I used to know you so well ...
Picture Prompt #4
Still a little bit of your taste in my mouth
Still a little bit of you laced with my doubt
Still a little hard to say what's going on
Rina sat silently, tucked into the study cubby underneath her dorm room bed, staring at the lyrics on her computer screen. Cannonball by Damien Rice.
She'd looked up those lyrics half an hour ago. Ten minutes ago she'd tracked down an audio file of the song and started it playing on repeat, letting the music mingle with her thoughts, grateful that her roommate was out and wouldn't need explanations.
Still a little bit of your ghost, your witness
Still a little bit of your face I haven't kissed
You step a little closer each day
Still I can't say what's going on
Marcus had sent her a guitar-only version of the song last night, during one of the most - no, during the most awkward IM conversation they'd ever had. He'd played and recorded it himself, breaking several strings in the process, he'd said. Not being overly familiar with music from the oughties, she'd had no idea what the lyrics were about … until she'd found them online.
Now she wished she'd been able to hear his voice. If she had, maybe she'd have more of a clue about whether or not he actually missed her, whether he regretted insisting on easing their relationship back to just-friends status. The song itself seemed to say that he did, but the song wasn't all she had to go on. With an abrupt twitch of a finger on her mouse, Rina called up another tab she had open in her browser. Marcus' Facebook, where the status message once again read Doing things with Ambria...UNF UNF.
Ambria, his new girlfriend in New York. Ambria, the twenty-something he was having sex with now. Ambria, who had the distinct advantage of not living half a country away, though why that was such a hellacious problem when she knew damn well he could get to Montana in minutes …
If Marcus was trying to send her a message, she wished he'd send along a goddamn decoder ring.
Stones taught me to fly
Love taught me to lie
Life taught me to die
So it's not hard to fall
When you float like a cannonball
He'd said he'd loved her, that last day of their trip to Santa Barbara. She'd said she loved him too. Wasn't a mutual declaration of love supposed to bring two people closer together? Seemed like it did the exact opposite for them.
She'd cried that day, knowing how much she'd miss him. She'd cried when Marcus came to see her in Montana just before classes started, telling her they couldn't be lovers any longer because they lived too far apart and he didn't want to subject her to all the media scrutiny that went along with his father's fame and well, he wasn't entirely human. Rina couldn't cry any more. All she could do was ache, and think.
And listen.
Still a little bit of your song in my ear
Still a little bit of your words I long to hear
You step a little closer to me
So close that I can't see what's going on
She was full up with crying anyway. Rina didn't go in for dramatics, for histrionic displays of emotion or ultimatums of it's me or her, choose! She never had. Marcus would make his own decisions, as was his right, and she would make hers. No whining, no scenes.
Far more slowly and deliberately than she'd called up Marcus' Facebook page, she accessed her bookmarks organizer. Scrolling down, she found the pages where she'd looked up information on flights to New York City and highlighted them. After laying her finger on the delete key for a few lingering seconds, she pressed down.
"Riiiiiiiiiiiinaaa!!!"
Jerking her head up as Trudi burst into the room like a pint-sized cyclone, Rina hastily paused the music. "What's up?"
"Alan asked me out again for this Saturday!" The shorter girl pitched herself into her desk chair, short curls bouncing as she grinned from ear to ear. Unlike Rina, who'd only dipped her toes, Trudi had dived headlong into the new social opportunities college offered. "Are you sure I can't talk you into a double-date? I know you said you had a thing about going out with guys you've barely met, but his friend seems really nice, and you really do need to get out more."
Rina stifled both a groan and an eye-roll. "Not this weekend, Trude. I don't have the time …" Her voice trailed off as she stared at her browser window. Chewing her lower lip, she thought about choices.
"But I might be up for something next weekend," she offered at last, trying to inject an upbeat note into her voice. "If you think they'd still be interested."
"Really?! You are the best!" Rina set her teeth at the squeal in Trudi's voice, only to have the breath knocked out of her by her roomie's unexpected tackle-hug. "I'll give Alan a call right now!" Scrambling up the ladder to her bed, Trudi flipped open her cell phone. Alan had apparently already made it onto her speed-dial.
Rina sighed, knowing the sound wouldn't be heard over the other girl's chatter. After closing the tabs to both lyrics and Facebook, she called up an essay that needed to be finished by Monday and a bouncier tune from her play list, trying to drive the lingering traces of the other song out of her head. It didn't work.
Stones taught me to fly
Love taught me to cry
So come on courage!
Teach me to be shy
'Cause it's not hard to fall
And I don't wanna scare her
It's not hard to fall
And I don't wanna lose
It's not hard to grow
When you know that you just don't know
Cannonball - Damien Rice
Marcus MacEibhir, liam_did_it, is mentioned with the permission of and gratitude to his mun. ^_^
Character: Rina Ashmuller
Fandom: OC
Word Count: 810
Still a little bit of your taste in my mouth
Still a little bit of you laced with my doubt
Still a little hard to say what's going on
Rina sat silently, tucked into the study cubby underneath her dorm room bed, staring at the lyrics on her computer screen. Cannonball by Damien Rice.
