Alice Munroe (ex_barebones985) wrote in the_colony, @ 2009-12-12 00:18:00 |
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Entry tags: | ^ week 01, alice munroe, jed bailey, | alice and jed |
Week One: Friday
Characters: Alice Munroe and Jed Bailey
Location: Alice's place, then on the road to the mall.
Summary: Jed brings Alice a walkie-talkie as a replacement for instant communication. What he ends up getting is surprise help to go look for Jack. Some miscommunication almost results in a blow-out between the two of them, and some painful experiences are glossed over.
Rating: R for swearing.
There were two guesses who would be knocking on Alice's door, but the dog bark that quickly followed narrowed it down to one. She found Jed standing on the porch, squinting out at the street and holding two walkie-talkies. Rocky, uncharacteristically, was in the back of his pickup truck.
"Jack took her stuff," he said by way of greeting.
Alice leaned in the archway, frowning a little in mild concern before looking at the walkie-talkie he was holding out to her. "O...kay, let me get my cooler and some ice."
"What? No, I juss-- This is juss so we can talk, if anythin' happens," he said, holding it out even more insistently. "I'm gonna go look fer her. An' juss, if you see somethin' or you need me, this is better'n havin' to drive back an' forth."
"How far's the range?" she asked, stopping midstep. She didn't like the idea of him looking by himself, though it made sense for them to have walkie-talkies.
"Thirty-six miles," he said, looking a bit uncertain. "You ain't gonna try'n stop me?"
"I can't really make you do anything, I've noticed," she replied, shaking her head a little. "So I'm supposed to just... wait here? And listen in?"
"Oh. Uh. No?" Was she offering to help? "I mean, you do what you want. These ain't juss fer this, I juss figured, since we don't have phones or anything, these'll work." He paused. "Do you want to come look with me?"
"If you'd rather go by yourself," Alice said, moving to shut the door.
His hand hit the door harder than he'd meant to. "No, I didn't-- Juss, you been tellin' me to leave her alone, let her come back on her own," he said quickly.
"If she came to get her stuff, that's not 'I'll be back when you're done being a jerk'," Alice replied, a brief smirk in her expression from his hasty action to keep her from closing the door in his face. Clearly he did want her to come along. "That's gone. So why are we still talking about this?"
Her confirmation of exactly what he'd been thinking left a weight in his stomach, but the fact that she wanted to help eased it a bit. "Alright, c'mon then," he said, nodding towards his truck. "School's first; it's where she was stayin' before."
"I went by Guinn during a supply raid yesterday," Alice replied, heading into the house to quickly grab a cooler. She filled it with two plastic bags from the freezer, as well as a couple bottles of water. After sliding the cooler's strap over her shoulder and grabbing her keys from the peg near the door, she closed the door behind her and started locking up. "Empty."
He frowned slightly, hopping into the driver's seat. "You searched the whole place? 'Cause she's prob'ly hiding."
"Spent a few hours, yeah," she said, having to hike herself up into the truck due to its height.
Jed's scowl deepened. He should be a little relieved that there was one less place to look, but that meant there was one less place to look. What if they ran out of places before they found her? It was a big city. "Alright, the mall then. Prob'ly gonna have to split up there, though, or she'd have no trouble avoidin' us."
"You think she'd run if she saw us?" Alice asked, a little skeptical. "What exactly did you say to her to make her wanna react like this?"
"Hell if I know, but if she made sure t'get all her stuff when I wasn't there, I'm pretty sure she don't wanna see me," he said, eyes fixed on the road. "...I said I wasn' tryin' to be her dad. Could that've been it? I thought it was somethin' good to say, she wouldn't want me tryin' to replace him or nothin', right?"
Alice shook her head and then nodded in agreement, eyes out the window and sweeping the roads as they drove. "Yeah. I think she'd've been more prone to leave if you had started tryin' to be her dad. I know I wouldda, if I had been her." She paused, frowning in thought. "Try and think. Pretend you're her and seriously go over everything you said, and make it like... much worse sounding."
He shrugged. "I said Searle could drink some but she couldn't. But he's fifteen, an' that makes a diff'rence. I juss didn't want to have to deal with someone that tiny pukin' up each time she has a glass."
"Okay," Alice said after a moment, tugging out a bottle from the cooler sitting in her lap and taking a gulp from it.. "Let's try this. Tell me everything you can remember, start to finish."
"Jesus, does it have to be somethin' I did wrong?" he snapped, taking a right a little hard. "I put down the rules, she didn't like it, that's all there is to it."
