Brady Somers (bradysomers) wrote in rrinitiative, @ 2012-12-09 14:05:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | brady, brady and edan, day nine, edan |
Lies and Evasion
Characters: Brady and Edan
Setting: Music room, evening
Brady waited until Asher left to say anything to Edan, not really sure how she was going to be now that Mr. Interesting had left her with him. It was a good thing his feelings weren’t easily hurt, or he might have been offended that she so blatantly preferred Asher’s company. It didn’t really bother him, though, in part because it wasn’t always the easiest to be around her with their shared connection with Evan and everything he’d told her a few days ago. “So, storms freak you out? You know, you could come over here. Not like you gotta be scared of me or some shit,” he pointed out in a rather calm, almost neutral tone.
Edan wasn’t quite sure what she was feeling. Part of her was feeling a touch abandoned, that much was for sure. She was also feeling a little annoyed as well, though not entirely sure why yet. Maybe because of what Asher had said, about latching on to someone else and then he’d gone and left. Like he wasn’t needed anymore. Though that led to the logical jump that he was needed and she didn’t want to start thinking like that. That was a slippery slope if there ever was one. She’d blown out her candle, considering re lighting it, but she needed both hands to get into her jacket and under the blanket. Which smelled like his soap.
Looking over at Brady she nodded. “Yeah. They’d get to be so huge in Arizona, but they didn’t happen every two days like here.” She hesitated a moment before getting up and picking a beanbag chair nearer to him.
“Makes you wonder where we are, huh?” Brady said with a faint grin. He did wish they would tell them that at least. Even just a state would be nice to know. Oh well, though. It wasn’t like he really expected the admins to start telling them anything. When she finally settled closer to him, he fell quiet for a moment, picking back up at playing on the guitar. “Do you sing?” he asked, thinking it might be a way to distract her.
“We aren’t in the Southwest,” Edan confirmed pulling her knees closer to her chest. And she could feel it, not being near where she was used to. “I suppose. Not well I don’t think, but I can manage. Do you?”
He hadn’t thought they were in the Southwest, but he didn’t say anything, thinking it was smarter to move on considering the way she’d curled in on herself a little. “Bout the same. Brenna was the musician, but she taught me some here and there and roped me into singing with her more than once,” he explained. He knew he wasn’t going to be winning any awards, but he didn’t think he’d send people screaming either.
“I’m better with an instrument. Though not great at that either. Just a little guitar and piano.” She looked over at him, nodding towards the guitar. “What do you usually play?”
“Just the guitar,” Brady answered even as he kept playing softly. “Know a lot of Brenna’s original stuff, but I also know some other stuff on it, too,” he elaborated. He wanted to keep her talking, maybe get her to start singing, just to keep her focus on something other than the storm.
“I was playing piano earlier,” Edan said, looking back towards it. It had been easier to play when she started before the storm. Now she wasn’t sure her hands wouldn’t shake. “Brenna wrote her own music?”
Brady didn’t really think she would be playing again with the storm raging outside. “Yeah, she did. She was pretty good, too.” She probably would have made it big if not for him. Just another way he’d fucked someone’s life up. And with that thought, that damned message went through his mind again. Whoever it was was onto something with that shit.
“Was that what she wanted to do? Or just for fun?” Edan’s voice was quiet, still anxious, but she was getting him to talk, which helped as far as distractions went.
“It was something she was real passionate about, but I think she always told herself it was just for fun,” Brady answered after a moment’s thought on it. It was difficult to think about her. It made it all too easy to let his thoughts wander to his kids, which he just didn’t think he could handle just then. “What I would give to heard her sing again,” he murmured without even realizing it. God but he missed her.
“It’s nice to be passionate about things. Important even.” She looked at him, tilting her head to the side a little and frowning. “Maybe you will.”
When Edan replied to what was supposed to have been a thought, he looked over at her in confusion for a moment before the exchange fully processed in his mind. Sighing, he shook his head. “We’ve been over this before. I can’t go back.” He wouldn’t even if he could. He’d just end up screwing things up more. Brenna was an amazing mother; Madelyn and Michael would be better off if he just left her to it, anyway, though he knew that was a thought best kept to himself.
Edan shrugged. “You might feel differently after you’ve been here a while.” She didn’t completely believe that he was bad for his family. Maybe he needed to be less involved, but he loved them. That couldn’t be all bad.
“Edan, I’ve been in over a year, and I still feel the same. It’s not gonna change, and it shouldn’t,” he said firmly, not debating at all. And to him? It wasn’t up for debate. He wasn’t good for them, and that was that.
“You’ve been here a week? Isn’t that the point of this place?” she asked. “It shouldn’t. That’s a negative outlook to have.”
