Tripping Over Themselves

[brian_campo]

The moment the final note of music faded from the sound system, Brian tugged his earphones off his head and dropped them carelessly on the synthesizer. For once, he was grateful that his band wasn’t popular enough for an encore. On many nights, he had gotten the short end of the stick when one of his band mates ditched after the show and left Brian to pack up their gear. Time to turn the tables. In fact, it was long overdue. “Mads...” He pulled a mic off its stand, swung it by the cord, and sent it sailing in an arc toward the brunette’s personal space.

She caught it. “Watch it!”

“Later, I’m out.”

‘Wait, what--?’

Too late, Brian thought. He shouldered past Seth like a shoplifter making a break for it and hit the ramp at a jog. Thump, thump, thump. He nudged through a throng of other musicians and regulars to creep up behind the petite blonde with the incredible body. He snaked his arms around her waist and raised her off the ground. “Hey, beautiful,” was muffled against her neck, and they were turning, turning, the room going ‘round and ‘round, the lights streaking purple and blue and neon orange. Brian’s shirt was drenched in sweat. He felt as rubbery and loose as a piece of stretched taffy.

Comments

[valerie_vause]

If Valerie experienced shock she kept it to herself and continued jogging down the stairs. Vampires were unfortunately common, it was a guarantee that Brian would bump into them from time to time. There was nothing she could do about that. Only teach him how to protect himself. Which she apparently needed to do sooner rather than later since he’d just told her he got in the face of one. Not that it surprised her, considering he didn’t want to leave when one interrupted their first date. Brave yes but very misguided. Something Valerie suspected he knew from the tone he’d used.

“I’m not going to treat you like a child.”

She wasn’t his mother, she was his girlfriend, he could make his own choices. It didn’t mean she was okay with it, however, a little understanding went a long way. What he did was selfless, his concerns went beyond himself to those in the bar, so at least his heart was in the right place and not ripped from his chest.

“In a sense, yes. Smart ones don’t want to draw attention to themselves. That and it’s easier to get a meal when you know nobody will actually miss the victim if they suddenly vanish off the earth. Others enjoy the attention and welcome witnesses to the carnage because ordinary humans pose little to no threat. The proverbial gazelle to their beast.”

Though the words never passed her lips Valerie had tried to paint how lucky Brian had been. To still be breathing, unharmed if not a little mentally tweaked by the experience. She clung to the banister and swung herself around and off the remaining stairs to land a few feet from the main door with ease. Pale hands pushed it open and she stepped outside to breathe in the cooling night air. The scents much different now that they were off the roof.

“Which direction?” Valerie asked curiously as she looked up at Brian.

[brian_campo]

“Uh,” Brian checked his watch to determine what would be open, and did a quick scan of the neighborhood. “Sam’s.” The eatery was more outdoor walk-up window than restaurant, which suited what they wanted. Burgers were a specialty. Just about anything you could think of was on the menu, even a Thai burger, and the patties were so big, they were hard to bite. “This way.” He pointed east and started walking, going to the outside of the sidewalk, so that Valerie was closest to the shops.

“You know, ever since this happened, I’ve been meeting people like crazy,” he said, and he started to tick off the series of weird, too-coincidental meetings that had been brewing in his mind for weeks as Brian tried to think up logical reasons for it.

“Like I met this girl named Holly in Tracks, and it turns out her father was a watcher, but he was killed by a vampire slayer. And she can’t stand this woman I met named Julianna, who works at UNLV, but apparently she’s a watcher, too, and she slept with Holly’s dad. And they both knew this girl named Rhiannon who’s a slayer, too. It was kind of like watching an episode of Dallas: I was getting lost in all the relationships. Then I was sitting at the bus stop and this guy named Cian saw me knock something over, and he pretty much told me that telekinetics are usually better at it.”

He laughed a little.

“It seems like everybody’s connected.”

[valerie_vause]

Lips quirked into a slight smile as Brian put her to the inside of the sidewalk. It was endearing, even though she’d likely survive being hit by a car more than him. Valerie raised her eyebrows and cast her gaze up at him as they walked side by side. “You have?” Not terribly surprising considering she believed there was some sort of pull towards Nevada, and Vegas was a huge place for things to swarm too with so many tourists. Then he said the first of several things that made her stomach lurch.

Reality slapped her in the face like a wave of sea water. Chilled her to the point that her breath caught in her throat, and her feet stopped moving. Frozen in place as it all sunk in. The girl locked up that the vampire had mentioned, had killed some girl’s father, and Brian had discussed this with her? What else had they talked about? Valerie brought her right hand up to press against her temple, when she spoke her voice was very calm, and very quiet.

“I literally just told you about Julianna five minutes ago when I was spilling my guts to give us a fighting chance and you didn’t think to mention her when I brought it up?”

The blonde tilted her head, tried to wrap her mind around the fact that he knew about Rhiannon, knew the S word, and that Julianna was a watcher before she’d even told him.

“How long have you known exactly what I am?” The way she looked at Brian he could have been a stranger. “Did you tell that girl about me?” The entire situation felt messy to the point she wanted to be sick. She recoiled from him, backed up against a wall and tried to think.

Laughter, short and barely there, fell from Valerie’s lips as she ran her hands through her somewhat tangled hair. “You’re talking to strangers about your telekinesis. Probably about me. Not everyone is who they appear to be, Brian. You kept all this from me. How can I…”

Valerie’s world shrunk in size. Theresa obviously knew Holly, who knew Brian, who happened to know Julianna, and here she was trying to keep it all separate while spilling the truth to the one person she so desperately had wanted to confide fully in. Valerie shook her head, eyebrows drawn together, “How can I possibly trust you.” The blonde pressed her palms against her temples and ignored the way colours shifted and blurred. “I’ve lost my appetite.”

