claire and joshua

Who: Claire and Joshua
When: mid/late morning
Where: on the phone

Joshua was worried about people. This included Claire, and wasn't even dampened by his possible stupidity. Because people were hurt. People were probably dying, and he didn't like the thought of either of those things happening to her. Not that he could do anything about it, but still. So while he was still in phone-mode from texting with Lullaby, he picked Claire's name out of his phone book and hit Send. He waited a bit nervously, fingers scratching lightly at the bandages under his sleeve. He was trying not to pick, but it was hard. He felt like he had to be doing something.

As was becoming habit lately whenever her phone rang, Claire jumped at the noise, hand immediately reaching for the non-effective plunger to her left. She settled at the second ring, rolling her eyes at her own stupidity and paranoia, and dug into her light jacket to pull it from it's pocket. She glanced at the caller id and then flipped it open to answer. Gabe was currently sleeping, or trying to, so she stood up from the grass and started walking a bit away as not to wake him up, but not too far so that if the shadows returned, she'd be able to warn him.

Who: Claire and Joshua
When: after school
Where: phone, streets, burger joint, the orphanage

Joshua? Needed a job. Badly. Or for his school paperwork to go through so he could do something with his days. It was hard enough not to text Lullaby all the time, it was doubly so when he had nothing to do. Which was kind of all the time now. He was bored, and he had too much time to pace and wallow and think. None of which was very good for him. He glanced at the clock on his bedside table, passing his phone from one hand to the other. He wouldn't text her, he really wouldn't. Dean would be getting home from school right around this time, probably, so ... yeah, he wouldn't bother ... whatever. He was waiting for them to set up a time when they needed him to be on the other side of the mirror or whatever, so ... he needed something distracting.

Idly, he started cycling through the scant few numbers in his phone. He wanted to go out, be out of his room, outside somewhere. His thumb stopped when he reached Claire's number. The also-clumsy girl who called him Josh. Maybe she ... wasn't busy or something. She'd said for him to call or whatever if he was ever bored. Because it was easier and she had much more say over whether or not she answered, he texted instead. Hey, its Josh. Whats up? He hit Send before he could feel too weird about texting a girl who wasn't his ex-girlfriend. Which was probably backwards, but when had he made sense in the past few weeks?

Who: Claire and Joshua
When: afternoonish
Where: down by the lake

Maybe it was from being born and raised on an island, but Joshua liked being on the lakeshore. There was something soothing about the water. The damn thing was big enough to be an ocean, when you were standing on the side of it. In any case, he'd walked aimlessly out there again, far from where he'd run into the naked-feather-man, but still. Down there. His head was all over the place, and he'd been hoping the movement would help, but it hadn't really.

She'd said that she missed him. Gave him little text hearts. But he hadn't heard from her again. She hadn't wanted to see him. He was again in that place where he didn't know what she was thinking and he was stopping himself from texting her at least once an hour. He didn't know what to do. Should he do it? Go out there and try to see her? Would she even ask for his help if she needed some? He kind of didn't think so. But then he didn't want to be the insane stalker ex-boyfriend either, who just showed up to a house that wasn't even her's and demanded -- or begged, more likely -- to see her. So he was stuck. Wondering if she was thinking about him at all, if she'd meant it when she said she missed him, or if he was just ... placated and tucked to one side. Because that was what it felt like. She hadn't actually talked to him, after all, just made references to having a hard time. A hard time she apparently didn't want his help with. Not that he had any. He was worried about her, and felt completely helpless. Which really had been the problem, hadn't it? It was a bad headspace to be in.

Who: Claire and Joshua
When: lunch, post-meeting stuff
Where: MSHS

Joshua couldn't help but be glad that the meeting on the sidelawn was over. It was a good idea, to keep everybody in touch, that was great and all. He just felt ... out of place there, conspicuous with the tape over his nose and his wrist all wrapped up. That and it really fucking sucked to have to an awkward and brief conversation with Dean. Wasn't his fault, in the end, but still. It was weird. In any case, he was relieved when they all split up. He started around the corner of the school building, board tucked up under his arm, sneakers flopping a bit from where he'd pulled the goddamn laces out of them, on his way back to the sidewalk to go home.