Listen. To. Me! (Monryn)

[Adaryn Breslin]

The news hit her hard. What news? Well, her parents had sent her little to nothing for the month of December for food, so as per her father's relatively harsh recommendation, she took a job. In the beginning, she was insanely terrified, but Adaryn managed to take and manipulate her own emotions most times so her stress would fall. It was draining, but it was helping with her social anxiety. That, and the fact that she also had a mental shield up (thanks to Vincent's instruction), it made it so much easier to deal with excessive emotion.

Adaryn had been working at Starbucks as a barista for maybe two weeks now, and each day she hoped she didn't run into Monroe. She had been ignoring his texts, still royally pissed about what he had done. But that didn't mean she didn't miss him. If he showed up, well, she didn't know how she would react. She was scheduled to clock out in about an hour and a half, and there was no sign of Monroe, so she managed to avoid him for one more day, at least. She was preparing the last customer's drink when she heard the thud of boots on the tile floor.

Oh. God. No.

The customer waited patiently as she finished their order, and she turned around, only to see familiar long, dark hair with heavy lidded, brown eyes. Adaryn avoided his gaze as the woman paid and took her drink. However, being that she was the only Barista behind the counter at the time, Adaryn was forced to serve him.

"Monroe... Hi..." She said quietly.

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

Coffee. That's all Monroe wanted. Usually he went to Velvet Tone, because it was in the downtown, which was closer, but he happened to be at the mall already, forcing himself to buy some jeans. His mom had sent him some money, complaining about his jeans being too worn. That was just like her.

He walked in the doors of Starbucks, immediately greeted with the lingering smell of coffee. Caffeine, how he needed it. It had been a particularly rough month, mostly consisting of sleepless nights brooding in the common room, drinking cup after cup of coffee with his roommate. And honestly, he felt a bit insane. He couldn't stop thinking about what had happened with Adaryn, how he wanted to kiss her again, how it wasn't likely that she'd let him. He'd saw her maybe twice in the halls of Hammel and she avoided him like the plague, skittering off in the other direction a little too quickly.

His ankle had healed, finally, after his roommate harassed him to take better care of it and he felt much more comfortable in his combat boots. No more swelling, but there was still the guilt and the constant need to explain himself to Adaryn, how he hadn't meant to offend her, how he'd just meant to show that he cared, that he wanted to know her and maybe it was a desperate attempt, but she wasn't giving him any other options other than to push his way into her life and while Monroe hadn't ever been particularly pushy, he felt he had to be with Adaryn.

He was standing at the counter, eyes locked on the menu board, not really reading it, but staring through it. He knew what he wanted, he always got the same thing. A caramel macchiato with two extra shots of espresso.

He was about to order when he finally looked at the barista taking his order, and he was immediately taken aback. "Hey Adaryn," he mustered, every word somehow painful. "I didn't know you worked here."

[Adaryn Breslin]

It was quite obvious that Monroe was shocked to see her behind the counter of a famous chain coffee shop. Hell, if she could have gotten a job that involved less interaction with people, she would have taken it. But alas, this was what she was stuck with. Never did she openly complain, since she would always keep her insecurities and annoyances. That much wasn't new. Monroe wasn't either, but well, she really didn't know how to handle this.

"Yeah, I needed extra money." She said simply, and her tone almost sounded painful. All she could see was the way he looked at her when he kissed her, and then the guilt on his face after she found out it wasn't just a dream. Monroe knew her secrets. She was glad for her white turtle neck underneath the mandatory black polo. Her arms were covered, and that meant he wouldn't see the relatively fresh scar on her arm. The thought of what happened that day, well, Adaryn was inwardly cringing. Hopefully Monroe wouldn't find out. But really, she knew that he would. He always did.

"So what would you like?" Addie asked a bit too formally. She gazed at the clock. Twenty more minutes. That's all she had. If she could wait out 20 minutes, she could go home and forget this ever happened.

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

"Caramel macchiato, two extra shots of espresso." He mumbled off his order and just looked at her, at the way her face was contorted, especially her lips. She didn't want to see him, didn't want to talk to him. This encounter was particularly painful for her and she was only doing it because she was at work and you had to be nice to the customer. It made him feel even worse.

