Open Up A Little Bit More [Rome]

[RUSSEL CONNOR]

Mr. Connor sat at one of the two little tables outside The Cafe, face down on the table. He'd just gotten off the phone with his mother, who had once again asked him if he would consider forgiving his ex. Thinking nobody was listening, he mumbled to himself, "Does she have to mention it every single damn time? How many times do I have to explain it? No, I'm not going to take her back, no matter how badly you want grandchildren or how cute you thought we were together. She screwed me over." He chuckled, a dry mirthless sound, his shoulders moving briefly with the laughter, his forehead still against the tabletop. "And then she had the audacity to blame me for it!"

Normally Rome wouldn't have gone to The Cafe; it wasn't her kind of place. All she ever saw here when she walked by were students being little angels and doing their work or hanging out, and teachers that worked too much to grade papers. It wasn't her crowd; honestly, Rome didn't even really have a crowd...

Today she just needed to get out of her house, her father, like always, was being a rancid little bitch because Rome didn't wake up early to make him any "God-damned eggs with bacon." She had rolled her eyes and walked out the house in her usual uproar. So she found herself wanting some peace and quiet and she assumed The Cafe would be the best place.

She walked by the building, at first ignoring it. Then she ended up walking by once more, this time taking a peek inside. She noticed that most of the tables were filled with geeks and losers sitting about doing their work or grading paper – yes, she did mean to call teachers geeks and losers as well – some of which she recognized from her classes. Oh, how fun it would be to disturb their peace, but she thought otherwise. So she walked past the tables in the front and decided on sitting at the one that was not occupied by a loser with his curly head down mumbling to the table cloth.

Of course, that didn't work, because as soon as she took a seat the loser’s words registered and the loser sounded vaguely familiar. She stood up as she looked at the figure, sizing up his get up and curly hair, then plopped herself down in the vacant seat at his table. She stifled a laugh before she spoke.

"Mr. Connor?"

Upon hearing his name, Mr. Connor immediately jerked upright, trying (and failing) to pretend he had not just been talking to himself like a crazy person. He recognized the girl sitting opposite him as Rome from his Creative Writing class, the girl he'd tried to meet once before to talk about that first assignment she'd handed in, but she'd never shown up. Smoothing his hair back from being flattened against his forehead, he smiled weakly at her. He felt silly for being caught looking like an idiot. "Hi, Rome. How, uh, how long have you been sitting there?" Had she heard him talking? He hoped not.

The girl rolled her eyes and looked at the man, her face blank. "Long enough to hear you mumbling on and on about the audacity of some women to blame you about something,” she tried mimicking his voice in a whiny manner as she made faces, and hand gestures. Placing her hand hard against the table, she looked at the man with her lips pursed, "So what is it you're going on and on about, if I can pretend enough to bother listening if you so choose to answer?"

Rome mustered a smile as she looked at her teacher. Her legs had become crossed, and one of her arms was resting on her legs... In the hand she had slapped against the table was a lighter, and as she fiddled with it she suddenly wanted to light up a cigarette. "Do you mind?" She kindly asked as she lifted her lighter, hoping he'd understand. She didn’t show respect to a lot of people, but she understood some people's discomfort with cigarettes and she wanted to at least respect that.

Russel passed a hand over his face to hide his blush of embarrassment. So she had heard. Ordinarily he wouldn't speak about this to anyone, but since she'd already heard a bit of it, and he was in such a mood to rant to someone, he couldn't stop himself from answering her question. "My mother. She wants me to get back with my ex but I keep telling her it's not going to happen. She cheated on me and I--" He stopped himself; finally realizing he was talking to a student. "I'm sorry; I shouldn't tell you this stuff."

When she lifted her lighter and asked if he minded he raised an eyebrow. "I'd rather you didn't. That stuff'll kill you."

