One Future • •

[aurora-jane carson]

Although she would indeed be heading back to Navarro for Christmas, it wouldn't be until the last minute. Rory wasn't a fan of public transport and since she didn't drive she had to wait until Spencer was free to come up to the city, pick her up and take her back to the place they had both grown up. In all honesty, Rory wasn't looking forward to the trip. Her relationship with her brother had changed over the last few months since he had left. Despite his promises he hadn't kept in touch as much as she had hoped. Spencer blamed his new job, but Rory couldn't understand it. He had worked before and still made time for her, so why was it so different now? She was mad at him, but she didn't want to be.

There was very little for Rory to do when she was alone. A lot of the things she enjoyed she only did with friends. Her classes were over for winter break and though the college library was open the librarian was sick of seeing her there. She had already spent a few days tucked up in a corner reading complicated texts just because she didn't know where else to go. Eventually he dropped enough unsubtle hints that Rory was able to see that he wanted her to leave and stop taking up space. She wasn't bothering anyone, but her presence meant he couldn't slip away early and have time with his own family.

Today she had shown up at The Apollo despite not having a shift there today. She had worked the night before, but she wasn’t needed there now until after the 25th. The janitors were still cleaning up from the night before and they greeted her politely. One offered her a toffee, which she took with a smile before running up the stairs to the sound box. She moved a few things around to tidy the place to her compulsive standards and then curled up on the floor in the corner. She turned on her iPod, pulled her new physics book from her bag and settled herself in for the day. Rory knew she could have stayed at home and done the same thing, but she found herself distracted there lately with thoughts of her absent brother. She ended up bombarding him with messages that would go unanswered until much later. Rory didn’t want to do that. She didn’t like what her life was turning into. New York had lost its sparkle, but she didn’t want to return back to the bubble wrap life she had lived in Navarro. Her accident had been a terrible thing, but ever since it had happened it was like every little thing she did was watched by someone else, or had someone offering to help. Rory didn’t want that. She wanted her independence. However she hadn’t wanted it to come with the price of losing Spencer completely. Sighing, she turned the page and tucked her leg beneath herself, adjusting the earbud in her ear. This would be a brief escape, but it was something if just for a few short hours.

• • •

TAGGED! Eli Morgan Kane
WORDS! 526!
OUTFIT! Giddy Geek!
LYRICS! We Shall All Be Healed - - The Mountain Goats
NOTES! <3 <3 <3

[Eli Morgan Kane]

Eli was heading to Sleepy Hollow in a couple of days. He still had a shift to work at the gallery and some pieces to giftwrap before they were to be delivered as gifts. It wasn’t an option they offered regularly but around the holidays, his boss fell in with the Christmas spirit a little too eagerly and offered all sorts of extras to those who make a purchase in December. Most of which Eli had to deal with. He didn’t really mind all that much but the added paperwork did send him a little closer to the edge and forced him to work harder at reading all those forms when normally it was just him trying to figure out the names on the receipts. Today however, he was on errand duty. Since the streets were even more congested than usual thanks to the holiday tourists, the trucks that would have normally been on time and even early some days were barely at their first few stops of the day. A few of the companies had called to reschedule the supply deliveries and that was fine. But that also meant that Eli had to traipse through the city to pick up what they needed immediately.

This was one part of his job he didn’t actually mind since he was basically getting paid to spend the day doing whatever he wanted. As long as he returned to the gallery with the parcels he’d been sent to collect, his boss didn’t care. So he spent the morning going through the paperwork that was part of the day to day before gathering his list and his gear and heading out for the rest of the day. He could move quicker on foot, even in that much snow than if he hopped in a taxi and handed them an address. As he was making his way through the congested streets, Eli tried calling Rory to see if she wanted to tag along but his calls went unanswered, so he stopped at her house anyway to double check. He knew that from time to time she didn’t hear her phone over the music and such so it was often best to show up on her doorstep as well. But when she didn’t answer her door, Eli knew she wasn’t home; which had him wondering which of her favourite places she might be. Making a mental list, he returned to the street and took the subway to his next destination; her work.

Even if she didn’t have a shift, he could often find her curled up in the sound booth. And Eli hoped that would be the case this time, too. He couldn’t check everywhere Rory liked to hang out. Eventually he would have to give up his search and actually do the job he was being paid for that day. He greeted the group of janitors still making the interior shiny and new again after the performance of the night before and one simply chuckled and said “she’s up there.” With a laugh of his own, Eli thanked him and raced up the stairs to the sound booth. He stepped inside before he saw her with a textbook in her lap and headphone covering her ears. He crouched down in front of her and waved his hand to get her attention or in greeting if she’d seen him already. “Hey you, busy?” He asked, not really bothering with a proper greeting; he did wave after all.

