Facial Expression Weaknesses

who: Caleb and Jamie
where: her house
when: 1:20 to 4:30 PM

Okay, it was now past 'a little after one'. Vagueness was bad; she'd learned her lesson and from now on she was giving set times to all appointments. Especially involving boys. Especially boys she was crushing on. Especially when said 'appointment' was after a previous engagement involving feeding two other boys. Yep, hobag. Apparently it was a disease, and she'd caught it from Chrissy.

Jamie slowed to a more comfortable walk as she neared her house, and bit back a groan. If the figure on her porch was any indication, it looked like Caleb had beaten her home. Crap. I thought boys were supposed to play it cool and come late. What happened to that?

What happened to that was Caleb hadn't had anything else to do, and he was restless as hell. It happened. So after finding a confusing note from Mathias about having to be home by five, he'd gone walking around, and wandered over to Jamie's. Who wasn't home. And her grandfather wasn't either, and he could have gone away again, but it had been close enough that he figured he'd wait. And he'd been there for about fifteen minutes, sort of idly contemplating if he'd been stood up. Then of course, he'd mentally adjusted the wording around so it sounded a lot less like a date. Occasionally, he would glance over towards Chrissy's house, wondering if anyone had gotten home yet to see the damage he and Leija had done. He was imagining the police would be called when that happened. He was just a bystander, really. He caught sight of Jamie after a minute, and wondered if he should have left. If she had been standing him up, and he had descended into creepy stalker territory. Of course, he already had, but like, worse. He scratched at the back of his neck nervously as she got closer. "...you're late."

Jamie cringed, before offering an apologetic smile. Yeah, he wasn't happy with her. Already. Wonderful. You suck. "Sorry, I was having lunch with... friends." She held up the lunch box she carried as proof. Thom and Isaac were her friends now, right? Well, Isaac was, at least. Thom still made her a little nervous... "I lost track of time. Sorry, Caleb. You haven't been waiting long, have you?" she asked, a little concerned, before unlocking the door and opening it for him.

He watched her walking up the stairs, fully noting the pause she'd put in before 'friends'. Which just seemed massively suspicious to him, but then he was in full blown paranoid mode now, so she probably could have said 'I'm sorry I was late, I was helping nuns out of a burning building, it'll be on the six o'clock news' and he'd have found it suspect. ...where had he gotten that story? Whatever. He followed. "I can just go..." he said. "You kinda seem busy."

She rolled her eyes heavenward, ignoring the sudden panic that had her stomach lurching. She shook her head and smiled faintly, keeping her abnormal emotions under control. "I'm not busy," Jamie said, gazing at him uncertainly. "Did all my chores this morning." Great, she was late and now he was going to leave. Wonderful.

He paused, then picked something up from the porch where he'd been sitting, and followed her inside. "You sure?" he asked. "Get your window fixed?" he added, with a total nonchalant air. No, he wasn't asking if she'd found what he left for her at all! Really!

"No, but someone's coming tomorrow morning to fix it," Jamie told him, heading into the kitchen and dropping the lunch box on the counter. She unpacked it, putting the dirty dishes in the dishwasher. "Now, what would you have done if I'd been sleeping naked in my room when you'd left me that note?" she asked lightly, voice tinged with amusement. She glanced over her shoulder at him when she said it, before returning to the dishes. "It would have been embarrassing for the both of us."

Caleb looked over, blinking, then laughed a little, leaning both arms on the counter as he watched her. "I probably would have asked you what the fuck you were doing sleeping naked with a broken window where just any pervert could walk by and get an eyeful." he commented. "Why, do that often?"

"Psh, like I'm gonna tell you," Jamie laughed. Yeah, that was not information she divulged to anyone. What she slept in was her business; at least until she ended up sharing a bed with somebody else. And that? Was far, far in the future. "Sorry, hon, but there are just some things a girl can't share."

Caleb smirked at her. "I'm hon now?" he asked. "Didn't I say something about that being what old marrieds call each other?" he asked. "Because last I checked, we were neither." he added. "And okay, fine, you can just keep that secret, but if I come around some night checking, I'll just find out on my own." he added nonchalantly.

She bumped her hip against his lightly before reaching up on her tiptoes to shove the now cleaned and emptied lunch box onto the top shelf. Why in the world did I start flirting? "I could go back to sweetie pie," Jamie offered with a too-sweet smile. And she decided firmly not to comment on him coming around to check on her, not really sure how she felt about that. Or what she was going to start wearing to bed when her window got fixed, for that matter.

Caleb hopped back away from her. "Oi. No touching." he said. But didn't sound nearly so twitchy about it as he might have before. "I'm still trying to figure out what's the matter with my name. Caleb. Not really a bad name. I see no reason you need to resort to pet names. Being I'm not a pet and all." he added. Unless I am. You do treat me like a puppy.

"I call you Caleb sometimes," Jamie pointed out. "Pet names are just an affection thing, you know?" she asked, shrugging her shoulders. "I like you, so you get one. It's sort of habit for me to use them for friends, that's all." She headed into the living room, kicked off her sandals and settled on the couch. "And you didn't seem to mind it too much last night, unless you were just being nice because I was sleepy."

"Yeah, but last night it wasn't 'hon', last night it was something else." Caleb commented. Then, before they could go along this terrifying subject any farther, considering what he'd said he'd call her...he brought up what he'd brought. "I have something for you." he said, then tossed it to her on the couch. He'd brought her his CD collection, in a pretty big case. Most of what he actively listened to was on his mp3 player, so he didn't really need them per se. He leaned against the door frame and sort of waited for her reaction. Because yes, he was nervous, even if he was just loaning her some CDs. It was possible he was a fucking idiot. Oh wait. He'd established that a long time ago.

She raised her eyebrows in surprise, but picked up the case and flipped through it. Her eyes widened, and then she grinned before leaping off the couch, case still in hand, and hugged him tightly around the neck. "You completely rock," Jamie declared happily, planting a kiss on his cheek before dashing off to her bedroom.

Caleb was left blinking, and he had opened his mouth to protest, but then he was being kissed, and then she was gone. Remaining there for a good half a minute while he recovered, he shook himself out of the momentary brain burn she'd put him into, and pushed off the wall. Okaaaay, so that hadn't been a bad thing to do. He didn't think. Unless that was bad. He was still completely up in the air about that, of course. Because he liked her. And at the same time, he knew he really shouldn't get...close. What with the huge amounts of trouble he routinely brought down on his head. When he got to her room, he stayed in the door frame, watching her. He kind of half looked to see if he could see the rock he'd left her.

Jamie was flipping through the CD case, trying to decide which one she wanted to listen to first. Portishead, oh most definitely yes. She'd loved the songs she'd heard so far, so it was first. By the time she realized what she'd done (namely leaving him alone in the living room) and how rude it had been (insanely), Caleb was already standing in her doorway. She watched him, amusement and genuine happiness dancing in her eyes for a moment, before picking the rock he'd left her up off her desk and holding it up for him to see. "Looking for this?" she asked lightly.

Caleb ducked his head and smiled at the floor, blushing faintly. "No." he answered. Yes. "Just looking. You were tired last night, you could have missed glass." he added. Cuz that wasn't total bullshit or anything. And not something she'd do like, ever. He had a feeling she could be bleeding to death and she still would have finished cleaning up so no one accidentally stepped on glass. Which reminded him. "How's your hand?"

Her hand? She blinked at him rapidly for a moment, before holding up her palm for him to see, band aid plainly visible. "It's fine," Jamie said, tilting her head to the side. It still stung a little, but he didn't need to know that. Besides, her aching neck and shoulders from yesterdays stress were far higher up on the pain scale, and she dealt with those on a near daily basis. "I didn't miss any glass, I checked again this morning," she informed him with a little laugh. "You mother hen almost as much as me," she teased.

He made a face at her. "I do not. I just asked. If I cut myself when we were talking, you'd probably be insisting on looking at the cut to make sure I cleaned it properly." he said. Which might have been total bullshit, he didn't know. Just sort of seemed like the kind of thing she'd do.

Jamie laughed, eyes dancing with humor. "That's a little hardcore, even for me. It'd have to be a pretty nasty cut," she smiled. "You going to come in, or are you still thinking the bed's going to bite you?" she teased, almost but not quite smirking. He was being entirely too cute today. And completely awesome. It just wasn't fair!

Caleb thought about it, eying her bed critically like he was assessing it for imminent danger. "I guess I could." he said, pushing off the door frame, and he went to sit down on her bed again. And like he had before, he toed his shoes off before he pulled his feet up onto it as well. "So anyways, see? I'm in one piece, I'm totally fine, and you didn't have to worry at all." I just went for a walk to clear my head, met a girl and went breaking and entering with her at Chrissy's house. Nothing dangerous about that at all.

"I guess," she agreed, glancing at him uncertainly, previous night's worry returning full force. "You do things like that often?" Jamie asked lightly, purposefully keeping all traces of concern from her voice. She popped the Portishead CD into her PC and started the ripping process in the mean time, not looking at him. Her eyes would betray how worried she'd been. How worried she was.

Caleb was watching her, so her little charade didn't really fool him much. He was quiet for a few long minutes, just...watching. Sort of seeing how the lines of tension rose up when she was upset, and her eyes narrowed a little bit. Little things. That and how she wouldn't look at him, and her tone of voice had changed drastically. "Would you be pissed at me if I said I did?" he asked, in a tone that seemed to match hers.

"Just worried," she murmured quietly, reaching up to knead at the muscles in the back of her neck. "I won't actually get angry until you get hurt," she added lightly, still not looking directly at him. "Then, all bets are off." And she'd probably brain him with the rock he'd given her. How was that for irony?

"Don't worry about me." he said, voice sort of distant. He watched her as she massaged her neck, and for once, he wished he wasn't so fucking twitchy about touching. Girl looked like she needed a back rub or something. Yeah that's brilliant. That's how other shit gets started, Lockwood. That's how things go from friends to something else, and you really need to not be doing that with this girl. But fuck if he wasn't feeling tense just looking at her. "Hurting?" he asked, instead of following the rest of the conversation.

