Jennifer Takeda-Hazmat (![]() ![]() @ 2013-03-11 03:23:00 |
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After her fights with both Jenny and Humberto, Julie did something she wasn’t proud of: she ran from her problems instead of facing them. She hadn’t admitted to it at the time, but later on, wrapped up with Howard and a bottle of wine at the townhouse, she’d realized that she’d been doing exactly what Humberto had accused her of (and what she thought he was doing too). She’d needed the space, though, and some time away from her friends to get her head back on right. Besides -- she would have been foolish to turn down the offer. She wasn’t foolish. Stubborn and selfish, however, were two traits she could own up to now. Julie wasn’t proud of it, but there it was, plain as day: she’d let her own feelings get in the way of someone else’s. Whatever Hazmat was going through was worlds worse than anything Julie had ever been through, and although Julie didn’t like that Hazmat was taking it out on her friends, she couldn’t say she wouldn’t be doing the exact same thing if she’d been in her shoes instead. No matter how much she didn’t like it, she had to try to understand. Or, at the very least, be patient with her and wait until she came around. There had to be a way to be patient and make her see that they were hurting too. The first step was checking in on Hazmat and making sure she was okay. When she didn’t show up for Humberto’s dinner, Julie took a wild guess and ran with it. She slipped away and headed right for Jenny’s room on the first floor, hesitating briefly outside an all too familiar door before pulling herself away. “Hazmat?” she called out, knocking twice on the girl’s door. “It’s -- it’s Julie. I brought you something?” It seemed kind of silly, now, to use chocolate as a peace offering, but it was the best Julie had. She had told Ken to go to the party. It would be good, seeing all their friends and... people who were supposed to be friends but would turn on them the moment it became life or death. Not that she could tell them that, not that she ever really know that here. But it didn’t matter because Jenny had seen it and one of the last things in that world was Humberto burning and it was stuck in her mind like some kind of horrible replay. And no matter how much the others seemed to think it was all just so easy, it wasn’t. Looking at Nico’s stupid picture was enough to make her doubt that moment of mercy. It shouldn’t have been the tree she took out, it should have been the runaways. But Ken didn’t have that problem and Jenny wanted him to be happy. To be able to see Veil and Finesse and not want to simultaneously want to punch Humberto in his stupid face and also hug him because fuck at least he was in one whole annoying piece here. It was not exactly a mystery to her that she was a mess. Being a mess was almost sort of her thing. So instead of socializing with the people she wanted more than anything to be with, she was locked up in her apartment. The one upside was that she did not have to be in the suit. And that almost felt worse because this place was so big compared to back home. A big, empty, friendless apartment. The knock took her by surprise. Unless Ken decided to come over. But it wasn’t accompanied by Ken’s voice. Or Laura’s, even Finesse’s. Instead it was Julie’s. Who Jenny was pretty sure hated her. Just like Humberto did. But instead she was standing outside the place when she was supposed to be at that party. “Wait a minute, got to put on the suit.” she called out after being silent for a minute. She might be an ass but she wasn’t that much of one. Instead she dragged herself off the couch, beginning the way too normal process of pulling the biosuit back on. It was her second skin really. Actually it might as well be her first skin, she spent more time in it than out. At least before she got here she did and started pissing off everyone she wanted to protect. It took a few minutes but she was a practiced hand. There was still what was left from when she had been out of the suit but that could dissipate, filter out. Opening the door, Jenny slipped out and closed it immediately. Had to keep that in, after all. So instead they were stuck in the hallway. Real friendly. Looking at Julie though, she crossed her arms. “Aren’t you supposed to be at the party?” Julie honestly didn't expect Jenny to answer. What she expected was to hear silence on the other side of the door, a purposeful silence that told Julie to go away and leave her alone. She planned to leave a bag of treats on the ground outside the door, for whenever her teammate noticed. Or for whoever noticed first. Instead, Jenny answered -- and actually said she was putting on the suit. Julie's eyes widened slightly with surprise. She hadn't given this much thought, in the end. She hadn't created any sort of speech or figured out what she wanted to say. Like with a lot of things, she did what her heart was telling her to do, without spending much time thinking about it. "I… uh --" Julie bit her lower lip and wrinkled her nose, shrugging. "Yeah, but they probably won't notice. I wanted to come check in, since you weren't there." Her brow furrowed slightly as she looked at Jenny behind her helmet's visor. "You didn't want to come?" “I’m not wanted.” Jenny said, flat and attempting to keep the anger on cap. It was hard, that