renaissanceman | [ for jen ]

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[ for jen ]

Brooke's on Yorick-watch when Priestly heads home for a shower, a change of clothes, and Jen. Not necessarily in that order. The shower, of course, has to be had at the compound, but looking for Jen and finding something to wear can probably be killed with one stone if she's at their hut. Which if he's lucky and has shown up early enough in the day, she will be.

"Jen?" he's saying before he even reaches the open doorway. "Jen, you home?"

Sorry I didn't call, he thinks with a bit of a wry twist to his lips. Things sure are different on the island.

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"I'm here," Jen answers as she goes through from her bedroom to the front room, pulling her hair back into a low ponytail as she walks. "Hey. What's up?" Priestly didn't come home last night that she knows of, though it's not a big deal, nor the first time. Usually, Jen figures maybe he went home with Helen or something, and doesn't worry much more about it.

"Hey hey hey," he says, smiling as soon as he sees her. "Listen, you got a minute? Sorry if I smell. Uh, those two sentences are completely unrelated, in case you were worried."

She smiles in response, scrunching her face up a little at his comment about smelling. "Thanks for the reassurance," she replied with amusement. "Yeah, of course, what's going on?"

"Listen, I think I'm going to, uh, be gone for a few days, and I didn't want you to worry about me. I've got this... thing, going on, and I sort of have to be there." He's not even sure how to say what's going on, it's all still such a big mess.

Jen frowns slightly, confused and concerned, and takes a step closer to Priestly. "Okay," she says, slightly hesitantly. "A...thing? Is everything okay?"

"Not really," he says, scrubbing his hair awkwardly. It's a disaster, and he's not even sure he's going to bother doing much with it after he showers today. "Yorick's sick. Pneumonia, the stupid fucker."

"Oh my god," Jen exclaims softly, one hand flying to cover her mouth in shock. "Poor Yorick, that's awful. Is - is he in the clinic? How bad is it?"

"He's fine," says Priestly. "I mean, he's going to be fine. They sent him home. He just...." He sighs and shakes his head, the reassurances not sitting right with him. "He fucking tried to kill himself, Jen. I don't even know what I'm supposed to do with that."

"What? God, why, why would he do something like that?" She's not really expecting an answer, she just can't understand it. Jen doesn't know Yorick as well as Priestly does, but even so, Yorick is a nice guy, and she can't understand it. There's a lump in her throat, and her eyes are hot, and she doesn't even know what to say.

"I don't know," he says. Or if he does know, sort of, he figures he's said enough of Yorick's business already. "It's all such a fucking mess. I think I made him feel like a bit of a shitheel but I was just so mad, you know? That he would do that to me."

"But he's okay now, right?" Jen says, even though Priestly's already said he is; she's never known anyone who tried to kill themselves before and she's maybe a little in shock. "I'm so sorry, Priestly, I know he's your friend. That's got to be hard."

Her eyes widen slightly as something occurs to her. "He's not alone right now, is he? I mean, someone's with him, right? Brooke or somebody?"

"We're not even letting him breathe by himself right now," says Priestly, still trying to sort out whether he's afraid or upset or relieved or mad or, more likely, all of them. "I think he... just wasn't thinking."

He thinks Yorick's kind of fucked up about a lot of things, but that's not his to say.

She nods, just keeps nodding, until after a few seconds when she realizes what she's doing and makes herself stop. "Well, if there's anything I can do, um, yeah. Let me know?" she says, though she has no clue what that might be, and Yorick probably only wants his closest friends around him right now. "Even if it's to, like, just bring you a change of clothes or lunch or something."

"Yeah, I will," he says, swallowing hard. It's kind of hard to deny what's going on when he can't really deflect. "Just... keep being Jen, you know? You've got the biggest heart of anyone I know."

"Okay," she says, but she's not really sure what he means; she doesn't think having such a big heart, if that is true, is going to help Yorick get better. What Jen's concerned about right now, though, is Priestly. He's her best friend and she hates to see him upset.

"Hey," she says, moving forward and putting a hand gently on the outside of his shoulder. "Are you holding up okay?"

"Not really," he says, the words slipping out before he can stop to think about them. But even if he had, to Jen he probably would've said the same thing. "I feel, I don't know. I know it's not my fault, but...." But what if it was, a little bit.

"Of course it's not," Jen immediately assures him, because she can see he's not completely convinced of that. "God, Priestly, I'm so sorry."

"It's just so weird," he says. "Things were... okay, they were a little weird with us, but I thought it was good. And now I wonder if maybe I just fucked him up worse."

She opens her mouth to answer and then closes it again, frowning in confusion. As far as she knows, Priestly and Yorick haven't been fighting or anything. "Wait, why would things be weird with you?" she asks.

"It was just this... thing, that happened," Priestly hedges. "It wasn't supposed to, but it did. And I know it's stupid, blaming myself or blaming that, but... well, it keeps me from yelling at him."

"Thing?" Jen echoes, her head tilting a little to the side. "You guys didn't get in a fight or anything, did you?"

"No, no, we didn't, it was just... see, the thing is, we were really drunk. And it seemed like a good idea at the time."

Jen squints a little, trying to figure that out, and then it dawns on her and her eyes spring open wide. "Wait, you guys - you got drunk and fooled around?" There was surprise in her voice, but no judgement.

"It wasn't any big thing!" Priestly says quickly. "It was just, you know." He makes a sort of half-hearted jacking off motion. "In retrospect, maybe we should've talked about it a little more."

So apparently Priestly likes guys, too. It doesn't bother Jen, not in the slightest, she just hadn't realized before. Plus it seems like Priestly may not have realized either.

"Well, it's never too late, right?" she points out gently. "You can still talk about it."

"No," he said, shaking his head, "no we can't, because the dumb fuck has gone and tried to kill himself, and now we're probably never going to talk about it."

Jen thinks that's all the more reason to talk to Yorick about it, but she knows guys don't think the same way as girls, so maybe to them that would be a horrible idea. Maybe it would end up making things worse, who knows.

"How's Brooke doing?" she asks, deciding not to argue the point any further.

"She's about the same as me, I guess," he says. He doesn't want to speak for her, but the past little while's been rough on all of them. "It's all just kind of fucked up right now."

"I'm so sorry, Priestly," Jen says, since it seems like it bears repeating. "Um, if you have to get going, don't let me keep you." She rose up on the balls of her feet to give him a quick but tight hug. "And let me know if you need anything, seriously, okay?"

"Believe me, if I need anything, you'll be the first person to know, Jen," he says. "I just don't even know what I need right now. Except for things to be okay with everyone again."

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