2019-12-17 - Ice Cream Confessions

The rumor mill in a small town is a vicious thing, whispers spreading like wild fire that after a rather public confrontation of Ruiz at the Grizzly Diner, Bennie Oakes was hauled away to the precinct to spend a night in lock up to 'cool down'. At least no formal charges were filed? An apology to de la Vega will still need to be made, but for now as she is released from the cell and given back her purse and personal property, her first course of action is to put as much distance between herself and the PD as possible. A group text goes out to Alexander and August both, the pair having become her go-to during recent turbulent times it read:

(TXT to Alexander August) Bennie : Jailbird ready to fly the coop.

(TXT to August Bennie) Alexander : August, can I catch a ride with you to pick up our jailbird?

(TXT to Alexander Bennie) August : sure thing. brt.

August drives them to the PD to pick Bennie up. He's in a simple black, fleece shell today, over a dark red Henley, denim jeans, and black workboots. "Well at least they didn't file charges," he says as they park. Not that he'd have expected Ruiz to, but the ADA could have easily done it for him if she was looking to make an example out of Bennie. That wasn't unheard of when the local judicial branch was tired of people coming at cops.

Alexander has done the walk of shame from a night in jail a couple of times himself (more than a couple), so he's come prepared with a pair of clean sweats that are way too big for Bennie, but are clean, dry, and don't smell like jail. He's in a fluffy green sweater with unfortunate pompoms on the front, the sweats in his lap. He's also got a swollen jaw and cheek, as well as a fairly impressive bruise that's crawled up the side of his face. Despite this, he looks relieved, and nods. "I wouldn't expect them to, but it's nice. It's a small town, and Bennie's a local - she'd have had to come at him with a weapon before they'd view it worth the fuss." He speaks with the voice of experience on that one. He hops out of the jeep once they arrive, looking for Bennie.

When they arrive, Bennie is already waiting out on the sidewalk near the parking. She's standing in yesterday's rumpled clothes with her overly large purse slung around to her midsection and clutched there as if it were armor though likely the only thing she's protecting herself from is the gargantuan knot in her stomach. She's not exactly sure how she'll be received by her friends after literally (if mildly) attacking a mutual one. The toe of her sneaker grinds restlessly into the concrete, eyes furtively glancing at every passing vehicle until she spots August's and starts trekking in that direction. "Hey." She greets them both, but her eyes are cast down, finding the pavement a far safer thing to look at than either of them.

August gets out of his Outback, looking more relieved than anything else. "Hey," he replies, smile wry and sympathetic. "Alexander brought you some sweats, if you wanna hit a bathroom and change into them." He looks askance at Alexander. "Waffle Shoppe maybe? Get something to eat?"

Alexander eyes the downcast Bennie. His foot scuffs the pavement for a moment, he takes a breath, and then he moves forward to offer her a hug, if she wants it, folded sweats and all. "Hey, yourself." He's smiling just a little, one of his ghost smiles. "Did they put you in the cell with the weird sounds? I hated that one. The one that forever smells like goat pee is...smelly, but better." There's a nod to August's suggestion, but he gives Bennie a look. "What are you feeling up to, Bennie?"

Bennie glances up at the unexpected offer of a hug from Alexander, releasing her purse so it swings down to rest at her side so she can free herself to wrap her arms around his ribs and hug him briefly. "You look..." She had wished Ruiz to after she was through with him. "Awful." She tells Alexander before stepping back to take the offered clothes. Clamping the folded pants between her knees, she slides the strap of her bag off her shoulder and threads her arms into the sweatshirt to tug it down over her head. While Gina or Alison thought to bring her purse to the PD, her coat was accidentally neglected and so she seems grateful for the added warmth instead of going to change out of her current attire completely. "Everything sounded weird and smelled like pee, so I couldn't say for certain."

At the mention of food from August, Bennie just makes a little face of queasiness. "Actually do you think...could you just take me home? I'm just really tired, but I totally owe you a meal for giving me a picking me up."

August has been studiously not healing Alexander's wounds. See how well behaved he is, Alexander? You still look like you lost a fight with some guy over the last can of pureed pumpkin in the Safeway. He didn't even offer to. (But he did give Alexander a Look.)

"Home we can do." He arches an eyebrow. "But you don't owe me a meal for this." He lets that sit a second, nods at the Outback. "Come on. Want me to get ice cream on the way there?" He pauses. "Where is there?"

Alexander grins. "Do I? Don't feel awful. It was fun." He doesn't elaborate on what 'it' was, but he steps away when she moves to take the clothes. As she pulls things on, he looks to August, with a smile for his forbearance. "A good question," he murmurs, and looks expectantly back at Bennie for the answer. His fingers move in rapid little taps along his arms, now that he doesn't have the clothes or hug to keep his hands occupied.

