Seymour paused for a long moment at the door to the room for AP Calculus AB, attempting to regain his composure as much as possible before entering it and Audrey's scrutiny and stop the horrific images that had been flashing through his mind since yesterday's sleepless night, completely losing what little progress he had managed to make on both of those fronts as he unexpectedly heard Audrey's voice behind him and, startled, swiveled around to face her. "...Seymour? ...What're you doing out here?" …Right… she arrived after him on the days after her games… Seymour quickly opened the door for her, dipping his head in embarrassment. "...That's not important… How'd your game yesterday go?" She looked at him strangely and concernedly even as they walked to their seats and settled down in them. "...We won… Seymour, are you okay?"Aaand he once again had not been able to hide his pain from her, even after all those rehearsals and practice with acting. As Seymour prepared to attempt to deliver the most convincing affirmative answer of his accidentally gained acting career, Audrey continued, overwhelming him further with her brilliant, warm brown eyes. "You can tell me anything, really." Something in him broke with the kindness, the genuineness in her words and expression and… hand holding his, when had she done that? He certainly wasn't complaining. "C-Can I talk to you after school? Are you free then?" Thank God there wasn't supposed to be a rehearsal today…
She smiled, squeezing his hand reassuringly. "Sure. In our usual place?" He processed this for a moment, surprised that she was willing to enter the left wing again after what Orin had done to her there, let alone suggest it as a place where they could go. "...If that's okay with you." Audrey did not seem to be as deterred by it as he was. "Great! It's a date." As the bell rang and they turned their attention towards the board, with him doing so much more hesitantly as usual, he realized the implications of her exact choice of words that he barely dared to hope for. The exhilaration from that moment of connection, although amazing, was far from fully countering his all-encompassing guilt and fear from his actions of the previous night or his exhaustion from getting no sleep… he probably shouldn't have driven to school, he realized as the words and numbers on the board blurred and shifted before his eyes even with his glasses on, but he didn't have much of a choice now… he had murdered sleep… The school as he would've expected if he had devoted any time to contemplating this amidst his multitude of other worries hadn't found a substitute for Mr. Mushnik's classes by sixth period, and the speculations of his classmates as to his whereabouts seemed to congeal together into an oppressive, intangible mass swirling around him and pressing him into the ground.
Audrey, who had initially been as surprised as any of them, got with the program much faster and, instead of participating in any of their conversations or just leaving the room after fifteen minutes had passed or a little before that as many of them did, moved her desk up against Seymour's, taking his hand in hers under the desk and running her thumb along his palm in circles reassuringly for a long moment before asking him how yesterday's rehearsal had been. He felt a little calmer, a little less like the most horrible person that ever lived in her presence and comforting gestures, as if she could use some of that immense inner strength of hers to create a bubble of tranquility around them, a bubble that somehow shielded them from attacks from inside as well as outside… at least, he hoped it worked for her like it did for him, she deserved all the peace and happiness in the world… As they talked about the play and her upcoming games and the future more generally, he could almost forget that they were far from the most pressing issues in his life… almost… and that harsh reality was quick to sink its teeth into him again as their conversation was cut short by the bell signaling the start of Botany. Soon after the start of class, Mrs. Luce instructed them to team up with their lab partners for a lab in which they would test the leaves of various plants for the presence of defensive compounds. Seymour sat at his desk awkwardly, not knowing if he should just do the lab by himself or not, until he felt Audrey gently tap him on the arm.
"C'mon, you can work with us." Seymour stood up gratefully to join her and Arthur, who was her lab partner in this class. "Thanks." She smiled oh so enchantingly at him as he followed her to their work station. "Of course." Audrey had always generally tended to be bright and cheery since he had met her, but after Orin's disappearance she seemed to have an even greater spring in her step, and, even more strikingly, he didn't get this vague but uneasy impression that there was a darkness, a sadness behind it all, that she did an excellent job of hiding, not that she should have to hide it or have it in the first place, but that had become apparent to him in the smallest hints and whispers as he had gotten to know her, in her slight hesitation before uttering Orin's name, in her wistful gaze when she talked about college, in the way she had promoted her scumbag abandoning father to the almost romanticized title of 'Daddy' while her mom remained, well, 'Mom.' He hoped he was right that that darkness had lifted at least a little after their bubble of paradise in the left wing, and that it was even further lifted now that Orin was gone; the change seemed particularly noticeable now that he had failed to show up to Botany for the second day in a row, his 'mysterious' disappearance still unresolved.
As they worked on the lab, doing relatively equal shares of the work instead of the status quo Seymour was used to with Orin of him taking most of it over despite Seymour objectively being the one who knew more about plants out of the two of them, he knew that he would never regret saving her from him, no matter what came of it or how bad his forced recollections of that night got. Not that they compared to the images and sounds of Mushnik's demise almost continuously flashing through his mind… The bell signaling the end of class rang as Audrey, the only one out of the three of them with nice handwriting, finished up filling out their group lab worksheet while Seymour and Arthur reorganized their work station, and a new wave of panic flared up in him as he remembered his after school plans with her. Why had he agreed to talk to her about this?! She was gonna hate him for what he had done for sure! Maybe he could think of something else to say to her once they got to the left wing? Seymour felt himself calm down slightly and recommit to the truth as Audrey took his hand in hers, and he followed her out of the room. "Are you ready?"
