Clint Nolan (ferdaboys) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2023-09-19 09:47:00 |
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Entry tags: | #july 2018, clint, clint x elodie, elodie |
Who: Clint and Elodie
When: Night, July 16
Where: The bonfire, car, Elodie's place
Status: complete
After taking Jasper’s joint, Elodie wandered away from him to refill her cup. Jasper was her friend, but he could be a major bummer sometimes and Elodie wanted to have some fun tonight. So she waited a bit, roaming around the beach, listening in on a few conversations but not finding anything worth sticking around for. One would think a bunch of drunk teenagers would produce more drama, but alas. Eventually, Elodie caught sight of Clint Nolan. He was alone and heading for the beer cooler. The joint was in the front pocket of her flannel shirt - stupid to wear flannel in summer, she knew, but Maine could still get chilly at night, and it wasn’t like she had a ton of insulation to stay warm - so Elodie headed for him, amused that a guy she was sure would turn into a frat boy in a couple of months, could look so morose.
“You don’t look like you’re having a very good time,” Elodie said, stepping up beside him and reaching into the cooler to take another beer for herself.
Clint wasn’t even sure why he was still at this bonfire. Ruby was there, and she hadn’t left after their brief conversation, and he’d seen her flirting with a few of the guys in attendance. Not that he had any claim to care about that, but it was still kind of a bummer. He missed the light and free flirty days they’d had. Jules Cooper was also there, seemingly back together with her white trash boyfriend, and it just felt awkward to even look at her. Clint was pretty sure she was trying to ignore him just as hard.
He’d been hanging around his dude friends most of the night, which was fun but not exactly his preferred company for a party. Trying to hit on any of the girls he knew here wasn’t appealing either ... so he was just drinking. It wasn’t helping his nerves or lack of sleep much, but it was at least making everything more numb.
Elodie speaking startled him a little, and Clint’s body twitched. “Uh,” he started, then cleared his throat. “I’m fine, I guess. You having fun?” It was a half-hearted question as he cracked his fresh beer open to take a swallow.
She noticed the way his body jerked a bit at the sound of her voice and it sent an amused thrill through her. Scaring people was always entertaining, especially when it wasn't on purpose. She noticed she did that often, especially at Charlie's house. Maybe she just walked super lightly. At his question, Elodie snorted. "Fuck no. There's maybe two people I like here. But I like free beer and there's not much else to do in this town. But I did bring this in case of boredom." She pulled the joint out from her pocket and held it up. "And I'm bored. Plus, you look like you could use a distraction. Want to give it a go?"
Clint huffed softly and glanced back at the people crowded around the bonfire. He liked more than two of them, but he wasn’t terribly in the mood to hang out with those people. Or anyone, honestly. He was exhausted and drained, and had only shown up to this party to try and feel somewhat normal. It hadn’t really worked, but at least he’d gotten some information from Ruby, and now he had a plan to try and get help. A semi-plan. “I’d be a dumbass to say no, so ... sure,” he told Elodie, shrugging a shoulder. If she wanted to share her weed, he would take some. “Do you have a lighter? ... and who do you like here? Just curious.” Clint didn’t really know this girl, but he might as well ask since she was so specific.
Elodie shifted her cup into her other hand and slipped her hand into the back pocket of her jeans to pull out her lighter. She then adjusted a bit more to offer the joint to Clint to go first. "I like myself and Jasper. Sometimes Logan. That's about it. So two, sometimes three." She liked Ruby fine, but she knew better than to say so, considering this was Ruby's ex and he might get all tense. Elodie had questions, but she wasn't going to dive into them just yet. "This stuff's pretty good," she said, gesturing to the joint. "It'll help wipe some of those problems in your brain away, temporarily anyway."
He had a good little stash of weed at home, but Clint had been scared to smoke it, even if he longed for that cotton-wrapped safe feeling of being high. It tended to make him sleepy, and going to sleep was the last thing he wanted to do lately. He was unlikely to doze off during a party though, especially with a girl hanging around, so he took the joint and lighter from Elodie and tucked the former between his lips to light it up. The mention of Jasper made him feel guilty all over again, but he tried not to think about it. He didn’t want to think about anything. Jules deserved way better than that guy, but Clint wasn’t going to say so to one of Jasper’s friends. Clint took a quick inhale before offering the joint back to Elodie. “Thanks,” he muttered. “Two out of ... what, like, twenty? Not good odds of having fun at a party.”
"You don't always have to like people at a party to have a good time," she pointed out, taking the joint and slipping it between her lips, still studying Clint. Hell, she had been to parties where she hadn't known anyone at all and Elodie had always had a blast. Some of them were a bit harder to remember now, but she just assumed that meant it had been a good time. After a deep inhale, Elodie grinned. "You just have to know how to make your own fun. And for being at a party with a bunch of people you probably like, you look pretty damn miserable."
He kind of wished people would stop telling him how shitty he looked, but Clint supposed he deserved it. It was true anyway. He was more tired than he’d ever been in his life, and felt more haunted and paranoid and awful in general, of course it showed on his face. All over him, probably. “Well, I am,” he answered, lifting his beer for another big swallow. “And none of these assholes really make a difference.” Clint vaguely gestured around at the crowd. Ruby had been helpful, but he was full of guilt about what he’d done to her, and none of his dude-friends really cared enough to see how drained and tortured he was. Did anybody here really care about him? Clint didn’t know anymore.