Bennie opens her mouth to as if to ask just how someone could enjoy getting so bruised but she quickly closes it and tilts her head to look at the smattering with a more discerning eye. With a shake of her blonde pony tail, she must come to some conclusion and decides instead to focus on this offer of ice cream. "Mint chocolate chip." She requests, reaching an arm to loop into August's as they turn back to the jeep. As to the question of where 'home' is, she gives August an address in a more industrial part of town. Quite the opposite of the Bayside Apartments.

"Mint chocolate chip," August echoes. First they hit the Safeway; he's in and out in a few minutes. Three pints in the bag: Mint Chocolate Chip (Snoqualmie Falls, only the best for Bennie), Salted Caramel Almond (Ben & Jerry's, because August likes his ice cream a little savory), and whatever Alexander wants, and if he specifies 'buyer's choice' then August inflicts him with Mukilteo Mud (Snoqualmie Falls bittersweet chooclate ice cream). He also grabs some nuts and whipped cream and caramel sauce. Did he say ice cream? He meant sundaes.

He peers at the location on his phone, nods. "You okay for staying there long term, or you need somewhere still?" he asks as he pulls out of the Safeway parking lot.

Alexander doesn't miss the look in his direction, and he shrugs. "It was friendly punching. Look, I don't really understand it, either, but it doesn't hurt anything to punch things sometimes." And maybe he means that to cover more situations than his own...whatever he did. He murmurs thanks to August for the offer of ice cream, and chooses moose tracks for his sugary poison of choice. He gives Bennie a speculative look of his own when she names that address, but he doesn't say anything. Just echoes August's question with a brief, agreeing sound of his own.

This is hard enough for Bennie as it is, so she just sort of sinks down in the seat of the Jeep a little further at the question from August. "It's fine. Just drive, please?" If she could disappear into the folds of the overside sweatshirt, no doubt she'd be turtling right about now. The address she gave them turns out to be for a U-Store-It facility, the security gate long since off its track so there is no need to use the keypad that looks rusted beyond use anyways. Perhaps she's the caretaker? "Unit 35C around the back." Nope.

August studies Bennie through the rear-view mirror, expression placid. "Okay," he says, nodding. He's not particularly surprised when they arrive at a storage place, even if he'd been hoping she'd at least found an M-i-L apartment to rent. But no, his assumptions are confirmed as she directs them around the back. He even manages to not give her a look of 'This isn't fine'.

Alexander makes a thoughtful noise when they turn into the storage place. His expression has gone blank. Not the blank of trying (badly) to hide his emotions, but rather that almost inhuman lack of emotion he shows when most of his attention is on some sort of internal processes. He considers the security gate, long since run off its track, and then studies the other units as they pass them; it's not entirely unknown for the local squatter populations to land in various interesting places, after all.

And so there's Bennie trying to be extra cheerful to make up for the awkward. "Welcome to Casa de Oakes!" She pipes up from the backseat before they all pile out. She digs through her bag for her keys, fitting it into the lock at the bottom of the garage style door. She seems Very Focused on her task which saves her from having to process those various looks from her friends. She rolls it up to the space that Easton rented for her back when she moved into his apartment, storing just some boxes of old belongings that she didn't want to part with that have now been stacked in a sort of wall beneath the entrance and the area she's using as a living area in the back which just looks like glorified camping with a space heater.

Well August is no stranger to storage space living (less himself, more friends who were also vets). He glances around, taking things in, back to Bennie. He offers her the Mint Chocolate Chip and a re-usable spoon he snagged (oh yes, he made no assumptions as to where they'd be going). "Not bad. That space heater keep you warm enough? I can bring you some spare blankets if not."

Alexander silently offers to help roll up the garage door, then stands around and stares at things for a bit. Mind you, he subjects every new space to that same, rude scrutiny, so its ironically maybe not as terrible as it might otherwise be. He retrieves a spoon for his own ice cream, eats a bite as he thinks. Finally, because tact is still a work in progress, he asks, "What's going on, Bennie?"

At least with the boxes, there are plenty of places to sit? And of course the little table she recovered with Alexander at the junk yard is prominent and even has a plastic solo cup of fall flowers on it. There is a dining room table, but it's propped on its side with the legs removed, a crayon drawing on the bottom of a fantasy world map facing her bedroll. Bennie takes the ice cream offered from August and goes to set down her purse and the sweatpants from Alexander in the corner. "I'm fleecing Easton for rent money for some fancy imaginary apartment." She says quietly. "Staying with friends would ruin the ruse and the money would dry up." Sure, its only a partial explanation, but she's tired of lying. Actually she's just plain tired.

