Jealous Who: Kenzie and Clementine When: Late afternoon Where: Clementine’s house
It was a bit of a last minute, vague decision to end up at Clementine’s house. The day was decent, and she had nothing else to do until later. There was the fact that maybe she was mildly perturbed at Clementine for the whole Skylar thing, but Kenzie was often perturbed when something was taken away from her without her knowledge. Now she sat sideways on the top step of the porch, smoking a cigarette and contemplating things. Kenzie hadn’t decided yet whether or not she wanted to knock, but it wasn’t like she was feeling rushed. For all she knew, Skylar was inside, which would have probably been kind of funny. But for now, Kenzie was comfortable and letting her mind wander, so she only spared a glance at Clementine’s door. If the other woman was home, maybe she would come outside soon anyway and Kenzie wouldn’t have to move.
Which was accurate, because Clementine had been on her way out the door. She had a couple errands to run and she figured she might as well get them done before nightfall, but she was pulled up short when she opened her door and saw Kenzie there. And instantly she felt strange. Normally she was happy to see Kenzie, but after the talk with Skylar and the decisions that had been made, Clementine now felt a little awkward. Mostly because she still couldn't get the image of them making out to leave her mind. "…Hey. I'm sorry, I didn't hear you knock."
When the door pulled open, Kenzie glanced up to see Clementine there. “That’s ‘cause I didn’t,” Kenzie said with a small shrug. And she didn’t climb to her feet just yet, but studied Clementine with an unreadable expression. “Are you leaving?”
This felt even weirder now knowing that Kenzie hadn't actually knocked. "I..was but it's nothing important. Was just going to go out for a while. I'm…not done with your scarf yet. The red is harder to find than I thought it would be but I'm still looking." But she had a feeling that wasn't why Kenzie was on her doorstep. "Wanna come inside?"
Kenzie climbed to her feet and tossed the small remainder of her cigarette out into the yard before stepping into Clementine’s house. She had almost completely forgotten about the fact that Clementine was making her a scarf. “A scarf is kinda like my consolation prize, right?” she asked simply as she folded her arms beneath her breasts and looked around, as if she had never been there before. Her tone was calm, with no hint of anger. “Like, you get Skylar, and I get a scarf.”
And there it was. She'd been hoping this topic wasn't going to come up because she still didn't really know how to feel about it. And yet it came straight from Kenzie's mouth and she was surprised to hear it that way. "That's not it, Kenzie…It was just…It's a weird situation." She'd spoken with Zania about it the night before but that hadn't meant she'd come to any sort of realization or ruling for how she felt about it.
"Weird," Kenzie repeated, finally turning to face Clementine, a dark brow raised curiously. "Why's it weird? He said you weren't his girlfriend... but he told me you said he can't kiss me anymore. So, yeah, maybe that's weird. But you can tell me how it's weird, and make it make sense for me, 'cause I don't get it." She walked over and flopped down on the couch, staring intently at Clementine and obviously in no hurry to go.
Great. How was she supposed to make it make sense to Kenzie when it didn't even completely make sense to her? And without throwing Skylar under the bus. Maybe she should just start with honesty, it was always the best policy, right? Sighing, she followed Kenzie over and sat in a chair facing the couch, watching her for a moment. "I got really jealous when I saw you guys kissing."
Kenzie understood jealousy, but rarely ever felt it. When she did, it was usually when Lance was spending more time with someone else than with her, but that didn’t happen a whole lot. Still, Clementine’s excuse wasn’t good enough for Kenzie, and she reached down to pick a small piece of lint from her skirt. Arching a brow, Kenzie stared at Clementine in silence for a second. Her thoughts were a jumbled mass of confusion, and she had to bite back the temper fit that was simmering beneath the surface. “Okay, yeah, so you were jealous. So then the only way to get him to stop doing something he liked doing was to tell him you wouldn’t let a vampire nibble on your neck anymore, but only if he stopped kissing me?” Her lips twitched briefly. “You get how fucked up that is, don’t you?”
"Hey, it didn't start that way. I didn't know that he was coming here to lay down that rule. But that's how it happened, not the other way around. Did you think this whole thing was all me? He came here first saying that he didn't want me to let someone feed off of me. And why should he get to be the only one who lays down a rule like that?" Frowning, she looked back at Kenzie again. "…I was jealous, Kenzie."
That annoyed her and her expression finally projected her emotions. Kenzie sat up straight, eyes glittering. "He didn't want you getting bit by a vampire. That's...that's worry. And concern. And you used it against him just so he wouldn't kiss me again. That's pretty fucking selfish, if you ask me." She stood up then, feeling her hands starting to tremble from her often buried temper. "The shitty part is that you didn't even ask me if I maybe liked Skylar. I wasn't kissing him for my health, you know. But that didn't matter. No, 'cause you were jealous so who cares what I wanted."
Clementine was stunned silent and she frowned as she listened to Kenzie. She didn't think that now was the right time to mention that Skylar hadn't exactly been only worried by the vampire bites. That it had been more than that, more about the effects of the bites. Something else caught her attention, though, and it had her slumping in her chair again. "…God, Kenzie…No, I didn't. I didn't think that. That is…holy shit, I'm sorry." What did that say about her? That she wouldn't even consider Kenzie's feelings. "…I'll go talk to him, go take it back." Even though that didn't make her happy, it might make her not a horrible person.
“I don’t think that would matter,” Kenzie said with a shrug, though her shoulders still felt tense. “You guys made a deal, and that’s fine. Whatever. If he really wanted to keep hanging out with me, he would be. Obviously he likes you more, and that’s fine too. It’s just never fun to be an afterthought. Or not a thought at all. Especially from someone you kinda thought might have been a friend. But you’re no different than everyone else here.” Brushing her hair away from her cheek, Kenzie thought about what she told Lance, how it was only ever going to be the two of them, even in the dome. And she was right. And it wasn’t like Skylar was the only boy in the dome, and if he was that weak willed to let another girl boss him around, maybe Kenzie didn’t want to be kissing him anymore anyway. “Gonna go,” Kenzie said after a beat before heading for the front door.
Clementine frowned a little more, hating that this had gone down that way. Hating that she'd been so selfish as to not even consider Kenzie in this. She didn't know if she could fix it, but she was definitely going to try, because she did like Kenzie and she realized that her rule hadn't been fair. It hadn't been right, and she should have thought of something else instead of that. "I'm really sorry, Kenzie…I am gonna go take it back though…" She promised, knowing that she would even if Kenzie didn't want to stay to hear it. "Ok…" She said, not sure what else to do other than just let Kenzie go. She did want to stop her, to ask her to sit and let her apologize again, but that wouldn't be fair to Kenzie either.
“Seems a bit late for that,” Kenzie said, because it was. Clementine could ‘take it back’ as much as she wanted, but Kenzie had a feeling things would be as they were now. Skylar didn’t want to kiss her anymore, anyway, and Clementine didn’t care about anyone else but herself. That’s just how people were, and had always been. At least in Kenzie’s life. “See ya around.” She pulled open the front door and left, leaving the door open behind her as she trudged down the stairs, folded her arms beneath her breasts, and started off across the lawn.