[Finished] Lightweight

[Kara Eisenheim]

Kara didn’t expect him to follow her and she hoped he wouldn’t. The night was suddenly darker in her eyes and a chill spread through her bones from losing the physical warmth of their proximity, or was it just the slight sense of loss? When he called after her with a clarification she smiled to herself. Pausing, she turned around, her eyes not as confused and wild with panic as they had been a moment ago, but simply calm and slightly smiling. “Okay. Then you’ll remember me tomorrow!” She paced from one foot to the other, her hands joined behind her back, smiling a silly smile.

Part of her wanted to think that he would call even though a different part was turning rational and saying it would be better if he did not. Something was serious in her eyes as she watched him from her new position, some feet down the street. The night was dark and she was going to walk all the way to the next bus stop. Not a fearful one, she trusted her ability to defend herself. Although she felt bad about leaving him after what she had incited, in her mind it was the best solution. She was convinced he wasn’t thinking as clearly as he could if it weren’t for alcohol.

Besides, she wanted to know what he was like when not under the influence. She gave him a little wave. “Don’t be glum, it’s not like I’m going forever!” She let her hands wobble by her sides as she walked backward. “You’ve waited this long, what’s a little more?” She blushed at how that sounded, as if she could pretend she could somehow come to mean something to him. It was pretty clear from the length of time that had passed that the person he had lost was literally irreplaceable. That thought both relieved her and dulled the smile in her tone.

It was so easy to run away. These last few years she had been doing nothing else. Walking away from people who seemed they could reach out to her on more than a superficial level was her specialty and she wasn’t going to surpass expectations tonight. Everyone was broken in some way or another and it made them react somehow to the world. This was her way and so she wanted to be gone, back behind the veil where no one really mattered and no one was trying to start mattering.

“Make me see you around…” She whispered to the wind quietly, eyelids lowered as she took one final look at his form, becoming smaller and smaller in the distance. He couldn’t possibly have heard her and she didn’t want to say it any more loud. With that she ran away to find her bus stop.


((Feel free to react however, and if it’s thread over, which it looks like it is, let me know in a PM if he would remember / decide to call. I’ll tell you how she reacts to that and we’ll see from there if there’s a call at all.))

[Jacob Cunningham]

Jacob could only muster a pathetic little chest-high wave back at her while she shrunk into the the distance. There were so many things he wanted to, so many things he should have done, and yet there he was standing like an idiot under a streetlamp. Just standing alone, a little drunk, watching a girl he had just met run away and out of sight. A girl that was way too young for him, and they both knew it. But a girl that had made him feel less hollow for a while.

There was no way for Jacob to tell how long he was rooted to that spot, watching the general direction Kara had disappeared to. Maybe he was hoping she would come back, or maybe he was just too afraid to move for fear of falling over. He was pretty sure that at least one person passed him, staring and wondering at the slightly swaying man in the middle of the sidewalk.

"...."

His first movement in some time was to look at the streetlamp.

"GodDAMMIT!!!"

Voice full of anger and frustration, he let the night know just how he felt, and the poor streetlamp had to take the brunt of it. Jacob turned to face the pole and started repreatedly knocking his forehead against it, causing a dull ringing noise, both in his head in the air. It was the kind of banging one did when they were half-heartedly trying to punish themselves. He'd hit his forehead on the metal, pause, then use his neck to push himself an inch away, repeat.

He probably managed a good two dozen hits before a voice came out from behind him.

"So how's that concussion coming along?"

It was Dimitri. Jacob didn't know how much of the scene he had witnessed, or how drunk Dimitri was, and frankly he didn't care. He gave himself one last bonk before he stopped and just leaned against the streetlamp. There was silence between them. Neither of them needed to say anything. The power of a lifelong friendship was at work. Dimitri could see the lack of the blonde-haired girl, Jacob's self-punishment, and the general sad vibe he was putting out. There was no need to prod.

"Well, I'd say it's about time we get you home. Come here."

Without even asking any permission, Dimitri came over to his friend and hooked Jacob's arm around his shoulder. As they walked down the street, it looked like a soldier carrying a wounded buddy across the battlefield. Jacob has started as deadweight, but quickly started to move on his own power, though he still needed Dimitri for support. Jacob could tell it wasn't totally the alcohol that was killing it will to stand up.

They walked through the night in silence until they reached Jacob's apartment. A few minutes of trying to wrangle his keys and the next thing he knew, he was slumped on the couch with Dimitri looking down on him.

"Alrighty. You remember where your bathroom is in case you have to hurl and I guess I'll check on you in the morning. See ya, Jake."

"Wait."

Dimitri stopped at the door.

"Thanks for getting me out, Dee. It was ... fun."

To prove his point, Jacob held up the digits Kara had given him. Dimitri smiled at the show of her number, and he was glad that, in the end, Jacob had a good time. But he remembered what happened with Cassandra as well, and he didn't want to see his friend hurt that much again. There was a cautious optimism in his drunken smile as he started out the door.

"OH! In that case, you owe me for drinks."