Life in Every Word
I rouse rabble
Disclaimer: I own neither Greek nor the Postal Service song to which I make references.
Author's notes: An AU fic, I guess? It's a Spring Break fic, but it ignores everything from the previews. I was listening to Clark Gable from the Postal Service, and the line, and the whole song sort of reminded me of fifty different fics I could write about C/C.
You have got to be kidding me, Casey thought. She couldn't believe she was really listening to this idiot drone on about his game-winning touchdown pass. She'd smiled at him and accepted his offer to buy her a margarita, because she was ready for a meaningless fling with a boy who wasn't Cappie or Evan and who could kiss her without trying to eat her entire face. Her requirements didn't seem high, but she had yet to find a single boy who met them. And from the looks of it, this boy, Hugh was it? She should have known, with a name like that, wouldn't be the one either.
"So, I spiked the football down. The ref didn't like it, but we'd already won the Flag Football Tournament, so sucks to be him." Hugh smiled
Oh my God, he'd been bragging about flag football? "Did you throw your pinnie down in victory too?"
He didn't catch her sarcastic tone. "It was shirts and skins, baby." He leaned in closer. "I was one of the skins."
All right time to go. "Oh is that my phone?"
"I didn't hear it ring."
"Uh, yeah it's on vibrate. I'm gonna go take this, I bet it's my mom. Thanks for the drink, Hugh." She ignored his mumbled reply, "my name is Henry" and left him sitting there. She took her drink onto the porch. It was still light out, early to be drinking probably, but it was vacation.
Ashleigh was out there, looking like she needed saving from a boy in a Hooters shirt. Classy, Casey thought, walking over. "Hey, Ash! I'm going to hit the beach, do you want to come with?"
"Oh thank God. Let's go," Ashleigh said, hopping off of the railing she'd been sitting on and hooking arms with Casey.
They spread their towels out on the sand and Ashleigh plugged her iPod into the portable speakers she'd bought last week. Unlike most everything else Ashleigh had purchased, Casey had to admit that this one was certainly useful. She let the music wash over her, enjoying the way the sun felt as it beat down upon her.
An hour later, however, the sun was becoming almost unbearable and she sat up. "Do you want to head into the water, Ash?"
Ashleigh nodded, sitting up and stretching. "Let's go." They ran in, Baywatch style, splashing each other and shrieking. Casey felt a little bit like a five year old, but she loved it. Studying for the LSAT exam last week had sucked all of the fun out of her life and she was thrilled to cut loose.
She vaguely heard a "heads up!" from somewhere to her left but didn't pay it much mind until she saw the rubber ball flying towards her head. She moved to avoid it but lost control of her footing and ended up falling on her but in the shallow water.
A tall boy with dark hair ran over to them. "Sorry," he said, giving them a bashful grin as he leaned over to pick up his ball. Casey eyed his physique, still sitting down. Not bad.
He extended a hand and Casey grabbed it. As he pulled her to her feet, he introduced himself. "My name's Eric. I go to UMD."
"I'm Casey and this is Ashleigh. We're from CRU."
"CRU, huh? Never heard of it." He tossed the ball from hand to hand as he talked.
"Oh it's a very exclusive school, you know. Only the best of the best go there." She gave him her best flirtatious smile. This had potential.
He gave her a once over. "I'll bet."
From somewhere behind Eric, a boy yelled, "Come on, Matthews! Move it!"
"Sorry, that's my Big Brother. I'm pledging at UMD, I better go. But hey, there's a big party at this bar, McFadden's tonight. You two should come by."
"Oh we'll be there," Ashleigh said. She waited for Eric to walk away before she continued. "What, you said you wanted to meet someone new and fun! And he was cute and obviously into you. Maybe it's fate."
"Fine. You win."
"I always do. Come on, it's almost eight. Let's eat, shower, and get ready."
They grabbed dinner with a few other ZBZ girls. Casey noticed Frannie and Evan at a table across the restaurant and found she didn't care at all. She was actually sort of happy for them. Her smile faltered, however, when she saw Cappie and Rebecca holding hands across the table. He deserves better than her. He needs someone nice, not the Devil. She felt a hand shake her shoulder. "Come on, Casey, we paid the check. Now we have to leave." She ignored Ashleigh's overly patient, talking-to-a-five-year-old-voice and got up.
"Come on, let's plan what I'm going to wear," she said, hurrying Ashleigh along to the hotel room. She needed to look good if she was going to impress this Eric boy.
