Godzilla time.

Who: Jesse and Nic
Where: Family Video
When: Late afternoon

Of all the lessons Nic had to relearn from time to time, her favorite was still discovering how awesome it was to sleep in. She'd only been awake for about an hour now, having slept as long as she could after her late night with Caleb the night before. Nic had woken in a good-enough mood, content with her last day off before school was back in session, and determined to make it as productive as her day ever was. She'd pitched the idea about working with Ash to her mother over lunch, and, willing to take her promise to look into it, followed up the talk by mooching a ride from her.

Like usual, her mother had a shift to pick up at work for some extra money, but Nic was used to that by now. She'd established some degree of trust, enough to leave her room for a little drinking and pot, and so it wasn't too unusual for her to spend a day at home alone. But if she was doing that? She needed movies. So the mooched ride was aimed at the video store, and with a kiss on her mom's cheek Nic headed in. She dumped her movies, starting a wide walk around the new releases. Nic would rent anything if the effects were good, the acting was bad, and the gore was plentiful.

Jesse had been left to his own devices all Sunday. Which was fine by him, that was how he lived most of his life. Though it seemed to have more people his age in it than ever before. He'd gotten better sleep the night before, without a mind in such close proximity, but he'd still slept late. Which also didn't bother him. Likewise hitching a ride with his stepdad, who was doing errands after the streets had been well salted and all, he sauntered into the video store, intent on getting something mindless to stare at for a few hours. Maybe he'd pick up The Wall again or something. It usually held his attention in check.

As he wandered through the stacks, humming lightly to himself with his hands tucked into his hoodie pockets, he happened to notice a vaguely-familiar dark head bobbing around over the shelves as well. He groped for her name. They'd passed a couple of words here and there; she wasn't a long-time resident, but a couple years ... kinda outcasty as well, but had never given him shit ... "Nic," he said out loud, looking at her. That was right, wasn't it?

She snapped around, never really at ease with a guy yelling her way, and Nic had to blink in surprise at the sight of Jesse. She... knew him, didn't she? She recognized him at least, one of those kids in the halls who, like her, rarely took off their headphones when moving from class to class. "Jesse?" she managed after a moment, a confused smirk lighting her face. Yeah, Jesse, that was it. She remembered better now, he'd commented on her Ministry shirt once, something about the drumming. "Um... what? Are you lost? You're dangerously close to the free kids' movies, amigo."

Jesse blinked, and looked around himself. He was, fancy that. "Huh," he said, and walked away from it, rounding the few aisles to get closer to her. "Neon and too many exclamation points give me hives," he said with a crooked little grin. If her band shirts were any indication, she had good taste in music, and that was always a plus. He'd remembered her name right, too, so that was good. "I thought I knew you and your name, turns out I was right. How's it hangin', chica? Looking for something suitably mind-numbing for a Sunday night as well?"

"The bloodier the better," Nic told him, snagging a box and reading the back. She frowned, popping it right back on the shelf. Jesse was a little... weird? But technically he was a kindred spirit, in that they were both loners around the halls, and if she took a little time with him while she picked out some movies, she wouldn't have to deal with clerks asking if she needed help. "You were right, yeah," she said with a smirk, ambling along and checking another box. Ugh, pass. "And it better not be hanging. They didn't cover anything like that when I got sat down to hear about my changing body." Which, in truth, she didn't know if she ever had. Still, Nic grinned a little in Jesse's direction, her eye twitching with the slightly dulled pain in her cheek.

Jesse eyed the box that she put back, but didn't pick it up. He chuckled as she rolled with the half-joke, slowly noticing that her face looked ... bad. Recently injured, and that sucked. But he'd seen her rolling around on a skateboard here and there, so he attributed it to that and didn't bother asking. "I'd hope not, actually. I think that would forcibly change my worldview just a little," he said, ambling along with her. He picked a few boxes up and put them back again, nothing grabbing his interest immediately. A movie had to have good cover art, he thought. It was a visual medium, and if they couldn't be buggered to grab your attention right off, they could suck it.