Elodie took another drag from the joint, kind of figuring that his misery stemmed from more than just breaking up with Ruby. But then again, Jasper had been miserable for a long time too and some of that came from whatever was going on with Jules. She just didn't fully grasp why it mattered so much to people. That shit never lasted forever. "So what is it then?" she asked, offering the joint back to Clint if he wanted it. "Monster under the bed? Being haunted by a petulant ghost? Kids with black eyes stalking you, or a skinny creeper with a bowler hat?" There were so many more things to be scared of in this town, but those seemed to be pretty popular. Hell, Charlie's house alone was full of supernatural trauma. Elodie had experienced shit herself, but for some reason it didn't seem to affect her the way it did them. Or she was better at suppressing it.
Clint took the joint, a frown starting on his face as Elodie began listing off options, sure she was making fun of him, but then she got to what it really was. That fucking bowler hat asshole. A shudder ran through Clint’s body -- something he’d always thought only happened in movies, but he was obviously wrong. “That last one, the hat man,” he said quietly, a little too caught off guard to lie. “How do you know about him?” Had Elodie seen him too? Did she have the same dangerous nightmare that he and Ruby’d had? Clint felt for her if she did. He hesitated to rush into those questions though -- Point Pleasant had a lot of stories in it, maybe Elodie thought he was just another one of those.
Didn't everyone know about the bowler hat guy? The natives, anyway. But maybe some people had been sheltered a bit too much and Clint Nolan was an Overlook Brat, wasn't he? Or maybe she hit a nerve and now she knew why he looked the way he did, since he'd latched onto that one thing out of the other options. "I know people who've seen him, or were hurt by him. He got you too?" Elodie didn't sound terribly concerned, because it wouldn't be a shocker to hear more people were traumatized by the thing. But it made sense as to why Clint looked like hot garbage. If he was having the kind of dreams Ruby had had, it made sense.
So it was spread even further than him and Ruby and her friend. Clint might have been surprised by that if he wasn’t so completely exhausted. “Yeah, he got me too,” he muttered before lifting his drink to chug down the rest of it. He crumpled the can in his hand to toss into the big black trash bag someone had the foresight to bring, then reached for another one from the cooler. He still felt too sober to talk about or deal with any of that. “I’ve been having trouble sleeping.” That was a crazy understatement, but he wasn’t about to start truly complaining to this girl he didn’t really know. Clint reached to take the joint back for another hit from it.
"When did you see him?" she asked, since she was genuinely curious. She spent so many nights out at parties, or just roaming, and she had yet to even catch a glimpse. Elodie wasn't sure what she would do if she did, but the description of the thing alone made her want to see him face to face. What kind of monster wore a fucking bowler hat? "Did he do anything when you did?" Clint may not want to talk about it, but they were in it now and he was smoking her weed - Jasper's weed - so she felt like she deserved something.
“It was months ago,” Clint said, and it was obvious in his voice that he’d expected that to be the end of it. “Back in January. We -- me and Ruby -- we were just walking out on the street, and he was just suddenly there.” Clint made a vague gesture with the beer in his hand. He took another drag from the joint before offering it back. He really hoped it kicked in and started helping at some point soon. “And he -- it, whatever -- it chased us back to my car, and down the road. That was it though, neither of us got hurt. And that was it, until that fucking nightmare ...” He pulled one sleeve of his hoodie up to show Elodie all of the puncture wounds that dotted his forearm. It had been a horrible fucking dream that had followed him into the waking world and it was still a huge mindfuck.
Elodie eyed Clint's arm and almost immediately felt the pain surge through her own. Sharp with a burning sensation that caused her to suck in a quick breath between her teeth. But she was getting good at hiding those remnants of pain and to Clint, it probably just seemed like she was sympathizing with him. "Point Pleasant's own Freddy Krueger," she said, taking the joint to take another, deeper inhale. "So he's fucking you up in your sleep now? All the time? Or just that once and now you're scared to go to bed?" She remembered Ruby sleeping in Jasper's bed that one day, though she couldn't remember why. Was that Gavin's birthday? Or some Lucas family cook out thing? Again, the memory was vague.
There was something in her tone that made him feel small and stupid, and kind of angry about it, so Clint frowned. “Once was enough, believe me,” he grumbled. The times he’d been unable to help falling asleep, Clint’s dreams were stressed and scary, though the Dark Man hadn’t made another direct appearance, and he hadn’t woken up injured again. So maybe he was being stupid. He just couldn’t shrug this off, Point Pleasant’s weirdness had never encroached on his life in such a personal way before, and it was like being mind-raped. Clint couldn’t trust his dreams, so he didn’t want to have any and risk it. He just hoped what had worked for Ruby would work for him. He took another sullen drink from his beer.
Elodie figured if Clint had been sucked into the fog like she had, he probably would've gotten eaten pretty quickly. The jocks hardly ever survived a horror movie, after all and he was grumpy about a bad dream. Sure, that dream had fucked him up in his awakened life, but still. Not that it was a competition. Point Pleasant had plenty of fuckery for everyone who lived there. "You want to be able to sleep without having any dreams? 'cause I can help you with that," she said after a moment of finishing off the beer in her cup. "Unless you've got a solution already lined up."
Clint glanced at her sideways, his expression a bit skeptical. He only really knew Elodie’s name and reputation for being a weirdo, so he wasn’t sure why she would help him. But ideas were ideas, and he only had one of them so far. “I’ve got a lead,” he said, shrugging a shoulder. “But that’s all it is right now. What can you do?” She had that kind of mean girl vibe that made him think she was going to offer to put him into a coma or something, but Clint was willing to risk a bit of embarrassment for a real solution to this problem.
