Driving in circles, driving away

Who: Leija and Nate
When: Late afternoon
Where: Leija's house and around town

Nate had planned to drive on down to the park and see if he could find Nic's tag, once he got past the drowsiness of post-migraine assault at least. One look out the window completely dashed that idea. Fucking snow. Nate was pretty sure he and snow did not get along, especially not when feeling like he was recovering from a head-on collision with cement. There was cold and wet and probably slippery and he just knew that he didn't get along with falling on his ass either. The park might be a bad idea but after reading Leija's message he really didn't want to stay in the house and when bored enough, the Nate creature would not let snow nor sleet stop him from doing what he wanted. Especially when he just had his Saturday night stolen from him like he just had.

The street looked clear so summer tires or no, he grabbed his stuff, heading out and replying to Leija's text on his way to the car. It didn't take him long to find her street but he gave himself some time to smoke his cigarette before heading up to her house.

Leija wondered briefly in between text and when she heard the knock on the door if this was a great idea or not. She'd been drunk most of the time she hung out with the guy as it was. But she was kind of bored and restless, and he'd been good company then, so ... whatever. They were sober now, so maybe that would cut out any snuggling that would turn awkward. Or something. She'd gone downstairs to wait, her dad shut away in his study trying to get some work done, and the redhead popped up off the couch when he knocked on the door. She'd put jeans on, at least, but looked comfortable otherwise.

"Hey," she greeted with a smile as she opened the front door and stepped back to let him in. "Kinda cold, isn't it?" She personally liked snow, just not necessarily being out in it for too long.

Nate grinned at her and nodded, shoulders hunched and hood up and everything about him saying he wasn't enjoying the cold at all. Happy to get inside he dug around in one of the large pockets of his coat and pulled out the two paperbacks, handing them over. "How you been?" He asked, not sure if he should hug her or not.

Leija didn't move to do it, a little conditioned not to immediately jump into physical affection since she spent so much time with Caleb. She took the books instead, looking them over with a bit wider smile. "Eh, I've been. You?" she asked, looking up again. "C'mon, come and sit down," she added, and started to lead him off toward the den. It was comfortable, and kind of on the opposite side of the house than her dad.

Her house was nice in that sort of normal people who live in houses way and Nate felt a little out of place as he followed her inside. "Been too," he said in reply to her question. "Hope you had fun on Friday, it was a lot cooler than I thought it'd be." Even if he had kind of failed in the whole socializing with a lot of people plan. "You home alone?"

She led him to the couch and sat down, tucking her legs up under her, and gave Nate a smile. "No, my dad's here, but he's off ..." Leija made a vague gesture in the way they'd come. "The house could blow up and he wouldn't know it. But yeah, I had a good time. I don't usually go to those kinds of things, but ... it was good." And she meant that, it had been. Even if probably a little foolish. Monday was going to be interesting. "Hope you did too, even with me like ... monopolizing you all night."

"I really didn't mind," Nate said after sitting down. He reached over and brushed a lock of hair from her face, grinning at her before leaning back against the arm rest. He didn't know what it was but something about her made him want to be affectionate, but without that painful crush thing going on so that made it easy to be confused about it all.

The gesture was ... strange to her but not entirely unwelcome. She had her own affectionate urges that were usually kept pretty in check around people. Leija just smiled, fingering the corners of the books in her lap. It kind of did make her wonder what his take on all this was, but he'd just gotten there, so she wasn't going to go grilling him about it just yet. "So what'd you do yesterday? Regale me with exciting tales of Nateland," she said with a little nose-wrinkle. Then reached to tug a bit at his coat sleeve. "You can take this off, you know. We do have central heat and air."

"Uhm, yeah," Nate mumbled, glancing down at his coat before taking it off, gyah social awkwardness ahoy. "You should read that one first," he said, gesturing at the guide. "That way you'll feel all safe in the knowledge that you know how to survive while reading the other one." He wanted to stay on that subject but she'd asked him a question and one he wasn't all that willing to talk about. But then he remembered he had actually done something other than suffer and whine a lot. "I went to the book faire, bought a few books. Did you go?"

She shook her head with a little smile, looking down at the books again. "Okay, so the guide first, and then the story of the end of the world, check," she said, flipping the second book over to skim the back. "No, was there anything good there?" she asked, glancing up. He was a booky kind of guy? He didn't look like it. But that probably wasn't fair to assume. He had these, after all, and some people were surprising. "I didn't really do anything yesterday but sleep." And take care of a crying, mourning girl. At the request of my ex boyfriend who hardly bats an eyelash about upsetting me. But those were thoughts that could go away.

"Uhm, I got some weirdass books about werewolves? And a couple of horror novels. I don't know, there was a lot of books," Nate replied, nodding and giving her a crooked smile. "Yeah I pretty much slept the weekend away. Hope you didn't get too sick from the Vodka, it's good to drink a lot of water before you go to sleep but I usually forget that part." He went quiet for a moment, just looked at her looking at the book. "Uhm, the guy that wrote these? He's Mel Brooks' son, you know, the comedian guy?"

"Nah, I was just ... tired," she said, shaking her head slightly and chuckling. There were also a lot of fucked up emotions going on, but that was kind of par for the course these days, and not something she needed to unload onto Nate. "It wasn't a terrible experience for my first time really drunk, though," Leija added, glancing up at him. Quite the opposite, really, it had been overly comfortable. "Is he really? That's pretty cool, I guess you can't have a dad like that and not be at least kind of fucked up."

Nate laughed. "Yeah he wrote for Saturday Night Live for a while too but he didn't want to be a comedian... And hello, useless information." Well, he was talking to her, there was a step up from his usual too shy to talk if he liked a girl even a little more than as just a friend. It was just easier to talk to people when high or drunk or both. Not sober on a Sunday in a livingroom with parents in the house, or a parent.

"From everything I hear, like ... almost all comedians are horribly depressed, anyway," she said, putting the two books aside on the coffee table. Leija settled back against her end of the couch, sitting cross-legged and sideways so she could look at him. "Like they're all trying to over-compensate for something. I'll definitely be texting you in the middle of the night, though, with zombie-defense plans." She smiled at him, trying to guage if he was nervous or it was just weird in general.