Seymour looked away from her and down the hallway, thinking. "...I will be in just a few minutes, if that's okay." She smiled, nodding slightly. "Of course, I'll see you there." With that, she started making her way to the auditorium, and Seymour stared after her for a long moment in a daze before managing to move towards his intended destination. He reached the only vending machines in the school, hesitating for a moment before gingerly retrieving the bills Mr. Mushnik had given him before… he… had… from his pocket and using them to get some Sweetarts ropes and Crush soda, stuff he knew Audrey liked. For the first time in his life, he didn't collect his change; it had weighed down on him so heavily when he had possessed it due to the context surrounding its acquisition that he couldn't bear to continue carrying it with him. She had kind of called this a date, miraculously enough, so it was fitting for him to bring some refreshments… plus, this wasn't exactly an attempt on his part to get her to not be mad at him, but it also wasn't not that… it certainly couldn't hurt, anyway. Seymour made his way back to the auditorium, hesitating beside the entrance to the left wing for a moment before making his way inside it. His breath caught in his throat as Audrey smiled warmly at him from the bench, right where they had been the last time they were here, and he quickly moved to join her.
Her eyes lit up oh so enchantingly as he hopefully not too awkwardly presented her with the provisions he had obtained, as if he had done something incredible there. "Oh! Thank you, Seymour, this is so nice." She was even hotter taking a swig of Crush somehow; he had unfortunately not been able to attend any of her games yet due to rehearsals, but an image of her taking a swig from her reusable water bottle during a pause in a game crossed his mind nonetheless. He shook his head slightly, trying to focus on what he needed to very carefully tell her, and gratefully took the bottle after she had offered it to him, taking his time drinking from it as well as he tried to think of how he would word this without panicking. This felt intimate, drinking from the same bottle as her, even though they had kissed countless times the last time they were in here, and not always on the lips… Eventually, Seymour managed to bring his attention mostly back to the topic at hand. "...So… Audrey… yannow how Orin disappeared yesterday?" That was what he had come up with after all that time?! She laughed slightly, clearly not concerned about this recent development, not that she should be. "Yeah, what about it?" That had barely sounded like a question, Seymour realized.
"...Well, we, uh… we were in the shop together the day before that; I told him it was for the project in Botany, he came high, we went up to the roof, and… I… well, let's just say you won't have to worry about him hurting you again." He gauged her reaction carefully, relief flowing through him as she responded by unhesitatingly moving up against his side and taking his hand in hers rather than slapping him and telling him she never wanted to see him again. "Thank you so much, Seymour, you're the sweetest." She kissed him on the lips oh so sweetly, completely overwhelming him, and he barely processed her asking something along the lines of "Did he… hurt you? And are you gonna get in trouble?" a moment later. "...No, no, I'm okay. …I did nearly get in trouble, though…" He averted his gaze from hers, looking at the ground as he struggled to process that what he would have to say next might end this perfect moment, this bubble of paradise, and she responded after a moment, the concern in her voice comforting him slightly. "What happened?" He took a deep, shuddering breath, only gathering the courage to answer that question after she had squeezed his hand reassuringly. "Mr. Mushnik figured it out… it's a long story… and he was saying he was gonna send me off to military school because of it, away from you, so, I…"
Seymour trailed off, not knowing how to even begin explaining that the plant he had named after her had apparently developed sentience and a taste for blood, and gave up on continuing that line of explanation entirely as Audrey started speaking. She didn't… seem to be mad at him, much to his relief, but he could tell that the news of Mr. Mushnik's demise, unlike that of Orin's, had caused unrest in her underneath her expertly crafted and maintained illusion of everything being okay. "Seymour, it's okay, you don't need to tell me what happened. I… kind of suspected that something must've happened when you were so anxious in AP Environmental Science and he wasn't there, especially so soon after Orin's disappearance, and I understand now." Seymour stared back at her for a long moment, unsure if he should ask her a question that he was starting to strongly suspect the answer to was 'yes.' "...Audrey, did you know what I wanted to tell you after school?" She laughed slightly, enchantingly. "...Yeah, but that's okay. It's good you got it out."
Seymour surprisingly found himself laughing a little as well, his burdens and anxieties momentarily lifted by her and her general amazingness. "I thought I was a better actor than that…" Somehow, he didn't know how, they were back in the position they had shared the last time they had been in here, before they had oh so cruelly been forced to start preparing to leave by the harsh mistress of time, with Audrey, lovely Audrey, the most wonderful person that ever lived on his lap. "I bet you are, outside of real life. You're definitely gonna do better than Orin would've." If he wasn't so singularly focused on her and the apparent existence of a them and his long longed-for place in the world at her side right now, he would be ashamed to admit that that last thing was one of the hottest things she had ever said. She smiled flirtatiously before leaning in to kiss him, and he quickly returned it, never wanting this moment to end as sheer ecstasy coursed through him.