go get your ribbon box, go get your wounded heart

[forthsofar]

In the end, Rosie doesn't ask Anne about particularly slow and vengeful ways of killing someone, or go to Sabrina for a hex involving boils or scrofula or something equally vile, or any of the other gruesomely creative things she'd thought about in the space between finding out about Neil and Caleb's breakup--and the reasons therein--and now. She hadn't replied to any of his messages beyond that first one, and even that was a starkly ominous we will talk about this later; in the last day or so, he'd moved on to leaving voicemails, and she hadn't listened to any of them either. There was a kind of glee in letting him stew, in ignoring him in favor of making sure Neil got back on his feet and recovered as much as possible from the blow he'd been dealt.

Eventually, she decides to take him off of whatever agonizing hook he'd placed himself on--not that he hadn't deserved it--and sends him another message, just as short as the last. If you're not home, get there. I'm coming over.

She doesn't wait for a reply, just heads out the door and towards Caleb's building.

Comments

[forthsofar]

"I know. I've seen your apartment in this state before, remember," says Rosie, echoing his wry tone as she turns in her chair, watching as he sets out the tea things. It feels like getting back to normal, letting go of more of the righteous anger she'd been carrying on Neil's behalf and allowing her usual affection to return in its place. "At least there's not one of those microwave pastry things down the back of the sofa this time."

[greatamazingfeelingsboy]

Caleb makes a little face — at himself, not her — and looks around what he can see of the place. "Yeah, I... tried to be a little more conscientious, I guess."

It helps that this was just a breakup — 'just,' like it isn't that big of a deal, but compared to what happened to Michael, Caleb isn't sure it is. Or maybe it's just a different kind of big deal. He doesn't really have a frame of reference for 'my best friend was kidnapped by a secret lab and then cut open' vs 'I broke up with my boyfriend because I'm hung up on a boyfriend in a different city.'

"This city is fucking weird," he mumbles, shaking his head.