A Hard Night's Day (Everyone Welcome!)

"Oh give it a rest!"she cried. "You aren't LIVING, you're barely here half the time! And you take advantage of me because I have always cared about you and you always shit on my willingness to help you! I have always been the one to clean you up when you were in the God damn gutter and then, once you were cleaned up, you turned and scowled at me like the usual Tobias Williams!"

Her hands clenched into fists and she glared up at him. Even though he was bigger than her, she knew that he had depended on her for a lot in the past. For years, she had been the one to help him whenever he really needed it. And for years, he had never once been nice to her for more than an hour at a time. Enough was enough. She was sick of it.

Tobias stared at her for a long while, his jaw slackened slightly. Rage was still lingering in his eyes, and with one hand on his hip, the other running over the stubble on his chin, he began to pace.

He breathed heavily through his nose like a bull about to charge the red flag. He opened his mouth to speak, but the words caught in his throat. Again, Tobias opened his mouth, pointing at Amy but drew his finger to his lips and paused.

He didn't know how to respond, that much was obvious. He was pissed beyond measure, but that two was clear. Yet he didn't know how to feel, how to think. He just looked at her with such disbelief.

Tobias hadn't known she had felt that way for so long, it was like a steamroller had run him over. "Fine," he said, a hint of frustration and swift anger in his voice. "Fine."

Amorina watched him, her hands on her hips, one eyebrow raised and her hips cocked. Every time he opened his mouth to say something, she would raise her eyebrows, waiting for him to say something. He didn't until he said "Fine."

"That's it. That is all you can say? Fine?!"

Groaning, she sat back down and put her head in her hands. She could feel her headache beginning to grow and took a deep breath, slowly letting it out. "What the hell Toby..."

Tobias pinched the bridge of his nose and sunk low into his chair. His whole body hurt and this sudden outburst wasn't helping his hang-over, or his heart.

"I'm..." it was much more difficult to say the words. "I'm, well...er... I'm sorry. I didn't...." Tobias let the words die on the tip of his tongue. This was horrible. He passed a hand over his face and let out a heavy sigh.

||Bah...ick post. ||

Feeling the extra weight move the bench, her body stiffened. She was about to get about again, to storm away and yell at him. It was more than a surprise when he apologized.

Her eyes gazed at the floor, her hands holding her head. Of all the times she had yelled at him, this may have been one of those rare times he apologized. It wasn't like him. She almost hated it, but she loved when he realized how much of an ass he was. Heaving a sigh, she ran her hands through her hair.

"I know you didn't... But you do it all the time Toby."

She finally looked at him. Her oldest friend, yet he really was not aware of how much she cared about him. He had been in her life for such a long time without losing touch.

"I'm sorry, butI just can't keep this up. I've been too nice to people and never appreciated for it..."

Tobias let out another sigh and raked his hands through his hair. “I know…I know…” He leaned back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling. His knees scrapped across the underside of the table and he cursed, leaning forward again.

“Look…if I’m ever…you know…an ass, let me know. I’ll try not to get defensive.” What else could he say other than that? He fiddled with his nose-ring and lit another cigarette. “You can trust me, yeah?” Tobias added between clinched teeth. He gave her a soft, half-smile and inhaled deeply.

||Uuugh, it's just crap... >.<||

It killed her to see him like this. She could usually handle him, just shrug off everything he said and move on. It wasn't like he really meant all the rude things he'd say. Toby would never meaningly hurt her, she knew that for a fact. There had been many incidents when he could and he never did. Sometimes she did have to interfere and use her gift to keep him at bay, but still... It was a very uncommon moment. They had been such good friends; she hated scolding him. It made her feel like a total bitch.

"Yes, I know,"she muttered, barely speaking. There was a certain part of her that wondered, though. Could she still trust him? She had been able to for years, so what would be the difference from then and now? Amorina sighed and leaned against the table, arching her back a tad to crack it before she sat upright.

Looking over at him, she smiled a little. "I'm sorry... But you deserved that."

Her smile turned into a smirk and she nudged him gently, jokingly.

Tobias passed a hand slowly over his face and sighed once more. "I deserve a lot of things," he said rubbing the stubble on his chin with the palm of his hand. He couldn't help but smile at her nudge.

"Okay, stop giving me the pity look," he muttered with a soft laugh. "you have a way of making people feel utterly aware of themselves you know that...some people might even call it a gift... I don't know."

He pushed her back, perhaps a little too roughly, he wasn't used to the straight he had been gaining with his new routine. "So, what are you to do now? Now that you're back, I mean."