"Oh hey, anytime," Nate replied with a grin. "And yeah, I think you may be onto something. "Half the time they seem pissed off or sad, if they're not putting up a show. But yeah, uhm... Zombie defense. We need to scout the town for safe places and you know, if there's a zombie outbreak, we'll definitely check the whole building before declaring it safe."

"You really can't ever be too prepared," Leija said, and wasn't really surprised at all that that felt true, even if they weren't actually being serious. If a zombie outbreak could happen anywhere? It would happen in Marquette. "Like I said, there's the mall ... we could like, map out the layout and the exits and everything. I want an axe. For the zombie-chopping, not the mapping. But still. Axe."

"I'll happily get you one," Nate replied seriously. "You'd be kickass with an axe. And it's obviously one of the better weapons to have." And now he wanted to tell her about chapters in the book but of course he didn't. She'd want to read them herself so he bit his tongue and held back on his zombie excitement.

She hadn't realized it a second ago, but that was two boys that wanted to arm her. Sort of. It was her suggested, but still the parallel made her chuckled internally. "I think I'd probably actually be clumsy with an axe and like, cut my foot off or something," she admitted with a grin. "But they are pretty awesome to have." And there was one in the garage, she thought. Her dad wasn't an axe-kind of guy, but it was at least there.

"Then you'd better start practising before the zombie hordes get here," Nate teased her. "You'll be useless without a foot. Unless we do some team work thing where I carry you and you swing, but I'm worried you'll just chop my nose off." He smirked and found it somewhat amusing how easily he could picture her swinging an axe. Rawr, fierce female fighter? Something about the sharp features in her face perhaps.

Leija laughed a little, able to picture that in a cartoonish sort of way. "That's ... probably a valid concern," she told him with a grin. "It's a good time to practice, thought, I guess. With the snow, and all. I can start chopping wood with like, the word 'zombie' painted on it or something." Caleb was also supposed to be teaching her how to fight, but that was completely different and who said he could occur to her again at the moment, anyway?

"You could paint a scary zombie face on a log, yeah. Practise knocking it off a bigger log or something," Nate agreed. "Though I totally think the zombies should be considerate and not attack until it's summer. I'm just not up to heavy fighting out in the snow, you know what I mean?"

"Oh they'll have to," the redhead said, as though she were the authority on the subject. She tucked some hair behind her ear and smiled at him impishly. "The cold would slow them down too much. They'd freeze. And then they'd just be smashable zombie statues everywhere. Which would be cool, I'd totally drag you out into the snow for that. So we've got some time. Winters here are hella-long."

"Oh yeah, duh," Nate muttered, scrunching up his nose for a moment for not having realized the frozen zombies part. "It should cheer me up to know that we'll have plenty of time to smash zombie statues but the part about hella-long winters is just... depressing." He sighed, missing Austin even if every summer he moaned and complained about it being too damn hot.

She honestly couldn't disagree there, though she didn't mind snow so much. She was used to it, for fuck's sake. But he wasn't from anywhere around here. Leija smiled teasingly at him and stretched out a leg a bit to nudge him with it. "You're just a pansy southerner," she informed him. "You get used to it, really. ... is Texas the south? I keep hearing you guys want to be your own country or whatever."

"Hey, I was born in Atlanta," Nate told her pointedly but laughed and shrugged. "Texas really isn't the south, no. I've lived in the south and that's just a whole different ballgame. Or you know, stayed in. Living in just... isn't the right term. How about you? Would you say Michigan is the north?"

"Oh yeah, Michigan's definitely the north. It's just not the northeast, which is where I'm from. We're snobby over there," she said with a laugh and a nose wrinkle. "With the pretty fall colors and the maple syrup and everything." And the coal mines, there were plenty of those too, but they weren't nearly as attractive.

"Mmr Maple Syrup," Nate said with a grin that said a few of his bouts of munchies had indeed involved some of that sweet stuff. "Sounds good. Does it get as cold as here? Because if it doesn't then I think I may just have to scoot a little further east. Except for the whole liking a lot of people here. Don't know if that'll happen again somewhere else."

Leija shrugged. "It gets cold, but I think the lake here makes it way colder," she said. "There are people to like and not like everywhere, I think. ... not that I want you to leave or anything, 'cause you're officially my zombie-fighting-task-force partner, so ... you can't go anywhere until we defeat the undead horde." She gave him a little smile.

"I like the sound of that," Nate said with a quiet laugh. "Zombie-fighting-task-force partners aren't easy to find, you know. So I can't really just go ahead and abandon you, now can I? Even if it'll be like a walk in the park what with them frozen all over. We could just skate around and play hockey with their heads. If, you know, I actually could skate."

"You can't skate?" she asked with some amusement. Not really making fun, but the differences were just ... funny. "Man, what do they teach you guys in Texas? But then, you could probably like ... rustle cows and stuff and I can't, so. Guess it's a trade-off. You'd have to learn, for zombie-head hockey." She nodded firmly, more or less relaxing into this conversation of total ridiculousness.

"Rustle cows," Nate snorted. "Sorry to dash your awesome ideals of me but I was a pure city boy when I lived in Texas. Suburbs even, so I never got into the whole cowboy, rope slinging, rustling thing. Didn't even have a hat. As far as skating goes, nope, never even tried it. I went a few times but we always ended up just hanging around on the benches, enjoying the whole... not melting away in the sun thing."

She laughed a little. "You know, I'm really trying to picture you in a ten-gallon hat, and it's really not working," she said with a nose-wrinkle. "You'll have to try it, though. Skating, not the hat. Since there's really probably not much else to do here in the winter. That and tunnel through snow. You might be a thin-blooded natural, who knows?"

"Or I'll just fall on my ass a lot," Nate said, too easily picturing that. "But hey, it might get a laugh out of you so I'm game." And who knew, he might be a natural, stranger things had happened. "So you're like a skating queen? At home on the ice?"

