Title:
Set During: Drug Testing, whilst playing the ever-sacred game of Jynx.
Word Count: 524
Summary: Sometimes the most important things are better expressed in silence.
"You look like you have something really important to say, and you just can't, for some reason." Pam chided, grinning.
Jim silently grinned back at her, mouth shut, a symbol of his willingness to do what she said; jynx may have been a children's game, but they weren't much more mature than those children, anyway. He chuckled, eyes dropping for a moment as he shook his head before coming back up to meet hers.
"C'mon, you can tell me." The receptionist continued, adopting a sympathetic face, "Jim, you can tell me anything."
It was amazing to see how quickly the joking light in his eyes faded, how his face suddenly became somber. Pam's face fell, too, suddenly realizing the severe and dangerous nature of what she said, realizing how much closer they could come to the edge this time. Potential energy soared as the subject teetered on the edge of safety. The energy was nearly tangible, but the only form it took was more of the awkward tension that was becoming more and more familiar. Fruitlessly, she mentally searched for some way to backpedal. Jim's eyes settled on a place just off her shoulder. A look she had seen so many times before set back in with a more undeniable, hungry hold than ever.
At times like these, it got harder and harder to ignore the lightheaded, lead-bodied, churning-stomach feeling that look- those eyes!- inspired in her.
Pam heard the telltale click of the cameras around them shutting down, and the crew began walking away to set up elsewhere. Jim's eyes snapped up, following the cameramen out of the room, before dragging back to Pam's hesitant, nervous face.
With a slight air of unusual boldness, he cleared his throat, opening his mouth to say something. Pam's eyes widened for a second in apprehension and fear- but even she knew there would be a hint of hope- and Jim's mouth snapped shut.
"Um..." Pam gestured to the door helplessly, attempting a smile. "I should..."
Jim nodded quickly, trying to hide his frown, and gestured at the door along with her, as if giving her permission to leave.
As she hurried back to her desk, Pam couldn't help but think that look had told her more than she had ever hoped or feared; Jim was thinking along the same lines as he watched her go, knowing that had been more of an admission than any Christmas card he had ever written, more of a confession than any last-ditch effort to tell her how he really felt about her. With a sigh, he waved away any of the earlier potential energy he thought could have saved and condemned them, sinking into his chair with a dissatisfied groan. No matter how much potential energy they had, they would never push over the edge, they would never move, it could never become kinetic. For the entirety of their friendship so far, and for the rest of it, he knew it would hover on the edge, closer and closer and closer every day, but it would never tumble over. They would never be.
What am I doing with my life?
May be a series of one-shots, may not. You decide.