bubbling rage was worse than ever. Not that she had ever been all that good at controlling it. She was brash, quick to act even if it didn’t make sense. And then there were times when maybe she thought she almost had control over it. Still she had still burned down that tree. Their only source of food. But it was better than destroying Nico and Chase. Maybe. It didn’t matter that Humberto had invited her. He certainly didn’t want her there now. And really all he wanted to do was poke and prod. Who the fuck knew if it was for her own good. It wasn’t for his. None of this would have even been an issue if they hadn’t known. And then he went back to ignoring her again. So really showed how much she was wanted. She freaked him out and he ran off. At least Jenny stood her ground, for whatever it meant. “Also I didn’t think people would take too kindly if I ended up melting someone’s face off. I’m fucked up in the head, if you haven’t heard.” she added with a harsh bite because, well, that was enough of a cap for now. "Well... no, I don't think anyone would be happy if someone's face got melted off," Julie agreed slowly, "but we wanted you there. You're part of the team." It seemed so simple to Julie: the team was a family, for better or worse, and no matter how much they fought, they still wanted each other around at the end of the day. Hazmat was a bigger part of the team than Julie felt like she was now, but she wasn't sure Jenny would believe it. It went against what she'd said about giving up and giving Jenny space, but Julie couldn't help trying once more. "Are you sure you don't want to come?" “I’m sure I don’t want to get grilled by people about stuff I don’t want to talk about and that they clearly know what’s better for me than I do.” Hazmat shrugged. Two fucking weeks, she still was not completely sure she was not going to wake up back in the arena every time she closed her eyes. To the scent of burning flesh that managed to even filter in a little to the suit. And there was nowhere she could get away from it either. “And that I don’t want to get side eyes all night from the people who are just resisting it.” She didn’t really feel like much of the team now. Sometimes it almost felt like being back at the academy. Except for the fact that reality came crashing back pretty quickly and it wasn’t at all like it. Trust was the most important part of a team. And she couldn’t trust the runaways. Not again. So she just shrugged again and leaned against her door. While Julie couldn't answer for everyone, she had promised not to ask Jenny about the arena and she had promised not to bring it up, and she had every intention of following through on that unless Jenny ever said otherwise. "I wouldn't have grilled you. Mettle wouldn't either." He loved Jenny. Julie wished she knew what that was like. "Or given you side eyes. Unless you did something to deserve it, like beat me in a video game. Or something." She had no idea if Jenny would believe her, though. She wasn't sure she would if she'd been in Jenny's shoes. "We could go for a walk instead? Or... up to the roof?" “That’s because Ken doesn’t need to.” she said bitterly. Because Ken knew what happened to him, had to live with that decision when it wasn’t a decision someone should have to live with. The whole point of sacrificing yourself was not being around to see the fallout from all the people you died to protect. The people who should have died instead of someone who was too kind for that place. And she couldn’t protect him from that. For a minute she didn’t look at Julie. She was wrong of course. People had said they wouldn’t before and barely made it a week before bringing it up again. Giving her space didn’t seem even like an option. But if Julie wanted to believe she wouldn’t actually ask it’s not like Jenny could stop her from believing it. Pushing herself off the door, she just started walking and expected Julie to follow. “Let’s go then.” Julie hesitated a moment before hurrying to catch up (which only took a second). "We don't have to, you know," she pointed out, falling into stride next to Jenny. "If you don't want to. If you'd rather I left you alone, just say so and I'll go. I just..." Julie simply didn't think she was wanted around either. There were a few people who made her feel like they wanted her near, one of them probably on this very floor, but Jenny wasn't that person. With Jenny, she doubted herself. "I just wanted to say hi and bring you something, but I can go too, it's okay... I don't want you to feel forced to hang out with me." Jenny stopped suddenly and turned to her, looking Julie square in the eyes. “You came to see me.” she pointed out, even if her tone was sharp. Sharp was a bit of a default and really she couldn’t help it sometimes. It was just that things got so frustrating and it was not like people could be simple. Why was Finesse asking her about emotions again? That was probably going to end in disaster Jenny just knew it. “You came to see me.” she repeated, poking Julie square in the chest. “So you can either walk with me or you can run off because you’re scared of me. This is something you actually have to pick.” And with that she went back to walking. Julie's eyes widened briefly before narrowing as she focused on Jenny's back. "What do you mean, actually have to pick?" she called out, hands on her hips as she stood her ground. It