"Hmm?" Jamie asked distractedly, her thoughts elsewhere. Namely on him, his wandering habits and how it was she'd managed to lose one ulcer-inducing friend and gain two more in her place. Wonderful; between worrying about Caleb getting himself murdered and breaking Isaac's heart, she was going to die at least twice as fast as she would if she'd just been worrying about Chrissy getting pregnant. Or herpes. "I'm fine," she said dismissively, dropping her hand back into her lap.

Caleb eyed her critically, then leaned forward. "Okay. Do you really expect me to buy that? Or are you just not up for actually talking about it? Because I don't, by the way. Buy it, that is." he clarified. "You look tenser than I usually am." he added. Which was saying a lot.

She reached out and poked him in the forehead, mostly for her own amusement. "I'm fine, really. I'm always like this," she explained. Especially the day after a complete lock up like she'd had yesterday.

He made a face at her and leaned far back again, moving far enough so that he was out of poking range entirely, if she was going to be doing that, she'd have to get up and go to him to do it. ...which now that he was thinking about it, would put her on the bed with him and maybe that wasn't such a great idea. He stayed where he was anyhow. "Nooo touching." he said. "You should take a bath or something." he added. Because he couldn't offer her a back rub or anything, because that would require rubbing his hands all over her and he needed to quit thinking about that shit.

Jamie rolled her eyes. "Yeah, when I have time," she laughed. Which was never. She could either cut out socializing entirely to relax (which never seemed to work; she'd planned to do that after Chrissy had slapped her and now she had more friends than she'd had ever), or cut out relaxing to socialize. There just weren't enough hours in the day to do both.

Caleb leaned back against her headboard and eyed her. "You have got to have time for that." he said. "C'mon, it's not like, something that takes forever or anything. How could you not have time for it?" he asked. He might have to sign up for a new mission in life. Getting Jamie to relax for ten fucking minutes and act her age.

She turned on music, deciding it was entirely too quiet without it otherwise before swapping out CDs. Earshot this time. Caleb had some awesome music. She turned to face him afterwards, spinning the chair around and crossing her arms across her stomach. "If I have to choose between cleaning the bathroom, or taking a relaxing bath in said bathroom, guess which one I'm gonna pick?" Jamie asked dryly. "I have a lot of stuff to do. Some things get cut out, like relaxing. I have music for that."

"Obviously, you're not doing enough of it." Caleb pointed out, crossing his arms behind his bed as he made himself comfortable. "You need to relax. Bathrooms can be cleaned whenever. I'm positive you could get away with it and the world wouldn't end. I know, weird concept. But I'll give you my word and everything."

"I know the world wouldn't end, but things like that stack up after awhile," Jamie argued, twirling a strand of hair on her finger and not making eye contact with him. "If I put things like that off, then I have to do it all at once, and then I get even more stressed out than I was to begin with. It's just not worth the hassle."

"You realize you're insane and make no sense, right?" Caleb asked. "Taking ten minutes to take a bath or something doesn't mean anything else is going to pile up. If anything, because you're putting it off and not relaxing like, ever, you're building up other bad shit. Like the tension. Next thing you know it's going to rain on your laundry outside and you're going to wind up having a screaming breakdown because you never took any time to destress." Which was scary, because he could see it happening. "You act like you're from one of those traditional families in Japan. The ones that blow their brains out if they don't get a promotion because they're built like robots that can't do anything but work and if they fuck up, it's the end of the world."

Jamie turned back to her computer and swapped CDs again, not responding. Really, she wasn't sure what to say. She didn't think Caleb would understand her mindset, her reasons for doing things the way she did, so it wasn't really worth arguing about it. Besides that, while listening to him, her shoulders had stiffened and her neck and back had begun to ache. I'm still moving. My muscles haven't gone spastic yet. I'm okay. Can't do that in front of him or he'll spaz out completely and leave. How did this get on me, anyways? Weren't we talking about him and his wandering habit?

Caleb watched her as she didn't answer him, and he propped his head up on his hand, half picking at one of the pillows that was within reach. "I'll wait." he said finally.

"What do you want me to say?" she asked softly, eyes staying locked at a distant point on the wall. "You're right? I know you are. Happy now?"

"No, I mean, I'll wait." Caleb said. "If you wanna go right now. I'll...go for a walk for half an hour or listen to music or something, I promise i won't touch or break anything. But I'll wait. Seriously. I don't have anything to do til five."

"Go where?" Jamie asked incredulous, having no idea what in the world he was talking about. Surely he can't be talking about me going to take a bath. Right now. In the middle of the day. God, if I'd known this was going to happen I would have just done laundry. She twitched then, sending painful spasms down her back. This week sucked.

He looked at her. "Take a bath." he said. "I'm not trying to be creepy or anything..." he added, because he realized it could be taken like that. "But seriously, look at you. You're all...you're twitching for fuck's sake, Jamie." he said, voice going a little softer. "You said you'd have to cut out other things. So...volunteering. I will happily fuck off for however long you want, if you promise you'll just take a little bit of time to do that." And he even pulled out all the stops and gave her a soft, pleading sort of look. He didn't do it often, but that didn't in any way shape or form mean he wasn't capable of it.

She bit her lip, torn between frowning at him and grimacing from the pain. She didn't speak for a moment, contemplating what to say. He was being nice. He was worrying about her. The look he'd just given her? Total warm fuzzies. There was really only one problem...

"I can't move right now," she admitted quietly, inwardly cursing herself for being so weak. Just like her mother.

He frowned at her, then sat up again. "What do you mean you can't move right now?" he asked. "You're fucking with me, right?" he asked, even though he knew full well that she wasn't. She didn't look like it. "Is it that bad?" he asked, worry creeping in beneath his tone.

Jamie watched him with an unreadable expression in her eyes, staying perfectly still. She knew if she moved, it would hurt. Badly. Standing was nowhere near an option at the moment. "I can't move," she repeated, her voice still quiet.

He stared at her. "You know that's really, really bad, right?" he asked. "Okay you're definitely doing that now. Where's your bathroom?" he asked. He'd go draw the fucking thing for her then...he had no idea what. He did get up to sort of half lean around her so he could see her computer screen. "What do you listen to when you want to relax?" he asked, voice strangely soft.

She screwed her eyes shut, unable to look at Caleb any longer. "There's a play list for it," she murmured quietly. "Just double click on it, it's on the left side of the screen. Relaxation." God, how useless was she? Completely weak and utterly helpless. She almost wished he'd just leave and never come back. She'd never felt more ashamed of herself in her entire life.

Caleb found it easy enough, and put it on, finding the volume and turning it up a little bit. She wasn't the only one with thoughts of him leaving and never coming back. He'd been there for all of like, twenty minutes, and he'd already stressed her out to the point where she couldn't even move. He was just that talented. And obviously the worst thing for ever in the history of everything. He straightened, but didn't exactly back away quite yet. He stood there, feeling useless and at fault.

Jamie let out a shaky breath, her eyes still tightly closed. "God, I suck," she muttered, not realizing he was still so close.

He frowned down at her. "No you don't." he said quietly, reaching out to absently tuck her hair behind her ear. It was just...something he did, he didn't really think about it. Like when he'd taken Ten's hand, or whatever. Kind of an automatic reaction that didn't give him time to stop and think about being twitchy over the contact.

She jumped, startled from the contact, and made a soft, pained noise as her muscles protested. Jamie opened her eyes and looked up at him, biting her lip for a moment. "Yeah, I do. I can't even take care of myself anymore. Things like this shouldn't happen." I should know better...

He winced, and stepped back. "Sorry." he said quietly, shoving his hands into his pockets. Okay so that was just bad of him. Note to self: never do that again. "And you're being really hard on yourself...that's kinda part of the problem, you know." he continued. Before he left forever and never saw the girl again, he wasn't going to lie to her. He most certainly wasn't going to be agreeing with her on things he didn't believe.

She gazed up at him, quiet for a moment, her gaze somewhat scrutinizing. "I'm sorry," she finally said, her voice quiet. "This isn't what I expected when I invited you over here, Caleb." And I completely suck for it. You want to run away from my issues yet?

He sighed, and leaned back against the wall, giving her more space. "Yeah, I just fuck up that bad." he said. "Kinda my lot in life, I'm sorry. I should...go or something. Though I still say you should take a bath and relax...maybe get some rest or something. But I obviously stress you the fuck out, I'm sorry." he said, realizing he was kind of starting to ramble again so he stopped.

Her brows furrowed in confusion before she frowned at him, Displeased. "This isn't your fault," she said, scolding him. "It's just been a bad week for me. Wrong place, wrong time for the discussion we were having, that's all. Unless you're planning to leave because I'm annoying the ever loving shit out of you or because you can't deal with how insane I am... don't go," Jamie asked quietly, her tone pleading. God, I still can't move, and he might leave because he thinks this is his fault.

That was pretty much exactly what he thought. She'd seemed fine when she got in, and now she was all locked up. So yeah, the correlation was pretty obvious to him. But with that tone, he didn't think he could just leave her there. Felt like when Mathias had looked like the world was ending and even if he'd not really wanted to be there anymore, he'd stuck around. So he slid down the wall, looking up at her with his wrists resting on his knees. "There anything I can do?" he asked quietly.

"Stop looking like your puppy has cancer?" Jamie asked, smiling faintly. She felt completely sick inside, but pushed herself up to stand. She managed the few steps over to where he was and slid down the wall herself, sitting beside him, but not close enough to make him twitchy. Hell yes, it hurt, but damnit if she wasn't going to do something. Caleb wasn't allowed to take the blame for this; he just wasn't. "This really isn't your fault," she repeated, resting her head against the wall and gazing up at her ceiling. Not like she could turn her head to look at him, anyways. "Please don't blame yourself, because I'm not going to."

He frowned, and looked over at her. "You were fine before I got here." he said. "Look, just...can you please go...lay down, or take the bath, or something? I'll do whatever you want, stick around, take off, whatever." Caleb continued. "We can talk about it when you're less ready to strain something just by moving."

She sighed faintly, and slowly brought her hand up to rub her forehead. I'm afraid if I leave, you won't be here when I come back. "Okay," she agreed, despite having absolutely no desire to leave him alone. There was just a horrible sinking feeling in her stomach that the moment she was out of earshot and eyesight, he would leave. And then what could she do? There'd be no way of her knowing if he'd left because he couldn't deal with her, or if he just felt responsible. And she wouldn't even be able to bring herself to call him to ask.

