Things Have Changed

Who: Cheryl and Jeremy
When: Morning
Where: Jeremy's house

Cheryl was well beyond unnerved. She had hidden away in her house for awhile, gnawing at her nails until they were bitten down to the fingers and then cleaning her "house" until her muscles ached. She didn't know why she was doing what she was doing, all she knew was that it helped take some of the tension out of her body. She wasn't sure what to make of what was happening around town, and she couldn't bring herself to arming herself either. A part of her felt like she didn't deserve to have protection, but then again, she was in the same boat as everyone else. She wasn't watching this time. She hadn't slept in almost two days but for a few hours here and there, and she was determined not to unload on Drew or Jeremy, neither of which she had seen much of other than when they came to check on her before. After awhile though, it became too much to bear and she left her house, crossing through the yard that separated them, to knock on Jeremy's door. Cheryl felt if she didn't talk, or have some kind of human contact, she was going to end up going crazy and having another breakdown, and she didn't want to end up in that hospital again.

Jeremy had been near paralyzed with both anxiety and helplessness; feeling utterly useless didn't do much for his motivation to try. So he hadn't gotten a gun, hadn't attended the meetings or gone out to offer his assistance. Also, now there was a bear in town which didn't exactly make him want to go out running around to socialize or take part in whatever everyone was doing either, so he stayed indoors, freaking out at every little sound outside since he could all too easily imagining the bear choosing his house to crash into to find food. Mainly him as food. He was pretty sure the bear wouldn't knock first though so when there was a knock he rushed to the door to get whoever it was inside A.S.A.P. so he wouldn't have to clean up blood and human remains from his front door if it came to that. "Cheryl," he said urgently when he saw who it was, ushering her inside with a paranoid look around before closing the door. "What are you doing out? Didn't you hear about the bear?"

"Bear?" Her brows drew together in confusion and she walked into his house before turning to face him. "No... no I didn't know. I mean, I haven't been on the computer much at all. I know about the guns but... there's a bear?" For some reason that was humorous to Cheryl. It shouldn't have been, but hell, why not throw in a bear when everything else was going to hell, right? "Are you okay? Is Drew okay?"

Jeremy nodded and glanced out the window before gesturing at her to follow him to the kitchen. "We're just... Not leaving the house and being grateful they haven't taken the food away yet. Or poisoned it. How are you? Holding up okay? Want anything?" He gestured at the somewhat comically full kitchen - cans everywhere, lining up the cupboards and counters along with bottles and bags of things.

"I'm fine," Cheryl said automatically, too focused on the cans of food in his kitchen to really reply truthfully. She walked into the kitchen, stunned by how much food he had stocked up on. Like he had no plans to ever leave the house again, really. "I guess I should have gone to the grocery," Cheryl added dumbly, glancing at him over her shoulder. "Has everyone been doing this?"

"This is Owen's," Jeremy replied, hunching his shoulders in a shrug without the rush to lower them again. "Didn't bring a lot of belongings but uh, plenty of food. And unless they take it all away, you can always just grab some of ours. I'm under the impression there isn't... in the shops I mean or that..." He waved his hand in a gesture but it was probably lost on her - it was lost on him for that matter. "Coffee?"

Arching an eyebrow, Cheryl turned to fully face him again. "Owen?" He had mentioned an Owen before? She wracked her memory but was coming up blank in that department. With everything going on the last couple of days, there was a big possibility some things went in one ear and right out the other without any real acknowledgment of it. "Uhm, coffee's fine. Who's Owen?"

"My new roommate," Jeremy replied with a crooked smile. "He was in uh... C." He gestured again, over his shoulder toward the rooms. "He's nice. As loopy as the rest of us, has an imaginary bird, just don't tell him that it is. Imaginary I mean." He was glad for the slight distraction that making coffee gave him and headed over to that counter quickly. "We were both kind of-, yeah..." Stir crazy? Lonely? Messed up, paranoid, scared, miserable? "So I took the car and we moved those cans and... Have you talked to Drew recently?"

"You have a roommate?" Cheryl tried to keep the pained look from her face, but she wasn't sure how successful she was. If he had wanted a roommate, he could have asked her, right? Cheryl was in the same boat he was - she hated being alone, and she was afraid. Her whole damn house was sparkling from top to bottom because it had been the only way to distract herself that didn't include venturing out into the unknown. Cheryl ran both hands over her face and took a breath. "Do you even know him enough to trust that he's not crazy? Imaginary bird doesn't exactly scream sanity to me."

