Log: Terry, Tommy and Bobby.

[x-coldhands.livejournal.com]

Terry has breakfast with Tommy, then gives him a guitar lesson. Bobby doesn't take the sight of them together well, after last night's revelation, and there is some yelling and punching of things, and the gym gets a makeover.


Terry shook her head, "It's easy enough. Just takes practice is all." She ate the last forkful of her omelette and gave Tommy a smile, "Come on. Finish up and I'll show you." She gestured at the plate of food that he was picking through. She'd been surprised to run into him in the kitchen that morning but figured it would be a good opportunity to have him be around other people without getting into a fight. She'd asked him to eat breakfast with her and had made him put away his most recent novel so they could talk.

Tommy rolled his eyes. Mentally, he was telling himself that he never should have given in to his urge for a glass of milk, thus being roped into breakfast and now guitar lessons after an odd comment, but he couldn't make himself regret it either. He never regretted time with Terry, especially when she wasn't yelling at him. Sighing, he took one more bite of cold egg before standing to dump the plate in the sink. Picking up his current book, a paperback collection of myths of King Arthur, Tommy shoved it into his back pocket since he knew he wasn't going to get a chance to continue it for some time. "You think it's easy because you have done it for years! I'm all lead fingers...literally." His voice was deadpanned, not sure if he was quite joking or not.

"I've played harp for years. I've only played guitar for a year," Terry corrected as she cleared her plate. "Besides, your hands look nimble enough to me and lead fingers just means that you won't have to worry about building up calluses first." She grinned, "I'll just run up and get Patience. Meet me in the rec room, okay?"

As if he could refuse her anything. Tommy let out a defeated sigh as dumped more then half his breakfast into the garbage. "I'll be there."

Terry was congratulating herself on her plan as she dashed up to her room and back down again, her guitar case in one hand and a beginner's book in her other. The rec room was still fairly empty when she got there, just Tommy waiting--glowering really. She tilted her head to the side, "You don't have to do this. I just thought it might be fun."

Rolling his shoulders and letting out a deep breath, Tommy tried very hard to relax. "You are right...this will be fun. I'm still stuck in defensive mode when outside the safety of my room, or so it seems. I apologize." Looking up at her, he gave Terry a small smile to show his sincerity. "Come teach me how to play."

Terry set the case and book on the ping pong table--because it was there--and opened the case to take out the sleek guitar Alison had given her. "You should sit down, it will be easier for you to learn if you don't have to worry about dropping her."

Nodding at her instructions, Tommy moved to sit on the couch, with plenty of room left for her. "Wouldn't want to do that." He watched her move, noticing the light the came into her eyes at the sight of the beloved instrument and had to bite back a thought of jealousy.

She settled next to him, half-facing him. "Okay, hold the neck in your left hand and the belly with your right. Sit forward a bit and lean forward." She chewed on her lower lip as she adjusted his posture. "And rest her right across your left knee."

He was all very serious, holding the instrument as carefully as a child as he responded to her instruction, but the light touch to his knee, made him jerk with a small laugh. "Hey! That tickled."

Terry giggled, "Sorry. I just wanted you to move your leg just so," she nudged him again to make sure he was supporting Patience properly. "That's good. Okay, your right hand is fine. Now with your left," she raised her own hand and mimed what she wanted him to do as she explained it, "Press down on the second string like this."

Watching her, Tommy tried mimicing her actions with his hand, but he kept having to look down and then up at her again to make sure he was doing it right. "Like this?" He asked when he finally got his hand to look something like what she was showing him.

It didn't look like he was holding it down quite right. "Well, let's see. Go ahead and strum it and see how she sounds." Terry pondered how she could show him more effectively.

By strum, Tommy hoped she meant play as he dragged his thumb across the strings. Both teenagers winced at the sour note.

Terry made a face. "Right. Let's try this then." She got out and went around to sit on his other side, behind the neck of the guitar. Placing a hand on his back for stability, she reached up and curled her hand around the neck just above his and held down the same chord she'd been describing. "Like this, see? Only hold down the one."

"Oh." Well, now her hand gestures made sense as he saw it on the strings. Tommy moved his hand into an identical position and tried strumming again. This time, the note was clear and he couldn't help but shoot Terry a grin.

Terry grinned back. "Very good. Now do this." She shifted her hand position and waited to make sure he could mimic it. "We're just doing chords right now, since those are easy to learn. But you'll see, we'll have you playing Stairway to Heaven in no time."

"Then I guess I should plan time for guitar lessons when I create a class schedule." He kidded her with a slight nudge in the side with his elbow before putting his attention back to mimicking her hand position. Strumming, he wasn't quite satisfied and adjusted it so his finger was more over the string. Strumming again Tommy broke into a grin again.

Terry laughed, "Aye, so you should have. You still can. I'm certain that we could find the time. Alison is a better teacher than I am, to be sure. You should see if she'd teach you." She reached her hand around and adjusted his fingers. "You're doing well."

"But I don't want Alison as a teacher. Not to mention I'm sure it would help your technique to teach it to someone else." Tommy's first statement had been slightly desperate, wanting the time to spend with one of his few friends, but he tired to hide it but adding the second a bit matter of factly. But his grin from before remained thanks to her praise.

