Hello again
Who: Clementine and Skylar When: Afternoon/evening Where: Clementine's house
Skylar left his chat with Gin, still wandering, making drop offs, but not with any real direction to it. It was late afternoon when he wandered towards a house that was familiar with and he found himself smiling. He let himself up the stairs, knocking on the door with a grin. He hoped she was around, because he had a quick walk ahead of himself until he could get to his house before dark.
Clementine hadn’t expected another visitor but the second knock brought her to the door. She smiled bright when she opened it to the sight of Skylar and stepped outside onto her porch. “Hey stranger! I guess it is only fair you came over here this time, since I’ve been to your place twice now. Wanna come in?”
That she answered was a relief and Skylar realized after she was there that he’d been bouncing on his toes anxiously. “Well hey,” he said smiling as well. “Um, yes. Yeah. Is that okay? I know I just dropped by.”
“Of course it’s ok!” Clementine said, smiling again. She’d taken a few moments to just look at Skylar, to really make sure that he hadn’t been attacked by these wolves like Kenzie said that he hadn’t, and then stepped to the side to hold the door open. “Come inside. It’s safe in here.”
Skylar bit at his lip under her scrutiny but wound up smiling a little as she let him into the house. “Thanks. Safe is good.” Which he hadn’t realized until he was thinking about the fact that Ren was dead.
“Safe is definitely good.” She closed the door behind him, locking it like it would make a real difference if wolves were to attack, and then started toward the kitchen. “Get cozy? I’ll get us a snack. Hey, how are your plants? Are they ok?”
Cozy. He’d just gotten here. That was nice though and her house was definitely less of a shack than his was. Not that his place wasn’t cozy, it was just a cottage behind the greenhouse. It was the same as a studio apartment. “Thanks,” he said heading towards a couch, setting his bag down and dropping to sit. “Plants are alright.” He’d gotten over the fight he’d had with himself and sorted out the issue.
She’d saved the can of fruit in the back of her cabinet and it felt like there wasn’t a better time to break it out than right now. So she poured two glasses of water and popped open the can, pouring the contents into a bowl and grabbing two spoons before heading back to the living room. “That’s good. The roses are good?” She’d liked all of the plants, but the roses had been special.
When she came back he took his spoon, smiling at her. “Roses are good. They survived the little chill,” he said with a nod, but the smile faded, thumbing the spoon gently. “It’s just quiet in there now.”
“How so?” She asked, pulling her legs up under before she shifted, facing him as she sat so she could put the bowl in the little space between the couch cushions. “I guess the plants aren’t really a chatty bunch...”
Skylar was still playing with the spoon. “More than that. I mean, I talk to the plants all the time, but...You know the girl that worked at my place I was telling you about?”
Clementine watched him, suddenly concerned that this was not going to turn out great. He didn’t look happy and for the short amount of time she’d known Skylar, she’d been able to see him happy enough to know that this wasn’t it. “...Yeah...”
Skylar frowned more. “She got killed the other night. Her friend came by to tell me today.” He’d let the heavy thoughts slip away around Gin, but he wanted to tell Clementine the truth, especially since they’d been talking about Ren. “Feeling bummed about it.”
“Oh shit...” Clementine moved the fruit, putting it aside on a small table nearby, and scooted closer to Skylar’s side. She took his hands because it was all she could think to do and just watched them for a moment, sadness filtering into her features. “God, I’m so sorry, Skylar...”
Skylar sighed and let her take his hands, not quite looking at her. “It’s not...the end of the world. I didn’t know her well. But it’s...weird.” He hadn’t known someone who’d died, or been around to know about the death, since Jay.
“It is weird. And it sucks. Losing people sucks, whether you’re prepared for it or not.” Clementine looked back down at his hands again. She’d had experience with both, being prepared for loss and not prepared at all, and they both equally sucked. “It’s really ok if it’s the end of the world, you know? For however long you need it to be, that’s ok.”
Skylar sunk back against the couch more, sighing a little. “I just hate that it happened you know? She was a cool kid. Kind of intense, but cool.”
“Dude, death sucks. Just..plain and simple, it sucks.” She mirrored his actions, settling into the couch, but didn’t let go of his hands. “Happens to the coolest of us all, too. Happens to everyone but the coolest always end up going first, you know?”
“I know don’t they?” Skylar looked down at her fingers instead. He let out a softer sigh and tapped a rhythm on her palms. “It does suck. I don’t know what to do.”
She ended up smiling a little at the touch of his fingers on her hand and moved to offer them to him so he’d have an easier time doing so. “...Well, you do whatever feels right. If that’s talking about her, then do that. If it isn’t, then don’t. If it’s...running around like a crazy guy, screaming at the top of your lungs, you do that too. When my mom died, I smoked. A lot. When my Grams died, I..I went on this weird like...welcome-wagon parade thing around town, talking to every person she talked to, mostly just shootin’ shit, you know? But it helped. Both things did.”
“I left the greenhouse. Did rounds, deliveries. Freaked the hell out of some of my customers, though they appreciated it. No one wants to go out these days right?” Skylar sighed to himself and shrugged. “I just didn’t want to be alone. And Nic’s got a boyfriend or something or is working now so I wound up here. Thought we could hang out.”
“You can stay. You should stay,” She answered, giving him a soft smile. “Nice to know I’m your second choice and all,” She teased. “But you should stay. I’m not a real big fan of you heading out anyway, attacks happening and all. And there’s fruit here,” Clementine said with another grin. “Plus I play a mean game of Texas Hold’em..with like..39 cards.”
“Well he owes me considering he got wasted and crashed in my bed not too long ago,” Skylar said with a shrug. “But now he’s got Dr. Sexy and he’s distracted.” Skylar smiled at Clementine and nodded. “I think that sounds good. All of it. I’m terrible at cards, but mostly because I’m a shit liar.”
