Re: [Carnival: Mars, Jamie, Si, David, Hannah]
Jamie arrived on the wind of his sister announcing to the assembled family that he thought they didn't like him. Which would have been sensational as a TV situational drama moment, maybe a little heightened tension before the ad-break? That pause, that reaction shot that would cut after hearing from our sponsors, but mostly it hit him sideways, like sharp wind off the ocean, biting and brisk and pure salt. His face was awash with surprise, startled humiliation, and a little bit of the traditionally-Christmas-but-any-family-gathering preparation for trying to play to an audience who weren't all that invested in staying through the intermission.
His hands were dug into his pockets; leather, creased and worn over a blue hoodie, the kind of washed out cerulean of primary colors on cereal boxes. It didn't go with the somber charcoal-washed hues of Hannah and David - David who it fitted, Hannah whose hair was as lividly copper as molten metal over the black - or Si, actually, in military wool. And it wasn't livid, life lived extraordinary, in defiance of life basically saying 'uh, we're not really sure if you have a ticket for this ride' which was the takeaway Jamie took from all the red that was Mars. In addition to her liking the color, which was totally a guess.
But it didn't matter what he wore, because Jamie was nakedly uncertain in that half-beat after Hannah said what she said, raw of salt-wind and all the things a family didn't say in order to stay in some semblance of order.
"Uh, hi. Jamie came," Jamie said, unnecessarily, but he reached for his siblings and for David, as if like, he could muscle through this. He could, right? But okay, "Who's calling who?" He went to hug Mars, after Hannah had bobbed free, like a kite loosened, and then Hannah, and then Si and David didn't look like the kind of guy who hugged? Maybe a handshake or something, Jamie didn't remember hugging David but he was pretty sure maybe it had happened at like, Molly's engagement party or something, but whatever, he hugged whomever would let him.