Shake it Out

[Tonyksin]

[Jackson Sullivan Continued from The Good Times Are Killing Me]


He felt as if he was moving through a mist, he couldn’t focus on anything around him. The only thing driving him forward was the need to get away from the people in the backyard. His body felt so heavy, and his heart was still going a mile a minute. All he could think to do was keep moving forward, away from the mess out there, shoving through the crowd of people still having a good time at the party, just trying to find a place to hide out until he calmed down. He must have looked a wreck, his cheeks still stained with the tears he’d weakly shed out there, his eyes wild with drunken confusion as he attempted to make his way through the crowded house. Jackson’s mind could hardly keep focus of what he was doing. Thoughts were cycling through his mind second by second.

Get Away, get a drink, calm down, sit down, keep walking, deep breaths, need a beer, stop crying, don’t fall, get away, get a drink, calm down, sit down, keep walking, deep breaths, need a beer, stop crying, don’t fall…

All the raging thoughts inside his head were making him dizzy. Jackson made a break for the kitchen, but altered his path seeing some students hanging around the area. He needed a room. A room he could shut himself in until the ringing in his head subsided. Where? Where could he go? He continued his stumble through the house, eyes darting back and forth trying to see through the his cloudy vision and locate a door of some sort that may lead him to a calmer place. The music in the house was kicking his brain with it’s insistent beat, and it was making it even harder for him to stay focused on his task.

Finally, after what seemed like hours of tortuous searching, his eyes landed on a door down at the end of a hallway. He was upstairs at this point, having dragged himself up the stairs sloppily while still attempting to avoid any big groups. Jackson made a beeline towards the door. His balance wasn’t very good by now, so every few steps he’d need to steady himself on one of the walls of the hall. Eventually he made it to the door, and pushed it open with a bit too much force, almost falling inside as he did. Once he steadied himself, he realized that he was in a bedroom, but it didn’t seem to belong to anyone. Maybe a guest room then? Either way it would serve his purposes. He pushed the door behind him to try and shit it, but it only made it about three quarters of the way.

Jackson made his way over to the bed and let himself fall onto the mattress face first. His first thought was to how unbelievably comfortable the mattress was. These fucking rich people knew how to sleep, that was for sure. Jackson rolled over onto his back and stared at the ceiling, doing what he could to calm the ragged breaths escaping his mouth. He closed his eyes and focused on taking deep breaths for a while, hoping it would relax his heart before it burst through his chest.

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

[Grand Moff Hissa]

((Juliette Sargent continued from In Vino Veritas))

Juliette wanted a break. Just for a moment, she thought. She was here at this party to be with her classmates, to see them in their element and make a few memories, but so far she had mostly been reminded why this wasn't her scene. She hated that her reputation was stiff and stuffy and boring, and yet all those things sounded preferable to some degree to the current reality.

It wasn't just the drinking game fizzling out. It had been a mild disappointment, yes. She'd even come up with her question, one calculated to walk that line of embarrassing and tantalizing and to fit in with all that had come before. "Never have I ever sent someone naked pictures of myself." That was what she'd been planning to say. Never would she ever do such a thing, either, even if she felt that way about someone. So many celebrities got caught up in salacious webs due to poor understanding of the realities of internet security. If pictures were out there, especially out of your own control, then someone could and likely would find them. For a normal citizen, that was a minor concern—you might end up on some disgusting site being showed off as a trophy by your ex, but nobody would care that it was you personally. You would be a body with no identity, judged solely by your physical aspects and assets. But if you aspired to more? If you were seeking office? The issue would permeate your campaign. It would matter, though how much was hard to say.

But no, the pounding music, so different from what Juliette actually enjoyed, that was far more draining to her than a conflict which held no stakes for her and from which she had been unceremoniously sidelined. The hustle and bustle, the constant thrum of activity, it was causing her energy to flag. Were this a rally, or even had she a personal purpose, she would've been fine. She knew she would've. But why was she even here? Nobody cared that she was one of the faces in the crowd. Nobody would remember her. Well, then, so be it. She'd just find a place to be by herself for a while.

The room was upstairs, and it stood out in a hall of closed doors by being at the end and partially open. That meant, hopefully, she wouldn't be walking in on anybody mid-coitus. That was the last thing she wanted to add to this night. Juliette made her way to the door, soft quiet steps stealthy for reasons she couldn't quite place. She stood outside for a moment, listening, just in case she was wrong and there was poorly-secured hanky-panky ongoing.

