George was a surprisingly easy man to find. Actually, it hadn't taken very long at all. Literally an hour and a half with her laptop and she had practically everything on him - granted, she didn't know what he'd been doing recently, but she knew here he lived and worked.
Now, Adrienne wasn't a stalker, really. George Sands Jr. was a dear friend of hers through the latter half of her teenage years and part of her young adulthood. They hadn't spoken in a little more than three years, and because she'd just moved into town and had little else keeping her busy, she'd decided to track down her old mate.
The things that she would do to keep from boredom were astounding sometimes.
Raising her small hand, the redhead knocked on the door and rocked back on her heels while she waited for an answer. Thankfully, it was George that answered the door. Even as he opened his mouth to speak, Adrienne narrowed her eyes up at him. "Oh, God, tell me that you didn't get taller."
He had, hadn't he? He was slouching, which meant that he was taller.
Well, that wasn't fair at all.
George had been relaxing on his day off from work with Mitchell and Annie. Annie of course was making 100 cups of tea as usual. "Annie, no one drinks these. We don't have any cups to use when you do this." He told her as he carried 5 cups full of tea to the sink to dump them out. "Oh give her a break George you know it's hard for her sometimes." Mitchell spoke up defending Annie who just gave him a smile. When they heard a knock at the door, George looked to the two room mates he had. Annie couldn't really be expecting any company, and Mitchell just looked at him like he wasn't expecting anyone either.
George made his way over to the door and opened it before his jaw dropped a bit seeing who it was. "A…Ady? Is that really you?" He asked surprised before she spoke of him not getting taller. He blinked before he straightened himself up a bit. "W-what are you doing here?" He asked surprised. "George, don't be a rude host, invite her in!" Mitchell called to his friend with a bit of a grin from the couch. George glared at him a bit but turned to Adrienne. "Come on in, uh this is my room mate Mitchell, Mitchell, this is Adrienne, she's a friend from back home." He explained rubbing the back of his head lightly. Mitchell gave her a smile as he stood up and moved over to where she was. "It's wonderful to meet you, George doesn't talk much about his life back home."
For her sake, Adrienne hoped that George did not get another growth spurt. The chances of him getting one were astronomical, but that didn't mean that she wasn't cursing the tiniest of chances. She probably looked like a midget next to him already.
She stepped in when George invited her, though it probably wasn't by choice. She knew how he got when he was shocked. "That's not surprising. They were the most embarrassing years of his life." The redhead replied easily to Mitchell, giving a shrug. George looked like he was starting to deny it, but that denial did not last long on his face. It was replaced with the the same befuddled look he'd had earlier, and she decided that she'd better answer his question before his brain hardwired and he fainted or something. "I got bored and decided to stalk you, that's what. But I guess it wasn't really stalking. Took half an hour of Googling you to figure out where you lived. Honestly, you're pitifully easy to find - you're not going to faint or anything, right? That used to be almost a medical condition." Especially when he'd gone through highschool. It had definitely been amusing, at least on her part.
George let Adrienne into the home before he rubbed the back of his head a bit letting Mitchell talk to her…but at the same time he regretted that decision. He almost started to deny that the teen/young adult years had been the most embarrassing of his life…but that wouldn't do him much good; so he decided to see if she would answer his question. "Oh so now you've taken up stalking old friends huh?" He chuckled a bit shaking his head before he looked to her as he took a seat. Mitchell listened to what Adrienne said about George's fainting being a medical condition. He couldn't help but start laughing. "Really? I never would've guessed George had issues with that." He grinned chuckling a bit. "What more can you tell me about his 'embarrassing' years eh?"
George of course turned about 5 shades of red. "No no no, there will be no embarrassing stories about my teenagehood." He explained as Mitchell just chuckled. "Come on George, it's not often you get a pretty friend like this coming to find ya, be happy." His friend just glared at him but Mitchell brushed it off. "He's like this at work too, no stories about anything, it's kind of fun to tease him really." He really did care for his friend, and something about this girl was drawing his attention, more than the fact that she was a human and had blood running through her veins. He focused on something else as he listened to her and George chatting a bit back and forth.
Adrienne, admittedly, had missed George. Not so much that it was difficult to function or anything, but just enough that it was nice to talk to him again. Even if he had just let her in to be polite. "No stories at all? But he's got plenty funny ones to tell. Like the time he fell off the roof, or when he accidentally locked himself in his own locker. Or when -"
"Alright, that'll be enough." George interrupted, his voice an octave higher in his embarrassment. Adrienne didn't bother trying to hide her amusement, it was plain as day on her face.
