Take Two: The Halloween Party

[The Delaney Twins]

“Ugh, sorry, I’m completely wrecked.”
…oh, aye right.
Not awkward at all, then. Obviously. After all, he’d just uttered the most awkward sentence that Lynn had ever heard Russ say, then laughed at himself, and then met her with the standard Sorry-I’m-just-tired excuse.
Jesus Christ.
But at least the intention was there, right? That had to be a good thing. At least he wasn’t pissed or anything. Not that Russ had ever been pissed with Lynn, but who knew how he was going to react? Lynn was ready to bet any amount of money that this was not a situation that he’d ever been in before. So at least this whole thing could have been worse.
And she couldn’t really expect it to just pop right back to normal. Especially when she’d given him such a weird sentence to react to. Lynn had never been embarrassed in front of Russ. Or, really, in front of anyone. She didn’t get embarrassed, Chrissake! She would have been dead from mortification several times over by now if she did.
God, she was not used to being this confused.
Maybe she didn’t feel embarrassed so much as… she didn’t know. Guilty. Maybe this was how she did guilty. Or a combination of guilty and surprised and extremely and irrationally frightened.
But that wasn’t the point now. The point was that he had just awkwardly told her that it wasn’t going to be awkward. Ergo he still wanted to be her friend. And the awkward thing they could deal with. It wasn’t like Russ and Lynn really did awkward, anyway. If the first time they’d met proved anything, it proved that.
It’d probably all be fine by tomorrow morning.
Of course, that being said, that didn’t help her at all with what she was supposed to say now, but, thankfully, she didn’t have to think about that for very long. Mere moments after Russ had finished speaking, a tap came on her shoulder, and she turned to see Captain Jack Sparrow brandishing a mobile phone in her face.
...surreal.
Captain Jack looked at Russ with an emotion in his purple eyes that only his sister would be able to read as extraordinarily wary, nodded curtly, and said, “Evening.”
Then without skipping a beat he looked at Lynn, and announced, “Phone, Sally.”
Lynn paused. Then she turned to Russ, and said, smiling, “Sorry, one moment,” before turning to her brother. “Ken, those etiquette lessons we got you are really paying off, aren’t they? I’m kind of having a conversation, here.”
She sounded mildly irritated, but the truth was, she was thankful. She’d never really thought she’d be thankful for Kennedy’s dragging her away from a conversation with Russ yet again, but there it was.
She really was feeling very strange.
Kennedy gave her a very effective Well-what-am-I-supposed-to-do? look and said, “Hey, don’t blame me. S’not my fault if your grandmother decided to call you out of the goodness of her little old heart and wish you a happy Hallowe’en. But no, you’re right, I’ll tell her you’re busy. Don’t come crying to me when she kicks your arse next time we see her.”
“Grandma Hannah? Christ, Ken!”
“What?”
“Could you not have left the phone outside? It’s kind of loud in here, you know. You want to blow the poor woman’s ears out?”
“Well, I told her to hold the phone away from her face, didn’t I?” he retorted.
“Ugh. Give it here,” Lynn said, gesturing for the phone. Kennedy handed it over. “Did you bring Kira up to the dorm?” she asked more seriously.
“Delivered safe and sound,” he said. “But I didn’t hang round. It’s his decision, what happens from here.”
Lynn nodded. “Fingers crossed, then.”
Kennedy rolled his eyes. “Wouldn’t bother. It’s Ari. He’ll find some way to screw it up.”
“Awk, Kenny! Have faith in the poor boy!”
Kennedy snorted. “Sure, I'll get right on that. Anyway, I’m going to the library now, and then bed when my senses tell me that Ari and Kira’s drama’s over, so, y’know. Night, Sall.”
He smiled, and moved as if he was going to ruffle her hair: an irritating habit that he had attempted to develop lately. Attempted, because he hadn’t yet managed to reach Lynn’s head (at least, when she was expecting it). As she had done many times before, Lynn quickly raised her arm and batted his hand away before he’d even managed to get close. The threat removed, she grinned back triumphantly. “Ni’Night, Kenny. Do that one more time and I break your face,” she said lovingly.
And so Kennedy laughed then left, and Lynn turned back to Russ and smiled. “Sorry, he acts like a five-year-old in company,” she said, rolling her eyes in an exact mirror of Kennedy’s expression of moments ago. “But anyway. I apologise, looks like I’m going to have to head on – he wasn’t joking about my gran kicking my arse if I don’t take this call. Seriously, I love her, but that Hannah Delaney is a scary woman.”
And for a moment that stupid embarrassed awkward-making feeling rushed back over her, but she forced off her face and out of her voice as she said brightly, “Tomorrow morning, then?”
Ridiculous, that three little words could make her feel so vulnerable.

