Maybe it was the sudden jarring stop of the bus that roused her, or maybe it was the scent of the aftershave now tickling her nose as she burrows more into the offered warmth against the sudden chill that always seems to linger in the back seats of a bus when the offered coverage of the jacket draped over her slips onto the floor that does it as Tilly's glazed eyes blink open against the suddenly dimmed afternoon light streaming in from the window.
"Look who finally woke up," her unintended pillow teases as Tilly tries her best to focus against the pulsing ache of the liquor in her system.
"Sorry." Tilly groaned once she'd drug her chin up just enough to look into the amused and familiarly colored eyes of the body, she was all but laying on top of in her stretched place against the back row of seats. Her head now pillowed more against the curve of the man's shoulder instead of nestled however uncomfortably against the backpack she spotted nestled between the man's knees as she could have sworn, she had been when she first closed her eyes.
"Have a few sips of this, it will help with your head." The dark-haired man waves off offering a bottle of water with a drinking straw already slipped into it. "Don't worry I just opened it so it's fresh." He reassures at Tilly's hesitation.
Again, the blonde looked blurrily between the man's face and the offered drink with a skeptical expression. "You're the one from the bar." She recognizes rubbing a hand over her face instead of taking the offered drink regardless of the parched ache in her throat. "the one always watching Targo."
"Well, she's very interesting."
If it wouldn't upset the ache in her head Tilly would have rolled her eyes. Because of course, he would have a crush on the woman Tilly herself still held feelings for.
"She's my sister." The boy-man- Landon- Tilly dimly remembered hearing his name being, though she highly doubts that's his true name considering even he seemed uneasy when using it says as if reading her mind at a quick sideways glance.
The way he says it almost has Tilly believing him if she wasn't already positive Margot telling her once she was an only child as the bus gives another lurched attempt at yet another stop in the heavy flow of the late afternoon traffic. "Almost like something doesn't want us to leave, don't you think?"
Again, Tilly can only manage a groan in response.
"Good thing too considering this is our stop." The boy-man decides already on his feet when the bus made yet another suddenly lurched stop in the lull of the town traffic.
Tilly wanted to protest when he held out his hand with a coaxing "Shall we?" when really all she wanted was to attempt to go back to sleep util the buss had finally managed to leave this cursed town and all her heartbreak with it.
"Only a fair few can pull off the green you're sporting and sorry to say you aren't one of them," Landon not Landon says when Tilly's glazed eyes finally managed to meet his own. "Now come with me so we can find a descend bathroom for you to throw up in then we can work on getting you better." He goes on still in that even voice that was so like Margot's it was almost painful to listen to.
"'m not leaving Nobin." Tilly snapped back reaching for what she hoped was the right one in the three circling paintings leaning against the edge of the seat.
"Nobin?" that earned an honest laugh from the one seeming to be offering his help.
"S'what I call her." Tilly defends making another attempted snatch at her only allowed reminder of the girl she thought would be her love.
"You must truly love her giving her such an endearing nickname like that."
"True love isn't real." Tilly snarled back angry tears returning with a vengeance when another flash of why she was attempting to flee the only home she'd known since leaving her shuffled time in 'the system' played behind her unfocused eyes.
"And I know for a fact that it does." The man still offered her his hand counters. "I've seen it."
Again, the way he says such a wild comment almost has the still heavily intoxicated blonde believing him as the bus makes yet another halting stop like a rocking ship on an uneasy sea.
"Miss places your sea legs, have you?" the dark-haired one chuckled again seeming to have read the attempted runaway's mind as he offers a more stable arm when Tilly finally managed to get to her feet. "Leave it, we need to give her something to start with." He says ominously when Tilly makes an unsteady attempt to bring along her jacket.
A sudden lurch in her stomach has the foolish 'She who?" question stalling on the way to Tilly's dry lips as she was pushing in a steady guide towards the front of the stopped bus.
Most of the following back and forth between her supposed 'good Samaritan' and the driver Tilly doesn't catch in her attempt to keep the vial slosh of liquor contained in her stomach until she was somewhere other than a crowded bus to get the brain fogging stuff out of her system.
The next thing she knows a strong arm sweeps out her already unsteady legs from under her as another supports her back in a more bridal carry as the two exits the now grumbling man's bus. Tilly's backpack and her greedily prized picture slung over her carrier's back as Tilly grapples to steady herself against his front.
"Like father like daughter." Tilly hears along with what her liquor-hazed mind comes up with as the sounds of a galloping horse charging along pavement draws closer in its weaved path between the stop-and-go stream of uptown traffic.