Nic smirked, wincing a little and sighing. She was ready to pick these scabs away already, just to loosen up her cheek and get a chance to properly laugh at people again. Maybe when she got home. "What, you'ver never heard of hermos? Best of both worlds? Hell, Tool even did that song, 'Hooker with a penis'." She figured he already knew that? But Nic never resisted the chance to talk about that kind of thing in wildly inappropriate place, especially near the videogames where a man was studiously checking the ratings of something his kids had picked out. "Still, yeah, not me. What about you? Looking to catch up on some romantic comedies?" she asked, winking cynically at him and grabbing a box as if offering it to Jesse.

"Ew, gross," Jesse said immediately, flinching theatrically away from the box and then shooting her an easy grin. "No thanks, think I'm more in the mode for bad sci-fi. Cardboard sets and shit. Milk crate time machines. Futuristic computers that are the size of a house. ... hell yes I've heard of hermos, I'd just never pegged you as one," he added with a quiet little laugh. Something ... kind of od was going on. He was getting some flashes from her as her, just small things like tipping a bottle up and sitting in class, but there wasn't much at all, and it was slow in coming. Not that he was really complaining, it was just kind of different. "What about you? Buckets of blood, you said?"

"Well, sci-fi is okay too," she replied, chuckling. "I love those movies with all the shit-CG? Like, the director must think he's Danny Boyle or something, but you get these movies where the effects are like, Nintendo-quality." She just kept on walking, grabbing a box and deciding she'd try this one. "But yeah, horror mostly," Nic went on, showing him the title, "Can't go wrong with something like 'Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer'. At least... not in my world where 'wrong' has a different meaning." She glanced Jesse's way, smirking a little and watching him. He seemed off? But not in any way that Nic could pin down. It was just... him, she supposed, a guy who'd earned his oddball status. She smirked a little, tucking the movie under her arm to keep walking. "Well, if you thought I was a standard girl, I guess you don't listen to the fuckwads at school much."

Jesse bypassed the horror section, though he had a hand up to run his fingertips over the boxes, too lightly to mess them up. He just liked to touch things. "I value my IQ too much to listen to them," he chuckled, giving her a sidelong look before he pushed his glasses up his nose a little more. "I feel stupider even accidentally overhearing certain conversations, I'd have to fucking shoot myself if I actually took anything like that with more than a grain of salt." He turned into the section he wanted to be in and started to slow down, blue eyes scanning over titles as they walked. "What is 'Hackers' doing in sci-fi?" he muttered mostly to himself, shaking his blonde head a bit. "You'll have to tell me if it's any good," he said, nodding to the box under her arm.

It was a good thing Nic didn't value her wits too much, she had a morbid curiosity that was only ever sated by listening to the airheads they both dealt with. "Well yeah, you can't believe shit that you hear in the halls. One time someone told me they'd heard I could get them a gun? I wasn't even looking like Scarface at the time," Nic joked, shoulders shrugging. "Hackers?" she went on, glancing at the movies around it. "Yeah, that's... out of place. But maybe they didn't want to put it in with the comedies. Seriously, that movie is absurd as far as computers go." SHe fell silent, gazing at Jesse's section of choice, then over to him. "So... bad ones only? Or good sci-fi too?"

"You must have mob connections you're unaware of," Jesse said and shot her a grin. "But hey, maybe you'll get some good mileage out of the facial injury, have people start asking you not only for guns, but to kill people for them too." He picked up the box for a movie from the 70s and eyed it critically. He'd already seen most everything on the shelf, but he couldn't remember if he'd rented that one before or not. "It's more than absurd," he agreed in a distracted way before he put the box back and started off again. "Both? Depends on my mood. Tonight's a bad-acting, rubber-suit night. Hmmm, maybe some Godzilla ...."

"That actually sounds kinda good," Nic agreed with a laugh, grabbing a random box from the long row of Godzilla titles. "Bad dubbing wins. And you think I look like a contract killer?" she asked, smiling wider and looking over at Jesse. In Nic's world? It was a compliment. "Kick ass. That might actually make school a little more tolerable. Feel free to drop hints of it, maybe say I did a job for you." With luck, she'd get some Cutting Bitches lessons from Caleb soon, and that'd only add to the apparent hostile air she had.

