Worry

who: Caleb and Jamie
where: Jamie's house
when: mid-afternoon

Her aunt Anne always knew the exact right thing to say about everything. It was just a fact of life; talking to the woman had put everything in almost startlingly clear perspective. Jamie knew what she was doing now, her head was back on straight...

And she was girling herself up (just a little!) for this movie thing. Okay, more for Caleb, really. But wearing strawberry lipgloss and a tiny bit of perfume wasn't a crime, right? Not even for the boy she was mega crushing on.

Of course, that took all of five minutes, so now she was lounging impatiently on her bed, listening to Earshot. Damn if he hadn't cleverly forgotten to tell her what time this thing was, or even if she was supposed to go on her own or if she was waiting for him to pick her up. Ugh, boys.

Caleb had decided that since he anticipated being yelled at by Jamie, he was going to pick her up so she could get it out of her system before movies. So, he'd dropped Ten off early so she could get to meet Journey and company, and he trusted them to take good care of her in his absence. He headed up to her house, then after a minute, he skirted around to the side of it, and looked in her window. He smiled faintly as he saw her there. So he knocked on the glass.

Jamie rolled her eyes at the ceiling, but felt herself grinning anyways. Okay, she was a little giddy. She sat up, shooting an amused glance towards the window. "Come in, it's unlocked!"

Caleb reached up, pushing the window open, then climbed up and sat on the sil. "Hi." he said with a little smile at her. She looked cute. "Ready to go?" he asked. And while he'd gone there early so that she could yell at him, he'd kind of forgotten about it in the minute he'd taken to peek at her then climb in her window. Because he was happy to see her again, and did he mention the cute looking bit?

She blinked at him rapidly, her expression quickly changing from surprise to confusion to worry to anger to... blank. Completely, utterly blank. The answer died on her lips, and her mouth settled into an expressionless line. Her eyes ticked rapidly from the gash on his forehead, to his blackened eye, to the slashing under his chin.

She saw her looking at his injuries, and was glad that the one on his neck you could only see the edges of, and he had a shirt on today that the cuffs of the sleeves went over his hand, in fact, both thumbs were through holes in them to completely cover the gases on his left hand and wrist. But he couldn't cover the ones on his face. Shit. "Look, before you yell at me, remember I said I was leaving yesterday to go out with my brother? We did, and he took me to this bar, just to kind of talk and shit, and there was kind of a bar fight...but everything's okay, and I'm fine." he said. "...you can yell at me if you want though now..so..." he trailed off.

Her brows furrowed in slight confusion as he talked, and she simply gazed at him, taking in his injured face. After a long moment, Jamie rose from the bed and approached him, taking his hands and pulling him to standing. She gently pressed him down to sit on her bed and began to examine the injuries up close, still not saying a word.

Caleb blinked at being pulled up, and it was a good thing that pain didn't bug him. Even if that didn't mean he didn't feel it. His left hand twinged, and he had already been worrying that she'd notice that his right arm beneath his sleeve had a bandage. It wasn't overly obvious--in fact he'd put on the thinnest amount of bandages he could manage but that didn't mean it wasn't there. He looked up at her after she'd pushed him back down again and in his confusion he let her do whatever she watned. He pulled back just a touch from her close examination, but then sat forward again. She was just looking. "It's all fine." he said. He still had the butterfly bandages on the one under his jaw, but the one on his forehead was just scabbed over and the scratches around his eye were tiny itty bitty things. "...really...I'm okay..." her silence thing was starting to worry him.

Jamie reached out hesitantly to touch his cheek. He was okay. Right? ...right? Then why did she feel so sick? Her eyes ticked down to his neck, to the edge of a scratch, and widened considerably.

And still she didn't speak.

Shit, she noticed my neck. "Jamie?" Caleb asked, voice quiet and a little hesitant. Okay she was really starting to freak him out. Because he'd expected yelling. Yelling he could have happily dealt with. Yelling was fine. Yelling right now would make him feel a hell of a lot better. "Hey...talk to me. You're starting to freak me out..." he added, a light little laugh on the end that really was a nervous sort of thing.

She reached out to touch the scratch on his neck, her face beginning to fall. "Hurt," Jamie whispered.

He flinched, but only a tiny, tiny bit. Barely noticeable. "Fine." he corrected, reaching up to gently take her wrist and pull it away from his neck, considering how far that one went. She could only see the start of it. She really didn't need to see any more than that. "Are you okay? I said I was alright, see? All fine, no trips to the hospital, everything's all good, honestly. I'd tell you if I wasn't."

