Tally of the Living

Who: Nic and Drea
When: late afternoon
Where: phone

Drea was tired. Even after sleeping for hours on end, she woke up tired. Her dad had patched her up as best he could, and she'd taken some pain killers, but everything still hurt and felt dulled at the same time. She dragged herself out of bed sometime when the sun was on it's way toward the horizon and shuffled to the kitchen, trying to go easy on her injured leg. She didn't think anything was infected, thank the gods, but she wouldn't be climbing any trees for a while. While she was waiting for some tea to heat up in the microwave, her eyes landed on the phone, and she realized that she hadn't called anyone to see if they were okay. She'd gotten a message from Eben that he was leaving town for a bit, and that had been a relief, but ... there were a couple others. She picked up the receiver and looked at the small list pegged up on the cork board in front of the phone, and dialed Nic's number.

Nic had managed a handful of hours asleep thusfar. She'd exhausted herself, packed her stomach with food, and stared at bad movies until she just couldn't think any more. It had worked, and she'd slept dreamlessly for a while since talking with Nate. Eventually, she'd begun drifting in and out of wakefulness, once enough to restart her movie, but otherwise only hazily. A few times, Nic was convinced those waking moments had been dreams. And when the phone rang, she almost ignored it entirely, but some roused part of her mind asked if she'd rather let her mom wake up and get it. Nic grumbled at that thought, rubbing at one eye and muttering low obscenities as she leaned over to find the cordless phone where she'd dropped it. "H'lo?" she groaned into the phone.

That didn't sound good. "Hey, Nic?" Drea croaked. Ew, she didn't sound good either. Making a face, she took advantage of the long-ass phone cord and went to pour herself a glass of water, tucking it between her shoulder and her head. "It's Drea. I just ... wanted to call and see if you were okay." She took a sip and cleared her throat, then drank some more. At least she was well enough to answer the phone, that was something that was ... good. She didn't sound the best, but good.

"Drea?" Nic grumbled in confusion, scowling at the coffee cup sitting on the floor. It was cold enough that a thin film of creamer had risen back to the top, but she didn't care. Her mouth tasted like a bathroom floor, and she only winced a little as she gulped some down and wiped away a line dribbling over her chin. "Yeah... Drea," she said again as even the cold coffee helped to at least make words mean things. "Okay? Oh... yeah. No, I'm alright. Town went fucking crazy last night, you know? You alright?" she asked in kind, suddenly wondering if Drea'd had a night like hers, or maybe if she was more like Nate, and had known what was coming.

"Yeah, Drea," the werecoyote echoed, though there wasn't any insult there. Nic sounded about how she felt, and she knew that her own neurons weren't firing the fastest. She drank down the rest of her water and ran another glass in the sink as she answered. "I think if I unbandaged myself, I could get up close and personal with my muscle tissue, but I'm okay, yeah," she said with a hint of wryness in her tone. Not only that, but she now owed her life to two werewolves. That was the part that just didn't need to be talked about. "Straight up fucked. But ... yeah, just wanted to check in."

Nic had been in the process of sitting up, fumbling her cigarettes from her sweatshirt as Drea's words pushed past the lingering haze of sleep. "What?" she blurted loudly, wincing at her tone and hoping she didn't wake her mom. "Holy shit, girl, what?" Nic repeated, padding away from the sofa to open the front door. "What the hell--" she started, realizing what must've happened, "I mean... christ, Drea, sorry. I just woke up? Did you... you didn't get bit by anything out there, did you?"

Oh ... well fuck, she obviously knew about the whole biting issue. Her tea binged and she pulled it out, trying to figure out how best to answer that question. She had gotten bitten, but as a lycanthrope herself, she was exempt from the curse. Thank all the gods. "Not bitten, just all scratched up and bruised," she lied finally, wanting to feel the other girl out a bit more before she went blurting things. "Did you? Because you kind of sound like ass. ... no offense."

Nic wanted to run and find her books from Nevermore, to confirm that it was the bites that spread the curse, but she'd already looked it them twice that morning. So unless they were wrong, Drea was safe. "No, no I'm fine," Nic assured her, sighing heavily. This was why she hadn't actively sought out friends before; worrying about people was some stressful bullshit. "I, uh, I saw some fucked-up stuff, but I got clear of it. I've just been up way too long, smoked too many smokes, y'know? Think I'm just about raspy enough to sing in a metal band," she joked weakly, lighting up and leaning halfway out the door.