Leija kinda made a face at him. Like he wasn't getting laughs out of her anyway. And what did that mean, exactly? She decided not to think about it too much. "I wouldn't say a skating queen, but I can manage not to fall and break my face open. I could teach you, if you want. It's really just balance, is all."

"I've got some of that," Nate chuckled, holding his fingers up to show just how much (or little) he meant. "So where do you go to skate? Just down the block or is there an actual place for it?" The lake didn't seem like the type to get very frozen, as big as it was, and he wouldn't be able to relax knowing of all the water below anyway. It didn't take a phobia to not want to end up in water that cold.

"There's an actual place for it. I mean, there's some ponds around and stuff, but there's an actual ice rink in town, that they Zamboni and everything," she informed him. She would've agreed with the not-skating-on-the-lake too. She was sure people did it, but the risk was just ... no, not up her alley.

"Cool, a little less chance of me falling on my face," Nate said cheerfully. "So, you wanna go sometime?" Because they were cracking a lot of jokes and he didn't want to assume, but he oddly enough really wanted to try now whereas he hadn't before. "You can show me some leet moves and laugh at how clumsy I'll get."

"Sure," Leija said with a smile. It might be nice. Someone who didn't know hardly anything about her, except that she was possibly a sad drunk. It was that lure of normalcy again. To just put everything else aside for a while and be a teenager. Have a friend that didn't put her stomach into knots all the time, even if he didn't mean to. She thought briefly of Caleb telling her she had things to offer, and pushed it back down again. "I am definitely game to show you off and then hold your hand to share the leetness. Maybe sometime after school this week?"

"Sounds great," he said with a little grin. He had no idea what this was other than that he liked her and wanted to spend time with her. Maybe it was a good thing there was nothing beyond that or he'd probably never talk to her again. Which was dumb and he knew it but the normalcy she craved kind of tended to make him hide away. Speaking of hiding away, he was craving nicotine again and by the look of the den, he doubted anyone was allowed to smoke in there - let alone the teenage daughter's friends. "I should probably jet," he said and ran his fingers through his hair, not wanting to be a douchebag but he was definitely more at ease with her when smoking was allowed and there were no parents nearby.

She was mildly surprised that he was ready to head out so soon, but he probably had stuff to do and not everyone hung out for hours on end like she and ... certain other people did. So Leija smiled through it and stood up. "Okay, cool," she said, waiting for him to join her before she started to lead the way back to the door. She guessed that she would just have to entertain herself tonight for the most part. "Thanks for coming by, I'll get started on stuffing my head full of survival knowledge."

He paused by the door and thought about it for a moment before asking. "You wanna go for a drive or something?" Which she probably didn't since her house was warm and his car was cold but it didn't hurt to ask, did it? Wasn't like he had anything else to do and if she was just going to read, it sure sounded like she didn't either.

She glanced out the window in the door to take in the snow and then looked back up at him. A drive was more alone and private, but ... what the hell, right? She probably couldn't embarrass herself much more, and it wasn't like her schedule was packed or anything. "Lemme get some real shoes," she said with a little half-grin. Then headed off to take the stairs two at a time and get ready to go kind of out.

He grinned and leaned against the door before remembering he'd left his jacket inside. By the time she got back he'd fetched it and put it on and was all ready to light up a cigarette as soon as they left the house. He smiled at her when she returned. "You should dress warm, might take a few for the car to heat up."

Leija shot him a half-grin. "Who are you telling?" she asked rhetorically, already opening the hall closet to pull out a coat. She was kind of adapted to the cold, given that she flew around a lot in high altitudes, but she liked being warm. Once she was clad in a coat and a scarf, she opened the door for them and fished out her keys to lock up behind herself.

"The cold freaks me out so bad I get cold looking at other people if they're not dressed to the max," Nate told her with a small shudder as he opened the door. "So it's just you and your parents here?" He asked as he looked up at the house which, while it wasn't pompous rich looking, looked like he and his dad and Dylan could all move in and still leave plenty of room for everyone.

"Just me and my dad, yeah," Leija halfway corrected, her tone unthinkingly casual. Her mom had been gone long enough that she didn't know any other way of life than to tell people she was dead. That was just fact, as many issues as she had with it. She headed down the walk with him toward his car, and climbed into the passenger seat. She couldn't help but think about Dylan, since her mind was on the subject, and almost asked about him, but didn't. They still didn't really connect in her head yet.

Nate got in, wondering if he should ask or leave it alone. Could be anything really, divorce, death, job related complications, separation. He wasn't sure it was his place to ask or if it was really any of his business. "No siblings, huh? Yeah there was just me and my dad for a long time, until Dylan showed up. Are you guys close?"

She shook her head, settling in comfortably in the seat, and briefly rubbed one end of the scarf against her cheek, just to feel it. "No siblings," she confirmed, glancing over. "My mom died when I was a baby, and my dad never remarried. Or knocked anyone up, for that matter, so it's just been us. ... yeah, I'd say we're close," she added with a soft smile. Which faded out after a second. "Dylan told me his mom died not long ago." Maybe Nate could fill her in some.

"Yeah," Nate said quietly. "I don't really know what happened though, we haven't exactly had the big talks yet, you know? My mom died when I was seven," he felt he needed to add the last part, like she didn't already think it was obvious Dylan was his half brother, but then families could be weird in a lot of ways. "Do you remember yours at all? Or were you just... a baby?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, Nate," she said softly, looking over at that and bypassing the question for a moment. Seven was old enough to remember and ... god, she could only hope that his mother hadn't met a fate that was in any way similar to Dylan's mother's. She reached out to put a hand on his arm briefly, then took it back. She knew exactly what happened to Dylan's mother, and it made her feel vaguely queasy again, and she definitely wasn't going to share. "I was just a baby-baby. Infant. Sometimes ... I think I smell something that reminds me of her? But I can't really be sure, you know?"

"Wow, that must suck," Nate muttered. "I mean, I don't know which sucks more? This total absence or you know... Remembering at all. I'm glad I remember her but, yeah. Can't miss what you don't know but maybe you can?" What are you? Stoned? "Sorry, I'm rambling." He grinned and finally lit up his cigarette only after starting the engine to get some heat in there. "Think Dylan has it worst, he grew up with her and now he's stuck with dysfunctional family of the year. Apparently he found the body too so..." He shook his head and gave her an apologetic look. "Way to dump all this on you, sorry."