Tag || aurora-jane carson
Words || 581
Clothes || Dyslexic Dreamer
Music || Thinking Of You --Dierks Bentley
Notes || <3!

[aurora-jane carson]

Rory wasn’t the greatest at reaching out for help, or even asking for it. Spencer had sort of developed a sixth sense for that sort of thing, but now that he wasn’t around, Rory had retreated even more into her bubble. She thought she was doing rather well though, despite discovering countless inconveniences in New York now that Spencer wasn’t around. She had managed to do all of her Christmas shopping eventually, after having one bad experience in an overcrowded department store that included an oblivious woman trying to spray perfume in her face. After that frightful day, Rory had ordered everything online and paid the extra money for the next day delivery option. It was a smoother experience and one that she had done in her pyjamas while watching a science documentary. It wasn’t quite giving her the social experience she had hoped to gain by moving away from home, but she had counted on New York being so terrifying when the holidays struck. This time last year she was already back in Navarro. Spencer had driven them back home the moment classes ended so they could get the most time in with their mom and old friends, so all of her shopping had been on familiar territory with people and shop owners who knew her well. It was the curse of being the redhead who was struck by a reckless driver and spent two months in a coma.

Rory didn’t like that attention, but she liked home. New York granted her anonymity from that story, but it didn’t have the same characters as back home did. She was still baffled, but proud, that she had made friends in the big city. She had grown up sort of sharing Spencer’s buddies, and now she had her own little friendship circle that would take her out when she fancied it. It was new for her really, and none of them knew that she had been in a hospital bed for months, close to death. It was the memory that kept her up at night, and semi-fearful of sleep. However, the apartment seemed so much quieter now that it was just her, Rogue, and a tank of fish. 3am wasn’t quite the same without her brother snoring in his bedroom. She had taken to hiring the volume of the television up when she was still tinkering around at that hour; something her mother and brother might have reprimanded her for.

She would never tell anyone how difficult it seemed to be without Spencer, because Rory didn’t have the words for it. She couldn’t express her feelings like others, and it was just the way it was for her. It frustrated her, but there was nothing that she could do when people didn’t understand that was just how she was. Doctors had never quite settled on whether that was a result of the accident or her Asperger’s, but it was just another part of Rory. It was also why she was keen to get back to the familiar so that maybe she wouldn’t feel so irked by herself and her inability to express to others how strange it was without her brother walking through doors all the time again. She had thought coming to The Apollo might grant her a break from those feelings, since she wouldn’t look up at every noise and expect to see him. She actually didn’t expect to see anyone at all while she was in there, at least not until her colleagues who were shifted in showed up. So when Eli suddenly appeared in front of her, all Rory could do was blink for a moment. She tugged the earbuds from her ears and smiled up at him. “Not really. You?” She asked casually, closing her book, but staying tucked in the corner.

• • •

TAGGED! Eli Morgan Kane
WORDS! 638!
OUTFIT! Giddy Geek!
LYRICS! We Shall All Be Healed - - The Mountain Goats
NOTES! <3 <3 <3

[Eli Morgan Kane]

Eli knew Rory was having a rough time without her brother. It was only natural. He’d always been around, helping Rory out, protecting her so she could go about her business without interruption. And now that barrier wasn’t there anymore and Rory was left basically on her own to deal with everything. Eli was helpful but he wasn’t that great at the job he’d tasked himself with. He could, however, keep his dear friend from feeling alone by stopping by and forcing her out to do things. He didn’t want her to become a homebody now that her brother wasn’t there to tell her to get out there with her friends and explore the city they lived in. It was an exciting place, all the random streets and chosen turns leading your somewhere new and adventurous. Eli could live in New York for the rest of his life and still never know everything about the city he adored so much. He knew the biggest areas for the art scene and the best venues for the music scene. But other than that, he didn’t know much about the small local places, unless he counted the neighbourhood he lived in. That three block radius, he knew like the back of his hand and loved that area a lot. He could walk into any of the restaurants and be greeted by name.

