Fic: "maybe you're crazy in the head"
Author: Mala
Fandom: OLTL
Rating/Classification: PG, Rex/Ad, filler scene.
Disclaimer: Nope, they're still not mine. The dialogue at the end is from the 6-15-04 ep and the title from REM's "Drive."
Summary: Just a dopey filler ficlet for Rex giving Adriana a ride home after the community center fire.
As he checks the rearview and the driver's side mirror, he steals a look at her. She's staring out the windshield, her hands wrapped around the purse in her lap, as he pulls out of the parking spot. Not the froofy pink one she lost. A different one.
He doesn't know why he notices that detail.
Okay, he does know.
But he tries not to dwell on it.
He's a greedy bastard. He shouldn't be thinking hot thoughts about her mega bucks while he's driving her home.
Or her smile. She's got a great one. A sparkly toothpaste commercial smile.
She offers it, shyly, when she catches him glancing over at her. "You're not always this nice, are you?" she asks, as he leaves Angel Square behind and heads towards the ritzier part of town.
"No, I'm really not," he laughs, before he can stop himself. Especially given recent events. There's nothing 'nice' about being involved with Barry, the stupidest arsonist on the planet. So maybe giving Adriana a ride home is just his way of racking up some decent karma. "I must be feeling like a boy scout or something."
"I appreciate it." And he can tell she does. She's so...earnest. He doesn't know that he's ever met somebody who actually defines that word, but he's pretty sure if he looked it up in the dictionary, there would be a picture of her.
She's a good kid. A very pretty girl.
But he tries not to dwell on it.
He keeps his eyes on the road. The houses get bigger and farther apart. "Where do you live again?"
"La Boule." She tries to stifle the giggle against her palm and he tries not to notice how cute she looks doing it.
"La what?"
"Boule. It means 'lump' in French. I'm not sure my mother knows that." Adriana just gives up on fighting it and laughs while he shakes his head.
He'll never get rich people. Why they have to name things...like it gives the house more importance.
Like Natty and her other family and stupid Llanfair.
When he was growing up, nobody named their double-wide.
He turns where she tells him to, pulling into a long, winding, drive-way with a mansion at the end of it. He parks as close to the street as possible and walks around to the passenger's side to let her out..
He can totally see down her shirt.
But he tries not to dwell on that.
Instead, he escorts her up the drive, all the way to her door. Like some ninth grader after the first dance of the school year. Like someone ending a date.
"Thanks for driving me home," she says, politely.
"My pleasure." He's surprised, but he actually means it. Maybe her earnest-ness is contagious. Maybe her smile is, too.
He doesn't know why he follows her over the threshold.
Or why seeing River sitting on the stairs annoys him so damn much.
He tries not to dwell on it.
He takes himself for a ride.
--end—
June 16, 2004.