seattle ; sunday evening

[necroslacker]

St. Patrick's Day didn't mean a lot to Sam. Sure, he wore green when he remembered but for the most part, it was just another day. This St. Patrick's Day though, Sam had gotten dragged out to a bar with Brid and her brothers. Her excuse had been she was tired of him moping around like a lost puppy. He'd tried to beg off but she hadn't been hearing it.

So, Sam was at a bar. And Sam was actually drinking. It actually got a little easier to convince him to drink after getting some alcohol in him. Maybe that had been Brid's plan all along. Whatever, Sam wasn't going to argue. Maybe he could get drunk for only the second time in his life and forget how bad he'd been feeling for months now.

Brid was off, trying to cajole one of her brothers into doing karaoke or dancing or something which left Sam at the bar alone. He chatted occasionally with the bartender but otherwise, just say quietly with a drink in his hand.

At least Brid wasn't trying to make him do karaoke.

[NFB but open for calls/texts/etc. Sam is a leetle drunk.]

Comments

[whenshewasnice]

"Maybe, but being stupid is human," Natalie told him. She'd stopped walking, and was eyeing the crowd heading into a pub.

They all looked so happy.

"I think me wanting anything to do with you is probably stupid too."

[necroslacker]

"I still don't want to be your friend."

It just wasn't enough for him.

[whenshewasnice]

"Tough," Natalie replied. "Because you know I'll still be your friend."

And because she wasn't the slurring one here, she even realized she probably shouldn't word that as 'I'll still be yours'.

[necroslacker]

"It's not enough," he mumbled sadly. "It's not enough."

[whenshewasnice]

"And I'm sorry you feel that way," Natalie replied, her words precise and crisp because it kind of always stung to hear him say that. "But I'm still here. For whatever you refuse to take. Because I don't want to believe in all or nothing scenarios."

That was a bit of her conversation with Jono bleeding out, there.

[necroslacker]

"No."

He shook his head harshly and smacked his fist on the table.

"We're not in between. It's not going to happen."

[whenshewasnice]

"You'd really throw it all away because you can't have everything you want?"

Someone passing by her told her to cheer up. Loudly.

[necroslacker]

"I'd throw it all away because friends doesn't fit," he said before he could stop himself. "We don't fit as friends. We were meant for more than that and for a year, that's what we had. Pulling back from that, it doesn't work because the pieces don't fit."

His voice was getting a little louder. "It's not about what I want. It's not that at all. It's that I can freaking see how you fit into my life and it's not as some freaking friend who calls me up to chat about stuff. It's not. We're not buddies or pals. I'm not Jace or Peter or whoever else you're friends with and trying to shove me into that category is crap. It's crap because it doesn't fit."

[whenshewasnice]

"No, Sam, you're not a Jace or a Peter or even a Clint," Natalie said, not raising her voice or anything. She had other ways of conveying upset. "You're a Todd."

Like that.

"Or you're making yourself into one, anyway. And I'd rather not have you be one of those people whose names push me off the rails because I lost you completely."

[necroslacker]

"Don't compare me to Todd," he said immediately. "I didn't leave you."

She'd left him technically.

[whenshewasnice]

Technicalities didn't help her damage.

"You're trying to."

[necroslacker]

"You left me first," Sam pointed out petulantly. "You can't have your cake and eat it too, Natalie. You can't just dump me and expect I'm still gonna wanna be chummy with you."

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie decided to follow the crowd into the pub.

No reason.

"You're still talking to me, though."

[necroslacker]

"You called me," he retorted immediately. "It doesn't mean we're friends."

[whenshewasnice]

"I was calling Jace," Natalie pointed out. Without adding 'this time'.

She dug her ID out of her pocket. "So you're just still talking to me out of politeness?"

[necroslacker]

"Would you like me to hang up on you so it's not so confusing?" Sam asked dryly.

[whenshewasnice]

"You're avoiding the question," Natalie told him just as dryly, showing her (fake) ID to the man at the door. "But to answer yours, no. And you know that."

[necroslacker]

"No, I'm talking to you because I'm stupid and lonely," Sam just outright told her.

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie got a nod and pocketed her ID again as she slipped into the pub. It was less loud than she'd thought it'd be.

"Likewise," she told him.

[necroslacker]

"Well, good for us," Sam quipped sarcastically. "Yay."

[whenshewasnice]

"Has Brid entirely abandoned you?"

If the other girl had been anywhere near Sam right now, Natalie figured this call would have been long over by now.

[necroslacker]

"No, but her brothers are her too," Sam told her. "So, she's off with them right now doing something. I told her I'd stay at the bar and hold it up."

[whenshewasnice]

"So you're left with me." Taking a seat at a bar a universe away. "Brid would've made you stop being stupid already. Probably yelled at me too."

[necroslacker]

"Brid can't make me do anything," Sam told her with a frown. "I'm my own person, I do what I want."

[whenshewasnice]

"Uh huh." While she said that, she conveyed up some pretty impressively effective one-handed sign language to order a drink. "So she wouldn't have wrestled the phone out of your grasp?"