"Hey, don't you get shitty with me," Alice retorted, her head turning to look at him with a flash of irritation. "I'm just tryin' to help you figure it out. You're the one freakin' out that she left."
"There ain't nothin' to figure out, we juss gotta find her," he said, his temper reeled in a bit. "Why ain't you worried? She might be the last little girl we ever see, so it don't make sense just leavin' her to the wolves."
"Far as I'm concerned, this is natural selection," Alice muttered, annoyed as her eyes moved back out to the window again. "Survive or die. If she's stupid enough to go running off after a night of drinking just because you hurt her feelings, then maybe she should just fend for herself. You're wasting fuel and energy just doing this."
Jed jerked his head around, glaring at her. "She ain't stupid, she's a kid. Jesus, you should know they ain't like adults, you had one."
"Stop the car," Alice said immediately, her voice sharp and angry.
"Don't be stupid," he scoffed. "What, 'cause I pointed out you had a life before? Yeah, it's shitty it's gone, but pretendin' you never had nothin' is, is stupid."
"I said stop the fucking car!" she shouted in response, all but directly in his ear, her face going flushed in her rage.
He gritted his teeth and considered ignoring her, but then he'd never seen Alice this bad before. He didn't know what she might do, regardless of the speed they were going. He eased on the break. "Alice, don't."
She was completely oblivious to him by that point, shouldering the door open and slamming it closed once she was through it. Without even looking back she started back down the street the way they'd came and toward her house, each step purposeful and driven, her pace fast. Jed sat for a moment, his own anger growing, pissed off at her for being so ridiculous. But now he'd apparently put his foot in it for the second time that week, and he didn't want the same result. Slamming the wheel, he turned off the truck before taking off after her.
"Alice, I'm sorry," he called as he started to catch up. "I was bein' stupid, I'm sorry."
"Fuck you," Alice snapped back, upping her pace and keeping her face directed forward. She was breathing hard, harder than she should have considering how fast she was walking, just another example of just how angry she was.
"Don' do this, don't let one stupid thing I said get to you like this," he said, the plea creeping into his voice without him noticing. "Your business is your business, and I won't stick my nose in again, I swear."
Alice stopped in her tracks, her chest rising and falling rapidly, her face hard as she looked at him. "Don't you ever, ever bring up my family," she said, her voice ragged. "You don't know a thing. A damn thing, you hear me? So just--" Her fists clenched and unclenched at her sides, her body giving a sudden tremor of suppressed movement. "Just-- fuckin'-- don't. Go look for your damn stray. I'm going home."
Jed's stomach sank, twisting with guilt. She was right, he didn't know, and it had to have been awful for her to act this way. But he couldn't just let her go like that. "Alice, please, I need you," he said, gently grabbing her shoulder.
Had he not prefaced the touch with those words, she may have very well gone in swinging. As it was she felt herself break down a little, that tremor becoming a shudder that forced her to close her eyes and breathe through or risk breaking down. She couldn't break down. She had to keep going, had to keep living.
Jed pulled his hand away sharply. She looked like she was about to cry. Alice couldn't cry; it just wasn't how he saw her, no matter what shit happened.
"Juss, I can't--" he said awkwardly. "I don't wanna lose someone again."
"Please don't say it like that," Alice said, her voice breaking and her eyes opening again. "I... I just..." she forced herself to breathe again, pulling out her bottle of water and taking a long pull from it. "I don't know what you want from me, Jed."
God, if that wasn't a list. "I dunno. I juss want you to be around." He rubbed the back of his neck. "You were the first person I met who wasn't crazy, and I-- It's important, not bein' alone. When yer alone, nothin' matters."
Alice gave a weak laugh, shaking her head a little. "Maybe I am crazy."
"Alright, then yer the first person I met who wasn't shootin' at me," he said, his smile strained. "Plus yer smart, an' kind when you wanna be. Yer a good person to have around now."
"I almost shot at you," she pointed out, the wry half-smile she allowed herself to have in his presence pulling at her face again. Alice took another steadying breath again, letting her shoulders relax before she finally nodded again. "Okay."
Jed let out a breath of relief. "Alright. Good. You still wanna come look for Jack?" he said, a bit gingerly.
Alice wet her lips lightly with her tongue, brows furrowing at the question. A part of her felt she ought to, if only to be supportive to Jed. Jack meant a lot to him, it was obvious by his worry and concern, but she only barely knew the girl. The ties weren't as strong. It was true that having another set of eyes would help, but after what had just happened she really wanted to just go home.
"I'll go with you to the mall," she said. "But if there's nothing there, I wanna head home."
He nodded. It was more than he expected. "Thanks."