“I’m nothing special, so I can’t get rid of him or anything. But I can give you something that’ll knock you out for a solid eight hours without a dream or nightmare, or anything. Just bliss.” At least that’s how it had always been for her. Elodie supposed offering to get a hammer and knock him out would be on par with what people knew about her, but she didn’t want to chase Clint off that fast. Sometimes fuckery was better when it was the long con. It was certainly more fun that way. Besides, he was already giving her that suspicious eye. Elodie couldn’t blame him. “You don’t have to take anything from me,” she added with a shrug. “It’s just an offer. I had a lot of nightmares before too. Sometimes I still do. So I had to figure out how to… make them stop.” She waved her empty cup and finished off the joint before dropping it into the sand.
He had to admit that sounded good. Better than he’d been doing since that goddamn nightmare, that was for sure. Feeling any kind of bliss was extremely appealing, even if it was just in his sleep. Clint had to assume Elodie was talking about some kind of drug, and while he was usually hesitant to take anything he wasn’t already familiar with, he felt kind of desperate. Clint glanced around, his jaw working a bit as he thought it over. “Okay,” he said finally, his gaze coming back to Elodie. “I just ... I don’t shoot anything up, so if it’s that, then no. ... So what is it?” He knew how dumb it was to take drugs from a stranger, but once couldn’t hurt too bad, right? So he could actually sleep through the night.
Elodie wrinkled her nose in disgust. "I don't shoot up anything either. I don't want needles coming anywhere near me." She shuddered dramatically. "I've got some zimmies. They'll knock you out. No waking up in the middle of the night, no dreams. No nightmares. You'll know it's working 'cause you'll feel like you're falling into a cloud. Then when you wake up... well, I've never felt groggy or anything. You've got to walk with me, though, 'cause I don't feel like handing shit like that over in front of people." Honestly, she didn't really care, but she didn't feel like having dumbasses coming up to her to get something she didn't want to share. At least not to them. Clint was a special case, after all.
Clint had never heard the term ‘zimmies’ before, but that didn’t mean much. He smoked weed fairly regularly and had tried a few other drugs here and there, but he’d never been a burnout type. Sports and good grades had been too important to him. Clint assumed Elodie had some kind of prescription pills, and he needed to do something. This not sleeping shit was killing him. He acted like he knew exactly what she was talking about and nodded. “Yeah, I get it,” he told Elodie, then gestured vaguely with his beer. “Lead the way.”
Since they were still by the beer, she grabbed one and dumped her cup in the trash before turning to lead Clint away from the crowd. With the drinks and weed in her system she felt pretty good. Maybe she would wander around and try to find another party later. She wouldn't have thought a small town like Point Pleasant would have constant parties, but she never failed to find one. She couldn't remember much about them after the fact but that was the mark of a great party, wasn't it? "So what's the lead you mentioned earlier? Your other maybe-solution." Elodie asked, opening the beer to take a long drink, eying Clint as she did so.
He fell into step next to her, not overly worried about where they were going. Clint found himself kind of relieved to put some of the noise behind him. He’d thought going to a party and being around a bunch of people would help his mood, but so far it hadn’t really been working. This conversation probably wouldn’t do it either, but at least he would get something out of it and he could go home and get some sleep. Elodie’s question made him huff some air out of his nose. Did he really want to sound even more crazy? Why the fuck not. “Witchcraft,” he said, glancing over at her. “They helped out somebody else with the same problem, so ... maybe they’ll help me too.”
Witchcraft didn't sound crazy to Elodie. She'd been living here long enough now to know the rumors were true. Besides, what would it say about her if she had been sucked into a foggy demon dimension but not believe in magic? "Witchcraft can do some fucked up shit," Elodie said simply. "Even help usually comes with a price, right? Like, whatever you send out in the world comes back on you threefold or whatever." She honestly had no idea if that was true, but it sounded true. "Do you trust the person who told you about it?"
Clint had no idea if that was true either. It sounded like dumb new age hippie bullshit to him, but he also hadn’t really believed in the supernatural stuff until just recently, so what the fuck did he know? Nothing, and apparently that was part of the problem. Was he going to have to sacrifice something, though? He’d already thought he would go out to the O’Reillys’ place with money to pay for whatever they were going to do, but ... what if they wanted something more from him? Nerves gnawed at his stomach again and it twisted unpleasantly. “Yeah,” he answered with a bit of hesitation. Would Ruby set him up for something awful? He would probably deserve it. Fuck. “I mean, I think so.”
They were comfortably clear of the bonfire, at least enough so that people wouldn't see what Elodie was giving Clint, so she stopped and set her beer down in the sand before straightening to start digging through her bag. She paused long enough to look up at Clint with a hint of incredulousness. "You think so? If someone is sending you to a witch you better be pretty confident that they're your friend." Kind of like taking drugs from someone he barely knew - stupid as hell, but since it was Elodie giving them to Clint, she wasn't about to say so. Her fingers closed around one of the baggies she carried with her and she pulled it out. "Who suggested going to a witch?" He may or may not tell her, which was fine, but Elodie was always of the mind that it never hurt to ask questions. Sometimes people didn't think before they answered.
He stopped walking when she did, suddenly wishing they weren’t talking about this. Admitting that his most recent ex-girlfriend, whom he had cheated on, had been the one to make the suggestion just made Clint feel like a giant dumbass. He wanted to trust Ruby, he was in a pretty desperate state, and she’d had the same problem ... but could he? What if she was setting him up for revenge? Or the witch would put him under some kind of truth spell where he’d have to confess that it was Jules Cooper he’d slept with? Would they participate in something that petty? Maybe for a price. Clint looked pained and watched Elodie’s hands, slightly tempted to just snatch the bag and run so he didn’t have to talk anymore. “Ruby did,” he muttered. “We saw it together, she had the same problem.”