Nothing met her ears, so she pushed the door open and slipped inside, closing it behind her, only to realize that she was not alone after all.

"Oh," she said, a surprised yet muted exclamation at the sight of Jackson lying on the bed that she blamed on the sips of alcohol she'd imbibed; she tried to have better self control than that, to speak only with intent. "I'm sorry. I can leave if you'd like."

[Deamon]

((Aliya Kimia Nemati continued from Getting Color))

Oh, this was just a disaster. Aliya's head hurt like a motherfucker. It was a combination of the music and the fact she had split it open a week prior. That had been a fun one to explain to her parents. Apparently, she had apologized to Mercedes for being stiff but Aliya had no memory of that happening, which was fine because Mercedes had been fine beyond a bit of a headache. Somehow she had ended up worse off on a headbutt she had delivered. Neither parent was happy about what had happened. Then again her dad was unhappy with her presence in his house so that was nothing new. Her mother, however, had been very unhappy and that had resulted in her getting a stern talking to. The content of the lecture had been safety and setting an example for her sisters. Maliheh had laughed at her but honestly, fuck Maliheh.

Now she was at #Swiftball. The hashtag was seemingly part of the name. She had drunk a couple of beers, but truthfully, her headache was really putting her off the whole enterprise. She had gone upstairs and seen a few pieces of drama on her way to the toilet, which had been occupied, so she had returned to the kitchen, been handed a shot of something which she had taken but after that hit her she had really needed the restroom. So that had led to her sitting outside waiting for whoever was in there to finish dropping the world out of their ass.

The smell had been awful, but Aliya had been desperate so she pushed the window as far open as possible and dealt with it. She hadn't exactly dressed up for the evening and was wearing her normal style with an added leather jacket—that she’d had to buy from a specialist to make sure she could wear it—but she had also donned a Death by Roll-Up snapback to try and help hide the cut on her forehead. As she exited the bathroom and began heading back down the corridor she heard a muffled noise of surprise from behind her. Turning, she only saw an empty corridor, but her curiosity was raised. She crept back down the corridor and heard a muffled voice from behind a door; it was saying something about being able to leave. That probably meant one thing.

With a grin, Aliya knocked loudly on the door.

"Who's banging?"

[Tonyksin]

The deep breathing was doing it’s job and Jackson felt his heart rate and muscles relaxing into the softness of the bed. The deep pounding bass from downstairs was still making its way into the room, but thankfully it no longer felt like it was attempting to crack his skull in half. In fact, the rhythmic beat was almost helping to relax him in his current state. It’s funny how something can switch from being absolutely awful to completely comforting from one minute to the next. Jackson wasn’t sure if that made much sense, but it was how he was feeling. He continued to focus on his breathing, and on how cool and comfortable the bed beneath him was. Maybe he could just take a small nap, and he’d feel a ton better, he thought. All of a sudden he felt very exhausted, and his body felt ridiculously heavy. Maybe a nap was the best idea. Yeah, just a small nap, and then he could go rejoin the party downstairs.

The sound of the door closing was the first thing that snapped his eyes open from their nap-bound state. This was soon followed by a surprised ‘oh’. Jackson let his eyes focus themselves on the ceiling briefly, before he attempted to sit up and get a look at his visitor. It took him a moment to push himself into a seated position, still feeling like his body was heavier than before, but before long he’d managed. He looked over to the door and saw a girl in a teal dress. His eyes looked at her questioningly as he tried to focus on her face, not really sure who she was at first. She spoke again, saying she would leave if he wanted, and he shook his head slightly, both to answer her question and to try and shake the cobwebs out of his brain. He closed his eyes for a moment, willing his brain to focus, and then looked at the girl again.

This time her face was in focus, and Jackson found himself looking at Juliette Sargent. Jackson had a few classes over the years with the girl, but really didn’t know her all that well. She was a bit… rigid… for lack of a better term. He was surprised to see her dressed the way she was though, he didn’t think he’d ever seen her looking as casual as she did right now. The alcohol running through his system made him very aware that she looked really nice, and also that he’d been staring at her in silence for quite a while now. Fuck. He should probably say something.