She'd had a response all ready and on her tongue and everything, but then Nate said that Dylan had found the body. He'd found her like that. Leija's eyes closed as she quickly got a hold on the heartbroken tears she suddenly wanted to burst into, though her expression didn't really change. She just sucked her bottom lip into her mouth to bite down on. God, the kid must ... never fucking sleep. She wanted to hug him all over again. "That's awful," she said in a low murmur as her eyes opened again and ticked over to Nate. God. Just ... fuck. "How did your mother die? If you don't mind saying," she added quietly.

"Yeah," Nate said quietly. It was fucking awful and not just on count of finding the body. "My mom died in childbirth," he said in answer to her question. "There were complications or something, I'm not actually really sure on the details." That whole week was just a mix of weirdness and he couldn't remember much of it nor did he particularly want to. "She's just this perfect creature in my head, you know?" He almost said And dad's but that would have been bizarre.

Leija nodded a bit. She knew all about that, having spent hours upon hours staring at photographs of her beautiful dark-haired mother and wishing desperately she had seen the woman's face in living motion. Driven by that affection-impulse again, since they were on such a subject and he wasn't driving yet, she reached out and took his free hand to squeeze lightly. "I take it the baby was lost too," she said, since he'd said he didn't have any siblings until Dylan showed up. How the fuck did this happen to three people this way? But it happened all the time, that was the thing. It was constantly happening and she was there for some of it.

"Yeah," Nate said quietly, giving her a little smile and squeezing her hand back. "A little girl... Nobody ever asks about that." But she did, that just somehow said a lot to him. "Dad thinks the family's cursed. The Alden curse, he calls it." He huffed softly, his smile turning a little sour. "So in the event I get married or whatever? Changing my name. No more Aldens. If only to you know, calm the old man."

She returned the little smile, kind of wondering why people never asked about it. That was two losses, not just one. An established life and a potential one. It was horrible, but she was slightly grateful that the deaths hadn't come through some means of violence. "More and more people do that," she said, though it wasn't really important. "Change their names and stuff." She paused for a second, then added, "I'm sorry, Nate," and leaned over to give him a brief hug. It didn't fix anything, but it seemed that the comforter role was falling to her more and more often.

"Yeah, me too," Nate told her as he hugged her back, careful to hold the cigarette away from her. He felt oddly detached at the moment, usually thinking about his mom had all sorts of pain going through him but talking about her to Leija... there was nothing and not really in a bad way. "What happened to your mom?" He asked then, feeling a bit like the three of them could start up the motherless teens support group or something. "If you don't mind me asking."

She sat back after the hug and almost asked for a cigarette, but didn't. Instead she rubbed her cheek with her scarf again, and toyed with the ends of it. "She killed herself," she said finally, looking over again. "Jumped off a bridge, as ... cliched as that sounds, I guess." She pulled a bit of a face and shrugged a shoulder.

"Fuck," Nate's first reaction was to say and then he held out the pack of cigarettes for her with a mumbled, "Sorry." It wasn't the greatest reaction and he tried to think of something a little more sensitive to say but couldn't think of anything. "So... depression, huh?" He asked gingerly, really no expert on the whole suicide front. All he knew was that guys were likelier to go through with it than girls, for some reason.

Leija looked at the offered cigarettes thoughtfully and then took one. She waved of his apology, not minding the reaction, really. It was better than some she'd gotten in the past, at least it was genuine. She tucked the smoke between her lips and leaned in for him to light it for her, since he had the fire-maker and everything. "Yeah, she kinda always struggled with it, according to my dad," she said in the meantime. Like her daughter. Who sometimes stands at the edges of buildings and thinks about not catching herself.

It had to be hard to think of her mother as this perfect creature like Nate did, knowing that she took her own life and willingly left her daughter behind, at least Nate thought so but of course he didn't say it. Instead he just reached over to rest his hand on Leija's arm, brows drawn together in a sympathetic frown. "I'm sorry," he repeated. "That just... really fucking sucks."

It doesn't suck nearly as much as walking in on your mother's intestines all over the kitchen floor, she thought and felt a bit queasy again. She put her hand over Nate's and gave him a tiny little smile. "It all sucks. There's no lack of suck in the world. It was a long time ago, nothing to be done about it now. But thanks," she added, because that was just what you said. " ... we actually going anywhere, or did you just want to come out and smoke?" she asked after a second with a little grin. Whee, subject change, yes please.

Nate grinned at that and nodded. "Smoking's good, but we can go somewhere. Down to the lake or you can show me some happening spots, if you know any." A subject change was definitely welcome, dead mothers weren't exactly the happiest topic to dwell on, especially when one of them killed herself and another was mauled to death by something. He pulled out of the parking spot, even if he had no idea where he was going. But it was a start.

She almost told him to go to the orphanage, but that place wasn't exactly cheery. And it was her and Caleb's place, not really anyone else's. That was how she felt, anyway. Leija laughed softly and took a fake-drag off of the cigarette. It was kind of better when she was drinking, she decided. Tasted less like ass. Good thing she'd stuck some mints into her coat pocket a few days ago. "Um ... I'm not sure of any actual happening spots just yet ... but there's some nice parks. Or we could go to the mall and watch people walk around and make fun of their winter-puffy clothes. Orrrr ... I dunno, for our age, I think that's about it. Bowling, ice skating, people-watching, or somewhere outside."

"I never thought the mall would be tempting," Nate said and wrinkled his nose. "But it's kind of like being outside, just without the cold." Plus horrible music and annoying people. "Okay yeah, that temptation's over, nevermind. We can just drive, or go for a coffee or whatever. Lady's choice." He turned the corner, heading nowhere and anywhere.

Leija laughed a bit, slouching down more comfortably in his car and settling into watching the world go by. "Or we could have the best of both worlds, stop somewhere for coffee to go, and then go driving around?" she suggested, as though she'd just hit on a novel idea. He was comfortable to be around, at least, and that meant a lot to her at this point in her life. There weren't many people like that.

