ArchivedLogs:Trying Harder

Trying Harder
Dramatis Personae Sebastian, Shane, Shelby
In Absentia	2013-04-30 '
Location <XS> Lake
Bright, bright, bright; the lake glitters wide and expansive here, stretching off into the distance. Sunlight, moonlight, starlight, it catches them all. Lapping at the rocky shore, its deep waters are frigid in winter and cool even in summer. A stone pier stretches out a ways into the water, wide and smooth, though often icy in winter. The water teems with life nevertheless, home to myriad species of fish that provide for ample fishing or just lazy watching on a slow summer day, for those who want to take a boat from the boathouse out to the center of the lake, or perhaps lounge on the pier and try their luck. Classes are over for the day but there is still plenty of warm sunlight left. The grounds are busy with people. frisbeeing, basketballing, chilling in the treehouse, snacking on the lawn, /actually/ studying outside rather than in to soak up the warmth. Down by the pier Taylor has just dumped Dennis bodily into the lake (although the hydrokinetic is conveniently dry again very shortly after his spluttery emergence) but further around the lake's edge it is quieter, the noises of the mansion dropped off to just a distant background chatter. Somewhere down here, a clump of reeds is quivering, rustling; a moment later a figure emerges, tall and slim, tying dark (wet) hair back off his face. In contrast to his usual elegant dress Daiki is wearing nothing at the moment but boxers, and very clingy-wet boxers, at that. He also has a backpack that he is shouldering as he slips away from the lake's edge, collects a pile of clothing nearby. It's /not/ wet, save the damp it is collecting off his back, so presumably he did not take it swimming.  There are two more backpacks tucked into the reeds and cattails, high up enough away from the water to not get lapped by its shifting edge, but currently there is not homework underway. There /has/ been, Sebastian's pre-calc book open and a notebook on top of it, but neither of the twins are currently Booking. Although maybe they /are/ homeworking, regardless; the conversation happening down by the water is not happening in English or in their native Vietnamese but in Spanish, glib and easy from Shane and more carefully halting from Sebastian. "-- {don't think he could hold his /breath/ long enough to make it any fun. You know what's not fun? Drowning.}" "{Drowning --}" Sebastian echoes this word uncertainly, frowning and repeating it again: "{drowning --}" This time, Shane says it in Vietnamese: "{Drowning. /Un/enjoyable.}" "{Oh! Yeah, no fun. But we don't have to go /long/.}" Spanish, again, and Shane gives the correction: "{far. Don't have to go /far/.}" It's not easy to sneak up on predators, so Shelby doesn't even try. There she is, picking her way along the lake's edge on a course pointed out by Taylor and confirmed by Daiki. She's in frayed jean shorts, a man's white undershirt tied at the stomach and OMG PINK galoshes. Because lake! This was a planned trip, clearly. Bumping her hip is a laptop bag and over her shoulder is the strap of her guitar, on the off-chance the twins /weren't/ found. But as they are here, she lets these things down by the two backpacks before carefully, gingerly, easing her way down towards those reeds where the ground gets squishy. And once she is near enough to hear Spanish, well! She whips out her own foreign language knowledge: "{Excuse me, where is the bathroom?}" "{It's /all/ the fucking toilet, dude, you think fish have plumbing?}" Shane is /in/ the water, arms folded in the squishy mud at the shallows and most of the rest of him submerged with his chin resting on forearms. "{But do you want. Everyone. To have this as toilet?}" Sebastian is still a little more halting, but his nose wrinkles up as he looks out at the lake. He's only half in the water, sitting cross-legged more in the mud than on dry ground OR in the lake. Unlike Daiki, neither of the twins have bothered with the modesty of boxers -- it is possible they were not /expecting/ other company; at least, Bastian kind of blushes as Shelby appears. Shane does not. He just grins. Broad and toothy. "{Should've pissed before you came out here,}" he advises Shelby. "{Hi}," Sebastian says. "{-- You have --}" But here his Spanish fails him. "Galoshes." Shane frowns. Maybe /his/ Spanish is also failing him. "{Boots?