paradisalost | (no subject)

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Who: Jo Harvelle Max Guevara, Alaric Saltzman -- and SOMEONE?
Where: Corner booth at the Lux.
When: Late, a bit before/after closing. Mostly after this conversation with Sam.
What: Drinking. Lots of drinking and feeling like shit.
Note: ANYONE is welcome. PROSE or [SPAM] is a-okay with me.

It wasn't as if she hadn't considered things with her and Sam different, but she never thought of it as weird. She never wanted to be something Sam could just discard like that. Everything, everything she'd been through - that he'd been through... she just thought that he was getting better. Maybe better was glossing it over too much.

Jo's hand moved to cup to the glass she'd emptied, staring at the ridges at the bottom of the glass. Her other hand grabbed the bottle, nearly half-way empty by now, as she poured herself another drink.

If she wanted to get technical, really get down to the line, she had died for them. She had stayed behind so that they could get a run at Lucifer and then it didn't even work. Her mom died and it was for nothing. If anything it should be weird for her to be around them. Sam had been possessed and tortured her. She forgave him and they moved on.

Maybe being with him had been a mistake from the start. She knew that getting in with Dean would've been a ticking time bomb, but maybe that was what she needed. Maybe she needed something that had an expiration date so that when things got too difficult she could just pull the cord and be done with it. Then things could go back to the way they were.

Really, that's all she wanted. Things to be normal. Years of the road, of the hunt, of being alone or being the one left behind -- all she wanted was something that was stable. For the first time ever and what did she have? Something 'weird' with her ex, who she still considered her friend, another friend avoiding her because something was going on that he didn't feel like telling her -- and whatever it was had cut off the random fun things they had been doing when they weren't just hanging out and drinking.

What was her problem? Really. What had she done in her life that had made her this messed up when it came to relationships? Her folks managed to work out the hunt and the married thing. Her mom didn't really so much as look at another man after William passed. Yet here she was, last chance to have anything and she had nothing.

Nothing except this bottle of Jack and another empty glass.

Pouring another drink, she figured it was a start.

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[Jo was fidgeting with the bottle when Alaric came over. It wasn't as if she wanted to be a depressing sad-sack of an alcoholic, but at the moment she wasn't sure if her other coping methods would actually help. Taking a slow breath, she went to gesture to the open seat, but then realized she only had the one glass in front of herself.]

If you want a drink, you'll have to fetch a glass first - but you're welcome to join me. I'll be less of an alcoholic if I don't drink alone.

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[She took in a deep breath, sighing as she exhaled it through her nose.]

No, I guess it'd eat away at my profits and stock pretty quick. [At his offer for food, she smiled a bit.]

A mean sandwich? What if I wanted a friendly one?

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That sounds perfect, Alaric. A happy peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Max had seen Jo drink before, but this was different. She knew the difference between drinking for fun and 'give me the bottle so I can drown myself'. She wasn't sure what was going on, but she was worried. Jo wasn't the drown herself type -- at least not in the time that she knew her. Which meant something had happened, which wasn't exactly giving Max the warm and fuzzies.

She wandered over as she wiped down the tables for the end of the night, before nodding to the bottle.

"What's the occasion?"

Mid-swallow of another drink, Jo glanced up from behind the rim of the glass. When she finished that, her hand set the glass down easily, shrugging in response to Max and her question.

"No occasion. Just figured I could drink a bit more tonight."

Max nodded a bit, making her way over to the next table and tipping her head to the side. "Wasn't that busy a night. Didn't realize that a slow night was an occasion for drinking."

Back home, maybe. Here in the castle, not so much.

Jo shook her head, then slowly let it thunk to the surface of the table. She was pretty sure her hair was in that glass.

"Things are weird."

There was a bit of a smile, before she stopped wiping the table, moving to sit across from her and pulling the bottle back a little.

"You're kind of weird, my kind of weird, or an actual normal person's kind of weird?"

The fact that they needed that kind of qualification said so much about their lives.

Her head tipped to the side, glancing up at her and exhaling a heavy sigh.

"Sam Winchester kind of weird, I guess, because it's his words -- not mine."

"Sam?" Max frowned as she leaned back in the booth. "What's he saying is weird, exactly?"

Her head tipped, letting her cheek rest to the table in the booth she'd been sitting in.

"He said that 'we're weird' that he can't hang out with me because it's weird."

" ... I think it's about six months too late for the 'I can't hang out with you because we're not together anymore' excuse." Not that Max understood how human logic worked any more than actual humans did, but even that sounded a little convoluted to her.

Jo nodded, letting her head thunk a bit more against the table, before pushing up to rest on her elbows, "I thought so too, but then there was this conversation and I just didn't really like what he was saying. I listened though and now I'm drinking. It seemed logical at the time."

"Need me to find him so you can kick his ass?" Or she could always toss him over a balcony until he regained his senses. She hadn't pulled that move in a while.

That actually might be fun.

Jo shook her head, letting her hand run over her features briefly. Her fingers got caught in her hair a bit, the tangle of blond snagging and making her wince.

"No, I just, I thought things were okay and I shouldn't care this much. I shouldn't. I just never had to deal with this side of it. I never stuck around long enough for it to be weird -- or even better it never got to that spot where it could get weird."

Max nodded quietly for a moment, not really sure what to tell her. Winchesters were a breed of complicated all their own -- she knew that first hand. But whatever was going on with Sam, Jo was getting the backhand of it and that wasn't fair.

"C'mon." She reached for the glass and the bottle, before handing them off to the nearest employee she can find. "I'll walk you home." Shower and sleep seemed like the better idea right now then drowning her sorrows more.

Jo wasn't really drowning her sorrows as much as she was just trying not to think about it. She thought things were going well in the castle, then this just rocket launchered a giant hole in it.

"M'kay," Jo agreed, standing up and exhaling to try and clear her head a bit. "I just don't understand why he didn't even seem to care that it was upsetting me."

"He didn't care?" That ... seemed a little iffy from what Max knew of Sam. "Are we talking about the same Sam? Tall guy, spills his feelings all over everything?"

"Yeah, same Sam," Jo replied, standing up and stretching a bit as she took in a deep breath.

"It was... odd. Kind of wrong feeling, but I didn't want to really pick at it too much. I figured it'd just get worse."

"No, that was probably a good plan." Winchesters, man. Something was always wrong with them. "Sure you don't want me to hold him off a balcony?"

Jo laughed, possibly a bit too loud at the thought of that. Max was strong, but Sam was almost a foot and a half taller than her. The image itself was enough to make her laugh.

"I think I'm good with just staying away from him for now."

Max grinned as she reached for her jacket, slipping it around her shoulders as she nodded. "Fair enough. But the offer's still on the table if you change your mind."

Jo nodded, "I appreciate the offer. I think now I'll just take the help back to my home. Hell, I'll even stay in the castle if it'd be easier."

She shrugged. "Up to you. I don't mind walking out there." It's not like she had better things to do at night in the castle where she didn't sleep.

"Okay. To the gallery it is, then."

You should realize, Max that this means Jo will probably try to get you to spoon with her. Just saying.

Max is okay with spooning. She is a cuddler, even if it's not that obvious when you meet her.

And with that, they'll head out to the gallery and trek through all those leaves.

They'll get through the leaves and then there will be spooning. Yep.

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