"Look...I..." he began, awkwardly, realizing that it wasn't the time. "It's good to see you," he finished, letting out a sigh. He felt guilt and he felt frustration. He was mostly annoyed at himself for being so fixated on her. He never got stuck on people. People were people and they did what they wanted. He didn't usually question it so much. He didn't care to get involved in others' business, but maybe it was the nightmare, the all too personal nightmare and the fact that she seemed to need someone, even if she didn't flat out say she did. And he wanted to be that someone.

Fat chance of that now. He held out a five dollar bill to her.

[Adaryn Breslin]

"Yeah," Adaryn didn't add a 'you too,' or even said it was nice to see him at all, because in all honesty, she would be lying. It wasn't even the fact that she didn't want to see him, per se, but it was because she was embarrassed. The one thing Addie didn't know how to handle was embarrassment, as the month of hiding from him clearly showed. She turned to begin on his order.

Even though she was uncomfortable, and even though she was really not glad to see the boy of her dreams at that moment, she found her lips were quirked upward into a small smile. Why? Because she now knew exactly how he managed to stay up for so long. Adaryn briefly wondered how much money he spent on these things monthly. She probably wouldn't be able to afford it herself. And with that thought, her lips fell back into a tight line before Monroe was even smiling.

Grabbing the money, she handed him his drink and change, and turned nodded, saying a polite 'have a great day' and began to help the next customer, effectively ending their conversation. "20 more minutes," Adaryn muttered, not realizing Monroe was in listening distance.

---------------------------------

Twenty minutes passed rather slowly as Adaryn worked on filling the orders of a few more customers, and when another coworker clocked in, she gratefully took the leave she needed by preparing herself a hot chocolate and paying for it. She was going to have to walk some ways to the nearest bus stop, so having a hot beverage to keep her warm was a nice idea.

She idly wondered where Monroe was, but quickly dismissed the thought as she walked out of the shop. Adaryn didn't want to know. Or at least, that was what she told herself.

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

A typical customer. That's how he was treated. Given change and the usual parting greeting, although he wondered if Adaryn truly wanted him to have a nice day at this point, but he supposed it didn't matter, nothing could be worse than THAT day, that day full of bad luck and bad decisions.

He got his drink, nodding at the raven haired barista who handed it to him and sat down in his usual corner booth, trying to sip slowly at his drink, but he desperately needed the caffeine. He should have just stayed at the dorms and made coffee there instead of this, but....ugh, it was done now and now that he'd seen Adaryn, he looked up every so often to make sure she hadn't left, that she was still standing in front of the register.

The last time he looked up, when he'd drained the rest of his coffee, she wasn't at the counter and he turned his head to see her walking out the door, a cup in her hands. He scrambled up from his booth, almost missing the garbage can when he tossed his empty cup into it and headed out the door, hands stuffed in the pockets of his jacket the moment he met the December cold air. Okay, so this felt stalkerish, but if he yelled after her, she'd surely run off. He was conflicted over the matter. Where was she going anyway? He realized she probably didn't have a car. So she'd either walked all the way to the mall or had taken the bus. One was more probable. He walked past his beater of a car.

"Addie!" he said, his voice a bit louder than normal. It was worth a shot. Just as the words left his mouth, he stepped on a patch of ice and the ground slipped completely underneath him. Then it was only a short amount of time before his butt landed right on the ice-covered sidewalk. Of-fucking-course.

[Adaryn Breslin]

It wasn't long after Adaryn had left the shop and the mall befre she heard a familiar voice call out her nickname "Addie!" It had said. Nobody ever called her Addie except for her family. That in itself was enough to make the brunette stop in the middle of the freezing cold and turn around. She was greeted with the humorous sight of Monroe falling on flat on his butt.

Adaryn may have still been mad at Monroe for his betrayal, even a month later, but Addie was far from heartless. Clutching her hot chocolate in her left hand Addie carefully moved to his aid, careful not to slip on ice. She reached out her free hand, offering it to him. "Jesus, Monroe." It was the first thing she said to him in a less than formal tone, and it sounded more like she was reprimanding him than speaking.