Jesse laughed at that, delighted that she was excited about it. "I can definitely do that, yeah," he said, turning to grab a couple of hardly-looked-at boxes from the Godzilla section himself. It didn't really matter. Maybe it would put him to sleep again. That would be nice. "Really, though, contract killers could look like anyone, right? That's the point, they're like Delta Force. Wearing lampshades on their heads and blending into walls, you know? But you look like you could hold your own and possibly chop up a body. Takes upper-body strength, you know." He grinned wide at her. It definitely wasn't an insult.

Nic laughed richly, flexing her arms for Jesse and nodding. "Hell yes. I don't think anyone's tried more than talking shit since last year, you know? Even the jocks know I'll take the first swing." It was a good reputation to have, it left Nic free to enjoy her own headspace. "Shit, that might even be good for you if people think I've got your back." The more they talked, the more she remembered. Jesse was the kind of guy who took a lot of shit, as she recalled. Books slapped from his hands, gum stuffed into his locker, whatever the small brains around them could cook up. "I'll even go pop someone if you want. I think I'm overdue, so yeah. Give a girl a name, let me do the rest," she offered with a smirk.

He blinked just once at that idea. He'd never thought of having any sort of bodyguard. He'd never really known anyone that well, he guessed. His stepdad got pissed every now and then on his behalf, but it wasn't like he could go pummeling teenage asses, and Jesse kept most of the encounters he had to himself. He didn't want to upset his mother, for one. He recovered after a second and chuckled. "I dunno. It's not like they ever learn anything," he said, and shrugged a shoulder, idly picking up another Godzilla movie. He'd quit fighting a long time ago, he just let them get it out of their system and moved on. "Don't want to bring even more trouble on you unnecessarily. I will totally build up your rep, though. Say I saw you take on this biker dude for lookin' at you crosseyed, it's true, saw it myself," he said with a nod.

She laughed again, shaking her head. Caleb had suggested frat boys, Jesse was saying bikers. If this kept up, Nic'd be notorious in the halls. She kinda liked that idea, the laugh fading to a steady smirk. "Well, okay," she agreed slowly, "But if I see it in the halls, all bets are off." Yeah, she turned a blind eye to plenty of it. Most of the time, both victim and aggressor were people she didn't like. And while she wasn't a friend of Jesse's? He sucks less than most of the others, she mused. "And seriously? I'm cool with trouble. Trouble keeps me from getting bored. What else am I going to do at school? Not my shit for classes."

Jesse chuckled and shook his head. He didn't understand people who didn't have any problem at all with trouble in their lives, but to each their own, he guessed. Just because he tolerated it to a certain degree didn't mean that he liked it. "Touche', I guess that's a good point," he relented, faintly amused. He aimed himself toward the front where the counter was and slowly started to head that way, looking back over at her. "If the douchebag shoving me into a locker is suddenly crying on the floor like a kicked baby, I'll know who to send thank-you flowers too," he joked, still not sure if he was comfy with that idea or not.

The 'kicked baby' bit made Nic burst out laughing, her eyes lit up and delighted at Jesse as she walked with him, mostly free of her stiff limp by now. "Ew, flowers?" Nic asked, sneering at Jesse. "Do I look like that kind of girl? Just, like... make me a mix tape of something that rocks, I'm an old-fashioned girl like that." Why did she feel better about herself for the offer to watch his back? Even with her few friends, Nic wasn't that sort of person. Maybe it was because Jesse wasn't going to do it himself, maybe she just liked trouble. "Or give flowers to whoever I hit. That'll go a long way towards fucking with their head."

He let out a short laugh at that idea. She was right, it probably would fuck around with somebody's head. It definitely would with his, if the positions were reversed. "Okay, deal, mix tape -- or CD, hi and welcome to the twenty-first century -- and flowers for the douchebag," he said with a grin. It would be worth it just to carry through with that and confuse the hell out of somebody. If it ever happened, and if he remembered. The latter of which was kind of unlikely.

She snorted, shaking her head at Jesse and standing back so he could get to the counter first. "Yeah, I know, CDs are the modern way. But I still own a tape deck, smartass. Still, a disc's cool too." And just like Jesse, Nic thought the whole scenario was kinda unlikely. If she thought about it hard, she could only recall seeing him in passing once or twice a day, and he'd said he wasn't going to seek her out. So maybe she'd have to take a cue from Caleb and stalk his ass, in the interests of keeping him safe. Liar, she told herself, You just want to slug someone and look tough. "So, um... you walking from here?" she asked, glancing out the windows. Maybe he had a car and she could mooch a ride.