“Dr. Sexy? Woah, are you jealous of Nic or Dr. Sexy here?” She teased again, but smiled a little brighter because Skylar was now smiling too. “Well, we’ll just have to work on that, won’t we? I can teach you my devious, lying ways.” She ended up shrugging and then added in a whisper. “I’m not great at it either.”
“Hardly. I just like teasing him. It makes him all twitchy when I do that.” He raised one eyebrow. “You? Devious? I doubt it.” Then she added the last part and he chuckled.
“You think you know everything about me? You are sorely mistaken, Mister,” She said, making a point of sounding about as serious as she could, but it was too hard to keep the grin from her face. “I can be devious if I want to!”
“I think you’re an easy read,” Skylar said, making a face, but mostly teasing her. “I would love to see you devious. Love it.”
“An easy read?” She asked, a gasp in her voice. Her lips shifted into a smirk, though, when he kept talking. “Well, maybe someday soon, you will. Being devious is fun. Eat some fruit, I’ll grab the cards.” She squeezed his hand and stood up, heading to a nearby table to fish around in the drawer for the cards.
Skylar reached for the fruit grabbing a piece with his spoon, smiling up at her. “Hopefully more like soon rather than someday soon.” He paused for a moment. “So that job...if you want it. It’s available.”
Clementine watched him and nodded a little. “Soon, then,” She promised, smile spreading to a grin. “Maybe you’ll see it when I’m helping with the plants, then. What are the hours?” She asked, leaning back in the couch again as she went for her own spoon.
“Hours? God I don’t know. When I’m awake? Ren came by a couple of days a week after school. Maybe on the weekends once or twice. She probably knew what her schedule was better than I did.” Skylar wasn’t exactly good at that sort of thing. The place was open and if someone needed him and he wasn’t there, they checked his cottage or they came back later.
Clementine shrugged. “Ok then. I’ll just show up and see when you’re awake. Maybe I’ll wake your ass up if I show up and you’re still sleeping,” Clementine said, smiling a little more at him. This was nice, an easy conversation, and the surety that Skylar wouldn’t be outside at night when these attacks were likely to happen. She shifted a little closer to him and took another bite of the fruit.
Skylar watched her shift closer, but didn’t shift away. Why would he? “I think I could be okay with that. Though you can take the risk of me possibly sleeping naked.”
“And that would be a risk because?” She drew out, smirking a little more. She knew Kenzie had said that she and Skylar had kissed, but that didn’t mean Clementine couldn’t still flirt a little, right? “You don’t know how I sleep either.”
He wasn’t expecting her to flirt back, so the grin was impossible to contain. “Well I dunno how you feel about naked guys.” This was far better than thinking about Ren being dead. “Alright, how do you sleep?”
“Naked guys? What’s not to love about naked guys?” She asked, smirking a little more. “Why should I tell you? You’re gonna see in a few hours anyway. You can’t just wait?”
“I dunno, guys are odd naked. I don’t know why you women like it at all.” Skylar raised an eyebrow at that. “So I get to find out how you sleep tonight? That’s exciting.”
Clementine looked back at him, head tilted to the side as she studied him. “You really don’t, do you? Ok, so...tell me why you think girls are more attractive than men are naked. And I’ll tell you why men are just as hot naked.” She shrugged again. “Hopefully it’ll still be exciting when you see.”
Skylar made a face. “I swear, nothing down here,” he waved a hand over his crotch, “is really worth looking at.” He glanced at her giving her a little once over. “Meanwhile everything you got going on...that’s something worth seeing.”
That got a laugh from her, something bright. She rested her arm on the back of the couch and her head on her arm so she was watching him with her head really tilted. “Charmer,” She said, grinning a little. “But you’re really wrong about that. I’ve got a feeling that you’ve got lots of things worth seeing.”
“Am I charming? See? That’s what I told Kenzie. She didn’t believe me,” Skylar said with a grin, not realizing that Clementine might not know who Kenzie was. “A lot huh? Really? Well maybe you’ll get lucky enough to tell me to put some pants on.”
“Yeah, I heard that you and Kenzie were..well, maybe not making out but close. Is this still an ok conversation for us to have, if you’re making out with Kenzie?” She looked back at him and grinned again, shaking her head. “You think that’s all I would do?”
Skylar frowned for a moment then shrugged. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen her since then. I’m not sure if she was just interested in testing me or interested.” He had no idea and wasn’t the type to draw conclusions. “Yes. I do. ‘Skylar. Pants. Please’,” he said, impersonating her voice as best he could.
“So she was testing you? I don’t know, I prefer to make out with someone because I want to make out with them, not because I’m testing them for anything.” She laughed again at the sound of his voice impersonating her voice. “Hey! I might just surprise you and tell you, Skylar, no pants, please.”
“I said I’d kiss her for free instead of having to have a bargain or buy her at the auction or something, and she didn’t believe that. Or that I could sing. So I proved her wrong.” And it had been fun. At the very least Skylar had enjoyed himself. “And that’s usually the reason, but sometimes you gotta prove something you know?” He grinned more. “I would like to see that for sure. You wouldn’t say that. Promise.”
“We’ll see. Maybe I’ll just have to prove something to you then,” Clementine said before taking another bite of fruit. She still felt sort of strange because flirting with Skylar was fun, but it was weirder when talking about Kenzie. At the very least, Skylar was still here, which was good in her book.
“I suppose so. Though right now I’m hoping that it’s not that you sleep in one of those sweaters you’ve knitted.” Skylar grinned and settled closer, shoulder against hers. It was comfortable, warm and safe. And he could work with that for now.