"Spoilsport." The redhead easily accused. It didn't take long for her and George to start chatting, catching up. Of course he distinctly avoided certain subjects, and while she did in fact notice, she pretended not to. Usually (about 97 percent of the time, if one was to be exact), Adrienne was a very nosy girl and would have dug answers out of him with a plastic spoon if she had to. But she hadn't seen the guy in three years, so she figured that it was fair not to dump a boatload of questions on him. Especially when she still didn't know if he had that fainting problem.
Mitchell chuckled when Adrienne talked about how George had fallen off the roof and locked himself in his own locker. He couldn't help but start laughing as he covered his mouth trying to keep control of himself. Oh this was good information! He grinned seeing Annie standing near the door as she was giggling as well. "Poor George." Mitchell was honestly glad that all his childhood memories were long gone, no one that far in his past was still alive. He smiled hearing George speak up, his voice an octave higher. "You sure you're ok George? You sound like you got kicked to make your voice go higher."
"So Adrienne, how long are you going to be in town?" He asked curiously. If she didn't have anywhere to go, they could always let her stay there. They had an extra room that she could use. "If you're staying for awhile you could always stay here. I'm sure George wouldn't mind being able to catch up with you more, and we wouldn't have to worry about it getting too late for you to get to a hotel. There's none really near here and it's really dangerous to walk about at night." Mitchell spoke as George gave him a look that he completely ignored. He liked this girl, something about her was just drawing his attention and he knew that he could very well be playing with fire.
Adrienne shook her head. "Actually, I moved in a couple streets over. I don't start work for a week or so, and that really left nothing to do but, you know, stalk George." It had actually been a pleasant coincidence that he was so close, because it would have been troublesome to go too much farther to find him. The proximity had been exactly why it was not at all hard to 'track him down'. Hell, she probably would have seen him out on the street eventually.
It was probably a good thing that hadn't happened, because she would have likely tackled him and demanded to chat even if he had somewhere else to go. This was most definitely more convenient.
Yeah, she probably came off a bit weird. But that had hardly bothered her before, and it didn't bother her now. She'd seen the look that George shot Mitchell, and she wondered just how often they invited strangers into their house. She got the feeling that it happened quite often indeed.
Admittedly the statement 'it's dangerous to walk around at night' sparked her curiosity a little.
Mitchell nodded hearing that she'd moved in a couple of streets over. This would give George a chance to spend some time with someone other than himself and Annie…He smiled before he looked to his friend. "Well, if it gets too late tonight before you go home George and I will walk you home, won't we George?" His friend blinked snapping out of a trance for a moment. "We will?" Mitchell raised his eyebrow at him before George quickly agreed. "Of course we will, wouldn't want you getting hurt if we could help it." He gave her a smile. "Would you um… would you like some tea? I can go ahead and start some tea." What was with him? Mitchell had to wonder if maybe there were hidden feelings for her deep in there somewhere.
"Hey Adrienne, did you and George ever…you know date?" He asked curiously knowing George would be changing colors right about now, but Mitchell was curious. "He's acting awful nervous around ya." He grinned chuckling as he teased his friend who came out of the kitchen moments later. "We went to our senior prom together. That was it." He sighed trying to keep his blush under control but it wasn't really working. Mitchell chuckled shaking his head. "I haven't seen him blush this much since an old lady at the hospital mistook him for her husband." He couldn't help but laugh. "She had memory problems and though they were back in 1958 and dating all over again." He couldn't help but laugh as George tried to figure out how to explain it. "Poor George was stuck with her stalking him all around the hospital." Mitchell continued.
Adrienne shook her head when Mitchell asked if she and George had ever dated. They'd gone to senior prom together, yeah, but aside from that near fiasco, they'd just been friends. "There's several theories behind the anxiety. He could just be acting nervous for the sake of acting nervous. There was one time when he didn't talk to me for a couple weeks and I kneed him in the groin because it got so annoying, so he could be fearing bodily harm of some sort. Or he could be worried about all of the ridiculously embarrassing stories that could be told." If she'd wanted to spend time thinking about the variables, she could have calculated the chances of each one.
George, of course, was turning darker shades of red by the second.
There was also a chance that he was worried about her being nosy, but that would imply that he had something to hide, and this was George they were talking about.