As the boy pulled himself up, she winced slightly, forgetting she had recently had that arm stitched up. So the minute he stood up fully, she detached herself from his grip. Adaryn knew what he wanted; he wanted to talk to her about that night, but frankly, she wanted to hear none of it. He knew what he was doing. He knew she thought he was only someone she dreamed up. That much was evident in the way his body was beaming out guilt when he became coherent enough to realize where he was at. "Didn't anyone tell you that it is dangerous to run on ice?"

"Anyway, I have to go. Hope you get home safe." And with that, she turned to leave.

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

Yeah, he knew it was dangerous to run on ice, but it wasn't as if he'd been thinking about that when he'd ran after her. And now his butt hurt instead of his ankle and he was cursing over and over again in his head as she helped him up and then merely turned to leave after wishing him home safe. "Home? You mean to Hammel? Where we are both going?" he asked her. She didn't have a car and she was going to the bus stop.

He had to urge himself to offer, mostly because he felt awkward extending the offer when she just wanted to get away from him, but it wasn't really an offer as much as he was probably going to make her come with him. "Come on, don't waste your money on the bus. I have a car and we're going to the same place. What do you say?" He'd started walking after her.

[Adaryn Breslin]

"It's the only place I have to call home, Monroe." Adaryn spoke softly, but her tone indicated slight horror. She knew where this was going. That much was evident by the stating of the obvious. He wanted to take her back to Hammel with him. Sure enough, he asked the words and started towards her. She didn't even have to look back. The crunch of snow underneath his combat boots was evidence enough.

"I'm fine. I'm used to taking the bus. Don't worry about it." She said simply, not really sure how else to reject him. It wouldn't use up gas or inconvenience him because he was going back to Hammel anyway. But she just wasn't ready to face him. Was she ever going to be ready? Adaryn didn't know. That had been her first kiss, even though it technically wasn't real, but it was... "Again, I'll be fine. See you sometime, Monroe."

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

Only place she had to call home. He knew there was a story behind that, one that had to deal with what she'd revealed to him during her dream, or really the information he'd stolen. Monroe knew she'd reject the moment he'd offered it, but he wasn't going to take no for an answer. He started walking after her again. "No, Addie. You won't. Maybe when I come in to get coffee, but otherwise you're going to make sure you don't see me. you're going to avoid me, and where is that getting us?" He knew she had good reason to avoid him. He'd avoid him too, but she had to at least try and understand.

"Look, I know that I screwed up. You weren't ready to talk about it, but honestly, I was worried you'd never be ready to talk and normally I don't like to intrude, but I just want to know you, how am I supposed to be your friend? I don't want some superficial relationship, Adaryn. I don't do that. I can't." Obviously he wanted more. He'd kissed her and it'd taken a dream for him to be able to do that. But if she couldn't talk to him, they couldn't be friends or anything more.

[Adaryn Breslin]

Look, I screwed up.

Adaryn stopped and stared up at the guy in front of her. It was a pain being only 5'3", especially when it inhibited your ability to really look serious. She bit her lip. That statement was true. He had screwed up. Big time. He knew that what he did was wrong, and when he called something that they had 'superficial', she started to get annoyed.

"Look, Monroe. You knew I wasn't ready to talk. But you sat there and took advantage of the fact that I thought it wasn't you who was there. You know about me more than anyone, and you sit there and talk about a superficial relationship?" Her cheeks started reddening from the mixture of anger and cold. He was not calling this superficial, no. Not on her watch.

"What about you? Everything has been about me. Everything. What about you, Monroe? I don't even know your favorite color. You know what I'm afraid of. You know what has happened to me." She resisted the urge to pull up her right sleeve and show him the damage she inflicted on herself, but the brunette refrained. That wasn't the time.

"But I know absolutely nothing about you. I don't even know why you kissed me. You never even displayed that you liked me in that way. And what about this whole thing that Sebastian told you about falling in love with that girl Eloise?" She had just remembered the information that was given to her by Eloise herself a few months before. She didn't know why it came up again. Why should she even care? "If you're worrying about a superficial relationship, Monroe, look at yourself."

The girl was fuming, except this time she had no desire to do anything but slap Monroe. She had a power that could break him, but she didn't want that. She didn't want to hurt him, really. Adaryn wanted him to see that she was angry. That she was hurt.

