Seeing Red - tags Lucah

[Valerie Danner]

It was hard to find a day that she didn't work with Callie. But she had asked Cynthia for a solo and was granted just that. Which meant Callie wasn't there. But Lucah was.

Ever since she spoke with her partner, the anger she had felt towards Lucah, and in extension, the girl Callie had mentioned, had heightened. Which meant that most of the things she was going to say to Lucah was going to just be bullshit and angry words.

Even looking at the younger collegiate at the piano burned her.

"Hurt any blondes lately?" She grabbed a chair and forcefully banged it against the piano bench before sitting down.

[Lucah Ivaskov]

Lucah really had kicked himself since Callie told him what he had said when he was drunk. He felt like he was bound to mess everything up in one fell swoop. It wasn't that he was trying to, everything just slipped out when he was drunk apparently. And it wasn't that he didn't care about Callie because he did, but even he knew he shouldn't have even though of the 'l' word yet. Then again, take him back a few years and he had trouble even believing he was capable of that emotion. People just needed to pick their poison with him.

And it wasn't like Callie had freaked out on him after she said it, in fact he kind of wished she'd have been angry with him like he was with himself. He could have ruined everything right then and there with her, but seeing as how she was too nice it didn't happen and he was thankful for that. Gosh he could have bashed his head against a wall when he found out. Not just that he almost said it, but that he passed out mid sentence! Yeah he was still boiling over it.

But at work he couldn't very well be distracted with his personal life. He was in charge of piano arrangements for all the soloists and seeing as how Cynthia just loved putting him with Tanner, he was constantly working and practicing for the next show. As usual he was found at the piano, brushing his fingers along the keys. His eyes were closed up until he heard a loud banging against the piano bench and his eyes snapped open to find a brunette, someone that worked with Calliope often, sitting beside him and looking irritable.

Her question caused him to arch an eyebrow and he just looked at her for a moment. What could she possibly have against him? "Hello, Valerie. It's nice to see you, too. I however do not know whom you are referring to seeing as how I haven't hurt anyone recently to my knowledge."

[Valerie Danner]

She realised it was so completely unfair that she had never spoken to Lucah before and here she was getting irritated at him. But she was already too livid to keep up appearances.

Apparently, he didn't have that problem. He was so damn polite and normally, Valerie would at least try to maintain a calm composure. What Callie had told her, however, didn't let her care about that.

"Of course you're the kind of guy who doesn't realise they've hurt someone." She gave a derisive bark of laughter, rolling her eyes. "You've got some nerve thinking you even deserve Callie with this cold act you've got on." She continued, gesturing in his general direction in mild disgust.

[Lucah Ivaskov]

Honestly Lucah didn't even understand why she was angry with him or what she was even talking about. Callie hadn't acted upset or anything the last time he had been with her and he couldn't recall the phone conversation to remember if she was upset then. So her attitude towards him was altogether confusing seeing as how he'd always graced her with a smile if she caught him looking at Callie. It wasn't as if he'd been outwardly mean towards her.

She barked at him in an impolite manner and both eyebrows raised in response. Her words really did confuse him. He didn't understand what she meant by the cold act seeing as how he was being perfectly pleasant to her. If she knew anything about how he was around people that accused him for something he didn't do, well she'd know it could be a lot worse. But this was one of Callie's friends and he was going about this in a way that he would deal with her brothers.

"I'm sorry you think that, but I have no cold act on at this time and you really have no idea how much I believe that I do not deserve her as it is. That being said, I still do not know what you are talking about as far as hurting her," He said evenly, turning his body to face her instead of the piano.

[Valerie Danner]

His ignorance only served to anger her even more. It didn't help that he was maintaining his polite schoolboy front.

"Of course you don't know! You ignorant moron." She mumbled the last words as she shook her head. "Your head's too far up your ass to realise that your actions are seriously jeopardising your status as boyfriend material. Something you clearly have no idea how to be." Valerie glared at him.

"I have to ask, man. In what universe do you think it is okay to be staying under the same roof as your ex-girlfriend while you're trying to pursue a girl who is clearly out of your league?"

[Lucah Ivaskov]

Lucah listened in silence for a moment, waiting until she was finished and figuring out how he was going to go about this. With a nod, he had to admit he was getting rather irritated now. It would be different if she knew anything about his side of things, or even the way he thought. Maybe then she'd rethink the way she spoke to him about this situation.

"Ignorant moron, huh? It's funny hearing this from you because you seem to think I don't already know everything you're saying or you think I'm going to deny it. You have no idea how much I realize that I'm not boyfriend material and the thing is, you don't even know about the relationships I've had in the past." He continued to look at her with no change in expression except for the clenching of his jaw.

