Pleasures All Yours [Nick Tseng]

[Camry Bells]

Talk about a long day. Somehow Cam had managed to arrange it so that everything ended up having to be done today. First there was school, including her least favorite class: English, where Ms. Singleton reminded her that she was barely holding onto a passing grade. Then of course there was her library assistant job right after final period where trying to alphabetically sort a bunch of old, artsy, books only made her all the more self-aware of her language skill deficiencies. She was already feeling harried by the time she got to the self-defense club meeting at six and falling on her ass time and again as they practiced grapples only exacerbated Cam's frustration. Plus, she'd had a meeting with her parole officer after that where the final straw of him also reminding her that her parole was contingent on maintaining passing grades, like she wasn't already constantly and nerve-wrackingly aware of that, provoked her into shouting and cussing at him. So of course he had to give her a "talking too" on top of all the usual bullshit, making the whole thing take twice as long. Asshole. She'd barely had time to breeze through her AA meeting and at least sign in before rushing back to campus and barely making curfew, seeing as she was held to the eight o'clock standards of the thirteen and fourteen year-olds, even though Cam was fifteen now. It was literally 7:59 when she reached the door to her dorm, haggard and irritable, and the only silver lining was that at least her dorm-mates did have later curfews so she'd have a little time to herself. Needless to say, Cam was pissed when even that was denied her by her gaze falling on Nick as soon as she'd roughly shoved open the door.

"The fuck you doin here this early? Ain't you got no life at all?" She snapped scathingly at him. Of course, from his perspective, it was probably hypocritical as he didn't know she didn't have the same curfew as him. They were the same age, after all, and Cam didn't exactly volunteer information on her own extenuating circumstances. That didn't really register to her though; Cam was just using him as a scape goat for her to vent anger over a dozen other things at.

She shrugged her backpack off and let it fall to the side of the doorway as she kicked the door itself closed behind her. Pulling off the baseball cap she'd been wearing and tossing it carelessly in the opposite direction, it was then that her gaze fell on the mirror and Cam did a bit of a double take. She was wearing an over-sized wife beater that she liked because the too-big neck and arm holes gave her some decent cleavage as well as displaying her tattoo; some people thought Cam was lazy in the way she dressed, but that wasn't it at all. Growing up in her neighborhood, she just learned not to dress too girly unless she wanted to get her ass kicked. She actually did pay attention to what she put on. Except today apparently because wearing a pair of denim short shorts with this top was a serious mistake; it hung past them and, especially with her mussy hair that she hadn't bothered to braid or even put in a ponytail today, made her look like she'd just rolled out of her boyfriend's (not that she'd even had time to have a boyfriend since coming to Hammel) bed and was wearing nothing but his shirt. Real classy; like she didn't already stand out as white trash enough in this boujie place.

With a huff and a roll of her eyes, Cam angrily shrugged it off and shouldered past Nick (completely unnecessarily given that there was plenty of room to walk past him) to walk over and collapse on the couch with a groan. Cam still thought requiring her to go to meetings was excessive; how could she be an addict when, less than a year before she was arrested, she'd hardly ever drank anything and never smoked pot? That said, stressed as she was right now, she couldn't keep the thought of how good it would feel right now to just get faded and let it all go from crossing her mind. But that wasn't an option anymore so she glared at Nick.

"Unless of course you waitin for a chic to come over or somethin; I'd hate to get in the way." Her derisive tone and the snort that followed made it clear exactly how unlikely Cam thought that scenario was. Her razzing of Nick backfired when it made her think of her own love life, or lack thereof. She'd been effectively celibate since getting out of juvi. She'd never hooked up with anyone sober before and, even without all the other things she had to focus on now, was finding it was a lot more challenging. Cam grumpily pawed the couch cushions around her.

"Hells the remote?!"