[ANDROMEDA MARIE WYNTER]

Rome had found herself actually listening to the man as he ranted on and on about his life, but then he stopped himself midsentence, realizing it was something he should speak to her about... "We're not in school now, Mr. Connor," she laughed. "Plus, by the time the conversation is over and I'm at home; bored to death hating my father and taking care of my brother, I would have forgotten what happened here." She laughed, though her face was pure seriousness. She wasn't lying.

She rolled her eyes at him for saying he'd rather she didn't, but she wasn't about to disrespect the man by lighting up despite. "You'd be the first person to even show a glimpse of care about the stuff killing me,” she said looking away from the man, "I couldn't care either, honestly." She looked back at the man. Right now she hated herself, she couldn't believe she had said the shit she had said, and they were only a few second into a conversation. She rolled her eyes, looking down at her hand as she spun the lighter around...

Why do I have such a big fucking mouth?

Despite what she said, Mr. Connor still wasn't going to talk any more about what he'd mentioned. The momentum of anger and frustration was lost as Rome spoke about herself. His face softened. She hadn't opened up like that before. He wanted to give her a big hug, but he doubted she would let him. "Everybody needs somebody to care about them," he said quietly. "I care what happens to you, Rome. I care about all my students."

Rome looked away from the man snickering; she believed him but she doubted a teacher would ever care about her. Her father didn't even care about her, the only person she had was her brother... Other than that she had herself; and she couldn't even count on that. Rolling her eyes quickly she looked back at the man, not a trace of emotion on her face.

"So, I'm sorry I didn’t make it to the meeting you had set up... I...uh... I had some issues I needed to work out," she sighed as she thought of the reason she didn't come. There were plenty of reasons, most of them involving her father, the others involving work, and the rest involved the fact that she didn't really want to meet with him at all.

She didn't seem to take his words seriously, but that was all right with him. He wasn't sure what he'd expected, honestly. But at least she wasn't insulting him or making snide comments. He gave her a small smile when she apologized about missing their meeting. That was a first. Maybe he was getting through to her after all. "That's all right. I just wanted to talk to you about your little story, you know, the one you wrote on the first day. I don't mean to pry or anything but it just made me a little concerned, you know?" It might have been nothing, but he just wanted to make sure. There was no harm in asking about it.

Letting out a loud sigh Rome looked across the table at her teacher. She was biting her tongue thinking of a long series of different things she could tell the man to avoid the truth of the whole situation. Honestly, she couldn't think of anything better than the truth. Rolling her eyes she let out another long exasperated sigh.

"Concerned?" She probably sounded like she was mocking him, but she had never had someone use that word in a sentence regarding here... Was this dude for real? "I was just a little upset about something that day and needed to get it off my chest," she said hoping that would suffice... Though, she had a feeling it wouldn't and she'd end up telling the full story even though he had already read what actually happened.

What the hell is wrong with me? She couldn't help but think herself crazy for actually sitting across from her teacher, and talking to him about frivolous things that she honestly could care less about now. In public, at that. Did she seriously have nothing better to do with her time?

[RUSSEL CONNOR]

It seemed, for all her harsh and sarcastic exterior that he was actually managing to get through to her. At least that's how he took it, since she wasn't telling him to just fuck off and mind his own business, which was what he had partly expected her to do. He was pleasantly surprised that she was actually telling him this. He smiled. "What, I can't be concerned about you? Is that not allowed or something?" he said, attempting a joke to maybe put her more at ease, and to alleviate some of his own awkwardness. He didn't want to pry, but he knew it felt better to tell someone what was troubling you. Heck, even telling Rome about his own problem had made him feel slightly better, although he knew he couldn't tell her the whole thing. "Well, if you ever have something you want to talk about, you can talk to me, if you want. I promise I won't be judgmental or anything."

Rome actually laughed as the man attempted to make a joke, "Yea, you fail." She smiled jokingly as well. It wasn't that the joke was funny; it was simply the moment and his expression when he had chosen to try. She nodded her head before she looked down at her hand, fiddling with her lighter once again.