}" he suggests uncertainly. "{Water-boots. Rain-boots.}" Shelby /does/ have boots! She proves it by squelching through the mud towards them--but not sitting down because ew, mud. City girls don't do mud. Nudity is not a bother. Mucky stuff is. She treads carefully, so carefully she ends up with one foot almost stuck. Some tugging clears it of the mud with a wet slurp and voila, there she is, crouching down near unto Sebastian. "I have no fucking idea of what you guys just said, just so you know," she cheerfully informs them. "I know how to ask where the bathroom and library are, and how to swear. That's about it. I'm gonna guess you were telling me to find my /own/ bathroom though, this one's yours." "{Fish don't have plumbing}," Sebastian translates -- unhelpfully into Vietnamese before he blushes and corrects: "Fish don't have plumbing. Also we don't have a library out in the water." He sounds /so/ disappointed about this, too. "You should strip," Shane recommends, and for once he is sounding pragmatic instead of lascivious. "Clothes have a tendency to collect muck around here." Sebastian blushes even deeper, here, for a moment dropping his gaze downwards to the water, fingers trailing across the surface to shoo away an incoming water strider skating towards shore. But then he peeks upward, gills for a moment fluttering and then settling back down. "You brought your guitar." This makes him smile, slightly. "Can I -- oh. No." Frowning, he looks down at his wet hands and rubs his palms -- pretty /uselessly/ against his chest. This does not really dry them. Whoops. The girl listens with head cock and grin shading towards the bemused through the language swap. By the time Sebastian gets to English, she's testing out random words /just for fun/. "...yeah, well. That's why I don't swim anywhere I can't see my feet. I'm not getting in anyway, I'd freeze to death." Because she is a delicate flower. Not so delicate that she can't flip her fingers through a tiny puddle to send muddy droplets toward Shane though. "You can try it out if you want," Shelby says of the guitar. She jerks her head back towards it. "I was gonna maybe shoot a video down here for my channel if I couldn't find you guys." There is a significant pause before she adds, "It's awesome you came back to school." "It's /so/ not awesome," Shane says with a snort, batting at the droplets as though they are mosquitoes.  For once, Sebastian agrees: "It's -- not awesome, I don't. It's just been really awkward, you know? I don't think people --" He glances to Shelby, then looks away. He's still flicking water droplets from his fingers, kind of futilely. "What were you going to shoot? I -- I liked your last one." "You should learn Vietnamese," Shane decides. "Why don't you know Vietnamese?" She is not one to pull punches. "Because you guys left before you could start teaching me." Shelby folds her arms across her knees. That crouch doesn't look comfortable but she remains in it rather than to risk a muddy butt or stray back towards the grass. Her eyes flick back and forth between their faces, some of the surface cheer fading to a more realistic uncertainty. "Nah, I don't really know. You don't think what...people want you back? Shit, when you were gone it was all "I wish the twins were here", seriously," she says, brow rumpled. But...she also allows them out to seize on a different topic: "You saw that?" She is two parts pleased, one part surprise. "I dunno, I usually just wing it. 'Cause I'm sooo professional." Sebastian shrugs, and it's not very comfortable. "/Bullshit/," he says, quiet and turned down towards the water. "The /second/ we showed back up everyone was /cringing/ and --" Quieter, still, "-- storming off." "Yeeeah it was pretty much same old shit. At least nobody attacked us with bees this time. Though I bet that motherfucker /would've/ if there were bees on the roof with you." Shane is just a little more alert, sitting up just that much more, when Bastian curses. He watches his brother carefully, head tipping against his arm to focus on Bastian more. "It wasn't real confidence-inspiring, fuck people. I'm pretty much done with this place. But Bastian has dumbass dreams of /college/ or some crap so I'm stuck till he graduates." "Till /we/ graduate," Bastian says with a press of his lips. Shane just snorts. Sebastian