[Nick Tseng]

Standing there, Nick never once took another bite of the bowl of Life cereal he was eating. He just let her complain, a look of surprise and misplaced confusion on his face. He didn't even chew, though he had a full bite in his mouth. Honestly, he didn't have anywhere to be at 8:00 and he was hungry, so what better place was there to be than his own room? But of course, Camry had to come in and power-rage her way, cutting a swathe of whine-struction to the couch, where she would plop and probably watch Bad Girls' Club or something else as mentally stimulating. Chewing slowly, almost comically, Nick finally swallowed and followed her to the couch, sitting on the opposite side.

"Hey, honey, how was your day?" He knew his off-the-cuff remark would send her over the edge, but what else did he have to do? At least Camry was cute when she was mad. "You know I don't have anything on the side, babe, you're more than enough woman for me." His grin never wavered, and he knew she would be heated.

He took another bite of his cereal, and through a full mouth, held the bowl out to her. "Bite? Maybe some food will calm the raging bitch-monster clawing its way out of your throat?" Almost on instinct, he pulled the bowl back, expecting her to lash out at it. The last thing he needed was to get milk and cereal on his new shirt, which was a tight-fitting black shirt with a purple ether on it.

Either way, he set his cereal on the coffee table and pointed to Camry's left side. "There. I heard there's an Ancient England special on History International." Again, he knew she wouldn't be interested, but he wanted a good laugh.

[Camry Bells]

Brows raised incredulously at Nick's initially non-reactive and slightly dubious expression and then exaggeratedly-belated return to chewing, Cam's lips twitched as she was tempted to laugh despite herself. The guy really was such a weirdo; she could never get a read on him. She went back to scowling and rolling her eyes as soon as he sat across the couch from her and finally spoke up himself. Shooting him a sidelong glance, Cam scoffed pointedly and gave a smirk that was nowhere near as open or sincere as the smile defiantly still stretching Nick's own features.

"My day was shit, I ain't nobody's 'honey', and I am so way more woman than you could handle, boy."

When he proffered his cereal bowl with a casual baiting insult, Cam kicked at it but he withdrew too quickly and her foot connected with nothing but air. She settled for flipping him off with one hand while snagging the remote he'd pointed out with the other. Turning on the TV and starting to flip through the channels; Cam actually did laugh, albeit in a short and barking fashion, at Nick's suggestion of what they aught to watch.

"Yeah, I'll be sure to put that on if I need some help knockin out tonight, dork." She stopped channel surfing to settle on an episode of Bad Girl's Club; she got the humor of it, it provided a decent TV drama fix, and she could relate to the women on the show just enough to feel better about herself by comparison. Tossing the remote back onto the coffee table, Cam decided that snacking on something while she watched wouldn't be such a bad idea after all. She didn't feel like getting up though, so she jabbed Nick in the ribs with the toe of her shoe.

"Yo, don't be makin offers then gettin stingy," Cam offered by way of request as she beckoned absently for the cereal bowl with her eyes still glued to the TV screen.

[Nick Tseng]

When she kicked him, Nick furrowed his brow, once again mid-bite of his cereal. He knew that she wanted some, even before he offered it, but he couldn't let her win that easily. Honestly, he didn't want to share with someone who kicks him and verbally abuses him... Not that it matters.

"Oh, what? Is Mama Bear hungry now? I guess you should've thought about that before raging your way to the couch without a pint of chocolate ice cream." He grinned again, this time taking another bite. He moaned with delight, as if it were the most delicious thing he'd ever tried.

"Food so good." He acted like he was going to offer her some, then withdrew it. "But I only share with nice people." He didn't realize how lame that sounded until he said it out loud. Now, he was uncomfortable.

[Camry Bells]

There was a time when situations like this would have been much easier to resolve. Back in middle school, Cam and her then-best-friend Stef had avoided the "all bark and no bite" bully stereotype by actually following through on threats very physically. Part of Cam definitely wanted to fall back on those strategies and just punch that smug, taunting, expression off Nick's face and wrestle the cereal away from him. However, assaulting another student would violate her parole in about three different ways and he seemed like the type to narc. Besides, her physical fire had been a bit cowed by getting her ass kicked to death's doorstep in juvi.