"Sounds good," he agreed. "So where's the best grab-a-coffee-and-run place around here?" He asked then, balancing his cigarette between his lips to zip down his coat since the car was heating up nicely already, enough so that he could crack the window open to let out the smoke. The AC was just not the same. At least it wasn't windy out, there was nothing as annoying as smoking in a freakin' storm.

"There's pretty good coffee at this service station down here," she said, pointing to the corner they were coming up on. It wasn't gourmet or anything, but it served it's purpose. She was faintly internally amused at herself. Drinking vodka, smoking, and drinking coffee. How adult was she, now? "They've got it with like ... hazelnut or vanilla in it too." She followed suit with the cracking of the window, tapping a bit of ash outside.

Nate peered up ahead and followed her directions, pulling up next to the building and putting the break on. "So you want some of that? Hazelnut or whatever?" He asked, fully intending to go inside and fetch them coffee while she waited inside the warm car. He could be a little old fashioned when it came to girls but it was mostly the fact they were a bit of a non-touchable part of the world that usually didn't have much to do with his life. He tended to view them as mysterious and fragile, not entirely rightfully so but there it was.

"Vanilla," she said with a pleased smile. Because that sounded like he was going to go in and get them himself. Which was ... weirdly kind of touching. Thom had done stuff like that, paid her way for everything too, but he'd been her boyfriend at the time. Nate was just ... Nate. She wasn't sure that this had a title or anything yet. She wasn't in a hurry for one. "Thanks," she added, not making any move to get out with him.

"Okay, wait here, I'll be back before you know it," Nate told her and headed out, zipper back up to his neck and the hood up because damn. DAMN. Stupid cold. At least the coffee cups were warm in his hands when he came back. He handed one over to Leija, glad to be back in the warmth and out of both the cold and the artificial lights of the station. "Vanilla and I got some chocolate too, because you know, chocolate and coffee are the best mix. You're not like one of those 0.1 percent girls who don't like chocolate, right?"

Leija made a snorty dismissive noise and took the cup between both hands, letting it warm her skin and breathing it in for a second. "Fuck no, fuck those girls. Everybody likes chocolate, those big damn liars." She shot him a little grin and took a sip from the plastic top. It was hot, but tasted really good, so that was something. She made an 'mmm' sort of sound and sipped again.

He grinned at her obvious enjoyment and sipped his own coffee, handing her the chocolate before rummaging around for his mp3 player. He knew he had some non-metal in there and scrolled on through until he found some. Grunge, hopefully not something that'd drive her nuts or bore her. "You can search through this and see if you like anything," he then offered as he put the mp3 player back. "I mean, it's mostly metal, I don't know how into that you are."

"I can live with metal," she said, but she picked up the little player anyway to flip through it with one hand. She actually saw some similarities there to Caleb's mp3 player, but hi, she was trying not to think about him at the moment. She sipped on her coffee and looked. "I need to give you some music," she murmured.

"I have more on the computer," Nate said with a shrug. "But I won't say no to new tunes. Haven't had much time in catching up on stuff. So you like metal? That's... well, actually pretty sweet." Two girls who liked metal, two pretty, not annoying and fun to be around girls who liked metal at that. What was this? Nate town? "So what else are you into?"

"I can pretty much find music in every genre that I like," she said, still looking through what his player had to offer. He definitely needed some more low-key stuff. Just for like, variety. "Comes from having a music professor as a father. I get to hear everything," she said with a chuckle. "What else am I into? Like for hobbies and stuff?" There was that whole breaking and entering thing that had been pretty fun, she could get down with more of that. And watching people die, that was pretty much daily. Yeah. It was hard to relate to people sometimes.

He'd just meant music but hobbies sounded fine. Not that he did well in that discussion. Smoking pot wasn't a popular hobby, and getting wasted didn't really count as a hobby at all. Still, he liked to read and watch movies, but he really had no real hobbies that required him to do something, not counting video games which really wasn't the same thing as say, hockey or something. "Yeah, hobbies," he said with a shrug. "Other than, you know, flying and being a skating queen."

She looked up sharply as he said 'flying', and it took her a second to remember that she'd been telling him that she could fly while she was drunk, and he wasn't serious. Her heart had kind of seized up for a second there, and she let off the pressure with a light laugh. "I dunno, there's ... really not much that beats those," she joked, turning her attention and slight embarrassment at being a dumbass back to his mp3 player. "There's not much besides music and reading and movies ... that's really ... I don't even really go to parties. Unless personally invited by strange guys sleeping on my locker."

"Bet that happens all the time," Nate replied and drank more of his coffee before setting it in the holder and pulling out of their parking spot. "So you're not juggling fifteen extracurricular activities after school, huh? That's cool. Sounds like we're on the same page. I mean, I like playing basketball and stuff but once you actually start doing it regularly, like joining a team, it's just so damn competitive and stupid. Plus you know, allergic to cheerleaders."

Leija giggled a bit and set his player down in favor of looking out the windows as they started to ride around again. "Right, can't have you breaking out into hives and shit," she agreed with a smirk. Hey, at least that was good to hear. She'd seen some supposedly cool guys kind of lose it over cheerleaders, just like all the other asshats. "No, I don't really do much after school. I'm not really a joiner. The yearbook can make it's damn self, and I'm not really into sports, and my ear is too good for fucking choir and the people who suck in it, so ..." She shrugged. She'd much rather do her own thing, thanks.

"Maybe, and I mean maybe if there was a horror film club or learn-to-make-realistic-latex-horror-masks club, I'd join," Nate agreed. "But still dubious because it's high school and they would somehow manage to make it lame. Or a bunch of jocks and airheads would join and do that annoying laugh the whole time. So yeah, not much of a joiner either."

"Oh yeah, they'd totally ruin it," Leija agreed with a nod. Even though that sort of thing would be cool, if it was done right. It just never would be. That was just how the world worked. "We ought to make our own non-joiner kind of club," she said, glancing over at him and smirking just a bit. They could also make a Dead Mothers club, but that was slightly more on the morbid side.

