Room 210- Saturday morning

[seriesofbaddecisions]

Sabine was absolutely over this. She could deal well enough with the clothing disappearing- her armor hadn't counted and she'd managed to find a rash guard in a tree that meant she was at least about as covered up as she always was.

The real problem was that the weather was kind of killing all of her outlets this week. Her warehouse was too dark and stuffy to work, it was too hot for painting without a disaster, and it even felt too gross to sit and read without focusing on how gross it was. This was starting to result in her being too annoyed to try anything, and since she was up too early because it had been already too hot to sleep, she was sitting on her bed with her sketchbook and drawing the things she wanted to paint but wasn't about to chance right now.

It probably wasn't really helping.


[Door and post so, so open. This is probably your only day to ever get answers out of her, mwahaha.]

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[seriesofbaddecisions]

The other thing was, there were a lot of things Sabine hadn't asked, either, because once Astrid got back it was clear things weren't okay and then she wasn't sure she should ask.

"Why did you want to stay that bad?"

[white_oleander]

And then there was another thing still, that sometimes, the truth was so complicated that, even when you suddenly found yourself compelled to tell it, you just didn't even know how to find the right words.

Especially when you never even had your own words.

"Because then I wouldn't have to come back," Astrid said, staring again at the ceiling with some small level of horror that she was even saying anything. "But probably wouldn't matter. A whole country and twenty-seven years wasn't far enough; what difference would an extra ocean make?"

Apparently, there were words after all, once Astrid never expected to be spoken outloud to anyone. So then she was very still, as if, if she didn't move, maybe Sabine wouldn't have noticed.

[seriesofbaddecisions]

Normally Sabine would respect that this was not the time for her to ask more leading questions, and she wanted to. She really did. But she'd also had questions, so unfortunately what she said was, "What are you trying so hard to get away from?"

[white_oleander]

Astrid tried to say something to dismiss that question, she tried to think of something else to say to swing the conversation away.

"My mother," was all that came out.

And then she sucked in a deep breath as if she'd spoken some curse that would now send the fires of hell roaring through their bedroom or that would cause the walls to come crashing down. Or even worse, summon the woman herself with her calculating smile and her impossible to escape gravity.

"I'm sorry," she then said, meaning it in several ways, because it was not only difficult to talk about Ingrid, but also dangerous. "I really don't want to talk about it."

Despite the fact that she apparently was compelled to.

[seriesofbaddecisions]

"Don't be, I figured, kind of," Sabine said, not even wanting that put there. "I don't want to be asking. I don't know what's happening."

[white_oleander]

"No," said Astrid, who wondered what the process of trying to cram words back deep down into your psyche was call, because whatever it was, that's what she was attempting right now and failing miserably, so it all came out a little strangled, "I do have to be sorry, because whenever I talk about my mother, nothing good ever comes out of it, she's crazy, and she has to destroy everything--"

Astrid cut herself off, although that was kind of the end, and she sat up, breathing heavily now as she turned to drape her legs over the side of the bed, leaning forward.

"What is this?" she said to the floor. "It's like I just open my mouth and everything just comes gushing out. Like the Exxon Valdez, it just all wants to spill out of me and taint everything left."

[seriesofbaddecisions]

"I don't know but I hate it," Sabine said, rubbing her temples. "Because you saying that makes me want to start talking about my mother and that's really not anything I want to get into. Ever."

Maybe she could stay in her warehouse forever? It'd only be gross and sweltering for what, a week at most?

[white_oleander]

"And now I know what you meant about not wanting to ask," Astrid realized, "because now that's all I want to do..."

She looked up at Sabine a little desperately, but also there was something else there, a sort of softening. "I didn't know you--" She winced, shook her head. "Of course I didn't know, how could I, we don't talk about this--"

She stood up. "I should go. I was going to go down to the beach and just stay in the water for as long as I could, anyway..."

[seriesofbaddecisions]

"That's a good plan," Sabine agreed, frowning. "There are reasons we don't talk about this."

[white_oleander]

"Exactly," said Astrid, in a rush, part relief and part just trying to get it out quick before anything else decided to come back with it, and she went to grab her bag. "Okay. Going. Before we both wind up like Pandora, opening a box we can't so easily close again..."

Her legs seemed to forget how to move for a second, though, but she got them started and headed toward the door, for once glad that all her her issues and unspoken truths were all far too complicated to be blurted out in a matter of seconds on the way to an escape.

[seriesofbaddecisions]

"I should probably leave by the time you come back."

GIRLS. This was bad.

[white_oleander]

"It's fine," Astrid said hurriedly at the door, shaking her head. "I'll just be gone for a while. I'm good at that, I can just come back late."

Because being truthful about your ability to avoid things you didn't want to be truthful about was still a form of truth, apparently.

[seriesofbaddecisions]

"Thank you," Sabine said, nodding, and hating this whole day.

[white_oleander]

"You're...welcome," said Astrid, like she didn't know what else to say, like she was afraid of what else she might say, but, of course, she still said something else anyway. "And I'm...sorry. Again. I just...don't...want to bother you with...anything. Ever."

And that was clearly enough to show Astrid that this wasn't going to stop unless she physically removed herself from the situation, so she set to do just that, going through the door and hurrying down the hallway as quick as she could without actually just runnning.