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Léan watched it swim around, quietly. "..." He seemed to be drifting back into some unpleasant thoughts.
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"You're thinking about whatever it is again," Glory couldn't help but comment. As if it weren't obvious. "Still going to stay silent about it?"
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Léan frowned. "It's nothing...it's really nothing..." he grumbled, once again going quite pink. For a guy, he sure was fond of beating around the bush instead of just saying it straight out.
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"It's not nothing if you're blushing about it," Glory pointed out. "I would dunk you until you're ready to talk, but that would be redundant, so you could just make it easy and say something, at least."
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Léan coughed, his shoulders going up to his chin. "...Gah." He looked like he had been working something up, but it had been beaten back down with a proverbial blunt object by his embarrassment.
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"If you're worried about me repeating it to anyone, you don't need to," Glory said. "Honestly, who could I possibly tell?" At least, she hoped that was the source of his embarassment.
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"No, no, no...it's not that. It's my own damned insecurities and all that wonderful jazz," Léan assured her, leaning back in the shallow water to get his hair wet once more.
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"That's what friends are for, you know," Glory reminded him. Absently, she dug her toes into the sand.
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"But I can't talk to y--" Quickly, Léan caught himself, and went a bit pinker. "..."
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Glory raised an eyebrow.
"You can't talk to me about what?" she asked. There was no way she could miss THAT slip. |
"...It would make things ten times as awkward as they are now if I tried to talk to you about what is bothering me," Léan attempted to explain, cheeks pink.
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Glory gave him a critical look.
"...If you say so," she said finally, dropping the subject. She couldn't force him to talk if he didn't want to, after all. |
Léan shifted. He hadn't expected her to drop it--he'd expected, and hoped, she would persist. His arms twitched a bit, like he was thinking of doing something but didn't seem to have the courage to do it...
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Glory saw the surprise on his face, and was a bit confused. Had he actually expected her to keep pushing the subject?
"Are you sure you don't want to talk?" she asked, testing the theory. |
Léan chewed his lip for a moment. "...'Talk' might not be the best term for it..." he admitted, finally. "I, uh...I have confidence issues, as you probably already know...so it is a problem for me to talk about something I find a sensitive or embarrassing subject...unless I'm heavily pressed or questioned about it...then I tend to let things slip..."
True, he had let the 'you' part slip... |
Yeah, she'd noticed. Slip, thy name is Freud.
"Go on," she said instead. |
"...I halfway wish my brother was here so he could blurt it out," Léan grumbled. "He can read me so easily."
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"If he's as good at reading you as you say, I can put a call through back home, if you want," Glory said, teasing gently. "I did offer."
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Léan bit his lip, and then nodded. "That would probably be best...I'm sorry--I'm such an idiot when it comes to speaking my mind about things like this..."
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"Alright," Glory said, going over to where her dry clothes were folded on the sand. rummaging through a pocket of her shorts, she pulled out her cell phone. Hitting the speed-dial 1 key, and then the speaker key, she waited as it rang on the other end.
"Hello?" Nana's voice picked up from the other end. "Hey, Nana," Glory replied. "Gloriana? Why are you calling, is something wrong?" Nana sounded worried. "No, Nana, I'm fine, nothing is wrong. I just need a favor." "Glory, you're in Hawaii, what could you possibly need?" Nana asked. Glory grinned. Well, she knew where she got her sass from. "I actually need to talk to Archie," she replied. "Take the phone outside and try to get his attention." "I won't ask," Nana replied. Glory could hear the back door opening, and a breeze blowing across the phone's speaker from the other end. Patiently, she waited for Nana to find Archie. |
Archie's chirping was heard soon enough. There were a few garbled questions in the background that sounded suspiciously like 'What's that?' and 'Does it taste good?' Then, Archie's voice called out, "They can hear me through this rectangle-thing? Hiiii, guys!"
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"No, I really don't think plastic tastes good, Archie," Glory commented dryly. "We can both hear you over here just fine."
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"This thing is cool?" There were a few more garbled noises, possibly Archie poking at the phone. "Why're you guys calling? Miss me already?"
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"Something like that," Glory said. "Your brother is tripping over his own tongue again." She heard a few distinct sounds from the other end of the phone. "Stop pushing the buttons and focus."
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"What's it about this time? How's he acting and stuff, what's he look like?" Archie's expert 'I-know-what's-wrong-and-it's-embarrassing-so-I'll-blurt-it-out-for-the-world-to-hear' sense started to kick in.
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