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

How she said it made it sound so bad. He didn't want to think he'd taken advantage of her, but it was the truth, wasn't it? The information hadn't come out naturally because she'd wanted to tell him, it came out because she thought she was talking to an image her mind had conjured up. "I know. I know you weren't ready." He didn't know what was wrong with him. Was this girl making him go crazy? He ran a hand through his long hair and felt it fall down around his face messily. He never acted like this. He never pried information out of others. He didn't care to. He liked having his privacy and he respected that of others. He barely asked his mother about his father, figuring he'd find out at some point even if it did bother him slightly. He'd always just been the kind of guy to just roll with the punches, he was patient and now he felt ridiculously unlike himself and the realization sent him reeling.

She was talking again and he just kept his gaze set on her as she spoke the most Monroe had ever heard her speak at a time. The words hit him like a freight train. He had never opened up to her. I mean, maybe about his power, but not about anything else. Not about his mother and the fact that his dad left when he was young, or all of the other random things about him that seemed purely elementary now. And suddenly he realized that he knew her more than she knew him. How did she know about Sebastian's vision? "How...how do you know about that?" Surely Sebastian hadn't told her, the guy kept to himself but Eloise... she was a different story. He should have told her to keep it on the down low, apparently it wasn't implied. "And what does that have to do with anything? I didn't tell you about that because I was still trying to handle it myself and I know that I'm not in love with her or going to be in love with her. She hates my combat boots, Adaryn! She hates them! That is not the basis for a good relationship." He was sort of hysteric now.

"I don't know what I'm doing," he admitted. "I don't know, okay? You make me act all sorts of weird and I'm not blaming you...I just...I'm different when I'm around you. I'm curious and persistent and even pushy and I do things without thinking. I've never been like this, Adaryn. And I wanted to make everything about you. I wanted to know about you. The details about me weren't important because I wanted to know you. I wanted to be the one you trusted and I was so desperate for it that I ruined it. That's not like me." He was rambling, something he didn't do often. Add that to the list of ways he was different around her. He couldn't see anyone around except Adaryn, even though some passing people were staring at them by now.

"If you want to know about me, then here you go: I don't even know who I am! At least not when I'm around you, but I'm trying to figure it out. My favorite color is green even though most think it's automatically black and I kissed you because I like you. You make me crazy and I don't know why, but maybe it's not a bad thing." He took a breath. "I'm so sorry."

[Adaryn Breslin]

"Then why did you do it?! I've never told anybody about that before, and I was going to tell you eventually! Why did you think I told you in the dream?! It was a safe way for me to see if I could manage it. There would be no repercussions if I did it there, but I was obviously wrong. I can't take those words back. I can never take back what I said." Adaryn cut him off when he spoke in between what she was saying. She was tired. She was upset. She was emotionally hurt.

Adaryn never realized it, but she did care about him.

The brunette was out of breath by the time she finished speaking, and tears prickled at the edge of her eyes. Her nose began to burn, an indication that she was about to cry. God, she had cried so much, how the hell did she still keep forming tears? She couldn't rid of them. Adaryn was going to speak up again, but Monroe made it abundantly clear that it was his turn to speak.

She was stunned.

What was she supposed to say after that? Apparently she made him go crazy? How did she even manage that? She only acted like herself: The worthless, annoying person that she was. How could he care if her own parents didn't? That's why she had this job at Starbucks; she needed the money to support herself. For clothes, for food, for all of that.

The words were stuck in her throat. She tried to push them out, to say something, but she just couldn't. He finally finished. He said he was sorry. He apologized. The pain in his aura. The hurt. The adoration... it was too much to handle.

There were contradicting urges that began, pulling her in two different directions. On one hand, she just wanted to run. She wanted to get as far away from there as she could. She wanted to avoid everything she was feeling right then. But on the other hand, Adaryn wanted to... be wrapped in his arms again. She wanted it to be that night all over again, before he heard the things that he did. His shame hit her, and she wanted to get rid of it.

Adaryn could have easily gotten rid of the emotion using her power, but that would be cheating. Even still, he was still supposed to be 'in love' with this girl, and despite the fact that she had told Eloise it might have been misinterpreted, Adaryn couldn't help but feel insecure. It was in her nature. She always wondered how things could just screw her over... They always did at some point.