"The Ravyn situation is a touchy subject, I admit, but in what universe would you think I'd put Callie through what she saw me go through? I'm not Ravyn. I don't get drunk and makeout with someone when I'm dating someone else. If there are unspoken feelings, I deal with them soberly before anything happens," He said as he looked at her. "But that being the case, she is one of my very close friends all things considered and she needed a place to go. I should have talked to Callie about it when I was sober, yes, but seeing as how I was under the impression they were friends, and knowing that I would never cheat on her, I didn't think it was a problem."

Luc had to take a deep breath to calm himself because this whole throwing accusations out that weren't entirely justified was starting to piss him off. Clearly she didn't know the whole story. "You think I don't know how wrong I am for her? I question every goddamn day why she bothers, but I'm not about to tell her that because I don't want her to realize how horrible I am." He didn't say it out of sympathy, he just wanted her to see his side of things, too.

[Valerie Danner]

"Listen, you're not winning any sympathy points by putting yourself down! You're just confirming my own views that you're not fit for Callie!" Valerie hissed. It was terribly unprofessional of her to be doing this at their place of work but she didn't want to do it anywhere else. It was sort of neutral ground, this place. She just needed to lower her voice.

Valerie couldn't help the snort that came when Lucah threw her words back at her. "Yeah. You just get drunk and confess your love to the girl you've been dating for a couple of months over the fucking phone." She stated before another derisive laughter erupted from her throat. This guy was really something.

"Oh I'm sorry." She placed a hand over her chest, giving him an utterly condescending look. "I should not have assumed that the fact that living with your ex-girlfriend at all is a shitty problem to begin with!" The brunette's voice almost cracked at the end. She hadn't been this angry since the last time she had put Spencer's bully in their place.

With every word Lucah started spewing, Valerie wanted to just slam the chair she was sitting on in his face. He didn't realise that his 'sympathetic plea' was most definitely not at all helping his case. As it were, she could only remain content with gripping the sides of her chair until her knuckles turned white.

"Then let her go. Let her go, Ivaskov. If you know exactly how horrible you are, get the hell out of dodge. Don't string her along and think things will be better just because your drunk ass self thought it was a good idea to use love as a weapon against the girl who sees the world through rose coloured glasses." She said through gritted teeth. Her voice had gotten a little low and she was trying very hard to calm herself down.

"You're well aware that Callie puts her heart on her sleeve and yet you still stupidly told her that you loved her? In that manner? You fucking slept on the phone for crying out loud." She laughed mirthlessly as she ran her fingers through her hair. "Shit, why do I even have to point these things out to you?"

[Lucah Ivaskov]

“If I wanted your sympathy I’d have fucking asked for it,” He snapped. Okay, now was a bad time to be doing this. They were at work and he was probably more disposable than she was no matter how much Cynthia loved his and Tanner’s act. Still, for her to throw all of these accusations in his face, he wasn’t going to just let it slip from his shoulders. He had enough problems without her making him feel guilty for things he already felt guilty for. She had no idea what he went through on a daily basis. She had no idea about all of the bull shit he’s dealt with.

But that was just it, he wasn’t going to tell her any of it because he didn’t want or need her sympathy. “Oh yes I’m such a horrible guy for getting drunk and instead of sleeping with my ex I call the girl that I’m dating because I was thinking of her. God smite me down now! Send me straight to fucking Hell for caring about someone and calling them because they crossed my mind!” Oh he could have thrown something for her to say that to him.

He ignored the comment about his ex again because if she went there she would really only make things worse. Lucah had thought long and hard about Ravyn living with him and how it would affect things, but in the long run he knew it wouldn’t be forever, it was only until they could both afford their own place. Why was he being looked down on for caring so much?

“Don’t you get it?! I can’t fucking let her go! Drunken slur or not, I do love her! I didn’t mean to say it like that, but being as drunk as I was I couldn’t even fucking remember what I said to begin with! If I leave her then she’ll think I was lying and I wasn’t. I was going to wait until she decided she actually wanted to be my girlfriend before I said it and honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if I fucked everything up because I said it before!” He stood up from the piano bench and paced the area to the side of her. The temperature was starting to cool off with each set of words she threw at him.

He shook his head in irritation. “I know she wears her heart on her sleeve and that’s one of the things that I love about her! She’s the only person who actually gives me a chance to be a good guy before judging me like some people. She gives everyone a chance and not everyone deserves it, but she does it anyway. And to be perfectly fucking honest, I don’t know what I’d do without her,” He said his voice cracking on the last word. It was so damn difficult talking about this when he was being berated for everything he said. Luc just wanted her to see how much he cared about Callie and how he would do literally anything for her.