Drea chuckled weakly, leaning against the counter carefully and taking a sip out of her tea. It was some nasty shit; an herbal concotion her dad had put together to hopefully speed up her healing process some. She thought it was bullshit, but she didn't want to listen to him bitch, so she was drinking it. "Hey, that's a calling. And a calling that can make you famous and get you out of Podunk, USA needs to be like ... pursued," she said, glad to hear that Nic hadn't gotten hurt. ... or bitten, because that would've been ... yeah, worse. Then there definitely would've had to be some hardcore explaining. Unless she knew already and was lying. But she was too tired to think in those kinds of circles. "Sorry to wake you up and everything. I'm gonna go pass back out myself pretty soon here. But y'know, a tally of the living was needed."

"Hey, no need to be sorry," Nic chided with a wasted shake of her head, "I'd be doing the same thing if I hadn't been dead on my feet. I just got home, let my mom ground me, and passed out." But even if she was tired? She was thinking, now. Drea had seen those things, since she'd been close enough to get scratched up. So had it been a new experience? For some reason, Nic wasn't sure. If it had been a first, maybe she was just keeping herself together. Nic certainly was. If it wasn't a first? What was her part in the whole fucked-up world Nic was finally discovering? "Hey, um... maybe we can do lunch on Monday or something? I kinda think I want to talk about this, but like, face to face."

She hesitated for a second, as a stab of paranoia rose up. What if this tough-talking girl that she'd hit it off with so well in the hallway was a hunter? She'd seen the cursed wolves, obviously, knew what they were. What if she'd been going around killing them, and wouldn't believe that Drea wasn't one of them? Which was kind of crazy paranoia, but it was there nonetheless. She had reasons to be cautious of people, and her free hand automatically went to cover the spot on her ribs where her extra nipple was. But a lunch out in public somewhere, or in school, wasn't that dangerous, right? And she would smell any extra metal on her. "Yeah ... sure, we could do that," she said, and hoped the tired-rasp covered up the unsureness there.

None of the insecurity registered with Nic; for all she was thinking, Drea had to be even more drained than she was if the werewolves had actually gotten close enough to hurt her. Her mind was more on the possible connections between Nate and Drea: even if there wasn't a real one, they both seemed to know that strange shit existed if nothing else. And if they knew that? Maybe Drea knew more. That made three people now, how many others at school were there? "Thanks, that'll be really cool. I'm just..." she trailed, sighing out a cloud of smoke, "This is a metric assload of adjusting to handle, y'know? I think anyone I can talk to about it is someone I need to talk to."

... well that at least sounded like Nic wasn't intending to shove silver in her face and kill her. The possibility that she hadn't known about Anything until the night before occurred to her. And if that was true, the poor thing needed all the help she could get, most likely. Just like Gabe had. Whom she also really needed to call and check on. Maybe after another bout of sleeping. "I can see how it would be, yeah," she said after a moment, her shoulders relaxing a bit. "So ... we'll talk. Let's meet at lunch Monday and go out and get something, or take a walk or ... something." Because 'okay hi, I'm a werecoyote' was not something she wanted to discuss anywhere in school. "Until then, take it easy, okay?" Get your mental strength up.

Belatedly, Nic remembered telling Nate she wanted to talk with him too. But with how she seemed to find him, it wouldn't be hard to just catch him after school instead of at lunch. Maybe he'd even give her a ride to her first kickboxing class. "That sounds good, yeah," Nic agreed with a tentative smile. Just the idea of having multiple people she could get details from was a good one, and it left her feeling hopeful. "Drea? Thanks for giving me a call, I'm glad you're okay. And that I'm not handling this alone. But I'm gonna pass out again," she said with a little chuckle and a languid stretch. She could feel how bad she needed a shower, but sleep? Well, it just sounded better.

"Definitely not alone," she said with a very soft chuckle. "I'm glad you're okay too. I'll talk to you tomorrow, okay? I'm gonna go be a poser and follow that whole passing out trend that's going around." Because she was one tired bitch, and more sleep sounded like the most awesome thing in the world. She could figure the rest of everything out later, for the moment all she wanted was unconsciousness. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to finish the rest of her tea. She would also call Gabe later, she promised herself that too. "Later, Nic," she said, and hung up, glad that she'd taken the initiative to call. Just as long as the girl didn't turn out to be one hella-crafty hunter, shit would be okay.