Jamie pushed herself to standing and left her room, heading into the bathroom and shutting the door behind her. The least she could do would be to do as he'd asked and try to relax. That way, if he actually stayed, they could have some semblance of a normal conversation afterwards.

Caleb let out a breath he'd been holding when the door shut, and he scrubbed his hands over his face. He had no idea what the fuck to do now. Leave? Stay? He almost wanted to ask her, but...he'd wait. At least a little bit. Til he heard the bath stop running anyhow. Then maybe. Christ, he was all stupidly tense now just from talking to her about it all. What the fuck? Pushing himself up, he paced a little, listening more to the sounds in the other room than to the music that was still playing.

She ran the bathwater as hot as she could stand it, skimming the surface of it with her hand, but her thoughts were focused on her bedroom. Specifically the boy in her bedroom, and wondering if he was still there. Probably not. Why would he be?

She wasn't going to think about that now. She was going to... relax. Or try. Even though she felt sick and slightly panicky. Why do I talk to people? I hate this. I went and got myself all attached to him in one day, like a stupid girl, and now I've gone and chased him off, and he'll never even want to look at me again, let alone talk to me.

Jamie stood up and stripped down before stepping into the bath, settling into the almost-scalding water with a quiet hiss of breath. This had better work.

After the bath wasn't running anymore, Caleb gave her a few minutes. Three, to be exact, before he walked the short distance up the hall and quietly knocked the back of his knuckles on the door. "Jamie?" he asked. "Did you want me to go? Or...?" he left it open, resting his forehead against the door as he waited for her reply. All in all he was feeling like the world's biggest fuck up. He didn't want to do one more thing wrong.

"No!" Jamie answered quickly, shooting up in the bath with panic in her voice. An awkward moment passed, and then she frowned at the ceiling and sank back down. Damnit. "I mean... it's up to you, I'll be okay if you want to leave." There, much more normal. No panic or sadness or anything. Go her.

Stupid issues.

"I'll stay." he said. Because yeah, that first reaction couldn't have been missed. Didn't matter if she covered afterwards, he'd heard it. So yeah. Not leaving then. He sighed, then sat down on the floor out side the door, not sure what else to do.

Screw the bath. It had helped, at least a little; she was moving now. Very fast, actually. Jamie yanked the plug out, stood up, grabbed the nearest towel and wrapped it around herself as quickly as she could. Still dripping water, she opened the door and peered out into the hall. Modesty be damned; all the important bits were covered anyways. "Caleb?"

He frowned then looked up at her. "...yeah?" he asked. He was surprised to see her, and quickly averted his eyes even if nothing was showing. Still. Wet naked girl. Wet naked girl he liked. Though that was really distant in the current circumstances.

"Look, ignore me and my issues. You don't have to stay. I can take care of myself, and I don't want you to feel obligated to have to put up with my shit," Jamie said bluntly, a little frown on her face. "I'm not a psychotic bitch" like certain others that would go unnamed "who's going to throw a temper tantrum if you leave right now. I'd just prefer it if you didn't go telling people about... things. That's all."

Caleb frowned, then pushed himself to his feet, staring at her. Was that hurt there? Maybe a little. "That's all you're worried about? You just want to make sure I'm not going to tell anyone?" he asked.

"No. I'm more worried about you staying here because you feel like you have to," Jamie admitted, her voice quiet.

Caleb had dropped into a defensive sort of posture, arms crossed and he was looking away, expression troubled. "Yeah, well, your secrets are safe with me, and I wouldn't be here if I didn't want to be." which wasn't exactly the truth, but it was right then, so it came out sounding that way. He just kept running that line in his head. 'I'd just prefer it if you didn't go telling people about things.' So that's what she thought of him. And apparently she did care about what people thought. He kept all of that to himself thought, partially aware that he was feeling hurt and that could be why he was taking things badly.

She stamped her bare foot on the floor, frustrated. Well, there wasn't much else she could do; hitting wasn't an option when that would kind of sort of leave her naked. "You dummy," she began, exasperated. "I don't want to get reported to social services! That's all. I trust you, but even a tiny bit of information about how screwed up things are in this house could get me put in foster care." She hesitated, crossing her arms over her chest and looking troubled. "You really do want to be here? Even though I'm... well... batshit insane?" she asked uncertainly.

His eyes were back on her in a heartbeat then, and there was a flash of anger there. He glared, now not giving a damn about the her being in a towel thing. He ignored it, just locking his eyes onto hers and leaving them there. "Do you really think I'd do something like that?" he asked, edge to his tone. "Why the fuck would I? I like you, you've got issues, what the fuck ever, everyone does, mine are worse than yours, for fuck's sake, you--" he cut himself off, just staring at her, jaw set.

"Why do people do anything?" Jamie demanded, frowning at him. "Why did my best friend hurl a paperweight through my window? Why did she slap me in the face?" Why did my mother kill herself on my eighth birthday, for fucks sake? "You might do it because you're pissed, maybe because you think we'd both be better off, I don't know! I mean, it's not like you've seen me at my best today! I can barely hold it together anymore, and I'm trying to take care of myself and an elderly man who's going senile, so excuse me for being slightly over the top paranoid!" She shuddered, closing her eyes.

"I didn't mean to imply you ever would, okay? But he's all the family I have left. He's all I have left period. I can't--" her voice cracked then, and she opened her eyes again, dazed, not really looking at Caleb. She reached up to touch her cheeks instead, finding tears there. "...well, crap," she murmured then, crestfallen.

When he saw tears, that hit him in a bad sort of way. He was back from feeling pissed and swung directly towards guilty again. Caleb took a step closer, though the door was still mostly in their way, and he pushed it lightly, even if he wasn't exactly sure what he was doing. It was the resistance with the door that had him stopping again. God, why was he still here? Obviously everything out of his mouth today was wrong, and he only made everything worse for her. He had answers, but he wasn't going to give them. Instead he just drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, eyes on the floor. "I'm sorry."

Sigh. "We should have just kept flirting. It was potentially a lot more awkward, but at least it wasn't whatever the hell this is," Jamie muttered, swiping angrily at her cheeks. God, she hated crying. Her mother had cried all the time... "It's not your fault I'm a bitch," she snapped, still irritated. "All of this is my fault, okay? Not yours. You aren't allowed to apologize anymore today, or I'll hit you."

He looked up sharply. "You're not a bitch." he said. "And you were fine before I got here and opened my big mouth. What about that is all on you? Jesus, you're just ever ready to take everything on your shoulders--you're doing it right now! You're supposed to be relaxing! Get back in the fucking tub."

Jamie poked him in the chest. "I drained the water already! I was trying to convince you that you can leave my crazy ass guilt free, but no." She threw up her hands, exasperated, before quickly grabbing for the slipping towel. Okay, that wasn't allowed. "We're going to have to have a moment of honesty here. Do you want to leave, yes or no?"

Caleb stopped and stared hard at her for a full minute, before he looked away and shook his head. "No." he answered. But he had in fact, considered it. So at least she knew he wasn't bullshitting her, or telling her what she wanted to hear.

Her eyes softened. "Okay," she said quietly. "I don't want you to leave, either." Except to get away from my insanity.

"Okay, we've established I'm sticking around." Caleb said, leaning his shoulder against the wall, arms crossed as he continued to eye the floor. He could see her bare feet and legs, watched a water droplet slide down her calf. "Now what?"

Jamie wriggled her toes self consciously. "Well, I should probably put my clothes back on," she admitted with a nervous laugh. Suddenly the fact she was naked was weighing very heavily upon her mind. It didn't help she was still crushing on Caleb, insane arguments they had aside. He's cute when he's mad, too.

He ticked his gaze up, then quirked the faintest of smirks. "Probably." he agreed. "I'll go...somewhere that's else." he said, pushing off of the wall. Caleb paused, looking at her for a long minute, then wound up not saying anything ahd he started up the hall away from her room.

She stared after him, feeling heat flush her cheeks... among other places. Er, yeah, not thinking about that. "That was mean of him," Jamie murmured, feeling flustered, before backing into the bathroom and shutting the door. She leaned against it for a full minute to calm herself down. Yeah, he had a sexy smirk. Illegal sexy. Very dangerous for her virtue.

Caleb had disappeared into the living room and had dropped down onto the couch, shutting his eyes and rubbing at the bridge of his nose. He could do this. Everything would clear up and stop being fucking awful. Really. He liked her. Hell, he'd broken into Chrissy's house and trashed her room because of what had been done to her window, so yeah. He'd had help, of course, but still. He liked her. Now he was just going to sit here, and wait, and maybe things would be slightly less fucking insane when she got her clothes back on. I need to stop thinking about that.

It took her another minute to get changed. She padded down the hallway, as quiet as she could be, fully dressed with her hair damp and slightly wild from the vigorous towel drying she'd given it. Jamie settled beside him on the couch and folded her hands into her lap, gazing mutely at the coffee table. She needed to stop thinking about his smirk.

He rolled his head to the side to look at her, as he'd been half laying back, lounging lazily, really, and he eyed her. "Least you're moving now." he said. Because she was. And she looked like she was moving a lot less painfully, too. How fast did she hop out of that tub?

"I feel better," she agreed, smiling faintly. Honestly, it had her wondering if a good bout of yelling helped destress her. She'd never tried it before now, but she felt much more relaxed than she had in months. It was probably due to the combination of the bath and the yelling, really. "Thanks, Caleb."

He arched a brow at her, then quirked a faint half smile. "Thanks? What'd I do? Besides stress you out then piss you off?" he asked. Though there was the light undertones of amusement just barely creeping into his tone.

"Well, you suggested the bath," Jamie said cheerily. She turned to face him fully and shot him a little grin. "And I think the yelling might have helped some, too."

That had him smirking at her. "So screaming at me and hot baths. Check. I'll remember that next time you get like this. Which helped most so I know which to instigate first, unless you like yelling at me while almost naked..." He couldn't help it. He just had to make the comment.

She blushed. Oh God he was smirking again! Jamie turned back to the coffee table, fidgeting in place. Oh yeah, she was smooth. "Well, I didn't even notice at the time. Except when I almost dropped the towel," she admitted. That had been a heart stopping moment. "All the embarrassment is sort of hitting me late. Like, right now. Thanks a lot," Jamie laughed weakly, her cheeks still warm. Please stop smirking.

