John James Searle (inneedofrepair) wrote in the_colony, @ 2010-08-08 23:12:00 |
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Entry tags: | ^ week 18, derek miller, john james searle, | derek and searle |
Week eighteen - Thursday
Characters: Derek and Searle.
Location: The Farm, the grounds.
Summary: Derek and Searle are patching up a fence on their land, and meanwhile get to talking about the women in their group.
Rating: PG-13
Ever since Derek had joined their group, Searle had been working closely with him. The farmhouse they’d found wasn’t in disrepair, but there were a lot of little things to maintain aside from the bigger projects they’d planned, such as the fence around one of the larger grazing fields that might very well come in handy later on, when they got more animals. He and Derek had been working on patching it up for a few hours, and were currently silent when Searle remembered something he wanted to ask.
“Hey, Derek....” There was a tentative quality about his voice that usually wasn’t there when he chatted with the man. “Do you think we have enough lumber on hand for a side project? If we don’t,” he added quickly, “I can wait until another raid, but ... I have this idea I want to get started on....”
Derek had never expected to spend so much time working with a teenager, but at least out of all of the kids, Searle wasn’t so bad. The kid worked hard, tried to avoid making mistakes and hadn’t done anything stupid like cut himself or nail his thumb to a board. The boy knew how use most tools, too. But nervous like that, he was still a kid.
“You’re not going to ask for wood to build a doghouse or anything, are you, kid?”
“No, it probably won’t take as much wood as that,” Searle said, “but I’m not sure. I’ve never made anything like it before.”
Derek just managed to keep from rolling his eyes. “Well, spit it out. I might be able to tell you how much you need if you tell me what you’re building?”
Searle scratched his arm, remaining silent for several seconds as he considered just dropping it. “A crib,” he finally admitted, not looking at Derek, “for the twins.”
“Huh.” Well, that was unexpected. “Well, that’s nice of you, I guess. Does Bridget know? She doesn’t want to check a store first?”
“She probably does want to check. I didn’t tell her.” Searle wasn’t sure if he should, or how to. “I guess one from the store would be better.” He could feel his cheeks getting hot as he envisioned telling Bridget; her hypothetical reaction wasn’t needed to make him nervous.
Derek watched Searle with something approaching an amused sort of interest. “Dude, are you blushing? You are. You’re blushing,” he laughed.
That, of course, only made Searle’s face redder. “Because it’s a personal thing! If she hates it, or says no, I’ll look like an idiot.”
Derek was still laughing; he didn’t even feel bad about it. “A personal thing? You and Bridget have personal things?”
“No! I mean - maybe.” Depends what personal things Derek was talking about. “Anyway, no, that’s not-- I was talking about the crib being personal to her, so,” Searle stammered.
And suddenly everything clicked. “You like her. You like Bridget,” he grinned. “That’s funny.”
Face burning, Searle picked up his hammer again to go back to work, seriously considering ignoring Derek making fun of him, but he didn’t have the heart. “I know,” he said unhappily. “The crib was a stupid idea.”
“What do you really expect to happen if you make one?” Searle couldn’t really imagine anything actually coming of this, could he? Bridget had to be ten years older than he was and about to pop out a set of twins.
“I don’t expect anything. I want to do something she might appreciate.” He was able to say that with more confidence, but the redness wasn’t leaving his cheeks.
“Uh huh,” Derek’s voice conveyed how little he believed that and in absence of television, giving the kid a hard time was a good way to amuse himself. “Sounds like somebody’s hot for teacher.”
“No,” Searle protested, although that wasn’t entirely true. “I didn’t really get her anything for her birthday, and it might mean something to her to have the crib made instead of raided. She’s been kind of depressed about stuff, and I want to make her feel better about everything.”
“Probably enough wood for at least one crib, I guess,” Derek said casually. “Making any of the other girls feel good?” He wasn’t quite done entertaining himself by giving Searle a hard time yet.
“No,” Searle said again, though he couldn’t help but think of Nevaeh in the moment. “Are you?” He’d be glad to shift the conversation’s center to Derek.
Derek just scoffed. “How many women are here that are legal? One’s knocked up, one’s got a man and the last one....ain’t my type. So what do you think?”
“Guess not.” Searle glanced at Derek. “Do you care?”
Derek shrugged. “I’m not looking to be anybody’s husband or father. Sex was nice, though.”
“We all kinda live together, it’s not like you could just have that,” Searle mused. “I mean, I guess, unless some people passed through again, like the traders.”
Well, that wasn’t something Derek had been expecting to hear. “Talking like you know something.”
“I-- We spent that night with them, and then they left, and they were probably feeling the same way.” Searle scratched the back of his neck.
“Probably,” Derek agreed. “So, what, you some kind of player?”
“No! Nevaeh kissed me first, and she’s the only one. I don’t want to be a player.” Searle sighed. “But it’d be nice to have a girlfriend.”
He couldn’t help it; Derek threw his head back and laughed. “You’re a real pimp. You hung up on Nevaeh cause you got Molly around or well, Jack, I guess.” Derek thought Jack was kind of loud and annoying most of the time and that whole boy/girl thing was kind of weird.
“I didn’t hang up on her,” Searle protested, blushing for what felt like the zillionth time. “She left with the rest of the traders. That’s her family, I couldn’t ask her to stick around.” And, well, he hadn’t really gotten to know her, so while he hadn’t enjoyed their parting it hadn’t been devastating.
“And Molly and Jack,” he continued, “they’re my friends. That might be weird.”
“Guess you’re shit outta luck,” Derek offered. “Not like there are any other girls hanging around. You should count your blessings you got two around to pick from.”
“I’ll be sure to tell them you think so,” Searle retorted without much enthusiasm, and turned back to the fence.