Elodie was buzzing but she was perceptive enough to recognize Clint wasn't comfortable with the conversation. But if he wanted her pills, then he would just have to suffer through it. She arched a brow at the mention of Ruby and then opened the baggy, reaching in to take out two of the small white pills. "Your ex-girlfriend is sending you to a witch. That's really nice of her, considering why you guys broke up." She didn't sound incredulous this time, though it was probably obvious she thought he was a dumbass. "Though if I were you, I'd get help from someone who isn't recommended by someone you used to go out with and pissed off." Elodie smiled. "Like me. Here." She offered him two of the pills, not willing to part with anymore than that for now. "I need a ride home, though. You good to drive?"
“How do you know how we broke up?” Clint muttered sullenly. It wasn’t a real question, he’d grown up in this town and knew how it operated. Most of the people on the beach had already graduated, but that didn’t stop the rumor mill. He maybe could have been mad that Ruby was telling people the details, but Clint didn’t have the energy. He knew there was sense to what Elodie was saying but he didn't want to think that the only solution he’d been offered so far would be a bust. He took the pills from Elodie and slipped them into his pocket, shooting her another wary glance. “This isn’t a long-term answer,” he pointed out. “I just need some sleep.” He couldn’t become some sleeping pill junkie or whatever this was. Clint didn’t even care much if it made him sick, he was going to try it. “Where do you live?”
Roaming around as much as she did, Elodie heard all kinds of stuff, but Jasper had literally just told her earlier that night about Clint cheating on Ruby. They were surrounded by people they had gone to school with, so he should already know how the gossip tree worked. Or was it a gossip telephone? Train? Something like that. "Long term answers don't exist in this town, especially with creepers wearing bowler hats and attacking you in your dreams like a horror movie villain," she said, still grinning. "I think tonight I should probably live with my aunt. She's at Castle View. Where do you live?"
Clint hoped that wasn’t true, that there was a long term answer, either with the O’Reilly family or elsewhere. He just had to keep trying before he left for college, so he could be sane when he got there. The horrible thought occurred to him that the bowler hat man might follow him to school, but Clint tried to banish that immediately. There was no way. “If you know why we broke up, I’m sure you know where I live too,” he said, barely resisting the urge to roll his eyes. Everybody knew who the Overlook kids were, and he’d always been one of them. “I can take you to Castle View though ... you wanna go now?” The night was still young for one of these parties, but Clint was sick of being there and Elodie had sounded ready to leave herself.
"Knowing why you broke up doesn't mean that I know where the reason it happened happened," Elodie pointed out, and it made complete sense in her head as she said it. "When details get boring, I zone out. And stupid shit can happen anywhere. Let's go." She waved for him to follow her back up the sand to the parking lot, assuming that's where he'd parked. She had only really come to this party because she had been bored and wandering town anyway, and Elodie hadn't been lying when she told Clint that Jasper was really the only person she liked there. Everyone was bound to get drunk and stupid and while that could be fun to watch on occasion, Elodie didn't really have the desire to stick around and wait for it to happen.
“No --” he cut himself off with a sigh. That wasn’t what Clint had meant, and it frustrated him, but he didn’t bother to correct Elodie’s understanding. He and Jules had indeed hooked up at his house, but he didn’t want to say that out loud. It didn’t matter, this girl didn’t really care where he lived anyway. Clint just moved to follow Elodie. There were people still at the bonfire that he probably ought to say goodbye to, but Clint didn’t really want to. He kind of hoped Ruby didn’t notice he was leaving with some random girl, but Clint didn’t know why he cared. Just guilt, probably. So he just walked through the dark with Elodie toward his car, glancing around as they went with a hint of paranoia. He pulled his keys out once they were in the parking lot and hit the key fob button to unlock the doors of his car.
Elodie got into Clint's car and glanced around, mostly because she was nosy. She wondered what kind of car she would get, if she ever learned how to drive. Right now, it didn't seem too important. She walked everywhere, or caught a ride with someone. "This seat tells me you live in Overlook," Elodie said, stretching her legs out as much as she could. She assumed his parents probably bought him the car. They were called Overlook Brats for a reason, weren't they? She began to dig around in her bag again, searching, but she glanced at Clint. "Are both of your parents still alive? And married?"
It felt safer in the car, and part of Clint’s stomach unclenched. He really just wanted to get this over with and be back at home, safe to take Elodie’s pills and pass out for however long he could. He glanced back at her at the weird question about his parents and started up the engine. “Yeah,” Clint answered. “Alive and still married, and I’ve got one older brother ... why?” He couldn’t imagine she actually cared, and while it was fairly uncommon to have parents that were still together these days, it just seemed like an odd thing to ask. Clint almost turned it back around on her, but decided that he didn’t actually want to know.
"I was just wondering," Elodie said with a shrug, finding another one of her little baggys to pull open. She popped one of her own pills into her mouth. "I don't know a lot of people who have parents who're still married. Sometimes they're dead. Sometimes I think my mom is haunting me, but then I figure it's all in my head, 'cause I'm sure she's got better things to do than bug me, you know? More interesting people to haunt. Or places. I never know if ghosts are tied to where they died, or just people." She crunched into the pill like it was candy and folded her arms across her chest as she settled back against the seat. "I've got an older brother too. I think he's still in college. What's your brother do?"