He laughed a little, and grinned. "Just now? Aw, you're all blushy." he pointed out. She seemed back to normal to him. Or normal for what he knew of her, that sort of kinda playfulish demeanor. The one that attracted him in the first place. The girl he could talk to.

"Psh, I will totally get you back for this, babe," Jamie said darkly. Of course, she was still blushing and looking at the coffee table, so any threatening aspect of what she'd just said was lost on it instead of Caleb.

Caleb laughed again, getting drawn out of his mood a little more. "You're cute when you're vengeful." he told her. Which he immediately realized he'd said the second it was out of his mouth, and he wondered if he was going to get hit now, and if he could possibly take it back because that was just so overt.

"Yeah, well, you're cute when you're mad," Jamie replied easily, not in the slightest bit phased. She was pouting a little, though. Cute? What the heck did cute mean? What if he didn't like cute girls? What if he only liked pretty, or gorgeous (or hot) girls? And then, of course, there was the fact that she wasn't exactly going for cute when she was vengeful. She was going for terrifying, thanks much!

Caleb scoffed, and rolled his eyes. "Great. I'm cute when I'm mad. That's awesome. Glad to know that I'm still a puppy in your eyes. I'll remember that when I'm angry sometime. And obviously not backing anyone off since apparently I'm cute." He shook his head. "You need your eyes checked, woman."

She rolled her eyes heavenward. "By cute I meant 'hot'," Jamie amended, since she seemed to have wounded his pride, or something. Guys were absolutely ridiculous about that whole 'pride' thing.

He paused, then looked over at her again. "Hot?" he asked. Are we actually having this conversation? The hell? They were both clearly insane. Clearly.

Jamie paused, too. "Did I say that out loud?" she questioned warily, looking over at Caleb for confirmation.

Looking at her as she looked over at him, he cracked up at the look on her face. And the tone, that helped too. Like she hadn't actually meant to say that. So yeah, that had him laughing, shaking his head at her. "Yes you said that out loud!"

"Well, crap." Jamie laughed at herself. Then she picked up a throw pillow and smacked him with it, grinning. "No laughing, I'm all mortified now and it's your fault!"

He was still laughing, he couldn't not. He did hold up an arm to ward off the pillow, though. "I can't help it! You're funny!" he said, reaching over to grab another throw pillow and hit her back with it.

She stuck her tongue out at him between pillow blows, still grinning. "Well, you're mean," Jamie said, a fake pout on her face. After a moment's pause, where she did nothing but pout at him, she smacked him with the pillow again and laughed.

He had to pause at her pouting, thinking that was just far too cute. Then of course she hit him again. So he smacked her back with his pillow. "What are you, five?" he teased. "Sticking out your tongue..." he hit her with the pillow again. "Pouting..." Another hit. "Hitting people with pillows..."

Jamie's laughter changed to soft giggles halfway through his assault. She managed a few good hits of her own, but Caleb was apparently far better at the pillow wars than she. "I got you good with that pout, didn't I?" she asked, wickedly pleased with herself.

He smiled, and sat back again. "Maybe." he conceded. He was thinking that it was good to see her laughing, and smiling. That she just looked better. All the way around. Softer, sweeter, less fragile. And that? Was an excellent thing.

She hugged the pillow to her chest, because she was having a girly, snuggly moment and she knew it would be very unwelcome to make a move for Caleb. Completely ruin the moment, too, so she would just take it on the pillow. "Awesome," Jamie grinned, satisfied. "I know your weakness now."

Caleb looked at her, then turned on his own sad puppydog face. Because he could do it, damnit. He just chose not to most of the time. But there was a reason he didn't have a record anywhere, and even at school with fights he'd fucking started, he didn't get into trouble. Because it was there when he wanted it to be, so he had to give it a shot right now. "But that's not fair, I don't know your's." he said.

Jamie blinked at him, surprised, before grinning. "Wow, that's really good. You must practice that a lot. That's almost my weakness," she conceded. Almost, but not quite. She'd seen his smirk already, and considering that made her tingle to her toes and her brain momentarily melt, she was going with it for the more powerful of the two facial expressions.

He flashed a grin at her. "Back home, I was rarely held accountable for shit." he admitted. "I guess I just don't look like trouble, really." he shrugged. "At least, when I make the effort not to look like trouble."

She tilted her head to the side in thought. "Well, if I had seen that look before today, I think I would have agreed," Jamie admitted with a smile. But his smirk? Oh yeah, he was trouble. And dangerous. But not in the way he seemed to think he was... "You could probably get some stuff out of me with that look, but it's not my biggest Caleb related weakness," she revealed, nodding solemnly.

"You have ranked weaknesses in relation to me specifically?" Caleb asked, arching a brow at her and he half turned towards her, arm on the back of the couch propping his head up as he eyed her. Those brown eyes narrowed as he peered at the girl, as if he could read her mind. "That's interesting. I didn't know I had warranted such heavy effects."

She made a face at him. "I know, it's very troublesome." Stop looking at me like that! she thought, noticing the rather intense scrutiny. Well, at least he wasn't smirking, and she wasn't blushing.

A faint smile touched his lips as he nodded. "Yep. Troublesome." he agreed. "I mean, I haven't even been around very long. So really, that says something." he continued. Shutting up now would be good. Really. So do that. Nowish.

Jamie nodded solemnly, only her eyes giving away her continued state of amusement. "Yep," she agreed. "You've wormed your way inside my heart."

Caleb had to stop and look at her for a long moment then. His expression unreadable, but not necessarily bad. "Is that where I am?" he asked, voice a touch quiet. Sure that's where I belong?

Her eyes flickered for a moment from amused, to confused, and then they settled on something... unreadable. She raised her eyebrows slightly. "Yes. Where would you be, my stomach?" Jamie asked, keeping her tone light.

Caleb shrugged. "Never know." he said. "Guess I'm just not used to what you said." Because he couldn't actually repeat it. No way, man. Fuck that. It was just a throwaway comment, had to be. Or that was the story he was telling himself anyhow.

Jamie sighed quietly, smiling, and reached out to smooth the hair out of his eyes. "Well, I meant it." Even if not for the mega crush, she had a feeling Caleb would be in her heart, anyways. Isaac was. "It's a place reserved for only those I worry about most," she laughed, drawing her hand back before he twitched himself off the couch.

He did twitch, though for once didn't draw back. It took effort, damnit, but he managed. "Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad one." Caleb said. "I already apparently piss you off with little things like going for a walk. I'm probably bad for your heart." he said. He was starting to think back to last night, and how she'd reacted over the phone. How fucking pissed she'd gotten. It continued to mystify him.

"It's not anger, babe, it's worry. It's only disguised as anger," Jamie explained patiently. And it felt a lot like anger sometimes, too, if her desire to hit things she was worried about was any indication.

And we're back to 'babe' again. Caleb noted with a faint smile. He shifted, still sitting partially turned on the couch to face her. "Seemed a whole lot like anger to me." he said, though he wasn't actually complaining. It was something he didn't quite understand, so he was kinda sorta trying to figure it out, even if it was in a backwards, conveluded sort of way.

"Felt like anger, too, at first," she admitted with a faint grin. "But it was worry, trust me." Victory, he didn't twitch himself off of the couch!

He took that in, sort of frowning a touch as he tried to get that to make sense in his head. "Why?" he asked. For a second, he looked kind of vulnerable, because he wasn't sure what exactly was going on there. It was new for him, he didn't know how to react, and generally, it was knocking him off balance because of it.

Jamie pulled her knee up, resting her chin on it and watching him closely. "Why did I get the urge to whack you upside the head for doing something dangerous, or why was I worried?" she asked, tone still light.

"Why were you worried." Caleb clarified, watching her. He made eye contact and managed to hold it, though that took effort too. Right now he really kind of wanted to go stand on the other side of the room, and not look at her, but he knew that would hardly be productive. Which wasn't to say it wouldn't happen any minute now anyways but he was resisting for the time being.

She searched his eyes for a long moment, considering what to say. "I worry about everyone," Jamie began carefully. "But I worry about my friends the most. Insanely, actually. It's sort of a daily thing," she explained. It was also one reason why she didn't have many friends; not many people could put up with her constant mother-henning.

Her response at once made him feel better and worse. It was like everything to do with her, utterly conflicting. That was when he got up to move, sort of half pacing around the room while trying not to look like he was pacing. On the one hand, it made him feel better because that was proof that he wasn't anything special. On the other, it was proof that he wasn't anything special, and that bugged. So basically he was screwed on that score. He just didn't know which feeling to go with, since they both vied for attention. Unsettled was really what was kicking his ass right now. "I wish you wouldn't." he finally said, after far too long a silence.

Jamie waited until he spoke before standing up and walking towards him. "Too late, I've already started," she said with a smile, her eyes gone soft. She grabbed one of his hands and tugged him towards the kitchen. "C'mon, let me feed you something. Ice cream?" she offered lightly.

He took a step or two after her before he tried to tug his hand away from her. "I don't..." he started, not sure where that sentence was going. I don't want you to worry about me, because it's really confusing. People don't worry about me. It just doesn't happen. I'm not used to anyone doing that. I'm not used to the idea that my actions might be doing something detrimental to someone else just by default.

She turned back to him, looking up into his eyes. She didn't release her hold on his hand, but loosened it considerably; he could pull away if he wanted to. "You don't..?" she prodded gently, having a feeling this had nothing to do with ice cream.

He let her keep his hand for another few moments before he took it back, then dragged his fingers through his hair. "I'm not used to anyone worrying about me." he admitted, and it seemed like more than a throwaway statement. To him that meant something fairly substantial. Something more than just blowing everyone off or whatever.

Jamie bit her lip before clasping her hands behind her back. She had to do something with them, or else she was going to hug him, and... yeah. No touching allowed, right? "Well, I guess you'll start with me." She smiled warmly up at him. "I'm not used to people worrying about me, either," she admitted. "Chrissy used to, but it was never... well, like you have today. So you're not alone for feeling a little out of sorts here."

