Matthew Jacobs (matt_jacobs) wrote in rrinitiative, @ 2012-08-27 22:25:00 |
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Entry tags: | day three, matt, matt and susanna, susanna |
Attempting social skills
Characters: Susanna and Matt
Setting: Cafeteria, early morning
Susanna made it a point to wake up early, hoping more than she could say that there would be a box waiting for her. Reece had said that he’d just asked for the cigarettes and they’d provided them, and so she expected at least the cigarettes she’d asked for to be there, but what she really wanted more than anything else were the ballet shoes she’d requested. She missed dancing more than she could say, and while she could still dance, it just wasn’t the same without her toe shoes. And so she’d showered and dressed, pulling her hair back in the smooth bun that was trademark dancer. With an excited bounce to her step, Susanna left her room, walking the short distance to the cafeteria. She noticed the boxes first and crossed to them, scanning the labels with increasing annoyance.
There was no box for her. Her eyes narrowed, and she bit back the curse. What had these people done to have their requests filled? She was doing good, playing nice with these people. Hell, she was certain she’d even managed to get a few people to her side. Was she not doing good enough? With a sighing huff, she turned, intending to get herself a cup of coffee, but she stopped short, eyes widening in surprise when she saw the bar in the cafeteria. “Oh!” She wandered over to it, fingertips raising to hover over the glass of the cabinets as she read labels, making her way to the very wide variety of cigarettes. She found her brand there, and had to smile. At least there was that.
For his part, Matt was a habitual early riser even after his involvement with the late night game of hide and seek. Not that he’d been technically playing but he’d been involved nonetheless, watching from his vantage point outside his room. On checking his computer and seeing the message that he had a package, he wasted no time getting down to the cafeteria even going so far as to take the elevator. As the door opened on the first floor, he leant out to give the room a cursory scan, spotting the woman by the bar which definitely hadn’t been there last and warranted a closer look so it could be accurately added to his map. She certainly didn’t seem a threat though so he ventured forward having seen the box with his name on it, the beginnings of a smile tugging at his mouth.
Susanna heard the ding of the elevator doors opening, and stopped her perusal of the new bar to glance over, remembering only a moment too late to give the man a friendly smile, forcing herself to keep it in place when she saw him go to one of the boxes. “Good morning,” she said. “I don’t think we’ve met yet, I’m Susanna,” she introduced herself. Maybe she wasn’t trying hard enough to fit in with the group, maybe that was why she hadn’t got her shoes. So, she would try harder, get more involved, even if it made her cringe internally.
His hands had just settled on the box when Susanna greeted him, his head whipping around so fast in her direction it sent the hood of his sweatshirt tumbling backwards, his hair left looking even messier than usual. Not trusting himself to speak right away, he went over what he knew about Susanna from the journals, New Yorker, ballet dancer, expensive tastes, to try and calm down a little. “Good m...morning,” he said, picking up his box and hugging it to his chest. “I’m m..m...Matt.”
Susanna wasn’t sure if she was more amused by the guy’s jumpiness or if it was just beyond ridiculous. She was leaning more toward ridiculous. One would think that someone in prison would have made sure to develop a thicker skin than that. And the way he held the box to his chest, like he was trying to use it as a shield or something. “It’s nice to meet you, Matt,” she lied smoothly. God, that stutter! How was anyone to have a bearable conversation with the man? “I see they’ve sent you something,” she observed, her curiosity of what others had received winning out.
Matt didn’t return the sentiment, instead just looking down at his box. “Yes, I made a request yesterday, seems I was lucky enough to have it granted,” he said. “Clearly I wasn’t the only one though I’m curious as to who asked for a b..b...bar.” He couldn’t say he was looking forward to his fellow residents having access to alcohol; people were hard enough to predict at the best of times without the added factor of inebriation.
It didn’t go unnoticed that the sentiment was left unreturned, and Susanna bit down on the annoyance. How was she to do better at the socializing thing if others didn’t play along? Though not everyone had been terrible, and she might even “steal” one of the bottles of Jack Daniels to make a personal delivery to Reece later. It was a thought, anyway. She glanced around the bar again at his words, ignoring the lucky to have his request filled comment, and a note on the bar caught her attention. “Hmm, this says that a lot of us requested cigarettes and alcohol, so they’ve given us a more social application for it,” she told him after she’d picked up the note to read it. “I know I requested cigarettes and a good white wine, but I couldn’t say what alcohol the others requested.” The best lies were based in truth, and no one needed to know that she’d requested Jack Daniels, as well.
