A/N: Okay, another long absence. Here's the latest addition. I honestly had no direction before or during the writing of this, so it's all kind of spontaneous rambling. I hope it works out, but regardless I plan on heating the plot up within the next few chapters. Thanks a bunch to those of you who review, because it's you all who unintentionally nag me into writing more. Continue to unintentionally nag me into writing more, will ya? (P.S., just to throw in my unsolicited two cents, the album Morning Phase by Beck is a wonderful album and inspired the mood of this installment).
"Shit!" yelled Francis, tumbling down onto the hard and cold earth. As she fell, her body flopped down like a bag of sand, hitting the ground with a solid thud as her hands and head smacked the thin layer of snow and, underneath it, dirt.
Her vision snapped away from her like a rubber band, and as she gasped for air, she could only faintly make out the blurry figure of Todd approaching her. He kind of looked like a heavenly apparition. A descending saint, perhaps, or a guardian angel. She wondered why thoughts like this were occurring to her as laid frozen on the ground, bent over like a cripple.
"Francis?" Todd said, his voice slightly bewildered and worried, his hands latching onto her shoulders and shaking them slightly. "Hey, are you alright?"
"Shit," Francis murmured again, curling and uncurling her fingers as if she had arthritis. Slowly, she shook the tight feeling out of her chest and urged herself to sit up.
"Christ," she mumbled, lifting her hands to feel her face. It was still there, and appeared to be intact. She smoothed out her hair and rubbed her eyes.
"You just tripped over that huge root, Francis." Todd stated, trying to offer some sort of words to fill the weird empty space that forms after someone falls.
"Okay, thanks for letting me know. I thought you were the one who pushed me." Francis said flatly, massaging her temples.
A discouraged expression pressed over Todd's face as his grip on Francis' shoulders tightened.
"Why would you think I would push you?" Todd asked earnestly.
A shadow of a smile eased over her lips as she shook her head slightly.
"Todd, you sure are dense sometimes. Of course I don't think you pushed me. I was kidding, for God's sake."
Todd laughed nervously as an embarrassed and relieved flush crawled against his chilled cheeks.
"Well, anyways, are you okay?" he asked, trying to switch the focus off himself.
"I think so, but I kind of scraped up my leg a little, it looks like," she stated, easing her knee up to her chest. The knee socks that she had been wearing were pushed down haphazardly, and she pointed to a scraggly looking wound that stretched from her kneecap to lower thigh.
The wind blew a cold yet gentle wind, and it lifted Francis' skirt in a way which allowed Todd to get a fleeting glance of her underwear. Rosy pink, with some sort of pleasant-looking pattern. In a flash, the view was gone, and Todd swallowed and readjusted his gaze on Francis's slightly beaten leg, pressing the image out of his mind for the moment.
"Does it hurt badly?" he asked, keeping his voice level.
"Not too much. I think I scraped it the worst on a rock or something. Anyways, help me up, will you?"
Before Todd stood up, they locked eyes for a minute, and Todd noticed a strange bleariness in Francis' stare. After acknowledging this, he unfolded his knees from underneath him and extended his hand to Francis. She took it, and after stumbling slightly again, she regained her footing more or less. Her pleated skirt was slightly sideways, and she readjusted her thick cable knit sweater and unbuttoned pea coat.
"Hey are you feeling okay? That root was kind of hard to miss," Todd said softly, almost mumbling. He looked at Francis again, and that strange look was still lingering in her eyes. He had noticed it only slightly before, when the first met up in the afternoon after school to take the walk across campus they were on, but thought nothing of it at the time. Now, looking at her somewhat distant expression, his curiosity was heightened.
"What if I told you I had been drinking whiskey in the school bathroom after my last class today?" Francis said, trying to sound frisky.
Todd sighed and forced a chuckle.
"Sometimes I don't know what the hell you're thinking," Todd said, smiling slightly.
"Well, what do you think when you look at me?" Francis asked vaguely. The sun was behind a thick wall of concrete clouds, and the lighting washed Francis' face out. She tilted her head to the side slightly, her hair brushing against her cheek as the wind breathlessly and silently blew. It was, for some reason, a suspended moment in time. Todd continued to look at Francis, almost quizzically.
"I think, 'what the hell is she thinking?'"
Later, Todd and Francis sat together in Neil and Todd's room, casually shooting the breeze after dinner. Francis was not technically allowed in the boy's dorm area, yet at the same time Francis had never been explicitly told not to ever visit there. Had her presence been questioned, she would simply have played innocent and claimed she was asking for advice on school work.
