Room 508, Sunday afternoon

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo had started the day by grabbing a box of donuts right as JGOB opened and taking them out to the causeway. She'd sat there for hours, slowly eating her way through the box, some tiny part of her hoping that two particular people would come walking up and share the pastries with her. No one had, though. Besides, even if one or both of them did eventually make it back, the chances that it would happen to be today as opposed to any other day were pretty slim. An hour after she finished the last donut, Ringo admitted to herself that she was just putting off the task she'd assigned herself, so she headed back to the dorm.

After stopping by her room for a stack of unassembled boxes, a couple of rolls of packing tape, and some markers, she finally opened the door to room 508. An few hours later, Ringo was pretty sure that the two boxes on Raven's bed represented everything the girl had had in the room. Only a few clothes, and what seemed like some antique knickknacks. It wasn't much to leave behind, and somehow that seemed sad. Ringo snorted at that thought. As if Raven's lack of stuff was somehow sadder than Raven never coming back.

There were quite a few more boxes on Kathy's bed, and it had taken here even longer to pack those than it probably would have if so many of those things hadn't sucked Ringo into memories of their owner. A couple of dresses that Letty had insisted Kathy buy in Baltimore. A set of lockpicks. A well-read, but cared-for acceptance letter to Stanford. A sticker-covered iPod (which was such a Kathy thing to own because who even had iPods anymore?).

A pair of well-worn ATs, which she spent a couple of minutes examining, running her fingers lightly along the worn down spots. You could tell a lot about someone from their ATs. What their stance looked like, what kind of tricks they enjoyed the most, the kind of terrain they rode on. To Ringo's practiced eye it was like a montage of every ride Kathy had ever done. She had to swallow around a lump in her throat before she could return to her task.

Most of those things, those memories, went into boxes. After some maudlin staring at a few of them, perhaps, but into boxes. But not everything. Ringo had found a heavy envelope with "Dante" written on it in Kathy's hand, and a couple of paper-wrapped packages addressed to Anders. Once she'd found those, Ringo had looked more carefully, half-hoping that there would be something with her own name on it, but there hadn't been anything. She knew that that didn't mean anything, but somehow it still hurt. She'd taken a couple of minutes to think about that, then Ringo had set the iPod aside next to the other things that needed to be delivered. Kathy probably would have preferred to know that someone would get something out of her music collection, right?

Now Ringo was doing one last pass through the room, looking in corners of closets and under beds to make sure she hadn't missed anything important. If this was the last thing she was going to get to do for her friends, she wanted to do it right.

[ooc: Room and belongings modded with permission. Door and post open.]

Comments

[rebelseekspizza]

This was the second time in just a few days that Dante had found this door sitting open - and don't ask him why he kept wandering by here, please - though this time he had a good idea of who he'd find.

He pressed his shoulder against the doorway again, and sighed.

Loudly.

Serious to fuck, Ringo. What was your problem?

[soniaroadsqueen]

Well, Ringo knew that sigh without needing to pull her head out of the closet, but she did so anyway. "Last day in here," she told Dante without preamble, leaning back against the wall next to the closet door.

She didn't ask him if he wanted to help.

And while her eyes slid over the envelope on the bed, Ringo didn't say anything about it yet. She wasn't sure if she should. Dante just wanted this to go away, after all, and probably didn't want yet another reminder of Kathy. It made her wonder if she should just, you know, put it in the boxes with the rest of the stuff, and if Kathy ever came back, she could delivery it directly.

But Ringo also wanted to be a good kohai To finish up the things that Kathy couldn't anymore.

She didn't know what to do, so for the moment that envelope sat there, uncommented upon.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante'd been looking at her, but she was looking elsewhere. He couldn't help himself; his eyes darted that way quick, drinking in the detail like he usually did (but never admitted to).

He was pretty sure that was his name.

"Sure," he said. "Better be."

If they were lucky, the school'd move someone else in here by next week.

[soniaroadsqueen]

She eyed him thoughtfully, trying to buy time to make a decision. "You here to help?"

That comment about what would be "lucky" did not deserve a response.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Do I look like help?" Dante said flatly.

He lifted his chin at the envelope. "The fuck is that?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo followed his glance.

Well, that made this decision easy. She probably would have decided to give it to him in the end, anyway. For Kathy's sake, but also out of some patronizing believe that Dante needed to learn to deal with loss better and that it would be good for him.

She shrugged. "No idea. Found it in Kathy's desk."

Her eyes moved back to him, looking hard. "You want it?"

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante gave an expressive shrug. "Don't really care," he said.

That wasn't true. But the truth was all kinds of complicated.

[soniaroadsqueen]

She watched him in silence for a few seconds, then shrugged. "I can pack it away if you don't want it. You can just pretend you never saw it."