“Well that m...makes more sense I suppose,” he replied, twisting his neck slightly to try and see the note, curious as to whether it was handwritten or typed. Following his conversation with Carmel in the library the day before, his curiosity about the people running the program had only increased and how they dealt with the requests could be telling.
“It does, yes,” Susanna agreed simply. It didn’t lessen her annoyance any that there wasn’t a box for her among the others. She noticed the way he was trying to get a look at the note later than she probably ought to have, but when she did, she held it out to him.
Sleeve pulled downed almost entirely over his fingers, Matt took a step forward and took the note before retreating back again, resting it atop the box so he could read it without risk of dropping either. Frustratingly, if not surprisingly, it was a printout and gave nothing away just as the simple printing of his name on his box had done.
Susanna’s eyebrows rose at the way he just took the note and, well, retreated is the only word for the way he scurried back and away from her. He wasn’t very chatty, which was just as well, as she wasn’t sure how much of that stutter she could handle without just walking away, and she certainly didn’t need to go doing that again. It was bad enough that Dominic had witnessed such behavior from her, she needed to ensure that no one else did. “It says essentially what I told you,” she ventured after a moment, as though it was odd that he’d wanted to see it for himself.
“I believed you,” he replied quietly, scanning the note once more before offering it back to her. “I was curious about the note itself, not it’s contents. There’s a lot we don’t know about this place, I’m trying to learn what I can, where I can.”
Taking the note back, Susanna set it back down on the bar in an attempt to appear considerate to any of the other residents who might like an explanation. “Well, that certainly does make more sense. Have you discovered much?” she asked curiously, setting her questions about whatever he’d requested aside for the moment.
Matt shook his head. “Not really, no though so far I’ve been concentrating on learning the layout of this place. The fact there are two locked rooms is a curious one but I haven’t been able to draw any certain conclusions. I do feel that is rather the point though, for us not to be able discern things from our surroundings but rather to focus on our rehabilitation.”
Rehabilitation was a joke, but Susanna wasn’t going to disagree. She was who she was, and she was just going to do whatever it took to get her freedom, simple as that. “I did notice that there was one locked room down here, but I haven’t been upstairs yet,” she admitted with a small grin. “It seems interesting, though, the things they’ve provided and the things they’ve not. Would you mind terrible? That is, I mean, I’m very curious about what everyone has received today, though I would understand if you preferred to keep it private.” It would give her a good idea of what kind of person he was, aside from jumpy and stuttering.
“You should, there’s an activity room and a space set aside for prayer, meditation, that kind of thing,” he told her, unsure as to why anyone wouldn’t have taken the time to thoroughly explore their new surroundings. At her request, or more precisely when he figured out she was making a request, he blanched a little, his grip on the box tightening a fraction before he forced himself to relax. As private as he was, in a closed space like their’s precious little could stay secret for long and judging by the weight of his box, it was hardly likely to be something small enough to hide. “If you wish,” he said, setting it down on the ground and peeling of the tape. His shy smile returned as he gazed on it’s contents, lifting out a more than well-appointed digital camera which he immediately began turning between his hands.
“Oh, yes, I did see on the map that there were those rooms up there, I’ve just not gone up to explore them. I’ve spent quite a bit of time in the gym, though. I’m a dancer,” she explained, “so it’s been nice to be able to exercise and train a bit even without the proper shoes.” Susanna was trying her damndest to be friendly, but she was sure she’d get a nervous tick before too long. She quirked a brow to the reaction to her request, but she said nothing, just waiting until it seemed like he’d decided to reveal it’s contents. “Oh wow,” she breathed when he pulled out the almost fancy looking camera. That wouldn’t have been cheap, which made her think that the expense was not the issue. So why then had he had such a request filled and she not been given a simple pair of ballet shoes? “You’re a photographer?” she asked, veiling her on annoyance with the question, seemingly interested in him.
Engrossed in his new possession, it took Matt a moment for Susanna’s question to register with him and he looked up her, the first hint of embarrassment staining his cheeks. “Only in the amateur sense of the word,” he told, thumbs tracing over the tiny console at the camera’s back as he spoke. “Though I’ve been taking photographs since I was a teenager. I’m a librarian by trade.”
It didn’t go by her that he had no response to the tidbits she’d given about herself, and Susanna stomped down on the increasing annoyance. It was all right, she could focus on him, even if the way he was looking at and touching the camera was eerily like how one would look at and touch a lover. “Clearly it’s something you’re passionate about, whether it’s a hobby or a profession. A librarian, though. Hmm, I’ve been by the library here. It didn’t seem to have too poor a selection,” she observed, wondering how much longer she was going to continue trying to engage Matt in conversation.
