Room 227, Saturday Evening

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie gave up on the picnic relatively early. She'd talked to most of the people she was inclined to talk to, and had very little interest in trying her hand at mingling with the new kids, at least not in such a crowded setting. So she'd made her way back to the dorms.

Except that didn't quite help, either. There was something missing, and she knew what it was. Or who it was. And that was just one of those things she'd have to get over and past and have it be done with. Which was no consolation right now, but it was a fact of life. Or something. Whatever. She put some Mama Cass on the record player and left her door open for the moment. Maybe it was an invitation for human companionship after all. Or maybe she just liked giving her cat the opportunity to go out and patrol the hallway.

After taking a seat on her bed it took her a while to figure out anything to do, though. She'd caught up on all her comics and anime at home, and since she was done with school for the moment, apart from being a TA, she also didn't have any independent classes to prep for. After a moment, she reached for one of the language textbooks on her bedside table.

This was Natalie Adams, people. She always found a reason to learn. Even when that reason was loneliness.

[ooc: Open door, open post, I have already given up on sensible bedtimes.]

Comments

[pursuedthestars]

Jim hadn't gone to the picnic earlier because he'd been asleep. He wasn't going to lie, he'd just slept the entire day. He'd had thoughts of going down there now to see if anything was going on but he couldn't resist the lure of Natalie's open door.

"Good music," he said, leaning a shoulder against the frame of the door.

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie couldn't even say she was surprised to hear his voice.

She didn't look up, her gaze still trailing over German verb conjugations, her voice as mild and neutral as it could get. "I'm sure Mama Cass appreciates the compliment, wherever she is."

[pursuedthestars]

"That who this is?" Jim asked, listening quietly for a little longer. "Never heard of her before right now. Thought you'd be down at the picnic."

[whenshewasnice]

"Where the beach used to be won't be nothin' at all, that's the way it appears," Natalie hummed in tune with the song, half under her breath. Still without looking up. "I was. I came back."

[pursuedthestars]

"Nothing good down there?" Jim questioned, raising an eyebrow. "No new students worth checking out?"

[whenshewasnice]

"Seems like a small batch of newbies." She turned the page. "No one immediately spectacular."

[pursuedthestars]

"You're really not happy to see me, are you?" Jim noted, amused.

[whenshewasnice]

"There is a difference between not being happy and not caring," Natalie replied, still in that perfect neutral.

And that was technically her being nice, as she could have also gone literal and pointed out she hadn't even looked at him yet.

[pursuedthestars]

"There a specific reason you're acting like I don't exist?" Jim wondered. "I didn't do anything to you that you didn't want."

[whenshewasnice]

She looked up, no particular emotion visible on her face. It had been that kind of a day.

"Didn't I also tell you not to come hang around my door anymore, afterwards?"

[pursuedthestars]

"Sure, but I'm wondering why you told me that," Jim said, still standing in the doorway. "You left pretty quickly."

[whenshewasnice]

"Would you rather I'd have stayed and cuddled?" she asked, settling the book in her lap for the moment without looking at it. "Maybe congratulated you on your sexual prowess?"

[pursuedthestars]

"Yeah, I would have loved either of those," Jim told her dryly. "I'm a lover, not a fighter and I do enjoy a good ego stroke."

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie didn't roll her eyes, although the thought was definitely there.

"Well, you seem nothing like a cuddler and your ego is already well enough fed for your age."

[pursuedthestars]

"Did you want to stay and cuddle?" Jim asked her.

[whenshewasnice]

"That's not really any of your business, either way."

Because she'd left, and made it all her business alone.

[pursuedthestars]

"Cheap answer," Jim said, shaking his head. "So, why don't you want me hanging around anymore? I do something terrible to you that I don't remember?"

[whenshewasnice]

"I can't just have my own reasons?" Natalie asked, barely bothering to raise an eyebrow. "Do you remember me being too enamoured with you to begin with?"

She didn't.

[pursuedthestars]

"Another cheap answer." She wasn't doing very well with her answers. "But writing someone off for your own reasons? Cheap. But hey, glad I could help you out that one time and then have you blackball me. That's very friendly of you."

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie shrugged one shoulder. "Never claimed to be friendly."

That much was true, at least.

[pursuedthestars]

"So, why screw me?" Jim asked curiously. "Did you just need to get off that day and I was the nearest available dick for you?"

He'd never claimed to be friendly either.

[whenshewasnice]

This time, Natalie allowed herself a sigh. "Again," she said, "what does it matter?"

Shouldn't some guys of a certain type just be glad she didn't necessarily want to cling to them after hooking up? Wasn't that how it worked?

[pursuedthestars]

"Again, that's a cheap answer," Jim said, shaking his head. "Cheap answers left and right from you today. But doesn't the fact that I'm asking mean you should give me some kind of answer?"

[whenshewasnice]

"No," she said. Just a little less tonelessly, if only to convey that she thought that was absurd. "I don't owe you anything for the simple feat of asking a question."

[pursuedthestars]

"I didn't say you owed me anything," Jim pointed out. "Assumption. And no, that wasn't the implication either. But, I've given people a lot better of reasons to hate me. You're just hating me because it seems to be convenient. Kinda lazy."