Caleb went and pushed himself up on one of the counters, sitting there. He didn't tell her that he thought she needed someone to watch out for her. Obviously. He watched her walking around, and looked down, sort of troubled. "No one used to worry about me." he said. "...at all." His voice was a touch quiet.

She opened the freezer door and took out the ice cream, staying quiet for a moment. That statement had 'issues' written all over it. "D'you wanna talk about it?" Jamie asked, her voice soft. She looked over at him with warm eyes, setting the ice cream on the counter.

He didn't know. Or more specifically, he didn't even know how to start. So Caleb wound up not answering her as he stared down at the kitchen floor, trying to figure out what he could say. Did he want to talk about it? He might. She told him about her grandpa and all that shit, did that mean that he could talk to her? Did he even want to start bringing that shit up? Why? It wouldn't accomplish anything.

"I'm a good listener," Jamie murmured, reaching up into the cabinet for two bowls. "You can always talk to me, Caleb."

He glanced up, tugged from his thoughts. "You offer that really easily." he said. Then gave her a light half smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Bet you do that with everyone." She probably did. She seemed like it. If she worried about everyone then of course they could all talk to her too, right?

She hesitated for a moment, then shook her head. "No," Jamie admitted. "Some people... if you make an offer like that, then they just..." Her voice trailed off, and she frowned down at the counter. "No, I don't offer to listen to everyone. I mean, I will if they start talking, but I don't offer unless I think it's important, or the person is important to me. Does that make sense?"

He watched her, frowning as he tried to understand. "What were you going to say first? Sometimes they just what?" he asked. Seemed kind of important, like some piece of the puzzle that might make everything make more sense to him. But then again, Jamie was kind of a mystery so he wasn't so sure that was going to fly. But...worth a shot.

"Sometimes to help people, you can't let them rely on you," Jamie murmured, eyes darkening. "So with some people... I keep my distance. I'm not out to rescue anyone from themselves. In some situations... you just have to let the person come to the realization on their own about what they need to do. Listening doesn't do any good in those situations, because all they do is repeat themselves, and they never try to fix their problems. For those people, the only way to help them is to not help them." She frowned at the counter before sighing. "I'm not sure if that made any sense at all..."

"No, it makes sense." Caleb said. "People can't limp along using you as a crutch forever if they're ever going to make it on their own. And you can't be expected to hold someone up indefinitely." Which pretty much made him think that he shouldn't have said anything to begin with, and he shouldn't talk about it now. He had to go and wonder how many people exactly she held up, while she never took any herself. ...well. Until people came along and forced her to take ten minutes for herself.

"I can't see you ever doing that, though," Jamie said with a little smile. "You're already talking yourself out of talking to me about it, aren't you?" She popped the lid off of the ice cream in the mean time and began to spoon it out into the bowls.

He gave her a half smile. "Maybe." he said. Yes. "And I dunno. I guess none of it matters. Issues, whatever. It's something I'll just deal with and move on." Some day. Like, years from now after they were dead. It was a theory, he could dream, right?

"It would be nice if it worked like that, wouldn't it?" Jamie asked wryly. "I say that to myself all the time, but here I am, still pretty much destroying myself over my issues." She passed him a bowl and a spoon before putting the ice cream back in the freezer. "As nice as it would be to just deal and move on, it's never really that easy."

"No, but at least now you have me to bitch at you so you can do something about the tension." Caleb pointed out. "Because I'm so not letting up on that, you realize. And if it takes a screaming match every time, I'll do it." he said firmly, eating some of his ice cream. "I'd like to help with your issues, just the ones I know about are the ones I can't do much about, unfortunately."

Jamie leaned against the counter and took a bite of her ice cream. "Grandpa's not really an issue," she said with a smile. "At least, I don't think of him as one. It's a little hard to take care of him, but... he's family. All of my real issues are dead."

Caleb eyed her, since she was leaning next to him. Though he did note that she wasn't too close, just...next to him. Sort of like the couch. He could handle that. Near, within reach, if he wanted to. He wouldn't do it, but...there. "Explain that to me. All your real issues are dead. That right there is a story, so...talk to me." he invited, voice just a little quieter than usual.

She shrugged her shoulders. "My mother. She's dead. I meant it literally." Jamie shot him a weary smile, but her eyes were a little sad. "How is it whenever I try to get you to open up, I just end up talking about myself, anyways?" she queried, arching a brow at him.

He gave her a soft little smile. "Because I want to know about you." he said. "So I keep asking. And you humor me and tell me." he answered. "Go on. She's dead. I know you didn't like her." And that she got her 'don't you dare save me' attitude in direct defiance of who her mother was. That much was really obvious, and she'd given him enough to put that all together.

Jamie took a bite of ice cream, sucking on the spoon for a moment as she thought. "She was just... a very silly woman. Stupid," she admitted, frowning at a distant point on the wall. "She was an alcoholic, and she liked downers. Pills, mostly... She couldn't take care of herself, let alone me. Well, if she'd tried she would have managed just fine. She always did okay when she had a man around..."

That said a whole lot. He listened, eating his own ice cream and even if she wasn't looking at him, he was watching her. How she got all sort of distant now, though she was still talking, so that was a plus. The fact that he didn't see the return of the tension was a good sign too. At least he didn't see it yet. "So a dependent, irresponsible alcoholic that wasn't a good mother. Check." he said. "You turned out fine."

"Yep," Jamie agreed, offering him a smile. "Just because I came from shit doesn't mean I have to turn out that way. You make yourself, you don't let other people make you. Not even your parents." She twirled the spoon in her ice cream and took another bite. "I took care of Mama a lot when I was little," she admitted. "Well, as much as I could. I was only a baby, after all. Not much I could do except heat up soup in the microwave and hold her hair back while she puked."

Well didn't that explain a whole lot too. Really solidified why she was constantly spazzing about everyone else around her but couldn't be bothered to take care of herself. No one had ever done it for her. But then, he felt the same way, but he was just seeing it in her clearly. "That why you can't let anyone take care of you? You always have to be the responsible one?"

"Yep," she nodded. "Sums it up pretty nicely, I think." Ice cream finished, she rinsed out the bowl in the sink before sticking it in the dishwasher. "Silly, isn't it?" Jamie asked, gazing up at the ceiling, a wry smile on her face. "There were a few years after she died, before Grandpa started going senile... he tried to get me to act like a little girl again, you know. Just play, and enjoy my childhood. But then he got sick, so here I am now."

His gaze followed her, and he finished off his ice cream too, hopping down from the counter to follow suit and put his dish away. "You're entitled to be a teenager." he said. "I know you have a lot of responsibilities, and you do them. But you really have to give yourself time too. To just...do whatever. Like tomorrow when you come out with me to Journey's house to watch movies."

Jamie froze, eyes narrowing suspiciously as she turned to face him. "What did you just say?" she asked, her voice suddenly far too quiet.

Caleb suddenly had the idea that he'd done something wrong. So he eyed her warily and took a step back. "Tomorrow...movies over at Journey's...hanging out with people for a little while." he said. Why did he suddenly have the mental imagery of her freaking out and kicking him out? Yeah.

Oh, hell yes, had he done something wrong. Jamie stamped her foot , eyes flashing angrily. "Okay, smart guy, think of this. Chrissy, ex best friend, out for my blood, you remember her, right? Blonde psychotic bitch? Now have I mentioned before now she's obsessed with Journey Winters?" she snapped. "And she can't stand his friend Lullaby, or the fact that her new boyfriend wouldn't bite when she made a move for him. And you want me to draw more attention to the two of them? Are you fucking insane or are you this stupid on a regular basis?" she asked, stepping up close to him and glaring into his eyes. "And aside from that, why does this whole thing scream set up to me? 'With people', as in multiple, which means you've set this up. Am I right? You and Journey and Lulu getting together to plot to save me from myself, give me a social life, is that right? Fuck you."

Jamie brushed past him, heading for her room. "I think you know where the door is. Don't let it hit you in the ass on the way out." She went into her bedroom and slammed the door shut behind her, leaning against it afterwards. Figures. I should have seen this coming.

To say he was surprised would have been understating it. Greatly. He was left blinking, and really only came out of it when she slammed her door. That snapped him out of it, and he didn't head for the door, he headed back through the house to her shut door. "Is it difficult for you to grasp the concept that people might like you and want to hang out with you now that you don't have a psychotic bitch attached to you?" he asked through the door. "Or how about the one that goes it's not your fucking decision to tell people they're not allowed to hang out with you to keep shit from them." he added. "You spit that one back in my face before, Jamie, so you can't even start giving shit about that. Don't you start saying that you're going to do it to them because it's not fair." he said, almost hitting the wall by the door, but he clenched his fist and let it down before he did. "Besides, she can't fuck with everyone. If she does sooner or later someone's going to lay the fucking smackdown on that bitch, and I can't stand the thought of you just letting her run your life by stupid threats! That's bullshit!"

Grr... She whirled around and yanked open the door to glare at him, crossing her arms again. "You didn't even ask! You just made the decision for me, didn't you? Oh, Jamie needs friends, so I'll get them for her! I don't need you to do shit like that for me, Caleb!" she snapped. "I'm sixteen, not six. I know how to socialize! We were doing it just fine up until you decided to be my fucking keeper and make me friends, you know! The more people I open up to, the more likely it is I'll slip up and have social services on my head! There's too much at stake, not just Journey and Lullaby and her boyfriend, and their happiness. Not just Chrissy going psychotic and fucking with people! I can make my own decisions, okay!?"

"And if I did ask, you would have told me to fuck off!" Caleb said. "Because you've decided you're not allowed to have any fucking fun in your life, or some bullshit like that, It's not my fault people want to spend time with you, I'm just the messenger! It shouldn't be the end of the fucking world because people want to hang out with you and watch movies, for fuck's sake! And whatever, don't even fucking give me that shit. You told me. How exactly does having friends or just hanging out with people equate you suddenly having social services on your head? Don't tell people! Or maybe they're trustworthy, who knows, it's not like anyone's going to be grilling you on your life! It's not a fucking test you have to take to get in the door, it's just spending time somewhere that isn't your room, and under Chrissy's thumb." Why was he even here? Seriously. WHY?!

Jamie blew out her breath, completely exasperated. Then she turned around and lay calmly on her bed, frowning at the ceiling, and not responding to anything he'd said. She was still angry, oh yes.