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

He'd never admit it, but Russ had never felt so glad to be interrupted in a conversation.
Even if it was by Captain Jack Sparrow, giving him a wary look. Or, even better, Captain Jack Sparrow giving him a wary look whilst wielding a cell phone.
It was probably safe to say that that was an image he'd never get out of his head.
Especially when Johnny Depp began to talk in Kennedy Delaney's voice, with a curt "Evening," before turning to Lynn and saying "Phone, Sally."
Russ didn't bother trying to figure out why Kennedy had brought the phone into the common room - it wasn't as though anyone could hear well enough to have a phone conversation in this level of noise. Which was why it was even stranger that it was their grandma. Russ didn’t know many old people – bar Madeleine’s grandmother, who had ears like a bat, as they found out to their detriment once upon a time – but he knew that they didn’t have the best hearing skills. So, if they couldn’t hear well enough to have a phone conversation here, how the hell could an old woman hear?
But he tuned out as the two started to argue over the phone, enough to again go over the hellish awkward conversation. That wasn’t one he wanted to repeat, well, ever. And he really hoped that this wouldn’t make things awkward between the two of them, because it wasn’t like it was ever awkward. But he may just have succeeded in that, thanks to Madeleine and his own fúcking mouth. Some things just didn’t need to be said.
But it’d be fine in the morning. Probably. It had better be fine in the morning. Awkward moments are one thing, but he didn’t want to think that he might just have jeopardised their friendship. Because… he liked her, he really did. And he didn’t want things to change, or to be weird. They had a great relationship, and Russ enjoyed it – and he’d be happy just to be her friend. After all, they got along well, didn’t they?
But, Russ’ dámn idiocy might just have spoiled that, and he’d never felt so much like kicking himself.
His attention was brought back when Kennedy went to ruffle Lynn’s hair, and promptly got his hand batted away, before she grinned. "Ni’Night, Kenny. Do that one more time and I break your face."
Russ laughed along with Kenny at that, before Lynn wheeled around to face him again, smiling. "Sorry, he acts like a five-year-old in company." She rolled her eyes, and Russ didn’t think he’d ever seen her look more like her brother, Johnny Depp mimicking aside. "But anyway. I apologise, looks like I’m going to have to head on – he wasn’t joking about my gran kicking my arse if I don’t take this call. Seriously, I love her, but that Hannah Delaney is a scary woman. Tomorrow morning, then?"
She sounded normal again. That had to be a good sign, right?
"Tomorrow morning, then," he laughed. "Is the usual time good, or do you want to lie in after the, eh, exhausting excitement of the party?"

[The Delaney Twins]

Oh, thank God, thank God. That was normal, wasn’t it?
But… she didn’t know. Normalcy felt a bit weird now. Any other time, the ‘exhausting excitement’ of the party would have just been a comment which Lynn would have taken to be referring to the fact that, well, yeah, it was a school party, and therefore a little pathetic, but no one really expected it to be a night of sex, drugs and rock’n’roll. But now it felt weird, because the biggest ‘excitement’ – or event, whatever – that she would remember from tonight was what he had just said, and…
Well, she’d maybe have to wait while to be able to joke about that. In fact, scratch that, she wouldn’t be joking about it at all, ever, because, whether he’d meant it or not, that was just cruel. And all things considered… Well, she didn’t want to. It didn’t feel right.
Dàmnit, she was taking far too long to say goodbye. Her grandmother was waiting. But Lynn just… She needed to make sure that this was OK. Otherwise she wouldn’t be getting an iota of sleep tonight.
Outwardly she ignored these thoughts and laughed instead. “Yeah, I don’t do lie-ins, Russ. Normal time come rain or shine. Or Spy Hallowe’en Parties. But I’m hoping you’ll still be OK to come down at half seven? I’ll, of course, understand if you don’t think you’ll be able to. You must be absolutely wrecked from this rave.” And she grinned.
Right, fair enough. Lynn had no right to get confused by Russ’s slipping back into their usual jokes so quickly. She was doing the exact same thing.
Well, in that case, hopefully normalcy would be back to actually feeling normal pretty sharpish.

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

He laughed. “Oh yeah, completely. But y’know, I think I might be alright. Just forgive me if I drop asleep mid-walk after all this.”
Okay, so she was laughing. That was normal, right? Yeah, it was normal. Maybe tomorrow would be alright. He hoped.
If he could just get rid of the ridiculous level of cursing in his head, Russ’d probably feel better about all of this. But as it was, he was still crazy píssed off at himself, and at a level of embarrassment that he’d thought was humanly impossible for him. And on top of that was a healthy dollop of irritation at Madeleine for giving him advice that had just failed, but if he was honest he knew that it was nothing to do with that. It just felt better to blame her for it, obviously.
And on that subject, she was going to kill herself laughing at him when she found out about this, of course. Hopefully, she’d forget to bring it up again. She’d have to forget, he was supposed to be going to a camp with her after his dog walk tomorrow. Crap. If the walk went as badly as he was steadily convincing himself it would, he was not going to be in any mood for an inquisition tomorrow.
But she’d laughed. Lynn had laughed, and that was something more normal than what had just happened. Maybe it’d be fine. Not back to normal, he doubted it could go back to normal now. They’d both be more careful. But even semi-normal would be okay for now.
“You’d probably better get back to your grandmother, Sally, if she’s as scary as you two make her sound,” he added, with a grin he wasn’t totally sure he meant. “I’ll see you in the morning, half seven.”

[The Delaney Twins]

“Yeah, I guess I’d better,” she said, and the grin that accompanied her words was nearly flawless – almost exactly the same as all the other ones that had been on her face throughout her friendship with Russ.
It probably didn’t look different. It just… felt different, she guessed. A lot of things felt different now, and she really wished that they wouldn’t. But it was too soon after, for her to be able to fix this. Tomorrow she’d get it back to normal, if it was the last thing she did, but today she was still in shock.
She hoped it would go back to normal. And she hoped that she hadn’t hurt him. And she was scared that it wouldn’t go back to normal, and felt guilty for the possibility that she could have hurt him, because the last thing she wanted to do was hurt Russ. But fear and guilt weren’t all she felt.
She didn’t understand the other things that she felt.
“I’ll see you then!” she said brightly, and she left.
And having left the common room, she let the heavy doors swing closed behind her, and leant against the opposite wall, relishing the feeling of the cool surface against her back after the heat of the room. She lifted the phone to her ear, and tried to put all thoughts of Russ and what had just happened out of her head.
It worked, for now, but she was going to need to think about it later. It didn’t look like she’d be getting too much sleep tonight.
She shook her head, pushed the thoughts away again, and began to speak. “Hey, Gran. How are you?”