"I don't think any school I'd want to start would be approved by the school admins," Nate chuckled. "And that kinda club, sounds like you join by not joining, which could get complicated. Non-members only kind of thing..." He knew he could get stuck thinking through the details of that one so he moved on to the next topic. "What kind of movies do you like?"

"They'd have to be informed non-members," she said decisively. "Like, we'd have to tell them 'hey, you're not in this club, because you're not a joiner, and that's kickass.'" She definitely was stuck thinking about the details of it, just because it was ludicrous. "Really off-beat movies? Independent stuff that's kinda ... different. I mean, I can sit through a Michael Bay-effects-fest, but I really don't want to. Um ... bad horror is kind of fun, actually good comedies which are rare ... does that sound snobby?" She looked over at him and sipped more of her coffee.

"No, it sounds kinda cool actually," Nate admitted. "I have a thing for old horror movies, the really bad ones and the classics. Though it's kinda funny to watch an old movie with crap effects and still get scared. Modern stuff just relies too much on the gore, it's totally redundant. But yeah, some of it is just great for a laugh or kind of... background noise."

"Man, I love me some Alfred Hitchcock. I know that's really old, but when it came to suspense with no effects at all? He could do it. The kinda ... slasher blood and guts ones don't really scare me? They're just kind of entertaining to watch." If she was having a day in a good mood, that was. Sometimes they really got her and made her want to avoid them at all costs. "But yeah. Most modern horror is gore and jump-scares and that's it. Except The Ring, that shit freaked me the hell out. Fucking Japanese know how to scare people."

"Slasher gore and guts can be fun in a kind of detached holy fuck way," Nate agreed with a chuckle. "When it's just ridiculous like Braindead or something, the freakin' lawnmower scene." He laughed, shaking his head and then shrugged. "But yeah, Hitchcock was cool but sometimes you just have to go further, you know? Creature from the Black Lagoon kind of crap. It's so bad it's good."

Leija laughed. "Oohh, you mean rubber-suit and screaming women with beehives kind of horror. Yes, that is most definitely awesome," she said with a grin. "Oh god, I know they do a lot of sci-fi stuff too, but do you ever watch Mystery Science Theater 3000? Even if you turn off the guy and the robots and just watch the movie? They have the best worst stuff ever."

Nate laughed out loud at that with an excited, "Yes! I fucking love that stuff. The reviews are hilarious too. Sometimes you just watch that and end up finding the actual movies, you know? Or... maybe that's just me. I just got my old collection back too so I've been reminiscing with some of the worst movies imaginable."

"Sounds like a time," she said with a smile. She could see him lounging around and watching stuff like the Creature From the Black Lagoon and just laughing. Honestly, she could see herself there too, and it was a really relaxed kind of mental image. That she should probably put aside, because ... yeah. She tended to crash and burn things like she was born to do it. Leija drank some more coffee, able to savor the flavor more now that it was cooled off some.

"It's been fun, though can't really watch the real horror when Dylan's around," Nate said with a small shrug. Though he couldn't really explain the whole Oh yeah, my brother saw a fiend three months ago, good times aspect of it. Finding his mom's body should be clue enough though - he hoped. "So we've been watching Invader Zim. I don't know if he'd enjoy the weirdo old stuff I have."

Leija immediately understood, a lot better than Nate could possibly know, and her eyes slid out to watch the snow on her side for a second. She was most definitely giving that kid a hug. And she probably needed to stop thinking about him as a kid, he was likely her own age. But she felt older. So much older than she should. "Invader Zim is pretty much a win on it's own," she said a little belatedly, glancing back over.

"Isn't it?" Nate replied, giving her a curious look. She seemed almost like she'd zoned out there, a tiny hint of sadness in her demeanor maybe though he wasn't sure. "You okay?" He asked regardless, if she was she'd just give him a funny look and that'd be that. If she wasn't, well it didn't hurt to ask.

"Just fine," she said, giving him a faint smile. She knew that wasn't very convincing, but it wasn't anything she could get into at the moment, and it needed to be set aside anyway. There was other stuff to focus on, better stuff. Like hanging out with Nate and not being traumatized. "I'm glad you came out. My Sunday was being painfully boring," she said, rallying herself back into normality.

"Well, I'm glad you wanted to come out," he retorted, stubbing out his latest cigarette. "I'm just peeved the weekend is over, so don't feel like school tomorrow." It shouldn't surprise anyone to know Nate's biggest problem with school was attendance, he often wished he could just get free attendance and still take the tests without having to show up for every class and do every damn assignment over the winter.

"Yeah, it sucks," Leija agreed. And she wasn't particularly looking forward to it, either. Not with the weekend's events that would surely turn into a firestorm of rumors. Not that she gave them any credence, but it was fucking annoying. She'd be doing a lot of keeping her head down all day, she figured. Until they all got over it and found something else to jabber about.

"But hey, feel free to flee the premises with me at lunch," Nate offered, finishing his coffee. "If you get sick of the cafeteria. I tend to just chill in the car rather than deal with the crowd. Which... actually reminds me, I should get better tires for if everything starts to freeze." He frowned at the thought. That would cost money and he wasn't exactly swimming in cash. Oh well, Frank could help, he probably preferred throwing out cash than having his kid crash into a tree or something.

"I usually try to find some tucked away spot to eat anyway," she said. She'd mostly stopped going to the cafeteria after everything with Thom. It was just ... easier that way. He deserved his space, even though he usually spent the lunch hour in the music room. Or maybe she was just avoiding people, one of those. Both. Something. "We'll have to see if the entire school has us married and bearing spawn already, though."

"You'll have to compete with Kavin on that one," Nate said with a shrug. "Someone asked me on Friday if it was true we were... I don't know, something. Apparently that Chrissy girl, don't know if you know her, has been dishing out some fat rumors about us. Which, you know, whatever. It'll be nice to get rid of that for something a little more..." He waved his hand in gesture. "Haven't there already been pregnancy rumors? Think that'd be redundant."