“S-sorry.” He blurted out. Good start. “I’m a lil’ fucked up, my bad didn’t mean t’ stare.” He rubbed the back of his head with his left hand a grinned at her goofily.

“Um… You can stay if you want.” He said sheepishly, looking down and away from her for a moment. “I just kinda came in here to wind down a lil’.”

All of a sudden a loud banging sound came from behind the now closed door, followed by a loud voice asking who was banging. Jackson’s face turned red as a tomato as he shot up to a standing position and called out as quickly as he could to the voice, denying the accusation.

“N-n-no! That’s not happening! No banging!” His eyes darted from Juliette to the door, hoping the girl would back up his claims.

[Yugikun]

“Maaaaaaaaaan, that fuckin’ blew.”

((continued from In Vino Veritas))

The two of ‘em were walkin’ down the hall. Goin’ like, side by side, holdin’ each others shoulders and stuff. This girl right here didn’t know how they’d gotten like this or where they even fuckin’ were at this point but hey, it was all about swingin’ with Yuka, hollerin’ at each other ‘bout shit that’d been way so long ago. Kinda fun. Kinda fillin’. Girl kinda hoped that she remembered this when she woke up on the floor tomorrow mornin’, remembered to hang out with Yuka here more. That girl was her exact type. That girl was one who knew what a good fuckin’ time was.

“Like, like, seriously,” girl said, tryin’ to tilt her head up at Yuka. “Had the greatest fuckin’ question — like, would’ve gotten everyone to fuckin’ drink if everyone didn’t lose their fuckin’ shit at Marky Mark.” She stumbled, took a step forward. “Seriously, that fuckin’-”

She heard, like, words somewhere in front of her. She looked up, heard them again and-

“Waaaait.” She looked at Yuka before pokin’ her head right back out in front of her. Saw, ah… Aliya, she was pretty sure? Kinda blurry from this distance, but it weren’t too hard to keep movin’ closer, pullin’ Yuka ‘long with her.

“Wait, wait, who’s bangin’?” She said to the girl who was prolly Aliya, once close enough.

[Maraoone]

((Yuka Hayashibara continues from In Vino Veritas))

"Right? God, that was- that was not fun at all."

Yuka and Teresa swayed while walking, as if in a three-legged race, with Yuka's balance dependent on Teresa, and vice versa. Well, more the latter than the former. The world was starting to spin, but only slightly so, like a carousel at quarter-speed, with what little remained of the vodka desperately trying to stay inside its cup.

"Fucking Marco."

She took a swig after she spoke. She hadn't even gotten to ask her own question in Never Have I Ever by the time Marco fucked everything up. Which was to say, she didn't agree with Teresa's take on things, how it was their reaction to Marco that was the problem, rather than Marco, well, just being a creep. But she'd address that later. When she felt like it. If she felt like it. She'd just yell about shit with Teresa for the meantime, and stumble their way to nowhere in particular. That seemed more worthwhile.

Yuka had been about to ask what Teresa's question was when they lurched to a stop. Teresa said something about banging, and Aliya stood expectantly outside a closed door. She could connect the dots, so she took a half-step back. Potentially walking in on people felt weird, especially after the whole situation back at the kitchen table. It felt wrong. But she only took a half-step back. She still wanted to see how this would play out.

Now that Never Have I Ever wasn't a thing, might as well drink to this. To a closed door and some relationship drama. Good a reason as any.

She tipped the cup over her mouth, but her tongue remained dry. Fuck.

[Grand Moff Hissa]

There was no escape, no respite. One moment was all Juliette had wanted, just a brief little breather after the tension and the music and the chaos everywhere. But no, she couldn't be allowed even that much. As soon as she stepped out of sight, others appeared from everywhere, piling clown-car like from near and far, trapping her between Jackson in the bed giving her elevator eyes and whoever was making a ruckus outside, full of insinuations that she just did not want to deal with.

What she wanted, more than anything else, was to tilt her head back and scream, to shriek so loudly the whole house really would have a real reason to come running. She vaguely remembered hearing that a sound at the right frequency could shatter glass, and she imagined her cry blowing out all the windows and disintegrating every wine glass and beer bottle and ceramic mug in the place. Why not? It was just as realistic as the idea of her actually externalizing her frustration and mounting pressure in any notable way.

