Horror & Cuddles

Roderick reached over and plucked the cigarette out from between Evelyn's lips. He inhaled the chemicals no differently than he breathed air - without a hitch. It really was a wonder no one at the academy had been kicked out yet. By now, half of the entire building smelled of spilled alcohol and ashtrays. The general assumption these days seemed to be that the staff had either given up on trying to stop it, or acted similarly behind closed doors, thus nullifying criticism.

The smoke escaped the Winter in little puffs through his mouth and nose as he spoke, unintentionally glossing over the sentiment in Evelyn's words. "'Spose you're better company than the ghosts in my room."

Evelyn bit her lower lip - either he was intentionally glossing over what she was actually trying to say, or he was just square and didn't understand. She didn't want to think Rod was either or those things. Not to mention he took away her smoke just like that. She took it back from his hand, inhaling deeply to take her mind off all of that, quietly watching the screen. It was puzzling to watch the movie without knowing anything that was happening, having missed quite a while of it chatting to the Winter, so she just flinching at every jumpscare and not paying any mind to the plot of it all. Not that there was much to begin with.

Roderick barely managed half a puff before Evelyn snatched the cig up for herself again, his fingers closing on each other where he'd been holding it up. In truth, he hadn't meant to sound passive. He was blind to it, but sometimes, emotions passed over him like they hadn't even been present. Had Evelyn not had a face, it would have not made any difference. His brain deflected smiles, or frowns, or tones of voice like a rubber ball to a hard surface.

"Awh, I wasn't done with that.." The Winter pulled a soft frown, pursing his lips and watching the smoke curl out of Evelyn's mouth with a spirit of disappointment. He let his head roll off to the side, cheek settling against the crown of the girl's head. Something - her shampoo, perhaps - smelled fruity. The Winter pressed his nose against her head and sniffed her hair. "You smell like a mango."

Evelyn took a long puff, the smoke coming out of her mouth in a twirling wisp. She would have just handed the cigarette to Roderick, but feeling his face against her head, the Autumn's cheeks reddened. Quietly, the girl put the cigarette away, snuffing it out on the coffee table, snuggling closer to the boy. "Mango is nice." she said. It occured to her that her roommates might just be just fetching a glass of watre and walk in on them. One of those might rat them out, shit. She took her mind off the matter, shifting her head to look at the telepath with a small smile. "How's your forehead?" the ragdoll asked, a mischevious look in her eyes.

One of his hands wandered up to his forehead, fingertips brushing over the glossy red scab Evelyn had accidentally left behind in her baseball endeavors. It still hurt if he put enough pressure on it, even though it'd been a few weeks since the incident. Roderick had meant not to make a fuss of it, and opted to sleep it off, but a teacher had noticed it in the hallways the day after and sent him off to the infirmary. That visit had been more unpleasant than the actual injury. "Well, I don't look like a unicorn anymore." He picked another lock of Evelyn's hair out and twined it around his index finger. "Left a gnarly scar behind, though."

The girl brushed his hair from his forehead. It's not... that bad. she told herself. Roderick didn't whine, at least. She was careful to not press on the scar. It was sort of fascinating to see wounds, a sadistic leasure perhaps, but she didn't exactly bleed. Evelyn just tore, like a stuffed animal, and if stuff was bad, she immediately blacked out.

He had gotten a liking to her hair? Not that she complained, she liked the feeling of someone playing with her hair. Bonus points she bought new shampoo recently so she wouldn't smell like cigarettes all the time. The Autumn kicked off her bunny slippers, hugging her chest. "You still look nice."

"Well, that's good," he mumbled, not really registering the intent of her compliment.

There was an incessant clicking sound coming from somewhere - somewhere in the room, in fact - and it was starting to become irritating. Roderick had been trying his best to ignore it for the last couple of minutes, but it was showing no signs of stopping or slowing. Grinding his molars together, Roderick sat up and glanced around the room. Where was it coming from? "That's starting to rustle my jimmies."

It couldn't be the wind knocking something around, it sounded like.. Like somebody clacking their tongue repeatedly. He felt as though he'd heard this before, in his own dorm, actually.. "Someone 'ought to be following me around to tick me off. What did I do to anybody?" The Winter frowned and craned his neck to peer over at the door leading outside, and then over at the window, but no one was there. Sneaky cunt they were, huh? "D'you see anyone funny around here?"

Evelyn paused, straining her ears to hear whatever Roderick was talking about. Clicking sound? She couldn't hear anything, and for a moment she felt embarrassed and confused for not hearing anything. The Winter did seem much more interested in that sound rather than her.