Unaware that there were plans for stalking him in the works, Jesse set his movies down and paid for them, glancing over his shoulder to shake his head at her question. "Nah, got the stepdad lurking around doing errands. He's supposed to be back in ..." he paused to check his watch. "Another five or so. Why, are you?" It was kind of fucking cold to be walking, and winter was just beginning. But he tended to shy away from the cold as much as he could anyway, so maybe he was just a pussy. He stepped aside with his movie-boxes so she could come forward and do the same entertainment-getting ritual.

"Probably," Nic answered with a shrug. She could deal with the cold, but she was more than willing to get a free ride if she could. "It's only like, fifteen, twenty minutes. Not real bad." Nic paid quick, nodding to the doors and waving for Jesse to follow. "C'mon," she said as she pushed one open and held it for him, "I'm fiending like there's no tomorrow. Can't get a smoke in until my mom's at work." She was already fishing out her smokes, movies tucked in the crook of her arm. "Dunno if you smoke, I never see you out there during lunch, but you can scab one if you want."

"Nah, that shit gives you cancer," he said before he could stop himself, going out the door she held and flipping the hood on his jacket up. He tucked blonde hair back and frowned a tiny bit at himself. He hated that word now. Cancer. It could fuck off and die, seriously. "Thanks though. Scott probably wouldn't mind dropping you somewhere, if you want," he offered, looking back over at her as they stepped out onto the sidewalk. Hell, he would probably be tickled pink that he'd given a ride to two people that Jesse actually knew in just a span of a weekend. Crazy shit, that.

Nic chuckled roughly at that, sliding a smoke to her lips and nodding as she lit up. "Man, what doesn't give you cancer?" she asked, inhaling deeply and leaning up against the wall outside of the store. Addiction aside, Nic hadn't found any good reason as of yet to bother quitting. Plus, well, she was addicted. "But yeah, a ride might be cool. Fucked up my ankle a few nights ago, and I don't want to be hobbling tomorrow. No one's going to be spooked by a girl gimping down the halls, right? They could say whatever and just outrun me. Lame." That statement surprised her though; admitting weakness and all. Generally, Nic just put up too much of a strong front to even consider it. But lately? Well, she was getting used to hanging around people. Drea, Caleb, Lily, and Nate had all added up into what seemed to be the first bits of social skills. Weird, Nic thought with a drag off her smoke, smirking privately at the thought.

Despite the cigarette smoke -- which he wasn't really paranoid about, he just didn't want to actively inhale it -- Jesse leaned up against the wall next to her. He tucked the movies into the messenger bag at his hip and looked around them at all the snow. He watched how his exhaled breath almost looked like her smoke. "That the same time you fucked up your face?" he asked, looking over at Nic. She was pretty, he decided, in a different kind of way. Not even a boyish way, just ... like a different ethnicity. He got a flash of her stuffing down a microwave burrito and watching a beer commercial. "They'd be spooked of that girl if she was carrying a pickaxe," he added with a crooked grin. It was true.

Nic laughed again, a coarse sound that pushed a lingering bit of smoke from her lungs, and nodded her agreement. "Or if she, and by she I mean me, was dragging an axe or something," she added, thinking she might just have a Halloween costume in mind. Zombie serial killer Nic, or something to that effect. "And yeah, I was trying to speed-run the hill on Third," she admitted, one hand reaching up to brush her cheek as she smiled a bit awkwardly. "I, uh, didn't make it," Nic went on with a self-conscious laugh, omitting colliding with Caleb for his sake. "The moral of the story is that drinking and skating don't really mix. Especially when you don't have a buddy there to say 'This is a really bad idea'."

Jesse laughed richly, not really at her wiping out but just what she said. He could definitely see her doing that. He'd never gotten good at skateboarding, but the hill on Third was one he was sure had claimed a lot of reckless teenagers on rolling boards. "Nice," he said, grinning at her. "I could give you my number, you could pass things by me. I usually know Good Idea versus Bad Idea, I could be your litmus test." He wasn't sure why he was offering, she'd probably say no, but he was pretty cool with the girl. And they both could probably use some friends, in all honesty.