She'd looked up those lyrics half an hour ago. Ten minutes ago she'd tracked down an audio file of the song and started it playing on repeat, letting the music mingle with her thoughts, grateful that her roommate was out and wouldn't need explanations.
Still a little bit of your ghost, your witness
Still a little bit of your face I haven't kissed
You step a little closer each day
Still I can't say what's going on
Marcus had sent her a guitar-only version of the song last night, during one of the most - no, during the most awkward IM conversation they'd ever had. He'd played and recorded it himself, breaking several strings in the process, he'd said. Not being overly familiar with music from the oughties, she'd had no idea what the lyrics were about … until she'd found them online.
Now she wished she'd been able to hear his voice. If she had, maybe she'd have more of a clue about whether or not he actually missed her, whether he regretted insisting on easing their relationship back to just-friends status. The song itself seemed to say that he did, but the song wasn't all she had to go on. With an abrupt twitch of a finger on her mouse, Rina called up another tab she had open in her browser. Marcus' Facebook, where the status message once again read Doing things with Ambria...UNF UNF.
Ambria, his new girlfriend in New York. Ambria, the twenty-something he was having sex with now. Ambria, who had the distinct advantage of not living half a country away, though why that was such a hellacious problem when she knew damn well he could get to Montana in minutes …
If Marcus was trying to send her a message, she wished he'd send along a goddamn decoder ring.
Stones taught me to fly
Love taught me to lie
Life taught me to die
So it's not hard to fall
When you float like a cannonball
He'd said he'd loved her, that last day of their trip to Santa Barbara. She'd said she loved him too. Wasn't a mutual declaration of love supposed to bring two people closer together? Seemed like it did the exact opposite for them.
She'd cried that day, knowing how much she'd miss him. She'd cried when Marcus came to see her in Montana just before classes started, telling her they couldn't be lovers any longer because they lived too far apart and he didn't want to subject her to all the media scrutiny that went along with his father's fame and well, he wasn't entirely human. Rina couldn't cry any more. All she could do was ache, and think.
And listen.
Still a little bit of your song in my ear
Still a little bit of your words I long to hear
You step a little closer to me
So close that I can't see what's going on
She was full up with crying anyway. Rina didn't go in for dramatics, for histrionic displays of emotion or ultimatums of it's me or her, choose! She never had. Marcus would make his own decisions, as was his right, and she would make hers. No whining, no scenes.
Far more slowly and deliberately than she'd called up Marcus' Facebook page, she accessed her bookmarks organizer. Scrolling down, she found the pages where she'd looked up information on flights to New York City and highlighted them. After laying her finger on the delete key for a few lingering seconds, she pressed down.
"Riiiiiiiiiiiinaaa!!!"
Jerking her head up as Trudi burst into the room like a pint-sized cyclone, Rina hastily paused the music. "What's up?"
"Alan asked me out again for this Saturday!" The shorter girl pitched herself into her desk chair, short curls bouncing as she grinned from ear to ear. Unlike Rina, who'd only dipped her toes, Trudi had dived headlong into the new social opportunities college offered. "Are you sure I can't talk you into a double-date? I know you said you had a thing about going out with guys you've barely met, but his friend seems really nice, and you really do need to get out more."
Rina stifled both a groan and an eye-roll. "Not this weekend, Trude. I don't have the time …" Her voice trailed off as she stared at her browser window. Chewing her lower lip, she thought about choices.
"But I might be up for something next weekend," she offered at last, trying to inject an upbeat note into her voice. "If you think they'd still be interested."
"Really?! You are the best!" Rina set her teeth at the squeal in Trudi's voice, only to have the breath knocked out of her by her roomie's unexpected tackle-hug. "I'll give Alan a call right now!" Scrambling up the ladder to her bed, Trudi flipped open her cell phone. Alan had apparently already made it onto her speed-dial.
Rina sighed, knowing the sound wouldn't be heard over the other girl's chatter. After closing the tabs to both lyrics and Facebook, she called up an essay that needed to be finished by Monday and a bouncier tune from her play list, trying to drive the lingering traces of the other song out of her head. It didn't work.
Stones taught me to fly
Love taught me to cry
So come on courage!
Teach me to be shy
'Cause it's not hard to fall
And I don't wanna scare her
It's not hard to fall
And I don't wanna lose
It's not hard to grow
When you know that you just don't know
Cannonball - Damien Rice
Marcus MacEibhir, liam_did_it, is mentioned with the permission of and gratitude to his mun. ^_^
Character: Rina Ashmuller
Fandom: OC
Word Count: 810