Terry smile softened, "Well, I'll talk to her then. I have a lot of music classes already but I'll try to fit it in my schedule." She was already mentally juggling her schedule, crammed full as it was already and AP tests were coming up still. Terry was looking ahead to a spring semester that included precious little free time but she would try to find just a bit more for Tommy. "Here's the next chord."

And even a few minutes here and there were good enough for Tommy and he nodded his thanks at her to consider it. "Right then." He again moved to mimic her hand position, face set in concentration, though he was practically glowing inside.

He fumbled it and made her laugh before she adjusted his fingering, her hand over his. It was nice to be able to just spend time with him without worrying about what he thought or believed. When she could just pretend he had never hurt people she loved. "See, you're a natural."

Bobby had followed the sound of Terry's voice to the rec room as he wandered the halls looking for her, but he'd frozen a few feet from the doorway as he heard Tommy reply. He crept to the doorway and looked in, seeing their heads bent together over the guitar, laughing and touching, and it was all too much after last night. He sucked in a sharp breath and whirled, hurrying toward the gym instead. He'd just punch some stuff, maybe that'd make him feel better.

Terry's hearing was sensitive enough that she'd heard the footsteps coming close but had ignored them, figuring it would be good for whoever it was to see Tommy interacting like a normal person. The sharp gasp made her look up just in time to see Bobby hurry away. She went pale. "I'm sorry, I have to go," she said to Tommy, running off without waiting for his reply. "Bobby. Bobby, wait!"

Bobby ignored her, moving from a fast walk to a jog, dodging around another student to avoid knocking her over with a mumbled apology.

What was he even doing here? The last Terry knew, he was planning on staying until next Tuesday. This made him almost a week early and he hadn't called her. "Bobby, please stop." She broke into a flat out run, panic lending her speed. "Wait!"

Bobby stopped and shot her a betrayed look. "Go back to your little FoH friend, Terry. I don't feel like talking right now," he snapped, and continued on, back to a quick walk.

"Bobby, nothing was going on!" She caught up to him and grabbed his arm, "When did you get back? Did something happen? Please don't just walk away from me."

Bobby jerked his arm away, glaring at her, anger at everyone--at Tommy, at Ronnie, at the people that had held him hostage, at Terry for defending them--filling him up until he thought he'd scream or explode. "Yes, something happened!" he yelled. "The fucking FoH happened! They always happen! Now leave--me--alone!" He took a stumbling step away from her, his vision clouded with red, and sprinted down the hallway to the stairs, going down them fast enough to break a leg if he were to miss a step.

Terry stumbled when he jerked away and caught herself on the wall, eyes wide with horror. It was a moment or two before she followed him, running after him. His longer legs and his head start gave him the advantage though and by the time she reached the bottom of the stairs he was no where to be seen. Stunned, she started off in what she thought was the most likely direction.

Bobby grabbed the gym door and jerked it open, making a beeline for the heavy bag and punching it, hard, letting out a rather primal yell. He started pounding it, kicking, punching, an aura of cold surrounding him.

Terry skidded into the gym a few moments later and immediately started shivering as the temperature in the room plummeted. The fury in his movement terrified her as much as his shouting earlier had and what she'd been planning to say died on her tongue. She pressed back against the wall, though she didn't think he'd hurt her. After a while she managed a shaky call, "Bobby, I'm sorry."

Bobby's blows faltered, his fists still poised to punch the bag, but still. "...Leave me alone," he said flatly, and resumed punching.

"Please, don't do this. Tell me what's wrong. What happened?" Because for him to be home meant that there was more to this than just her laughing with Tommy. It meant something was wrong at home and..."Did the FoH try to hurt your family?"

Worse...they're destroying it from the inside. Bobby let out another frustrated yell and swung his leg in a roundhouse kick, slamming it into the heavy bag. "Go away!" he yelled again, as the wall next to the heavy bag began to glisten, coated with a sheet of steadily thickening ice.

But she didn't want to go away. She wanted to make him not mad at her. To make him talk to her and explain what's hurting him. Terry shivers again, starting to ache from the chill. "Bobby, please. Why won't you just talk to me?"

"Because I don't want to talk to a fucking bigot-defending TRAITOR! " Bobby screamed, the ice creeping along the walls, a similar sheen starting to form on sections of his body. He ignored her and redoubled his efforts, moving around the bag, trying to drive his fist through it.

She realized she was crying when the tears began to freeze on her cheeks. She pushed away from the wall and stumbled back to the door, ice covering the wall where she'd been leaning. At the door, she stopped, holding herself up on the doorframe. "I'm not. I would never." Her voice broke. "I'm sorry. You can't mean that."

Bobby didn't stop moving around the bag, punching and kicking, but he did say in a dead voice, "...No. I didn't mean that. Now go away."

Terry didn't know whether or not to believe him but it was better than nothing. She nodded sharply once and stumbled away, the warmth of the hallway like a balm after the chill of the gym and it all went to her head at once. Tears and panic and heat sent her vision swimming. She fell back against the corridor wall and slid down it as she blacked out.