As he pulled the car out of the parking spot, Clint felt some natural sympathy to hear that Elodie’s mom was dead. Maybe that was why she was so weird and carried around handfuls of pill-filled baggies. Clint didn’t consider himself a mama’s boy really, but he did love his mother and he knew losing her would screw him up. “He’s a vet,” he answered about Marsh, not really able to fathom being unsure or uninterested in what his brother was doing. Even when he’d been running around Africa and different places, Clint had known what he was up to. “As in animal doctor, not like ... a soldier or whatever,” he clarified. “He just opened up a clinic here.” Clint paused, then glanced over at her. “When did your mom die?”
Elodie liked animals. Cats, mostly. She didn't think she could ever be a vet, though. She'd probably want to kill herself every time she'd have to euthanize one. While she had never had a pet before, she saw plenty of strays around town. Maybe she ought to start taking them home whenever she saw one. Dahlia would love that. The question about her mom prompted Elodie to glance at Clint. Speaking of euthanizing. She knew her mom was dead and that Cam had killed her but it was during those days when she had been infected with whatever. Elodie remembered it, but at the same time, it was so blurry around the edges. "She died in January," she said simply. It occurred to her then that to most people, including her aunt, that her mom was just another missing person in Point Pleasant. No one knew for sure that she was dead except for Elodie and Jasper. Cam knew, but he didn't live in town anymore. Even so, lies could be hard to keep straight when one was high. Clint wasn't someone she was going to worry about though. The bad feelings mingled uncomfortably in her gut, so Elodie deflected them aside and rolled down the window a bit to feel more of a breeze. "She was murdered. I live with my aunt now, at least until I'm eighteen. Then who knows. Maybe I'll get the fuck out. Are you going to college?"
It was kind of a jarring answer that made Clint halfway wish he hadn’t asked, but he couldn’t care too much. It wasn’t like he and Elodie were sudden best friends or anything. A lot of people got murdered in this town, or went missing long enough to be assumed dead. “That sucks,” he muttered. “Sorry.” Six months wasn’t a long time to grieve, but what the fuck did Clint know about any of it? Nothing. He’d been lucky and his whole family was intact, in spite of living in this fucked up place, he’d never really grieved for anyone. “But yeah, I’m going to college. Only like, a month left here and then I move out,” he said. Clint had mixed feelings about it, but if it got him away from the dark man and bullshit like him, he was more relieved than worried now. “I don’t blame anybody for wanting to get the fuck out, honestly.” Especially if they had a huge personal tragedy tied to this place ... like a murdered mother, for example. “Is your aunt cool, at least?”
His response was about what she expected and one she would've given to someone who told her about a tragic event in their life. Shit happened, especially in Point Pleasant. Death wasn't some rarity. It was life. "Yeah, she's fine," Elodie said, shrugging. "She's fucking the Sheriff and lets me do pretty much whatever I want, which works for me." Looking over at Clint, Elodie arched a brow. "You're leaving in a month? That's not a lot of time. You've gotta get some sleep, get rid of a creeper dream demon and pick your major all within a few weeks. Unless you've already picked your major. Are you just... hanging around until you go? No plans? No trips or anything?"
A month wasn’t a lot of time, but it still felt like too much to Clint, in his current situation. Especially if he continued to have sleeping issues. God, he didn’t know what he would do if those followed him -- trying to adapt to dorm life, get started with classes, picking a frat he wanted to rush for, all those things would be near impossible if he couldn’t fucking sleep without terrible nightmares. He was going to have a roommate and everything. “They don’t make you pick your major freshman year,” Clint muttered, though that part probably mattered the least of what Elodie said. He sighed a bit. “I was planning to take Ruby to Virginia Beach or something, but that’s not happening, so ... no, I dunno. Maybe I’ll take myself somewhere. When do you turn eighteen? Where do you wanna go?”
Elodie didn't know how colleges worked and she probably never would since she had no plans on ever going. "December," she said. "But I don't know where I wanna go. Anywhere. Everywhere. I guess I need to learn to drive by then. And get a car. Which means I'd probably need a job." She wrinkled her nose in distaste. "That doesn't sound very appealing to me though. The job part. The other stuff sounds okay. And it's not so bad doing things alone. I do things alone all the time." Or she just latched onto someone until she got bored and wandered off to find something else to occupy her brain and time. "You know, you should stay at my place tonight," Elodie added simply. "In case that dark man creeper attacks you again and you're too out of it to know it."
Clint had only worked for his dad so far in life, so he couldn’t really comment either way. He still didn’t know what he wanted to do as a career, he was hoping college would help him figure that out, but he definitely didn’t want any of those low-level service jobs so many teenagers had to get. Probably the kind Elodie would end up in. Was that a shitty thing to think? Maybe. Clint didn’t care. Elodie’s declaration caught him off guard enough that he totally forgot about jobs anyway, and his brow arched and he looked over at her. “Oh yeah?” he asked, a touch of amusement creeping into his voice finally. Was this whole weird conversation and ride Elodie’s way of trying to hook up with him? “And what would you do about it if it happened? I dunno what you just popped but you might be pretty out of it yourself.”