is still looking down, his gills fluttering quickly. It isn't until they lie flat for a moment that he picks up the other thread of conversation. "Winging it works for you. Feels kinda good raw." /This/ makes Shane snort, too. But more amused. "Yeah," he says. "We've watched all of 'em." "Wait, what? Bastian swore? And he thinks... "Oh /fuck/." Everything he can do, Shelby can do better; she ups the obscenity ante and shifts on her haunches, looking distinctly uncomfortable. "No one told you...? Oh man. Um. That was...yeah. That was shitty of me and I'm totally sorry for ruining your part but that was...that wasn't at /you/. I was pissed off at Mel and Hive. It...I mean. It was dumb. It was just dumb and I'm sorry. I shouldn't've done it." Sure, more was said, but she leaves it at that. Instead, a quick quick look dances between them before Shelby stands up and begins to slop back towards solid ground, going for the guitar. "-- Mel and Hive?" Sebastian looks confused. That's all he manages to ask before his gills are back to fluttering. Shane unhooks a hand from under his chin, reaching over to press a palm against Sebastian's side. "Sh-sh-sh," it comes out perhaps like he is chiding or perhaps like he is /shushing/ them. Bad gills. Quietnow. "See, people don't hate /you/, they just..." He pauses a moment to consider this before continuing in Vietnamese with a thin flash of sharp teeth, "{Don't actually give enough of a fuck to make you a priority.} That's way different than hate." Sebastian /had/ been returning to breathing but now he ragged-gasps, sort of laughter and sort of a hitching sob of breath much-interrupted by his rapidly fluttering gills. He swallows. "You didn't, um, ruin the -- I think a lot of people had fun at the party." "I had fun at the party," Shane says, solemnly. "Until you ruined it." Sebastian baps Shane on the back of the head. Shane reaches up and /yanks/ Sebastian down into the water along with him. "You did miss a lot of good booze though and Man Dusk was fucked /up/ by the end you /also/ missed the orgy." "-- /You/ missed the end of the party," Sebastian says, startled and kind of spluttering from his position now half sprawled /against/ Shane in the shallows, "how would you know --" "Flicker told me!" Shane jerks his head towards Shelby's guitar. "C'mon. Let's hear it. Do you take requests because I could go for some Dar Williams." The guitar is nabbed and Shelby starts back towards the water. This time she plops down on the edge if the muddy area, her view of the twins reed-fringed but her rear end safely on grass. "Well, /I'm/ glad you're back and /I/ had fun at the party until I ruined it," she agrees solemnly with Shane--there's only the tiniest of smiles tugging at her lips, which totally counts as solemn. "Seriously, I'm sorry. It's a long, dumb story. Serves me right if I missed the orgy." Meanwhile, her hands are busily engaged in tuning which is a plucky plucky strummy business with this finicky old guitar. "Sure...you like As Cool As I Am? I know that one pretty well." Shane's lips twitch, here. "Yeah. Yeah, I like that one." His eyes have shifted, away from Sebastian to look at Shelby. He seems content to have a sprawling-on brother; after this initial toppling he just leaves Sebastian to -- well, sprawl. Sebastian resettles himself, flipping over onto his back, the gills on his sides now submerged in the shallow water. He uses Shane's back as a pillow, his hands resting against the flat of his belly. "You still owe Spence a tattoo," he says, with a very small curl of smile. "He eventually finished the roof-mural but it, um, well, kinda looks like Spence drew it now." "Jerusalem has laser /cannons/," Shane informs her, "but they kind of look like they're, uh, giant boobs projectile-lactating blood." "... I don't think art is his calling," Bastian is sadly agreeing. "Pa might disown him," Shane adds, "Shelb, you should give him lessons before Pa kicks him out. You could probably make another orgy happen in our building it doesn't actually /take/ much. Hive's apartment, a little booze." He shrugs a shoulder. "What'd Mel and Hive /do/ anyway?" "Maybe I could swing by tomorrow after classes and tidy it up. /Some/ of it. I bet Spence is pretty proud of it, I mean...weaponized boobs? C'mon. Awesome. I could do his tattoo then too." Shelby runs through a few of the required