Room 227, Sunday Afternoon

[whenshewasnice]

While Natalie was pretty sure there was weirdness afoot on the island, she hadn't bothered to even pay enough attention to figure out what it was. Fandom was wacky. She was content just knowing that.

Besides, finals week was coming up. This meant she was spending this Sunday going through her notes and checking everything was in order. There were a few textbooks and notebooks strewn around her on the bed, though there was more order to it than it might have seemed. (Of course there was order. This was Natalie.) Currently, her attention was on her American History notes.

It was her least favourite subject this time, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to be doing her best in the final.

[ooc: Open door/post, entertain me while I pretend to be awake.]

Comments

[necroslacker]

Sam didn't have finals this coming week so he wasn't studying. He'd been out walking earlier and now he was coming back with lunch for the both of them since he figured Natalie probably needed something.

"Heya," he said as he came in with a few bags. "Still studying?"

Because it wasn't obvious or anything.

[whenshewasnice]

"Checking my notes," Natalie drawled, looking up. "Same thing, really."

[necroslacker]

"Brought you some lunch," Sam told her, lifting one of the bags and settling it down beside her. "Should be a salad and some pudding in there, if you're interested."

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie put her American History notes down on top of the corresponding textbook and reached for the bag. "Thanks," she said. "I might be done for the day, anyway."

[necroslacker]

Sam dropped down in his desk chair and pulled out his own salad. "You need me to quiz you or anything later, lemme know. I'll help."

[whenshewasnice]

"Thanks, though I'll probably be fine on my own." She managed to be pretty solitary with her studying habits too, yeah. "Have a pretty good handle on all my stuff."

[necroslacker]

"I know," he said and half smiled. "Just trying to be helpful."

He took a few bites of his lunch in silence.

[whenshewasnice]

"Yeah, I know."

Having said that, she fell into silence. The salad deserved that, or something.

[necroslacker]

"Everything else okay?" Sam asked after a few moments.

[whenshewasnice]

"Yeah."

If you didn't count anything that was coming right after finals week, and that she'd been meaning to bring up for a while, now.

"Sort of."

[necroslacker]

"Sort of?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow. "What's up?"

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie sighed. These conversations were not her favourite. There was too much of a chance of bruised feelings.

But, even so...

"We should probably talk about stuff after finals."

[necroslacker]

"Stuff?"

Sam knew what she was talking about but he really, really wished he didn't.

"Like what kind of stuff?"

[whenshewasnice]

"You know what kind of stuff." What was it with people trying to act like they didn't know what she was talking about, lately? "Summer's almost over. Are you going to leave?"

[necroslacker]

"Yes."

Well, might as well just say it and rip the band-aid off quickly.

"I kind of have to. Gotta go back to Seattle at some point."

[whenshewasnice]

Well. Natalie had expected that, but hearing it actually said out loud was still just a little worse than she'd expected it to be.

She looked down at her salad.

"And? Where does that leave us?"

[necroslacker]

"Where do you want it to leave us?" Sam retorted. "I've told you in different ways that I don't want to be an end. What do you want?"

[whenshewasnice]

"I don't know." Well, that was kind of a lie. She kept her eyes downcast, her emotional walls up a bit. "I'm not breaking up with you."

[necroslacker]

That was...a relief. But, Sam still sensed some uncertainty even if he wasn't reading anything from her right now.

"Okay." He glanced up at her. "I wasn't going to break up with you either."

[whenshewasnice]

"Okay." The last thing she wanted right now was to get dumped. "Good."

She was a great conversationalist.

[necroslacker]

Sam scratched his cheek and glanced at her. "So."

He still didn't know if they'd decided on anything.

"What's that mean? For you and me?"

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie looked, up, finally.

"That we're not breaking up." That much was probably obvious. "That... I don't know, I guess we're going to try going long distance."

[necroslacker]

"Okay," Sam exhaled, feeling a little more relieved now. "Good."

He was taking on her mantle of great conversationalist now.

[whenshewasnice]

"Good," Natalie agreed with a little nod.

Then she went back to eating her salad. Or at least poking at it.

[necroslacker]

This still felt...weird. Sam didn't know why. He put his salad on his desk and ran his fingers through his hair. He glanced at Natalie and tried to figure out what might be off.