"Why not?" Nic told him with a skeptical grin, digging in her hoodie for a pen. "Plenty of people have been throwing numbers at me. Maybe you'll actually answer if I call." She chuckled self-deprecatingly, uncapping the pen and hovering the tip over one hand. "Lay it on me," she said, waiting readily. It was weird, how so many guys were talking to her lately, giving her phone numbers and asking her to hang out. Of course, Nic didn't think any of it was going anywhere or even implying more than hanging out, or she would've been much less hesitant giving her own out in kind. But with Jesse? Well, she thought they might actually hang out. They were both misanthropes, as she saw it, and maybe they'd find some kinship in hating everyone else's guts.

"If I can recognize what my phone sounds like, hell yeah I will," Jesse said with a chuckle. He rattled off his cell phone number to her, watching her jot it down on her skin. Now, to see if she actually copied it down somewhere before it washed out and faded away. Who knew, right? He nodded to a car as it pulled up at the curb in front of them, and pushed off of the wall to go open up the back door for her. "Not bad service, yeah? After you, injured lady," he said, and flashed her an easy grin. Then turned his head to greet Scott the Stepdad and ask if he could drop Nic off somewhere. The man was agreeable, of course. It was nearly impossible not to be with everything happening to kids in the recent past.

She caught herself grinning back as Nic dropped her smoke, pushing away from the wall and slightly limping her way to the car. "Careful, wiseguy. I'm not so injured I couldn't make us a match-set," Nic mock-threatened, waving a fist under Jesse's nose and winking, then climbing into the car. Thankfully, Nic knew when to turn off her Angry side, and as she hopped in she was prompt with a quiet introduction for Jesse's stepfather. She sat back with a curious smile, waiting for Jesse and biting back teasing comments about his ride. For one, the man was right there. And two, welll... Not like you've got a car either, smartass.

After laughing at the threat, Jesse got into the back with her, so she wouldn't be abandoned in the Parent Car all alone, and slipped out of the strap of his messenger bag to leave it in the floorboard between his sneakers. "Home, Jeeves," he cracked at Scott, and got only the benefit of a smirk in the rearview mirror. Which wasn't too bad, all things considered. "Or ... wherever." He looked questioningly over at Nic so she could tell the man driving where to go, and then they were off. One of his legs bounced restlessly, and he couldn't sit there for long without poking her in the leg and grinning a bit.

"Arch Street," she corrected for Scott up front, smirking at the butler treatment. If Nic tried that, she'd hear about it for sure. The poke got her gaze to turn down at the offending finger, then back up to Jesse as she shot him her standard death-glare with a light smirk attached. "Careful with the merchandise," she warned him, reaching to grab the finger, "Back here? Nowhere to run. And I'm more than willing to prove how legit the stories at school are." Of course Jesse was safe, but aside from that smirk Nic could definitely pull off the menacing look.

She caught his finger but he twisted out of it, grinning crookedly. The smirk was more than enough for him, he was far too used to being threatened, and it was nice that it wasn't serious this time. "Brave talk for a girl who can't even smile without hurting herself," he countered, poking her again before pulling his hand back. "When I've got a witness, too. Tsk, you need to learn some subtlety, Nic. ... though I guess the axe wouldn't really fall into that category." And he loved that this kind of talk didn't even get odd looks from Scott anymore. He'd surely be asked questions later, but for now the older man was just ignoring that they were even in the car.

He almost made her smile just by talking about it, and Nic had to shake her head as she looked out the window, composing herself. "Whatever, smiling's overrated anyway," she countered, wrinkling her nose at Jesse and flipping him off below the seat line seperating them from Scott. "And seriously, subtlety? You're suggesting subtlety to the girl who looks like a Mad Max extra? Sure, I could be a master of disguise if I tried it. But I'd have to, what... coordinate clothing? Pass. Everything goes with black." Still, at least it was hisparent witnessing all of this. Between Jesse, Caleb, and Nate, Nic figured she'd never hear her mother stop talking if she knew about all of them. Not to mention Drea. God, pass on the 'it's okay if you like girls' talk.