chords, then launches into the instrumental. Not the actual song but the music provides a backdrop while she chats. Because...well, it's not clear. But after she sighs, she explains, "I told Mel I had a thing for Hive, she ran off and made out with him. Then he kind've...I dunno. But she told me about it at the party. Like I said, it's dumb." /And/ worthy of colored cheeks, a quickly averted glance at Sebastian, and a rewind on the song. So she can /sing/ this time. And not answer questions. "Yeah, there was a time I didn't like the love, I liked the climbers, I was no sister then, I was running out of time and one liners..." "I don't -- think he /intended/ them to be boobs," Bastian admits with a brief crooked smile. "But they do sort of inadvertently look pretty booblike." The /rest/ of Shelby's announcement makes him -- less smiley. His brows crease. He stares up at the sky. His gills start to flutter, again. "Think Pa will disown him if he's /straight/?" Shane wants to know. "Straight parents disown gay kids all the /time/." "... He hasn't disowned me," Sebastian says -- actually pretty /nervously/. "You totally fuck with gender norms that's a /kind/ of queer at least." Shane hooks an arm up and around to sling it lazy-loose around Sebastian. Patpatpat. It is kind of rough shoulder-pattings, /there/there, though afterwards his hand stays slung around, absently pet-petting at Sebastian's gills. He quiets, watching Shelby, listening to the song.  Sebastian is listening, too. It takes him longer to look over at Shelby, sideways at first, but the music eventually pulls his attention more. He shifts onto his side to look at her better, still pillowed against Shane. His expression has shifted, away from smile, away from frown, just neutral-quiet. Though Shelby be avoiding looking at Sebastian while singing, she cannot help but shoot him a look of incredulity when he seems to genuinely fret over being disowned. Wut? What madness is this? Shane is studied afterwards for confirmation before she just...continues on with the lyrics. There is guitaring! And singing! And a big flourishing finish! Except not really, she just manages to get to the end without flubbing anything and afterwards lifts her strumming hand to rub at her throat. "I should've maybe put the camera on for that on," she remarks. Oh well! Back to more important things... "You don't /really/ think Jax would kick you out for liking pussy?" Pause. "Do you?" "Sure?" Sebastian answers this kind of dismissively, like he is not even sure why someone would ask such an obvious question. Shane evidently shares this opinion, because he doesn't even bother to answer, just absently still pat-pats at Sebastian and glances over towards the laptop bag. "You want to try it again? Camera-y this time?" "That was good," Sebastian adds, quiet, "and with the reeds and everything it looks -- it'd be nice. While the sun's still up anyway." Shane tilts his head back, glancing upwards. "Got a while yet." "Yeah," Bastian agrees. He starts to sit up but then flops back down with a quiet ripple of water. "I should finish my homework before the light's gone." "/Dudes/." Shelby cannot even begin to express how ridiculous she finds that notion. She tries to transmit it in a look but even the most talented of eyebrows can't pull off the flag semaphore necessary. "You know what? You guys seriously need to think about...I dunno, maybe breaking out of your comfort zones. Or something." Something indeed. She sighs after, feeling plainly that this was the lamest attempt at explaining /ever/. Better to move on. Instead of going for the laptop bag, she flips the guitar around by the neck and presents it sword-like to Sebastian. "Homework later. You wanted to try this thing out. C'mon." "Uh, Shelby, I'm not sure what part of any of this you think is /in/ our fucking comfort zones. If we weren't breaking the fuck out of them you'd never see us. Because we'd be there --" Shane points out towards the lake, "/forever/." Sebastian sits up when the guitar is presented, but then crinkles his nose. "My hands are kind of." Wet. He flicks drops of water downwards. Mostly over Shane. "-- I came back here." This is added with kind of a frown. Small and more pensive than upset. "It's a shitty guitar, it's okay." Shelby stretches one leg out, rubber-clad heel in the mud, and rests the guitar against it until the