sounded all too much like when she'd told Julie to pick a side; Julie had hoped they were past that. When it became clear she would have to actually catch up again if she wanted to keep talking, she sped ahead of Jenny and stopped in front of her. "I did pick. I'm not running because I'm afraid of you. I'm not running. I was telling you that you don't have to hang out with me if you don't want to. That's not running." Her eyes narrowed again. "What did you mean when you said I actually had to pick?" Maybe she didn’t know a lot about people, but Jenny could push buttons like nobody’s business. And Julie was probably one of the easiest targets on the team. Not that it was fair, it wasn’t, but Julie was the one who seemed to want to back away. “What the fuck is it then?” Jenny said, pressing the button to the elevator. It was a long ride to the top. But now they were forced to stop so Jenny looked back at her, arms crossed on her chest as she cocked her head. “I could have stayed in my room. I put on the suit, you waited for me to put on the suit. It’s not like you could force me to do that. So why in the hell are you giving yourself an out? Regretting leaving your little party to check on Hazmat? Cause it looks exactly like running to me.” "No, that's not it." Julie sighed and ran a hand through her hair, growing more frustrated by the second. "I'm giving you an out. I know you don't like me much, so I'm giving you an out. Maybe I didn't force you to open the door, but that doesn't mean you actually want to hang out. Don't make this into something it's not." She felt more refreshed than before, and more able to out-stubborn Jenny if she wanted to try. "Now answer my question." “I don’t like you.” Jenny said honestly. She didn’t. They had nothing in common, she was the girl whose powers were cool instead of a living hell, who wasn’t about to become a villain and perfectly adjusted with a happy family she could actually see without remembering how she had unintentionally nearly given them cancer. The elevator dinged and Jenny stepped inside. “But I trust you. So I put on the suit.” With as much as she didn’t like Julie, she was still part of the team. Part of Hazmat’s team. And that meant a hell of a lot more than just about anything else to her, no matter what Humberto seemed to think. “And I knew saying that would piss you off. Are we going to the roof?” Jenny had found the one thing that broke Julie's resolve: finding out that she was right, that Jenny really did dislike her. Strongly enough to say things to hurt her. Julie would never understand that. What was the point? Tears sprung to her eyes, and Julie slowly shook her head. "No. You don't like me. I'm trying to be nice here, but I'm not here to hang out with someone who gets a kick out of hurting me when I'm not even sure why. I came to check in with someone I thought might still be a friend, somewhere, because I thought she might want company. But I'm wrong. So no, we're not." She held out the bag of candy she'd brought. "Here." “Oh cut the crap!” Jenny snapped, glaring at her. She was not some pity case. There was enough guilt in her head, enough mistakes she had made that led to people getting actually hurt or dead. A crying girl in an elevator was not something that Jenny could handle, she couldn’t. She didn’t know how on her best days and she sure didn’t know now. “You’re my teammate. We don’t have to make friendship bracelets or whatever cause that’s just how it is, you got it? You came to visit me. You’re always coming to visit me. And you’ve no fucking reason to!” she advanced on Julie, shoulders squared and staring her down as she did. “And why? It’s not like I’m Brandon, he’s the jerk you get along with. No. It’s cause you actually give a damn about the fact that we’re a team and we’re stuck in all this crappy shit together.” Her face felt hot and her breathing was fast and Julie really was one of the only ones to seemed to actually care that everything here was just so hard for her no matter how much she tried. And it sucked because they didn’t get along, they weren’t people who understood each other and had heart to hearts or some kind of connection. But the team was all Hazmat had, the only people who accepted her as she was instead of who she used to be. “So no. I don’t get you. But why the fuck does that even matter? No one else came down to check on me or bring me soaps when I hadn’t had a shower in days or shit.” And with that her voice faltered and she wished she could wipe her face because she could just feel it getting blotchy and she was going to fog up her helmet and she couldn’t fix any of that. Julie stood her ground again, unwilling to give Jenny any fuel to throw at her again, unwilling to give Jenny a reason to accuse her of running away. Humberto had been right: what Jenny needed was to know her team was there for her. The only problem was that Julie didn’t want to be dragged along in the mud just for trying to look out for the team. She didn’t know how to support someone and let herself be the punching bag. She didn’t want to be that. Her eyebrows lifted as Jenny kept talking -- about how Julie actually gave a damn, and how no one else came to check on her. When it sounded like she was done, at least momentarily, Julie took a deep breath. “No one else brought you soap because you needed a shower and you didn’t have anything here, and