Frustration was easy to see when you spent most of your life frustrated. Rory might have been annoyed at other things, and none of them could involve her brother but Eli saw the telltale signs as easily as if he were looking in the mirror. His frustrations were about reading just about anything at all. Being dyslexic he had a bitch of a time, figuring things out and only knew what was what because he spent so much time reading everything he could get his hands on. It made guessing much easier, which was how he managed to do so much; he guessed at most of it. His boss knew the truth, Eli had no choice but to admit his weakness to the older man when he was having troubles deciphering a new client’s page. The name had Eli grasping and finally with a defeated sigh, he’d gone to his boss to divulge the truth about himself. His boss chuckled and admitted that he’d figured out Eli was dyslexic ages ago and was just waiting for something to trip him up. In their line of work, with their clients, it would have happened eventually. He’d been impressed it had taken Eli so long for it to happen though.

“Good.” He said with a smile. “What do you say to joining me for my errands? My boss has sent me out to get some things and you know what that means.” He continued, trying to entice Rory with the idea of running around the city with him so she would stay hidden away in the sound booth she worked in. He stood and stretched his arms in the air before dropping both down to help Rory to her feet. He had all day to do what he needed to and he knew it wouldn’t actually take that long. But his boss was very lenient on trips like this. As long as he got his parcels back to the gallery today, his boss wouldn’t really care what he filled all that extra time with.

Tag || aurora-jane carson
Words || 601
Clothes || Dyslexic Dreamer
Music || Thinking Of You --Dierks Bentley
Notes || <3!

[aurora-jane carson]

Rory had never considered whether she would stay in New York forever. She had also never considered her life without Spencer by her side, but how it had happened she was stuck finding herself sort of floating in an uncomfortable in between. She wanted so badly to have her independence and live a normal life, but there were so many things out there that she couldn’t face simply because they freaked her out and made her want nothing more than to run away. Spencer had held her hand through all of that and without him she did feel like she was unable to confront any of them. There had been moments when she had considered that maybe she would be better heading home herself, but Rory was a stubborn soul and she wanted to prove herself independent more than anything. If that meant that she locked herself up in New York City and relied on internet shopping a little bit more than she would have liked to, then she would do it. She was going to graduate from NYU even if the process killed her in every other way.

She had her habits that she would obsess over when days were bad, quirks that freaked others out but that were entirely normal to Rory. It was a part of her Asperger’s and while she didn’t want to reveal her condition to strangers, or even a few of her more distant friends, it was a part of her life. Rory had never liked how people changed once the doctor’s found a reason for her ‘strangeness’. Suddenly people had stopped giving her odd looks and had become pitiful of her. Of course, other things in Navarro had factored into that, but Rory had enjoyed absolutely none of them. She wanted to be her own person and not be defined by her medical conditions or history. No one in NYC knew she had been in a coma, or even in a car accident. Rory hoped to keep it that way, but there were scars on her body that she would have to explain if anyone ever saw them; they weren’t something she could pass off with ‘I tripped down the stairs’, and Rory had never been capable of lying.

Furrowing her eyebrows at Eli, Rory took a minute to think. “What does it mean?” She asked seriously, not all that great with the rhetoric. She was getting better, but there were still times when it slipped by her and since Spencer had left it was like she had regressed in that area with her social skills. Her brother had sort of encouraged her there, keeping her sharp. However, the idea of spending time with Eli was enticing, and Rory was definitely keen to be with him. With Spencer gone, Eli was the next person Rory wanted to spend the most time with. She was always comfortable with him, for reasons she couldn’t totally explain. He had just been one of the first friends she had in the city, never questioning some of her more extreme quirks. It meant a lot to Rory, even if she couldn’t express that. Taking his hands she pulled herself to her feet and put her book into her bag. “What have you got to do?” She asked, tucking her hair behind her ear and peering up at Eli with curious brown eyes.

• • •

TAGGED! Eli Morgan Kane
WORDS! 568!
OUTFIT! Giddy Geek!
LYRICS! We Shall All Be Healed - - The Mountain Goats
NOTES! <3 <3 <3

[Eli Morgan Kane]

Since Rory’s brother took off back to their hometown, Eli had felt like he needed to drag her out a little more. He knew what she could be like and knew that if someone didn’t, she would only leave her apartment for classes and her shift. That was no way to live and Eli didn’t want to see one of his closest friends retreat into her own little world. So he invited her out whenever he heard of something he knew she would like in the hopes that she wouldn’t be bummed out that her brother went back home. Eli hated seeing his friends sad and wanted to do whatever he could to turn that around! With Rory, it was pizza nights and movies and the occasional underground rock concert that you only heard about by eavesdropping on the annoying hipster kids that spend their entire day at Starbucks looking like they’re in need of a serious life adjustment or from the band itself.

