Pleasantries - Chapter 3, Part 6
Dec. 7th, 2010 07:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
genlisae
Continued from Part 5
Advisories are in Part 1. Not sure anything aside from language applies here.
Pleasantries - Chapter 3 - Grunt Work- Part 6
3:15 PM Wednesday, April 23
“I don’t really have anything to tell you,” Telesto rubbed at his shoulder, “He doesn’t say much.”
Juliet stared at him, “You spent all weekend with him and then yesterday after school and you guys didn’t talk? What did you do?”
Telesto laughed, “We talked. Just not about anything important.”
“Honestly,” Juliet shook her head gazing off into the distance, “You are terrible at this.”
“Well it isn’t like I have ever done this before.”
“Two whole days, Tel!” she exclaimed, “Plus all the time you spent with him before and you can’t tell me anything about him!”
“That’s not true,” Telesto defended, “I know he likes pineapple on pizza. He prefers jeans, but I did catch him eyeing the leather. I just don’t think he’d ever be brave enough to wear it. He drinks French vanilla latte with double sugar because he doesn’t really like the flavour of coffee. He doesn’t like ketchup but he does like mayo. He used to work at a gas station. He had tropical fish but they all died and he hasn’t wanted to replace them yet because he doesn’t want to leave them behind if he goes to college. He’s not sure he wants to go to college. He does have a sense of humour, he just doesn’t let it out often and he talks in his sleep.”
Juliet blinked at him, “And you said you didn’t have anything to tell. I bet the last person he dated doesn’t even know half of that.”
“I’m not sure he’s ever dated anyone.”
“Really?”
“No one I can find out about anyway. Lil got really defensive when I asked her.”
“Huh,” Juliet frowned thoughtfully, “Weird.”
“Not everyone is you Jules,” Telesto grinned.
“Hey! Is it my fault every guy I met before you was boring?”
“So you are saying I’m fascinating? I can live with that.”
“No, I’m saying you are annoying enough to be interesting.”
“I can live with that too!” Telesto laughed getting to his feet to drop a kiss against her temple, “Gotta go. Ripp is coming over this afternoon.”
Juliet nodded, “Call me later?”
“Course!”
Juliet stared sadly into her cup.
She’d meant to tell him about her grandfather’s plans for them. For the last two days she’d meant to tell him. She couldn’t bring herself to do it.
Stupid traditions. Stupid outdated ideals. What difference did carrying on a proud family history make if everyone in the family was miserable doing it?
She drummed he fingers against the table in agitation. She would not do this to her own children. The name and fortune and reputation could go to hell as far as she was concerned. She would be the last Capp whose life was not their own.
* * *
4:00 PM Saturday, April 26
Lilith set the plate down on the counter, “Will you please try one?”
“I am sure they are fine, Lilith,” Mary-Sue assured her, “You followed the recipe. I watched you do it.”
“Yeah,” Lilith sighed, “but this is the first one you didn’t help with at all.”
Mary-Sue glanced at her daughter’s hopeful, pleading expression and sighed, “I suppose one won’t hurt …”
Lilith grinned, grabbing a cookie of her own she leaned against the counter beside her mother.
“These are actually quite good,” Mary-Sue sounded surprised, “Well done.”
Lilith was momentarily stunned into silence. Had her mother just said she did something right?
“Thanks!” she smiled recovering from her shock, “and thanks for helping me.”
Mary-Sue nodded with a small smile around a mouthful of cookie.
For several moments the only sound in the kitchen was the quiet crunching of cookies.
“This kitchen is a mess.”
Lilith looked around critically, “It is.”
Mary-sue frowned as she reached for another cookie, “I’m tempted to leave it. The home wrecking little slut can clean it tomorrow.”
Lilith smirked at her.
“Oh my goodness, I’m sorry,” Mary-Sue blanched, “I don’t usually use that word.”
“Mom, I’m sixteen not six, It isn’t like I haven’t heard people use the word 'slut' before.”
With a small laugh Mary-Sue nodded, reaching for another cookie, “I guess you have. Still, it isn’t fair of me to complain about your father. He is your father.”
Lilith ducked her head, “You complain to Angela.”
“Well Angela is so much different than you,” Mary-Sue explained, “So much more responsible.”
Lilith flinched. Responsible. To her mother responsible was synonymous with maturity. She may as well have just said Lilith still acted like a four year old.
“Oh dear!” Mary-Sue sighed staring down at a half eaten cookie, “I was only going to have one. How many is this now?”
Lilith shrugged, “Donno, I wasn’t paying attention.”
Mary-Sue frowned, “Well there goes this week’s time at the gym.”
Furling a brow Lilith shook her head, “It was just a few cookies.”
“At my age there is no such thing as just a few cookies,” Mary-Sue insisted, “Enjoy that metabolism while you are young!”
And immature, Lilith added to herself trying not to let the hurt register on her face.
Trying for a smile she turned to face her mother, “Are you ready for the movie?”