She swallowed thickly, licking her lips and nearly jumping at the unexpected taste of strawberries. Lipgloss? Right. Lipgloss. "I want to see it," she insisted, her voice still nearly inaudible.

Caleb shook his head. "Nooo, you don't. It's just scratches, it's fine." he said. "Look, would I be here, coming to get you to hang out and be social and everything if I wasn't?" he asked. God, why couldn't she have just screamed at him and been done with it? He stood up, and now it was him push her to sit down. "I didn't mean to freak you out or anything."

"I want to see it," Jamie insisted, her voice gaining just a little volume. "Please. Please. I've never pushed you on anything before, Caleb. Please let me see," she pleaded with him, her voice soft. It cracked towards the end, and she bit her lip harshly, lowering her head as blood began to trickle down her lip.

He blinked, and he frowned as she bit her lip, then ducked his head as she lowered hers. "Jesus...Jamie..." he started reaching out for a moment to brush his thumb over her lip, and he looked around quicklike for a tissue or something, then wound up putting his hand to her face and brushing his thumb over her lower lip anyhow, because he didn't see any. "Hey..." he said quietly, really just getting past his normal touching twitches because he usually did when shit this heavy was happening. "...it's okay, Jamie." he said, voice very soft and gentle.

"You're hurt," she whispered, shutting her eyes tightly. Notgonnacry, notgonnacry. "And I can't help."

Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit. Fuck, she looked like she might start to cry, and oh god could he not deal with that. He had no idea how to deal with that. He'd never really had to before, and now...shit shit shit. "Just scratches. Nothing that won't heal up fine, and I don't even feel bad. I'm pretty good with pain, none of this really even hurts, it all looks worse than it is." he told her, in that same gentle sort of tone. He was keeping a tight hold on his internal flailing. That wouldn't help her at all. "You can help by coming out with me, and not worrying about it." he said. "At least for a little while." he amended, because he was starting to get to know her well enough to know her not worrying indefinitely wasn't going to happen. Not in this universe or any other.

Jamie rubbed at her eyes, keeping them shut. Better not to look at him. "You're not going to let me see, are you?" she questioned, already knowing the answer.

He looked at her, pained, not sure what to say. "It's really just scratches..." he tried. You won't feel better seeing it. You'll feel worse. And then there'll be the scars. Fuck. FUCK. "Can't you just trust me?" he asked.

She opened her eyes and looked at him, hurt. "Can't you trust me?" As soon as the words left her mouth, she shook her head. "Don't answer that." I don't want to know the answer...

It was Caleb's turn to close his eyes for a second, and he drew in a deep breath, and let it out slowly. His talk with Mathias came back to him. About being truthful about things with her, and...other shit. "It's not about that, it's me, it's...you know I have the thing about touching. That's...that's part of it." he said, in way of explanation, but he didn't think it would matter.

"Yeah. Right." Jamie managed a tiny, wry, and not at all happy smile. "Okay." She stood up and brushed past him, turning the music coming from her PC off.

Caleb frowned at her as she passed, and sighed, absently bringing his thumb to suck the blood off of it, not even something he thought of before he'd done it, and it didn't occur to him that that might be creepy. "Jamie, don't...are you pissed at me now?" he asked. "Don't be mad, I'm telling you the truth, it's all tied in together, and it's nothing against you, it's me, and I don't know what to do here..." Wow, listen to the rambling.

She hugged herself, closing her eyes. "I'm... I don't know. I've told you pretty much everything about me. I've not pushed you on your issues when you skirt around them. I've been waiting for you to tell me on your own, and I'm starting to think you're never going to." I thought we were equals, but you're just trying to protect me, aren't you? "I'm not buying a barfight for a second. A bar fight would have more bruising."

And she was probably right about that. Shit. He sighed, and looked at her, pained. "I don't want you..." he started, then shook his head. "I don't want to lose you." he said, finishing what he'd started to say in the first place. It just took two tries. "And I think if I told you everything, you'd...well, you'd be smart to tell me to fuck off and never darken your door again, and I like you, and I can talk to you, and..." he trailed off once more.

Jamie turned to face him, biting her lip again. Which was starting to hurt, really, after last night and now this. "Tell me something," she began, her voice soft and taking on a gentle edge. "If I was the kind of girl who'd tell you to fuck off for you telling me your issues, would I even still be the kind of girl you liked?"