Leija made a face. She knew Chrissy, all right. And continually wanted to go back and fuck up her room some more. "Yeah, she's kind of Queen Bitch, I know her enough." Even though they'd never spoken, and she hoped to keep it that way. "A little more hetero?" she suggested to the sentence he didn't finish, looking over with an arched eyebrow. Because she knew enough to know that Kavin was a boy's name, even though she didn't think she'd ever met him. "I dunno, pregnancy rumors could be attached to anyone with a uterus, I think, and spread like wildfire. Hell, they were saying that me and Caleb ran off to get married when we were in completely different parts of the country for different reasons." She shrugged herself.

"Now that we've even mentioned it we're kind of doomed to get those rumors, I think," Nate said with a grin. "Sometimes I think they have spyware everywhere. Though overactive imagination sounds more like it. And hey, you both left their tiny little universe at the same time or roughly thereabouts, right? No matter, could have left at totally different times but the fact remains - you both left town. so, obviously that makes for an automatic Vegas wedding, three kids and a winnebago. Duh. And now you're having a torrid love affair with me and Kavin's jealous so he'll cheat with the principal or something."

"Oh god," she said with quite a few giggles and a nose-wrinkle. Really, as ridiculous as it was, she could actually see people going that far. "I hope he doesn't try to flamer-fight me in the hallway or something, and cause a scene. Or maybe Caleb can be so distraught that I've left him and our three kids in the winnebago for you, that he and Kavin get together. Kids need a father, after all, and our's will have two. While you and I shoot up heroin in the school parking lot at lunch." She grinned and shook her head. People. Christ.

"Yeah, this here?" Nate said, wiggling the now empty coffee container at her. "This isn't just coffee. This is a sex scandal. And you just drank some with me so beware the wrath of high school gossips." He laughed too then, having managed to hold it back for now to add a touch of comical seriousness to his banter. "I've been in high school long enough to know that crazy ass rumors actually get spread around."

Leija laughed with him, finishing off what was left in her own sex scandal and stuck the empty into the cup holder. "God forbid people actually make friends with the opposite sex and not immediately hop into bed with them. That's like ... impossible! But really, I think it's just 'cause they're bored." Though how they could be honestly bored in this town anymore, she had no idea. Bored and trying to avoid the horrors of what had happened around them. So maybe it wasn't so bad. She'd take some of it, why not.

"Someone needs to introduce them to things like movies," Nate replied with a grin. "Or creative writing, they don't lack the imagination for it anyway. But really, it's no fun for them if it doesn't rile you up. Too bad you usually don't hear your own rumors though..." He thought about it and then grinned at her again. "Make you a deal, you hear something about me? Let me know and I'll do the same - if you want."

"Deal," she said with a nod, without really thinking it through. Though hell, he would hear them anyway, so why not make her aware of it. "And then we'll get our heads together and work on counter-rumors about ourselves. It'll be like guerilla high school warfare or something." Leija grinned back. "I bet we could do better than them anyway." And she didn't give any kind of shit about her reputation, really. The only thing she was concerned about was anything he heard getting to Caleb. But she'd already told him what had happened, and if he didn't believe her, then ... she didn't know. And it wouldn't do any good to worry about until it happened, so whatever.

"I'd drink to that but I'm all out of coffee," Nate chuckled and quickly corrected himself. "Uhm, sex scandal I mean, obviously. And I like guerilla high school warfare, sounds like a riot. Might help with the whole making it through the winter thing. We can prowl the hallways doing all those vague attack signals at each other." He demonstrated, tapping his nose and pointing forward before doing little random gestures he'd seen in the movies. For all he knew he was telling her total nonsense but he was pretty sure she didn't know pseudo sign language either.

That cracked her up, and her eyes closed as she laughed, so able to picture them doing that as they passed in the hallways. "Okay yeah, we have to do that shit, if only to confuse the hell out of people," she said once she'd recovered a little. "Awesome. God." Leija let her head fall back against the seat and looked out the window on her side, a smile stuck to her face. She was really just enjoying herself, and it was really nice. "I'll even paint dark smears under my eyes one day if you do, just to throw everybody off." She looked over at him and grinned.

"We should apply it at school," Nate said with an eager nod. "And then copy Henry Rollins and go, Ooh rah in a really tacky but awesomely cool way. If you've seen Wrong Turn that is. If you haven't, you should. If only to watch Rollins go Rambo." He narrowed his eyes. "Ooh rah. How can you go wrong with that?" And now his head was full of crazy ideas like playing paintball at school during school hours. Which would probably get him suspended and he couldn't afford that but it made for a fun thought.

"I actually haven't, but I can completely see Henry Rollins going Rambo and yelling 'ooh rah' all over the place," she said, highly amused. She was picturing similar silly things, like edging around corners and running to drop into rolls to avoid explosions that weren't happening. She pictured herself in the girl's bathroom smearing camoflage paint all over her face while other girls fixed their lip gloss and giggled some more.

"Ooh rah," Nate said emphatically and joined her in laughter. "We'll need radios, the old fashion kind." Even if cell phones were more practical, they definitely didn't have the same effect. "Radios or those headsets you see on bodyguards. And make up shit like, The eagle is flying with the squirrels, the plant is in the cloud. Of course we'll probably get locked up before long but it'll be totally worth it."

"Oh it'd be completely worth it," Leija agreed. "I totally want to run down the hall yelling 'niner niner! Bogey on my four!' or something like that." Hell, it wasn't like school was going to actually do much for them, with the way shit was going. Which was an incredibly cynical thought, but she didn't even focus on it, she was having too much fun. She was sure, of course, that none of it would ever happen, but it was fun to think about.

Of course none of it would happen but the thought might provide for a snicker in an otherwise drab day at school. They could at least signal, there was that. For now what mattered was that she was laughing and her laughter was contagious and it was easy to forget all the crap going on outside the car and that moment. "The gossip mongers won't even know what's head or tails on this one. I think they might get totally stumped," he told her.

"They'll probably write us off as crazy, but that's okay by me," she said with another little laugh. Maybe then they'd fuck on off and find new targets. Even if not, it'd be pretty damn entertaining, that was for sure. And what else was important in school? Leija slouched comfortably in the passenger side seat and watched the town drift by. Most definitely a nice change of pace from, oh, everything.