Mary-Sue glanced around at the plates of cookies, “Shouldn’t we put some of these away first? We can freeze them for next time you want to share them with your friends.”
“Next time?” Lilith’s smile was genuine this time, “Mom, Dirk is going to be at Damon’s tomorrow, these won’t last ten minutes.”
Mary-Sue shook her head as she followed Lilith from the kitchen, “I will never understand those friends of yours.”
That’s okay, Mom, Lilith thought to herself, we don’t understand you either.
* * *
11:30 PM Saturday, April 26
Dustin slowly walked Angela to the door, “I had a good time tonight.”
“Yeah,” she agreed with a small smile, “me too. Thank you for arranging this.”
“Eh,” he shrugged, “It was no problem. I wanted to.”
She beamed at him, “You must have really wanted to to make a deal with Lilith like this.”
He chuckled, “I did really want to, but Lil was cool about it.”
“Lilith was cool about it?”
“I just asked her for a favour,” Dustin shrugged, “And she agreed.”
Angela scowled, “Lilith doesn’t do favours. Ever.”
Dustin shrugged again, “Well she did this time.”
Angela laughed at him, “I know my sister. She wants something.”
Dustin shifted uncomfortably. Sure maybe at some point she would call in the favour but that was okay, he didn’t mind. The way Ang was going on though it sounded like she expected Lilith to have some sort of ulterior motive; some kind of malicious plan.
The urge was there to defend Lilith, but he really didn’t want to ruin what had been an otherwise enjoyable evening and if he jumped to Lilith’s defence it was sure to lead to an argument.
“Maybe,” he murmured at last, though even that small, noncommittal word weighed heavily on him.
“I should go in,” Angela sighed, “I really did have fun tonight.”
“Yeah,” Dustin nodded, “fun.”
Did Lilith have an ulterior motive? He didn’t think she did, but then again he didn’t know her that well.
Angela smiled coyly up at him, “Goodnight, Dustin.”
Dustin nodded again, “Goodnight.”
It wasn’t like he and Lilith had even really spoken since grade school. In fact they mostly just traded insults and glared at each other. How well could you really know someone if you were always engaged in hostilities with them?
So why had Lilith agreed to help? He’d thought it was because she was a genuinely helpful person, that had been why he’d gone to her. She’d never struck him as particularly mean spirited. So either he was wrong about her or Ang was.
Angela stood up on her toes brushing her lips against his.
Dustin tried to enjoy the moment. He couldn’t his thoughts would not leave him in peace.
He stood watching Angela go inside. As the door clicked shut behind her he sighed. Cursing under his breath he kicked at the ground.
Why did she have to make everything more complicated than it really was?
* * *
10:00 AM Monday, April 28
Anto hunched over the desk clicking through missing persons reports, frustration rising. For all intents and purposes this girl did not exist. She did exist though; she was laying on a slab in the morgue where she had been since they carried her out of the alley in a body bag. He just wasn’t looking in the right place.
Annoyed, he reached out pushing the power button on the monitor. If he looked through any more of these right now he was going to go permanently cross-eyed.
“Take a break kid,” Taneli flashed him a smile from the other side of the desk, “You look like shit.”
Anto chuckled, “Thanks. Good to know I look exactly how I feel.”
“That is the face of a man who thinks he’s missing something,” Taneli propped his feet on the desk, folding his hands behind his head, “What are you thinking?”
Anto pushed his chair back, leaning forward, fiddling idly with his fingers while he thought, “I’m thinking it isn’t possible for a nice girl in her early twenties to show up dumped in an alley and have no one missing her.”
“Do we know she was a nice girl?”
Anto thought for a moment, trying to put to words what his instincts were telling him, “We do. The way she was dressed, her hair, I’m thinking young professional. Bit old to be a student, but that is a possibility too I guess.”
Taneli nodded, “I agree.”
“But we have no reports of missing persons that match her description,” Anto went on, “So now I’m thinking she was the quiet type, kept to herself, probably not a lot of friends or nearby family.”
Leaning forward Anto shuffled through the papers on his desk until he found what he was looking for.
“I’m also thinking she had a cat,” he added.
“A cat?” Taneli sat up.
Anto handed him the paper, “Forensics found cat hairs on her clothes.”
Taneli studied the sheet for a long moment, “I feel sorry for the cat.”
“What cat?”
Both men turned their heads at the sound of the new voice to see a happily smiling Caliban looking back and forth between them.
“What are you doing here?” Anto asked after a moment.
Cal faked offence, “You aren’t glad to see me?”
“Shouldn’t you be at work?” Anto countered.
Cal grinned, “I am.”
Taneli laughed, “So it’s you, huh?”
Cal nodded, “Can’t let you guys have all the fun and someone has to keep this jackass from working himself to death when you retire.”
Anto shook his head, but couldn’t help a small smile, “They were actually stupid enough to give you a shield?”