Adaryn realized that she couldn't run from this. She had to face this now. Realizing she held some hot chocolate in her hands, she took a sip of the cooling drink to give her some time. But once the drink fell from her lips, she looked down at her feet.

While chewing on her lower lip, she whispered hesitantly. "What do you want me to say, Monroe...?"

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

"Honestly, Adaryn, I wasn't sure if you would ever tell me and I was so desperate...so desperate to know. I realized, even in my drugged haze, that you were dreaming of me and that I was actually there, but I just wanted it so bad and I didn't think about the repercussions," Monroe rambled. It didn't seem like he had to at the time. He was in a haze and Adaryn was dreaming about him and it felt so good to be dreamed about, to be involved, to not have someone yelling at him to get out of their head, out of their dreams when it wasn't his fault that he was there in the first place. He'd been so stuck on that and so everything else didn't matter.

After he'd ran his mouth for what felt like hours, she just stood there, she didn't say anything. Monroe began to internally panic, another thing that wasn't usual for him. Things were never this big of a deal. People's actions never made or broke him. He was able to brush things off and move on. If this was someone else, anybody else, he'd be able to look at it objectively and just shrug, walking off in the other direction. He wouldn't be particularly affected by it. But he was.

"It's not about what I want you to say, Adaryn. How about you tell me what you're thinking? I'm not a telepath and honestly it would help me."

[Adaryn Breslin]

He wanted to know what she was thinking, honestly and truthfully? Well, that honesty would probably get her in trouble, or at least, get him frustrated. She'd said all of this to him before, and then she was sure if she bad mouthed herself like she always did, he'd try to get her to quiet it. He could keep her from saying such things, but Adaryn doubted she would ever stop thinking those things entirely. Even still, she spoke up.

"I'm thinking i'm tired, Monroe. I'm tired of the nightmares and the fighting and the avoiding that I've been doing. I just want it to end, really. I'm not suicidal, at least, not anymore." Her right arm was cradled against her body at this point, and she hoped he wouldn't necessarily notice. But it was throbbing, as if thinking of her self-harm that she inflicted just a few weeks ago magically brought the pain back.

"I'm thinking I just don't like myself. I'm thinking I just want to change. I don't want to be this girl who hates herself all the time and does bad things because of that self-loathing." That was the negative side, yes. There was some positives about her though, she slowly started to realize. There wasn't much, but she was slowly changing. It wasn't all bad. Prior to this occurrence with her parents, she was actually starting to become a bit.. happier in life. Vincent had been able to teach her how to control her power and shield, so she wasn't so manipulated by other's emotions. " I want to sit in front of a mirror, look at my reflection, and not feel bad about what I see."

This was turning into a steady stream of confessions, ones that just kept occurring. She had never spoken this much about herself in her life. She confessed to Dr. Neville, to Mr. Meian, to Travis, and now to Monroe? What was going on? Years of hiding away and then suddenly it all started exploding like this? Adaryn didn't know how to feel. "I want to believe that people can care about me. I want to smile more. I want to be a normal, meta-human teenage girl."

Being a normal meta-human teenaged girl meant that she would have issues with her powers, but not necessarily have issues with her parents. That couldn't happen, considering her parents abandoned her. She wanted to have a...dare she say... relationship that made her go head over heels and made her laugh and giggle and just feel good like it happened in the movies. Like she saw her friends had. And she couldn't have that, it seemed, because she kept pushing the boy that was literally right in front of her, away.

The boy in front of her... He had these chocolate brown eyes that always seemed distant and tired, but would always try so hard to focus on her whenever she spoke. He always seemed nervous, a faded buzzing green always present, when around her. But she found it... not that she ever thought of it until that moment... endearing.

And in that dream, the way he held her ever so gently. The way he waited until she was comfortable before holding her tighter...

Her cheeks started reddening then, thinking of the things that she never noticed about Monroe until now. Suddenly her thoughts fell to what he said just a few moments earlier. She doesn't like my Combat Boots!

A laugh escaped her then, seemingly random and uncalled for, and she whispered. "And I think I do like your combat boots..."