John James Searle (inneedofrepair) wrote in the_colony, @ 2011-01-04 19:50:00 |
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Entry tags: | ^ week 24, jed bailey, john james searle, | jed and searle |
Week 24 - Friday
Characters: Jed and Searle.
Location: Farm grounds.
Summary: Jed seeks Searle out to talk about his involvement with Jack.
Rating: PG
Jed was generally a straight-forward guy. Sneakiness just wasn’t in his genes. So figuring out a time to talk to Searle without Tom knowing about it was a bit tricky. Didn’t help that Searle and Tom shared a room. Jed quickly caved to the fact that the conversation couldn’t be held completely in private, so instead he aimed for a time when Searle would be alone and outside. A time like now.
Taking Rocky - nothing more normal than walking a dog - he put on his coated and ambled towards the boy. “Evenin’, Searle,” he said as he got close. His expression was friendly, aware of the farmhouse windows.
Jed was met with wide eyes as Searle turned around, though Searle quickly schooled his surprise - by averting his eyes and pressing his lips tightly together. He had known sooner or later that Jed would find him, and Searle had promised himself he’d keep his cool, but it was already harder to do that than he thought it would be. “Hi.”
Jed’s eyes narrowed but his smile stayed in place. At least he could count on Searle to know his place in the food chain. “Y’know why I’m here, so I won’t waste words,” he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a tennis ball. With a hard throw, Rocky went racing after it. Jed settled to watch the dog, his back partially to the house. “You hurt her, I hurt you. That’s how it’s gonna work.”
“Hurt her how?” Searle asked, though his eyes remained pointed downward. “Because I think - I’m thinking I might tell her we should stop.”
The boy always did have sense. Though apparently not enough to know he shouldn’t have gotten himself into this in the first place. “You can do that, but be nice about it,” he said firmly as Rocky came jogging happily back. Wrestling the ball back, Jed threw it again. “Give her a line ‘bout wantin’ diff’rent things or somethin’. Tom said that was the case.” After a pause, he added, “Don’t say it’s ‘cause she’s too young. She’d hate that.”
“It’s not.” Finally, Searle lifted his eyes to Jed’s face. Now that it seemed like Jed wasn’t out to kill him or even yell at him, the tension in his shoulders was slipping away little by little. “It’s because I want us to be best friends as close to forever as we can get, I guess.” A smile played at his lips, but it drifted off before long. “I don’t want to mess up what we have for something I know might not be the best thing, anyway.”
Any hint of a smile, even a malicious one, dropped from Jed’s face. He looked stiffly after Rocky, then sidelong at Searle, trying to gauge if the words were aimed at him, and what had happened with Alice. But even Jed couldn’t read an insult into Searle’s sincerity, no matter how good it might have felt to lash out at him. The kid was just being smarter than he had been.
Jamming his fists into his pockets, he headed out after Rocky, who was ambling happily around the field with no intent to bring the ball back. “Juss do it nice,” he said as a final warning.
Searle nodded, watching Jed depart. “Okay,” he promised, while attempting (and failing) to ignore a new burst of nervous energy. Before it had been just a thought he’d tossed around in his head, but after telling Jed, Searle guessed he was really going to break it off with Jack.
At least things had gone well with Jed.