Cal pulled up a chair beside Anto’s desk, “Hey, don’t knock stupidity. I owe most of the best things that ever happened to me to other people’s stupidity. Now what cat?”
“We think our dead girl had a cat,” Anto explained, “Forensics found cat hairs on her clothes.”
Cal nodded thoughtfully, “Orange and white? Short hair?”
Taneli glanced down at the paper on his desk, “Yeah. Why?”
“Got a call a little over a week ago to assist animal control with removing an orange and white cat from an abandoned apartment. Landlord said the cat had been howling in there for days and he hadn’t seen the tenant in almost two weeks.”
Anto exchanged a glance with Taneli, “You think?”
“Could be,” Taneli nodded, “Let’s check it out.”
* * *
6:00 PM Thursday, May 1
“I smell pizza!” Tybalt exclaimed as he and Damon rounded the corner into the kitchen.
“Jerk,” Damon glared at his brother leaned against the counter happily devouring a still steaming slice, “You guys ordered pizza and you didn’t tell us?”
Telesto cringed, “Yeah, ‘cause I am going to walk into your room when he’s in there with you just to ask if you’re hungry. There is not enough brain bleach in the world to undo the damage that could cause.”
“It’s okay,” Tybalt grinned, “Ripp’s eating this one. It’s safe. Not like the last one the green little shit ordered that was not fit for human consumption.”
“True,” Damon nodded elbowing his way between Telesto and Ripp to grab a slice, “Share.”
“You might not want to do that,” Telesto cautioned.
Ripp chuckled quietly around a bite of pizza edging over to give Damon room.
“Why?” Damon regarded the pizza suspiciously, “What’s on it?”
“Pineapple, pepperoni, cranberries, feta, ham, jalapeños, sun-dried tomatoes, sauerkraut, shrimp and anchovies,” Telesto grinned.
“You let him order the pizza!” Damon accused staring stunned at Ripp, “Did no one warn you he puts weird inedible crap on pizza?”
“Nope, wasn’t warned,” Ripp shrugged popping the last bite of his pizza in his mouth.
Telesto laughed licking a drop of sauce from his finger, “Sorry, not guilty this time.”
Silence hung over the kitchen for a long moment. Damon and Tybalt stared at each other, both attempting to come to terms with the implications of Telesto’s statement.
“You’re shitting me,” Tybalt blinked, finally turning a stunned gaze on Ripp.
“He’s got excellent taste in pizza,” Telesto informed them pushing off from the counter.
“You guys can have the rest,” Ripp offered grinning as he stepped past them, “Try it with mayo. It’s good.”
Damon and Tybalt stood bewildered, watching Ripp and Telesto head back down the hall.
“How is that possible?” Tybalt asked after a moment.
“I don’t even want to know.”
“That is as scary as I think it is, right?”
“Scary is them suddenly being joined at the hip,” Damon replied, “I don’t even want to know what the hell this is.”
* * *
On to Part 7
Then chapter 4. Finally!
Also if I never see cookies again it will be too soon, and I am no longer terribly fond of pizza.
Right so everyone enjoyed the fun, fluffy little interlude here? Good! I am glad ... *shifty eyes* Just don't kill me k?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-12-07 04:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-08 01:39 am (UTC):( Poor Jules. She won't shirk though. She hates it, but she won't shirk.
no subject
Date: 2010-12-08 12:19 am (UTC)And I can't even imagine what the people at the pizza place think! ;D
no subject
Date: 2010-12-08 01:43 am (UTC)The Pizza guys! They would totally be all "So really is that even any good?". Either that or they would think they were dealing with me *nod*. Minus the sauerkraut (cause it makes it soggy), shrimp and anchovies (cause I am allergic) and I would be all over that pizza!
no subject
Date: 2010-12-08 12:32 am (UTC)That's a nasty pizza there. Feta? Really? Ewwwww.
I feel bad for Juliet, but I think I feel worse for Lil. I feel kinda bad for her mother though too. She just sort of opens her mouth and doesn't understand how much to heart Lil takes things.
I like that Ang has a shiny slut dress though :D
no subject
Date: 2010-12-08 01:49 am (UTC)Yay! It is not just me that feels bad for Mary-Sue. She is hopelessly lost really and getting more so all the time. From that viewpoint it is hard to see what effect you have on those around you.
Oh and Ang has a lot of slut dresses cause well ... yeah.
no subject
Date: 2010-12-08 06:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-08 02:40 am (UTC)Not only the story and character are enthralling, but you put so much attention to detail in every shot, and you work with posing is amazing. I can stare at each image for minutes just trying to figure out how you do it.
Great work and awesome update! :)
no subject
Date: 2010-12-09 06:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-08 02:14 pm (UTC)The look on Damon's face when he heard the pizza topping killed me and the glance between Telesto and Ripp in the next shot was adorable. Am now rather scared why we'll want to kill you after this; eek.
no subject
Date: 2010-12-09 06:39 am (UTC):D glad you enjoyed.