{"id":11096,"date":"2014-04-29T01:34:55","date_gmt":"2014-04-29T01:34:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/2014\/04\/29\/skinnydefenselessheroism-iamthefirechild-52\/"},"modified":"2014-04-29T01:34:55","modified_gmt":"2014-04-29T01:34:55","slug":"skinnydefenselessheroism-iamthefirechild-52","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/2014\/04\/29\/skinnydefenselessheroism-iamthefirechild-52\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

skinnydefenselessheroism<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

iamthefirechild<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Summer doesn\u2019t notice the momentary change in his body language; she\u2019s fallen too far inside herself and all she sees right now is the need to run away.<\/p>\n

Hell is other people; hell is herself.<\/p>\n

“You\u2019re welcome.” Somehow, \/somehow\/, in spite of all that, the words, the smile are still genuine. “Thank you again for bringing my rapscallion home. I\u2019ll see you tomorrow night, okay? Please let me know if you aren\u2019t going to be able to make it.” And then he\u2019s out the door, snd she closes it and slides down to sit on the floor with her knees to her chest and her head on her knees. Running away from herself just as hard as she can.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

Even though there hadn\u2019t been a message, Summer still doesn\u2019t expect to see Stiles at the bowling alley. That\u2019s not how her life works. Jesse is there; of course he is there, three lanes over and she can\u2019t keep herself from glancing over too often. She\u2019s never been one for the razor blade, but then again why cut your skin when you can make yourself bleed so much more on the inside?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a little after midnight, and she\u2019s canvassing the racks for the perfect weight ball, light enough she can throw it but with finger holes she can actually use. Beth and Zenobia are basically just waiting on her, and she\u2019s loitering at the racks nearest the doors, hoping she might be wrong this one time.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

On some level, Stiles isn\u2019t even sure why he showed up. It isn\u2019t often\u2014ever<\/em>, if he\u2019s being honest with himself, that people who\u00a0aren\u2019t Scott<\/em>, basically, ask him to go do things. He usually has to shoe-horn himself in. Being invited to\u00a0anything<\/em>, Still, he\u2019s decided maybe this time he shouldn\u2019t\u00a0talk himself<\/em> out of the idea of\u00a0socializing<\/em> with\u00a0new people<\/em>. He reminds himself several times before he arrives that Summer seemed\u00a0adamant<\/em> that it\u00a0isn\u2019t a date<\/em>. That\u2019s fine.<\/p>\n

He creeps in the door of the bowling alley, hoping it\u2019s the\u00a0right<\/em> bowling alley. He very much hasn\u2019t dressed up, which for Stiles means jeans and a screen t-shirt (this one showing the schematics of the Millenium Falcon\u2014and a contrasting plaid shirt over top. He looks\u00a0completely<\/em> out of his depth somehow.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Summer practically pounces on him. “You came, I didn’t think you were going to come, oh my god!” She grabs his arm and tows him over to the desk. “There’s just a couple of my other friends here.” While they wait for the guy manning the desk to get back from wherever he’s wandered off to, she pulls Stiles around so she can stare unabashedly at his shirt, smoothing out wrinkles and peering at the tiny writing.<\/p>\n

“That,” she says at last, “is a good shirt. I need to finish the Lego Falcon some day.” The guy \/still\/ hasn’t come back yet, and she turns to point to the lane at the far end of the alley. “We’re down there. That’s Beth, she’s an artist, and Zenobia.”<\/p>\n

“And I’m Jesse.” The deep voice comes from behind them, and Summer spins around with a muffled shriek. “What are you doing here? With a guy? Suckering someone else into your little web, witch?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

skinnydefenselessheroism: iamthefirechild: Summer doesn\u2019t notice the momentary change in his body language; she\u2019s fallen too far inside herself and all she sees right now is the need to run away. Hell is other people; hell is herself. “You\u2019re welcome.” Somehow, \/somehow\/, in spite of all that, the words, the smile are still genuine. “Thank you … Continue reading <\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,867,21],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11096"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11096\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}