She caught the hint of amusement in his voice and rolled her eyes briefly before reaching into her bag for her cigarettes. It occurred to her that he might get mad if she smoked in his car so she pulled her hand back out with an inward sigh. "I dunno what I'd do about it. Make sure you don't die, I guess? If you're all bloody and shit, you'd need someone to get you to like, the hospital. Unless your parents know what's going on and they're there to keep an eye on you." Elodie looked at Clint, grinning. "I don't want your dick, if that's what you're thinking. I'm being nice and stuff. I'm of sorta sound mind and body. You won't be once you take one of the pills I gave you."
She could say that she didn’t want his dick, but once it was available and he was incapacitated, would she change her tune? Why was that appealing at all, it was so fucked up? Clint didn’t know, but he wasn’t going to suggest it out loud, so it didn’t matter. He hadn’t had another nightmare of the Dark Man since the first one, so maybe it was unlikely that he would have one tonight at Elodie’s, but if he did and he was all drugged up ... she had a point. Clint almost asked her why he should trust that she wouldn’t just let him bleed out, but then remembered they would be at her aunt’s place. A presumably responsible adult who definitely wouldn’t want a teenager to die on her watch. “Nah, they don’t know shit so ... okay,” he said, glancing over at Elodie again. “Since I’m gonna be knocked the hell out. I owe you a big one, if you keep me alive.” And if they just slept and nothing happened, then at least he got a good night’s sleep.
Elodie had a feeling he’d agree and she smiled triumphantly when he did. “I love being owed big ones,” she said, letting the innuendo linger in the air between them. “So I definitely won’t let you die, especially in my bed. That’d be gross.” Honestly, she wasn’t sure if Dahlia was home or not but she doubted her aunt would make Clint leave. If she tried to do a parent type thing she may suggest he sleep on the couch. But maybe Elodie would get lucky and her aunt would be staying over at the Sheriff’s, assuming Elodie would be crashing at Jasper’s. She’d rather Dahlia not be there so they weren’t interrupted, but Elodie supposed she’d deal with it once they got to the apartment. Clint was a guy and guys tended to think with their dicks. Then again he may be too tired and cranky to want her to play with it. Still. It was generally the easiest way to get a guy to do what she wanted. Dicks loved attention. “Hopefully those witches can help you long term,” Elodie said casually. “Assuming Ruby isn’t sending you there to have them put warts on your cock and balls.”
Magical cock and ball warts sounded awful, even worse than the regular kind, and for a moment Clint was horrified at the mental pictures the suggestion gave him. Would Ruby really do that to him? He probably deserved some sort of punishment, more than he’d already gotten, but that? It seemed too petty for her, but maybe Clint had underestimated how angry she was. Goddamn, couldn’t people just break up in high school like normal, without it behind some huge thing? “Well let’s hope there’s like ... ethics in magic or some shit,” he muttered, trying to push the possibility from his mind. Elodie probably just wanted to fuck with him, like she was doing with that bit of innuendo after she’d said she didn’t want his dick. Girls could really be assholes sometimes. “I don’t think Ruby would do that anyway.” She had seemed sincere about offering help, but was he foolish to trust that? Whatever, all of it made Clint’s brain hurt. He put on his blinker and pulled into the parking lot for the apartments. He really just wanted to be horizontal somewhere, stoned and asleep already.
Elodie would have been the first to agree that girls could be assholes, herself especially. It was self awareness or some shit like that. She was sure magical cock warts would fuck with Clint’s mind some and she was amused by the look on his face. Not to mention the idea of magic having ethics. Maybe some witches lived by certain rules but certainly some didn’t give a shit and did whatever they wanted. Who wouldn’t give a cheating dude cock warts for the right price? Ruby probably wouldn’t but Elodie sure as shit would. “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. I think that’s the phrase,” Elodie said, digging out her keys when they pulled into the parking lot. “I’m sure you’re fine, though. Ruby’s probably not the vengeful type. I mean, it’s high school. Who gives a shit?” She found her keys and began looking around for Dahlia’s car. When she didn’t see it right away, Elodie relaxed. It would be much easier getting Clint into her room without having to explain stuff to her aunt. Once they had parked, Elodie climbed out of the car and headed for the apartment, keys dangling from her finger. “I’ll get you some water, assuming you’re done drinking for the night and stuff.”
Elodie voiced the same thought he had -- it was high school, who cared? -- but in a way that made Clint doubt himself all over again. Was Ruby still feeling scorned and out for revenge? God, he couldn’t wait to move away from this fucking place, all of the sudden. Clint made sure his car was locked, then fell into step behind Elodie, glancing around warily as they headed for the building, like the Dark Man or scorned witches were going to pop out at any second. All of this was kind of weird, but it wasn’t like he’d never crashed at a girl’s house before, and if anybody was going to catch him all fucked up on whatever those pills were, he would prefer it be some random aunt instead of his parents. “So what’s in this for you?” he asked Elodie. “Being nice and stuff. Did she put you up to something?”
Pushing open the door, Elodie led Clint inside. She tossed the keys onto the coffee table and was pleased to be greeted with silence. Pulling her bag off her shoulder, Elodie looked back at Clint, amused. “I don’t get anything out of this except the knowledge that I did something nice for someone.“ That was a crock of shit and if Clint had half a brain he probably knew it. “And Ruby doesn’t like me much so I’m the last person she’d go to if she wanted someone to fuck you.” Heading for the kitchen to get Clint some water, Elodie decided to give him something that may help ease his mind. “Okay so I went through something fucked up too. Not the Dark Man but with that fog. So I know what this shit is like. I’m just trying to help. I’m not going to give you cock warts or let you bleed out. It just sucks going through something fucked up alone.”