“Never claimed to be an optimist,” Brady replied simply, shrugging. He thought he’d made it pretty clear to her before that he didn’t have a future outside this place.
“That’s a ways beyond pessimist,” Edan said softly. He had been clear that he wasn’t an optimist but he hadn’t quite elaborated just how gloom and doom he was.
He just shrugged again, not feeling any strong urge to defend or explain his viewpoint on this particular issue. Instead, he focused his attention on playing the guitar in his hands. “Got a couple anonymous messages today. You been getting any shit from anyone?” he asked her, a rather abrupt change of topic though there was no apology in his tone for it.
Edan took a moment to catch up, pulling the blanket more around her shoulders. “Anonymous messages? No. What did they say?”
Brady’s eyes were focused on her, studying her in the dim, flickering light of the candles. “Good,” he said simply, nodding slightly. At least she wasn’t getting any of the bullshit messages. “Doesn’t matter.” He didn’t need her telling him that it wasn’t true, not when he knew that it was.
“It obviously matters,” she countered, looking at him and meeting his eyes. She was still not handling the storm well, but at least the conversation was distracting. “What did they say?”
“What makes you think it ‘obviously matters?’” he asked with a quirked brow, not answering her question for the moment.
“Because you asked me if I was getting one. You would have wanted to know what mine said. I want to know what yours said.” Edan’s voice was steady despite her fear.
“So it matters to you. Doesn’t matter to me,” he lied smoothly. “Just wanted to make sure no one was messing with you. But okay. The first one I got said ‘Your day of reckoning is coming.’” he finally gave her a little. And someone had posted it publicly, so it wasn’t like she couldn’t have found that out on her own, at least once the power was back.
“And then what?” she asked. His day of reckoning? Edan sat up more, looking concerned. “What the hell?”
Brady shrugged. “Got no fucking clue what it’s supposed to mean, and since it was anonymous, I’m not really shaking in my boots or anything. I can watch my back. You don’t need to worry about me,” he assured her. He really wasn’t scared of the faceless threat.
“What was the second message?” Edan asked again before shaking her head. “I’m not worried about you, not really at least. I know you can handle your own, but that doesn’t make me any less anxious that someone is targeting you.”
“Some bullshit about destroying everything around me,” he answered, tone neutral. It was as if the words hadn’t affected him in the least, when in reality they had affected him greatly. At least he hadn’t given into the temptation to raid the bar like he’d really wanted to. “It’s not just me. Wren got the message too. At least the first one. Charlie, Pippa, and Kasper too, from what I saw on the journals.” And he couldn’t think of a common thread between the group, so he really had no clue who’d sent the messages. He had an inkling that it was the administration just doing more to fuck with their heads. Went with the whole psych experiment idea, anyway.
Edan opened her mouth to say something then wound up closing it. “Sounds like someone is trying to get in your head.” And she guessed they were doing a good job. He might have sounded neutral about it, but that he didn’t try and say it wasn’t accurate had her wondering if he believed it.
He knew he should probably stop shrugging, but he found himself doing so again. “Dunno, probably. Good thing I’m made of tougher stuff,” he said with a smirk, practically contradicting his earlier statements. He really wasn’t giving her much credit, considering everything he’d admitted to her in the past.
“You don’t believe it do you?” Edan asked, feeling like he was full of crap. She wasn’t going to point that out specifically though.
“Nope,” Brady lied. He knew it was true, but he also knew that Edan would argue against it, and that was just something he didn’t feel like dealing with in that moment.
Edan didn’t believe him, but she shrugged. “Nope,” she echoed. “Well good. That you aren’t letting it get to you.” She pulled her blanket more around her, settling in more, feeling exhausted.
Brady was watching her, so he noticed the way she settled in more against the beanbag, the way exhaustion seemed to exude from her. “You should try to sleep,” he suggested, intentioning ignoring what they’d actually been discussing. “I won’t sleep. You don’t need to worry about anyone messing with you,” he promised her.
“I figured as much, you keeping out the bad guys.” Edan said, wondering if Evan was going to be lurking too, just not saying it. “Not sure I could sleep.” Though she did shut her eyes, trying for sleep.
Since he had every intention of doing just that, Brady merely nodded. When she said she wasn’t sure she could sleep, he simply said, “Try,” and shifted what he was playing to something softer. He would keep playing for a while in the hopes that it would give her something else to focus on and maybe, just maybe fall asleep.
Edan pulled the blanket around her more, trying not to get more caught up in the storm, forcing herself to think of something better than the weather. Eventually though it was exhaustion that pulled her down into darkness.