August stays standing for now; he pulls open his own pint of ice cream and starts eating, considering Bennie as she speaks. Well, at least Alexander got to the point without beating around the bush. "Fleecing him?" he asks, an eyebrow going up. "So...what's the money actually for?" He sounds like he has a variety of ideas, all of which come down to 'debts' of some caliber or another. Gambling? Alimony? Medical? School? So many options in this day and age.

Alexander considers the answer, thoughtfully. He doesn't look at her until August asks the follow up questions, then he wanders to a box and sits down on it. And stares at her, waiting patiently for the answers to the questions.

"Fleecing, lying to. Swindling out of. I'm telling him one thing, he gives me money, I spend it on something else. What does it matter, what that something else is. Point is, now you know. And why I turned down both of your generous offers of places to stay. But I'm asking both of you not to tell Easton. At least until I can get my shit together and find a different way to earn the money I need. And I fully intend to pay him back." Her hand pulls a little journal out from under her pillow, apparently where she's been keeping a tally.

August has a thoughtful bite of ice cream. "I'm aware of what fleecing is," he says on a wry smile. He starts to say something, pauses, stops. His smile turns sad. Her refusal to say is its own confirmation, in a way. He cuts a look at Alexander, has more ice cream. "I won't tell him," he agrees.

"It matters." Alexander's voice is flat. "Because it's not just Easton's money. You're a qualified paramedic, do shifts at the diner, and we worked that Addington job. If you were just fleecing Easton and buying a giant statue of his severed genitals, that'd be one thing, and I'd say no more. But..." His skepticism is clear, and he's not as polite as August about it, so he adds, "How much danger are you in. Remember I'm psychic."

The momentary relief on Bennie's face when August says he won't tell Easton is fleeting as Alexander steps on it and grinds it beneath his shoe heel. Metaphorically speaking. Her spoon sinks into her carton of ice cream, driven by the stab of her hand. "And you said you'd let me tell you on my own time. Which is it, Clayton?"

August is willing to let Alexander do this part, though part of him isn't too happy with himself for that. On the other hand, Alexander knows Bennie better, so it's more his place. None-the-less, August says, "There's in your own time, and," he gestures around them at the storage space, "then there's living in a storage space with winter coming on, asking Easton to pay for an imaginary apartment to cover something that's obviously bad, or you wouldn't be working yourself to death at the same time. So." He has a bite of ice cream, raises his eyebrows.

Alexander stares at Bennie, not bothering to hide the flash of hurt at 'Clayton', but also not backing down. His shoulders hunch, and he pokes at his own ice cream for a moment or two before he says, "I didn't ask who. I didn't ask what. I asked how much danger you are in, which is covered under the general wellness clause of the standard friendship contract." He takes a spoonful of the ice cream, swallows, and then waggles the spoon at her. "And since you tried to deflect, I'm going to assume the worst. So. Next question is what's your plan for dealing with it?" He looks around, and there's a brief nod at August's commentary. "This isn't sustainable, and you know it. If you need a place to stay that won't get back to Easton, it can be arranged. If this is all the first step in your clever plan that will have your enemies bleeding at your feet, then I'm a little disappointed at not being invited, but okay. So, Miss Oakes. What's your plan?"

"Well, I mean, technically he is paying my rent?" Because the storage unit is still on Easton's credit card. Bennie offers that with a raise of her eyebrows, as if some how surely that makes it all better that she's planning on leeching several thousand more out. Her eyes tick between the pair, "I don't have a plan, okay? I scrounge up enough to satisfy the vig every month and for the most part they leave me alone. I have no hope of ever making a dent in the money my father owes them, but at least it keeps them from..." She makes a vague finger flicking gesture at her cheek where that recent bruise has finally started to fade until nothing more than a vague shadow.

August hides a laugh at the bit about the friendship contract behind a bite of ice cream. He radiates a bit of support towards Alexander, not missing that reaction to Bennie's use of his last name. It's not hard to sober in the face of Alexander's exacting description and Bennie's apparent capitulation.

He sighs, runs a hand through his hair. "Who's he owe this to. A casino? Drug dealers?" A thought occurs to him. "Monaghan?"