quieter of the two is willing to take it. She seems more puzzled than upset as she continues the conversation. "You've been here for like...what? A year and a half though? Two years? I've known Jax since December and I know he wouldn't kick someone out for being straight." "He might." Shane just shrugs, and returns his chin to resting on his forearm. His eyes slide away from the others, focusing nearby on a frog that has just hopped out of the reeds and nearer the water. Sebastian shrugs, too. "Two years, I guess." He scoots forward, a little more out of the water, to kneel at the muddy shore and take the guitar from Shelby. "He did give me condoms. Um. When I told him you and I might." This makes him blush, deeper. "But he could still --" He shrugs again. His claws sheathe further, his fingers flexing and stretching to the full extent of their webbing before he rests them on the frets. He's kind of tentative with the first few chords he plays, eyes focused downwards. "/Seriously/." Clearly Shelby feels far more comfortable being huffy with Shane than with Sebastian, because this exclamation is aimed at the former. But after a long, cleansing sigh, she just shakes her head at them and leans back on her hands to watch B. The process of readying his fingers for playing is apparently fascinating because her gaze lingers there on his hands. "The doc gave me a bunch too," she admits after a brief moment of silence. Her smile is there, faint but clear. "He said I wasn't allowed to steal his handcuffs though." "Why not? He have big plans for them? I would /so/ cuff your doc to the bed and --" Shane's smile is abruptly bright. "I mean shit if I had /him/ as a doctor I would -- ever actually go to the doctor." "That's noooot what physicals are, Shane." Sebastian says this down towards the water. "It would be if I was getting one with Io." Shane's smile is still toothy. He is still watching the frog. The frog is watching him back. "Jax lent me handcuffs before. And a flog. But Eric's got his own. -- Uh, handcuffs, not flog. Maybe not flog?" Shane frowns at this, considering. "I should ask. I /did/ ask Jax to make me a dildo but he hasn't yet." "He's /kind/ of been busy," Sebastian says with a wrinkle of his nose. "Do you --" He glances up, here, at Shelby. "-- I mean do you like the handcuffs?" He returns to strumming. It's gradually resolving into an actual song, though he isn't yet singing. Sort of humming under his breath. "See?" Shelby says, both amused and vindicated. "Best. Dad. Ever. Jesus, you guys. So /dumb/." Not that she isn't also grateful for this switch to sexytime talk, because. Well. Just listen to it. "You should see if Jax'd spring for one of those swings, y'know? Let's you do all the crazy positions. And I'd put in a good word for you with Doc, Shane, but seriously, I think he likes 'em older. Not like /some/ folks...oh. Oh, um." Oddly enough, the handcuffs question earns Bastian a glance in return and an unusual sobering up. "Not...I haven't ever used any before. You can't run if you have to, if you're cuffed." "Sure you c --" Shane is saying this with a slight frown. "-- People with /bones/ can't slip them," Sebastian cuts in with some exasperation, but it's gone when he looks back to Shelby. "Yeah. Shane won't do -- I mean Jax likes the /actual/ tying-up stuff but he's got a lot of ways of defending himself that --" Another shrug. Shane's eyes have left the frog, glancing at Shelby for a long moment. One side of his lips twitches up. "If Jax was going to spring for one of those it'd probably go in his /own/ room. You know," he adds, kind of idly, "if you trust someone you don't have to run." This just makes Sebastian press his lips together. Thin. "Ksssh," he hisses, quiet and under his breath, in lieu of singing. His fingers stop strumming. "What does buying sex toys have to do with --" This is said irritably, but then he just clamps his teeth shut and turns the guitar around to offer it back to Shelby. "I don't call you dumb." So many possible comebacks, and they all occur to Shelby--the diversionary tactics, the snappy retorts, the saucy quips. But with Bastian's last remark, she's reduced to silence. The guitar is taken back and set over her knees. "Yeah," she says slowly, "I guess that's true." She doesn't clarify which is true at first. Too busy tapping her fingers against the body of the guitar in an