She let her lips quirk upwards in a smile. That was it, her moment of venting, her expression of how she felt. It was nowhere close to enough, but it would suffice. She chuckled a little, turned around, and opened the door wide, looking out into the hallway and at the same time allowing everyone there to see into the room. To do anything else would imply that there might be a shred of validity to the salacious surmisings of the peanut gallery, and if that took hold it would haunt Juliette far more than anything caused by direct interaction in this moment might.

"No banging here," she echoed Jackson. "Just me interrupting a nap by mistake."

It was Aliyah right outside the door. Aliyah occasionally caught flak for her religion, and Juliette felt for her over that. Aside from that, the girl was sporty in a more violent way than Juliette was totally comfortable with, energetic and wild in a manner that could be wearying, as she was proving right now, but it came from a good place, one of passion and drive. She knew what she wanted and pursued it. That was admirable.

Then, a bit further away, were Yuka and Teresa, both from the ill-fated Never Have I Ever circle. There, they'd arrived in the midst of the mounting chaos, and thus had not had time to establish themselves on Juliette's radar, but now she could see where this was headed pretty clearly.

Yuka was the hedonist triplet, always in and out of relationships or what passed for such. She probably wouldn't throw stones from her glass house. She also knew where Juliette had just recently been and so would be able to vouch that there was nothing questionable going on here.

Teresa, on the other hand, was almost certain to insinuate that Juliette had been about to hook up with Jackson, no matter what the evidence and actions of all parties involved said, so there was absolutely no point in fretting about it. The inevitable would be what it was, Juliette would put her exasperation aside and laugh along, and nobody would ultimately care what Teresa said because pushing buttons was what she did and everyone knew it. Oh, and she'd also be being a hypocrite if she insinuated any judgement but Juliette doubted that would stop her, so it didn't merit much consideration.

Still, she'd play it out and see if maybe she could be spared the obligatory jabs and jeers. With a smile, Juliette jerked her thumb to the right, towards the next door in the row.

"Can't speak for the neighbors, though," she added with a wink.

[Deamon]

Oh, great. No sooner had Aliya knocked on the door then did Teresa and Yuka show up, stumbling all over each other as they did so. Now, Aliya didn't mind drunk people or drinking but Teresa and Yuka seemed to be struggling. They weren't at a level where they were fully gone but it seemed like they were well on their way there. The last thing she wanted was to have to babysit for the rest of the evening. No, she was just at the party to hang out, have a couple of drinks and have a good time. Nothing more. Having to look after two people counted as more.

"Dunno yet," She said with a grin. "I think we're about to find out."

As if on queue there was a yell from in the room announcing for the whole floor that there was no banging going on. She appreciated the clarity but sadly it wasn't the most fun response. The idea of catching someone in the act as still possible, however, because they could always have been lying.

But then the door opened and it was obvious there had been no banging going on. It was disappointing in a way, it would have really livened up her evening and given her a funny story to tell.

It was Jackson and Juliette in the room, which wasn't a pairing Aliya could see together, therefore, making their claim all the more believable. She knew Jackson from the wrestling team and she knew Juliette because she had run for student president she was fairly sure. That and Juliette was kind of notable around school for her student politics stuff. She was smart and actually researched political issues which gave her points in Aliya's book. Still, Aliya had knocked on the door so she needed to keep the joke going somehow.

"Thanks for the tip-off ma'am." She tipped her snapback at Juliette. "If they are banging don't worry, the abstinence patrol will catch them."

[Tonyksin]

Jackson watched with worried eyes as Juliette went to open the closed door. This was so awful. He’d had a long enough night, hadn’t he? First the horrifying roof shenanigans, then dealing with Ty’s bullshit, and now he’d have to try and talk himself out of a situation that wasn’t even happening to begin with? God, all he wanted was to close his eyes for a minute and try and keep the world from spinning. This party was going to be the death of him. Jackson held his breath as Juliette grabbed the doorknob, and flinched a bit as she swung it open, revealing the inside of the room to the onlookers outside. Jackson swallowed the lump in his throat and stepped a bit closer to the doorway, trying to see who was waiting outside. He was still pretty hammered though, and he stumbled a bit in the process. He caught himself on the edge of the bed frame, and stood himself up straight to look through the now wide open doorway.

