whenshewasnice | Montreal, Canada, Friday Afternoon

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Montreal, Canada, Friday Afternoon

As it turned out, Natalie could have come up with some better ideas to deal with things than running off to Montreal. For one thing, she'd already done one impromptu trip here this very week, and she only had so many excuses to use on her parents. For another, when you were running away from dealing with someone who apparently knew your long lost best friend as an adult...

It was probably not best to go where said best friend's childhood home was visible through your bedroom window.

Understandably, Natalie wasn't quite sure this trip was helping anything. The former Ingram house might as well have been mocking her, and she knew that every day spent not talking to Sam probably made things worse between them. But she wanted to stay cocooned for a little while longer. And at least she had an actual piano here. It soothed her a little bit to dig up her old sheet music, go back to her piano lesson days.

It wouldn't last long, but it was something.

[ooc: NFB, mostly for one but open for texts and calls!]

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"Really? That's all you have to say?" Brid asked, raising an eyebrow. "So, maybe I should just convince him to stay in Seattle, finish school here and be done with it. He does listen to me, you know. And it doesn't seem to matter much to you. I'd love to have him back in Seattle, back with me and the Council and his friends."

Sorry, Natalie. Well, no, she wasn't. She was just being protective of a friend.

"Why should I have to defend myself to you, Brid?" Natalie asked, blankly. Emotions were private things, and so far she didn't think Brid worth them.

"You're not in this relationship, and you seem to have no trouble making your mind up about me all on your own." As an afterthought, she added, "He probably doesn't even know you're doing this."

He didn't but details, details.

"Isn't it something that I'm even giving you the opportunity?" Brid asked even if she knew she'd never agree with Natalie. That just wasn't happening. "I think I should be given a medal just for that."

Or a cookie.

"And really, it doesn't seem like you're in this relationship either. Flipping out over another guy? Really? Bad form. And hey, graduation's almost here so maybe Sam can just finish up there and come back. I don't think he needs the worry anymore. He's got enough shit to deal with. You really don't even know."

"Neither do you," Natalie replied, as evenly as she could when her shoulders were tensing up like crazy. "Has he even told you he is essentially jealous of an eleven-year-old? Not even a boyfriend."

A boy she'd loved with all of her little girl heart, but still, a boy she still loved, in a way, and the loss of whom she was apparently still mourning, but still.

Brid rolled her eyes.

"Please, I know he's not eleven anymore and the fact that you still react to him so hugely is all I need to know," Brid said, shaking her head. "You're hung up in the past. You want your cake and to eat it too basically."

That was how she saw it but she was biased as hell, of course.

"You keep jerking Sam around and it's gonna be real easy to get him back with me."

"He was barely with you in the first place," Natalie said, the words just slipping out. "You're the 'kind of an ex'."

And she'd suspected that meant there hadn't been many declarations of affections, or anniversaries to completely ignore.

"And I'm allowed to miss people and hope I get to meet them again someday. Just like everyone else."

More than most people, she thought, actually, since she was so bad at making friends.

"I also went through his torture with him. Helped nurse him back to health and knew him before you did," Brid said, pleased she seemed to finally be getting to this girl. "I didn't have him long, no. But, I had him more intensely."

She was gonna roll her eyes at how stupid that sounded later but whatever, she'd use it now.

"But yeah, you go ahead and miss people. You see how you feel when Sam flips the hell out when you mention an ex-girlfriend of his. You see how you feel later when you think about him and realize he's home with me right now, getting his comfort there."

She had no shame.

That last part stung like it was meant to, but mostly? Natalie was finding it pathetic that Brid was so obviously just trying to get a reaction from her. (The part that came up with that thought was the part of her that would become Envy, eventually.) For this moment, it became easy to understand why Ada had tried to avoid even speaking Brid's name around her.

"You're not being a very good friend to him right now."

"And you're being an even worse girlfriend," Brid countered. "At least I'm here."

"He moved away from me when I needed him," Natalie said, in that tone of hers that revealed nothing. She might as well have been saying she'd bought a can of Pepsi (+2 to intelligence) today for all the emotional significance it held. "Seems we both needed space."

And only one of them was getting any comfort.

"Really, Natalie," Brid said, shaking her eyes, "would you wanna be around him if all he could think about was me? Come on, don't be stupid. I hear you like throwing that label out but seriously."

Natalie rubbed the bridge of her nose and suppressed the urge to sigh.

"Why did you call me, Brid?" she asked. "Is this what you do for fun? You clearly have no intention of helping anyone."

"I called you because you're an idiot if you let one of the few good ones walk away because you're so stuck in your freaking past that it blinds your present," Brid said, actually sounding sincere about that. "But, if you're gonna keep doing that, leave Sam the hell alone."

That was sincere too.

"But hey, I also called to tell you that I'll do all the comforting that Sam needs because I care about him more than you realize and you're just writing your own ending to your relationship."

It was the Envy part that wanted to say that Brid was being a bitch, and that it made sense considering what she was. She kept that to herself, though.

"Stop assuming you know half a thing about me," she said dryly. "Including what I do or don't realize. You don't know me, and you don't know everything about Sam, either."

Natalie was sure the torture thing meant they were friends for life, but there were things you got from being involved in the long term that were differet.

"That includes the realization that he's not perfect, and he's not perfect in this situation either. But I'm sure you're not lecturing him about anything, because it's easy to demonize me."

People were going to be doing that for years to come. Brid could just get in line.

"No, he's not perfect. No one is," Brid replied, sounding amused with Natalie and her responses. Really, she'd expected the defensiveness, she really had.

"But, I have no problems saying that if you keep hurting him, I'll hurt you." And she could. She didn't know Natalie was as strong as she was but Brid would be a pretty even match there. "This isn't the first time, I know. And it probably won't be the last."

Typical relationship, really.

"I don't like you." Duh. "But hey, keep doing what you're doing. Keep focusing on your past instead of your future. Keep acting like your boyfriend is stupid and keep telling him that you don't like him when he's upset. I'm sure you'll get to know Sam excellently when he eventually gets fed up, leaves and doesn't look back."

Natalie wasn't even listening anymore. She let it all wash over her as a wall of text. It wasn't worth it. So Brid thought it was funny that she was defensive when she got attacked. Amazing, the girl had discovered the laws of cause and effect.

Now Natalie just sounded bored. It was a front, of course, but she was done giving Brid any emotion to spit back in her face.

"Just do me a favour and be the upstanding friend you seem to think yourself to be, and tell Sam you did this. Tell him everything. Tell him you are just like Gideon. See if he likes it."

"Hmm."

Yeaaaaaah, she wouldn't be doing that. Please, that'd just be stupid.

"Didn't see you walking away from this one, huh?"

Oh yeah, she'd heard about that a little.

"See you later, Sunshine."

And with that, she hung up the phone and made sure to delete the evidence that she'd made a call from Sam's phone.

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Montreal, Canada, Friday Afternoon

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