Bobby and Jono have a short chat

[arliddian.livejournal.com]

Bobby walks downstairs and knocks tiredly on Jono’s door. It opens immediately.

“Bobby! Didn’t think I’d see you up and about so soon,” Jono says, stepping aside to let him in. “What the hell happened to you? You look awful, mate. Please tell me that I should’ve seen the other guy.” There is a smile in his voice.

Bobby presses his lips together (until he realises that it hurts) and replies, “The other guy has nothing more than a split lip.”

Jono shrugs sympathetically. “Keller’s a bitch. But so would you be if you had his face.”

Bobby laughs, but sobers quickly. His ribs are too sore to handle much laughter. “Wait, how did you know?” he asks. Jono hadn’t been in the halls when the fight had started.

Jono raises an eyebrow. “I can hear you thinking, ‘I hate Keller, I hate Keller, I hate Keller…’”

Nodding slowly, Bobby sits gingerly down on Jono’s desk chair. “Right. I’m assuming you already know why, then.”

“Can’t say I think too much of what he’s done, but he’s not the worst bloke I’ve ever met. But I’m sorry you got caught up in all this.”

There’s a slight pause, and Bobby stares vacantly at the wall. “Yeah, me too.”

He looks so sad that Jono feels terrible for him. “Ahhh, come on then, cheer up, sunshine,” he says, sitting on the edge of his bed. “Don’t let him win by letting him get to ya so bad.”

Bobby sighs. “I hate this. I hate being…like this.”

“Like what?”

“Not like me.” He gives a wry half-smile. “Like…more like Mr Summers now than Mr Summers before everything that happened at Alkali Lake.”

Jono leans back on his hands and blinks slowly. “What everyone around here has got to realize is…look, things change. It’s just life, it’s just how things are, and sooner or later, life will resume. Things don’t last, things fall apart.”

Bobby gives a bitter chuckle. “You’ve got that right.” There is a beat of silence, and then he says, “You know, I still love her. I do kind of want her to be happy. But…is it wrong that I also want her to hurt as much as I do?”

“Perhaps wrong. But not unusual.” Jono’s sigh echoes in Bobby’s mind. “Gayle wanted ME to hurt, too. For what I'd done to her. Like I did it on purpose, y'know? It's not the nicest thing for a person to wish on someone, but it's not unheard of.”

“I want to get over her,” Bobby mutters, staring at the floor. “And I guess it could be easier, now that she's with –” he narrows his eyes and clenches his jaw slightly “– someone else. I guess I need time. And space." He glances at the TV. "And video games.”

“Too right, mate,” Jono says, passing him a controller with a grin in his voice.

Mindless digital slaughter all around.