closed | out of all these things i've done

[vaccination]

WHO: Ellie, Riley, and Skye!
WHERE: Heropa housing.
WHEN: We'll say around the 8th.
WHAT: BFF and cool big sis are roomies. How unfair!
WARNINGS: Language. Always.


[Time to stop being an asshole, Ellie.

Aside from what felt expected of her, Ellie hasn't really made much of an effort to spend time with Riley. There's a lot of miserable and heavy feelings still lingering beneath the surface, but there's only so much Ellie can excuse because of her trauma--it's not fair to Riley, who has a second chance, and it's not fair to herself, either. So, this afternoon, Ellie decides to initiate friendly fun things by showing up at Riley's door.

She'd hate herself if Riley got ported out and she missed out spending time with her best friend.

So preoccupied is Ellie with telling herself to act normal, act like herself, stop being so fucked up, that it's only after she rings the doorbell that she realizes that she's been here. Kinda recently. This was where she walked Riley home that first day, yeah, but a few weeks ago she had come here to make a mess of the kitchen and bake a cake for Jesse's birthday with Skye.

Uh.

She's pretty sure this is the same building.

By the time someone opens the door, Ellie is taking a step back to peer down the hallway, just to be sure.]

Comments

[hackitude]

[Skye opens the door to see Ellie, and a grin instantly appears on her face.]

Hey, kiddo. What's up?

[vaccination]

Uh.

[Ellie smiles, awkwardly. Hesitantly.]

Hi. Um, funny story, but is one of your roommates named Riley, by any chance?

[She's kind of hoping she says no. Explaining how she and Riley know each other is either extremely understating everything or immensely painful.]

[hackitude]

Y...es? I mean, I think so. New girl, right? We haven't really... talked much? I've been crazy busy lately. [Trying to cause trouble for the government and all.]

School friend?

[vaccination]

[Ellie waves Skye's explanation off, because she doesn't need one.]

Sorta? Back at home. We're from the same world.

[A pause.]

Surprise, you've been living with my best friend.

[She forces a laugh.]

[hackitude]

Wait, seriously?

... And this is my first time hearing about it?

[vaccination]

Double surprise? [Ellie laughs a little more easily. She hadn't really told many people directly, outside of Joel and Jesse. And Joel was the only one to actually meet Riley, and that--that was bad.]

She in?

[hackitude]

I... think so?

There's an easy way to find out.

[Skye leans back into the house and yells.]

Riley, Ellie's at the door for you!

[firefell]

[If there's anything that Riley expects less out of life, it's that someone would tell her Ellie has come looking for her. She recognizes Skye's voice fairly well, and that only makes things feel more confusing.

In what world does she have a roommate and a best friend who comes to visit her? Surreal as fuck. Instead of yelling back she goes to investigate and yeah no that does not actually clear up how weird this is.]

Hey. [That feels weird, just one word, so Riley smiles at Ellie and forces out more.] You skipping out on ice cream duty? Never gonna get that raise if you keep this up.

[vaccination]

[Jesus, Skye. That's one way to wake everyone up. Ellie just grins, hopefully sheepishly, though it visibly falters when Riley enters the room.

She gives a little wave.]

I'm never getting that raise because it's a shitty part-time job. Meaning I don't have work today. Decided to stop by and say hi, and [she motions to Skye] found out you have the coolest roommate in all the lands. Lucky.

[hackitude]

You're too kind.

[But she kind of feels like there's something else going on here, so she steps out of the way between them.]

Should I, uh, leave you two to it...?

[firefell]

No, you should stick around. I kind of feel like I've missed out all this time if you're the best in the land.

[It might make things a little less weird, somehow. Maybe. They'll see?]

[vaccination]

[Ellie's glad Riley's down for Skye to stay, because she was just about to latch onto her arm and tie her to a chair. It's awkward with the two of them--maybe with a third (that is not Joel) it will be easier.]

Yeah, stay. I was gonna show Riley some awesome food, but there's enough to share. [Heading to the nearest table, Ellie slips off her backpack and unzips it. Out comes a box of poptarts and a variety of frozen burritos. Because when you don't have access to much food, you easily adapt the diet of a college student once you do and become too lazy to go through the hassle of cooking. She shows the goods to Riley.]