no one came to check on you. So why do you hate me?” Of their teammates, Ken had to be here for her, and Julie doubted Finesse or X-23 would even recognize when someone was suffering. That left her, and Berto. “I don’t get why you’re always so… you’re always antagonising me. I don’t need us to make friendship bracelets or anything like that. I just don’t want to end up getting beat up for trying to be your friend. We don’t have to be best friends. But if you’re expecting me to be around and be your punching bag, you’ve got another thing coming. I want to be your friend, but not like that.” “I don’t hate you. Why the hell would you even think that?” Jenny had a very specific list of people she hated. It was divided into subcategories sure, but no one on her team could ever be on that list. The runaways didn’t count as her team. She only had the one. The teachers had given them some new members but no it was only ever one team. The academy. Sure they were technically avengers now, some bigger team. But that wasn’t what mattered. “I antagonize everyone.” It was a true as anything. She wasn’t the person who saw the positive in life. It was always the negative, picking at threads she saw in people for sometimes not really much of a reason at all. “I’m not nice. And I don’t need a punching bag.” She needed her team and she didn’t really have it right now, needed a way to feel like she was useful and not just in a fancy apartment to keep her away from everyone. “Because all you do is pick at me, Jenny. You’re always finding something wrong with what I’ve done or said. It’s never good enough for you. It’s always wrong. That’s why I think you hate me. Because you pick what I do apart instead of saying thanks, or you say things because you know it’ll upset me.” To Julie, that wasn’t part of friendship. To Julie, that meant someone didn’t like you, didn’t care about your feelings and didn’t want you around. She sighed. She hadn’t come here to go on and on about Jenny like this. She didn’t want her to feel more isolated and alone. “Look... friends and teammates shouldn’t bring each other down, you know? We should be there to lift each other up and take care of each other. I’m sorry we haven’t been good at that. I’m sorry I haven’t been. But life is a two way street too. I can’t do it on my own.” “What, cause I’m good enough for you?” Jenny couldn’t help but laugh a little, bitter and angry. “I’m never grateful enough, or nice enough. But you keep coming over to me and I don’t even get it if I’m such an awful person. Cause every time you do it’s like you’ve got to remind me.” Shaking her head she stepped fully out of the elevator finally. Someone probably wanted to use it anyway. What had she been thinking, it was just like that stupid party. No one wanted her, they wanted what they thought she should be. She should be nicer, more powerful, better somehow. But she wasn’t any of those things, she could only be what she was and Jenny wasn’t even sure she was that anymore. Except Ken. Ken who she knew was guilty and she didn’t know what was going to happen now. But he stuck with her through everything that he could. “I can’t lift anyone else up. I just can’t right now. So if I’m so difficult and awful, go back to your party. You can hang out with the runaways. I hear they’re nice.” she bit. Julie sighed. Trying to get through to Jenny was exhausting. "No, that's not -- you're not an awful person. I've never thought that." It was true, whether or not Jenny believed her. If there was one thing Julie wasn't, it was a liar. She felt too much, she felt too strongly, to ever pretend otherwise. "You don't have to yet. Or… for a while! That's okay. But that's where we come in, right? To do it for you when you can't? Maybe we're doing this all wrong. I'm upset with you because you make me feel bad, and you're pissed off at me because I make you feel bad, so what if we both just… stopped?" Julie sounded hopeful, and she really hoped this didn't come crashing down on her shoulders. She was ignoring the comment about the Runaways for now; bringing up how nice they were and how close she was to them (even though Jenny had to at least expect that, considering her and Karolina’s history) wouldn’t help. "I stop telling you how to do things like you're not good enough, and you stop criticizing every little thing I do like I'm not good enough. Save it for the important things that actually need changing, not the… what kind of soap I brought you stuff. We just… stop, and start over." For a moment Jenny was silent. She could do that, or at least she could try. Everything was just happening so quickly and she was trying to keep up. But it was hard, no matter if she had Ken back now and really that was all she had thought she would need. Apparently him being back didn’t just fix things. That would have been too easy anyway. “I didn’t hate the soap.” she finally ended up saying, looking at her hands for a moment. “I freaked cause. I mean. I’ve got Ken ba-” she caught herself and her voice caught and she rubbed her hand against her helmet. “Ken’s here. He’s the only one that gets... you know, close enough. And I didn’t want him to be all Oh hey Jen that’s really nice and having to be like Oh you like it? It’s Librarian from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. You know, the old dude..” Jenny trailed off, shrugged awkwardly. “It’s hard. All