Is it safe?

Who: Caleb and Rose
When: Afternoon
Where: Phoneland

Rose had never slept in so late before, not that she could remember anyway. She was usually up at ten or elven at the very latest, ready for a new day. This day however, she slept like the dead until she woke up to Rascal digging furiously into her duvet. He was getting used to her routine and her staying asleep this long was not normal. It was almost one PM and she groggily checked her clock before burying her face in the pillow. She'd been determined never to drink again the night before and today the feeling had doubled. Her throat was dry, there was a taste in her mouth like something had crawled in there and died - weeks ago. Her head felt like it was full of half-hardened concrete, jagged and heavy, her body protesting her every little move. Gross!

She sat up, eyes closed tight for a few moments while she tried to pull herself together. First order of business - brushing her teeth and drinking a lot of water. The thought of that made her stomach turn but she was pretty sure it would make her feel better. Despite the nausea she decided to eat and it took up to an hour before she felt remotely human again but she got there.

She felt like she had abused her body in a way and the need to make up for it made her decide to go swimming. She always felt better after she went swimming and today would be no exception. Snippets of the night before were coming back to her and the more she remembered the worse her mood got. How could she explain her behavior? She'd have to come up with something, there was no way she was letting anyone drive her away from another school.

And then she remembered her phonecalls with Caleb and Leija, how worried they had been and how Caleb had told her to stay indoors. It was the last thing she wanted to do and she sat down with a frustrated grumble, eyeing the books she should be reading for school before getting up and crawling up on her bed instead. She grabbed the phone from the nightstand and dialled Caleb's number. It had to be safe to go outside now but who knew, it wasn't like bad people just stopped being bad because it was bright outside.

Caleb was asleep. It had taken him quite a long time to get there in the first place, so when he had crashed he'd crashed hard. So...he was out when Rose called, and he picked up the phone, cutting Salvation off during it's second time through. "H'lo..." he greeted, sounding hoarse, not really fully awake, and about ready to drop right back off to sleep.

Rose winced at the way he sounded because it was pretty obvious she'd woken him up. "Hey," she said quietly, as if speaking gently would make it less of a bother to wake up to the phone. "I'm sorry if I woke you, I'm just... I just wanted to check in." She worried at her bottom lip after speaking, listening for his voice.

The speaking gently was less jarring for his hearing, so that was one thing. He rubbed at his eyes and tried to wake up. "What time is it?" he mumbled, mostly rhetorically. "And are you okay?" he asked. "Everything's...you're okay?"

"Yeah," she replied, keeping her voice quiet. "Go back to sleep, I'll talk to you later. I- I just, is it safe to go out now?"

Technically. Caleb thought. "It should be." he answered her. It'd be safe until next month, anyhow. Though next month he'd just make sure she was okay before the moon rose on the full moon. Beyond that, she should be alright. It wasn't like she had an overwhelmingly dangerous lifestyle. "...you feeling okay today? You sounded pretty trashed last night."

She curled her lip at that as a wave of embarrassment, humiliation and worry washed over her. "I was... It wasn't a good night. I don't understand why people would do that for fun." She tried to sound flippant on that last part and failed miserably. "I don't really want to talk about it." But then she still felt the need to tell him other things and that weighed her down as much as anything. "Not now, you're sleeping... I just need to swim until my mind goes blank, you understand?" You shouldn't always have to listen to my whining.

Caleb was quiet for a moment. "...that doesn't really help." he said. "The blank mind thing. I've done it before, it just means that whatever's on your mind gets buried, not dealt with. I'm awake now..." he told her, trailing that off. Really, he probably wouldn't be dropping back down to sleep any time soon. he might as well give up and listen to her, whatever she was going through.

And there he went again with the burying stuff thing. It was what she wanted to do, just bury it all and not think about it unless she really had to. But what did it hurt to tell him? If she started crying again... Well, she'd swim that off too and frankly, she felt too tired to cry so that probably helped. "I saw my mom," she said softly because right now all the party bullshit didn't matter nearly as much. "I see her everywhere, actually. The only time that's happened to me with anyone is when my grandma died. And... not like a ghost thing, don't get me wrong. Just a trick of the eye thing. It's never really her, just other people. I'm pretty sure they're all dead now." It was weird saying it out loud, it came out so void of emotion like she was just turning to stone and couldn't muster any emotion to go with the statement. "Caleb... They're all dead. You were right."

I never necessarily said they were all dead, I just figure that's the case. he thought. He was quiet for a moment, and sighed. "I'm sorry, Rose." he told her, tone light. Genuine. "Is there anything I can do? Or...I can just listen...or..." Talk about feeling useless.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on?" She asked, unable to tell him more about her feelings or the situation since it was all so intangible and hollow right now. She just wanted to push it away and the more she thought about it, the bigger that hollow inside her got. That nothing, like in the Neverending Story, nothing threatening to overtake everything. "I'll want to leave the house tomorrow when stores and such are open, I hate it in here. Is Nevermore open on Sundays?"

"Yeah, I think so." Caleb said. He didn't know positively, or anything, and probably should, but it wasn't like he owned it. But he was pretty sure. "And you can go out now, the crisis should be over." he told her. Or, it was for the moment. He didn't actually address her question on telling her what was going on. He really didn't figure he could deal with another flat, blanket denial that anything like that even existed. Which he was pretty sure he'd get from her. Because hello--werewolves. It sounded pretty insane.

"Okay thanks," she said quietly. "I'm going to go now then, just... I need to get out of here. I'll be careful though and I'll have my phone with me so... You can send me a message if anything happens." She got up, hesitating before adding, "I'm sorry I woke you up."

"Don't worry about it." Caleb told her, not minding that. She sounded odd to him, but then again, she probably had reason. Especially with her apparently having come to the conclusion that everything was not fine on the home-front. "...call if you need anything." he tacked onto the end, not sure if he could even give her anything she might need, but wanting to try.

She was quiet for a moment, pursing her lips as she thought about things, about him and Leija, about the other people on campus, the boy from the night before. She felt a bit like a girl in a book she'd read, someone who'd gone missing - fallen through the cracks of society. Half expecting automated doors not to detect her if she wanted to enter a building now, like a ghost. Would he miss her if she just left? She didn't dare ask. "I'll call you if I need anything," she agreed instead. "Bye Caleb."