“It is certainly better stocked than the last two I’ve had access to,” he said, putting the camera back in the box and checking out the rest of it’s contents, pleased to see he’d been furnished with means to print decent copies as he’d requested. “Do you like to read or do you prefer spending your time dancing?” He may have missed her earlier comment about spending time at the gym but he would have to have been utterly blind to miss the passion with which she spoke about ballet on her journal.
Susanna couldn’t disagree with that, even if she had no idea where Matt had been imprisoned before here. The question surprised her, as she’d been sure that he was so wrapped up in his camera that he hadn’t been paying attention to anything she was actually saying. “I do enjoy a good book once in awhile, but I’m terribly picky about them. Dancing is, without a doubt, something I could do all the time and not tire of,” she said with a wistful tone to her voice. “I requested ballet shoes, but it seems they decided not to provide them just yet.” She wished she knew why that was, what she would have to do to get them.
The tone with which she spoke about dance struck Matt as being more sincere than anything she’d said up to that point and he couldn’t help but smile a little. “It clearly means a lot to you,” he said quietly. “It’s a long shot but perhaps there is some dance equipment up in the activity room. Ballet shoes may be too specific but there could be something you could use.” She’d taken an interest in his photography, it only seemed polite to return the gesture.
“It’s all I know,” Susanna said with pure and open honesty, something that was beyond rare and surprised even her. She just wanted to dance, she could deal with the rest as long as she was able to to dance. “There might be. I’ll make it a point to go up and take a look around today,” she said with a smile that felt more genuine than she expected. What was this? She wasn’t used to this, to just a simple conversation about dancing twisting her up so much.
Matt’s smile grew a little on seeing hers, pleased to be having a successful conversation. “And if you aren’t lucky, there is at least space here and they’ve provided us with music, surely that’s enough to dance to?” Not that he really knew for certain but it was similar to how he felt about photography, really all he needed was a camera and something to shoot. EVerything else was just a bonus.
Susanna shrugged slightly. “It is, yes, but it’s not the same. I can dance anywhere, I don’t need shoes to do that, but it’s been over a year and a half since I’ve danced ballet, so it’s just not the same without the shoes.” Someone who wasn’t a dancer probably wouldn’t be able to fully understand that, but it really did make all the difference in the world.
“Well perhaps you can request them again as they’re important to you?” he suggested. “If they don’t give them to you the second time, they may tell you why or what you can do to earn them. I remember something about a points system in the welcome message...”
“I could, but I don’t want to seem pushy,” Susanna replied. She bit her tongue on the admittedly petulant response that was on the tip of it, reminding herself to reword things, that she was working toward a goal. “I do recall that as well, but as yet I can’t make out any rhyme or reason to it, why some requests have been filled but not others. I do wish they’d have given us more of a guide or an explanation.” She sighed softly, a hint of her frustration showing through, though she hoped it came across as just annoyance at not understanding why.
Matt shrugged. “Maybe they have a limit on what can be requested, you did say you asked for wine and cigarettes and those you did get,” he pointed out. “Whereas a camera is all I asked for so...” He trailed off again, uncertain whether he was making the situation better worse and itching to get to the privacy of his room so he could examine his new possessions properly and give them a test run.
Susanna blew out a breath, trying to release her tension and annoyance. “I do suppose that is possible,” she agreed, though with a tone of neutrality. She didn’t really think that counted, as the bar spread wasn’t put out for her but for the community as a whole, so it wasn’t really her request that had been filled. He was looking a little twitchy again, though, and if she were being honest with herself, she was a bit tired of the friendly conversation thing. “I think I’m going to get some coffee and perhaps some fruit, though, so I will let you get back to your camera,” she said, not impolitely.
He didn’t think she sounded convinced by his suggestion but if their positions were reversed, it was unlikely it would have been much comfort to him either. The fact she was now giving him an out to their conversation on her terms was more than a relief though and the smile he shot her was a grateful one as he got to his feet. “I hope you enjoy your fruit and coffee,” he said, reaching behind him to tug his hood back up. “And the cigarettes.”
“Thank you,” she said simply, amused by the grateful expression. Turning back to the bar, she went back around to the cigarettes, snagging a few boxes of her brand and a few matchbooks. Once Matt was gone, she looked around to make sure she was alone before moving to the alcohol, opening one cabinet to take a bottle of Jack Daniels. It wasn’t quite the same, but she hoped that Reece was at least amused by the gesture. She took both back to her room before heading to the kitchen for the coffee and fruit she’d mentioned. She’d wait until a little later in the morning to drop in on Reece.