"Right now I could seriously use someone that won't judge me,” she sighed, closing her eyes as she contemplated actually talking about what was going on. Looking at Mr. Connor, she rolled her eyes, made an odd expression, sighed once more and decided she may as well get it over with. "My dad is a drunk asshole," she said it very quickly, "He only buys himself beer and whatever he feels like eating, he drinks all day every day and sits on his lazy ass watching the television. He is so fucking complacent and ignorant to the things happening around him." She balled her hand into a fist even her knuckled went white, he face was rigid, and her eyes were entering a dark place in her mind.

"I have a special needs' brother," she looked at Mr. Connor, "And instead of being a parent, my father is getting drunk until he passes out. I'm taking care of my brother, working a part-time job to keep a roof over our heads and to get food for my brother; I walk to school every day because we cannot afford a car or gas... And he gets mad at me because he drinks all his beer and has none left or because we have nothing in the house he wants to it."

She paused for a long time, not really looking at anything in particular, before she spoke again. "I get blamed for everything," she swallowed hard and looked over at Mr. Connor, "I also take the heat and punishment for it so my brother doesn't have to deal with it."

Russel chuckled when she told him straight about his joke. "Hey, I got you to laugh though, didn't I?"

He was actually rather amazed when she started unloading on him, though he didn't let that show on his face. He hadn't thought she would open up any more than she already had. His face softened again as he listened intently, slowly changing to an expression of concern as she went on.

He wished he could do something to help her, but he was just scraping by himself, and besides, it would be inappropriate and could easily be misconstrued. He really wasn't sure what to say, either. What did you say to something like that? He hadn't ever been in that kind of situation. He settled for reaching over and patting her hand. "Well, thanks for telling me. I don't know what you should do. I know teachers are supposed to have all the answers and all that, but really we're just ordinary human beings like everyone else. And well, I guess you know this now from what I said earlier, but we've all got our own problems as well. Sometimes, though, it's nice to just have someone listen to you for once. And if there's anything I can do, I'll try to help."

"No, I've been dealing with this for a long time," she sighed, again. "He's been like this since his auto repair shop went bankrupt and we moved out to Cinders." She just wanted to take it all back, back to before the bankruptcy and they lost all their money, before her mother left her father. Things would still be the way they were.

"I just wish things would go back to the way they are supposed to be,” she half-smiled as she reflected. "When dad would show me different things about cars and help me with homework, when he'd take care of my brother, and when he was happy and sober."

She looked over at Mr. Connor when he touched her hand, half by instinct she began to pull away, but she stopped herself. He was being nice, it's not like the man would hurt her. "Thank you, Mr. Connor," she smiled at him.

He couldn't imagine how she must feel, but he did understand her a bit more. She'd had to create this tough girl act to deal with everything that was going on at home. It was situations like these that always made him feel the most helpless when it came to his job. There ought to be more that he could do, but... well, he couldn't intervene, not without really messing things up for her. He really didn't know what to do about things like this. But maybe it was enough that he had gotten her to open up and talk about it. There was so little he could do, he had to believe that, or at least try to. "It sounds like, deep down; your dad really does love you, then. It'll get better one day. You just have to hang on." Even as he said it, it sounded lame to his ears, but that was all he could think of to say. What kind of a crappy teacher was he?

He took his hand away from hers and scratched his nose, smiling at the thanks. Maybe a change of subject was in order, to get her mind off of things. "You, uh, you want a muffin or a hot chocolate or something? My treat." He hadn't yet ordered anything for himself; he was sure somebody would be out there to tell him to stop loitering in a while... if they were paying any attention.

[ANDROMEDA MARIE WYNTER]

Rome looked at the man, to see if he was thinking he was being honestly serious. And he was, to her dismay. Her father didn't care in the slightest what happened to her or what she did; he had even said that to her face once before. Not only had he said something like that to her, but once – though he was completely and utterly drunk off his ass – he told her brother that he wished he wasn’t born because he was a piece of shit. Rome was so pissed that night she had thrown a half empty beer bottle at her father’s head, of course he had thrown one of the broken pieces of glass right back at her for attempting to hurt him.