Adrienne felt a grin tug at her face when Mitchell told her about the old woman stalking George around the hospital. "Please tell me you're not just making that up, because it's perfect."
Mitchell grinned seeing George get all flustered about him talking about what happened at the hospital. "I couldn't make this up even if I wanted to, it was priceless, no one in the hospital staff would help him, if anything we egged her on even more!" He started laughing as George sat down and pretty much gave up, knowing they'd find ways to talk about his embarrassing life one way or another. Mitchell smiled. "Oh you know we just tease you because we're friends George." He chuckled a bit. "Yeah yeah. Friends." Mitchell just rolled his eyes. "Don't you remember your teen years? I'm sure your parents have worse stories." He spoke before he smiled at Adrienne.
"That story, isn't the only one that's happened either. We had one woman come in and she swore it was 2108 and that she had been sent back to warn us of a war or something and no one would listen to her. George and I made the mistake of trying to help her find who she was looking for, we ended up spending six hours, trying to explain to her that the person she was looking for didn't exist and where she was was a hospital." He chuckled a bit shaking his head. "If George hadn't been there I think I would've gone insane." He spoke honestly.
"Maybe she'd been watching Terminator." Adrienne shrugged, snickering a little at the thought of George trying to deal with a patient that should have been in the mental ward. He could hardly deal with regular people - well, if those regular people happened to be females around the same age as him - but give him a mental patient and he was completely fine. The conversation between her and Mitchell continued, seeing as though George had practically bowed out to sulk in his chair about how they were teasing him. She ended up explaining exactly how he'd locked himself in his own locker even though there was a combination lock on the door, and in addition a few more stories from his teenage years.
"He also grew into his ears, if that counts for anything." Yes, poor George in highschool had had the largest Dumbo years you'd ever seen - actually, thinking back, it was pathetically adorable. She heard a groan from George's chair and grinned over at him. "Stop sulking, you know it's true."
Mitchell laughed and nodded. "We have no idea where she came from either, she just walked in and started talking to us. And we just do the clean up and stocking mostly." He explained with another chuckle. He was glad that he was able to continue chatting with Adrienne. She seemed very nice and he was glad to see that George did have a normal childhood. He couldn't help but laugh when George groaned. "Oh come on I'm sure you have some embarrassing stories about her, but you won't share them, you've got to big a heart to." He grinned before he looked to her after looking at his watch. "Why don't you stay tonight? It's awful late and we'd hate to make you walk out in the cold, wouldn't we George?"
George looked at him and gave him a small shake of the head. This wasn't a good idea in his mind, not with Annie there, but Mitchell honestly wanted her to stay so they could chat without worrying about time. "We could get you some blankets or I'll even throw some things around in my room and you can take my bed and I'll sleep on the couch." He offered. He knew George wouldn't want them sharing a room, that would be somewhat awkward and too tempting to him. He knew George was protective of his friends. Mitchell was going to do his best to keep control around this girl.
Adrienne had hardly noticed the time until it was pointed out. She didn't really want to be a trouble to them (though, admittedly, Adrienne was rarely shy about being a bother), and it wouldn't be all that difficult to walk home. It wasn't raining or anything, and it wasn't too terribly far. But, still, it would be nice to continue the conversation for a bit longer, even if they were just picking on George. She ran through a quick list of things in her head - she'd fed the dog and cat before she left, so they were fine. She hadn't left the television or the stove on, and she didn't need to be back home for anything.
She agreed to stay, but she'd just take the couch. She didn't particularly want to kick anyone out of their rooms, and she wasn't particularly picky about where she slept. It was either a talent or a bad habit, but she could fall asleep pretty much anywhere when she needed to. Buses, trains, couches, floors. The latter two were usually because she occasionally stayed over at her brother's place.
Though, admittedly, the look that George had sent Mitchell when he thought she didn't notice did make her a little hesitant. George, though she hadn't spoken with him in about three years, was still someone that she considered a friend and didn't want to bother too much.
When she agreed Mitchell couldn't help but smile. "Great, I'll go ahead and go get you some blankets and a pillow, you can make yourself at home." He nodded before he got up and headed upstairs. George looked to her before he ran his hand through his hair lightly. He wanted her to stay sure! He'd missed her and wanted to see her after so long…but at the same time he was different than the last time she'd seen him. "You sure you're ok sleeping down here?" He knew it was driving him and probably Mitchell crazy not being able to talk to Annie without looking mental. Little did they know the next morning that would be exactly what they would look like. "I mean this couch can be a bit uncomfortable…but then again from what I remember you slept just about anywhere and could pass out." He chuckled.