[brian_campo]

What was she talking about? Brian frowned and put his hands in the air, a 'whoa' gesture because he had stumbled into a mine field without meaning to, again. Was he the most offensive person on the planet or something? This marked the third time in one night that Valerie had retreated from him, emotionally or physically.

"Why didn't I bring up Julianna then?" He was lost. He laughed but it was a noise of desperation.

"Do you have any idea how many things I wanted to say after you unloaded on me up there? I thought that's what we were supposed to do now. Talk. So I am talking. I'm telling you everything, but it's just freaking you out and making you think I'm keeping things from you. How--?" He broke off because the logic was lost on him.

He squeezed the back of his neck, a nervous habit.

"Look. I'm not keeping anything from you. I just found out what Julianna is. I thought she was some language professor, until I overheard an argument between her and Holly. You called yourself a girl who kills vampires, she used the word slayer to describe the same thing. I put two and two together and got four. Cian accidentally caught me practicing, which you told me to do. I thought I was alone, but the guy came out of nowhere, so that's how he found out... And no, Valerie. I don't run around blasting your name, except when I'm bragging about how great you are."

Brian's fingers dug into his palms, the rein on his emotions drawing tigher.

"You can't seriously be mad at me for learning things when you weren't around. I can't throw a rock lately without hitting somebody with magic powers."

[valerie_vause]

The ‘whoa’ motion Brian made caused a slight frown. Valerie wasn’t flying off the handle, she hadn’t even raised her voice. It made her wonder if her aura or something just made people assume she held anger when she didn’t. Distance had been needed to try and process it all without feeling like drowning, which on top of the whole love confession, wasn’t easy. Back pressed against the building as she listened to him and resisted the urge to cut in until he’d finished.

“I’m not clairvoyant, unless you talk to me I don’t know what’s going through your head. And you’re right, I did say you should practice. I just didn’t realise I had to state that public places like bus stops weren’t the best choices.”

Personally it seemed like common sense, given the way he’d reacted when she’d witnessed him move the chair in the diner.

"I'm not mad." Valerie stated calmly as her stomach turned to knots. It would take a lot more than that to make her angry. She wasn’t about to start screaming at him in the middle of the street. "I'm disappointed that you either felt like you couldn't tell me, or just didn't feel like it was important enough to mention when I've been nothing but open with you. Would you have said anything at all if I hadn’t unloaded on you after you shared your feelings?”

Valerie needed to clear her mind. She needed to work out who knew what. If Julianna knew she’d spoken with Rhiannon. Did she know that she was dating Brian? Did the girl? She knew at least one vampire, that kind of information rarely slipped down a grapevine and if Brian had learned it from her then it was safe to assume so had the vampire. The carefully compartmentalised boxes she locked up within herself were blurring together and she wasn’t sure how to handle that.

[brian_campo]

"I haven't been around to tell you," Brian said. "I can't leave it on your machine. This is the first time since I learned this stuff that the topic's come up. Besides, it's hardly like I'm keeping secrets. I told you I love you. That's open. As for public places..." He rubbed his forehead. "I mean, shit Valerie, I was trying to push a button, not move a car."

Brian considered himself a non-confrontational person; he usually avoided it like the plague, couldn't even stand being in the room while other people argued. But something about Valerie's accusations was cutting him really deep.

He shared things with her he couldn't tell his family or friends, and it wasn't fast enough.

He got excited to talk about what he learned, and it meant he'd talked to too many strangers.

He put a name to his feelings for her, and it made her uncomfortable.

He let her see his insecurity over Maddy, and she was offended that he had one.

Right now, the idea of saying another word nauseated him so much, he was worried he might need a garbage can. The worst part was, Brian had no idea how he could have avoided any of it.

"I'm--"

He looked around helplessly. God, he was starting to do that thing. That thing where his brain seized up and words wouldn't come. Before long, she'd ask him a question and all he'd be able to do is stare at her, slack-jawed.

"I'm going," he said. Where, he didn't know. Whether Valerie would call him the next day, he didn't know. What Brian knew was that he needed to get some space, some air, because there was only so much "you're messing up" he could handle in one night.

"I'll talk to you later, okay?"

He took a couple of steps backward. He wasn't hungry anymore, either.

[valerie_vause]

The topic would unlikely crop up if she didn’t know there was one to begin with. Valerie had made a point of telling him things since they started dating, things that weren’t easy, things she shouldn’t be telling him at all. Things that weren’t exactly easy to fit into a conversation but she did it all the same. As for pushing buttons in public places, how the hell was she meant to know what he’d been attempting? All Brian had said was that he knocked something over and some stranger had witnessed it. She wasn’t looking for every detail of his life but the ones that managed to tie into her life, for whatever reasons, yeah those were important.

Valerie wasn’t attacking him, not physically, not verbally, but from the way Brian reacted it seemed as though she was. For that very reason she didn’t attempt to stop him from going. Whatever was going through his head he could work out on his own. Eggshells weren’t her prefered method of walking.

Right then it was safe to say that her intentions of calling tomorrow were slim. In fact, she didn’t say a word as he walked back a few steps, just turned around herself and walked off down the street. What was the point in participating when everything she said got a reaction like she was stabbing him.