Rummaging through her clothes and Ashleigh's took longer than she expected, but she eventually picked a suitable outfit. She quickly showered and blow-dried her hair before putting on the white skirt and teal halter-top. The two girls went through their usual routine of hair and makeup before meeting in Frannie's room to pre party a little bit before the bar. No need to spend too much money at a place that charged 9 a shot, after all.
They were at the bar by ten thirty, and it was suitably crowded. Casey didn't herself look for Eric when she got there, sure that if he really wanted it, he'd come and find her. She was right. She'd been there for about half an hour when she felt a tap on her shoulder. It was Eric. "Want to dance?"
She let him lead her out onto the dance floor. He was a good dancer, she had to admit, and she found herself having a lot of fun. Until… out of the corner of her eye, she saw Rebecca and Cappie together. She couldn't help being a little surprised. Cappie wasn't much of a dancer but there he was,
"Let's go get a drink," she suggested, heading over to the bar. He ordered them both beers. Casey drank hers quickly, slamming it down on the bar before he was half done his.
He smiled down at her. "You don't mess around do you?"
She was pretty drunk by this point. "Not at all my friend, not at all."
He stepped in closer and leaned in. He was a good kisser, way better than Ryan Prince (which wasn't saying much), and considerably better than the 16 year old. She felt his hands creeping down her back and then under the band of her skirt and pulled back.
"Uh, that's a pretty bold move when you're in the middle of a bar with a girl you only met this afternoon, don't you think?"
"It's no big thing," he said. He still hadn't moved his hands.
"Yeah, I'm gonna go." Casey walked away, feeling grossed out. Kissing someone in public was one thing, but anything underneath the clothes belonged behind closed doors.
Since Eric put a big damper on her evening, she headed back to her hotel with a few other girls. As soon as she got to her room, she kicked off her shoes and flopped onto her bed. Staring at the ceiling, she wondered what the hell she was doing with her life.
I'm done with random hookups. The last three had gone so badly. Ryan Prince? The years of wondering what it'd be like to kiss him culminated in one of the top three worst kisses of her entire life. Number two was her first boyfriend, Jimmy Smith, whose breath smelled like nachos. And her number one worst kiss was actually her first kiss with Cappie. He'd stumbled, somehow, and ended up accidentally biting her. But Cappie had given her some of her best kisses too, she had to admit.
She shook her head, forcing herself back to the matter at hand: her crappy hookups. Before Ryan there was Jonah, who was sixteen. There was nothing more anyone can ever say about that. She had sex with a 16 year old and was caught naked in his bed by his mother. She was a statutory rapist! And after Ryan there was of course, Eric, who'd clearly been one big sleaze ball. What to they teach those boys in Maryland?
She needed to stop drinking around boys anyways. It always led to trouble and situations where she acted nothing like herself. And deep down, she was tired of the random hookups. They were fun of course, but it was always so much better when she actually cared about the person she was kissing. If she was perfectly honest with herself, that's what she really wanted. To care about someone again.
So she had to find someone to care about, but she had no idea how. You couldn't force yourself to care about someone. It had to happen naturally. But she could try to figure out what she was looking for. It was better than nothing. She grabbed a pen and a paper. After tonight, she wasn't leaving anything up to fate.
What Casey Cartwright Wants:
1. Someone who's smart and funny. Those two were givens.
2. Someone whose ambitions aren't the be-all and end-all of his life.That ended up being one of her problems with Evan. Everything he did was part of his desire to be a lawyer, and she'd ended up caught up in that with him.
3. Someone who can cheer me up when I'm sad or stressed out. Now that she was president of ZBZ, she was more stressed out than she'd ever been. On that note…
4. Someone who brings me down to Earth and shows me what's really important. She knew realistically that there was much more to life than ZBZ. She just needed to be reminded sometimes.
5. Someone who loves life and lives it to the fullest. She knew that she had the tendency to get caught up in the small things and let them bring her down. She also knew that she held herself back from doing a lot of things she really wanted to do because it wasn't proper. She was probably only admitting this to herself because she was drunk, but deep down, she just wanted to say "fuck it," and do whatever she wanted to do all the time.
She looked down at her list and groaned. She had no idea where to find this mystery boy, and she was too tired and drunk to think about it anymore tonight. She put the pen and paper on the nightstand, changed into a long t-shirt, and fell asleep.
When she woke up the next morning, Ashleigh was already awake and dressed. Casey looked at the clock and saw that it was almost two o'clock. She hadn't slept this late since high school. She felt good, though. She hadn't realized she needed sleep that badly. As an added bonus, she'd slept through most of her hangover pain.
