06-06-2024, 02:08 PM
A small, truncated sound of disgust precedes “You fucking creep.”
Not wanting to grant Jude what he assumes will be the satisfaction of knowing that he has rattled him, Near attempts to hammer the observation down into the same flat affect, like he is saying it because it is a thing that must be said but saying it is boring. In fact he is significantly creeped out by the newsbreak. He thinks of stories where someone has discovered thousands of snakes living under their house. Couldn’t have bothered them before they knew, but surely forever after their memories of the house are haunted by rearview mirror knowledge of the thousand snakes slithering below their feet. Now Near gets to reassess his last three months with a specter of Jude peering in through the window. Did he do anything embarrassing? Revealing? Anything that would give Jude extra ammunition in their little conflict? He frowns, trying and failing to reel in any discrete moment, but it has all melted suddenly into an incoherent blur.
Or, hell, maybe it really was all an incoherent blur.
A knock on the door interrupts. Thank god. Near clambers to his feet and goes to handle the Doordash driver he didn’t hear drive up. Outside smells like wet asphalt and curry. Before stepping back in with the paper bags in hand he scans, stupidly, for Guthrie’s car, but of course it’s gone by now.
“Well, great. Great. I’m so glad that three months of stalking means you trust me,” he mutters, pulling the door shut again and turning to face Jude. “Did you have fun? See anything interesting?”
Not wanting to grant Jude what he assumes will be the satisfaction of knowing that he has rattled him, Near attempts to hammer the observation down into the same flat affect, like he is saying it because it is a thing that must be said but saying it is boring. In fact he is significantly creeped out by the newsbreak. He thinks of stories where someone has discovered thousands of snakes living under their house. Couldn’t have bothered them before they knew, but surely forever after their memories of the house are haunted by rearview mirror knowledge of the thousand snakes slithering below their feet. Now Near gets to reassess his last three months with a specter of Jude peering in through the window. Did he do anything embarrassing? Revealing? Anything that would give Jude extra ammunition in their little conflict? He frowns, trying and failing to reel in any discrete moment, but it has all melted suddenly into an incoherent blur.
Or, hell, maybe it really was all an incoherent blur.
A knock on the door interrupts. Thank god. Near clambers to his feet and goes to handle the Doordash driver he didn’t hear drive up. Outside smells like wet asphalt and curry. Before stepping back in with the paper bags in hand he scans, stupidly, for Guthrie’s car, but of course it’s gone by now.
“Well, great. Great. I’m so glad that three months of stalking means you trust me,” he mutters, pulling the door shut again and turning to face Jude. “Did you have fun? See anything interesting?”