Caleb walked over, because he felt like he had to. "Hey, stop that..." he said, eying her lip with a worried expression. "You're hurting yourself." he added, voice quiet. "And it's...complicated. It's not...it's not like just telling you I had shitty parents or something, it's more than that, and god, see this is why I was telling you I was trouble, and that you should stay away from me, and it's all a big mess..." He sighed, then looked up and made eye contact, holding onto it.

She hesitated a moment before taking the one last step between them and wrapping her arms around him. She gave him a careful hug, not wanting to hurt whatever hidden wounds he had that she wasn't aware of. "You can tell me," Jamie murmured. "I'm a big girl. You don't have to tell me all at once, you know. You can't keep me out, Caleb, or else we're not equal. I don't need someone to protect me. I want someone I can talk to on my level, and if you keep shutting me out, we're not on the same level anymore. And that's one of the things I like about you." Please don't destroy that.

He was for some reason surprised by the hug. She'd been threatening him with them since they met, but this was the first time she'd actually really done it. His first instinct of course was to twitch and push her away, but that was overriden by the fact that he knew she needed it. So after a hesitation, he put his arms around her in return, and very slowly relaxed into it. Even if he was more supporting her. "Can you wait?" he asked. "Til...til after we go and watch movies and everything? Then maybe we can talk about this more, and I'll...tell you some things." he said, voice very very quiet, as he wasn't the least bit sure that he was making the right decision. However, he didn't feel like he had a choice. Either he gave her something, or something would get broken between them. He had to take a chance that what he told her didn't do the same thing.

Jamie rested her forehead against his right shoulder, taking a deep breath. He smelled nice, no metallic tang of blood at all, and that calmed her down. She reluctantly released him and took a step back. "Sorry, I know you don't do hugs," she murmured, lowering her eyes to the ground. "It can wait 'til after movies," she agreed with a nod. "We can come back here and talk."

And maybe she'd get him to stay the night, just so she'd know he was safe and not out in "bar fights" with his brother.

Caleb's hands skimmed down her sides as she stepped back, before he sort of half started picking at one of the cuffs of his shirt to give them something to do that wasn't getting her in close again. Once she'd been there, it had been...nice. And she smelled good. He thought she was wearing perfume, and he didn't know what it was, but he liked it. "Okay." he said. Which of course was setting him up to be stressing himself out the entire time wondering what the fuck he was going to say to her. But it was better than nothing. Gah, this was going to be hell. His eyes ticked to the clock, and he realized that it was a damn good thing he'd come here to get her early to give her time to yell, because they'd used it. "We should go."

"Okay," she agreed, keeping her eyes on him. Now that he'd agreed to tell her things later, she was suddenly paranoid he would run away and never come back. And she really didn't want that to happen. She'd almost prefer to just be kept in the dark about his issues and keep him as a friend than to have him run off to avoid having him talk to her. This was exactly why she hadn't wanted to push him about things to begin with, but him getting into a fight, or getting hurt, and then not telling her the truth about it? Not letting her see the full extent of his injuries?

She had to know something about him, or else their relationship was as shallow as a rainpuddle on his end. She'd told him nearly everything about her, and she'd gotten a lie in return. She wasn't going to stand for that, even if she was terrified of losing him now.

He gave her a quirked little tentative smile. "Okay." he agreed. "Your lip okay?" he asked, looking at it, eyes falling on the little red line across it. And possibly what it might taste like. But then he had the feeling he knew. Wait. Right. He did, he'd just...ohhh dear he was glad she hadn't caught that. Absently, he rubbed his thumb against his other fingers.

Jamie darted her tongue across her lip before sighing. "Yeah, it'll be okay. It's not like I can put a band-aid on my lip. I'll just have to be careful, I guess," she murmured. She kept her eyes locked on his face, still irrationally afraid she'd blink and he'd take off running.

"Alright then." he said, drawing in a breath then letting it out again. "Let's go." he said, opening her door, and holding it for her. He paused, looking back at her. He was nervous now, and couldn't help it. But oh well. He had a few hours to panic, then everything would crash. So...a few hours left of being able to call himself Jamie's friend, check. "...you smell nice." he said once she started walking past her.

She smiled faintly, ducking her head and feeling a faint blush rise on her cheeks. "So do you," she murmured, heading for the front door.

He smiled after her, blushing just a little. He didn't know why he would, it wasn't like he'd specifically gone out of his way to or anything. "Thanks." he said, totally belatedly because he'd been having a strange little moment there, then he moved to rush back up to her so they could head out together. Hopefully this wouldn't be the last time. He could hope.