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Mystery Sign Theatre, Wednesday

Kate was still largely just wanting to go home to Kansas, but at least she'd found herself a brief distraction for today. She'd first spent part of her morning persuading a couple of her coworkers into doing her bidding, and then supervised them as they updated the marquee for the day:

TODAY'S SHOWING:
Cabbie

FREE ADMISSION IF YOUR NAME IS NATHAN
AND YOU'RE EIGHTEEN AND A DAY

They'd had to push the smaller letters pretty tight together to make it all fit on there and technically, it wasn't free so much as it was something Kate had paid for in advance, but whatever. She was pleased with the marquee and snapped a photo of it on her phone before going in and getting to work. Even if a certain Mr. Young and his possible post-birthday hangover didn't wander through this part of town today, she'd have proof of her gift of sorts.

Mystery Sign Theatre 3000 was open for business!

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"Who said anything about being offended?" Kate wondered lightly with a raised eyebrow. "I didn't say anything about being offended. All I said was that you're predictable."

"And unimpressive," he couldn't help adding offhandedly. Oh well, that was always going to be her fault for bringing it up. "What am I to do with all these negative descriptions about me? Should I reform? Heavens!"

"Maybe ignore them?" Kate suggested about as lightly as before. She was so going to tiptoe around that 'unimpressive' issue for as long as she could, yes. "I don't think a person of your confidence levels would get too hung up on random words."

"I do have a heart, Kate," he said, clutching said heart and sighing. "What am I to do if it gets hurt? Just take it like a man and go on? And you having not even used lube and soft whispered words of warning! The horror."

"Yeah, I can see you're scarred," Kate drawled with a few slow nods. "Being here and talking to me and everything."

"Would you prefer I go back to not talking to you?" Nathan wondered, raising an eyebrow. "Because we can definitely do that. Wouldn't want you to think you're forgiven or anything."

"Were we actually not talking to each other at some point?" Yeah, that was surely the point to fixate on. "Was there an appointment for a silent treatment and I missed it?"

"I hadn't planned on talking to you at all," Nathan shared, shrugging. "You addressed me first so I was merely being the overly polite and courteous bloke I am by talking back. Forgetting not forgiving."

"Overly polite, that's exactly what you are." Kate sighed and rolled her eyes. "I didn't mean to call you an unimpressive friend, okay?"

"Nope." He shook his head. "I'm pretty sure you did mean it, Kate. And hell, you might even believe it, right? No skin off my back but I just wanna know which Kate I'm dealing with. I think it's a simple request."

"Okay first of all, there's only one Kate, thanks." She thought so, at least. "And second, I never said I thought you were unimpressive, just that I thought Zach might. And I don't give a shit what he thinks about you, just as long as what he thinks about you doesn't get me dumped."

"Hmm." Nathan laughed because seriously, did she even listen to herself sometimes? She played herself so many ways and in so many variations that Nathan was convinced she wore masks all the fucking time.

"And Kate, having a bloke possibly dump you over your friends doesn't strike you as kind of fucked up? That's almost on the same level as getting dumped for your room. The room and your friends have no fucking impact on him. No association. I am just trying to understand here why you can't seem to see things like this."

Kate sighed again, pushing some of her hair behind her ear. "I don't need you to understand, I just want you to, I don't know, to be a friend and not judge everything I do," she said. "Has it occurred to you that just as you don't understand him, he might not understand you either?"

"No, no, Kate, I don't understand you," Nathan corrected, shaking his head. "I don't give a fuck about his stupid ass. I don't want him to understand me and I don't give a fuck if he doesn't. I don't understand you."

And it was pretty apparent to Nathan that she didn't even understand herself. "I don't judge everything you do, Kate, but it looks like you're sure as shit judging me especially when you're talking about my unimpressive quality. You think that was a friendly thing to say? That make you proud of yourself?"

"No." And she looked like she thought him an idiot for even suggesting that, which... probably wasn't helpful. "I'm sorry, okay? It was shitty and it came out all wrong. I have a tendency to do that, but I still think you are judging me pretty hard."

"I'm being honest." Nathan shrugged and stuffed his hands into his jacket pockets. "And I'd kind of like to see you with someone who doesn't judge you for your fucking room or your fucking friends like this guy apparently does. Shouldn't he take you as you are? I thought that was how human relationships worked?"

Edited 2011-03-16 18:11 (UTC)

"He likes me. He hearts me." She frowned, but it was... forlorn, or something. "This is what I have now, Nathan. Can't you please just be a friend and let me see for myself how it works out?"

Nathan shrugged a shoulder. "I can be a friend but that's not gonna stop me from telling you what I think. I'm being fucking honest here because I think you're better than him."

Zach was a dick. He was an entirely different kind of dick from Nathan but he was still a dick. "The bigger question is are you gonna keep your friends if this guy doesn't like them? You're so concerned about being dumped, Kate, I'm just waiting for the day that you drop everyone like a hooker about to give some fat fuck a blowjob because he threatens that. And please, don't tell me I'm wrong because I'm fucking not. You said it yourself."

"Eww." Kate had to once again boggle at his ability to be vile at the most random times for a moment there. "Anyway, I figure my friends and him won't be seeing each other much at all, so I don't think that's gonna be an issue from now on."

"That doesn't really answer the actual question," Nathan said, shaking his head and refusing to let her dodge this bit because it was gonna determine if he stayed or walked.

"If he disapproved of me, if he found me that unimpressive and low quality, and threatened to dump you if you didn't do something about it, would you let him or would you drop me?"

"I would find a way to keep you both," Kate replied, leaning forward. She'd started gripping the edge of the counter harder at some point, without even realizing. "Okay? I'm very persuasive, I could make him not give a fuck about you. Which he basically already doesn't, so the point is moot anyway."

Nathan stared at her because, well, that hadn't been the right answer. It wasn't one that would necessarily make him walk but it still wasn't the right answer.

"You heard what you just said right?" Nathan asked quietly, shaking his head. "You would find a way to keep the bloke that threatened to dump you over your friends. The guy who'd use your relationship as a fucking bargaining chip? And again, don't tell me I'm wrong that he'd do that because you said it yourself. Really?"

"I'm also keeping the friend who constantly insists on bashing my relationship when I've barely had time to see whether it's working out or not," Kate pointed out mildly. "And I would find a way to keep him too. See, I think I deserve the right to choose who I want to keep around, and the right to do it for my own reasons, and I deserve to be happy for whatever it is that makes me happy."

Or she thought she didn't deserve that. Maybe that was at the very root of all of this, but that wasn't something she was admitting to herself, let alone him.

Nathan just shook his head at her because, wow, she did not get it at all. He didn't even realize how one person could be that fucking deluded and blind that she couldn't see what was apparent to everyone else.

"Please, don't keep me if it's that much of a burden to you," he said dryly, shaking his head. "I'm not a fucking pity case and I don't need your charity."

"Oh yeah, Nathan, please do play the martyr now," Kate replied about as dryly. Maybe later she'd think back on just how badly she'd failed at her whole plan of not getting into this today. "I didn't say you were a burden, but you're trying to make him into one for me, and he fucking isn't."

Mystery Sign Theatre, Wednesday

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