The first person he saw was Aliya. She certainly was a sight for sore eyes, and he immediately grinned at her. She was on the wrestling team with him, and he was under the impression that they got along pretty well, even if they weren’t exactly friends or anything. If anything, they had a stronger bond than mere friendship, having trained hard together over the years, spilling blood sweat and tears. Jackson was sure she’d know that he wasn’t the kind of guy to be having sex in someone else’s house. Shit, Jackson hadn’t even had sex ANYWHERE yet, let alone in the middle of a party. Aliya was sure to defend him, at least that’s what his alcohol soaked brain told him.

Then the other two girls in the hallway registered to him. Teresa and one of the triplets. He was pretty sure it was Yuka, but he wasn’t really friends with any of them so he couldn’t be sure. Jackson felt his face grow red for the umpteenth time that night. This was so goddamn embarrassing. He’s the one who got barged in on, and now he was under the magnifying glass. That just seemed unfair. Plus he was the only guy here now, which probably didn’t exactly bode well for his getting out of this situation unscathed.

All the crazy girls at this party were really bumming his whole night out.

Juliette at least reaffirmed his claim that nothing had been going on behind the closed door, and she even tried to divert the attention away from them and to the room next door. Bless her heart. Jackson didn’t think he could handle any more drama tonight. He felt like he should back her up now too.

“Y-yeah, I was just trying to stop the room from spinning for a bit, sorry for the confusion, ladies.” he did his best to stand up straight and play off that he was perfectly fine, but it really wasn’t going over well. He looked a wreck.

“But now I’m doin’ okay, so I can get out of the way if you want.” It was a terrible plan at best, but he was hoping they’d take what he said a face value and let him escape this situation ASAP.

He attempted to move towards the door again and stumbled once more, this time not being able to catch himself and hitting the ground pretty hard. He pushed himself up onto his hands and knees and groaned. That had kind of hurt. He pushed back and moved himself off his knees and into a sitting position, with his legs bent upwards and his head leaning on his knees for support.

“On second thought… maybe not.”

[Yugikun]

“Whoh, you got dressed up quick.”

And here this girl was, lookin’ right at Miss Starling once again. Really weird that the two of ‘em kept runnin’ into one anotha but hey, ain’t no reason why they couldn’t have fun together. Juliette was tryin’ to deflect and say that there were people in the next room over gettin’ it on so maybe now was the right time to get off her, stop tryin’ to push more than she could push.

“Uh, yeah, we’ll check it out,” she said, after Aliya did her thing. “We’re like, Mikki’s fuckin’ horny police. Can’t let anyone have fun at this-”

Bangs came from the room as if the whole place like, fuckin’ exploded. Girl payed a moment of silence, stared at the doorway before lookin’ at Miss Starling again.

“...You sure nobody was getting it on in there?”

[Maraoone]

The door opened to Juliette's face, and Yuka's face stayed neutral for the most part. She, Juliette, and Teresa had just come from the same place, so unless Jackson had the least stamina known to man, Yuka was pretty sure nothing had happened. Boring, sure. But also, she didn't have to deal with the ramifications of walking in on someone, violating someone's privacy, overstepping her boundaries, after Never Have I Ever. Which was relieving, in a sense. Teresa still thought that something happened though. So, she had had partners who lasted around as long, perhaps? Which was a depressing thought really, so Yuka took her mind off that topic.

She giggled to herself at the concept of abstinence patrol. Horny police, as Teresa put it. That sounded better. Catchier. When exactly would the horny police arrest you? When you're just stripping off? Kissing? Or would you, like, need to be in the middle of the act? What punishment would they give you? What if the people being arrested liked–

And then Jackson fell over. Yuka stood silent for a few moments, before her eyes fell upon her empty cup, and then Jackson.

"Can I have- can I have what you're having?" she asked while pointing the cup at Jackson.

A few seconds passed. Yuka's eyes widened.

"Oh, right! Is he OK?" she asked Juliette.

[Grand Moff Hissa]

"I hope so," Juliette replied, as she turned around and knelt next to Jackson. She let her hand rest upon his shoulder, half in a gesture of comfort, half to gently dissuade him should he decide to try to stand again.

She'd meant to touch on other things, to chuckle at one of the jokes or to reassure Teresa that, yes, she was very sure nothing prurient had been going on, but that was all somewhat secondary now. Jackson had crashed right to the ground, and while he seemed free of major injury, that he'd wiped out doing something so simple as crossing the room suggested he was in no state to be left unattended, let alone unleashed back into the party. No, what he probably could use was some rest, some quiet, maybe some light conversation.

