’t, but Sasha imagined if he had been all the way up in Canada he wouldn’t expect to find out he had family alive and kicking in Texas. “I don’t know. I just keep thinking that maybe she’s happy up in Canada, and she won’t want to come down here with me and Gram’s. Then I get to thinking that it shouldn’t bother me because I’m an adult, I’ve got my own things, but…” she shrugged again. Her posture deflated a little with the gesture. “Maybe I cross that bridge when it comes.” Shaking off the uncertainty that had settled like a shroud, she smile again. “I’ll probably just cry if I answer the phone anyway, so no use trying to remember what I’d say.” Sasha offered Shelby an encouraging smile, knowing that in essence nothing he said would calm the butterflies that were fluttering around in her stomach over the whole situation. Well, nothing except actually hearing from her mom. “Yeah, I would wait to cross that bridge, but I bet she won’t want to stay up in cold ole’ canada if she has family down here.” Sasha wouldn’t, hell, he was pretty sure he wouldn’t ever move too far away from his family. “I think when the time comes the words will come to you, and if they don’t, crying is totally acceptable.” He gave her hand a squeeze again. “Hell, I cried the last time I talked to Max and he literally lives in the same city.” Sure, he had cried because Max had moved out and he was still adjusting to that fact, but Sasha wasn’t ashamed to admit it -- and he knew one day he’d have the same kind of emotions over his own journey out of the living under his dad’s roof. Shelby fought it hard, but she laughed, surprised and a little impressed at the admission. Sasha always surprised her somehow. “I don’t understand brothers,” she admitted off-hand, in a way that didn’t need a follow up. She didn’t understand siblings in the same way that most only children did. Theoretically she could figure it out, but it was just one of those things. She was halfway through another thought, poised to open her mouth and say it, when her phone began to vibrate on the table. Out of surprise, and fear, she pushed it towards Sasha, then just as quickly she pulled it back. The screen was lit with ‘Mom’ and she gave him a wide eyed look. “Answer it,” Sasha urged, knowing that somewhere deep down Shelby would probably regret it if she didn’t. “Or I will,” he added, reaching out for the phone with his free hand. Shelby made a face at him. It wasn’t an empty threat either, Sasha would answer it if it came down to that. But he didn’t think it would. Before it went to voicemail, and before Sasha went through with answering it for her, Shelby jammed her finger on the screen and answered, “Mom?” like suddenly she was five years old, and what kind of weird cosmic timing did she have that they were literally just talking about this and then it happened. “Hi.” |