"Sometimes it's all in the look, you know? And not the words," Jesse said, slouching back comfortably and smiling at her. Yeah, he liked this girl. She was cool, and the only reason he had for not ever noticing before was that he was awfully oblivious to people, spending lots of time trying to block them out. Or had been, at least, things seemed to be going a bit differently for whatever reason. "Though you've got a good start with your anti-smiling campaign, I know some people who could really get behind that shit. ... and you're totally not dirty enough to be a Mad Max extra, don't flatter yourself." He grinned.

"Wow. That was a bass-ackwards compliment. I think," she pointed out teasingly, reclining a bit as well and reaching up to idly toy with a braid that hung near one ear. "But yeah, the smiling thing's coming along. The Catholic church offered funding? I had to be like 'nuh uh dudes, you guys are too hot to touch right now'," Nic joked, smirking wider as she heard Scott chuckle in the front seat. Yeah, this was definitely okay. No pressure to be more of a girl, his stepdad seemed okay, and Jesse himself was exactly the type of noncommital person Nic could deal with regularly.

"Yeah, it's always a good policy to avoid getting into metaphorical bed with the pedos in robes. Or non-metaphorical bed. They should just avoid beds all together, I think," he said, propping his head up on one hand. They weren't too far away from Arch Street, but enough that it would've been a shitty walk for her, and he felt pretty good about her accepting the ride from he and Scott. "So good plan there. You could get some Republican backing, maybe. They hate smiling and have a shit ton of money, so it's a win-win."

"Ew, gross," Nic was quick to discount, nose wrinkling up again. "I may listen to death metal and thrive on the sound of children crying, but I'm not a monster." She had to admit, the ride was nice. Even if her ankle was fine, it'd take a good twenty minutes to walk home. With the ride? It was maybe five. "Besides, they're all 'we hate gays'. I'm an equal-opportunity hater, personally." By this point, Scott had a steady chuckle going in the front seat from the two of them, and Nic felt her cheeks burn slightly from even that parental scrutiny.

Jesse laughed heartily at that. Not a monster indeed. "Well hey, good to know you actually have a soul. A lot of them seem to be missing." He chuckled and looked up again as Scott slowed the car down. They'd reached Arch Street. "This looks like your stop, lady, that'll be twenty bucks, not including tip," Jesse told Nic with a grin. Scott glanced at them in the rearview again as he rolled to a stop, amused. And maybe a little hopeful, though one would have to know him to see it.

Staring skeptically at Jesse again, Nic struggled to keep a deadpan expression as she reached for the handle of the car door. "I'll apply it to your tab. God knows you owe me for enough heroin already," she joked dryly, clapping a hand on the back of Scott's seat and winking at Jesse, then looking to the rearview mirror. "Don't worry sir, I only deal in clean needles," she told Scott matter-of-factly, looking back to Jesse and sticking out her tongue for just an instant. "I'll have your next dose on Monday. Keep an eye out for me, or I'll just come rough you up when I deliver it." Nic leaned forward, lightly slugging Jesse in the arm and popping the door open. "Thanks for the ride, Scott! Kiss your old lady for me!"

"I totally take back everything I said about you having a soul!" Jesse called after her, grinning crookedly. he didn't slug her back, though he was half-tempted to, in a friendly way. But gods knew where else she was hurt, and he didn't want to hit anything already injured by accident. He gave her a wave as she got out instead, not moving to leave his place in the rear. He kind of dug being driven around in the back, anyway, one could stretch out more comfortably. Chuckling and shaking his head, Scott waited until she was clear of the car and started pulling away. Jesse caught his gaze in the mirror and grinned. "What?"

She'd only gotten halfway to her front door when his words hit, but Nic laughed privately before turning. When she looked back, she had one hand over the scabs on her cheek to keep it from hurting as she smiled as girlishly as she could at him, waving with the other, movie-laden hand. "Thank you!" Nic positively gushed at the comment, her eyes dark and taunting as she watched the car pull away, and Jesse with it. Fun, she mused as she turned to head inside. Even kinda cute, in that Weezer, Rivers Cuomo-way. God Nic, stop it. Godzilla time.