Alexander makes a sound. He stands up from where he was sitting, and moves to stand by Bennie. Not hugging her, because there's only so much touching that can happen in one scene, gawd, but at least inside the personal bubble, and sort of radiating virtual hug at her. He nibbles on another spoonful of ice cream. "Okay," he says, quietly. "So...here's the thing. I know you're not feeling in a good place right now - getting tossed in jail for losing control sucks, and I know, because I've been there - and I'm not going to pester you about too much right this second. But you need a plan. I can help with that. August can help with that. You don't have to go it alone." He offers her a sad little smile. "If you really want to, then you can...but I'm gonna scan you about that to make sure you're telling the truth about it. And I still might decide to just knock you over the head and lock you in a basement until your problem's dealt with, because I'm crazy, and things like that happen around crazy people." Tru fax.

"And if you want help coming up with a plan, then we'll need to know details." A nod to August. "That's a good place to start."

"Okay, okay!" Bennie knows she's really on the verge of damaging feelings here, but she raises her spoon as Alexander gets close, not to dissuade him from the comfort of his proximity but all these questions. She's clearly starting to get a little overwhelmed here. "Baby steps! I've been dealing with this for over ten years. It's not going to go away overnight. On some level, I obviously desperately want the help from you guys, because I invited you here, right? Easton and Jay and Baylee were going to but now...look. I had my heart broken, went after a police officer, kissed Alexander, have drank and done more drugs this month than in the whole of my twenties, shagged the pizza delivery guy on Alexander's living room floor...I think we can all agree I'm clearly not in control of my life right now. So if we can just...slow this down a little. Enjoy our ice cream."

August listens to all of that with a placid expression overlaid on growing amazement. Presently he gives Alexander a sidelong glance. For the kiss, or the living room floor? Could be either. Probably both. There's an unspoken suggestion in his eyes that Alexander should learn how to scrub memory and emotional residue off things if he doesn't already know how, and make use of it on that carpet immediately.

"Bennie that means you're not dealing with it. It means you're spiraling out of control. But," another look for Alexander, this one of understanding, "we can take a second to have some ice cream, as long as you agree to be honest and open with us." He pauses for a bite. "And you haven't answered his question, about checking to see if you're telling the truth."

Alexander stops. He blinks. "On my living room floor?" He thinks about that for a long moment, then just laughs, helplessly, even moving to take a seat on a box near her, thump, so he can laugh some more. "That's great." He's not sarcastic. "I mean, the last thing of note that happened on that floor is that I bashed my own brains out with a table leg. So, um, good job on finding a better use for it." He grins. "Like I said, Bennie, we don't have to talk about it now. Or even today. Ice cream," a waggle of the spoon, before he takes another bite, "and friendship. Just know that you really don't have to deal with this shit on your own." And since he's local, it's not like he hadn't heard the occasional rumors about Bennie's father, so his voice is more than a bit sharp as he adds, "You never should have had to deal with it in the first place." A helpless little shrug at August at the sidelong look. He adds, "Yeah, she did. She said she'd let us help." A glance back to Bennie. "Yeah?"

Bennie can't help but crack a smile as Alexander actually congratulates her for the floor gymnastics with Tor, his laugh always an instant way to genuinely brighten up the blonde. "I know, August. I just...didn't want to deal with it by being sad this time. I'm so tired of being sad about Easton, but it bubbles up anyways." Bennie gives a numb little nod when it comes to her father, really the fact that they're here and she's eating frozen sugar milk is the only reason she's still awake. Likely she didn't get much if any sleep in the cell last night. "I'll let you help." She says quietly, including them both with that sentiment. This is why Texans have y'all. "And if you need to...scan me, Alexander, just a heads up would be nice."

August manages a soft chuckle when Alexander cracks up like that. It takes him a second (and a little more ice cream) to stop. "Oh, I know how that is, Bennie. Just..." He sighs, runs a hand over his face. "That can be just as bad, as being unhappy about it. Worse, sometimes. And we just want you to be okay. To be safe." 'Happy' can wait. 'Safe' and 'okay' are another story.

He makes a low sound of agreement with Alexander. "That shouldn't have fallen to you. So don't ever feel like you have to be alone in dealing with it." He nods at Alexander, accepting a need to not scan Bennie since she's agreed to help.

Alexander visibly brightens as Bennie smiles, although it fades into a more complex expression as she goes on. He nods to August, and adds, "Sometimes the only way to get past the sad is to really let yourself feel it. Pushing it away just means it always there, seeping into everything like sewer water on Elm." There's a wink for his fellow once-dweller on Elm. But he doesn't try to push it any further than that, just saying, "I'm not gonna scan you without your permission, Bennie. Or unless I think you're about to die or something. Then you can just be mad at me. But, for now?" He leans over and his spoon darts out towards her pint, "I am gonna try to steal a bite of your ice cream."

Successful or not, it signals a turn back to lighter conversation, and possibly a brief duel of spoons as ice cream and company is enjoyed.