[Valerie Danner]

"You are right now, you insipid little shit." Valerie stood up, the chair she had been sitting on scraping against the floor. "By demoralising yourself saying these stupid shit about you knowing you're not good enough and that you're horrible, you're asking me to feel sorry for you!" She pointed out. She couldn't care about appearances anymore. And if she got fired because of this little spat, she would have willingly gone because she knew she was doing the right thing right now.

"You're a horrible guy not because you stayed away from fucking your ex, Ivaskov. You're a horrible guy because you had to get drunk in the first place. That you stupidly picked up your phone and dialled the one number you knew wouldn't hang up on you and told her something you should have told her before you got drunk. You're a horrible guy because you thought that telling her you loved her would force her to say yes to your sorry ass self when you asked if she could be your girlfriend." Valerie pointed out.

"You did fuck up, ya jackass." The brunette sighed, rubbing her forehead in exasperation. And as he went on his tirade, Valerie straightened up her chair, looking up at the few girls who walked past them, giving them strange looks. Valerie gave them a sour smile before turning back to Lucah who was still talking.

"So?" Valerie simply asked, after all he said. "You're putting pressure on the girl. You're making her, forcing her, virtually, to give in to your 'love'?" She asked, using air quotes around the word love. She still wasn't all too convinced that Lucah even knew what that word actually meant.

"You ever think about the fact that she could most definitely do without you in her life?" Valerie asked after a long pause.

[Lucah Ivaskov]

“Oh so by agreeing with you I’m asking for sympathy? Fine fuck it, I don’t give a shit what you think because you’re so fucking prejudice!” God he couldn’t win! He just wanted to leave, pick his ass up and walk out. What the hell had he done to make this happen? Was he really going on too long with being perfectly fine with his life? No, he wasn’t going to pull that card again. If she wanted to continue her little bitchy rant, he would let her. Who was he to stoop to her level?

Lucah laughed outwardly, “Wow! You really don’t know a damn thing about me do you? I get drunk ONCE, flat out wasted and I’m such a horrible guy. That’s great to know, thank you.” Her next set of words caught him off guard though and his snarky laugh ceased. Forced her to be his girlfriend? Since when had he done that? “Whoa whoa whoa, what the fuck are you talking about? I haven’t forced her to do anything. I made a mistake because I was wasted and not thinking like a normal human being. I am not going to force her to be my girlfriend.”

“I’m not putting any pressure on her! If I was going to put pressure on her I’d tell her to fucking say yes or I’m gone, but have I? No! Would I? Fuck no! So stop fucking assuming every little fucking thing about what we have going on because you don’t understand any of it!” He didn’t know why he was even sitting here still. He just wanted to get out because he couldn’t take it anymore. How much was he supposed to stick around for? Until she literally made him explode?

He sat back down and his head fell in his hands. “Every day,” He said in a soft voice. If her goal had been to get him to snap, she’d succeeded.

[Valerie Danner]

Prejudiced was not what Valerie had in mind when she started this whole thing. Although literally, she definitely didn't know what was going on because she wasn't Callie or Lucah. But she had enough reason to doubt Lucah's attitude. Callie wasn't the type to exaggerate so Valerie was safe to assume that whatever Callie said was the truth. There wasn't any prejudice there. Nope. Just anger.

"Oh, I'm sorry. So you letting your ex girlfriend move in with you and then saying that you love the girl you're currently dating isn't your own sick and twisted way of giving Callie an ultimatum? Or putting pressure on her?" Valerie laughed mirthlessly. "You're a jackass for using your first time inebriation as a crutch. You keep saying you were wasted and you made a mistake. But listen, you were sober when you made the decision to live with your ex-girlfriend. How can you not see how fucked up that is?" Valerie asked, pissed that he was still very much in denial of the fact that he was playing Callie.

When Lucah looked like he finally snapped, Valerie felt remorsefully victorious. She hated this feeling. She hated when what she thought she was doing was right made people break down. But she was angry and she wanted to protect her friend from someone who could potentially break her heart.

"Then get out." She sighed, running her fingers through her hair. "I mean it. Get out. Stop pursuing Callie. Stop trying to build something you will crumble yourself. Your self-deprecation will not fade simply because you think Callie can fix them. You need to work on yourself before you commit to somebody. Especially someone like Callie." She breathed in before exhaling slowly.

"If you love her like you say you do, either you make yourself worthy of her first, or bail right now. You can't expect yourself to change for the better just because you're with someone you think is right. You can't put that much pressure on someone." She continued before turning to the stage.

"I'm sorry we had to meet like this." She threw over her shoulder before leaving for the stage.