homophonic: jonas

[camena]

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[westedge]

[ normally he doesn't challenge her on stuff like this, but admittedly he's curious. ]

What are you just saying?

[camena]

[ honestly... saying this is easier now than it was the first time. it's less tense. they're not fresh out of an argument with her best friend or on a short timer for being possessed. ]

I told you before—you're a good guy. So it like... sucks for them to miss out on that.

And I could tell that when we'd just met, so think how confident I get to be about it now. [ after two weeks hanging out instead of one night. ]

[westedge]

[ it's kind of hard to be annoyed about it. he's not entirely sure how to feel, but he's not annoyed like he thought he might be. he hesitates on his words again, like he wants to address part of it but maybe it's not all that important to address. are they there? are they back on that level of having these kinds of conversations? it's been about two weeks. ]

Wow. A whole two weeks later. Look at you go.

[camena]

[ they are constantly having these kinds of conversations - she just maybe is not always as delicate as she could be about some things. which means she should not get huffy when she gets push back... and yet. ]

Why're you saying it like that? Two weeks is a long time.

[westedge]

What? No that's not what I--yes, two weeks is probably a long time for us considering some stuff. [ it also is taking stuff jonas has zero clue about into consideration, but it's fine. ]

...to be fair to us, the night on the island felt a lot longer than just those hours.

[camena]

[ considering some stuff. well, she's more fixated on the stuff he does not know, yes. ]

Yeah it did. And you did say you were having some intense deja vu about the whole night, so.

[ that probably made it feel longer. ]

[westedge]

...[ maybe not as intense as alex thinks, but yeah. he did in fact say that. ]

Haru said something interesting to me a little while ago. About how time isn't really a good measure of how much a person...[ pause. thinking. ] Can affect you.

[camena]

Sure. I agree with that.

[ ... ]

If you click, you click. It's not like me and Ren weren't 'best friends' until a long enough time went by. We just were. Right away.

[westedge]

I think it's also probably easier to make best friends when you're that young and stuff doesn't matter as much. But if you click, you click. [ a shrug. ] No sense in questioning it or anything either. It's one of those things you can just notice without wondering too much about it.

[camena]

... You think it gets harder the older you get?

[westedge]

Of course I do. [ factually. ] People have more history and everything when they're older that you have to try to work with.

[camena]

Guess that makes sense. And you're not stuck with, like... Every possible kid your age in the city for school every day anymore.

[westedge]

Right. When you're a kid it's like...practically built-in friendships in preschool and stuff. Your mom drops you off at a table full of fingerpaints, you try to go and grab the jar of red at the same time as somebody, and suddenly you're best friends because you both like red. No thought, no deeper meaning, just simple stuff.

And when you get older and you have more opinions, maybe you like red but you like blue much better, so you can't just bond over something simple. You have to dig a little deeper, but it's not, like, a guarantee you'll like what you find there.

[camena]

... Sure, yeah. When you grow up with people you kind of... grow around each other like vines, I guess? You adapt to each other already being there, so it's harder to get wedged apart.

[ but because she is a little bit allergic to having serious conversations without some kind of stupid aside: ]

But for the record, my favorite color is blue. And Ren likes purple.

[westedge]

[ pff. he's not that interested in dragging the mood down further with his own cynical (and lonely) ideology, so he lets her chance the subject a little. ]

Well we all have our flaws, I guess. [ it's easier to joke about stupid things, too. ]

[camena]

[ unfortunately she does not keep the conversation linear. she just. veers right back into it. ]

And we're still young, you know. There's still lots of time for you to meet new people and bond over your favorite crayons or whatever.

[westedge]

[ NO GO BACK. he hates it here. ]

Alex. [ patiently. and maybe a little resigned. ] I think you're forgetting that meeting people is actually kind of stressful. Pretty sure that was a little obvious on the island? We made it work, but...barely, half the time.

[ sometimes you end up picking fights and fucking up and spending your night thinking maybe it would be better if you weren't there. ]

[camena]

It was a stressful time! School will only be like... half as stressful as the island!

[ HALF IS STILL TOO STRESSFUL, THERE WERE GHOSTS AND PEOPLE DYING ]

[westedge]

[ ?!!?!? ]

Is that supposed to make me feel better, or...? [ HALF IS STILL BAD. ]

[camena]

Yes.

[ and she opens her mouth to be like "you got through the night didn't you???" but. apparently they fucking didn't. so. ???????? she closes her mouth. ]

[westedge]

[ ... ]

I guess to be fair to you? It was probably the first time I was actually kind of looking forward to going to school. Even with the stress.

[camena]

[ okay she is touched by this, but unfortunately she chooses to express that with a big exaggerated: ] Awwwwwwww.

[westedge]

[ oh my god. he's just. TURNING AROUND TO WALK INTO A RANDOM STORE. ]

Stop. Just. Stop.

[camena]

[ she just follows him! teehee ✨ ]

No, it'll be fun! I have to tell you all the secrets! Like, don't take afternoon Math even though it sounds better. And don't talk too much in History class even though it feels like you can get away with it. And in English, you can distract Mr. Collins into going off on a tangent about his dog for like the entire period. And if you skip, use the exit by the gym to get outside without the front office seeing you.

[westedge]

[ the thing about it is. he's absolutely pretending to be annoyed and ignore her. he is keeping his back to her while he's browsing through clothes since i decided they are now in the gift shop, but it's very obvious that he's still listening.

it's kind of charming in the dumbest way possible because it all sounds so normal and nice and like...the very smaller, quieter town vibe that he's never really experienced before. it's not like he doubted alex would know these things, but it's a little funny to listen to her rattle off these facts. ]

How is it that class hasn't even started and I feel like I should be taking notes? [ dry. but amused. ] Some of this stuff you're gonna have to repeat when we get back, I can't keep up with all of your secrets that easy.