Arms Hotel Lobby, Wednesday

[scary-jeff.livejournal.com]

It had taken Jeff a long while to get over his fear of phones.

This weekend, all that progress had shattered into tiny bits of former progress and left him a fearful heap on the floor. It wasn't the man soliciting and then rejecting him because Jeff had wished fervently that he was gay on many an occasion, but it had never stuck. Same went for the second message.

No, Jeff was scared because the cops were onto him, and he was completely sure his mother had let them in on things. He had thought that the underwear burning had gone unnoticed! Oh, god.

He was hiding under his desk all day. The phone was off the hook.

Not that it made any noise, what with the power outage and everything, but Jeff could sometimes be very keenly unobservational.

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[stocksgrrl.livejournal.com]

Power outage. Extreme amounts of snow.

There was no way in heck Turtle was staying in the dorms today. She was going to take advantage of the fact that they weren't actually snowed in under foot upon foot of snow because she didn't like thinking about what might happen if they were. Last time something like that happened, she was stuck inside an apartment building with a bomber for weeks.

Definitely going outside.

It was Wednesday, anyway. And sandwiches didn't require electricity to make, and she was not surprised to notice that Jeff wasn't immediately found once she got to the hotel.

So she drifted behind the desk, tilted her head until she was looking under it, and asked, quietly, "Jeff?"

[scary-jeff.livejournal.com]

"Phones are evil," said Jeff.

He could have elaborated, or thought a bit about how he was under a desk and terrified and the police might be coming, but really, all in all, that carried his load quite well.

[stocksgrrl.livejournal.com]

Turtle was actually surprised that she didn't even think of this backlash after Sunday, but, once he said it, Jeff really didn't need to elaborate. She gave a faint, sympathetic smile, before kneeling down and crawling under the desk to join Jeff.

"Yeah," she agreed. "A little bit. You okay?"

[scary-jeff.livejournal.com]

"I'm waiting for the police to come and arrest me," he explained.

Which was, again, a good explanation as far as Jeff was concerned. When she came near, he nearly glomped onto her.

[stocksgrrl.livejournal.com]

Glomping was fine; in fact, glomping was expected. If there hadn't been glomping, Turtle would then be really worried. As it was, though, she lightly hugged him back and asked, "Why are they going to arrest you?"

[scary-jeff.livejournal.com]

"Tresspassing," Jeff volunteered. "I always knew it was going to happen, you know. I keep going places, it was bound to come up."

[stocksgrrl.livejournal.com]

"Where were you trespassing?"

[scary-jeff.livejournal.com]

"I'm not certain which one it is," Jeff said. He was thinking about it now, though. "I mean, I've gone lots of places, there's no knowing which one of them it was."

[stocksgrrl.livejournal.com]

"Well," Turtle reasoned, "were any of them places you weren't supposed to be? It's only trespassing if you weren't supposed to be there."

[scary-jeff.livejournal.com]

"They said I was trespassing," Jeff offered, "It must have gone wrong somewhere."

[stocksgrrl.livejournal.com]

"Did this happen Sunday?" Turtle asked. "Because, you know, all the phone calls were messed up on Sunday."

[scary-jeff.livejournal.com]

There was a long, long pause.

"You can't trust phones," he said at last. "Especially on a Sunday."

[stocksgrrl.livejournal.com]

"Exactly," Turtle nodded a little. "So don't worry. It was probably all a misunderstanding and even if they do come, well, you've got one of the best darn lawyers on the island right here with you."

[scary-jeff.livejournal.com]

"You're not planning on going anywhere, are you?" Jeff asked. He needed the protection, and also she was warm. "I mean, any time recently or in the future."

[stocksgrrl.livejournal.com]

"In the future, maybe," Turtle had to allow, "but, right now, nope. I'm going to stay right here with you."