Adam Samuels (adamsammy) wrote in rrinitiative, @ 2012-12-06 21:34:00 |
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Entry tags: | adam, adam and charlie, charlie, day nine |
Confrontation
Characters: Charlie and Adam
Setting: Cafeteria, morning
Adam left the clinic, leaning hard on the wall of the elevator as he rode it up, lost in his own thoughts. While Kyle had been super anxious about his test results, Adam wasn’t really worried. if something was wrong? Something was wrong. Another bit of icing on the burnt cake of his life. He’d probably have to tell Autumn, but he’d do that. Of course it meant he had to talk to Cal in a couple of days, probably needing to talk about more than just whatever his results were. As much as part of him wanted to believe Cal, that it would help, Adam didn’t want to talk about it.
The doors opened to the cafeteria and he drug himself out of the elevator, plodding slowly. What he needed was something to eat probably.
Charlie had been thinking along the same lines, and he was sat alone at one of the tables in the cafeteria with the remains of what had been breakfast, and a mug of coffee, flicking through a book he had picked up from the library earlier on. He was in no hurry to go anywhere, and just enjoying a relaxing morning. He looked up as the elevator doors opened and upnodded at the other guy. “Morning,” he said, in greeting.
Adam slowed, looking at Charlie, mouth slightly open. Or was it Chester? He’d liked this guy. He had. He was drunk and funny and now he kind of wanted to punch him. The open mouth face shifted into a frown. “Hey,” he said, obviously hesitating, not the friendly kid Charlie had met a few days before.
Charlie noted the hesitation and winced slightly. “Promise I’m not drunk this time,” he said, offering up a hopeful smile. He thought he remembered all of what he’d done that day, but parts may have been a little hazy. He remembered this guy - though his name, no so much. Possibly he’d done something that warranted the attitude now.
Adam stared at him for a moment then shook his head. “No, I didn’t think you were.” That wasn’t why he was upset either. He took a moment then moved closer to Charlie. “Do you really think Wren’s opinion doesn’t count like that? Like she can’t help or shouldn’t have say in decisions?”
Charlie raised an eyebrow, taken aback by the question. “Is that what she told you?” he asked, neutrally.
“Mostly. She all but ran away because of you,” Adam said waving towards the other block that Wren had moved into. “How could you dismiss her like that? You’re her friend. Or you’re supposed to be.”
“Yes, I am her friend - and I’ve known her a hell of a lot longer than you have. Enough that I don’t feel the need to justify my friendship with her to you,” Charlie said, with a frown, though his tone was not aggressive. “When did she tell you all of this apparent information?” he asked, wondering if it was before or after they’d had what wasn’t quite a heart to heart.
“Yeah well where were you when she was scared after getting beat up by one crazy chic, told by her friends that her opinions were wrong and not worth the time of day and living next door to a predator?” Adam didn’t have any actual proof about Ryan, but he liked the word and maybe it fit. It got his point across really. “The night before she moved. When she first started talking like she didn’t have a point in being here.”
“Firstly, I’m not a mind reader. Nor am I her keeper. I’m not going to be by her side twenty four hours a day. She wouldn’t let me do that for a start - and she’s told me very clearly several times now that that’s not what she wants,” Charlie told him, taking a sip of his coffee. “Secondly, I never said her opinions were wrong. I said they were different from mine. And I said that I worried about where her decisions would lead to. Like... The bitch that attacked her. The third - tell me about the predator,” he finished, his voice darkening with concern at that. Wren hadn’t gone into detail about that.
“I don’t doubt she doesn’t want you there, you lied to her. And she felt like you were humoring her.” Adam remembered that part too, about how Wren didn’t know his name was Charlie, which was also a little fucked up. “But you didn’t let her think it was okay to have different ones. Or you did but you made her feel like a child for them. Did you pat her on the head too? Kasper hit her because Wren stopped a crazy woman from doing something she didn’t think was right. What would you rather have her do? Stand idly by? Doesn’t quite go with the whole ‘take a stand’ attitude you had the other day.” Adam made a face, then shook his head. “Ryan the one in the stocks. Did you let her tell you the part where he was in her room? Without her permission? Or the part where he was in Becka’s room too? She was afraid of him, or at least anxious about him.”
Charlie put down his coffee and stood, brushing himself off. “Look. You clearly have a problem with me. And I’m not gonna get on you for coming down on Wren’s side. In fact, thank you. For defending her.” He quirked a smile. “Not that I’m surprised - she tends to bring that out in people,” he added, conversationally. “But, that said - you don’t know the whole picture. And she’s not gonna thank you for making me the villain of this piece. She and I have a history. And there are reasons for everything that I did. Reasons that I will share with her. Because she deserves it. But you - quite frankly, it’s none of your damn business. If Wren wants to share what I tell her with you, then that’s her call. But I am not gonna justify myself to you, just because you’re trying to cast yourself as her white knight.”
Adam’s face changed as he listened to Charlie. “How could lying to her help her? Why would you do that? That’s not doing anything for her, that’s helping yourself.” He shook his head hard. “I’m not trying to be her white knight. I’m no one’s hero. I just...I don’t think you understand what you did. She doesn’t think she can help anyone now. That everything she believed about herself is wrong. Do you have any idea how that feels?”