"It was a moment thing... I just saw him boarding up the house and, I don't know," Jeremy sighed, running his fingers through his hair before finding cups and watching the coffee drip all too slowly into the jug. "I wish we could all stay together, don't know if Drew and Rin would want that and we don't have many rooms but right now I don't care about rooms or privacy or - I trust him though, as far as you can trust any of us anyway."

Cheryl stared at Jeremy for a moment. She chewed on her lower lip, her eyes falling to watch his hands as they moved about. She found her throat stopped up for a few minutes and when it began to burn she swallowed hard. "Are Drew and Rin living together?" she asked, her voice hoarse as the question came out. This was just a bizarre thing. Maybe she was dreaming or something, and she would wake up and everything would be as they were several days ago. Normal. Or as normal as they could be.

Jeremy might have trouble focusing on his own words and feelings but he wasn't oblivious to others around him. So he stopped what he was doing and looked at her for a moment before leaving the coffee for now, walking over to where she was. "Cheryl?" He asked, concern in his voice and expression. "What's wrong?"

She shook her head, bringing both hands up to push her hair behind her ears. Did he really not get it? He found a virtual stranger to live with him, and Drew chose Rin and Cheryl... had no one. They both chose other people. Maybe they thought she was still crazy and didn't want to risk living with her. Maybe they thought she'd freak out and break down like she did before. Maybe she couldn't depend on them the way she thought. God, she just wanted to go home. Managing a weak smile, Cheryl shook her head. "It's nothing... it's just been a long couple of days. I'm tired."

"A long year more like it," Jeremy said quietly and it was about to get even longer he was certain. She looked hurt, tired and he tentatively wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into a hug. "We just need to stick together, weather this damn thing..." Which sounded like so much bullshit coming out of his mouth when he had all but given up already.

"Right." She was beginning to think sticking together didn't mean anything. If they were sticking together, she wouldn't be the only one going home to an empty house. Uneasy now, Cheryl pulled back from his hug, giving another glance to the cans of food lined up on his counter. "I'm going to go. I think I have some of my own stocking to do, if there's anything left." She moved away from him toward the door. "Uhm, if you talk to Drew, tell him I said hello, okay?"

"Wait," he said, curious and a little surprised. "Cheryl..." If only he could read thoughts because she was obviously not telling him what was going on. "You don't have to stock," he told her, gesturing back to the fortress of cans. "We have everything we need. And remember, there's a bear out there, I'm not all that thrilled - you leaving, I mean... Outside."

Sighing, Cheryl turned toward him wearily. "I'm not going to take your food supply, Jeremy. There's two of you here and only one of me, I won't need as much as the both of you. And if there is a bear, somehow I doubt it's roaming up and the streets going through trash cans. I have to go outside eventually to get home and... maybe I'll get one of those guns they're passing out, so just... don't worry about me."

"But I do worry about you," Jeremy muttered. "I can't just turn that off because you say so, and the bear might - you don't know." He was confused by now, gesturing back at the coffee maker awkwardly. "You were going to have coffee with me," he said softly. "Why are you in such a rush to go suddenly?"

"The bear is the last thing in this town that I'm scared of," Cheryl told him. "We know what those people can do, and we know what the people in this town are capable of doing if pushed far enough. I'm not worried about a bear." She licked her dry lips and glanced at the coffee machine before frowning. She really didn't want to argue with him, but she knew if she walked out and didn't tell him why she was hurt, it would drive her crazy. "If you wanted a roommate, why didn't you ask me? If Drew is living with Rin... if he'd wanted someone, why didn't he ask me? You both have... and it's like you both totally forgot I existed, that I might be afraid being alone, that I might want to be with you. You choose a participant you barely know, and Drew..." She imagined Drew was close to Rin, so she didn't finish that sentence.

Jeremy felt like a total dick the more she talked, biting his lip and inwardly cursing himself. "I didn't choose, it just happened. We were talking and freaking out and I told him to come back with me. Owen and Rin, they both lived ways away, you, me and Drew we're all in this cluster, but you're right. You should move in here too. You can have my room and I'll sleep out in the living room. If you can stand to live with two bags of jittery nerves anyway..."

Cheryl shook her head, shifting her gaze away from Jeremy. Did he think she wasn't freaking out? She had wanted to stay with him before and he hadn't thought it was a good idea then. Now he was offering because she was upset. "It's okay, Jeremy. There's not enough room and... you're right. We all live right next to each other, so... if I need anything, you're not that far away." Rubbing her thumb over her brow, Cheryl took a breath. "I'm going to go and get some things done. We'll have coffee another time, okay?"

"No, no wait," Jeremy said quickly stepping between her and the door. "Wait, there is enough room and right now, I think we should all stick together." So he sounded a little desperate, that wasn't exactly a brand new thing. "At least stay for coffee, eat something, think about it?" If it wasn't for the damn bear he'd want to get extra beds and move Drew and Rin in there too, it made sense, didn't it? For them all to stay together. For safety and comfort.

