Time Warp: The Twenty-Second

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

November 22nd, 2011

As far as connections go, Lucy had so few at Hammel. And she liked it that way. Since she'd gotten there, she'd settled on having two people she actually liked speaking to on a regular basis. Sawyer had quickly become something of a bro, but the first she met and the first she'd kept so close was Rowan Booker.

He was a bit of an introvert. Or rather, the type to keep to himself when he could. When he didn't, he lashed out with a pretty harsh attitude. Harsher words. And that was why Lucy liked him so damn much. Similar as they were, he turned into something of a best friend. They sat together in class. Picked on the same people. She was already doing his homework on the off days where he didn't feel like doing it, and he was hardly taking advantage of her for that. She couldn't imagine advancing in classes without him. She needed him.

On the night before her seventeenth birthday, Lucy decided to go visit. Rowan had just turned sixteen, and for the most part he seemed pretty happy about it. It was the only day they'd be the same age, and if she was going to have to celebrate her birthday in this pisshole, she was at least going to do it with someone she liked.

So she knocked on his door, disregarding his roommate with relative ease; "Open up, Book-her."

[Rowan Booker]

Sweet sixteen. Legally able to drive, two more years and he could order porn (not something he really wanted to do) and five more years until he could buy alcohol. The sixteen mark was a milestone leading to the rest of the milestone birthdays. It was the first step to being an adult. Maybe something good would come of this year yet. So far it hadn't sucked as much as every other year, so there was that, but it wasn't the school that had gotten better. It was the people in his life.

When Rowan met Lucy, he hadn't expected things to turn out the way that they had. Honestly, he expected it to go completely different. But he was happy for the way things were now. He wasn't used to having close friends. He was only used to keeping to himself and only talking to his family. Mainly his cousin Beat. Lucy wasn't like everyone else in this stupid school though. She was sarcastic, funny and one of the most real people he'd ever met. She didn't do bullshit and that was probably his favorite thing about her. She'd easily become his best friend and he was happy that he met her.

Now Rowan knew her birthday was two days after his, but he hadn't expected to see her until then. She would be seventeen leaving him in the dust as a sixteen year old. Today was the one day where they were the same age. The twenty-second would always make them equal in age. Not that he minded being friends with an older woman. Especially when she was a babe.

Sitting in his room, going through the bullshit he received from his mom on his birthday, he wished that he hadn't. Thinking about home was never a good thing for him, so when he heard a snarky Australian calling for him from the door, he couldn't help but smile and throw the stuff down. Rowan opened the door and leaned against the doorway in front of her, "Belated birthday present?"

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

As she waited, Lucy felt the weight of the impending day on her shoulders. It would be the first birthday she'd had away from home - away from her parents and the people she cared so much about. Few people really understood such a thing. So many were far from home and too few were as far as she was.

But soon enough he was in front of her, and any stress that came with that was subsequently drawn out of her when he gave her that smile.

"Dunno, do you reckon my presence is a present?" She asked with a grin, "No one's ever made me feel so damn special."

[Rowan Booker]

Rowan smirked at her, "Well of course. Your presence is always a present, a true gift to everyone." He laughed and rolled his eyes, she was of course one of his greatest presents he'd ever received and he was really happy that she was standing in his doorway the day after his birthday. After growing up with few friends outside of Benny and the people his cousin hung around, Rowan wasn't so used to having people to spend time with on his birthday.

The fact that Lucy's happened to be two days after his was just pure luck. He had never expected to find someone that started to mean quite so much to him after his cousin's death. But he was happy he'd met her, especially the way that he had. It made for a great story.

"So whatcha doin' here babe? I mean if you don't consider yourself a birthday present, why else would I be receiving such a presence the day after my birthday? C'mon in by the way, I'm just going through my family's shit," He moved aside and went back to his bed to sit down.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy couldn't help but roll her eyes in tandem with when he did his. The response he gave was as snarky as ever, and she wouldn't have it any other way.

When he asked what she was doing, the ink manipulator simply shrugged, running her fingers through the lion's mane on her forearm. It conformed to the contours of her fingers nails, as if somehow it were real. She closed the door behind her, following along and glancing around his room idly. It wasn't the first time she'd been in there, and it probably wouldn't be the last. But rooms were still interesting; they said more about someone than one would quickly expect.

"Dunno. Bored." She replied, "Thought I'd come say hey."

After wandering, she closed the distance between them and glanced over the things he had. "What'd you get? Much good shit?"

[Rowan Booker]

When he caught her glancing around his room, he felt a little self-conscious. His room was not exactly what most people would expect from him. He was a neat freak when it came to his room and his hair, but that was a discussion for another day. His room though it had posters of bands, was rather scarce as far as anything else went. He had things for school neatly stacked on a desk and his bed made, ruffled slightly by him having been laying on it. Otherwise, it was dull and boring. It gave nothing away about him.

"Well that's good enough reason I suppose," He shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck, trying to shake off the uncomfortable feeling. Rowan pushed aside a few things here and there from his mother and aunt.

His fingers stopped on the one present he'd gotten that actually meant anything to him. An envelope with two letters inside, one from Beat and one from Benny. It was a birthday tradition for them. They wrote over a hundred letters for each birthday that they lived through. After Benjamin died, the letters Rowan received had literally been one of the only things he looked forward to for his birthday. "Eh, some cash from my mom for clothes and shit, but that's about it." He stacked the packages and cards up again and set them aside. "You think you'll get anything good?"

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

On the contrary, Rowan's room was exactly that; his. She'd known him well enough by now to know he had those little OCD moments - he liked it to be in order at times, and on other occasions he didn't. The scarcity of colour in the room meant he hadn't quite found it comfortable enough to really be his. But the beginnings were all there.

She stepped towards his desk, her fingers running the length of the surface idly. Contrary. Her desk had already been graced with carvings from the inked end of pens. Not much, just enough to settle her when she was a little on edge.

And she looked back as he spoke. Regular things, nothing special. She wondered about it for a second or so before letting it slide.

"Probably not." Lucy admitted, stepping back towards him with a shrug of her shoulders, "Everyone wanted me to fly back for it, but y'know, shit like that's expensive on short notice. Not the kinda thing a teacher and a bartender can just chuck together cause they feel like it." But she didn't sound upset about it. Not really.

She glanced up instead of looking at him; at the white walls of his dorm room.

"Hey." Lucy asked, a little awkwardly. So she ran her fingers across her jaw on instinct, "Would you let me put something up for your birthday? Paint a wall, or something. Anything you want."