Lunchtime Blues Who: Darcy and Liam Where: The school cafeteria When: lunch time
Darcy still wanted to see Liam, if only to cheer herself up a little bit. She also wanted to text Noah and started that text about four times before giving up and focusing on the table instead. What was she going to say? ‘Hey, want to move in?’ or ‘You should come over and cheer me up’? That wasn’t part of the game. So she’d have to wait to find him. If she had time after she talked to Aidan. Or wanted to. His text made her wary for what he hadn't told her yet.
She didn’t have much in the way of lunch, just an apple she’d grabbed on the way out the door, rolling it in her hands while heading towards Liam. Liam was waiting for Darcy outside of the school cafeteria. He’d not seen her since their time at the brewery and he still wasn’t sure how it had made him feel. During the time, it felt wonderful, but after their date he’d felt more confused than ever. But Darcy wanted to see him and Liam couldn’t say no, even with his mind elsewhere. Between dwelling on his date with Darcy and Eli’s confession of possibly being a werewolf, his mind was elsewhere.
It was hard not to smile at the sight of him, moving closer to Liam. “Hey you,” she said softly. “Wanna sit?” She knew she did. She already had her eyes on a back corner of the cafeteria.
Liam didn’t say anything, just nodded and followed her eyes to the back of the cafeteria. After he realized she wanted to go to that empty table, Liam started that way, adjusting his backpack as he did. “How are you?” He asked after a moment.
She followed after him, relieved he got it, which was what she needed right now. “Not great,” she admitted, dropping into a chair, bag on the floor. She knew she looked like it. Hair tossed up into a ponytail, random t-shirt that was oversized and she was starting to think was Aidan’s not hers, holes along the hem.
“...Talk?” He offered, thinking that maybe Darcy would want to talk about it. And if she talked about it, maybe that would keep his mind off his own worries, off the little tickling feeling in the back of his mind that his friend was going to be a werewolf by the end of the next full moon.
She wasn’t going to, but wound up letting out a frustrated noise, and scrubbed her face with her hands. “It’s just...Aidan is being stupid. You know that weird girl? Sylvia? He’s...involved with her or something. Or he was. That happened until she ran off or something.” She chewed at her lip then shook her head gain. “So of course Aidan is pissed at me. Then you’ve got freaking Avery who’s decided she’s moving out. Just you know, randomly.”
He knew of Sylvia and she was different, but he didn’t think she was weird. Not like some people seemed to. But what he was having a hard time following the rest of this and it showed on his face. “....So….lots of things?” He echoed, trying to figure out which was worse in Darcy’s eyes and not having an easy time of it.
Darcy sighed, giving him a tired smile as she nodded. “Yeah. Lots of things.” She went back to her apple, rolling it in her hands with her forearms on the table. “I’m just worried about Aidan. Not only is she strange...she’s sixteen. He’s twenty-four.” She shook her head. “And I’m just pissed Avery is moving out and leaving me alone.”
He didn’t like the idea of Darcy being alone. Aside from it being really lonely, that meant that Darcy was even less protected than before and it scared him. “Why is she leaving?” He asked, looking back at her then down at her apple on the table. He didn’t know what to say about the age difference so he chose not to say anything at all.
“She doesn’t like me,” Darcy said plainly. “She thinks she and Lochlan will be better off somewhere else, which means she’s moving out. You don’t want to move in do you? House getting too crowded?” Not that she could have Noah over if Liam moved in, but it was better than being alone.
Liam stopped and just stared at her, no words there as he processed her own. How did he tell her no? Because no was the answer. He had to stay with his family and he wasn’t about to leave them, but what was the best way to tell her no? He didn’t have one so instead he just reached out and took her hand, because it seemed better than not doing anything at all.
Him taking her hand was actually enough, causing Darcy to let out a sigh and calm down. “It’s fine. I wanted to move out anyway, so I guess now I don’t have to pack my stuff up.” She looked at his fingers on hers and squeezed them gently. “What about you? How’re you?”
Confused. Scared. My friend is probably a werewolf and I don’t know what to do to save him. Liam just shrugged and looked back at her. He couldn’t answer that question either and it showed. Everything was so confusing, so strange, and things barely made any sort of sense anymore. In the end, he just shrugged and answered plainly, “Alive.”
Darcy saw it, squeezing his hand and leaning closer. “Just alive? That’s not that much is it?” she asked. “You can tell me you know.”
Alive was not so bad, because Liam knew what being alive meant. What he didn’t know about was all this confusion is his head, all this worry that his friend wasn’t going to make it, even if it was for a different reason than he’d had that same worry before. He shrugged again. “Things are happening.”
“What kind of things?” Darcy asked, thumb across his hand. “Everything okay?”
Liam didn’t want to tell her about this. He didn’t really even want to say the words aloud, lest that bring them to life more than they might already be. He shook his head and ended up shrugging. “Lots of things,” He ended up saying, looking back at her. “Hopefully,” He said, thinking that he did hope that things would be ok, but he wouldn’t know until tomorrow.
“I’m sure they will,” Darcy said, squeezing his hand. Then she leaned in a little, watching his eyes. “Anything I can do to help?”
That ended up making him smile a little. “This is nice,” He said, nodding a little more at her. “Eat?” He asked, nudging his head toward her apple before he reached into his backpack for his sandwich. “Share?”
Darcy let go of his hand to pick up her apple, turning it over a couple more time before taking a bite. She shook her head, looking at the sandwich. “M’okay,” she said. “Haven’t been feeling too hungry.”
“Should eat,” He said, pushing half a sandwich over to her. “Please,” He added, giving her a soft smile to try and get her to eat. He really just wanted this to be normal again, for him not to have to think about werewolves or Eli’s flesh ripping apart, or how confused he was with Darcy and Audrey. Maybe just a normal lunch would be nice.
Darcy looked at the sandwich for a moment, then took it, taking a small bite. She’d try at least. He was right, she should eat. Especially with everything going on and the fact that she wasn’t sure she was going home after school. After a moment she reached across the table again, fingers finding Liam’s hand and holding it lightly. She didn’t need him to talk, just hold her hand for a little bit.