Had she been enjoying the proceedings more, Juliette might've resented this predicament. Of course, that wouldn't have stopped her from doing the right thing—first off, because it was right, and second off, because she could see now the trivia whispered in the future, "Did you know that Juliette Sargent was at a party where a boy choked to death on his own vomit after she ditched him?" sitting right next to "Did you know Laura Bush ran a stop sign and crashed into one of her high school friends, killing him?" No thank you. But Juliette had decidedly mixed feelings about the party anyways, and so Jackson's state represented not an impediment but an opportunity.

"I think he just needs some rest," she said to those at the door, then stood, first smoothing her dress and then offering Jackson her hand.

"Right?" she asked him, with a smile. "Here. I'll help you back to the bed."

[Deamon]

Well shit.

Aliya would have been happy to head downstairs and just continue on with her evening. In fact she had been planning on doing just that until Jackson hit the deck. Slightly annoyingly, her existing relationship with Jackson meant that she couldn’t just say some empty version of ‘I hope he’s okay’ and vanish back to the party.

Nope, instead she now had to make sure he was alright.

“Goddamn man,” Aliya said as she moved into the room. She had a somewhat concerned look on her face but truthfully it had been a little funny so a smile was sneaking through.

She joined Juliette in offering Jackson a hand if he wanted it but as she so she properly took in what Jackson looked like. It wasn’t great.

“Do you want some water or something?” She offered, her voice softening as she spoke.

[Tonyksin]

The fall hadn’t hurt much more than his pride, really, but his head was still so foggy that he couldn’t focus himself enough to stand again. Honestly, Jackson thought he might just stay here on the ground. It was nice and firm and stable. Plus there was no way to fall when you were already on the floor, so how bad could it really be? Above where he had his head buried in his knees he heard some voices talking back and forth, but he paid them no mind, he was too busy trying to stop the room from spinning like an out of control merry-go-round. Plus he was trying not to remember how many people had just seen him fall like that. It was way too embarrassing.

A hand on his shoulder made him pop his head up to see that it was Juliette knelt down beside him with a kind look on her face. He smiled back drunkenly, and she stated that he probably just needed some rest. Hard to argue with that one, that was the whole reason he came into this room to begin with, right? She stood up and offered him a hand to get up. He was thankful for the help, really. He grabbed her hand and tried to pull himself up, but felt like he was too weak to do so. Another person came up beside him and helped get him to his feet.

It was Aliya, his teammate. Fucking A, that’s what teams were for, right? He’d have hugged her if he had full control of his arms at this moment. Unfortunately, he was a bit past that capability, so instead he offered her a large grin. She asked if he needed water and he nodded heavily.

“Mmm-yeah, that’s probably a thing I need.” He chuckled a bit and followed along as the two girls walked him back over to the bed, before allowing himself to fall back onto the mattress with a thud.

“Thanks ladies. You guys’re great.” He slurred honestly, trying to pull his lower body up onto the bed unsuccessfully.

[Yugikun]

Aaaaaaaaaaaand ignored again. Man, was tonight becomin’ a night for that.

And like, really, was what was goin’ on really all that much ta worry about? Like whoh, Jackie-O had taken a tumble onto the floor right there, big whoop. It was the kinda thing that this girl took like, once every otha’ night out without any problem and yet Aliya and Miss Starling over here were actin’ like an ambo needed to be called. Like, fuckin’ really? Girl woulda laughed but she knew that that’d put all the eyes on her. Make everyon’ go ‘wow, laughin’ at this really minor thing? Wow, you’re so bad, seriously’ because apparently this too was a no-fun zone. After it looked so promising, as well.

And that was kinda the main story of this party as well. Looked like it’d be a ball, but as it turned out, havin’ the least cool member of the DJ trifecta sorta made it the least cool party as well.

She looked at Yuka. Stared into her eyes, tugged a little at the shoulder she was holdin’. Hopefully gave her the look that said ‘wow, this place stinks, lets go and hope we find a non-stinky place before the big stink gets to us.’ No tellin’ what look it actually was (holy shit she was ‘bout ta see double again) though really, Yuka fumblin’ round tryin’ to figure out what this girl was tryin’ to say seemed way more interesting than anythin’ else goin’ on round the here and now.