Yeah. Sure he could. That was totally what his expression said.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Where are you putting all of this shit, anyway?" Dante asked, leveling his gaze back at her.

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Mister Spencer said I could put it all in his attic," Ringo answered softly. Her lip curled ever so slightly upward. "I suppose you could always go ask him to let you get that envelope if you want me to pack it up, but change your mind later."

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante rolled his eyes. "I'll take it," he said, after a moment. "Better to toss it out myself than let anyone else get their hands all over it."

He pulled away from the doorway and walked towards the bed.

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo stayed where she was, leaning back against the wall, but not taking her eyes off of Dante.

"I didn't open it, by the way." That was Ringo's way of telling Dante that if he went off and opened it in private, she'd have no way of knowing he did, and no idea of what was in there.

Because she was pretty sure by now that he was going to open it.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante shrugged again. He picked the envelope right up off the bed. "Whatever," he said.

He wasn't going off to read it in private. That'd give the letter some importance it didn't deserve. Instead he pulled the envelope open, rifled through the money inside, and then picked out the letter.

[soniaroadsqueen]

The angle was wrong for Ringo to actually see the contents, but based on weight and feel and that rifling sound, she guessed that there was cash in there.

And then Dante pulled out a piece of paper, and Ringo nodded to herself.

Of course Kathy would have left a note.

"What does--?" Ringo started to ask, then cut herself off. It wasn't her business.

[that_oldsaying]

Alluka had maybe been wandering by to see if Kathy was back, since she didn't really know how long Kathy was going to be sick for, so it was possible she was back and--

The door was open!

Alluka bounced over to it, clutching Mr. Bubbles, and all ready to fling herself at Kathy and--

"Ringo?" Alluka said, her smile fading and her expression going anxious as she took in what was going on. "What, what are you doing to Kathy's stuff?"

Normally, she liked seeing Ringo very much. But this was weird, wasn't it? She didn't know if she was supposed to be happy to see Ringo when she was doing this.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante ignored her, eyes scanning the lines real quick. He was fine, though he rolled his eyes, at least until he hit You're my friend, not some random schmuck on the street that I feel bad for--.

Pain hit him hard, straight across the midsection, fueled by betrayal and a deep sense of abandonment. He kept any tears knocking on his eyelids locked away by sheer force of will, but his mouth just... twisted.

When he hit You've got more possibilities than--, he stopped reading. Crumpled up the letter, threw it at the trash. "One last blast of bullshit," he said flatly. "Whatever."

He almost threw out the money too, but he wasn't that stupid.

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo considered him for a moment, studying that expression. She pushed herself off of the wall and walked across the room, coming to a stop about a foot away and looking up at him. The height difference was enough that she didn't usually get so close. Craning her neck got tiring. But this time, she did.

She stared up at him, expression thoughtful.

She was trying to decide if offering him a hug was a good idea, or a bad one.

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo turned, a smile on her face. But not her usual smile. This one was sort of melancholy.

"Hi, Alluka." Funny, her voice was subdued, too.

"I'm packing up Kathy and Raven's stuff." Obviously. "I'd rather do it myself than let whoever the school would send just, you know, throw it away or something."

[that_oldsaying]

There was nothing obvious about it, to Alluka.

"But why?" she asked. Poor Mr. Bubbles was getting squeezed even tighter. "Kathy's coming back. And, and Raven too."

Weren't they?

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante looked down at her, his own gaze a hard stare. "What?" he asked, challenge sneaking into his voice without him really realizing it.

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo's expression was somber. "Maybe," she allowed. Deep down she wasn't willing to let go of that possibility herself.

"But we don't know when. And if it's long enough, the school will probably need to let someone else use the room."

[that_oldsaying]

"But it's Kathy's room," Alluka said, like it was Ringo who wasn't making sense. It was also Raven's room too, Alluka supposed, but Kathy was the one that she knew, so it was mostly Kathy's. "You don't just give away someone's room when they go some place for a while. You keep it for them. It's still theirs. So, so this is still Kathy's room and it's going to be hers for when she gets back."

[soniaroadsqueen]

She chewed her lip for a moment, then slowly reached her arms out. The movement was pretty telegraphed, giving him plenty of time to stop her, or move, or whatever. But if he didn't, then Dante was going to get hugged.

Hard.

[rebelseekspizza]

And Dante more or less squandered that plenty of time by being utterly dumbfounded by the part where Ringo was going for a hug. So before he knew it--

"--Unf."

The fuck.

[soniaroadsqueen]

"This is a dorm, Alluka," Ringo said softly. "This room was someone else's before Kathy got here, and it'll be someone else's, too, if they need it. They can't give rooms to people forever, or they'd run out."