Cheryl tensed and tried not to be impatient with him when he blocked her way to the door. She ran her hands through her hair and sighed. "If you thought we should have all stuck together, why didn't you say anything earlier? You and Drew both just... I'm scared too," she said, her voice cracking with emotion. "I'm alone and I can't sleep because every little noise wakes me up and I think they're going to drag me back to that place. I can't even shut my bedroom door, or close the curtain in the shower. I wanted to stay with you before Jeremy, and you told me it wasn't a good idea because you had outed yourself as an intern, and now you're living with a participant with an imaginary bird. I don't know him, and I don't trust him and I'm not going to live... live with anyone I don't know. I'm sorry."

"That was then, Cheryl," Jeremy said, unsure how to fix this. "When I still thought people might come in here and kill me for what I was." Not that he felt all that certain they wouldn't now, but the odds of people having the time or energy for it weren't as high, not with everything else going on. "Things are different now, if you don't want to stay here, you should stay with Drew and Rin, please..."

If either one of them had been that worried for her, then Cheryl was of the mind that they would have already asked her to move in. And they hadn't. They had found other people. And she couldn't really figure out why it bothered her so much, other than it proved that things really were different now. It wasn't just the three of them anymore and it probably hadn't been since the day they were separated. She had been able to take care of herself before the internship, and she could certainly do it now. "I'll talk to Drew," Cheryl murmured, though she had no intention of bothering him. She just wanted Jeremy to be placated so she could leave. "But I really should go, Jeremy, please. Everything will be fine."

But, the coffee... It was on the tip of his tongue and he looked miserable as he stepped aside. "I'll walk you back," he mumbled because there was a god damn bear out there and what little he knew of them, he knew it was a little safer to be more than one person together. Act big, make a lot of noise - was one advice he remembered though there had been all sorts of differences between black bear and brown bear. He didn't know which kind of bear this was nor did it really matter since he didn't remember what rules applied to which. One could climb trees - the other could shake him the fuck out of a tree? Yup, it felt like he'd be pretty fucked no matter what sort of bear it was - not that he'd be climbing a lot of trees to begin with.

With a soft sigh and a small smile, Cheryl reached out and touched his arm. "Jeremy, I live right behind you. Why don't you watch from a window or something to make sure I get there okay, if you're that concerned with it. I promise nothing is going to happen to me between here and there. Stay here and stay safe, all right?"

He would hear none of it, shaking his head as he strolled to the door. As if he'd just watch her get mauled from within the safety of his own house. Maybe if it was someone else - but not Cheryl. "You don't have a say in this," he said decidedly and for a brief moment he felt like his old self again. "You go outside, I go outside."

Realizing that arguing would get them nowhere, Cheryl resisted rolling her eyes and nodded instead. "Okay, if you insist." Once they were outside, she didn't bother looking up and down the street. She headed straight down the steps and to the side of his house to cut through the yard back to her own place. Everything was so quiet and still. It was eerie, like the calm before the storm. The bear infested storm, apparently.

Jeremy looked all around so at least one of them was paying attention, though he was doing the other extreme and looking around a little too much. Like the bear could manifest from thin air, dropping down on them from nowhere. It certainly felt that way and his heart was pounding by the time they reached her place. And now he had to go back alone. "Cheryl," he started with a paranoid look around. "Are you okay?" He sounded and felt genuinely worried, searching her face for any indication on what was going on with her.

Cheryl unlocked her front door and opened it before turning to Jeremy with a small smile. "I will be." She leaned up on her toes to kiss his cheek quickly before pulling back and walking into her house. "Be careful, Jeremy. I'll talk to you later."

"You run on over to us if anything comes up," Jeremy said and backed up reluctantly, giving her a small wave. "Anytime, I don't care if it's the middle of the night or anything, just... You know where we are." He didn't want to leave her there, despite the smile she looked so small and helpless suddenly.

"I know where you are," Cheryl agreed with a nod. "I promise if I need anything, I'll come over. Hurry back home, okay?" Bear and everything and he looked so twitchy and paranoid, she knew it must have been hard for him to walk her home, even if it was right behind his house.

He nodded and looked around again as if to make sure the bear hadn't somehow sneaked up on them while they were talking. "Think about what I said though, things have changed." He turned to leave then, though he gave her another look over his shoulder only a few steps away.

Cheryl watched him, content with that at least until he was out of sight. "I'll think about it, I promise." She knew things had changed, but she was recognizing it in a completely different way than Jeremy was. With another small smile, she shut the door and flipped the lock.