uneven rhythm. Then, quietly, "Look...I'm sorry. I keep sticking my foot in it. I said dumb shit before you left and I've done dumb shit since you guys got back. /I'm/ dumb." She pauses for a beat. "Sometimes, anyway. A lot, lately." The twins glance at each other, with this apology, two sets of black eyes half-lidding, four pairs of gills quivering restlessly. "There's a lot of dumb going around," Shane says eventually. "Yeah, we're not... really exempt." Sebastian lifts his hand, tiny nubclaws raking through his spiky mess of what passes for hair. "I just. We're. I'm. Trying. I mean I could try -- harder. But I'm not --" "-- dumb," Shane says. "I mean we're a lot of fucking things. But staying on your toes is how you stay the fuck /alive/, you know? I /know/ you know. And it's not just /easy/ to stop that and --" Sebastian's smile is a little crooked. "-- let people tie you up." Shelby's eyes dance back and forth between them. Her smile is a slow and reluctant thing, when it finally appears. Strummm! The side of her thumb runs along the strings. "Nah, you're not dumb. Anyone ever tell ya'll you're fucking cute when you do the twin thing though? I mean, seriously. I got butterflies just then." Sebastian blushes deeply and ducks his head. His hand rubs at the back of his neck. Shane grins. Wide and bright. "I'd let /you/ tie me up," he informs Shelby. "You're maybe assuming I /want/ to tie someone up. Maybe /I/ like to be tied up." Just please ignore her having just said she's never done it before. Shelby plucks at the strings, idly pulling forth something like melody. "But sure. Then B and I can steal all your pot and go smoke out while you try to figure out the knots." "I'd tie you up, too. If you wanted. I'm versatile." Shane is offering this so magnanimously. "Anyway, I don't have any pot. I was /hoping/ to get some as a welcome-back thing but then we, uh." "Kind of ditched the party," Bastian says with a blush. "Probably Ryan smoked it all instead." The frog that has been standing nearby moves, hopping towards the water. Bastian's eyes flick towards the movement. Shane's hand darts out, snapping closed around the creature. "Being tied up might be nice," Bastian tears his eyes away from Frog to look at Shelby instead. For a moment. Then back down to the water, still kind of flushed towards purple. "If -- I mean, with someone who --" "Good thing I remembered to get you a welcome back present, huh? Even if I forgot to give it to you then." Shelby flops over on the grass, arm stretched and fingers streeeeeetching more to try to hook the laptop case. Nnnf. Moving is so much /effort/. When she does finally grab it and drag it over, one of the front pouches are flipped open and a rolled baggie is produced--and unrolled to bounce at Shane. No frog, take weed! But mercy for small woodland creatures only goes so far. There is naughty talk happening again and her gaze sneaks back towards Bastian, kindled with curiosity. "...really?" The same question is asked of Shane, just with eyebrows instead of speech. Shane is currently occupied with mouthful of frog. He has chomped off a leg, crunching it down bones and all. And then half its body. MUNCH. He offers the rest to Sebastian. "I asked Jax about it once. Back when he was still with my -- our -- whatever." "Old dad. S'last partner," Sebastian clarifies, but that's all he adds to this line of thought for the moment because yum. Frog. He just opens his mouth, letting Shane drop in Frog. Or half-a-frog, anyway. Just as tasty. Shane licks his fingers clean once he has delivered snack to brother. "Yeah. I mean, Jax, right, he's paranoid as fuck. Cuz if anyone knows people are shitty, he knows people are shitty. But he says that's, like, what makes it better. Cuz there's not many people that --" "-- you know won't hurt you. Like not /really/." Sebastian has made quick work of halfafrog. His tongue slips around his lips just in case of stray frogbits. "And I mean that's kind of nice, right? If you're -- if you're just used to --" "Always having your guard up." Shane shrugs. His eyes are roving the reeds now because maybe one half-frog is not /enough/ frog. Not /even/ with bag of weed for distraction, which he picks up to sniff at. And then drag himself more out of the water, kind of mud-covered where he's been lying on his front, so that he can sit on dry(er) land. "But yeah. Really. I