"Rod?" propped herself better against the backboard of the sofa, glancing at the window at the darkness outside. Weird sounds at night, plus a horror movie still playing, was making her nervous. Staring too much at the window made her start to see faces, and she inched closer to the boy. "You okay?"

Roderick squinted at Evelyn, bewildered at her sudden concern. Was he okay..? He was a little bit on edge now that the noise was getting to him, but.. Did it not bother her?

Clack. Clack. Clackclackclack. Clackclack. Clack.

"Jesus," The Winter muttered almost inaudibly to himself, hunching over to rub his tired eyes. He needed a hit, and he needed it now, but he'd come with next to nothing aside from the now-doused cigarette on him. Roderick couldn't recall ever being an annoyance to anybody, what had warranted this? Had someone actually decided to follow him around, all the way from his dorm to the Autumn dorms, just to make ticking sounds like a five year old? The palms of his hands had already grown damp with stress..

Roderick sat abruptly back up a heartbeat later, attention snapping back to his date. God, he needed a distraction, but he had no substances, and he'd left his phone at.. Well, somewhere. This horror film was doing nothing for him. Clack. Clack. Clack. "Movie's a bit of yawn-fest, hey?" He could barely stifle the agitation in his voice.

Okay, it was getting quite uncomfortable. She strained, really tried to hear something, a hint that the Winter wasn't rambling, but it was dead quiet. Was he messing with her? Evelyn moved away from him slightly, her eyes fixed on her hands. "Stop it. It's not funny anymore." the ragdoll muttered, boring her eyes into his, unhappiness visible on her face. A screen shone a blueish light on half of her face as she spoke again.

"If you don't like the movie, just go." she added coldly, hugging her knees to her chest as the side she had been leaning against Roderick met cold air. Maybe she was forcing him to be there, maybe he wanted to leave and he didn't know how to make an escape. She wasn't going to stop him from doing so but... yeah, it would be quite awkward, not to mention it would bring to a "smoke, stay in bed and skip classes" state.

He held a long, blank stare with her, all semblance of feigned amusement dropping from his features.

'She's fucking with you, idiot,' a nameless voice whispered. Clack clackticktickclackclack.

Clack tick ticktick clackclack. 'Fucking worthless bogan.'

"You're having a go at me, is that it?" the Winter blurted, jerking an inch or two away from Evelyn. His voice took on an icy edge. "That's what this is, a joke - inviting me here to piss me off and act like you have nothing to do with it. Not a very goddamn funny joke." He pulled himself up off of the couch and snatched his phone off of the cushion. First the baseball bat, and now this. He could feel a sudden rush anger washing over him, an inordinate and swift wave of heat bubbling up over seemingly nothing. The ticking was becoming maddeningly loud, only fueling his mounting hostility. "God, everyone's out to get me this past month, huh? Not fucking funny." He spat the last couple of words through gritted teeth, glowering down at the Autumn.

What. The. Fuck?

Evelyn glared at the Winter in confusion as he first spoke, his accusation something that hurt deeper than a bad joke. He had been the one fucking with her, for all she could tell, and all night had only been him giving her the cold shoulder like he was a brick-head. She didn't have anything to say, she couldn't think of anything even if she wanted. From her huddled up position she stared at Roderick, tensing her jaw to stop from frowning at him and looking like a baby. If he thought he could treat her like that then the ragdoll refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing her unhappiness.

Something told the Autumn to just get him out of the room as fast as possible. She needed to calm down for a while, wallow off her confusion and sadness to her Twitter or something. "You can leave if you feel like that." Evelyn turned away, staring at the pitch-black beyond the window, her voice quiet but stern. The last thing she wanted was one of her dorm mates walking in on them having this... talk. "Throw your childish tantrums somewhere else." the girl added. She didn't want to say anything like "We never had anything going anyway."

That's a lie. I liked you.

As fury bubbled up inside of him, Roderick's already meager control over his gift rapidly began to slip out of his grasp. It was as if twenty different television channels had suddenly gone off beneath his skull, each on maximum volume. He could feel the dreams, and thoughts, and emotions of the students in the neighboring dorms pouring steadily into his mind like a collapsing dam, with the frantic chattering sound as a maddening backdrop. As his focus waned, his gift took over.

His heartbeat was crawling up into his throat, threatening to choke him. The Winter could barely force out a syllable to Evelyn in response to her insult - only a tiny quiver of his bottom lip - the stream of sensations easily overwhelming his anger. His face twisted up in fear, instead, and he lost his grip on his phone, letting it tumble carelessly to the ground. It slapped, screen-first, against the floorboards below.

It was probably broken now. He didn't care.

Without another word, Roderick whirled around and scrambled out of the room.