Or he did silly things like this, in the middle of some developing nasty weather just to get someone to smile. Truth was, Eli hated shopping alone as well. Even shopping for the gallery. It was just something he’d never liked to do and always dragged a friend along to keep him company so he would actually have to do the shopping he needed to. In Florence, he’d had roommates and everyone had needed something so it was usually a group effort to get anywhere at all. And then the move back to New York had Eli catching up with old friends who wouldn’t mind being dragged around the city to shop. And then Eli met Rory who quickly became his favourite person to do just about anything with. After he hadn’t found her at her apartment, he’d been worried about where he might find her. He couldn’t spend the day chasing her down, if she wasn’t at the theatre, he would have had to go shopping alone.

“It means that we get to spend the day shopping and since I’ll be getting paid for it, I’m treating for dinner as well! What do you say? Want to go to Academy Records and then hit up Hal’s for Mac and Cheese?” He returned, equally serious. Eli had noticed since Spencer left that Rory was turning back towards the girl he’d met. They’d been making headway with the little things like this since they’d met but after Spencer left, she sort of folded in on herself and Eli was determined to not let that continue! “Well, I have to pick up a couple bags at the office supply place, they said they’d have it all waiting, stop at the moving company to confirm their delivery of boxes and bubble wrap, they weren’t answering their phones over there and then I just need to pick up a parcel at that store we went to last time? We’re having another opening and need some new glasses or something.” He said, shrugging off the name of the last place because he genuinely couldn’t pronounce it and wasn’t going to try to repeat it.

Tag || aurora-jane carson
Words || 573
Clothes || Dyslexic Dreamer
Music || Thinking Of You --Dierks Bentley
Notes || <3!

[aurora-jane carson]

Rory had been trying since Spencer left, but it had been difficult. He had always been there for her, and he was the one to give her a push when she needed it the most. Without that it was impossible to make the choice to go outside and mingle with people who might never really understand her when she could stay at home and crack open a new Physics book that she had ordered online. That was a curse, too. Online shopping meant she didn’t really have to leave the apartment for anything at all apart from college and work. She made the effort, but when she was up late it was so easy to click on Amazon and just buy whatever she wanted or needed. Rory never saw a problem with it, but when she mentioned it during calls to Spencer, she heard his sighs before he would ask just how much she was getting out.

She didn’t like Spencer worrying. He had gone home to help their mother and she knew he hadn’t made that decision lightly. She also knew he didn’t like being so far away if she was going to be struggling in the city. However, it was Rory who had wanted to leave Navarro. She had wanted to get out and prove she could live a normal life without needing to be molly-coddled by those who loved her. Still needing help at this point wasn’t the greatest feeling, but Rory wasn’t going to get anyway totally alone. She was just stubborn enough not to sit back and let her life become what everyone else expected it to be at the same time.

Rory never tried to hide a smile when one broke out. It had gotten her into trouble a few times in the past during the shcool years when she was caught grinning at something she shouldn’t. “Hal’s make the best Mac and Cheese.” She stated, grabbing her neatly scattered things and putting them away in her backpack. With Rory everything had its place, and her backpack was no different, which meant she took a few moments to organise everything and ensure that everything was as it should be. It didn’t matter that things might get shuffled and knocked while it was on her back, Rory needed to put them in correctly and take them out correctly. “Sounds kind of really boring, but you promised Hals and records, so I’ll come.” She told him honestly. Running around for chores had never been her sort of entertainment, but Eli was probably her best friend in the city now, and she wouldn’t pass up hanging out with him, even if they were just walking from one place to another for tedious stuff. She shouldered her backpack and double checked there was nothing left behind. She smiled at Eli again before turning the lights off in the room and closing the door after them on the way out. “Let’s go then!”

• • •

TAGGED! Eli Morgan Kane
WORDS! 500!
OUTFIT! Giddy Geek!
LYRICS! We Shall All Be Healed - - The Mountain Goats
NOTES! <3 <3 <3

[Eli Morgan Kane]

Eli wanted to be there for Rory because he knew she needed a friend to help get her through her brother’s sudden departure. She was a strong young thing but there was something different about her. Nothing bad or anything like that but after knowing her for as long as he has, he’d noticed the quirks and eccentricities weren’t just the usual quirks of the average human. They probably made Eli like Rory more really, because she wasn’t like every other person on the planet. He’d felt like he’d met a kindred spirit in Rory. She might not have been dyslexic like he was but they were both dealing with being on their own; even if at the time Rory had had Spencer with her and Eli had had no one in the city.

