the boardwalk ; sunday morning

[necroslacker]

The rain was nothing new. Sam came from the land of rain so showing up on the island for some skateboarding on a familiar boardwalk was almost comforting. It was making his hair damp and his shirt stick to his skin. His board was new, though, and he wanted to break it in somewhere quiet. He had the half pipe, sure, but it wasn't the same as this place.

And he'd gotten to the island before sharks started falling out of the sky so it was still relatively peaceful. That wouldn't last and then Sam would most likely end up freaking out but he was calm right now.

The board was skating smooth though and Sam had both feet on said board, rain in his face and eyes and he actually felt kinda good with that. He skated through a small puddle which meant water ended up on his battered shoes and Sam even laughed.

The shoes had been through worse.

[Open for pre-sharknado stuff for a bit!]

Comments

[whenshewasnice]

"It's no use," Natalie called out, still slumped against the table, voice a little muffled but audible. She'd been listening to his footsteps. "It'll take awhile."

And if he thought she was letting him go while the sharks were still out there...

[necroslacker]

"And what are we supposed to do until then?" Sam asked, trying not to sound frustrated.

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie had no good answers.

"Just wait it out."

[necroslacker]

Sam sighed and wanted to beat his head against the wall.

"Could take hours," he mumbled, trying not to sound uncomfortable.

[whenshewasnice]

She sighed. "I can fight my way back to the dorms if it's that hard to be in an enclosed space with me."

[necroslacker]

"It's not hard, I just don't know what to do," Sam told her, frowning. "Because I'm awkward, as you pointed out before."

[whenshewasnice]

"It's not a tiny restaurant," Natalie pointed out. She hadn't picked her head up off her arms. "If it helps, we can each claim a side and just wait it out in silence."

[necroslacker]

"That what you wanna do?" Sam asked her, still quiet.

[whenshewasnice]

"Not really." Hey, she wanted to be friends. Splitting a restaurant to two didn't really mesh with that. "I also don't want to make you more uncomfortable."

[necroslacker]

"What do you wanna do?" he asked, glancing back towards her.

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie finally looked up again. And offered a shrug. "I don't know. Sit and talk? We used to be okay at that."

[necroslacker]

"Talk about what?" Sam asked, staying where he was. "Things have changed since we were okay at that, Natalie."

[whenshewasnice]

"I don't know, that's why it wasn't my first suggestion." Because things had changed and it was depressing. "I know what's most been on my mind lately is not something you'd like talking about."

[necroslacker]

"What's been on your mind lately?" Sam asked, asking anyway. Even if he didn't want to talk about it, he couldn't help being curious.

[whenshewasnice]

"Haiti," she said, looking away. "Moving, and the responsibilities, and being centuries away from everything I know, in a foreign country."

[necroslacker]

Yeah, he didn't really want to talk to her about that.

"Sure the pros outweigh the cons," he mumbled, shrugging. "You wouldn't have decided to do it otherwise."

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie sighed and considered just shutting down completely. Instead, she said, sounding tired all of a sudden, "Yeah well, it's a challenge."

[necroslacker]

"I know but you've overcome challenges before." Most of them. Just not the big one involving him. Sigh.

[whenshewasnice]

There were also a lot of challenges not involving him that she'd never overcome. But of course, he didn't know about most of those.

"I meant it in a positive way," she told him, flatly, before going back to something softer while she looked down at the table. "It'll just be me, doing something important."

Not a relationship thing. Not school. Something different where she could prove herself.

[necroslacker]

"And I'm sure you'll do fine," Sam offered, watching the sharks continue to fall out of the sky. "You'll excel."

[whenshewasnice]

"So I hope."

She hoped for a lot of things.

[necroslacker]

"Yeah, I know."

Sam closed his eyes and breathed.

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie sighed quietly and kept looking at the table. Yeah, this was awkward. They'd only managed to be normal without hesitation when they'd been about to be attacked by a freak shark. Danger over, there was nothing really to say.

This was so depressing.

[necroslacker]

It was difficult and it was made more so because Sam didn't really know how to make it not difficult. He still had scabs from everything that had happened with her and he'd been trying and trying to get over things but it wasn't working well.

He crossed his arms and leaned against the door, watching the chaos outside.

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie didn't move. She just stayed where she was and tried to keep any anxiety and sadness and general awkward at bay so it wouldn't stop wafting off of her like an unfortunate emotional perfume or something.

She was mostly successful.