Besides, her anger was somewhat abated by mirth with the way Nick chose to conclude his little dig. Cam had just enough time to shoot him a "did you seriously just say that?" face before devolving into raucous laughter for a couple seconds, head thrown back over the arm of the couch. Still chortling as she finished, Cam shook her head as she swung her legs off the couch and stood up.

"Aw, poor baby; mean old Cam pickin on you? Not gonna share with the big meanie?" Still snickering a little, she turned on heel and headed for the mini-fridge in the dorm's kitchenette area. She grabbed an apple, a block of cheddar cheese, and finally a steak knife from a drawer. Returning to the couch, she began slicing off a piece of apple and a piece of cheese for each bite. It was a combo her mother used to make when she got the munchies. Cam had since had occasion to try it while stoned herself and it was definitely better that way but she still enjoyed it sober as well.

"Hey uh... Nick?" Cam spoke up again after a few minutes of simply eating and watching TV, her tone suddenly tentative and her features schooled into a concerned expression as she stared at his neck. They may not have been living together long enough to learn how to get along all that well, but they had been sharing this dorm for more than enough time for Cam to pick up on which buttons to press with him. And this one was the easiest; continuing to stare at a randomly selected spot on his neck, she lied easily in that same worried tone of voice as she pointed with her knife.

"Don't freak out or nuthin... but you got a spider there..."

[Nick Tseng]

Nick didn't know how to react. For a split second, he acted like he was going to get up off the couch, but his body tensed up instead, which sent him, and his bowl of cereal, to the floor. He screamed, and not in a manly way, and started swatting at his neck, only to realise that there was nothing there. When he looked back at the smug look on Camry's face, he would know... And he glared at her. Still glaring, he stood and advanced on her slowly, wary of the knife. He slowly reached out grabbed the apple she had set down, and swallowed it nearly whole.

"You think you're funny. But let me tell you something, I don't like spiders. And I don't appreciate you doing that. You wanna be a mean bitch, go ahead, but you'll do it alone."

And with that, he stormed to the kitchenette area to grab something to clean up his mess. He came back and dropped to his knees, ignoring her pointedly as he cleaned.

[Camry Bells]

Priceless. Absolutely priceless. And that was just the look on his face when she first said it. The spazz-attack that followed was just icing on the cake and Cam was barely able to get over her stifled laughter in time to flash Nick a victorious grin when he finally put two and two together and shot a glare her way. She was a little surprised by the way he stalked towards her though. It was more aggressive than she was used to from Nick. Cam quirked her brows and pursed her lips in the same "what are you gonna do about it?" expression she'd always used any time someone had actually challenged her rather than just taking her shit. She was a bit more wary than she used to be though; taking a shiv to the back will do that. Her grip tightened on the knife in her hands, even as she mentally scolded herself for being paranoid, but all he did was eat her apple. In one bite. Unnerving? Yes, but hardly cause for alarm. The winning smirk was still firmly on her lips but then he had to go and ruin it all by talking.

Why'd he have to get all serious like that? Cam rolled her eyes as Nick stomped away. What a drama king. He was still acting sullen when he returned and began to clean up the mess his antics had created. It was one thing when people just silently took her abuse and tried not to react or even just gave as good as they got but he had to be all sincere in that after school special way and call her out like that and dammit his attitude was annoying her. Why'd people have to take stuff so seriously? With an irritable sigh, Cam snatched the remote back up and clicked the TV off.

"Oh cmon, I was just screwing with you. Don't be a loser about it."

[Nick Tseng]

Without a word, Nick cleaned the spilled cereal. He almost smiled, just because he remembered the phrase 'There's no use crying over spilled milk.' But then he didn't. Because he wasn't crying. He was angry. Spiders were the one thing he couldn't just shrug off. Probably because they're creepy and have tons of legs and eyes and venom and... Disgusting. They are disgusting. He picked up the towel he was using, and the now-empty bowl and walked to the kitchen, running the hot water so that he could wash his dishes. He hated spiders. And Cam's trick wasn't funny to him.

He set the dishes in their place and walked to the door of his room. "You owe me a bowl of cereal, Megabitch." And with that--- SLAM!