this, it’s hard. It’s easier to just focus on the little things instead of how everything that... None of it matters from there, but it doesn’t stop mattering in my head.” Finally, Julie smiled a little. “I thought you did,” she admitted, looking sheepish. She was glad that Jenny hadn’t. She reached out to hit the up button for the elevator again, now that they’d reached some sort of tentative agreement. “It matters, you know. Everything.” Julie wasn’t sure how much she was allowed to say, and she remembered her promise to not talk about it, wondering if this was an exception or not. It was better to be cautious and to be vague, just in case. “And it matters, what Ken thinks, no matter how much we try to say it doesn’t. At least Howard doesn’t even know half of the people she gets her inspiration from, so I can just pretend it’s just a nice scent, if he likes it.” The elevator dinged and the door opened again, and this time Julie stepped inside first, turning to wave Jenny in. “I’ll stick to stuff that’s not inspired by creepy old dudes from now on. Deal? Maybe you can tell me what you did like, and we could look through websites sometime. If it’s easier to focus on that, then we can do that.” The arena hadn’t even been that long but it felt weird that those things could matter again. Of course their lives were never really all that normal, so actually getting to care about the small things seemed novel. Hazmat just wasn’t ready for the big things yet. Maybe some day. But it was take a hell of a lot longer than two weeks to get there. “Yeah. I can do that. I mean, obviously. And I mean, they were all nice. And thanks for no Ice Queen McCrazy.” She followed Julie in, pressing the button to head up to the roof. But then something hit her and she turned, looking at Julie with confusion. “Wait, who’s Howard? Isn’t your girlfriend here?” "No Ice Queen McCrazy, or old librarian dude, or… aliens, or whatever. Deal." With that misunderstanding out of the way, they really might be able to move past it and figure out where to go from where they were right that moment. Julie might be able to help now that she had a better idea of how they really could help Jenny. She glanced over at Jenny, her expression mirroring Jenny's, and it took a moment to remember that she might not know the whole story with Karolina. "Uh… well, that's a bit… complicated," Julie answered, wrinkling her nose as she looked down at her shoes. "Karolina doesn't… know, about us. I mean, she knows, because I told her, not because she's lived through it. She's from our past, before the Runaways came to the Academy looking for Old Lace. And Howard's… someone I've been seeing. Howard Stark?" For a moment Jenny just stood there, blinking as she started to process that. If Ken had been from so long ago that they didn’t know each other... he would have been normal for one. Or if he was just from when they didn’t particularly like each other. It would have crushed her. Ken was the bright spot in her life that kept her grounded, the one person who could for sure make her smile. She had already lost him once and that pain she couldn’t even begin to describe, nor would she. “Wow.” she replied softly. “That sucks ass.” Jenny was quiet for a moment longer as she followed the rest of that. Not that she didn’t already know that Julie was all over the place when it came to that sort of stuff. Miss popular who could get whoever she wanted batted for both teams. No surprise she’d already moved on to someone else really. “Does that make you Tony Stark’s like step girlfriend mom?” she asked before she could stop herself. “Cause that’s kinda gross. He’s like 40 or something.” "Yeah," she said, sounding a little breathless and sad. "It… sucks." It more than just sucked, but it was also something that Julie wasn't really sure she felt comfortable talking about. No one wanted to be forgotten, and that was exactly what had happened to her. She didn't blame Karolina -- she couldn't, not for something out of her control -- which made it worse in some ways. If Karolina just hadn't been interested any more, Julie might not have taken it so hard. For some reason, it was worse not being remembered at all. Their relationship was relegated to a whole lot of nothing now. It was hard to see Karolina and know that it didn't matter. Talking about Howard was a step up -- a confusing step up, that was. "He's only thirty, and I'm not his girlfriend. Not really." She rolled her eyes, cheeks flushing lightly. "I'm pretty sure he's not interested in serious." Jenny left it at that. She wasn’t the person that Julie would want to talk about this with. Even if she sort of got it. It wasn’t relationships but she remembered all sorts of things that none of them did. Things that mattered, that changed people. But it wasn’t the same kind of heartbreak. And talking about hers would mean, well, talking about it. Jenny was really not ready for that. “I meant Tony. But 30 something is still old. Things start to droop.” She pointed out. But she nodded when Julie went on. Boy sucked. Well boy who weren’t Ken sucked. Ken was awesome. “Well use him for his dick and then move onto something else then I guess.” "Well, then, Tony's like forty something, okay, but things aren't droopy. Trust me." She probably didn't want to hear about it, but it was true. Then again, Julie didn't have a lot of experience with older