...she just didn't know what to say in response, because everything he'd just said kind of made sense. Even if she didn't want to admit it...

Caleb sighed and leaned against her door frame, then slid down it to sit on the floor. He wasn't exactly invited in right now, so he wasn't pushing it. He leaned his head back against the wood of the door frame, and stared at nothing for a few moments, then finally looked back over at her. "I'd really like you to come." he said quietly.

She waited for a long moment, still frowning at the ceiling, still angry. She felt a little betrayed; he knew she didn't want any help; she'd given him the anti-damsel spiel and had thought he'd understood how she felt. This? Felt like help. "Fine," she muttered. "I'll go. This time. But if you ever do this again? Yeah, let me just say don't, right now." Because throwing something at his head was a very appealing thought right now, and she probably wouldn't feel so inclined to hold back if he did this again.

"Do what again, exactly? Invite you out?" Caleb asked, voice unreadable. He wasn't looking at her anymore, he was giving a dark, stormy troubled expression to the floor, arms crossed over his chest. Christ, what the fuck was with them? Things had been fine before, and now everything was fucked up, like, most of today. He was just bad for her. And right now he was starting to wonder if she wasn't bad for him in return.

"Plot behind my back," she grumbled. And now she was starting to wonder if she was just paranoid. Maybe Journey had just been planning a get together for awhile, and he'd invited Caleb, and he was asking her as a--oh Hell no. Yeah, Caleb knew about the no dating thing, right? ...she wasn't sure how she felt about this maybe kind of being a date. "...I don't care if you invite me out," Jamie added grudgingly. "This just feels like a set up to me."

"Let me ask you a question." Caleb said, voice soft, quiet, overwhelmingly unreadable. "If you saw someone in your position, if you saw someone...just..." he trailed off, looking away again, this time fully out in the opposite direction to look into the hall. "What would you do? Seems to me that you go out of your way to help everyone you can if you see even the slightest opportunity. So explain to me why it is it's fine for you, but not for anyone else? And I'm not saying it's a set up. I'm just asking a question."

Jamie shrugged, realized he couldn't see her, and then sat up with a sigh. She looked over at him, still frowning. "I don't know. I guess I'm just a martyr. That sounds completely idiotic to say out loud, though, doesn't it?"

He heard her move, and he looked back at her then. "Well..." he said, not able to keep his eyes on her for long. "It's bullshit. Things go both ways. Before you even knew my name, you were trying to help me. So fuck you if you think that you get to just walk around doing whatever you want and giving holy fucking hell to anyone who tries to give back."

"Why does it bother you so much, anyways?" Jamie questioned, genuinely curious. Her anger had faded off to nothing but mild irritation now; she just couldn't stay angry for very long. She'd never been able to.

Caleb was picking at a loose string on the cuff of his shirt, and his eyes remained there. "Which part?" he asked. Because there were a hell of a lot of points brought up, and pretty much all of them were bothering the shit out of him right now. Couldn't throw a rock without hitting an issue, seemed like.

"That I don't let people help me." She paused, thinking. "That I don't relax, too. We'll start with those." Because it completely baffled her that someone she'd just met already seemed to care so much. Sure, it was a little hypocritical (considering she was already insanely worried about him), but she'd always been abnormal when it came to caring about people. She'd never met anyone to ever worry about her as much as Caleb seemed to.

"Because you don't." he answered. "I like you. But...it's become really obvious really fast that you just...don't take care of yourself. At all. You're so worried about everyone else around you, and you ignore yourself entirely. I'm not really the type to sit back and be babied for any reason. Fuck, I can't even tell you the last time anyone lifted a finger to help me period beyond you, so it's not something I'm getting my head around real easily." He realized he'd said too much there. So after that he shut up, then looked over at his shoes on her floor. Could he get them and be the fuck out of here in a minute and a half? Maybe.

Jamie stood up and approached him. She eyed him curiously for a moment before leaning down and pulling him to his feet. "C'mon, I'm not mad anymore, so you're allowed to be normal and sit on the furniture," she said lightly, pulling him towards the bed. "We'll just have to learn to deal with each other. And our... helping tendencies. Somehow."

He let himself be pulled up, but tugged his hands back away from her once he was up. He did follow, though. He was under the impression he was a fucking idiot because he wasn't out the door and gone yet, but...whatever. He sat down on the edge of the bed, and started picking at her blanket. "Think it'll be worth it?" he asked.

She laughed, shaking her head. "Honestly? I have no clue. I'm getting myself too attached to you, that's for sure," she admitted, sitting beside him. "I think we should at least give it a shot. We were going to try the friendship thing out together, so we might as well try the helpy thing, too, right?" Jamie was watching him out of the corner of her eye, wondering if he wanted to leave again. She wouldn't blame him if he did, but it still scared her that he might be planning an escape.

He sighed, then flopped back on her bed, one arm curled behind is head to prop it up. "I suppose." he said. "I think we drive each other fucking nuts though." he added conversationally. His eyes were on her back, as he settled a little. Not a lot, he'd come a little too close to actually talking to her. He didn't think she really knew, though. And like she said in the kitchen, whenever she tried, he redirected her.

So far, she let him.

Jamie turned slightly so she could look at him. "Yeah, but I think that's part of the fun we have," she said with an amused little smile, reaching out to gently poke him in the ribs. "Well, for me, anyways. Does it just annoy you?" she queried.

He wrinkled his nose and scooted farther away from her. "Don't tell me you just wanted me in here to get yourself free touches." he said. "And...I don't know. I'm used to fighting with people. I'm just not used to fighting with anyone where one of us didn't leave bleeding." he said honestly.

"Pokes don't count. I'm not about to go all hobag on you." Jamie rolled her eyes, amused, but folded her hands in her lap. Hands to herself, check. "And making you bleed is definitely not a goal I've set for myself, so no worries there."

"I'm really not worried about it." Caleb assured her. "I don't think you're like that, and c'mon. If you were going to? You were like a foot away from me wet, naked and only wearing a towel. If you had designs on me? That was your shot." he said, with the faintest of smirks.

"And you were all gentlemanly. Your hands didn't even twitch," Jamie smirked. Well, he had looked at her all intense like, and then he'd smirked a little. ...and she wasn't thinking about that, because it had her slightly fidgety.

His own expression widened as he turned it back on her. "I was. And I'm sure at some point in my life I'm going to completely hate myself for it, but for right now I'm telling myself it's because I'm better than that, and all that other shit." he commented. Because he really couldn't get around the her being hot thing. She was. Attractive, massively.

Jamie gazed at him, very curious. "You'll hate yourself for keeping your hands to yourself? Now why is that, Caleb?" she asked lightly, her tone just a little bit teasing. Her eyes were wide and a little too innocent, however.

He laughed at that. "I'll tell you when you're older." he said, grinning at her impishly. Right about now he was kind of considering reaching over to poke her in the side, but he was aware that he was in a position to be overwhelmed by her if she decided to go for payback. Thus he didn't.

She pouted at him, and this time she didn't even have to fake it. "Tell me when I'm older? You can't be that much older than me! C'mon, tell me! I'm old enough to drive and everything." And if he didn't tell her, she'd just threaten him with more rib poking. To do worse was tempting, except for the whole in her bedroom on her bed thing.

"No, sorry, with that innocent look you were giving me, I couldn't possibly dream of corrupting you like that." Caleb said, smirking evilly at her. "So you're just going to have to find someone else to tell you these things. I'm looking out for your virtue and everything. Aren't I nice?" he asked. He was just asking to be hit, or something. He wasn't sure what yet, but he was waiting to find out.

"Psh, I look out for my virtue just fine on my own!" So said the girl who was currently sitting in her bedroom with no supervision with a very attractive boy laying on her bed. Caleb was smirking at her again again, and this one? Oh yes, this one was the most powerful of all. She may have started blushed, but considering she was focusing more on not fidgeting and less on other outward signs, yeah, she didn't care. Go her, she wasn't squirming!

"Of course you do." Caleb said, still smirking at her, and he nodded like he was placating her. "I believe you. Obviously you're so innocent and everything. So I'd just be a bastard if I fucked around with that. You don't even swear, unless you're really pissed at me." he pointed out.

That had her blinking at him, blush fading. "That's just good manners, really. You should hear what goes on in my head." Or what she wrote in her diary. "I am not innocent," Jamie defended, poking him in the ribs again. "Don't make me do something drastic to prove it," she added darkly.

Caleb rubbed at his ribs, as if she'd hurt him. Then he arched an eyebrow at him. "...what would you do exactly?" he asked. "Start swearing like a sailor? Show me your hidden porn collection?" he added. Now he was fully into teasing the hell out of her, because it was far too much fun not to. Of course he was still also trying to find out where the lines were on retaliation.

She paused, wondering just what she would do. "Um..." And then it hit her. She grinned at him, triumphant. "I'll sing a song."

"Sing a song." he repeated. "And that's supposed to prove that you're not sweet innocent and virtuous?" he asked skeptically. "Shouldn't you be concentrating on agreeing with me that you are? Besides. You've got nothin' on me. I've heard about you, you know." he added with a laid back, conversational tone. "You apparently haven't had a boyfriend ever. And if small-town gossip can be trusted, I'm the first guy that's been in here ever. So sorry, your innocence isn't in question at all."

Jamie made a face at him. "'course I don't date. As a general rule, all the guys I've been around have been man whores. With grabby hands and horrible pick up lines. And then the whole I don't want to dump all my issues on some poor sap" like Isaac "who deserves better." She prodded him in the ribs again. "And you of all people should know that some songs aren't exactly innocent and virtuous."

She looked him dead in the eye then, crossing her arms over her stomach. "Thinking of You," she murmured, with a triumphant little smirk on her face.

"Oi! No more poking or I'm off the bed." he told her. It was an empty threat, totally. Then of course he blushed a bit, turning an innocent look on her then. He hadn't dusted off 'innocent' in a while, but he was still fairly sure he could pull it off convincingly. Even if she would know it was bullshit. "What's wrong with that song?" he asked, voice effecting his innocence as well.

"Oh, you're gonna play that game then?" She poked him again, this time in the stomach. "Rev 22:20, Mister Innocent," Jamie laughed, blushing just a little. Yeah, that song had had her red in the face when she'd first heard it.