It was mid-afternoon when Vinny finally awoke. It took her an hour after that to physically get out of bed, and then another half hour to make it look like she didn’t just walk in off the streets. Back at home, the next part of the day involved getting tea. Vinny intended to keep that part of her schedule somewhat the same, however, actually getting up and walking down to the coffee house seemed like a lot more effort then Vinny was willing to put forth. Instead, she set off for the next best thing which was the schools dining hall.

Once she arrived there, she acquired a piping hot mug of chai tea and a seat at the table. Now all she needed was a cigarette and this day looked like it was going to be a good one! Reaching into the pocket of her jeans, she pulled a cigarette out of the box. Taking her lighter from her other pocket, she flicked it a few times to try and make the little flame appear.

For some reason, no matter how many times she tried the stupid thing wouldn't light! She shook it next to her ear and discovered her problem: it was out of fluid.

"Ehh!" she whined to herself re-pocketing the useless lighter.

She had another one, but that was all the way back at her room! Did that means she had to move again? She started to take the cigarette out of her mouth when she saw two people talking a little ways down. One of them was smoking. She hated to ask, but her laziness over-ruled her shy-ness. She slowly walked over to them and waited until they had stopped talking to intrude.

"Um, excuse me? Do you have a lighter I could borrow for a second?" she asked the boy who had the cigarette in his hand.

(Minor epic posting fail.)

Tobias looked up and raised a thick brow. Did a student just ask him for a light? Really? Being the school counselor, he had two options. One, state firmly that she is too young. Thus making himself out to be a hypocrite. Hadn't he started smoking at a much younger age than she? Then there was Two, give her his lighter and just chock it up to not caring.

"You're too young to be smoking," Tobias said at last flicking her his bic and leaning back in his chair, giving Amy a look that clearly stated they could talk about the personal strife later. He raked a hand through his hair and sighed. "So...you must be a new student?" he asked, turning his attention back to Vinny.

The hangover made his thick Irish tongue almost unruly. Sure Amy could understand him, she was used to Tobias, but those new to the way his accent work around his tongue and the vowels would find it more difficult and so he spoke slowly when addressing Vinny.

She opened her mouth to talk when a younger girl came up to them. She had to be a student, for she had never seen her near the teacher's lounge. It seemed almost ridiculous that the girl would ask for cigarettes. It was no surprise that she immediately hovered to Tobias, but she was shocked to see him give her the lighter.

"Tobias! Why would you give her that?!"

She gently hit him on the arm and scowled. He never learned.

Amorina looked at the girl and shook her head. "How old are you?"

[wow i suck at life.]

One prominent fault about Vinny: she couldn't judge age for shit. Any person with half a brain would have realized that the two people were older than she was!

Internally she told herself to leave the room right away, sticking around might result in serious trouble. Avoiding that seemed like a good idea, seeing as it was still only her first week of school. Even as her common sense nagged, she slid a cigarette between her lips and flicked it alight with the borrowed lighter.

"Yeah I'm new here, that obvious? And I'm uh... eighteen..." she lied quietly, glancing down at her shoes as she handed the lighter back.

Maybe they wouldn’t notice she was lying to them? Right, and maybe this Tobias person wasn’t the least bit Irish.

(*sigh* -.-)

||eep, I didn't realize it was my turn.||

Tobias raised a thick brow. "Sure you are," he said to Vinny swiping the lighter out of her hand. He ignored Amy's look and focused on his coffee. "You shouldn't smoke you know," he said. "It's bad for you. Turns your lungs black."

He stood and stretched his arms high above his head, moving his shoulders backward until his back popped. He twisted his neck from once side to the other, loosening the joints with a sickening sound.

Tobias was working on quiting the habit, but it was difficult. "You got a name?" he asked Vinny.

Amorina rolled her eyes at Tobias and crossed her legs. Why he became a teacher, she would never know. But he was a good one, just bad with judgment. He had always been that way though, as far back as she could remember. Good ol' Toby.

Memories made her smiling, almost unwantingly, but she quickly turned her attention back to the student. She seemed...eccentric. She definitely had a style of her own, this one. This girl reminded Amy of her cousin, Clara (which was not always a good thing), and so she slowly allowed some of her own power to engulf her. Amy did not want to be affected in any way by anyone.

Tobias' habit made Amorina cringe and shudder. "Must you do that while I eat..."
She glanced up at him under her bangs and pouted.

"Maybe I just like watching you cringe, love," Tobias said casually with no air of malice. He settled back into his chair and kicked at the one in front of him. "You can sit you know," he said to Vinny. "The big bad wolf ain't gonna bite... though she might," he added indicating Amy with a sly grin.

He clicked his tongue and sipped on his coffee. "Right, so... how old are you? Honest this time yeah? And I still need your name. Not many come inta see the school counselor right? That's what student files are for...to pass the time." He grinned wider and wondered, briefly, what had made Amy smile.