men. Or with men in general. Or with anyone in general. She acted a lot more worldly and knowledgeable than she really was, so she ended up keeping the truth close to her chest rather than admit the truth: that she really wasn't as experienced as people thought. "And I'm not using him for his dick or for anything else." Julie actually liked him for him, not for his name or whatever status he had here or what money he might end up having access to. The fact that he could whisk her away to a townhouse on Park Avenue was a completely unnecessary bonus. “Unless he’s got some serum keeping it all up, yeah it is. But hey if you like saggy more power to you.” Not that Jenny really cared. The most it would be is an issue on her end anyways. Ken was technically made out of metal so, yeah. Not really an issue. Not that she could even really think about that as she was fairly certain she was sex cursed. Maybe it was some awful secondary power or something. “Well then you probably find out what he’s after. I could threaten him if you want if he doesn’t want to. I’m good at that.” Not Jenny knew much about the Starks outside of, well, what everyone knew. But there was that whole playboy reputation and apples not falling far from the alternate universe tree. “Unless fuck buddies is what you’re up for.” "He's not saggy!" Julie laughed, bringing a hand up to cover her face briefly. She shook her head, trying to hold back her laughter. "And everything's in working order no matter how much we joke about how he's a ninety year old man. I swear." She looked at Jenny cautiously out of the corners of her eyes. "Threaten him? Why --" She looked and sounded uncertain. The truth was she had no idea what she was up for. It didn't seem like a good idea to get involved in an actual relationship here, when everything was so uncertain, but they were several months into whatever this was, and Julie wasn't seeing anyone else. She didn't think he was seeing anyone else, either. "Why would you threaten him?" “Well I didn’t doubt that. There’s pills and he’s a genius so he could make like a super pill. If it lasts more than four hours, call a doctor.” At least she was laughing. That was way better than the crying. Crying was not something Jenny approved of in general. Laughing was way easier to deal with. Raising an eyebrow, Jenny looked back at Julie. “Um, cause that’s what you do when someone strings your friends along? I mean granted I’m a lot more threatening now than when I could actually go to high school but same rules.” She didn’t like her own emotions being played with and she wasn’t about to let someone outside the team do it to one of them. “But I mean if you’re okay with it, then more power to you. It’d drive me insane though. Insaner.” Julie opened her mouth to answer, but she ended up gaping at Jenny for a moment too long. She didn't think she was being strung along. Even though they never talked about what they were doing, it'd always been clear to her that he was just having fun. And it was fun. He was fun, and he made her feel special and wanted when she didn't feel that way at all. And she was happy. And he was still probably the last person she should date, seriously or otherwise, but she couldn’t help it. She hadn’t set out to find someone to date; all she’d wanted was to lend a hand to someone out of place, and the rest had fallen into place. "I appreciate it, but I really don't need any threatening. He's not stringing me along. We're just…" Julie shrugged. "We're just spending time together and just trying to enjoy the moment. It's really okay. I'm okay. He's been really good to me over the last few months, and supportive and understanding with all this crazy stuff about Karolina, so I'm just trying to be grateful for that and not get too worked up about what it all means. And you’re not insane. Really." “You know flies can fly in if you stay like that.” Jenny added helpfully while Julie was just staring at her for a moment. Not that she was really all that surprised. The offer was there if Julie needed it. Defending people was what Jenny was good at. It was about the only felt she was good at sometimes. A moment where she could direct her anger somewhere else, for someone else. “That would drive me crazy.” She hadn’t even handled the idea that Laura might have a crush on Ken well. She needed that rock, that knowledge of where she stood. Right now she had no idea where she stood with at least Humberto and it was tearing her apart, and that was just being teammates. Who knew how to fix that. “But if hippie free love whatever is your thing, more power to you rainbow.” “If it ever starts driving me crazy and he starts getting evasive, you’ll be the first to know. But right now, it’s definitely my thing.” That was the best she could offer, and Julie hoped it wouldn’t come to that. She liked things the way they were, and she wasn’t ready to risk changing it all for nothing. “And it’s a really great thing too.” She grinned at Jenny. Julie hadn't expected their budding friendship to reach this point at all, so it was a pleasant surprise that they'd even gotten this far. There was nothing quite like feeling like a failure, and without their teachers around, Julie felt more responsible than ever. This, she hoped, was a step forward for them. "But enough about my crazy love life. Have you been up to the roof yet? The view's amazing." |