Okay his innocent act totally cracked at that. He couldn't even pretend that song was about anything but what it was. "Hey, I like that song." he said. Because he did. If ever there was mood music, that was it. "But I probably shouldn't have let you take it. It probably dropped your purity just listening to it." he added.

"I liked it, too." Moving on! She leaned over him, frowning. "Hey, stop with this whole innocent, pure thing! I am not," she huffed. "You're treating me like I'm twelve or something!"

He made an attempt to shrink back, which was a difficult maneuver while laying on one's back, and obviously he didn't quite pull it off. He also thought that her above him like that probably wasn't the best place for her. Especially when they were discussing purity, and she'd already told him that she didn't date. Not that he was thinking about it anyways. Really. Cuz. Um...something. "Yeah, well, for liking it, you're blushing." he pointed out. "And you're the one who's innocent and sweet, and hasn't ever had a boyfriend and all that, I'm just contributing to your decisions in life! Why exactly am I getting shit for it?" he asked, flashing innocence at her again.

Jamie poked him in the stomach again. "I am not sweet," she pouted. "And I've never had a boyfriend because I'm picky about guys, that's all." She eyed him again, still leaning over him. "I am so not buying that innocent face, especially when I've seen you smirk."

She really needed to move now. Because for all the fighting they'd already done today, that didn't actually make him like her any less, and she was still hot, and how did he get into this situation again? Seriously. Hadn't they been screaming at each other like...twenty minutes ago? And yet you stuck around, didn't you. Yeah. That's how you got here. Her over you like that? That's her fault. He looked up at her for a long moment, then turned the smirk back on. "What, that say I'm evil or something?" he asked.

Heat crept up into her cheeks. That damn smirk! "No, it says something else entirely," Jamie said quietly, her eyes staying locked on his face. Why wasn't she moving? Like, now? Because this? This was insanely dangerous for her virtue. Much more than any song. Thank God he didn't like touching...

He really did have the insane urge to kiss her. He did. She was right there, and for some reason she wasn't moving back out of the way, and with everything they were talking about... Admittedly, he'd lost where the conversation had even started by this point. He just knew they were talking about sex music, Jamie's purity, or lack thereof. And he heard himself asking... "What does it say then?"

Jamie hesitated, still blushing, before finally settling back on the bed. She lay down beside him, resting her hands on her stomach and stared at the ceiling. Her ceiling was very fascinating. Yep. "It's sexy," she said quietly.

Yep, very fascinating ceiling. Totally.

Caleb blinked at that, then rolled onto his side, head propped up on his elbow as he looked down at her. He was still not in any contact, but it was close. "Run that one by me again?" he asked, watching her face. Okay good that she'd moved from where she'd been, but he was becoming more and more aware that it didn't matter where the fuck they moved, they were still on her bed.

She gazed up at him accusingly, blush still visible on her cheeks. "You totally heard me. I know you did." Jamie pouted at him, crossing her arms over her chest defensively. "I'm not saying it again, so there."

He was looking down at her, liking the blush on her cheeks. She seemed to do that a lot around him, and he was a fan. "See, I think I was hallucinating. Cuz I could have sworn you said that you thought it was sexy. And you told me before that I was attractive. I'm in a little bit of shock, so I need to check my facts. Make sure I'm not making shit up in my head." he finished reasonably. Caleb was just barely holding himself in check, faint smirk still there on his features even though he was trying hard to stop.

Stop smirking, she pleaded with him silently. "You weren't hallucinating," Jamie murmured, eyes going back to the ceiling. Oh yes, very interesting ceiling she had! "And you're not making anything up, either."

"Huh." Caleb said contemplatively, grinning down at her. He leaned over her just a little, watching her eyes--then dropped back onto his back next to her. "I stand by my earlier assessment. You need your eyes checked." he teased.

Her eyes grew steadily wider... until he dropped back onto the bed. She sat up and scowled at him. "That was mean! And I do not need my eyes checked. It is my opinion," Jamie proclaimed. "And you can't refute my opinion with your opinion. It's a rule."

Caleb had to laugh. "That was mean?" he asked, staring at her. "How exactly was that mean?! Explain that to me!" he tried to sober himself, but it was really hard when she was looking at him like that. Then he scoffed. "And now you're making up rules? How's that fair? Do I get to arbitrarily make up rules?"

Jamie tapped her chin contemplatively. "I suppose you can make up one rule," she decided somberly, completely skipping over his first question. "That'll make us even, right?" she asked, winking at him playfully.

"You didn't answer my question." Caleb complained, pouting at her for a moment. Then he sighed and shifted to cross his arms beneath his head. "One rule, huh? How many do you get?" he asked, eying her critically.

"As many as I want, of course," Jamie replied, smiling sweetly. "If you're nice, I might let you make up a few more," she relented. "Maybe. But no more smirking!"

"If I'm nice? As in, if I'm a good little boy, I can make up more?" Caleb asked, laughing at her. "You'd have to define your terms. What exactly do I have to do to be considered nice? I'm not very nice as a general rule, y'know. You just bring it out in me, I guess." Along with tendencies towards shouting at one another, but who was counting? "And I can't help the smirk thing either you bring that out too." he added. Then he paused thoughtfully, wracking his brains for a good rule.

Without thinking about it, she reached out to play with a lock of his hair, eyes distant. Psh, like he has to be nice. If he really wanted to, he could probably get me to do anything... within reason. Hobag. "I don't think I'd like you as much if you were a good little boy," Jamie noted, amused. "You'd be a lot more boring to talk to, that's for sure."

"What--" Caleb twitched, half looking up as if to see what the hell she was doing. It was really belatedly that he realized what it was. God, did that ever make him feel...strange. He couldn't in any way shape or form describe how, but it did. Just...massively weird. Goosebumps had rose up on his arms though they were covered so no one knew but him, but still. He turned his eyes back up on hers, getting back to what they were talking about and he hoped that she wasn't going to start asking him about why it was he didn't like to be touched. "Would I be. So you like me for my evil. Good to know. How does that fit in with being nice?" he asked curiously.

Once Jamie realized what she'd done, she drew her hand back quickly. "Sorry," she said quickly, folding her hands back in her lap. I've gotta stop doing that to him... "I wouldn't really call what you are evil," she said, rolling her eyes. "It's more like... a mean streak. It doesn't really fit in with you being nice at all, really. I'm just weird. I don't understand girl logic any better than you do," she laughed, amused with herself. "Sometimes you're nice, and sometimes you're mean, and sometimes you're absolutely infuriating." Jamie shrugged. "Don't worry, I'll be sure to tell you which one you are. At the moment, you're being good," she teased, smirking faintly.

"I fear for the planet if not even girls understand girl-logic." Caleb commented. He was glad she'd stopped, but...it hadn't been bad. Just something he wasn't at all used to, and didn't know how to deal with. At all. So probably best that she'd knocked it off. "I still fail to see how I'm being mean at all." he added. "You haven't explained that one to me. Infuriating? Yeah you're pretty clear when I'm being that. Nice, I can see it. But mean. That's where you lose me."

She frowned at him. "Well, I'm not explaining it!" At all. Ever. Because when she said mean, she actually meant hot. Arousing. As in she wanted to tangle her hands in his hair and kiss him. And that was not an explanation she was just going to give him, especially not when they were lounging on her bed. "Did you ever think of a rule?" Jamie asked pleasantly, changing the subject.

"Yeah, every day I get to ask you a question you can't dodge." Caleb said. He gave her his evil little smirk for it too. Because he was starting to remember what she'd been saying about his expressions and weaknesses relating to them. Oh yes he was.

Oh. Shit. There was a moment of mental flailing before her eyes darted up to the ceiling. "I don't like that rule at all. Veto!" Jamie declared cheerfully.

"What?!" Caleb asked sitting up right. "You can't do that! I only get one bloody rule to make, you aren't allowed to veto it! That's so massively unfair...I wasn't even bitching much that you apparently get as many as you want!"

Of course that hadn't worked. She hadn't really expected it to, but it had been worth a shot, right? "Okay... one question a day that I can't dodge," Jamie agreed, very reluctantly. "I'll accept those very evil terms."

Caleb gave her an evil, impish look. "That's better." he said. Now hopefully she just wouldn't turn it around on him. Because that would suck. So far he was amazingly good at not talking to her about anything. But then again, she didn't really pursue it at all. He turned things back around on her and she was happy to go with it, just talking. He was a good listener. He just also happened to be a hell of a lot pushier than she was when it came to getting information. In the back of his mind, he wondered if it was just because she didn't really want to know him, or who he was beneath it all, but he ignored it.

She flicked him lightly on the forehead for the look. "Better for you, maybe," Jamie grumped good naturedly. "What do I get out of this deal? 'cause I'm pretty sure even all of my made up rules put together don't top how potentially mortifying yours is," she pointed out logically.

He wrinkled his nose and rubbed at his forehead. "You just adore picking on me, don't you." he said, shaking his head. "I get anywhere near you and you poke me to death, or flick me..." he trailed off, not sounding that put out about it. And he sounded more put out than he actually was. "Hey I don't remember there being a part of the deal where you get something, when you get to make up rules whenever you want, and I only get this one thing."

"Hey, I said you might get more random rules later!" Jamie reminded him. "And you could always poke me back, you know. I wouldn't complain. Or bite you." Unless you bit me first. Oh yeah, she was just having all sorts of impure thoughts today. And he thought she was innocent? Hah.

"Yeah, but there were conditions." Caleb said. "I have to behave to be allowed more rules. You just get them. So I fail to see where you need to be compensated for allowing me my one lowly rule." he continued, crossing his arms and giving her a challenging smirk. "Sure you wouldn't bite me?" he asked innocently, it not at all matching his expression.

Hmph, two could play at that game. Her lips curled up into a sultry smile. "Only if you ask nicely. Or if you bite me first." And then she waited several moments before fluttering her eyelashes. The smile morphed into a full on grin, and she laughed wickedly, pleased with herself.

She definitely got him there. He blinked at her, then sighed, and flopped back over. Yeah okay! Time to stop playing with fire, because he needed a second to recover after that. Mostly because he'd had the very nearly uncontrollable urge to lean over, grab her by the hair and bite her ear. Which he was fairly sure would get him never spoken to again. Yeah. Definitely. The girl didn't date. She'd said so. And anyways, what the fuck was wrong with him? ...besides an incredibly hot girl flirting back and forth with him?