This stuff is so good. It's so cheap, too. [Then, to Skye:] Have you had them before?

[hackitude]

[Skye grins, moving to the table and taking a seat with ease.]

Yeah, of course, I used to live on this stuff.

It's not great to eat it all the time, but I'm the last person who should be lecturing about healthy eating. So hey. Go crazy.

[firefell]

Holy shit.

[Eventually, the idea of food being so easy to come by will be normal for Riley. Right now, though? That's like a goddamn treasure trove just tumbling out of Ellie's backpack and it's pretty weird to see.

She goes for the poptarts first, handing a package to Skye and Ellie first before ripping one open for herself.]

Sign me up for living in the past if this is what you get out of it.

[vaccination]

Right? [Ellie's pleased with the reaction, and then she's hit with a pang of guilt--she's had people to show her this stuff. Riley? Not so much.

As she opens her packet and takes a bite of the poptart (fuck toasting it), she nods to Skye.]

I bet Skye knows about a ton of good stuff.

[hackitude]

... You guys. You know you're supposed to toast them first, right?

[firefell]

[Cue deer in headlights look. Riley stops just before takes her own giant bite out of the poptart and lowers it to look at it curiously.]

What, is it not cooked yet?

[Is Ellie about to start puking everywhere because of food poisoning? This is not how she wanted her day to go.]

[vaccination]

[... don't mind Ellie swallowing what's left in her mouth, eyes just as wide as Riley's.]

Am I in trouble? Because I ate like a whole box earlier...

[hackitude]

Well it won't do you any harm to eat them like that, I guess-- I mean, I'm pretty sure those things are so processed, there's no actual food left in them to actually go bad.

But they do taste better. Toasted, that is.

[firefell]

[So processed there's no food left in them... these are sounding less and less like something eatable the more she learns about them.]

And you're sure we can eat them?

[vaccination]

Joel knows I eat these. He'd say something if they weren't.

[Ellie sadly puts down her poptart.]

The burritos, though--those I know need to be heated. They're frozen.

[So wise.]

[hackitude]

You'll be fine so long as you don't eat too many in one go. They're filled with sugar, so the worst that'll happen is you'll make your stomach upset, haha.

Here, I'll give the burritos a head start.

[She grabs the packet and heads over to the microwave.]

[firefell]

[Hearing that, Riley shoots Ellie a grin.]

You are going to be bouncing off the walls in like two seconds.

[And then she shakes her head and follows after Skye.]

If she pukes everywhere from her sugar OD I'm not cleaning it up.

[vaccination]

Hey, fuck you. [It's easier to joke around with Riley when someone else is here to diffuse the tension. ]

I'm not gonna puke! I stopped doing that.

[... kind... of...]

[hackitude]

[As she's pressing a few buttons on the microwave:]

Hey, it's important to know where your limits are, kids. If you don't eat until you puke, how will you know how much you can eat until you puke?

[firefell]

Pretty sure there's a difference between puking because you ate too much and puking because you poisoned yourself.

[She's just saying. And fuck the police, she's too curious and Ellie is still standing so Riley takes a bite of one of her poptarts. She can toast the other one, but this one? It tastes pretty good cold.]

Okay, I might see how you could eat an entire box of these in one sitting.

[vaccination]

I'm with Skye on this one, sorry Riley. And I never said anything about eating them all in one sitting. Jeez, what do you people take me for...

[Grumble grumble. She hears this shit from Joel all the time.]

[hackitude]

[Skye watches them with a grin, waiting for the microwave to ding.]

I was joking. Mostly.

[So many bad decisions in her teenage years, who's she to preach?

The microwave dings and she brings the newly-heated burritos over.]

Ta-daaaah.

[firefell]

Just because you didn't say it doesn't mean you didn't do it.

[Again, she's just saying. With a flourish of her hand, she motions for Ellie to go for the burritos first.]

There's a rule about whoever found it gets to eat it first, right? You're up.