"Crazy is definitely an improvement from anything else they might say," Nate agreed. "I can live with crazy. Might even be a good status symbol actually. Don't mess with those two, they're loco." He grinned and shot her a sidelong glance. "Maybe we'll even get ourselves some scary nicknames like gang members in movies. Loco Leija."

"Oh god," she said with a laugh, wrinkling her nose and shaking her head. "If you call me that, I totally get to call you Nutbar Nate. It's only fair. According to the rules that I just made up." They were kind of the opposite of scary names, but hey. According to the movies, alliteration was key.

"Nutbar Nate," Nate said, trying it out and grinning his best nutbar grin. "I like it. Though Loco Leija reminds me a little too much of ukulele... For some reason that's probably best left not looked into. Man, you're like personified weed, Leija." Which wasn't a bad thing, judging by the smile he gave her.

"Yeah, let's skip the whole thing that makes me sound like a really twangy gay instrument," she said with a grin back and shook her head. "Personified weed, though, huh? That's a new one on me. Do I make you hungry, too?" She reached out and poked him in the side, through his puffy jacket.

He thought about it and nodded slowly. "You kinda do, wanna break off a piece of that chocolate for me? Looks like you need help with it anyway." He looked around as the street he'd meant to turn up was a dead end so he turned around and headed back the way they'd come. "Anywhere special you want to go?"

"Gotta like ... watch my girlish figure or some shit," Leija said, and unwrapped the previously untouched chocolate bar to break a piece of it off for him. Seeing as how he was driving and everything, she held it up near his mouth. "Nah, nothing really springs to mind. This is fine with me. Just rolling around and wasting your gas." She gave him a little grin.

Nate leaned to the side a bit and snagged it with his teeth, smiling after sucking it into his mouth. "Yeah I'm being environmentally unconscious and probably a total dick," he said when he was done enjoying that piece. "But the air up here is way too clean, someone's gotta do something about it, right?" Or not but he liked driving even if he'd spent such a big portion of his life doing it that he should hate it by now.

Leija broke off a bit to munch on herself, contented with just wandering aimlessly around town with him. It was warm, she had chocolate, Nate was funny and a nice guy, and so what the hell. "Goddamn right. Take that, air," she said, leaning forward to speak upward out the window toward the sky. then sat back to chuckle again. "Watch it acid-snow now. Like acid rain, only prettier!"

"Hell, it looks like you guys could do with a little global warming up here," Nate joked back. "And whatever, as long as it isn't real acid and strong enough to burn through the roof of the car I don't care. We're pretty safe." Of course if it was real acid, it'd burn through anything so that was definitely not cool, unless they found special plastic to hide in and his brain was going down stupid routes again, wasn't it? "As long as it's pretty, I guess," he chuckled.

"Because that's totally the most important thing," she said, wrinkling her nose up a little. She lapsed into silence, munching on the candy bar and watching the melty world go by. It wasn't bad for a first snow. There was tons more to come, so they'd all better get used to it. Random, stupid questions floated to the surface of her mind to ask, but she didn't. She was okay with comfortable quiet. It was pretty rare in her life with other people.

Nate idly drummed his fingers on the steering wheel in time with the music, a little more fidgety about the quiet than she was though he didn't let it show. He just felt like he should say something or ask something, worried she was bored or uncomfortable even if she didn't really seem like it.

Leija wasn't, and let the quiet drag out on her end. In fact, with the motion and the heat blasting -- despite the hard rock coming out of his speakers; it was low enough for them to talk -- she was feeling kind of sleepy. Sleep had been a rare commodity lately, and she was comfortable. Her eyelids drifted a little. "If I fall asleep in your car, don't like ... drive me to Mexico or anything, okay?" she murmured, letting her head roll over to him to smile a little. "My dad worries."

Nate grinned as he glanced over at her. "I have this funny feeling that you might wake up before we got to the border," he teased her. "But hey, if you want me to drive you home just say the word," since kidnapping people really wasn't his forte and all. "You do look like you're about to doze off." She also looked cute doing it but he left that part out.

"I dunno man, you've never seen me sleep," she said with a soft lazy chuckle. She shifted to dig her phone out of a pocket and check the time. "Yeah ... I probably ought to be getting back. I gotta cook dinner and everything." She looked over, a little apologetic. 'Cause this was nice, quite honestly. They'd have to do it again sometime. Even if it was just driving around and she was probably lame for appreciating it enough.

Nate offered her an easy smile. "Yeah I should probably get going too." Not that he had to be home but he wanted to find Nic's tag and grab something to eat. He turned the next corner to head back to her house gesturing up ahead. "Take a left there right?" He was pretty sure that was the right way, she lived close to school and he was getting a better feel for the places he knew in town and the connection between them.

"Yup, a left and then another right," she answered easily. She'd learned the town pretty quickly, and wasn't going to be forgetting it any time soon. Her sense of direction was superb. It just came with being a valkyrie. As they headed back to her place, Leija smiled over at him warmly. "Thanks again for this, it was cool. I really needed it," she told him, and meant every word of it. Now if only that chilled-out feeling would stay, that would be really helpful to like, everything. Still, it was nice.

He could tell how earnest she was being and it surprised him a little, though she had mentioned having a weird time lately. "Hey," he murmured gently. "If you ever need a time out or just someone to talk to or, you know, not talk to even, just give me a call. That's what my number's for." A couple of turns and they were on her street again and he felt like he'd learnt a little more about the town just cruising through it. "Doesn't matter what time it is either."

"Thanks. Same to you, honestly. I keep fuckered hours, so." She unbuckled herself as he pulled up to a stop at her house. On impulse, after a second's hesitation, she leaned over to give him one of those awkward in-the-car side hugs. They'd talked about some rough shit, after all. "Be safe getting home, Nate. I'll talk to you later." And then she was heading out the door.

He'd given her a little squeeze back, smiling at her retreating back. "Later," he agreed and waited until she was inside the house with the door closed behind her before he drove off again. He wasn't entirely sure what this was but it was nice and he wasn't going to overthink it. Right this moment he had Nic's tag to find and a good friendship to cherish, why complicate things more.