“My dad doesn’t care about me or my brother, he could give a rat’s ass what we do as long as he has his beer and television,” she sighed outwardly. She bit her bottom lip, looking at the ground as she played with the lighter in her hand. “I could tell him something to his face and he wouldn’t even hear a word I said.” She wasn’t lying, and you could see that in the solemnity of her eyes. She shrugged and forced a smile as she looked at the man before her, “But once I graduate and get my ass a job I’m moving out to upstate New York in an art studio and I’m taking my brother with me.”

Her brother deserved proper care, and even though she wasn’t even the proper care she knew her brother more than anyone in the world, and he was comfortable around her. He had difficulties being comfortable with anyone else. Plus, she honestly didn’t know what she would do if it weren’t for her brother keeping her half-sane.

When he offered her the muffin, or some hot chocolate Rome just smiled gently and nodded her head. “You don’t mind? I don’t want to impose; your money isn’t meant to be spent on your students Mr. Connor.”

Russel couldn't imagine that that was true about her father not caring at all, but he wasn't going to argue with her about it. After all, he didn't really know the man. Still, he knew what it was like to get into a slump and make other people feel like you didn't care about them. That was what his ex had said, after all, and he knew there was some truth to it, although he hardly thought it justified cheating on him.

He smiled when she mentioned moving to the upstate and taking her brother with her. "Well, that sounds like a plan. I hope it all works out for you."

His smiled widened into a grin when she asked if he minded about treating her to something. "Don't worry about it. Besides, somebody might come out here and tell us to clear off if we don't buy something," he said teasingly.

Rome smiled, and then quickly looked down at the ground. She had no need to be the tough girl when she wasn’t at school, but it felt so weird sitting with a teacher and actually being her usually calm and collected self. Especially when every time at school the teacher saw her being a complete and utter bitch to everyone including himself. She was normally the kind of girl to let things just pass over and not say a word, she used to always be the quiet, and shy girl that didn’t speak unless spoke to… But that changed because of her father. Now she’s a nervous wreck, she cannot focus well in school, the only thing that keeps her calm is when she is reading to her brother and smoking, and she’s always working to keep a roof over their heads, and she doesn’t have the nerves she used to, everything bothers her now.

“Hopefully my plan will pan out the way I want it too,” she sighed, quickly she laughed. “This may sound like wishful thinking, but I really want my dad to get into rehab and become his old self again. That would be superb, actually.” But she knew that she was dreaming. Me and my silly little pipe dreams, she thought to herself.

Rome laughed, “Yea, because right now aren’t we technically loitering, otherwise?”

He smiled and nodded at hearing she wanted her dad to get better. At least she hadn't given up on him. It was nice to see her like this, instead of sarcastic and rough around the edges like she was in class. He'd hoped there was more to the girl, but he hadn't thought he would be able to see it.

He laughed, too. "Yeah, I guess we are," he said, standing up and pushing his chair in. There weren't that many people around today, so he wasn't too worried about someone taking the table. There wasn't even anyone sitting at the other one. "So what're you in the mood for? They have some pretty awesome muffins here. I had one for breakfast once and got hooked. I recommend pumpkin or blueberry."

Rome stood up at the same time as Mr. Connor. She smiled kindly as she straightened her shirt and put her lighter in her pocket. She moved closer to the building so they'd be able to slip in, and she responded with her thinking face on... "Mmm, I've never gotten anything from here before so I'll take the safe route and go with blueberry." She's always loved muffins, usually of the chocolate chip, or blueberry sort; but since she'd never been here she wasn't sure of their choices yet. She'd stick with something she thought places like this could fuck up.

How badly could you fuck up a blueberry muffin anyway?