He might have only grown up an hour away from New York City, two in the worst possible traffic but it was far enough to make him feel like he was on his own. He had wanted that feeling, to prove to himself that he didn’t need people around to tell him what the street signs said or what the shops were called. He wasn’t sure how he’d managed it in Italy, but he’d made it through his school years relatively unscathed and had even stuck around for a little while afterwards. It was almost like his dyslexia wasn’t there, and maybe it was because it wasn’t English that he had less trouble with the words, maybe it was just that he tried a hell of a lot harder because it was a different language. He didn’t know and he didn’t care. He just knew he missed the country quite a bit and couldn’t wait until he got the chance to return. Home was a lot closer to return to so Eli frequently found himself in the sleepy little town he’d grown up in, surrounded by tales as tall and as the trees about a horseman without a head.

“Yes, they do.” Eli agreed, grinning. He knew some of the best ways to get Rory to get out of the house when he hadn’t seen her in a few days. He was doing his best to make sure she got out for more than just her classes and her shifts at work but with his own busy schedule, it was difficult to find the time to spend with friends. He’d been making it work of course but it was often only a couple hours that he could spare before he needed to be somewhere or do something. That was why he liked the gallery he was at. They weren’t so overly busy that he couldn’t have friends just show up and stick around for a bit. He was good at what he did and it was something he could actually multitask without messing up thanks to his disadvantage. “Dreadfully boring, I won’t lie but it should only take an hour at most.” He said and hoped he wasn’t lying. The weather wasn’t the best it could be otherwise he wouldn’t be needing to run out at all through his shift. He waited until Rory was settled and followed her out into the hall so could lock up. “Stop one, here we come!” Eli said, chuckling. The stop in question was actually only a couple blocks up the road so they walked it and were in and out within ten minutes of leaving the theatre.

Tag || aurora-jane carson
Words || 632
Clothes || Dyslexic Dreamer
Music || Thinking Of You --Dierks Bentley
Notes || <3!

[aurora-jane carson]

Rory had kind of liked finding out that she did have a mild form of Asperger’s. It sort of gave her answers as to why people weren’t like her. Rory had hid it well over the years, but she had noticed that she stood out a lot from her classmates and didn’t make friends the way other kids did. She wished it hadn’t taken getting hit by a car, several months in a coma and the rehabilitation for medical professionals to figure it out, but she was glad that eventually they had. She was clever, and knew that it would have been all too easy to brush her strange quirks of as a result of the brain trauma she suffered in the accident. There were some elements of her personality they said they didn’t know if they were associated with the hit and run or the Asperger’s but finding out was next to impossible. Rory didn’t mind not knowing. She was going to be who she was anyway, so it didn’t matter what was to blame or not. She just wanted to meet people who would accept her anyway. With Spencer around it had been easier, but now she had Eli, at least. Rory just hoped he wasn’t going anywhere.

She was amazingly independent after everything she had gone through, but that didn’t mean that she didn’t get lonely when she was on her own. It was easy for her to slip into her shell, to spend hours locked away with a physics book or series of documentaries that fascinated her. Only when it was all done would she remember that she was alone save for Rogue and then it was strange. She had never been truly on her own before, despite doing everything for herself. Rory didn’t know if she liked it or not. There had been plenty of times when she hadn’t even noticed Spencer had gone out until he was opening the front door and strolling in again, but that was a different kettle of fish. She knew that someone would be coming back in sooner or later.

Now she had to get out more, socialise. Things Rory wasn’t exceptionally great at. However, unless she wanted to become a hermit there was really no other choice. At least she had the likes of Eli who made that a little bit easier. Rory looked at Eli with scepticism. “An hour at most? If you go a minute over I’m going to demand hot chocolate.” She said seriously, folding her arms across her chest. “Where is the first stop?” She asked curiously, falling into step beside Eli as they walked along. Rory always asked questions about just about everything. She didn’t grasp the concept of boundaries, nor consider anything that could be private or personal. It was one of the many things Spencer was always trying to explain to her, but it never lasted more than five minutes before she was back again with more questions and forgetting everything he had told her.

• • •

TAGGED! Eli Morgan Kane
WORDS! 508!
OUTFIT! Giddy Geek!
LYRICS! We Shall All Be Healed - - The Mountain Goats
NOTES! <3 <3 <3