Actually, that would have gotten him a lapful of very giddy girlflesh. But seeing as he didn't act on his impulse, he instead had a concerned girl leaning over to peer down at him, concern in her eyes. "Was that too much? 'msorry," Jamie apologized, biting her lip. Oh God, I'm a slut. I broke him. Now what do I do?

"No, it's okay." Caleb said. "I'm good. Just...need to reroute my brain, I think. I've got a good imagination." he added. God, she really did just feel the need to loom, or be close, or touch him in some fashion, didn't she. She was doing it all the time. The disconcerting thing was somewhere in his being he liked it. That was a bad thing.

She leaned back again, scooting backwards to give him more space. 'cause yeah, that hadn't been any kind of good reaction in her book, and she had no immediate plans to resume flirting with him. Or touching him at all, really. "Sorry," she repeated again in a murmur, feeling absolutely worthless. And quite slutty.

He looked over at her for a minute, quirking a look at her. Then he glanced around, picked up a throw pillow, and threw it at her. "Quit it." he said. "No getting all mopey because I'm fucked up and have issues." he added. "I even warned you, so you can't say you didn't know." he added, playful touch to his voice. He didn't want her looking like that. Especially since he was just trying hard to behave. She said she didn't date. So...yeah.

Jamie caught the pillow and hugged it carefully to her chest. Hugs made her feel better, even though she could only ever give them to inanimate objects nowadays. "You're not fucked up," she corrected mildly, smiling faintly. But yeah, no more flirting from her today. Unless he started it. Hurray for the cold slap in the face of rejection!

"Okay. I'm not fucked up." Caleb said, in a clearly amused tone. "You realize that like, any other guy in the universe that was right here, right now, would probably be pawing you by now, right?" he asked. Because they would have brains. They would be intelligent, and at the very least, trying. Because seriously. That look she gave a few minutes ago? Fuck.

She blinked at him, genuinely surprised. "Um, kind of. Sort of? I guess. I mean, I've been pawed at before by guys. I'm kind of used to it, actually..." She'd just never been groped by a guy she was actually interested in. And that was the difference. "That's been the standard response so far. 'Hey, it's that Jamie chick, I think I'm going to grope her and see if I can melt the Ice Queen's heart. Or at least what's between her thighs.'" She shrugged, for the most part unbothered by it. Apparently, I am attracted to guys who have no interest in me aside from smirking at me to melt my brain. Awesome.

Caleb looked distinctly unhappy about what she had to say, but didn't say anything immediately. "They really try pawing at you just...anywhere?" he asked. Ohhh was his voice light. With just the tiniest edge of pissed beneath it.

Jamie quirked a brow at that. Was he angry, or did he just think she was a hobag? "Pretty much. Well, not where an authority figure would see, but other than that... I mean, it's not been uncommon for me to walk past a guy and get pulled randomly to sit in his lap. That kind of stuff. They did it with Chrissy all the time, so by default they all thought I'd love it, too." A few slaps to a few faces had gotten that worked out quickly enough... "Parties kind of suck for that really bad, but usually school is okay."

"And you never let anyone in." Caleb continued. He was watching her closely, eying her with a curious sort of undercurrent in his eyes. That ire that had risen up at the thought of guys just randomly grabbing at her was still there, but he knew it wasn't his business. That and if he ever saw it, he may well do something about it. It was likely, even. He just knew she wouldn't appreciate that.

"Um, so far the kind of guy who has expressed interest in me has been a little out of my type. I'd like to stay in species," Jamie said, wrinkling her nose. "Monkeys have better manners than the asswipes who're attracted to me. I'm perfectly fine with my frigid bitch reputation."

"Why'd you let me?" Caleb asked. He was still watching her, her expressions, the flickers behind her eyes when she spoke. "You brought me here. I thought Journey was going to have a coronary when I mentioned it. Why am I different?"

She hesitated, lowering her eyes to the blanket and picking at it as she thought. "You're the first person... ever, really, that I feel okay talking to. On my level. Usually I'm worrying more about the other person, what they're saying, their problems... So I don't talk nearly as much as I do around you," she admitted. "And you're the first person to actually suffer through grocery shopping with me, and you walked me home... even after we fought, and you even stayed after I pissed you off enough that you wanted to bail. And you called me, even after you saw how crazy I can get when I'm stressed. And the bath thing earlier? Yeah..." Crap, she had just rambled on about every single highlight of her mega crush on him, hadn't she? Jamie felt a faint blush rise on her cheeks again. Damnit all, today was a bad day for blushing. "That's why you're different," Jamie finished, her voice quiet.

Caleb listened to her, not having actually expected an exposition on it, but he was glad she'd given it. "You're one of the first people I can talk to too." he said eventually. "Usually I don't, really. Talk to anyone. Before, I just, kept my head down and tried not to attract too much attention." And just because his reasons weren't quite like hers and weren't anything he could explain, didn't make it any different. He also noted that despite the argument that they'd had that lead up to her actually taking a bath, it was listed. Which for some reason made him smile.

"Well, at least we're together on that," Jamie said with a smile. She gave the pillow another squeeze, because giving it to Caleb wasn't at all a welcome option. "So Journey told you that you're the first guy to ever come in my room, then?" she queried, raising her eyebrows and wondering just what the resident ditz had told Caleb about her.

He laughed, then leaned back again. "Yeah. I started saying I'd hung out with you and he practically had the eyes bugging out of his head thing going on. Kept stuttering over it all like it was the craziest thing he'd ever heard.

"Kay, the first thing you need to know about Journey is that he has a slight tendency for the over dramatic," Jamie laughed, eyes dancing with amusement. "But you are the first guy to ever come to my house. That much is true."

"Yeah, I kind of figured that." Caleb said, laughing. "But yeah?" he asked, quirking a cute little half smile at her. "First, huh? Was he right about the first in your room, too? Because you've got this window..." he started, eying it then looking back at her.

That had her giggling. And God wasn't he cute when he smiled like that. "Yeah, first in my room, too. I'm really not a hobag, even if I have my moments." Like, oh, most of her conversations with him? "It's not like any guy would ever have a reason to come here anyways, seeing as I'm pretty anti-dating."

"Yeah, you mentioned that." Caleb said. "I picked up on it. I'm observant like that." he added. And it's a shame. Gah. Would I even try if you did? There's still Ten. And...sigh. Juuuust shoot me. He was fucked, he figured. Pretty effectively.

Jamie sighed then, twirling a strand of hair on her finger. Yeah, her rule didn't seem to bother him, did it? 'cause he's not interested. Duh. She gave the pillow another little squeeze, wondering why she suddenly felt so lonely. Stupid crushes. They apparently made her act completely stupid, if today was any sort of indication.

"Out of curiosity, how long does that rule stand to be in place?" Caleb asked, half glancing around her room before he let his eyes rest on her again. His tone was unreadable, as was his expression. Possibly, just curious. Possibly not.

"I'd probably break it in a heartbeat for the right guy," she admitted without hesitation. She had a feeling she'd break it for Caleb, except for his whole screaming lack of interest in her. "I made it in the first place to keep all the asswipe guys who thought I was a slut at bay... and because, well... I didn't want to get close to a guy, only for him to find out all my issues and take off screaming."

I haven't. he thought. "So it's not really a rule, more just like, a scare tactic?" he asked, titling his head to the side as he regarded her. "You're just putting out the blanket no to run off the fucknut losers?" Interesting. Very interesting. Like, warranted further thought interesting.

"I'm not really a casual relationship kind of girl," Jamie added, her expression becoming thoughtful. "So it helps with that, too. But yeah, generally speaking it's more of a scare tactic than anything else."

"And gives you a clear cut reason to not have to deal with shit." Caleb added. "Huh." He smiled at her again, not saying anything further as he just...considered the information.

She nodded, watching him with curious eyes. "D'you think that makes me a frigid bitch?" she questioned, quirking a brow. She was more curious than anything, and it wasn't as though her self esteem weighed upon his answer. She just wanted his opinion on it. 'Huh' wasn't very forthcoming.

"No." Caleb said easily, because he really didn't. So the truth was heavy in his answer even if it came off lightly. "I don't. If you didn't have it, I'm pretty sure you'd be hounded all the time." he added. "And you say you kind of are anyways, so it'd just be worse if people thought they had a shot." Did he? Probably not.

"This is easier than just having to get uber bitchy and slap people in the face, like I had to before," Jamie admitted. "Though that was kind of fun sometimes, depending on the guy. Some of them really deserved it."

Caleb laughed. "Yeah but did you run into the guys who really liked it, that's the question." he said, flashing a grin at her. "I'll bet you did." He paused, then looked around her room. "Hey, what time is it?" he asked. "I'm supposed to be home to see my brother at five. Something about him attempting to make up for not being around my whole life."

"4:30," Jamie said, eying the clock and feeling more than a little disappointed. "I have to get dinner started anyways. Think you'll make it home in time?" she asked, standing up and stretching, watching him curiously. Really, she wanted to ask more about his brother and why he hadn't been around, but... well, he was probably going to have to run to make it home as it was.

"Shit, yeah I have to go then." he said. "I'll make it, though." he leaned over to grab his shoes off of the floor and put them on, standing up. "Um...keep my CDs for as long as you want, I don't really care, everything I really listen to actively is on my player, so..." he shrugged. "I'll see you tomorrow." Caleb added, a bit disappointed that he had to leave as well, but he grinned at her.

She sighed, rolling her eyes. "Yeah, you will. Stupid socializing. With people. Whatever will I do," she deadpanned. But then she flashed him a grin and planted a kiss on his cheek. "That's your punishment for making me actually hang out with people."

Caleb blushed. He was dark red immediately, and he hopped back, but it was just a wee bit belated. What with the shock and all. He looked at her, half smile still there, that cute little one that really took the edge off of his whole personality when it came out. "...okay. Consider me punished then." he said. "...see ya, Jamie." he added, reminding himself leaving now was what was happening. Really. As in moving towards the door and going out of it. Yep! Wow, check that out, novel concept. He looked back though, laughed at himself and grinned, then took off for home.