mean I haven't tried it." Sebastian blushes more deeply. "But it could be. Fun." It is not top quality BC weed. A little skunky, a little seedy. But it is still better than dried banana peels. Shelby, whose stomach can most anything thrown at it, finds herself averting her eyes during the frog eating spectacle. Or most of it, at least. She's peeking back once most of it has disappeared and the crunching sounds stop. "I guess that makes sense...I mean. Being able to relax." Her smile reappears, at a distinct angle. "Fuck, I don't even know what that'd feel like, not really." And so follows a brief silence, while she leans back on her elbows--the guitar has slid off of her lap but she ignores it--to consider the twins. Bastian a little more than Shane. "It could be," she finally agrees. "Not handcuffs though. Those hurt." Sebastian, slightly more conscientiously than Shane, is washing his hands clean of frogblood in the shallows of the lake. Shane looks to Shelby hopefully. "You got papers? A light?" Sebastian glances over schoolwards -- or vaguely schoolwards, not much of the grounds can be /seen/ past water and reeds and more reeds. "You're going to smoke that /here/?" "Yeah, sure. Whatever it's a million miles away from everything." Shane shrugs. "Half the time you can get away with it at the /boathouse/ and that's /way/ closer." Sebastian does not look reassured. He fidgets, and curls his knees up towards his chest. His cheek rests against his knees, his eyes focusing back on Shelby. "-- Not handcuffs," he agrees, and then, "Jax has rope." Shelby is comfy. That is why she gestures Shane towards the bag rather than get the requested items herself. It was enough that she /finally/ delivered his present. It is also somewhat distracting, Sebastian's fidgeting. The way she nibbles at her lower lip is the very opposite of her usual impulsive leaping after things but eventually she says, "Could give it a whirl sometime. If you wanted to." This time, the pause between one statement and the next is much, much longer, and ends with her meeting B's eyes, intending to hold them. "I mean. I know Shane's cool with it, but. If you are. With fooling around and not...doing the one and one thing. Like. Y'know." But! "Maybe not this weekend though, I promised Rasa we'd go get our hair chopped off." "Yeah? You're getting a new 'do? Where at? You should dye it something awesome," Shane suggests, scooting on his knees over toward sthe bag to rummage for proper Smoking Accoutrements. "Red is awesome," Sebastian protests. He moves back in the water as Shane moves farther out of it. He's washing mud off his legs, for all the good it does him as he stands up (kind of blushing again, as he gets out of the water) to head back up towards his books. "But I bet Pa could -- well, he's good at pretty." He settles down carefully on the somewhat drier ground, slightly self-conscious in the way he tucks his knees back up towards his chest. But only slightly; a moment later he is peeking sideways at Shelby and gradually shifting to just sit comfortably cross-legged. "I -- I'm okay with -- I mean." His blush is deepening. "I still like you. That doesn't have to be a -- /thing/-thing." "You could /both/ go to the next orgy," Shane suggests, Quite Seriously as he starts to carefully roll a joint. "Tsss," is Sebastian's answer to that. Very eloquently. He drags his math textbook into his lap, and watches Shane's joint-making with narrowed eyes. "Hey, the wind's blowing /away/ from the school," Shane protests. And he even offers Shelby the first hit! Of... her own weed. "Dunno yet. We'd need somewhere cool with it if her hair changes color in the middle of the cut, y'know? I dunno any grown up lady freaks to give us pointers," Shelby says, smile gone faint again. "Maybe Alison but she's got like, tons of money so..." Oh wait. /Idea/. She will just tuck that one away and not so subtly track Bastian's progress to and from the water. "B's right though, red is awesome. I wanna cut it short though." The first hit is accepted gracefully but only that--she brought it for Shane, after all! After the joint is handed back, she lays back and tucks an arm beneath her head. Her smile straightens out as she looks at...Sebastian's math book. "Good. 'Cause I like you too." And nothing more need be said, right? Because who wants to get in the way of Bastian and /homework/.