"Hey, Case. I'm glad you're up. I've been wanting to ask you about this." Ashleigh held up the paper from last night. It took a moment for Casey's brain to click into gear and realize what Ashleigh was holding.
"Oh, that. It's something I made when I came back last night. It's pretty stupid, though, where am I going to find a guy like that?"
Ashleigh stared at Casey as though she'd never seen anyone that dumb in her life. "You don't know anyone who's at all like this?
"No… should I?"
"Well, I do know a guy who made you laugh so hard you peed once. I know a guy who wrote half of the midterm paper you got an A on. I know a guy who used to draw stupid pictures on your whiteboard and left candy on your desk when you were sad. I know a guy who's happier than anyone else I know living in the moment as long as it is with you. I know a guy – "
"Stop it! I know that guy, too, and he's dating Rebecca."
"Not anymore," Ashleigh said. She was acting nonchalant but Casey could tell she couldn't wait to drop this bombshell. "They broke up last night."
"What? Why?" Casey tried to sound cool and collected, but she knew it was obvious how much she was freaking out. She tired to stop the hope from rising in her chest but she knew it was no use.
"Rebecca got tired of playing second fiddle to you. She dumped him in front of everyone at the bar."
"Did he seem upset?"
She looked straight into Casey's eyes. "He looked relieved." She walked over to Casey and pulled the girl to her feet. "Go shower. I'll pick out your clothes."
Casey scrubbed her head viciously, trying to think straight. He wasn't sad that Rebecca dumped him. Ashleigh said he was everything she needed. And, if Casey were perfectly honest with herself, every move she made last night was subconsciously linked to Cappie. She started drinking when she saw him with Rebecca. She kissed him because of it. It was just like Jonah. At least he was legally an adult this time.
She stepped out of the shower and into the sundress Ashleigh left hanging on the door. She dried her hair quickly and didn't bother with makeup. The second she was finished, Ashleigh shoved her out into the hall and locked the door. Casey had no purse, no key, and way back into the room unless she talked to Cappie. All she had was the list in her hand. She didn't even have shoes.
He was rooming with Rusty so she knew just where his room was. She walked down the halls silently. The carpet felt strange under her bare feet. She reached his door before she knew what she was going to say. Her hand knocked on the door twice without the brain giving it the instruction to do so.
For a minute or two, no one answered. She was ready to hightail it down the hall when she heard footsteps on the other side of the door. Cappie answered, wearing jeans and no shirt. That was going to make this conversation a lot harder.
"Come on in, Case. Rusty's not here, I sent him to get some breakfast."
"Cappie, it's two in the afternoon."
"It's morning somewhere, Case." Cappie grinned at her and she tried to ignore the flutter in her chest.
"I actually wanted to talk to you. I heard you broke up with Rebecca."
"Yeah. It's alright though, I couldn't see that going anywhere, anyway." He sat on the bed and patted the space next to him.
"I think it'll be easier if I stand. Okay, so, last night, I kissed this guy Eric and he was really gross." She stopped talking for a second when Cappie lifted his hand, wincing. "I uh, don't really want to hear about your conquests, Case. Seeing you with him is actually what inspired Becca to dump me."
"Oh, Cap, I'm sorry. Anyway, the point is, I left the bar early after that and I cam back to my room. And I started to think about what I really wanted, so I made a list." She handed Cappie the list. "I think the last thing's the most important one. I want a guy who loves life. I want to feel like that too. I want what you have. I want life in every word I speak, in every thing I do. And you're the only person I know who lives like that. I want to live like that too. And I want to do it with you."
Cappie didn't say anything. He stared at the list for a long time, his expression blank and unreadable. "Do you have a pen?" Casey found one sitting on the dresser and handed it to him, biting her lip nervously.
Cappie accepted it and turned the list over, writing something Casey couldn't see on the back. Without saying anything, he handed it to Casey.
What Cappie Wants:
1. Casey Cartwright.
2. Fuck everything else.
Casey walked forward. "Really?" She knew Cappie wouldn't joke about something like this, but she just couldn't believe it.
Cappie didn't respond. He pulled her face to hers and kissed her. Casey was caught off guard for a moment before responding. She climbed onto the bed with him, the list lying forgotten on the floor. A pair of jeans and a dress and underwear soon joined it.
"Cappie! I'm back. They stopped serving breakfast so I got you a – oh sick! Casey!" The door slammed. Cappie and Casey heard none of it.
A little while later, they were eating the burgers they found on the dresser. "I wonder where these came from," Casey wondered.
"No clue."