Clint cringed internally as they walked in, worried for a moment that they were going to have to actually talk to her aunt, but nobody else seemed to be home. Thank god for small favors. Clint followed Elodie toward the kitchen, his expression a little skeptical behind her head before she mentioned the fog and his brows lifted. “With the fog? I was stuck at home when it happened ... what happened to you? What’d you see?” he asked. That had been terrifying, and one of the first widespread supernatural things that Clint had really experienced. Definitely the most intense. He still didn’t really know what had been lurking outside in the fog, but maybe Elodie did.
Elodie grabbed a glass from the cupboard and filled it with tap water from the sink before turning back to offer it to Clint for his pills. “I saw crazy ass creatures that nearly killed me. Then I got infected with some crazy ass virus or whatever. Then I got sucked into a crazy ass fog dimension before being puked back into this place.” He could believe her or not believe her, Elodie didn’t really care. It sounded nuts but it was true, like most stories in Point Pleasant. She motioned for Clint to follow her back toward her bedroom. Dahlia may not be home now but that didn’t mean her aunt wouldn’t show up eventually. “Did you hear about all those people going missing on Witcham Road in January? I was in that group. Jasper too.” Elodie knew she hadn’t had anyone in town to miss her the way Jasper and the others had, but she still hadn’t wanted to die in that place. When Elodie died, she wanted it to be on her terms and not in a foggish hell.
It did sound nuts, and Clint’s mouth was a little agape as he took the water and continued to follow Elodie. “Yeah I heard something like that ... wait, where did you go? Another dimension?” he asked, baffled. Weird monsters in the fog were one thing, but a whole different dimension? Clint thought all of that shit was science fiction, or at least some high-level unproven side of physics or something. Elodie had actually been in a different reality? Clint had so many questions. Jasper too, apparently, but Clint wasn’t going to ask him shit -- did Jules know about all of this? If it was even true. It occurred to him again that she might be fucking with him, and he was just falling for it like a dumbass, but Clint’s brain wasn’t currently up to the task of sorting out fact from fiction. He glanced around Elodie’s room for somewhere to sit once they were inside.
There was nowhere else for Clint to sit but for her bed so she left him to it, closing the door behind him and starting to strip off her shirt and bra, dropping them to the floor as she walked to her dresser. Clint had seen tits before so she doubted the nudity would bother him. “I don’t know where we were. It was like Point Pleasant but like, a foggy, filthy version with monsters. A lot of people stayed at some version of Juniper. Jasper and I were at his old house a lot too. I know it sounds fucking crazy. I don’t know how we didn’t die.” Elodie knew it was a huge jump to go from the Dark Man to some parallel universe or whatever it would be called, but this town held a lot of scary secrets, it seemed. Pushing her jeans off, Elodie stood clad in her underwear and began to rifle through the drawer for a t-shirt to wear. She found the one she borrowed from Jasper awhile back and shook it out before pulling it on. “You really haven’t experienced anything super crazy before? You grew up here, didn’t you?”
Clint was a bit startled when Elodie pulled her clothes off in front of him, and it was impossible not to stare as he sat on the edge of her bed. What she was saying was crazy and fascinating, but his comprehension of her words was a few seconds slower than it had been a moment ago. She had a nice set of petite tits and the bottoms of her asscheeks showed out the sides of her underwear and it was hard to concentrate for a moment. He’d never had a girl he wasn’t dating be so casual with nudity in front of him. “Not uh ... nothing like that,” he answered, pulling his eyes away as the t-shirt dropped down. Clint licked his lips, popped the pills into his mouth, and chased them down with the water. “I’ve only seen a couple things, and I mean, I’ve heard the same stuff we all hear growing up here, but ... when it’s never happened to you, it’s easy to assume it’s all just bullshit, I guess.” Clint paused for a beat, eyeing her. “I’m sorry that happened to you though. Sounds really shitty.”
Elodie caught sight of Clint taking both pills and her lips parted, the warning to only take one dying on her tongue. Those things were pretty strong and he only needed one, but... too late now, she supposed. He'd be fine, sure, but he'd probably be super knocked out shortly... and sleep longer than he'd probably want to. Oh well, wasn't that the whole point of this? Elodie walked over and crawled up onto the bed. "It was really shitty. But it's over now. Now all I've got is memories to keep me warm." And an extra shitty side effect from breathing in that fog for months. But Elodie didn't feel like getting into that right now. She gestured at him. "You can take off your shoes," she told him. "And your shorts, if you want. I'd offer you something to wear but I don't really have any pajamas that would fit you." She had Jasper’s sweatpants still, but she didn't feel like offering those.
“S’okay,” Clint murmured. Right, they were sleeping together. And that was all, because Elodie didn’t want his dick, she’d already said so. Clint reminded himself of that firmly as he toed out of his shoes and then stood up to get his shorts off. He swayed a bit and wondered if the pills were kicking in already. He’d had plenty to drink though, and Elodie’s weed. It was probably for the best that he wasn’t trying to drive all the way up to Overlook like this. Clint took his shorts off and just left them in a pile next to his shoes. He almost reached for his shirt too, but thought better of that, then plopped back onto the bed to settle in next to Elodie. It was a bit weird to be laying down to sleep with a girl he hadn’t fucked, but he found himself kinda glad she’d offered. The company already felt nice. “Your aunt’s not gonna freak out, is she?” he asked.