Francis was curled on her side on Todd's bed as Todd nestled himself into the window frame.
"Hey, did you ever see that one episode of The Red Skeleton Show with the Clem The Dentist bit? I thought that one was kind of funny." Francis said, propping her chin up and looking at Todd.
"Yeah, yeah, I saw that one, but I thought that Humphrey School of Dramatic Arts one or whatever was funnier."
"Maybe. You know, I haven't watched the television in ages. How about you?"
"Not since I left home," Todd said, gazing out the window lackadaisically.
"I wish I had a name like Red Skeleton," Francis commented absently, rubbing at her bruising and scabby knee. Todd did not respond, and they were silent for a few moments.
Images of the stolen and brief glimpse of Francis' underwear started to creep into Todd's memory, and he sighed as he remembered their delicate pink color and feminine looking design. The color and idea of the underwear rekindled the recollection of Francis walking away from Todd, clothed in a skimpy nightgown. The memory was silvery and delicate as he remembered the way the fabric hung around her waist and the way her legs tensed slightly. Taking a deep breath, he decided to push the thoughts out of his mind. Hearing the flesh and blood Francis breathe shallow and peaceful breaths next to him made the memories seem like too much.
Since they had returned from their walk, the wind had begun to pick up, and the sky was ominous as gusts of cold New England air rattled at the window pane. Undoubtedly, the weather was turning more and more brittle with each day. Soon, December would unravel itself before them, and Francis would turn eighteen.
"You know, my birthday's pretty soon, Todd. The 13th."
"I knew that," Todd said, looking down at Francis. "It's not so far away from mine, you know."
"Yeah, but you never told me about your damn birthday, ya creep," Francis said, laughing. "I had to find out about it from Neil after you guys were done tossing office supplies off the walkway or whatever."
Todd laughed along with her, and wondered to himself why he had been too modest to reveal his birthday to Francis, or anyone for that matter. He settled on the idea that he didn't like all the attention, yet something told him it was more complicated than that.
"Neil does his play that day, doesn't he?" Francis asked lazily, musing her hair slightly and yawning. The whiskey was working its way out of her system.
"I think he does, actually."
Francis nodded, confirming to herself what she already suspected.
"And then we'll be getting out on break soon," Francis stated, closing her eyes and smiling. "Thank God," she added slowly placing her head on Todd's pillow. She breathed heavily and took in the scent. It simply smelled like soap, yet it was both comforting and oddly masculine.
"I'll probably still have an absurd amount of work to do," Todd said with a resigned sigh.
"Boy, am I glad I managed to duck out of this school. I don't know how you kids do it... Hey, you know what I finished reading the other day?"
"Huh?"
"That one book that came out a few years ago, The Catcher in the Rye. Have you read it yet?"
Todd shook his head slowly. He had heard about the book here and there, but never bothered to read it.
"It was a damn good book, let me tell you. I swear, you have to read it as soon as you can."
"Was it really that great?" Todd asked, wondering what all the excitement was about.
"Yes, really. I don't know, it just kind of described feelings that I've always sort of held in this weird little web inside me, feelings that I thought nobody else had ever felt. I think you'd like it a lot. It's hard to explain."
Todd nodded. "Okay, well, I'll give it a shot."
"You won't regret it. I bought the book, actually. It was on sale at that one dumpy little bookstore downtown, you know, that one next to-"
The door of the room swung open, and a bright and jovial looking Neil stepped through the door frame, his stiff and dark hair illuminated by the honey-warm light emitting from the hallway. The sun was setting outside.
"Do you guys ever get the feeling, every once in a blue moon, that life is just so marvelous and perfect that your stomach is going to explode?" Neil asked, surveying the room and sitting down at his desk.
"Only when I'm drunk," Francis commented with a chuckle.
"What are you so worked up about?" Todd asked, yawning and stretching.
"It's just that nothing has ever made me happier than acting. It's one of the best things for me on this miserable little planet."
"Congratulations," Francis mumbled, her face still pressed into Todd's pillow. "Enjoy it while the rest of us flounder in despair."
Neil and Todd laughed, and Francis smiled into the pillow.
"Oh, I'll enjoy it," Neil said, his hands resting in his lap and his nose pointing upwards, surveying the weather from the darkened window. "While it lasts, anyway," he added, mostly to himself.