It was clear from what Adam said that he didn’t have anywhere near the whole story. Then again, nobody actually did. “I never meant to make her feel like that,” he said, still trying to be reasonable about everything - or, at least, sound it. “And I get the feeling that she and I may have talked more recently than you’ve talked to her. As for lying...” He quirked a small smile, though there was no real joy in it. “Circumstances. I was... Being someone else for a while. Not the most uncommon of things, in a, er... commune.” A cult - but when he’d seen Wren’s reaction to him using that word, he’d decided to amend his language.
“I was just with her yesterday morning. She let me sleep in her room,” Adam said, feeling like he’d talk to her soon enough. “You were being someone else for a while? You realize that sounds like utter bullshit right?”
Charlie laughed at that, shaking his head. “You really have no idea, do you? Do you know the kinds of people who end up in the kinds of places where Wren was raised? Mostly - they’re people who are searching. For something. For a new start, or for some ideal, for a new life. For anything that’s different from the hand they were dealt. And a lot of them, they decide that they’re gonna start afresh. Leave everything behind. Some places, a name change is even mandatory. They’ll do these rebirth ceremonies? And you take a new name - find the whole new you. So, Wren didn’t know my birth name. That didn’t mean she didn’t know me,” Charlie said, firmly ignoring the flutter of jealousy at the news that Wren had spent the night with this guy.
“Did she? How can you be so sure when you were pretending?” Adam asked then narrowed his eyes at him. “Why didn’t you die? I thought they all did.” He remembered that much from what she said, that there was no one else left.
“God - you’re just not gonna quit, are you? We’re actually doing this,” Charlie muttered, to himself, not sounding impressed. “Fine, whatever - I left. Before Brian handed out the poison. I happened to stumble upon the truth before it happened. Brian pretty much almost caught me and I had a choice - I could leave, go straight to the cops, and try and get help. Or I could have stayed, probably with the murderer knowing that I knew, which would probably have guaranteed me an early trip to my grave and not being able to help anyone at all. So I took the option of ‘go get help’. Clearly, that didn’t work out the way it really should have,” he said, equally clearly not impressed at having to tell the story. He wasn’t even going to touch his relationship with Wren though. That really was none of his business.
“What, did you want me to just walk away? Would you walk away if you were me?” Adam asked. He listened to Charlie, skepticism written all over his face. “Fat lot of good your plan to get help did. And now you’re here too. What did you do to wind up here? Try and help someone else?” Charlie wasn’t the only one not impressed, that much was written all over Adam’s face.
“Yeah - you’re right. I tried to do what seemed like the right thing in a bad situation and people died. Thanks for just rubbing that one in,” Charlie said, losing his cool for a moment. It felt like a really low blow, even under the circumstances. Suddenly things had stopped being about him and Wren and started being about all the people Brian had killed and which Charlie had failed to prevent. And the fact that Adam seemed to be assuming that his conviction had been along the same lines. Wow, yeah - that was definitely hitting below the belt.
Adam frowned, feeling a little bad about that after the fact. “Just means that maybe what seems like the right thing isn’t the right thing. Maybe what you did hurt her not helped.”
“God! Will you just stop and listen to yourself for a moment?” Charlie snapped. “What the fuck, man! Like I don’t know that sometimes you make judgement calls that don’t pan out. Given that you’re here as well, I’d say maybe you might know that too. You make a call and you have to live with that. And maybe - just maybe - I wasn’t only thinking of Wren at that time. Maybe I was thinking of everyone else. She wasn’t my only friend there. And you know what? All the rest of them died. So fuck you if you think that I don’t know damn well what that feels like. Get off your fucking high horse and keep your damn opinions to yourself!”
“What I’m in for has nothing to do with this.” Especially since Adam didn’t actually remember doing it. He didn’t back down from Charlie snapping at him, but he did go quiet for a moment. “And she’s not dead. And you hurt her all over again. And I’m worried about her. This is me telling you to be careful.”
Charlie looked at him for a moment. "Fuck you," he said, quietly, setting his mug down on the table. He was more than angry right now. He was hurt. He felt like Adam had attacked him, and in a way that was entirely uncalled for. Worry and protection for Wren he could have understood. Hell, he could have got behind that. But this went far beyond that, it so it felt. And he wasn't going to just stand here and take it. Instead, he turned and headed for the exit.
Was this guy so against the possibility that he might have done something wrong? Or that maybe he wasn’t helping when he thought he was. Adam stared at him. “She gave me her runes. I don’t even know what to do with them, but she gave them to me. She barely knew me at that point. That’s why I’m worried. She’s done nothing but try and help me, and she thinks she can’t help anymore.”
Charlie stopped, facing away from Adam. He closed his eyes for a moment but didn’t turn around. “Give them back to her,” he advised, softly, the anger gone from his tone. “She’s lost confidence in who she is - she needs to find that again. I’m trying to help her do that, but she needs more than me. You’re not the only one who’s worried.”
Adam wasn’t sure he wanted Charlie to help or trusted Charlie to help, but he didn’t say that. “I wasn’t planning on keeping them. Just holding onto them until she’s ready. I’m trying to help with the other part too. Or at least just being there for her. Really being her friend.” Because Wren was being the same for him.
“Good,” Charlie said, but he wasn’t willing to stay and make small talk with this guy, He was hurt and upset and right now, he just wanted to get out of here. So, he left it at that. Opening his eyes, he carried on walking, leaving his half empty coffee mug behind. He was done here.