It wasn't exactly weird for Elodie, but few things were. She slept next to Jasper tons of times and they'd never fucked each other. She generally only slept beside people she trusted and she could count those people on one hand. With like, three fingers. But Clint was about to be unconscious and he didn't seem like the kind of guy to try anything bad with the risk of an adult coming home. Besides, she already knew the only person in this bed who would probably do something shady was her. Especially with the guy who cheated on Ruby - not that Elodie cared much about Ruby, but she did care about Jasper, who cared about Ruby, so she supposed in some weird indirect way, she had Clint in her bed for that reason. Or something. It didn't make much sense in her foggy brain, but Elodie didn't really need it to. "Nah, she won't care," Elodie said, turning on her side to face Clint. "She lets me do whatever I want. You feeling okay?"
How nice must it be to do whatever she wanted? Clint felt vaguely jealous. His parents weren’t terribly overbearing, he had the freedom that most boys his age got to have, but they were definitely nosy and pushed him to “make something of” himself, like Marsh had. It sometimes felt like they were already disappointed in him, or at least strongly bracing themselves to be. The thoughts were fuzzy and not worth trying to repeat though, his own internal bullshit that Elodie surely didn’t care about. Clint had settled on his back, and he turned his head to look at Elodie next to him, his lashes already a bit droopy. “Yeah,” Clint murmured, though there was a lightheadedness beginning in his skull that he wasn’t quite sure of. “Just tired. ... what do you end up doin’? With whatever you want?” It was a vague question, but he felt positive Elodie would understand anyway. He was curious what she did with that kind of freedom.
Elodie had never really had any parental guidance. She supposed Dahlia was the closest thing she'd ever had to an "attentive" parent, but even she was pretty easy going about rules and everything. Elodie wasn't sure how she would handle someone trying to control her the way some people did with their kids. There was a glaze in Clint's eyes now that told Elodie the meds were kicking in hardcore. He'd probably be asleep within minutes. Hopefully he didn't have any bad dreams - she never did when she took them herself. And she wasn't exactly the comforting type, so she had no idea what she'd do if he did wake up from a nightmare. His question prompted Elodie to arch a brow before she shrugged her shoulder. "I mean.... whatever I want to do at any given time," she said with a grin. "It's more fun not to plan things... just... wake up and see what happens. Predictability can be boring." She reached over with her free hand to push her fingers through his hair, aware that some boys liked to be "petted" that way. "Do I get to ask you something now?"
Clint couldn’t imagine that kind of life, without anybody older weighing in and trying to tell him what to do. It sounded nice, even though he was pretty certain his lazy side would kick in and he wouldn’t get shit done. Clint couldn’t really remember at the moment why that would be a bad thing. Being high and relaxed felt awesome and he kind of wanted to stay this way forever. Elodie was right on the money when it came to the petting, and a soft moan escaped Clint’s mouth as she stroked his hair. Nobody had done that since the last time Ruby did it, he was pretty sure. His eyes were half-closed already, blinking slowly, and Clint licked his lips. “Sure,” he murmured. Everything was getting fuzzier and more surreal as the medication started working, and he wondered briefly if he was dreaming already. Maybe it didn’t matter.
Elodie couldn't really say she wasn't lazy. She didn't have a job or anything and she generally stole the things she wanted. Things would probably have to change at some point but she had no qualms about taking advantage of her youth and freedom while she could. Sometimes she couldn't quite understand the people who lived so differently than her. With stable homes and parents and rules and responsibilities. It sounded so restricting. Right now, Clint was definitely losing consciousness and Elodie leaned in, pressing her lips against the side of his ear gently. "Who'd you fuck behind Ruby's back?" Maybe he would be out of it enough to tell her. Or he'd be so out of it he wouldn't know how to answer it. It wouldn't surprise her if he passed out before he said a word, but it never hurt to ask, especially when he was so out of it.
It didn’t even occur to Clint that was a weird, personal question. Elodie had been asking those and talking about weird personal stuff since the beginning of this encounter, so it wasn’t really all that strange. Or maybe nothing was really strange, because everything was? Clint felt so floaty and relaxed now, and the way Elodie’s lips and breath brushed against his ear sent a wave of tingles through him that he could actually see in his blurred vision. How odd. It didn’t even make him horny really, his body was sinking too rapidly for that, but he still wanted her to do it again. “Jules,” he exhaled like a sigh, not giving a second thought to being honest. Clint wasn’t really capable of second thoughts at the moment, even the first ones were disconnected and vague. He would be out soon enough, and God he hoped he didn’t dream at all.
For a second, Elodie wasn't sure she heard him right. Jules? Jasper's Jules? Her mouth dropped open a bit before she threw her head back and barked out a laugh. Was it before or after they had gotten back together? Elodie never kept track of Jasper and Jules's break ups. But fuuuck, Jasper was going to be so pissed. If she decided to tell him, of course. "That was really stupid," Elodie told Clint, leaving it up to him whether she meant sleeping with Jules was stupid, or it was stupid telling Elodie. Either way, she knew now, and that was the important thing. Shaking her head, Elodie reached over him to turn off her lamp before she scooted in close to lay down beside him. He was going to be out of it any second now anyway so even if she did want his dick she doubted he'd have the mind to actually get it up. So sleep would have to do.
Her laugh sounded really weird to Clint, draggy and distorted, and he realized in a distant way that he was really fucked up. It didn’t seem to matter much, there wasn’t anything he could do about it. Clint wasn’t even sure what Elodie said exactly, just that it felt mean and right at the same time. He felt like he was melting into a puddle on the bed, and when the lights went out he wasn’t sure if it was in the room or he’d just closed his eyes. Clint’s thoughts fuzzed out even further as he sank into oblivion, and it was bliss not to think anymore, for however long it was going to last.