Mitchell smiled hearing them downstairs as he made his way around and collected some blankets and pillows. Annie popped up behind him with a smile, nearly making him jump out of his skin. "God Annie! You trying to give me a heart attack?" He asked as he collected what he needed. The ghost girl just giggled. "It's going to be so cool having another girl in the house! I mean, she can't see me so that kind of sucks, but you know…at least I get to hear stories about George." She smiled as Mitchell nodded. "Don't worry Annie, if we could find a way to include you where she wouldn't think we were mental, we would. He headed back downstairs with the supplies before handing them to Adrienne. "Here you go."
Adrienne grinned a little when George brought up the fact that she slept just about anywhere she could pass out. That was indeed true, and she distinctly remembered falling asleep on his floor a couple times, when it got too obnoxiously late after a movie marathon or something for her to go home. She remembered him stepping on her quite a lot when she passed out on his floor, too.
She still didn't know whether George wanted her to leave or not, but as long as he didn't bring it up, she wasn't going to. She wasn't that nice a person, and, though it was perhaps a bit selfish, she'd missed him and wanted to spend some time around her old friend.
"Thanks," she said to Mitchell with a smile when he handed her a couple blankets and a pillow. His friendship with George struck her as sweep and perhaps someone unlikely (and she had no idea how right she was about the latter). They were quite different indeed, and she was a little curious to see how that worked out.
Yes. That meant probably studying them like psychology test subjects, but oh, well. She'd done it to her teachers in primary school, kids in college, she had no problem studying George and his friend.
George chuckled. "Remember in Mr. Snell's class. You fell asleep on your desk, so he pulled it away and you just went to the floor still sleeping?" He asked as he remembered how she'd slept through practically anything. "He kept trying to wake you up but nothing worked." He couldn't help but laugh. "That was the funniest time in class." He grinned at his friend as Mitchell came downstairs with the supplies for her to be able to sleep. "The uh, the bathrooms upstairs and to the right, you can help yourself to what we've got in the kitchen…though honestly we don't have all that much, um….and our rooms are upstairs, the doors locked so if someone knocks just come get one of us but don't answer it." He spoke seriously. Mitchell gave him a look before quickly explaining why. "There are some people around here that are a little…mental, so we know how to take care of it if someone like that comes to the door, we wouldn't want you hurt."
He really hoped she bought that excuse. He was thinking maybe asking her to breakfast in the morning. George tended to sleep in and they were both off the next day so he could easily take her to a café nearby or something; but he would wait until George was asleep to ask her, he didn't want to ask her right in front of him. He knew how George could get about their…condition. But that didn't mean they couldn't go out and have some fun here and there. And even though her blood was tempting, Mitchell felt he had a good control on his thirst. And he'd be in a public place with her, so she'd be safe too.
"Yet I was never able to sleep through you stepping on me. Which happened eleven times, by the way." Of course she'd gotten him back all eleven times, usually by rolling over and hitting him until he fell down. Yes, they'd had quite the abusive friendship. Well, slightly abusive on her part and accidentally abusive on his. She also remembered smacking him over the head more often than not when he failed in a lie or said something ridiculously stupid.
She raised her brows when it was mentioned that there were people around the neighborhood that were slightly mental. Well, that promised too be interesting. She didn't quite know whether to entirely believe Mitchell and George - Mitchell because she didn't know him, and George because when he was talking to her his voice went just the slightest bit higher. But she didn't call them on it, taking it in stride. It was more than likely that they were speaking the truth.
Within an hour and a half, she was curled up on the couch and dead asleep.
George chuckled looking to her when she spoke of him stepping on her. "I couldn't help it! You moved around way too much!" He chuckled a bit as he shook his head a bit. Finally everything seemed to settle down and he wished her a good night; but not before giving her a tight hug and heading upstairs. Mitchell gave her a smile and a wave. "Good to meet you Adrienne." He chuckled before he headed upstairs to sleep. Yeah he slept. He slept fairly lightly but he could still sleep. He lay on the bed in his room and looked up at the ceiling before he smiled thinking about the girl downstairs. Annie popped her head in and smiled. "Hey, sooo." She smiled knowing Mitchell liked the girl already. "So?" "When are you gonna ask her out?" Annie giggled as Mitchell quickly sat up and looked at her. "What? What do you mean ask her out?" Annie giggled.