Doug, Paige and a little spat

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Doug opened his door and padded across the hall. He tapped lightly on Paige's door, fidgeting slightly.

"It's open!" was Paige's short reply from within.

~Oh dear,~ was Doug's thought. He was tempted to just turn around and retreat across the hall. But forcing a fake smile on his face, he opened the door and peeked in. "Hey, Paige."

Paige was bent over her desk, writing in one of the many notebooks that were spread across the surface. Her textbooks and a large array of pens were also present as were her glasses on her nose. She didn't look up as she answered. "Hey, Doug. How can I help you?"

Doug bit his lip hesitantly as he read the tension rolling off of Paige. "Um, just thought we should maybe figure out when we're going to do study sessions."

"Right, right hold on." She finished a scribble with a flourish and looked up at him, glasses slipping down her nose. "When are you free?"

Doug looked pensive for a moment, backtracking through his schedule mentally. He shrugged. "Generally, most evenings. What's your schedule look like?"

"Hectic," she replied, pushing up her glasses. Paige grabbed her agenda book and leaned back in her chair, flipping through it. "I'm usually free on... Tuesdays, though. Or at least at some point of most evenings."

Doug nodded. "Tuesday sounds good to me. Think one session a week will be good enough, or do you want to have another session that we just kinda fit in where we can?"

"Let's start with Tuesday and add as we need to." Paige picked up one her pens, blue, shook her head and picked up another in green before finally settling on a pencil and writing something down. "Sounds good then. Thanks. Anything else?"

Doug shrugged and attempted to look nonchalant. "Just sort of generic social stuff. How's life, how's Angelo, et cetera."

She tried to smile, setting her book down. "Decent, you'd have to ask him, and I answer your et cetera with one of my own. In that order. How about yourself? You can skip the Angelo question."

Doug scuffed a foot, hesitant at being put on the spot. "You know me. Classes are fine, and life is okay. Except for the usual making a fool of myself over a girl. But I've already told you about that."

"Good to hear, all of it really. I'm sure most girls find the making a fool of thing endearing." Paige's fingers drummed a beat into her knee as she answered and through the pause.

"You didn't," Doug blurted out before he thought. Closing his eyes, he muttered. "Sorry. I'm just...a little frazzled where Marie is concerned. Forget I said that?"

Paige sighed, the tapping put on pause with her fingers still poised delicately. "Sorry for what? It's forgotten."

Doug sighed in reply. "I...would you rather I went? You seem...preoccupied."

"New classes, Doug. Of course I am, please don't act as if you're so surprised. I haven't had time to be several chapters ahead yet and it makes me nervous." The words sound slightly forced, but they're not quite a lie, more not a whole truth.

Doug shook his head. "That's not it. Or to be more precise, that's not _all_ of it, is it?"

Paige's eyes narrowed ever so slightly. "I know you can't turn off your mutation but do learn not to be so forceful about it."

Doug winced almost as if hit. "Sorry. That was a bit blunt of me. I just...sorry."

"Accepted," she replied but offered no more.

Doug shrugged. "It's just...I can't turn it off. And I worry."

"I know," she answered again, going back to tapping out on her knee. "It's fine. Apology already accepted."

Doug's eyes narrowed at the tapping. "I...if you want to talk..."

Her reply was short but could have been much more unkind. "I don't. Thanks anyway, though."

Doug nodded. "Just thought I'd offer. Dunno if it'd help. You just...seem a little frazzled yourself."

"It won't. It's not a talking thing. I'll just work through it like I do everything else." Paige sat up in her chair.

Doug wrapped his arms around himself, aware he was walking on thin ice. "If there's anything I can do to help..."

"There's not. Thank you. Again." Her reply was crisp, the tension moving up her shoulders.

Doug closed his eyes and shook his hands in frustration. "So I get to just sit here and watch whatever it is eat you up? Joy."

"Perhaps you should go back to your room then. Less painful for you." It was a clear dismissal, and she swiveled in her chair, picking up one of her pencils to continue formula working.

Doug finally reached a boiling point. "Pity? What is it with you girls and thinking that just because I'm concerned about your well-being, it's automatically about pity? Gah! It's _not_ about pity. It's just about me being your friend, seeing all that tension you're very carefully avoiding talking about, and being concerned!"

"I was more thinking about pulling a pity card for yourself, _actually_," Paige answered smoothly, flicking her eyes over to him for just a moment. "But your concern, as I have stated repeatedly, is appreciated. Thank you. It's just not solving anything right now, is it?"

Doug blinked. "Pity card for _me_? How so?"

Paige gave him a frustrated noise, putting her pencil back down. "I don't want to talk with you, share with you my deepest secrets and let you make everything all better and you seem to think this is reason enough to try and make me feel guilty. Watching things eating you up? Joy?"

Doug made a similarly frustrated noise. "I didn't say you had to share your deepest secrets. Just whatever's bothering you. And I didn't mean to make you feel guilty. It just...hurts to see my friends hurting and not be able to do anything about it."

"That's right Doug, you _can't_ do anything about it. No one can. I'm sorry, but no amount of talking is going to solve this, as much as you'd like it to. Some things can't be solved by talking!" She spun herself around to look at him again. "So, I'm sorry that my problems are such a hardship for you, but perhaps if this is such a difficulty, your not being able to solve everything, then it is _you_ you should be giving a sound talking to, hm?"

Doug closed his eyes to avoid showing the hurt in them. He spoke quietly. "Right. Sorry to have bothered you. Enjoy your studying." Then, very quietly, he turned and let himself out, the careful lack of noise in shutting Paige's door just as much a statement as slamming would have been.

Paige let out a long breath and resisted picking up her textbook to throw after him. "I need to stop answering the door."